implementing a multinational t ravel payment program – avoiding the pitfalls … · 2020. 12....

Implementing a Multinational Travel Payment Program –Avoiding the Pitfalls and Getting It Right the First Time

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT.2

The Consequences of Poor Implementation

We asked payment experts to identify what damage is done if implementation is handled badly. The main consequences they listed were:> delays> demotivation> poor data> failure to integrate fully with third-party

systems (e.g. inability to pre-populate automated expense management reports with card data)

> damage to internal credibility> wasted resources> travelers continuing to pay by cash,

invoice or private card


Executive Summary 04 Four steps to successful implementation

Introduction

7 Should I introduce a multinational payment program?

9 Case study Merck 9 Case study Tetra Laval 0

How to Really Mess Up Your Implementation 11 Ten ways to do the worst implementation ever 11 The biggest challenges to successful

implementation

How to Get Your Implementation Right

13 Case study Itron 18 Case study Merck 20 Identifying the right contact person is decisive

for the progress of the implementation 22 Case study Tetra Laval

How to Maintain Your Program once It Is Up and Running 25 Case study Tetra Laval 26 Case study Syngenta

Contents

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Executive Summary

Checklist – Four steps to successful implementation

Step 1 – Find the right people> Build an internal team> Win senior management buy-in> Win local management buy-in> Work with your payment provider> Work with third parties

Step 2 – Get the planning right> What do you want?> Which implementation comes first?> How long will it take?> Get the RFP right: – Make it clear what you want – Encourage creativity – Establish payment providers’ ability to integrate – Make sure the provider really can deliver globally – Check acceptance levels

> Get the contract right: – Make sure you already have global buy-in – Involve the people doing the implementation – Give a full service specification – Specify the technical interfaces – Define roles clearly – Don’t specify the impossible

> Anticipate legal and regulatory issues> Understand cultural issues

Step 3 – Get the data flow right> Start at the end – what do you want?> Give a clear specification to your payment provider> Map out your existing systems and processes> Appoint a technical project leader> Give your card provider regular employee

information> Keep data feeds as standardized as possible> Tell employees which data is mandatory

58 %

Percentage of travel buyers rating “balancing a global mandate with local needs” as one of their top three payment implementation challenges

(Survey of 243 ACTE buyer members, July/August 2013)

Step 4 – Communicate> A mandate is not enough> Create a communications plan – Work with your internal comms department – Work with your payment provider – Focus on what employees might worry about – Communicate attractively and simply – Accentuate the positive

> Pay special attention to countries that are new to corporate payments


Global ambitionsWhat’s more, when companies consolidate with the same payment provider, they really go for it. More than three-quarters of ACTE buyers who have intro-duced a multinational payment program said they implemented globally (as opposed to regionally). Even more strikingly, 44 percent have rolled out their program in more than 20 countries, and 81 percent in more than five countries.

62% Yes25% No, no plans

13% No, but planning to do this in the next two years

Yes!

Many businesses have already taken this step. A glob -al survey of 243 buyer members of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, conducted for this white paper in July/August 2013, found 62 percent use the same card and/or lodge account issuer in more than one country. Another 13 percent plan to go multinational in the next two years.

IntroductionShould I Introduce a Multinational Payment Program?

1 Does your company have a multinational corporate payment program?Total: 100%

2 Have you implemented your payment program?Total: 100%

76% Globally24% Regionally

3 In how many countries have you implemented your payment program?Total: 100%

44% More than 20 countries

20% 11–20 countries

17% 6–10 countries

19% 5 or fewer countries

AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT.88 AIRPLUS. WHAT TRAVEL PAYMENT IS ALL ABOUT.

The paper also aims to highlight the implementation challenges and pitfalls that have caused problems for many ACTE buyers, because time and again inter -view ees told us that good planning removes potential roadblocks before you even get to them.

The table below points to one other issue to watch out for. In North America and Western Europe, more respondents said their implementation went very well than those who said it went fairly well. In all other regions, it was the other way round: a larger number said implementation only went fairly well (and in Africa more respondents said it went poorly). The wider the geographical scope of your implementation, therefore, the more challenges there are.

