National bank saves 28% on Meetings & Events costs…
…let us show you how!
by Andrew Millar and Irene Venter
Andrew Millar is the Director of MiceMaster® and has built and deployed many corporate and leisure travel systems over his twenty plus years in the travel industry. 
Irene Venter is a director of MiceMaster® and has designed, marketed and implemented corporate travel products and systems for leading brands. Cost Saving Opportunities
In a recent survey conducted by a major financial institution into their Meetings & Events spend, the supply chain was found to be taking advantage of the company’s expenditure with rogue behaviour, overcharging and lack of transparency being some of the major issues. Some internal corporate event planners, PA’s and secretaries were also found lacking in policy compliance and procedures, further adding to these costs.
These findings confirmed that large organisations are missing huge cost saving opportunities primarily because it is difficult for companies to intervene with this expenditure process pre-event or before the conference takes place, as opposed to trying to manage the spend post-event when the supplier invoices are received and it is too late.
But there is a new smart-sourcing tool available and we have recently opened offices in Ireland. Our system is called MiceMaster® and helps large organisations control compliance, realise savings, manage the supply chain and consolidate spend while also mitigating risk.
Due Diligence – ERP’s and other systems
In an 18-month due diligence conducted by a client (a large financial group with offices in London ) it was confirmed that the global ERP’s like SAP, Oracle and SAGE cannot control this sector of spend because Meetings & Events costs fluctuate all the time during the sourcing process.
Furthermore, there were many planning tools, registration and delegate itinerary tools and MICE related apps identified but no other systems were found to offer the same financial controls as MiceMaster®
In the 2018 American Express Global Meetings & Events Forecast, experts predicted that in 5-10 years there will be smart-sourcing tools to manage rates, preferred partners and policy. MiceMaster® has already built and deployed such a system and we are now able to offer the solution to Irish companies and implement the solution within weeks of contracting.
Savings Guarantee
We will save your organisation 20% of your Meetings & Events spend in year one or we will refund your license fees. A national bank utilising the system is currently tracking at a spend reduction of 28%.
The table below highlights the top ten issues that most organisations face with MICE spend (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events) and our solutions to the problems, many of which generate the savings.
Tightening the Supply Chain
When the MiceMaster® system is used to manage an organisation’s spend, PCO’s (Professional Conference Organisers), who typically account for approximately 70% of a company’s expenditure, have been found to be double and treble dipping; marking up services over and above their set management fees. Quotes have varied by as much as 41% when PCO’s have been quoting on exactly the same venue and facilities. When forced to quote and be transparent via the system, the supplier that offers the best value is easily identified and rewarded, eliminating the chances for marking up quotes and hiding management fees.
The system also reveals how and where hotels/venues are taking advantage by missing line items, overcharging and bundling costs when submitting their quotations to the internal event planners.
Empower your people
One of the biggest causes of this financial abuse is that MICE procurement often revolves around relationships as opposed to best business practice; ‘preferred procurement’ for want of a name. Sometimes, planners are not even aware of the problem.
The event planners, PA’s and secretaries are frequently found to be non-compliant and ignoring policy; again, not necessarily on purpose, but identifying these breaches in policy allows management the opportunity to train accordingly.
Planning events is an archaic process: using email, telephone and Excel spreadsheets. MiceMaster® gives planners the freedom to concentrate on delivering events that meet the brief and deliver the outcomes, not overloading them with administration.
Do you have a Meetings & Events Policy?
Any large organisation should have rules in place for procuring Meetings & Events i.e. if you require three quotations, planners must source three quotes. Or if a company wants to direct spend towards particular hotel groups to realise a volume-based discounts, they must do so. But to enforce policy you need a real-time view of behaviour and data. MiceMaster® gives you just that: The system resolves policy and compliance issues while teaching users to be better planners.
It’s just better management
Remember when your sales people would leave in the morning, you thought they were conducting sales calls but were they really? Then software was developed to track their whereabouts and whether they were fulfilling their duties. MiceMaster® plays a similar role for event planners.
Get a Meetings & Event Strategy
Traditional corporate travel (flights, hotel, car rental), has long had sophisticated travel policies that are managed by either the company’s travel management company (TMC) or internal ‘Self Booking Tools’ (SBT’s). MiceMaster® allows businesses to define a procurement strategy for MICE and enforce it. If a company wants to set preferred partners and volume-based targets to drive down costs, MiceMaster® will ensure that the spend is being directed to the right partners to realise the savings or rate reductions.
The times they are a changing
As with most industries, it is normally just a question of time until technology changes the way we do things… it appears that the Meetings & Events industry is about to experience such a transition.
For more information on MiceMaster® visit www.micemasterglobal.com or call +353 21 601 0372.