"15 million in savings since 2009": Abdelaziz Bougja, Veolia and Marco Polo

Do payment solutions represent a source of savings?

Abdelaziz Bougja - There's no question about it. Large companies and SMEs, depending on their volume of expenditure, have every interest in deploying payment solutions in view of the savings that can be made. At Veolia, we have an online tool through which 90% of bookings are processed, with reporting and invoicing solutions behind this invisible means of payment for the traveller. Once you have a properly configured tool, you can cut travel agency costs by a factor of five.
Our TMC delegates six people to look after the Veolia account. How many are there for other companies? Forty sometimes.
Since 2009, we estimate that we have made savings of €15 million. Each transaction costs our accounting department between €40 and €60 to process. If you carry out 300,000 transactions a year, you can imagine the potential savings.

Are you in favour of the wider deployment of Corporate cards within companies?

A. B. - We have this practical payment solution at our disposal, which makes it much easier to process invoices and purchase orders. I invite companies to take this into account. At Veolia, we're in the process of rolling out this solution so that every employee who has to travel has one. There's no reason not to give out a Corporate card.
to our employees. They are fully responsible, as they are debited from their own accounts.

What about these new virtual payment methods?

A. B. - The virtual card has not yet fully entered the mainstream, but it will. For small orders, if they have to be formalised, in the form of an order form, the cost of the request is ultimately greater than the expense itself. And, in addition to transaction savings, the virtual card offers good traceability of expenditure, which can be integrated into the ERP system at the end of the chain. For contactless payment, there first needs to be a wider range of equipment. So I'm waiting to see. But here too, it could be useful for small expenses.