Overall implemen - t ation

Africa Asia Eastern Europe/ CIS

Middle East

North America

Oceania Latin America

4 In your opinion, how would you describe the overall introduction of your corporate payment program, as well as the success of the implementation in specific regions? in percent

Western Europe

It went very well (i.e., only minor issues)It went fairly well (i.e., some issues, but they have been resolved)It went poorly (i.e., some issues required considerable attention and/or are still affecting the program today)Not applicable

22

4952

4

15

16

36

18

34

1710

14

40

11

12

14

268

25

51

2225

17

225

20

13

30

13

18

43

2177

Prepare for successA payment implementation is not a simple plug-and-play operation:

As this white paper sets out to explain, if you plan carefully and execute sensitively, your implemen-tation will be a success. Only 6 percent of ACTE buyers believe their implementation went poorly. However, only 28 percent consider it went very well. The majority (63 percent) say “fairly well” is the best description of how it went – there were some challenges but they have now been resolved.

This white paper is a “how to” guide intended to:> encourage companies that have not yet imple-

mented globally> help companies looking to change their payment

provider> help companies looking to add to or change their

mix of payment types


Case study Merck – implementing for data transparencyMerck increased the number of countries in its corporate payments program from fewer than 10 in 2007 to 42 by July 2013. “We needed data trans-parency,” says Christoph Carnier, the company’s director of travel & fleet. “We do not have a totally unified IT structure, so we cannot have the same expense management system everywhere, and therefore using one payment provider gives us the data we need.” Examples of the reporting that Carnier finds very useful include:> how much is spent at different facilities> how many air tickets are bought in each fare class> are employees staying at preferred hotels?

Case study Tetra Laval – multiple TMCs, but one payment data providerTetra Laval implemented a central billing account in 29 countries between 2010 and July 2013. It considers a consolidated program essential for gathering high-quality travel data, especially as the group uses different TMCs in different countries. “The finance department can monitor employee spend, and we get great data for airline negoti-ations,” says global supply manager – travel man-agement Ulrika Rosén. “Airlines are becoming in-creasingly demanding about data, especially on market share.”

Reasons TO implement multinationallyExtensive interviewing reveals a consistent list of benefits that businesses gain from multinational implementation:> consistent, comprehensive data for better supplier

negotiations – increasingly important as companies globalize their supplier bases

> better tracking of spend for financial reporting and compliance purposes

> process efficiency – fewer connections needed with fewer suppliers

> harmonization – companies want employees to use the same processes wherever they are

> improved rebates from card issuers

Only 5 percent of survey respondents who have not yet implemented see no advantages in doing so, although 17 percent said they prefer one issuer per country.

Reasons NOT TO implement multinationallyRespondents who have not yet implemented a multi-national payment program were asked their reasons. The most common answers were that they are fo-cused on other priorities (30 percent) or don’t have enough spend or employees in other countries to justify the investment (28 percent). Only 13 percent are deterred by the challenges of an implementation. Our paper also aims to reassure this small minority who fear to take the plunge.


Ten ways to do the worst implementation ever

1. Implement immediately without any planning2. Choose a payment provider with poor global

acceptance3. Make no effort to check providers’ global

coverage and partner networks4. Forget to check whether your preferred suppliers

accept your chosen payment provider5. Don’t worry about defining internal roles and

responsibilities – someone will volunteer to do the work (probably). And keep the project well away from accounts payable and IT. They will only interfere

6. Let your payment provider and TMC organize data feeds without your involvement

7. Ignore irritating distractions like local cultural attitudes or local laws and regulations

8. Tell employees it’s not mandatory to use the chosen payment provider

9. Don’t worry about seeking support from senior and local management

10. Don’t waste time communicating to travelers what you have done or why – you could spend those hours on the golf course instead!

The biggest challenges to successful implementation

Our survey asked ACTE buyers to identify the three major challenges they encountered during their multi-national payment program implementations. Not sur-prisingly, balancing a global mandate with local needs was number one on the list, chosen by 58 percent of respondents. Achieving this trade-off emerges time and again in surveys as the biggest concern for all multinational travel-related rollouts.

Another major red flag was regulatory/legal obstacles (38 percent), but perhaps a bigger surprise was that 36 percent found resistance from local management a problem, compared with 26 percent who experienced resistance from travelers. In a follow-up question, 42 percent cited local management resistance as one of their three most underestimated challenges, second only to balancing global mandate and local needs (49 percent). Winning local management support from the outset is a key lesson from the survey.

