1. C O R P O R A T I O N S
General Motors Drives Savings,
Cost Efficiency, and Convenience
with the Citibank One Card Program
®
A T - A - G L A N C E
Headquartered in Detroit,
Michigan, General Motors (GM)
General Motors Corporation, the is big. General Motors makes
world’s largest vehicle manufacturer,
not only cars and trucks but
designs, builds, and markets cars
and trucks worldwide. In 2001, has other businesses: a financial
GM earned $1.5 billion on sales services business unit, advanced
of $177.3 billion, excluding special entertainment systems, and
items. It employs about 362,000 specialized transportation. The
people globally. GM has been the Like many
conglomerate has worldwide
world’s automotive sales leader
since 1931. GM also operates operations with over 300 global organizations, GM
one of the world’s largest and locations. They range from had a large volume
most successful financial services automotive manufacturing
companies, GMAC, which offers assembly plants to metal
of low-dollar value
automotive, mortgage and business
financing, and insurance services
plants, devoted to stamping purchases — over
to customers worldwide. and fabricating sheet metal 500,000 transactions
Keeping its business competitive
used in GM vehicles and an
array of office buildings, sales, per year.
in an industry known for intense
competition compelled GM to and marketing locations.
look at its business processes
with an eye toward achieving
Over 60,000 GM employees—
greater efficiencies and costs sav- ranging from plant personnel to
ings. Its corporate purchasing, office workers to sales people
fleet, and travel expense processes on the road—make purchases,
presented an opportunity: a way
travel, or use a company
to cut costs and speed cycle times
by moving from three separate
vehicle. Before the introduc-
cards to a “one card” program. tion of the Citibank® One Card
In 1999, GM launched its move Program, employees had to
to a “one card” platform. As the use three different GM payment
program continues to roll out across
cards—for travel, fleet, and
the company, it’s delivering on the
corporate goals outlined at the purchasing expenses—
onset: reduced overall processing depending on the type of
and administration effort, significant business being conducted
cost savings, reduced order-to-pay on behalf of the company.
business cycle, and enhanced
Managing the administration
employee satisfaction.
was costly for the GM and
www.mastercardbusiness.com
cumbersome for employees.

2. Defeating awkward, made via their paychecks—not A new way to go
time-consuming as immediate issuance of a
In 1999, a team from GM
processes separate check.
Worldwide Purchasing decided to
Beginning in 1995, Citibank® Corporate travel expense look at a “one card” solution as
Purchasing Cards were issued to processing was a labor-intensive a way to streamline the entire
employees for indirect material situation; all reports were payment system. They were
purchases of $2,000 or less. Like keypunched into the system. ready to leave behind the high
many organizations, GM had a Travel transactions were manually cost of multiple processes and
large volume of these low-dollar entered into the general ledger. manual processing. GM saw the
value purchases—over 500,000 It was difficult for the corporate benefits of one common system
transactions a year. Under the accounting department to audit with efficient electronic processing
previous process, a purchase charges. and an improved ability to
order or purchase order release Outside of the United States, a effectively audit charges.
had to be issued for virtually all different bank issued a travel card
GM was very clear about what
purchases, and the process had for each country. With no central
they wanted: global capability
many steps: from invoicing to processing for charges, it was
with local currency cards and
matching receipts to manual virtually impossible to get a handle
local help desks in each country;
processing by the accounts on overall corporate travel expenses.
purchasing, fleet, and travel
payable department. capability in the United States;
Since purchases included ATM access; online expense
everything from service repairs
Corporate travel
reporting via a third party application,
to office supplies, processing expense processing and ongoing implementation
costs sometimes exceeded the was a labor-intensive support.
cost of the item. Processing was situation; all reports Citibank and MasterCard were
manual, paper-intensive, and were keypunched selected by the GM team based
slow—payments could take as
many as 45 days. into the system. upon their ability to meet several
requirements; including
MasterCard’s wide brand acceptance
Travel time On the road and extensive ATM network. An
For employees who used a Over 12,000 company drivers had additional benefit was the Captura
travel card, expense reconciliation fleet cards authorized to purchase travel expense management solution,
was an onerous task that they gas, car washes, and oil changes. which seamlessly integrated into
often postponed. If they didn’t At many facilities, GM had its the Citibank/MasterCard card
immediately return from their trip own fueling station and if an platform.
and manually fill out an expense employee was based at one of
report, they frequently had to pay these locations, the driver was How To Build a
for some expenses out of their expected to fill the vehicle there. “One Card” Program
own pocket. Travel card charges There were often back ups at - Gather data on
were billed to individuals so these on site stations and current processes
employees had a personal tracking the fuel usage was - Build a business case
responsibility to make payments hard to monitor. and metrics
on time. Outside of the GM-owned - Get executive mandate
Employees had to wait for facilities, company drivers were - Execute comprehensive
corporate reimbursement after limited to the commercial stations communications plan
filling out forms, taping receipts they could use, which weren’t - Improve processes
to the report, getting approval, and necessarily the most convenient continuously
then submitting the report to the and sometimes required extra
- Measure and
accounts payable department. travel time. communicate success
Company reimbursements were

