The influence of procurement departments in meetings management is expanding beyond processes directly related to cost control, according to one new study, but a separate report implicitly questions whether managing meetings is of a sufficiently high priority at many organizations.
While PhoCusWright in a December 2010 report highlighted traditional functions like supplier negotiations and payment processes as areas of procurement's greatest influence, such influence does not end there. Rather, "meeting planners also revealed the increasing influence of procurement across a range of meetings-related functions not directly connected to budget or costing," according to PhoCusWright, which conducted an online survey of 630 meeting buyers. "These functions include meetings policy guidelines, RFPs and sourcing, and input into the technology that is used for meetings and events."
The upshot, at least in part, is greater centralization of meetings management and closer ties with transient travel management but not necessarily more integration between travel and meetings policies, according to the report (sponsored in part by Procurement.travelparent company Northstar Travel Media). Only 21 percent of respondents indicated their organizations" policies were so intertwined, and "two-thirds of companies either have no meetings policy at all, or else have a meetings policy that is completely separate from the transient policy."
Still, the report noted that nearly every company has undertaken at least one of the seven planks of a strategic meetings management program as defined by the Global Business Travel Association: Central registration of meetings, mandated or formal hotel requests for proposals, the establishment of meetings policy or formal guidelines, the establishment of preferred suppliers, the development of automated processes, establishing data-analysis and reporting processes and establishing formal ROI metrics. About 95 percent of survey respondents said their organizations had implemented at least one such process, and 28 percent said they had deployed all seven, but only 6 percent had done so enterprisewide for all meetings.
"Companies that take a more modular approach to SMMP processes often do so because it is relatively affordable and simpler to implement on an individual meeting basis," according to PhoCusWright. "In contrast, organizations that introduce SMMP for all meetings tend to be those exercising tight ownership of meetings, and those whose meetings and transient travel policy and spend are already well integrated."
Similarly, there is no particular standard approach regarding meetings program structure, with only a slight majority indicating all meeting functions are handled in-house, and two out of three indicating some or all functions are not centralized internally (see chart). "Adopting a hybrid approach toward meetings management is natural, given that there are myriad tasks or functions that must be addressed across a range of categories," according to the report. "Outsourcing, for example, involves a wide range of components--logistics, budgeting, data analysis, procurement and supplier negotiation--that may be addressed independently and differently from one another."
Are Priorities Straight?
Meanwhile, only one in four of the 187 multinational travel managers based around the world who Carlson Wagonlit Travel surveyed between September and November indicated that "tackling meetings and events" was one of their five most important travel management priorities in 2011. Of the 11 travel management processes CWT listed as options, only "making the program environmentally friendly" was selected by fewer respondents as a top-five priority.
Though CWT noted that meetings management may not fall under the job descriptions of these respondents, the travel management company further indicated that its research "shows that companies can save 10 percent to 25 percent of meetings and events spend over three years when they adopt best practices in three main areas: policy and compliance, sourcing and optimized processes. Given this high level of potential savings, tackling meetings and events should be high on M&E buyers' agendas."