In the recent past, proving the value of Travel and Meetings to key business stakeholders could be an extreme challenge. As an area of expense with a reputation for being difficult to control, a lot of planning and communication went in to convincing management to make investments. Today, the value of Travel and Meetings is well established, and businesses across the spectrum of maturity and industry are embracing the category with confidence. The next step towards maturity is no longer securing investment, it’s managing value creation and establishing metrics such as ROI that capture the attention of leaders within the business. Meetings and events are now more commonly being sourced by Procurement, though they are also subjects that traditional Procurement may not be experts in. How does your organization stack up compared to other enterprise-level organizations? Find out in Cvent's latest report. Procurement in the Pilot’s Seat: The 2017 ProcureCon Travel Benchmarking Report. A look at the strategic relationships and technologies Procurement is using to manage Travel & Meetings spend Here are a few key findings from the report:
1. Half of Procurement teams have either full control over Travel and Meetings, or take a consultative role driving value with a partnered division
Travel Procurement is coming of age, particularly within global organizations that have centralized their Procurement and are looking for holdout categories that have yet to be optimized for value.
2. Despite greater involvement in the category, Procurement still lacks some of the key tools they require for success
Only 17% of Procurement teams are fully equipped to track ROI for Travel and Meetings, something that is critical for the development of a stronger mandate. Without visibility into return, Procurement will have serious difficulty transcending a cost-based role and applying the same type of strategic influence that they have come to leverage around other managed spend categories.
3. Ease of use, and integrations with Finance and Operations technologies are what Procurement prioritizes in their event and meetings software
Procurement has come a long way over the past several years, and they know that the right technology for managing a category isn’t always about cost. When it comes to what travel stakeholders want in their event management technology, ease of use was priority number one. Without a friendly interface, adoption of the technology will be low and rogue spending will continue to go unmanaged, undercutting the value of the new technology. When an easy to use software is identified, linking it to groups with a handle on budget and financials is the next step. As Procurement develops their ability to manage Travel and Meetings, their ability to prove the strategic and economic value of their involvement must grow along with them. Like other categories these practitioners have come to manage, setting up the right blend of strategy and technology will define their success going forward. Download this free study today.