The consequences of poor implementationWe asked payment experts to identify what damage is done if an implementation is handled badly. The main consequences they listed were:> delays> demotivation> poor data> failure to integrate fully with third-party systems

(e.g. inability to pre-populate automated expense management reports with card data)

> damage to internal credibility> wasted resources> travelers continuing to pay by cash, invoice or

private card

How to Really Mess Up Your Implementation


Balancing a global mandate with local needs is the biggest challenge.


Step 1 – Find the right people

Build an internal teamA payment program touches so many parts of a business that it can only be implemented by creating a cross-functional team. Departments likely to be involved include:> Finance/Accounts Payable> Travel> Human Resources> IT> Legal> Procurement

See page 20 for a list of each department’s role in the implementation and its likely level of participation.

Large and smallLarger companies usually appoint a dedicated project manager, partly because up to 80 different people might be involved when personnel from the payment provider and relevant third parties (such as the TMC and expense management system provider) are also taken into account. Formal project management is even more important if related implementations (such as a booking tool) are taking place at the same time.

Smaller companies are increasingly adopting formal project management techniques and tools too. Even if they do not go this far, creating an action plan and internal working group is still essential.

Whatever the size of the business or implementation, one person needs to take responsibility for identifying the tasks involved, allocating them internally and ensuring the work is done.

Win senior management buy-in (with help from finance)The finance department will usually be involved be-cause of the many benefits it stands to gain, ranging from extended credit to transparent compliance re-porting to greater efficiencies for accounts payable.

How to Get Your Implementation Right

Case study: Itron – making the case for central billingItron is a United States-based global company that builds technology solutions that help nearly 8,000 util-ities in more than 100 countries measure, manage and analyze energy and water. When Kelly Beck, the com-pany’s global travel manager, and Kimberly Millikan, its director of treasury, selected the centrally billed lodge card as their preferred payment provider, their first task was to sell the deal to senior management.

They explained that central billing would solve the headache of employees buying flights on private credit cards and then seeking reimbursement. “Almost every manager had experienced an em-ployee who had struggled to pay for their airline ticket and other costs,” says Millikan.

Senior management wanted to know why Millikan and her colleague did not recommend one of the company’s relationship banks. “We had to demon-strate that our relationship banks did not offer any-thing comparable,” she says.

Initially, she set out the business case to the com-pany’s treasurer, chief financial officer and vice- president of technology. Once they were convinced, the proposal was successfully presented to the entire executive management team. Millikan and Beck con-tinue to use multiple formats to keep management informed of the project’s progress on a regular basis.


about extended payment terms and insurance bene-fits. It is also essential to give reassurances that travelers will not be inconvenienced so fears of potential disruption can be minimized.

Work with your payment providerYour payment provider will also provide a lead person (normally an account manager) to handle its side of the implementation. This person will also build a team around them, including IT experts and in-country specialists.

It will normally be obvious which tasks your company needs to handle internally and which need to be handled by your provider. Any gray areas of responsi-bility should be clarified at the contracting stage.

Give your provider full names and contact details for who will handle implementation for your company in each country. And do warn those people that you have selected them to be involved in the project. This does not always happen.

Work with third partiesPayment programs need to be integrated with other travel and financial tools and systems to achieve important benefits such as reporting and process ef-ficiencies. Examples of providers likely to be involved include:> TMCs> booking tools> expense management tools> accounting systems

For more information on obtaining the best data through technology integration, see the special section below.

Case study: Itron – reassurance from the beginningBefore implementing in each market, Kimberly Millikan and the company’s global travel manager took part in a kick-off call with the local manage-ment team. Also included were global and local representatives from the payment provider and the local TMC. “We laid out what success looked like and established target dates, and then I got out of the way,” says Millikan.

The involvement of finance people can create chal-lenges, most notably persuading them the chosen provider must meet the travel buyer’s needs as well as theirs. However, the good news is that finance usually has significant influence with senior manage-ment, making it easier to win approval for a payment implementation than some other travel projects.

Even so, it is important to communicate the benefits to senior management directly, so that they will back a mandate and promote the project enthusiastically to the rest of the company.

Win local management buy-inAs the survey results discussed in Part 1 demon-strated, local management are a potential choke point in the implementation process. If local man-agers are not consulted in advance, they are likely to act obstructively during rollout because they will feel no ownership and perceive no gain in return for the pain they fear change will bring.

