Case studies
A rapidly growing organisation within the security industry.
Objective
We had to transition the client and its employees from an informal travel process to a fully complaint-managed service adhering to a structured travel policy and for the first time, empowering bookers to manage their own travel. This was a complete culture change.
Previously, staff and employees at the association had always booked their travel and accommodation themselves and each department essentially ‘did their own thing’. The other key issue was the fact that all employees had to reclaim their travel expenses via their accounts department which was often a lengthy procedure.
During the pandemic, the client also grew rapidly from 30 employees to numbers in the region of 200 and the two main PA’s were sent all the travel requests from senior management leaving them very little time to manage their day-to-day workload.
Method
We met with key stakeholders and the procurement team to outline the benefits of using our service as because they had not used a TMC before there were a number of questions that needed to be answered to demonstrate cost savings.
- Time – their employees were spending a huge amount of time booking their own travel often using different platforms i.e. online booking agents, Trainline and Sky Scanner. Once they were set up on our bespoke online tool they were able to book a flight, train and hotel on the same platform in under 3 minutes. For more complex bookings they could contact our offline team with the request and our team dealt with the enquiry.
- Reclaiming Expenses – every employee that travelled used their own credit card to book and subsequently reclaimed their expenses. We removed this process within a couple of days and our client was offered consolidated invoicing. Our respective finance teams met and created a process and expense reclaim became a thing of the past!
- Travel Policy – in consultation with one of our Account Managers a new travel policy was introduced and built into the online tool. Our system ensures that if a traveller wants to book outside of the travel policy they have to go through an authorisation process ensuring costs are controlled.
- VAT Reclaim – it was also clear that our clients were not reclaiming all of their VAT for travel and hotels. As some bookers were previously using online travel agents, this prohibited a Vat reclaim so this was changed immediately.
Results.
Within 3 months of implementing our client, 85% of rail and 75% of hotels were booked online and all requests were going through arrangeMY. Some bookers were also using our offline team for long-haul flights and more complicated travel requests.
In addition, it became evident that there was complete clarity with the new travel policy and the authorisation process was implemented with ease. However, when we asked for feedback from bookers one of the biggest pluses was the bill back service and not having to use their own cards!
For organisations running apprentice or staff programmes.
Amber Portal is arrangeMY’s flagship user management, course booking and accommodation allocation system. It provides a quick and sophisticated, all-in-one solution for communicating with and managing all aspects of your user’s courses, accommodations and travel. With unique, tailored portals, e-sign encrypted documents, bespoke ticketing systems, dedicated iOS and Android applications, plus much more, it is built for the digital age!
- From automatic allocations to live support tickets, AMBER provides you with a solution to all of your traveller management needs, in one neat package.
- The notification hub will keep you and your travellers apprised of any updates to bookings and documents. With a choice of SMS, Email or WhatsApp messages, your portal can suit your needs!
- Sophisticated document assignment with real time confirmation tracking. Set priority flags and quickly program automatic “chase-up” messages!
- Automatically generated confirmations, with information populated from 3 sources, making sure the traveller has all the information they need, right at their fingertips!
- Integrate surveys from your favourite solution, to gain feedback from your travellers. All information gathered, will be considered and will help the system evolve to suit everyone’s needs.
Here at arrangeMY, we pride ourselves in providing the best support available to you and your travellers, no matter the time, no matter the day.
- Live support tickets for both you and your travellers, to communicate any minor issues, request more information or update their details on the system!
- Between the hours of 8am and 8pm, we have a dedicated team ready to help with any and all queries. In case of an emergency, we have a 24/7 phone line to ensure that, regardless of when your issues may arise, we will always be here to help!
- Alongside a dedicated support team, you will have your own personal Account Manager, who will be available to deal with any and all queries.
Budgeting is key so we want to ensure that you are completely informed. Our incredible accounting team will make sure every penny spent, is clearly and accurately outlined for every booking, so you know where your money is going.
- Finance solutions to support you! We can offer consolidated invoicing which streamlines the billing process, saving you both time and cost.
- arrangeMY will source, review and negotiate the best hotels that match your desires, to ensure your travellers will have the best stay possible, while keeping in line with your companies travel policy.
£500,000 Glasgow conference for Charity Organisation
Objectives – Source a venue and accommodation for a prestigious UK annual conference to be staged in one of the UK’s major cities
Response – ‘arrangeMY inherently understood our aim and our needs – and took the helm.’