3. Flexibility to card transactions. GM utilizes
GM was very clear and added control central billing, giving the company
and its employees improved
about what they wanted: The “one card” approach works
efficiency. These aggregated
global capability with using profiles based on merchant
charges also benefit the corporation
category codes (MCC). It enables
local currency cards and by way of purchasing volume
GM to authorize selected codes
discounts with suppliers and
local help desks in each related to travel, purchasing, or
payment cycles, automatically
country; purchasing, fleet charges. If an employee is
posting to the general ledger.
authorized to use their one
fleet, and travel card for travel only, they’ll have For GM overseas, the “one card”
capability in the United the ability to charge in those saves the company money
pre-approved categories. because foreign exchange fees are
States; ATM access; eliminated. Each country has a
GM has approximately 10 standard
online expense report- profiles for employee use of the
card that works in either euros or
the local currency of that country.
ing via a third-party “one card” that fit almost all GM
Prior to adopting the Citibank®
application, and ongoing cardholders. Exceptional profiles
One Card Program, GM conducted
can be built for unique cases.
implementation support. thousands of transactions that
With this new merchant category
incurred exchange fees in over
code system, the one card delivers
30 countries around the world.
Communicating better control from an auditing
Eliminating these fees added up to
the change standpoint. And the possibility of
significant savings for the company.
personal charges on the card is
As GM began the task of educating
eliminated.
employees and migrating from
one system to another, it MCC codes are tailored for GM’s All transaction
communicated from the outset specific purchasing, fleet, and
travel needs. Based upon travel
reporting is online
the strong commitment of top
management for the “one card” profile parameters, exception so there’s timely and
program. Management backing reports can be generated to
identify and address suspect easy access to card
was key to the program adoption
and implementation. charges. In addition to exception transactions.
reporting, the Captura application
A critical element to the success
enables GM to retrieve a variety
of GM’s “one card” program was
of detailed management reports,
the thorough communications
further enhancing corporate audit Employee ease of use
program developed and deployed For employees using the Citibank
capabilities.
for employees. One Card Program for travel,
All transaction reporting is online
GM had ‘champions’ at each expense reporting is now
so there’s timely and easy access
of its business units to serve dramatically simplified with the
as communications links to MasterCard/Captura integrated
disseminate consistent information expense-reporting solution. Each
across the corporation. A critical element to employee has a personal online
The champions were trained
the success of GM’s envelope that receives a record
at GM headquarters during a “one card” program was of card transactions each day.
one-day training session. They in the careful, thorough Employees are reminded, on a
turn, assigned a corporate card 30, 60, and 90-day schedule, to
communications do their expense reports.
facilitator at each office or plant
location within their business
program developed
When an employee generates
units. Facilitators were also and deployed for an expense report, they open the
trained so that they could provide employees. envelope, review the transaction
on-site expertise at their locations.

4. list, and click on individual location or a limited number of launch, and future global
transactions to move them to an fuel locations. expansion plans are in development.
online expense report that the As the program grows, GM
system creates. Driving results expects to reap even more
If they have out-of-pocket The Citibank® One Card Program rewards in terms of cost savings,
expenses, they have the ability to at General Motors delivered process efficiencies, improved
add them to the expense report, automation, replacing manual order-to-bill pay, enhanced
also. With the click of the mouse processing. Improved efficiency audit control, and enthusiastic
a completed expense report is has realized big dollar savings. employee adoption.
forwarded to their supervisor for And cardholders are very satisfied
review. The supervisor reviews with the ease of use, convenience,
and approves the report. The and the new automated expense The Citibank® One Card
expense report is printed out and reporting process, received via
Program at General
gets a system-generated bar code the “one card” program.
that must be forwarded to an As a result of the program Motors delivered:
imaging center. The expense
report and receipts are imaged
significant headcount was automation, replacing
re-deployed into more strategic,
and destroyed. value-add roles within GM. manual processing
For fleet cardholders, the “one Millions of dollars in operating
card” program lets them refuel expenses were trimmed with This case study is entirely based on information provided by,
anywhere—not just at their work the program’s North American and as approved by General Motors and Citibank.
Corporate
Payment Solutions
For more information call us at 888.321.9119 or visit us at www.mastercardbusiness.com
Citibank is a registered service mark of Citicorp.
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