Simply showing local management respect by con-sulting them is half the battle won. The other half can be won by communicating not only how the global company will benefit globally, but how the local busi-ness entity will gain too. Examples include explaining


Step 2 – Get the planning rightWhat do you want?You would like a multinational payment program. Great. Why?

There is little point in implementing a program unless you have answered that question. As discussed in the introduction, there are many excellent reasons for using the same payment provider around the world, but you need to check with all your relevant stake-holders what exactly they want to achieve and why. For example, everyone agrees it is a good idea to have high-quality air spend data. But will anyone in your company actually turn that information into action by using it to negotiate better deals with suppliers?

Which implementation comes first?Should a multinational payment program be imple-mented before, during or after rolling out other parts of a cross-border travel strategy? The answer is it doesn’t matter. It always helps if there has already been a reasonable amount of consolidation of TMCs, booking tools or expense systems. The fewer there are, the fewer the technical integrations required. For example, creating a link to pre-populate one expense tool with card data is less work than creating links to two tools.

However, one part of a travel program is usually consolidated before the others, and there is a strong argument that payments should come first. This is particularly true for centrally billed accounts (lodge cards), because they are a consistent process pro-ducing consistent data in every country where they operate. If a company introduces a centrally billed ac-count, all the unconsolidated TMCs it uses worldwide can work with this one payment provider very easily.

What is more, a good payment implementation breeds success. It can be used as the template to build the teams and strategies for later multinational implementations.

How long will it take?There is no general answer to this question. Each company is unique in its structure, scope and re -quirements. However, one word stressed time and again by ACTE buyers in our survey was “patience”. Patience, they said, is needed to research the best provider, carry out the contracting, and complete the implementation (especially for plastic corporate cards as opposed to centrally billed accounts) when it finally gets under way.

Beware of the forms!“Make certain you allow for a lengthy contract negoti-ation and plenty of time for forms. For each country in Asia-Pacific, we needed to meet different require-ments. Sometimes our authorized signatory was sitting in our local office in the US, but the company stamp for the particular entity receiving a new card program was in Asia. Many of the forms need to be original, not scanned and e-mailed, so the same form would need to be sent from one office to the other. Or I would fill out a form in English and need to have my colleagues write the same answer in Chinese. These forms will age you. They take patience, track-ing and tenacity.”

ACTE survey respondent


Don’t do everywhere at onceIf you have more than one type of multinational im-plementation planned (e.g. payment system, TMC and expense management system), it makes sense to im-plement them simultaneously so that employees, IT departments etc. do not have to be disrupted three times. However, even if you are “only” implementing a payment program, most companies find it better to phase the countries in regionally – perhaps four to six at a time.

Phasing avoids the implementation team being over-stretched, especially the project leader and IT department. It pays to be realistic about what you can manage with the resources available to you.

Get the RFP rightGetting the payment provider selection process wrong makes it almost impossible to get the imple-mentation right. Try these tips to steer yourself in the right direction:

Make it clear what you wantIf providers are not clear what your requirements are, then their proposal will be product-driven. They will sell you what they have on the shelf. If you explain your needs clearly, the proposal will become solution-driven, with providers designing a package that suits you much more precisely.

Encourage creativityYou do need to ask structured questions, but make sure there are also free-form areas to the RFP that allow providers to introduce ideas that do not fit your preconceived notions. Above all, be wary of your present card provider giving you tunnel vision. RFP templates are often based on exactly the same service proposition and card types the customer receives today.

Be open-minded about payment typesDon’t exclude particular types of payment before considering whether they might be appropriate. For example, centrally billed accounts are generally associated with pre-trip payments. However, they can also be used to an increasing extent for on-trip payments, a trend that will accelerate thanks to the creation of mobile payment offerings.

Establish payment providers’ ability to integrateAn increasingly important element in payment RFPs over the past two to three years has been checking that providers possess the technical capability to in-tegrate with other service providers, such as TMCs, expense systems and accounting systems. Make questions on this issue precise and detailed to pre-vent many headaches occurring at the implemen-tation stage.

Make sure the payment provider really can deliver globallyDoes the provider issue locally in all the countries where you are implementing? Does it issue in the local currency and is customer service local? Once again, do not take a simple “yes” as an answer. Insist on details. Remember also that you need answers for every country, not just every region. For example, Brazil is a very different market from Venezuela, and the same provider’s service coverage in those two markets may be very different too.


