Philips already is reaping big savings after consolidating its meeting spend worldwide through BCD M&I earlier this year, and more businesses are expected to follow the trend.
When consumer electronics giant Philips consolidated its global meeting spend at the beginning of this year, it saw immediate savings. The quoted cost of venues dropped by 20% because Philips’ larger volume gave it much more spending power with global hotel suppliers.
BCD M&I, a meetings and incentives company specializing in strategic meetings management (SMM), guided Philips to these savings. Then it began doing detective work on the company’s behalf—uncovering the mystery of hidden meetings spend.
Philips realized it was spending three or even four times more on meetings worldwide than it originally believed. “In fact, Philips has discovered it was spending as much on meetings as on regular transient travel,” says Peter Bregman, senior director for BCD M&I in EMEA.
Multinationals are going global with their meetings management for several reasons, Bregman says. Not only do they achieve better savings and consolidated data, but they also can do more to minimize reputational risk by using the same processes in every country.
Boost savings with meetings and travel program consolidationOne type of meetings spend consolidation involves moving to a global meetings provider. But another type may bring even more value: consolidating spend across your company’s entire meetings and transient travel programs. Few companies have integrated travel and meetings at the enterprise level with a single travel and meetings supplier and a unified internal structure. But the good news is that integration isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. BCD Travel, BCD M&I and Advito are working with clients to help them figure out what level of integration is right for them. At the most basic level, a company can integrate sourcing of travel and meetings across major spend categories—air, hotel and transportation. Integrated sourcing typically leads to better policy control, data consolidation and savings. The appeal of integration is particularly strong with smaller corporate meetings. Consolidation yields improved data and analytics, which also make it easier to influence secondary spend like ground transportation, dining and mobile communications. Companies further along the integration path may pursue advantages gained by merging travel and meetings policies; coordinating tracking systems for transient travelers and meetings participants; or communicating consistently with employees, regardless of reasons for travel (for example, to provide alerts about security warnings or flight disruptions). Ask your account manager about how BCD Travel can help you understand your company’s potential to integrate transient travel and meetings. |
Global consolidation helps meet other broad corporate goals, too: BCD M&I is able to help Philips apply policy in a consistent way and, of course, data reporting is also harmonized. “It means Philips doesn’t end up with 20 sets of management information from different meetings service providers,” he explains.
The centralized contracting service also makes life easier for meetings bookers. “We do the contracting and then hand the job back to them,” Bregman says. In addition, the quality of the contracting improves because it’s carried out by experienced meetings purchasing professionals using a globally consistent process. “We are giving hotels standard Philips terms and conditions, not the other way around,” he says.
Philips’ partnership with BCD M&I began three years ago, initially only in the Netherlands, where the company has its headquarters. Then Philips decided to go global and chose BCD M&I to begin implementing a wide-reaching SMM program. The consolidation strategy started with the U.S.—the market where Philips spends the most on meetings.
Event-planning technology provider Cvent is another partner in Philips’ global meetings strategy. Philips and BCD M&I are using Cvent software to automate requests for proposals for venues. The automation gives meeting planners a standard platform to search for preferred (and, where appropriate, non-preferred) venue options.
Over the next several months, Philips’ meetings consolidation will extend to most of the 40 countries in which BCD M&I operates. Peter Sijbers, director and senior specialist of travel sourcing for Philips Group Procurement, says the company is looking forward to another round of results. “We’re delighted to take a next step in consolidating Philips’ meeting management program supported by Cvent Technology and BCD M&I’s market expertise,” he says.
Philips’ move to globally consolidated meetings is part of a larger trend, says Andrew Perolls, managing director for BCD M&I in EMEA. “Many businesses are fast approaching maturity with their transient travel programs but are nowhere near as advanced with meetings. Going after meetings spend opens up a new battlefront in the war on corporate costs.”
Tips for effective global meetings management
- Consolidate with a single meetings management service provider.
- Analyze in-hand data to help define the size and type of meetings your program requires. Work with your meetings management company to gather data from sources such as card payments and accounts payable invoices.
- Introduce automated tools for sourcing venues, but resist the temptation to send RFP invitations to dozens of venues for the same meeting. Only invite suppliers with a realistic chance of winning, otherwise they may be reluctant to bid in future.
- Create a meetings policy for planners and participants. Make it clear which meetings need to go through a centralized management process and which meetings (usually only the smallest ones) the planners can manage fu lly themselves.
- Communicate to planners that you are only interested in the sourcing and contracting elements of the meeting. The meetings content and “fun” decisions, such as menu choices, remain with them.
- Don’t globalize the entire program on Day 1. Introduce a phased schedule, but start with the highest-spending countries to gain the momentum of volume.
- Ensure someone in your organization oversees the meetings program globally.
- As the successes begin, communicate the benefits of meetings program globalization throughout the company.