THE KNOWLEDGE 1 corporate case study
STEP 3 ➔
Training in the new-fangled technology was the next step for IBM. “We have virtually trained over 200 event agency employees who source across the globe on behalf of the company,” explains McNulty. StarCite coordinated and participated in employee training among IBM’s meeting management users, outlining new IBM processes and sample roll-out communications.
STEP 4
How did it all work? “It transformed IBM’s strategy and approach to meetings and events,” comments IBM's Wakelin. It provided a centralised framework to manage the meetings and events (M&E) process, captured key data for analysis into the company's M&E spend, enhanced visibility of that M&E spend, offering opportunities to drive and develop key supplier relationships, and delivered process efficiencies and cost savings through IBM agreements.
STEP 5
Without divulging actual monetary or other benefits, the global deployment has obviously ticked all the boxes for IBM. “We now have greater compliance that
drives client savings, supplier visibility and opportunities, we’ve improved data collection and been able to define a global process and reporting mechanisms,” says Wakelin of the results. He lists the following points as the key benefits of strategic meetings management technology: • Standardised, automated processes to identify and source requests globally
• Visibility into company-wide request activity – when, where, what, who and how much
• Capability to leverage meeting volumes and associated spend to a preferred consolidated supply base
• Capability to highlight preferred suppliers for improved utilisation
• Consistent RFP formats and reports on spend and savings
• Convenient access to thousands of suppliers globally
• A solution familiar to and welcomed by suppliers globally
• Improved efficiency and productivity for clients and for procurement
STEP 6
The results have been so impressive that the company has been slowly rolling out the new system around the world and, in mid- 2008, the IBM and StarCite teams launched
the full global deployment of the system. It initially launched in the United States, and
after nine months of success in that market, launched in the UK, in August 2009. Over the last couple of years it’s been rolled
out across a further 37 countries in the EMEA region and, most recently, has been extended to two countries in Asia-Pacific (India and Hong Kong). Most recently, in April, the system was rolled out to China, and later this year will be introduced in Latin America.
STEP 7
The in-house training continues apace. At the moment, the StarCite solution is moving onto the larger IBM meetings, which are managed by event agencies, and the company is training these agencies through live, instructor-led, web-based training. StarCite also provides a very comprehensive on-demand training library, which users can access at any time. Wakelin, meanwhile, has augmented all of
this external effort with custom video guides available to internal IBM employees and sourcing functions “to drive education of the process and reduce resource to facilitate this,” as he explains. He has also overseen all the communication
and training projects associated with the deployment, utilising WebEx and conference calls, apart from a couple of creative agency overviews face to face. But Wakelin cautions that even for training
some of it has been better undertaken face to face. “For deployment into China face to face training is a prime requisite with regard to making that all important connection and realising the ability of all participating parties in 'getting it'," says Wakelin. Face to face training is also likely to be
considered for further challenging deployment projects such as Latin America later this year.
STEP 8
In the meantime, IBM's Wakelin looks back at the four-year journey and says he has learned some valuable lessons. “Effectively communicating the value of the
process with all parties is critical," he says. “Also, meeting management agencies and suppliers, chasing vendors who don’t respond, and driving all responses in fact – that’s the biggest challenge," he adds. Wakelin continues, "Of equal importance is educating and training all the stakeholders and, before all of that, obtaining stakeholder buy-in rather than bulldozing ahead. You’ve got to collaborate. “Nobody likes change as people are worried about how it’s going to affect them, but once they get it a lot of the road blocks disappear.”
CAN YOU AUTOMATE MEETINGS?
There are four elements to the 'almost' automated process of managing meetings, according to StarCite: the meeting request, the RFP sourcing, the online response, and finally collating, comparing and contrasting the responses for availability on an ExCel spreadsheet. The request is made on an online, web-based form
with the date of the event and the specification for the meeting. The booker then clicks submit and it proceeds into the StarCite system, which creates an RFP and sends it to a list of chosen venues – in IBM's case that’s some 85,000 vendors. To expedite the response, IBM has set up a list of
regional hotel managers who can decide which of their properties the request would best suit and who will drive a response from that chosen property. Finally, users can download an availability and pricing report on an ExCel spreadsheet, which has a separate tab of those properties that declined to provide information. IBM's Wakelin stresses how important it is to interpret
the data and advise what’s happening. “Don’t just send a spreadsheet by email with an FYI message,” he warns.
“We now have greater compliance that drives client savings, supplier visibility and opportunities, we’ve improved data collection and been able to define a global process and reporting mechanisms”
8 THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE
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