The Organisation
This organisation brings together UK funders to create a strategic partnership and advance research.
The Aim
This client was seeking an event and travel management provider to source and support its annual conference which brings together 1,500 global delegates.
arrangeMY would source the right city, venue and accommodation through a complex venue finding process.
One of the aims was to move the annual conference from Liverpool to a fresh location. The brief required a one-day build, a three-day conference and a half-day derig.
The Delivery
arrangeMY undertook extensive infrastructure and venue research (as well as cost negotiations) within a variety of UK cities.
arrangeMY then presented a detailed proposal comparing over 12 different options that were ultimately reduced to three shortlisted locations (Belfast, Edinburgh and Glasgow).
Each location satisfactorily met the requirements for a suitable venue in addition to efficient air, rail and transport connections, as well as appropriate hotel accommodation.
On behalf of this client, arrangeMY also sought subvention input (where the host city’s Convention Bureau provides sponsorship).
Each shortlisted location was then visited by the client with arrangeMY organising and accompanying.
With all the above factors in place (including subvention financial support), the organisation agreed to move the event to Glasgow on a 2 year contract.
The Difference Made
arrangeMY not only fully programmed and managed this extensive conference event and its accommodation (at an estimated total cost of half a million pounds) but re-energised it.
For the organisation delegate numbers were significantly increased and Glasgow proved to be an excellent city in terms of venue, accessibility and how delegate friendly it was.
A spokesperson at the organisation said
“This hugely complex conference involves hundreds of people. It is therefore, business critical that everything is co-ordinated successfully.
“arrangeMY inherently understood our aim and our needs – and they took the helm. They saved us a huge amount of time especially in the initial stages with their comprehensive venue search that required such significant detail”
“We highly recommend arrangeMY’s comprehensive venue and travel support service.”
Annual Leadership Congress
One of our clients is a global supplier to the aerospace industry. Initially, we offered a relatively straightforward venue sourcing solution but as the event grew their marketing team became increasingly reliant on our services that started with some simple badge production to what it is today – the full scope of our event management services.
arrangeMY now manage the entire event from ‘start to finish’ including pre-event work such as venue sourcing, delegate management, delegate registration and travel in addition to sourcing external suppliers for AV and speakers. Our Events team also provide on-site support to manage the conference ensuring the event runs smoothly throughout.
Event Objectives
This annual event is run specifically for the global leadership team. It provides the leaders with their yearly objectives and plans whilst also offering a set of motivational activities to take back to their divisions.
Method
Firstly, we met with our client, establishing the requirements such as location ideas, yearly objectives and general details such as potential numbers and of course budget.
Venue Sourcing – one of our Event Managers managed the venue sourcing process and following a review of the proposal the client and Event Manager agreed to site visit three shortlisted venues. In this instance they were all in Barcelona so our team scheduled the visits and managed the logistics. The InterContinental Barcelona was subsequently chosen and contracted for 180 delegates.
Delegate Registration – pre-event logistics began with the construction of a bespoke registration site allowing invitees to register but also include additional information such as dietary requirements and travel preferences. This was all reportable and live updates could be sent to the client at any time.
Live Event – on site – we sent two event managers to Barcelona to manage the conference, arriving 2 days before the first attendees flew in. As well as managing the conference at the hotel and communicating with the venue throughout, they also managed a secondary event with an off-site dinner at a restaurant ensuring all delegates were transported to and from the hotel quickly and safely.
- 2 Day Set up
- External dinners taking place on the first setup day
- Conference for 180 delegates for 3 days – Intercontinental Barcelona
- Various additional external meetings taking place during the conference
- External dinner for 160 delegates
- Managed rooming list with 2 hotels (overflow Catalonia Hotel) and ensured bedrooms allocated correctly in accordance with registered delegates for the conference.
- Providing all final details to venue including menus, drinks, dietaries, room layouts, timings for each day, rooming list, special requests, access times to meeting space.
- Manage any COVID testing requests.
- Manage all suppliers and final details for external dinner to include menu’s, dietaries, layouts, coaches.
- Full logistics support provided throughout.
- Ensure all financial aspects are considered within budget and any pre payments are managed.
Achievements and Results.
