THE KNOWLEDGE 1 corporate case study


How to...


CONTROL GLOBAL MEETINGS SPEND


IBM tackled meetings spend and successfully rolled out its solution globally, reports Gillian Upton


solution, its initial focus was the low-hanging fruit of the smaller meetings around the world. Small in IBM terms means those meetings with less than 150 delegates. Paul Wakelin, a strategic sourcing specialist


I


in IBM's Global Travel Council, took ownership of the long-term global deployment of the meetings and events sourcing process. Wakelin was crystal clear on why the


company should go global. He reckoned that an intuitive global tool would automatically reduce processing time and capture data for procurement and clients. He knew that if you could find the right


tool, he could achieve seven key objectives, namely: streamline the sourcing and pro- curement processes; centralise budgeting and planning; introduce a meetings approval process; strengthen the company’s meetings policy; simplify attendee management; streamline payment; and provide comprehensive data. Read on for how the


Paul Wakelin Global


Procurement, IBM UK


Paul has been at IBM since 2007 in various procurement guises; originally in events, hospitality and sponsorship, then print, marketing


communications and, currently, with its Global Travel Council as a


strategic sourcing specialist. His career has taken him to other bluechip


companies such as Goodyear, Dunlop,


Colgate and Unilever, all in sourcing roles. He has a degree in print management.


company tackled this previously unmanaged area of business travel spend and teamed up with a technology provider to help achieve its objectives.


STEP 1


IBM did not undertake a formal RFP and instead opted to explore several providers’ products and contracted with StarCite in October 2007.


BM is a big spender on meetings but was also cogniscent of the fact there was a better way of managing the spend. Keen to tackle it head on and roll out a global


“Implementation of the project began with discovery, workfl ow planning, confi gurations to business process and piloting the technology. Specifi cally, IBM wanted to use StarCite as a meeting request portal with a single sign-on so the technology was customised accordingly”


IBM specifically took on the company’s spend management module, which includes the meeting request form, meetings calendar, RFP/sourcing module, meeting estimator, budget module and StarCite’s business intelligence platform.


STEP 2


Implementation of the project began with discovery, workflow planning, configurations to business process and piloting the technology. Specifically, IBM wanted to use StarCite as a meeting request portal with a


single sign-on so the technology was customised accordingly. Betty McNulty, senior vice president of global account management and customer operations at StarCite explains: “To make it easier for IBM employees to use, StarCite worked closely with the company to develop a customised single sign-on process that enables IBM employees to access the StarCite system with their IBM log-in while maintaining user security.” The StarCite solution was in pilot mode


while the configuration took place in order to match workflow and rules to IBM's processes.


➔ THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE 7


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