Balancing a global mandate with local needs

58 29 24

Difficulty integrating with accounting system/ERP

Difficulty integrating with expense management system

27

Difficulty obtaining good data

17

More man -power needed than expected

38

Regulatory/legal obstacles

36

Resistance from local management

26

Resistance from travelers

5 What were the three biggest challenges to the multinational implementation of your payment program? In percent

Resistance from travelers

34 42 49

Resistance from local manage-ment

Balancing a global mandate with local needs

17

Poor communi -cation

30

Regulatory/legal obstacles

23

Difficulty integrating with ex pense management system

23

Difficulty integrating with accounting system/ERP

24

Difficulty obtaining good data

6 What are the three challenges that you regard as the most underestimated in terms of their critical influence on the successful implementation of a payment program?In percent


Check acceptance levelsIn our survey, we asked ACTE buyer members what one thing went wrong with their implementation that they would avoid next time. Several mentioned acceptance. This is not a problem for lodge cards, which are accepted by all TMCs, but it can be a major challenge for plastic corporate cards, whose accep -tance levels vary substantially. A common temptation in multinational implementations is to assume ac-ceptance will be as good in other countries as in your home market. This is very definitely not the case, especially outside North America, so check carefully for every country. Another basic but important step is to check which cards are accepted by your preferred suppliers around the world.

Get the contract rightJust as with the RFP, success will also be driven by the quality of the contract you sign with your pro-vider. Tips include:

Make sure you already have global buy-inAll your internal businesses should have been con-sulted at the RFP stage. If you wait until after making your selection, it is very likely that stakeholders not previously involved will deliver substantial amend-ments to the contract, potentially causing long delays to your implementation.

Involve the people doing the implementationIn many companies, the person or department (often the treasury department) is not the person or depart-ment who will lead the implementation. Make sure they are involved in shaping the contract as well.

Give a full service specificationThe specification should be clear and unambiguous. For example, don’t just state that a rebate will be paid; include details of when it will be paid, and to

Case study: Merck – establishing the factsWhen Merck carried out its most recent payment RFP, a priority was to understand what services po-tential providers genuinely could and could not offer in each country. Among the steps Merck took were:> asking each provider for reference customers and

directly approaching other customers for refer-ences as well

> asking providers to send a standard contract for each country, which Merck checked with its legal and insurance departments

> making sure providers specified their currency conversion process in their standard contracts

which offices. Specifying rebate and payment terms up front will also help demonstrate the benefits of the deal to your local businesses.

Specify the technical interfacesIn particular, make sure your provider details the technical interfaces it will provide to other parties (e.g. the TMC or expense management tool) and what the cost of this service will be. Most of this information should already have been given in the RFP, but check the same information is still relevant for the contract. For example, the number of coun-tries being implemented may have changed since the RFP stage.

Define roles clearlySpecify which tasks will be handled by the provider and which by the client.

Don’t specify the impossible!For example, don’t insist that the provider offers the same liability arrangement in all countries – legally, this is not possible (see below).


Anticipate legal and regulatory issues for corporate cardsNo fewer than 38 percent of our survey respondents identified regulatory/legal obstacles as one of the three biggest challenges to their implementation.One of the many benefits of centrally billed accounts is that there are very few legal, regulatory or cultural issues to worry about. Processes are the same in almost every country and there is less potential personal impact for employees.

The situation is different for plastic corporate cards, especially if you choose individual pay (the employee pays their card bill out of their own account) or indi-vidual liability (the employee is responsible for any debts incurred on the card) These sensitivities means there are inevitably additional legal and emotive issues to consider.

Pay and liability issuesYour choice of corporate pay/liability or individual pay/liability will have a major impact on planning your implementation. There are strong reasons for having individual pay. Perhaps the main advantage is that it encourages employees to be faster and more efficient (e.g. attaching VAT invoices) when submit-ting their expenses so they can be reimbursed.

However, individual pay and liability also create more planning challenges. Employees may be more reluc-tant to take a card because they are likely to face personal credit checks – and if they are going to have to pay from their own account anyway, they would often prefer to use a personal card for which they might receive reward points.


