Navigating Complex Logistics: A Technology-Driven Approach for Employee and Visitor Travel

Our client, a prominent global oil and gas company, manages a large volume of employee and visitor travelers and various transportation modes in an overseas region. Logistics coordination was supported by a technology solution that was planned to sunset in the near future. This provided an opportunity to assess current operations and identify requirements for a technology-enabled modern logistics management and traveler experience.

"Our workflows, in principle, are simple. We need a system that supports that simplicity instead of overcomplicating all processes." — Logistics supervisor

Approach

ChaiOne employed a comprehensive strategy to understand the current logistics management experience for our client’s staff and travelers. At least 15 unique roles supported personnel logistics, with close to 20,000 monthly travelers and 2,000 lodgers accommodated in 4 separate locations. Further, transportation was provided by train, plane, bus, and taxi. Our assessment of these complex processes uncovered numerous insights, including:

• Heavily manual processes: Despite using a technology solution to coordinate personnel logistics, 100% of travel reports and 75% of journey requests had to be created and managed manually.
• No self-service: Travelers relied solely on emails to request, confirm, and change travel arrangements. Inability to modify travel and lodging requests resulted in over 1,000 no-shows per month.
• Real-time data gap: Passenger and lodger check-in procedures on all modes of transport (e.g., plane, train, bus, taxi) were paper-based. This created a lack of real-time visibility into personnel whereabouts and increased responsiveness risks in case of emergencies.
• Visitor coordination: Visa coordinators had to manually filter and collate 9 arrival lists for compliance with local authorities. They also had to manually track visa expiration dates and notify travelers about required document updates.

"I wish I had an application to easily check my reservations when I am off rotation. I need to know that my travel is confirmed, I need to know what time is my flight, I need to know if there are changes." — Employee traveller

Outcome

Leaning on a deep understanding of current needs and challenges, we crafted recommendations that focus on automating a variety of processes and tasks, enabling self-service for travelers, and providing real-time data. The proposed solution will eliminate 90% of manual work, yield efficiency and cost savings, and enable our client to scale their operations even further in the region.

Services provided:
Behavioral Science Research, Technology Assessment