Unifying Deutsche Telekom’s global workforce through a scalable, integrated digital Travel & Expense platform
Deutsche Telekom
Annual business trips:
~200,000 globally
Geographical scope:
50+ countries globally across Europe, North America and APAC
Industry:
Telecommunications and digital services
Company size:
Enterprise (~200,000 employees)
Headquarters:
Bonn, Germany
Challenges before Amadeus Cytric
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Fragmented systems: Multiple booking tools, with limited integration and inconsistent user experience across countries, resulting in inefficiency and higher costs.
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Limited flexibility: The previous setup could not address customerspecific needs or provide comprehensive content, impacting adoption negatively
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Offline processes: Manual, country-specific workflows led to inefficiencies, higher costs, and compliance risks.
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Complex auditing: Finance teams struggled with enforcing policy compliance and managing lengthy, cumbersome audits.
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Lack of global visibility: Inability to consolidate travel data and spend analytics at group level, leading to weak spend control.
Results with Amadeus Cytric
97%
increased online adoption
➤Unified platform: Consolidated five legacy systems into one, enabling Deutsche Telekom toposition itself as a global service provider within the group.
➤Enhanced compliance: Improved policy adherence and reduced off-platform bookings(Maverick Buying), thanks to comprehensive content and user-friendly tools.
➤Productivity gains: Automation and digital workflows saved time for both travelers.
➤Strategic added value: The new platform supports Deutsche Telekom’s growth ambitions, enablinginternational collaboration, data-driven decision-making, cost savings and employee satisfaction.
Managing mobility in a digital giant
Deutsche Telekom, a global telecommunications leader with operations in over 50 countries and nearly 211,000 employees, faced the challenge of fragmented travel and expense (T&E) management across its international footprint. With a large, mobile workforce and complex requirements, Deutsche Telekom sought a unified solution to streamline processes, improve compliance, and empower its teams with modern, integrated tools.
These challenges triggered the need for a modernized, user friendly, end-to-end solution. Deutsche Telekom created a comprehensive catalogue of 350-400 requirements covering travel, expense, content, interfaces, innovation, and user experience.
Why Deutsche Telekom chose Amadeus Cytric?
During the evaluation, Cytric distinguished itself through the quality and clarity of its RFP responses, its proactive approach to understanding Deutsche Telekom’s needs, and the breadth and flexibility of its content offering. Deutsche Telekom particularly appreciated the transparent product demonstrations and the willingness to explore custom developments when needed. Reference customer feedback further reinforced trust in Cytric’s capabilities.
The Cytric platform solution has been selected for travel, and planned for expense, based on its flexibility, alignment with European standards, transparent collaboration style, and its capacity to offer customization and responsiveness to customer feedback. Deutsche Telekom felt they would have a stronger voice and greater influence with Cytric, leading to the final decision to move forward with Amadeus.
Cytric appealed to Deutsche Telekom, because
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Reduced technology fragmentation due to one global travel and expense platform aligned with the company's international footprint.
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End‑to‑end integration thanks to a single travel, expense, and auditing solution replacing legacy systems and reducing manual processes for streamlined travel expense management.
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Access to a comprehensive global inventory needed by a global workforce, ensuring multi‑country compliance and flexibility.
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Enabling a traveler‑first program through direct supplier connectivity strengthening control over travel program.
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A modern, intuitive user experience: Microsoft Teams integration, AI-powered auditing, and receipt scanning improve usability, compliance, and cost control.
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A trusted, culturally aligned partnership marked by shared values and a personalized approach accounting for local needs, while supporting a unified global vision.
The implementation:
A project of close collaboration across Telekom's Group Travel Management, Amadeus, and local teams.
➤Project scope: 15+ countries, with a phased approachinvolving pilot users, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), and extensive onboardingaccounting for diverse country-specific requirements and custom processes.
➤Change management: ambitious timelines coupled with a complex IT landscape, internal transformation projects along with differing integration and security requirements across teams, early stakeholder engagement was vital. A realistic approach to the solution, and clear, transparent communication combined with a pragmatic, step-by-step approach, throughout the process helped align expectations and define realistic, sustainable solutions.
➤Timeline and process discipline: Despite an ambitious schedule, the project stayed on track by adhering to established processes and addressing issues pragmatically. The combined commitment to pragmatism from both Amadeus and partner played a key role in navigating management and maintaining momentum.
“Having a single, global platform for travel has been a gamechanger for Deutsche Telekom. Cytric’s flexibility and integration capabilities have allowed us to standardize processes, improve compliance, and deliver a better experience for our employees. The partnership with Amadeus has empowered us to scale our services and support our growth strategy.”
A model for digital travel management
Deutsche Telekom’s transformation with Amadeus Cytric shows how innovation, standardization, and partnership can reshape a global travel program. By moving from fragmented manual processes to a unified, automated platform, they’ve accelerated rollouts, strengthened compliance, and unlocked new efficiency. And the journey continues: upcoming Expense integration, Smart Audit, Microsoft Teams integration, advanced reporting, and a shared commitment to innovation, expanded partnership, and future growth will elevate their program even further.