Identifying the right contact person is decisive for the progress of the implementation

Project sponsor – senior management> Typically Chief Financial Officer, Procurement Director or Controller> Sponsor the implementation project> Communicate with and obtain buy-in from internal stakeholders during

the implementation and rollout processes> Provide communications encouraging/mandating card use

ImplementationLowOngoingLow

Estimated level of participation

Project manager> Primary point of contact during implementation and ongoing processes> Manage the project plan at your organization> Coordinate collection of information> Provide status reporting to the team, sponsors and stakeholders> Day-to-day program management

ImplementationHighOngoingHigh

Corporate travel> Identify cardholder population> Review travel policy> Define reconciliation process> Coordinate internal processes with travel agency processes

(order/approval)


Information Technology> Review all systems issues and requirements for IT resources> Understand mapping requirements and define processes around file feeds,

data exchange, reporting tool rollout and connectivity

ImplementationMedium/LowOngoingLow

Legal Department> Review program guidelines and processes to ensure compliance with

organizational policies, procedures and controls> Identify out-of-compliance situations and work to drive solutions> Oversee revisions of policies and procedures as necessary

ImplementationMediumOngoingLow

Estimated level of participation

Human Resources> Understand the impact on resources within Accounts Payable and

Procurement for new programs> Communicate with TMC to ensure frequent profile updates> Coordinate with program administrators to cancel and request cards based

on personnel status changes

ImplementationMedium for startup program, Low for transition programOngoingLow

Accounts Payable> Assist in identifying your accounting needs> Define and support card payment process to AirPlus/bank partners> Evaluate impact of process changes on Accounts Payable


Finance and Accounting > Participate in the development of new policies and procedures


End users – cardholders> Provide input into current practices> Assist in development of new policies and procedures> Higher acceptance level



Our recommendations are:> Understand the full potential implications of each

type of pay and/or liability arrangement. What is the risk profile of each? What will it mean for your travelers – e.g. will they have to undergo credit checks?

> Ask issuers to explain what options they can offer you in each country. In some markets, corporate pay and liability are mandatory, but there are other complications to consider. In Brazil, individual pay and liability are possible technically, but card-holders would face having their expenses taxed as income.

> Even if there are no legal barriers, certain types of liability are considered culturally unacceptable in some countries. Take advice because this point could make or break an implementation.

> Warn employees not to use their corporate cards for personal expenses.

> If you choose individual pay and liability, it is even more important that you operate an extremely effi-cient expense reimbursement process.

> Communicate to travelers about the emotive issues surrounding liability, explaining the “why” as well as the “what”. For example, explain that in some countries they may have to submit their passport for anti-money laundering checks before their card can be issued.

Understand cultural issuesThe question of liability is just one of many examples of how attitudes towards payments will vary from country to country. In Asia, for example, especially China, hierarchy is a very important factor, so you may need to introduce a wider range of card options (e.g. gold or platinum cards for the most senior travelers) than in other countries.

Cultural sensitivities should not be underestimated. Seek advice on this issue from your provider and also from local colleagues. As discussed earlier, balancing a global mandate and local needs is the toughest challenge involved in multinational implementation, so there will inevitably be testing decisions to make. At times you may have to show flexibility by allowing local exceptions on certain points.

Step 3 – Get the data flow right

One of the main reasons for introducing a multi-national payment program is to create consolidated, high-quality reporting. Meeting this goal will depend in large part on your success in establishing an effi-cient data flow between your payment provider and other key suppliers such as your TMCs and expense management system.

Start at the end – what do you want?Once again, be clear about your goals. Draw up a spec-ification of the reporting you require for supplier ne-gotiations, compliance monitoring, financial reporting, etc. Once you have that information, it will be easier to instruct your provider what data you are looking for.

Give a clear specification to your payment provider.Define issues such as data delivery, methods, formats, and quality. The more precise you are, the better the results you will achieve.

Map out your existing systems and processesYour payment provider will need to know exactly which TMCs you use in each country, and which sup-pliers for online booking tools, expense management systems, and so on.


Appoint a technical project leaderIt is very hard for a travel manager or even the fi-nance team to provide all the systems and process information the provider is looking for. Appoint a technical project manager and an IT sub-group to handle this work for you.

Give your card provider regular employee informationYou will need to provide a full breakdown of employee profiles, cost centers, hierarchies, etc., and update this information constantly. It is very likely you will have to cooperate with HR to meet this objective.

