Food and consumer products giant Unilever is deploying online booking technology to its United Kingdom offices, following implementations in continental Europe. By expanding use of the KDS Corporate self-booking system, the Anglo-Dutch firm is marking progress in a larger global effort to consolidate and leverage travel data, and re-engineer travel transactions and expense reclaim processes.
Much of that effort is aided by Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Unilever's travel management company in 22 European countries (and in North America and a few other locations). CWT provides fulfillment, various account management services and a traveler profile management system, and handles about one-third of Unilever's €350 million (US$453 million) global travel and meetings volume.
Unilever first deployed KDS in the Netherlands. "We did not have a travel agency in the Netherlands until 1999; we used to have a KLM implant" as one of the last companies to have an onsite airline office, said Bill Doull, Unilever supply manager in Europe for non-production items.
Implementation began in 2003. Instead of mandates, Unilever used on-site training, promotions and "everything else to reinforce the message," said Doull, who also serves as the company's global travel manager. The Netherlands now reports adoption of 76 to 80 percent of "all" air bookings, rates which he categorized as "amongst the highest that KDS has." Unilever now is implementing hotel bookings through the tool.
Using the Dutch experience as a guide, Unilever deployed KDS to Germany and Switzerland--pushing annual savings to €1 million--and has an eye on expansion to all 22 European countries covered by the travel program.
The current project, the United Kingdom, presents a unique set of challenges. Owing to geography and the wide array of Unilever business units operating in the country, the U.K. generates a diverse travel pattern with lots of complex itineraries and passport and visa requirements. [Doull said the company's preferred supplier agreement with British Airways encompasses "the most number of city pairs for a corporate worldwide."]
Unlike in the Netherlands (where the company "bit the bullet" and paid for the system), Unilever in the U.K. has CWT hold the KDS contract. "I did not want the cost of an added tool, with ROIs and everything else," Doull explained. "If [CWT] was bringing a person to the account, they would be forced to manage that. If they now have to do that with the tool, they are forced to make sure it is a success."
Only two months into deployment, the U.K. program has attained a 23 percent adoption rate. Doull wants at least 50 percent, which would position the company to embark on a larger process re-engineering project.
The European exception to regional KDS deployment is France, where the company uses French firm Traveldoo. In North America, Unilever uses Cliqbook self-booking technology, now owned by Concur, and has achieved adoption rates of 75 to 80 percent.
Unilever's self-booking systems internally are branded U-Travel. In Europe, they tie into CWT's Portrait, an online profile management systemthat pushes information to the traveler tools and global distribution systems. [The synchronization exception again is France. Though French adoption of Traveldoo has reached 80 percent, only KDS can integrate with CWT's Portrait, Doull said.]
Online booking in Europe has allowed Unilever to pursue a "virtual center" project in which physical support centers will be replaced by Internet technologies. It also is a key element in the company's efforts to aggregate, analyze and leverage global travel data.
"One of my holy grails in travel is a global expense management system, to complement the global Citibank corporate card program," Doull continued. To that end, Unilever customized IBM's Global Expense Reporting Solutions [and rebranded it Travel Expense System] and installed it in the United Kingdom. It plans to fully deploy TES across Europe and North America. "We'll have U-Travel, CWT and Portrait providing information on one side and Citibank and TES on the other," he said, "and we will obtain global data tracking for the first time."