How a Fortune 500 Financial Company Saw a 500% ROI with HQ SummitGround.

Company Background

This Fortune 500 company client is one of the world’s largest and most respected asset management firms, offering investment management, risk management, and advisory services to institutional and retail clients.

The Business Need

As a major global financial institution, the company’s employees rely heavily on ground transportation for business travel, particularly in key markets like New York and London. Before partnering with HQ, the client faced several challenges:

• Lack of a centralized system to track and manage global ground transportation spend.
• Fragmented supplier relationships across multiple regions, leading to inconsistent billing and rate issues.
• Frequent billing errors and out-of-policy charges that increased costs and created operational inefficiencies.
• Limited visibility into ride activity and spend trends, hindering cost control and strategic decision-making.

The Solution

HQ implemented its SummitGround® platform to deliver a comprehensive ground travel solution tailored to the client’s needs. Key components of the solution included:

• A centralized dashboard providing real-time visibility into global ground transportation activity and spend.
• A consistent, user-friendly ride booking experience accessible via desktop and mobile for employees worldwide.
• Automated billing validation and invoice review, designed to identify and flag pricing discrepancies, erroneous charges, and unapproved supplier invoices before payment.
• Advanced reporting and analytics to support travel managers in controlling spend, enforcing travel policy, and optimizing supplier performance.

This integrated approach not only streamlined operations but also ensured that travel managers had accurate, up-to-date information to manage ground transportation effectively across the enterprise.

The Results

By centralizing global ground transportation through HQ SummitGround, the client gained full visibility into ride activity and spend, uncovering billing discrepancies and operational inefficiencies. The platform streamlined invoice review, improved cost control, reinforced policy compliance, and enhanced overall efficiency across its global travel program.

Key outcomes

The HQ SummitGround solution delivered substantial financial and operational benefits:

• $80,000 saved through identification and flagging of more than 300 ride and invoice billing errors.
• $380,000 saved by detecting over 800 additional ride and invoice discrepancies, including incorrect base rates, service, tax, and toll charges.
• ~2,000 labor hours saved for the client’s accounts payable team, thanks to automated invoice review and error resolution.
• 500% ROI achieved through improved spend transparency, enhanced control, and reduced ground transportation costs.

Client Quote

“HQ is truly one of our trusted business partners with our travel program. In the years we have worked with them they have not only helped us achieve significant cost savings and greater transparency in our ground transportation program but have provided us invaluable insight into our program and the industry.”
– Travel Manager, Financial Services Client