Keep data feeds as standardized as possibleStandard interfaces are quicker and easier to estab-lish, saving time and money. You also need to check whether your payment provider has established inter-faces with your other suppliers. If these links are not in place, it might take up to six months to build them. Check too that your understanding of standardization is the same as your payment provider’s. For example, your company may use 17-digit employee ID numbers, but your payment provider may only be able to accommodate 15 digits.

Tell employees which data is mandatoryFor example, explain to travelers and bookers that they must supply a cost center with every booking – but, once again, only ask for data if you really need it.

Step 4 – Communicate

When we asked ACTE buyers what it takes to imple-ment successfully, the word they used most often was “communicate”. No matter what type of payment program you are implementing, communication is essential, although the amount of communication required will vary. Examples of implementations (or countries within that implementation) requiring high levels of communication include:> introducing corporate payments for the first time> introducing a plastic corporate card> introducing a new type of payment (e.g. introducing

a central billing account if you previously only had plastic)

> changing the pay/liability arrangements, especially when switching to individual pay and/or liability

> implementing outside your global region

Case study: Itron – clear instructions to TMCsItron gives TMCs a specification of its required descriptive billing information (data fields) that must be entered when accepting payment for each booking. The purpose is to ensure Itron receives consistent data. If the descriptive billing information is incomplete, Itron sends the TMC notification to clean the data within ten days.

Itron never assumes all the data it receives will be accurate. It monitors what it receives very carefully and acts promptly with the TMC to correct mistakes.

Case study: Tetra Laval – creating hierarchy treesInternal access to reporting is another important issue to consider. Tetra Laval created a hierarchical “tree” to determine who in the company could see which payment data reports. For example, Tetra Laval has three main divisions, and each division is not allowed to see the others’ reports.


A mandate is not enoughWe strongly recommend mandating your payment program. But even if you make it compulsory to use a particular payment method, you still need to explain what you are doing. If you don’t, the mandate will build resentment, and employees will look for ways to bypass the rules.

Create a communications plan – Work with your internal comms departmentIt will be very accustomed to promoting new ini-tiatives within your company and can help you draw up your strategy, based on what messages you want to communicate, who the audiences are, and what media you will use.

Work with your payment providerDon’t be afraid to ask your provider for assistance. It has handled implementations many times before, and will have a good stock of marketing materials you can adapt to your needs.

Focus on what your employees might worry aboutTypical examples include credit-checking and individ-ual pay/liability. (As discussed earlier, these worries relate to plastic corporate cards; centrally billed accounts rarely raise concerns for employees.) You should be able to anticipate most of these issues but you also need to carry out internal market research to understand other potential objections. For each challenge you identify, you need to explain what is happening and why. Above all, explain their concern will not cause problems in reality, or how you will solve those potential problems if they do occur.

If you cannot answer a potential objection with a rea-sonable explanation, take this as a red flag that you need to think again. If the process doesn’t work for your employees, no amount of communication will make it right, and the implementation is likely to fail.

Communicate attractively and simplyDon’t use jargon unless you have to. Use everyday language, but express yourself clearly so there are no gaps in policy they can exploit. Make sure a com-munications professional checks what you write.

Accentuate the positiveCreate different (but consistent) messages for differ-ent stakeholders, e.g. local management, travelers, and, wherever possible, try to explain how they will benefit directly. For example, local management will welcome the opportunity to eliminate cash advances, while for travelers, the biggest draw is often the auto-mated pre-population of their expense reports with card data.

Dealing with countries new to corporate paymentsIf you are implementing in a large number of coun-tries, especially outside North America and Western Europe, there is a strong chance some will have no experience of corporate payments. Some employees are likely to have no experience of personal cards either.

In these countries you have to strip the message down to the basics, explaining not only to travelers, but also to management, issues such as how credit works. For example, they may need educating about allocating limits on cards so the company does not exceed its overall credit allowance, and how to allow for peaks and troughs of demand as well as the amount of time needed to pay card bills.

You also need to communicate how different payment methods work. Face-to-face training is especially im-portant in these countries.


If you don’t check your car’s oil and water regularly, there will be problems. Likewise, your payment program cannot give optimum performance unless you monitor and maintain it.

Try to keep the same personnelContinuity of the program is really helped if the same people remain involved, especially the internal project manager and the payment provider’s account manager.

Keep measuring performance against your original goalsHas reporting quality improved? Have you unified your processes? One very useful key performance in-dicator is to measure the proportion of total travel spend transacted through your payment program.