The event ran extremely well throughout with the InterContinental Barcelona proving to be an excellent choice. There was an easy transfer from the airport and a superb main meeting space with a 6m ceiling height (a crucial factor for this event). The venue had only recently reopened after converting from a Crowne Plaza to an Intercontinental 5* property.
One of the biggest achievements was taking all delegates out for the evening. We sourced and managed coach transfers, hired a cable car exclusively for 1 hour to transport 160 delegates from the top of a mountain down to a revolving restaurant and successfully transported the delegates back to the hotel. This was added to the brief at a very last minute stage and understandably there was a degree of nervousness but all went smoothly and the delegates loved it!
We also managed a whole COVID testing process for US delegates who still had to test before travelling home after the conference, booking time slots and arranging the transfers to and from the airport in the right time scale for their flights.
Barcelona is a great central HUB as all delegates were travelling from all over the world so incredibly easy access for flights worldwide.
Managing a Decant project during the Pandemic
We were tasked to source 280 rooms following the evacuation of a block of flats in Canary Wharf, London due to a mass escape of water. Initially, rooms were required for a week, but as the damage was more significant than expected the period extended to 6 weeks.
The first part of the process was finding the hotel rooms within the local area so our Relocations team quickly formed a plan to negotiate the best possible rates and terms and conditions within close proximity to the flats. Fortunately, there are a number of large hotels in this area and as the pandemic had greatly affected hotel occupancy we were able to book all rooms in to one hotel – the Hilton Canary Wharf.
Unlike a normal hotel booking we were hindered by the fact that we could only work with flat numbers as opposed to names for each room so our Relocations Manager and the hotel had to work very closely to make sure everything went to plan.
Once booked, we organised transport for every resident to the hotel via various means using our ground handler partner CMAC. This was organised taking onto account the various different requirements of each resident.
As with all decants and relocation bookings, it can be an increasingly difficult time for residents who have to move out at short notice so we tried to make everything as smooth and as comfortable as possible. Upon arrival we scheduled refreshments and tea and coffee.
The biggest issue however was due to the fact that it was mid-pandemic the hotel restaurant was closed so we had to ensure everyone was provided with lunch and dinner. Our Relocations team agreed a budget with the client for both meals that we gave to the hotel who subsequently ordered in. At this point the hotel had very few staff and the majority were furloughed so a number were called back in to service the residents.
Extensions for hotel stays are usually manged directly with the client but in this instance we liaised directly with the hotel due to the numbers and complexity of the booking.
After 6 weeks the contractors had fixed all of the issues within the flats and the residents were allowed to return with as minimal disruption as possible.
Relocation Decant Project
We have worked with one of the UK’s leading Relocation organisations for over 5 years providing solutions and support for policy holders who require emergency accommodation quickly, efficiently and in most cases, at very short notice. However, we also provide our client with an emergency decant service that involves us sourcing alternative accommodation on a much larger scale.
Objective
To source emergency accommodation for over 120 individuals from 48 separate flats at short notice. The initial project began with a request for 14 nights.
Method
We required a short and medium term approach so our specialist relocation team contacted both our serviced apartment providers in addition to local hotels as the accommodation required was so varied ranging from people living on their own through to families with children. Every individual case was different so we had to source one and two bedroomed apartments, as well as hotel accommodation on a short stay basis, all within close proximity of their home so that they could continue living with as minimal disruption as possible.
Decants are a lot more convoluted and so much more complicated in comparison to a hotel booking as many additional factors have to be taken into account such as the age of individuals/mobility, proximity to schools, parking and countless other factors. In addition, some of these people had pets to consider so again this had to be factored in with the accommodation search as many suppliers do not allow guests to bring pets.
Results
Our first task was to ensure occupants were accommodated quickly as they were unable to stay in their building. Every household had different requirements and as you can imagine each case had to be dealt with sensitively as it was a traumatic experience for many. Due to the time of day and the urgency of the situation everyone was accommodated into local hotels (including all pets!) for 1 night within 2 ½ hours.
From Day 2 we then managed the project of ensuring everyone was sourced in more long-term accommodation until they were unable to return to their flats. The majority moved out of hotels and into serviced apartments but, we also had to work with our ground transportation partner providing vehicles for work and schools on a daily basis. After 18 days all residents were allowed to move back into their flats.
Although far from ideal for the occupants of the flats, our approach and experience of dealing with these situations combined with our excellent relationships with our suppliers ensured that the whole process minimised the amount of disruption caused.
