TPE delivers a service that provides us with a sense of calmness and safety. At no point did I ever feel like a client, but always like a member - and this means that they are a part of our company and we are a part of theirs. They are always focused and paying attention - and especially in a year as difficult and unpredictable as 2020, where we all have been forced to learn how to navigate in a different manner, TPE has consistently been one step ahead when it comes to keeping us informed, and their efficient and flexible set-up has really come into its own”.
Lars Torp Madsen, FRITZ HANSEN
Challenge
Lacking overview of flight and hotel prices
Heavy administrative processes in the management of vast amounts of travel receipts
Extensive use of resources on compiling and follow-up on reporting
Lack of transparency
Solution
Full travel and expense management solution with a strong international perspective.
Result
”We became a member of TPE in November 1999, because we believed it would provide us with a much better overview of the travel area. At that time, Fritz Hansen already had a lot of travellers all over the world, and TPE’s expertise has provided us with the safety in knowing that not only are we guaranteed the best possible prices, but we also know that our policies are complied with everywhere in our organisation”, says Fritz Hansen’s Executive Vice President, Finance & IT, Lars Torp Madsen.
Travel purchase has been the cornerstone of our collaboration, which in time has been expanded to also include travel expense management. The member organisation currently handles all the travel activities and related credit card settlements of the design icon. In practice this means that TPE, in addition to travel booking and purchasing, effectively handles all administration and management of the vast amount of travel receipts that Fritz Hansen accumulates. Good reporting on deviation from travel policy et cetera forms the basis of efficient follow-up and ensures governance across the global offices and activities of the organisation:
”We have between 25,000 and 30,000 card transactions annually, and TPE’s handling of our expense management has been synonymous with an extremely efficient reporting and approval process among the 260 employees of the organisation. The underlying system is user-friendly and provides us with access to relevant reports which enable us to analyse for example travel spend across the organisation. In addition to this, the system is scaled for - and used by - many very large companies, and even though we are not in that category, our membership means that we achieve significant and measurable purchasing synergies with some of the major groups - and thus we benefit from an incredibly beneficial and attractive solution ,” Lars Torp Madsen continues.
”Before we implemented TPE we used a lot of resources on compiling and following up on reports. This has been minimised, and today our finance department has a consistent overview of potential unresolved issues with regard to reporting. From a purely economical perspective we have been able to cut down on one fulltime resource, and annual analyses show that we have achieved savings of 11-14 percent on travel.
Process optimisation and automation means that we essentially use almost no time on travel and expense management, including the few monthly deviations. In short, it is a collaboration and a solution that works super-efficiently for both us as a company and for our employees ”, Lars Torp Madsen points out.
Outsourcing your company’s travel expense management is very much a matter of trust. Allowing others to energize your non-strategic purchases, and thus freeing up resources for focusing on more value-creating business goals and initiatives, may seem like a no-brainer, but it is very much a matter of trust.
Outsourcing the actual travel booking is mainly about resource optimisation, but of course it also requires confidence in the fact that the best agreements are made, so that we consistently get the best prices and at the same time also the highest quality available.
TPE has a very transparent structure, and I am not sure that for example travel agencies have the same level of quality control.
At Fritz Hansen we are therefore completely confident that TPE as a non-profit member organisation are able to manage the huge responsibility it is to handle the tasks with which we entrust them.
About Fritz Hansen A/S
Fritz Hansen is an international, exclusive designer brand, founded in Denmark in 1872.
Since then the company has continually strived to design beautiful furniture, lighting and home accessories without compromising when it comes to comfort and a strong aesthetic expression.
The ambition, which has brought great Danish design classics way beyond the national borders, is to continue to remain part of the absolute global elite within the field of design, luxury and lifestyle.
The company currently employs about 260 people in 16 countries.
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