Carry out quality checksAudit the data quality of your first three invoices and regularly thereafter.

Meet your payment provider regularlyQuarterly meetings are typical. Discuss the data you have used to monitor performance, and review opportunities to improve the program, such as new products or adding more countries.

How to Maintain Your Program once It Is Up and Running

Case study: Tetra Laval – using data for performance reviewsGlobal supply manager/travel management Ulrika Rosén conducts quarterly data review meetings with her payment provider. If the reports show spend in a particular country is unexpectedly low, they investigate further: is the system at fault, for example, or has that country switched to a different way of paying? Rosén also checks with finance and the supply management team that the payment pro-gram is meeting their needs. She finds out whether they want any new payment products or tools, so she uses the quarterly meetings with the payment provider to update herself on innovations in the marketplace.

Benchmark with other customersCheck how well your program is performing com-pared with theirs.

Show your company the valuePut your improved data to good use. Send monthly spend reports to internal stakeholders so they can see how the payment program gives the company actionable business travel data.


AcknowledgementsChristoph Carnier, Director, Head of Procurement Category Travel & Fleet Group Procurement, Merck; Ulrika Rosén, Global Supply Manager – Travel Management, Tetra Laval; Kimberly Millikan, Director of Treasury, Itron; Peter Brodbeck, Head of Global Travel, Syngenta; Michaela Rothbart, Global Director RfP & Implementation Management, AirPlus; Thorsten Gräf, Associate Director Global Account Management, AirPlus; Annette Strube-Ziebold, Stephen Browne, Scott Fitzpatrick, Global Implementation Management, AirPlus.

Credits: iStockphoto/Lya_Cattel (p. 1), Getty Images/Ryota Kasai (p. 4/5), Frank Aussieker/VISUM (p. 6), Getty Images/Buena Vista Images (p. 9), Getty Images/Design Pics/Darren Greenwood (p. 12), Thinkstock (p. 19), Getty Images/Michael Blann (p. 24)

Putting it all together

Case study: SyngentaGlobal headquarters: Basel, SwitzerlandNumber of countries with plastic corporate card implemented: more than 40Number of countries with central billing account implemented: 20Payment program contract manager: Peter Brodbeck, head of global travel

Key messages> Implementation produces better data, better

savings and massive process efficiencies> Work hard on winning local buy-in> Communication is the key to success> Be flexible

We have gained many advantages by implementing a multinational payment program. We are getting much more consolidated data for supplier negotiations, and we like our rebates too. In addition, Syngenta has outsourced its accounts payable function to centers in India and China, so we are trying to unify internal processes to keep down the number of full-time em-ployees required. Reducing the number of payment providers we use has certainly helped achieve that goal, for example by minimizing the number of file formats we forward to them.

Several different departments came together to manage the implementation. I am the contract man-ager, but the project is run by a dedicated manager from within Syngenta Business Services, which coor-dinates all central non-strategic operational functions. Finance, human resources, procurement and internal communications were also involved in tasks like defining the internal accounts payable process, and making changes to travel policy.

We worked hard to win local management buy-in. We sold it to them on the rebate and extended payment terms.

We set clear rules about when to use the corporate card, and for what purpose. For example, employees who travel more than twice a year must have a corporate card.

You need to communicate with one consistent voice, so a coherent communications plan is essential. We create one of those, and a stakeholder map, for every project we do. Keeping messages simple, and making sure we have an efficient reimbursement process, were also really important for winning over travelers.

The biggest mistake you could make with a multi-national payments implementation would be not to have enough communication, especially to gain the buy-in of local stakeholders.

You also have to listen and be prepared to adapt. We encountered resistance in some countries because they were struggling to cope with so many projects being rolled out globally at the same time. We heard what they were saying, and delayed implementation by a few months in some markets.

We check reports to ensure our payments products are being used. We also have a purchasing card, and we noticed it wasn’t being used enough, so we increased our communications to encourage more employees.

Association of CorporateTravel Executives (ACTE)515 King Street, Suite 440Alexandria, VA 22314USA

T + 1 (703) 683-5322F + 1 (703) [email protected]

AirPlus InternationalDornhofstraße 1063263 Neu-IsenburgGermany

T + 49(0)6102.204- 44 40F + 49(0)6102.204- 34 [email protected]

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