We began using Locomote for one project alone and found that the efficiency of our work brought the attention of our company’s senior management team to our travel tool of choice.
Project Manager, Segula Technologies
SEGULA Technologies is a global leader in engineering specialist consulting firm with a hand in all of the major industrial sectors, including aerospace and defence, automotive, energy, naval, and rail.
Founded in 1985 and headquartered in France, the company has since spread to over 30 countries, 140 offices, and over 10,000 employees worldwide.
SEGULA still maintains and prioritises the values that helped it grow into the international giant it is today — responsiveness and proximity.
However, before discovering Locomote, making individual travel arrangements and bookings made it more difficult for SEGULA’s employees to practice these two values to the fullest.
They needed a travel solutions program as versatile as their company — one that would allow their people to organise multiple travel arrangements more effectively and stress-free.
What started as a single project’s decision to raise their internal efficiency gained the attention of upper management, leading to the whole company discovering the benefits of Locomote.
Issues SEGULA Encountered Before Locomote
SEGULA’s lack of formal business travel solutions meant its employees had to make general bookings directly through various business travel agency or company websites for each hotel, flight, or rental vehicle booking they made.
This resulted in various problems, including:
Inefficient Use of Work Time
Making all the necessary business travel arrangements for just one person can already take a lot of time.
When organising travel plans for a management team of 12 individual participants, this leads to a lot of inefficiently managed hours
SEGULA was spending an excessive amount of time finding the most cost-effective deals for individuals and groups. These were all hours that could have been better spent on the team’s many project tasks.
Trouble Organising Travel Arrangements and Costs
The lack of a travel management program or system meant everything was done manually and individually. This makes price comparisons doubly hard for the people in charge.
In such a decentralised process, it’s common to schedule flights on one website, book hotel accommodations on another, and arrange transportation from a third website.
Having three separate travel arrangements spread out over three different providers makes it harder to organise all the travel details. It also makes it more difficult to keep track of all their expenses, which makes the accounting process harder.
How Did Locomote Change the Game for SEGULA?
SEGULA expanded to the company-wide use of Locomote after the senior management team saw how it improved the efficiency of one project.
As a full-service business travel agency and management platform, Locomote brought the following benefits to the table:
Easy Comparison of All Available Travel Options
Locomote lets the travel organisers do everything in one place. This includes easy comparison of all the hotel accommodations, flights, and other necessary travel arrangements.
The program brings together all the best providers, so it’s more convenient to check, compare, and decide on the best among all the available options.
Significantly Reduced Time Spent on Bookings
Having everything on a single portal or program was a driving force behind the increased efficiency of SEGULA’s team.
It allowed them to save time on organising their trip and instead focus on their project and tasks.
Locomote’s simplicity and ease-of-use also played a role here. Since the managers and employees didn’t experience any difficulties adjusting to the new system, they were able to hit the ground running.
Administrative Features Improved Team Organisation and Accounting
The admin features on Locomote allowed SEGULA’s managers to better organise their teams and cost centres with greater ease. These, in turn, made their accounting processes flow much better.
Additionally, Locomote improved the company’s overall organisation and management. Being able to have different travellers under different organisers made everything much more convenient.
Overall Simplicity of Use
The ease-of-use and overall simplicity of Locomote is one of its best features. This made it easy for the team — and eventually the company — to transition to using Locomote.
Even individuals without prior experience using a business travel agency platform or any other travel tools were able to quickly and efficiently use the system.
Addressing and Accommodating SEGULA’s Concerns
Despite seeing how much Locomote improved one team’s efficiency, the management team at SEGULA Technologies still had a few reservations before they fully transitioned to using the platform.
These reservations mainly revolved around Locomote’s credit account policy. The management team initially noted that it did not align with the company’s finance policy.
Thanks to the Locomote team’s responsiveness and flexibility, they were able to negotiate the policy. Locomote was also able to address and accommodate other points the SEGULA management team brought up, including secure authorisation systems and competitive pricing.
In the end, both Locomote and SEGULA were able to reach a compromise that worked with both party’s regulations.
From One Project to the Whole Company
As one of the leading names in engineering consulting, SEGULA regularly takes on multiple projects for several different companies all at the same time.
Using Locomote for just one project became more than just a trial run — it became a successful experiment and tangible proof of the business travel agency platform’s ability to improve corporate travel.
It’s enough that the increase in efficiency was able to catch the attention of the company’s senior management team, bringing their attention to Locomote.
After a thorough evaluation and working out all the concerns in adopting Locomote for wider company use, it’s now proudly used on all projects SEGULA is working on.
Experience the Locomote Difference Yourself
Like SEGULA, your company can also take advantage of the numerous benefits and conveniences that Locomote has to offer.
As Oonagh Perceval described Locomote, they are more than a travel tool — they’re like your personal travel agent that lets you arrange all travel necessities with no stress or complications.
Learn more about Locomote’s platform and how it can help elevate your company’s travel experiences.
