Large Health Insurance Company Simple Meetings

Background & Goals
Approach
Results
Products Used

15%

overall cost reduction using own Cvent license

2,200

hours saved managing simple meetings

70%

of company's meetings are simple meetings

A large national health insurance company with more than 64,000 associates relies on their small team of three to manage all meetings, events, and travel for the organization. With nearly two hundred annual meetings, the Fortune 100 company had long relied on a third party to support their national events program. In that time, they used the agency’s instance of Cvent to expand from simple Meeting Request Forms to using the Cvent Supplier Network, Registration, Attendee Hub, Event App, and other solutions for full-service event management.

BACKGROUND & GOALS

In 2022, they were tasked with creating new efficiencies for the business. They knew they first needed to first empower their internal team to do more with less. The team calculated that nearly 70% of the organization’s meetings were considered simple meetings, but those only encompassed 18% of their annual meeting spend. They realized their small team was spending a great deal of time supporting a high volume of events with minimal spend, impacting their ability to focus on other programs that provided significant value to the business.

Optimizing simple meetings management for organizational efficiency

To optimize simple meeting management, the team realized they could better manage processes and consolidate data by having their own Cvent instance. Michelle Passi, Cvent Systems Administrator, explains, ”We decided we would be best served to have our own Cvent license as we wanted to own the data and continue to increase our direct capabilities in Cvent.”

Group of people smiling and talking around a conference table

APPROACH

Once they contracted with Cvent for their own license, they began the implementation process. “We had two major milestones during our implementation,” Michelle says.” We had to redesign and build our Meeting Request Form, including adding in an approval workflow and design, and launch the Simple Meetings module with Simple RFP, also including an approval workflow.”

They began by working with a dedicated Cvent account team, including an Account Manager, Customer Success Manager, and implementation specialist. “They’ve been wonderful throughout the process,” says Michelle. “They’re really on top of truly finding success unique to our situation.” The implementation specialist helped develop the overall workflow and ensure all processes were accounted for. Michelle notes that they met several times a week and the Cvent team members were always available to help answer questions or provide guidance. They were also able to implement Single Sign-On (SSO) through a coordinated effort with the organization’s internal applications team. This meant associates were able to securely access the platform through SSO.

Next, they renamed the tool “Self-Service Meetings” as they felt it would provide a broader interpretation by associates to increase usage. From there, Michelle’s team established clear guidelines for the organization’s simple meetings. These included all in-person meetings with a budget of less than $50,000 that met specific criteria.

Redesigning simple meetings using Cvent solutions

Michelle then implemented a redesigned Meeting Request Form (MRF) within the organization’s Access Portal. This Access Portal serves as their central resource hub through which associates can access MRFs, view meeting policies, source and book venues, view event calendars, and more. Michelle’s team can provide Access Portal visibility based on individual user profiles, which means every stakeholder views only the data that is most relevant and specific to their needs and ensures the team maintains admin control.

From there, they tailored the MRF to the organization’s specific requirements. Automated workflows help streamline the procurement process, eliminating manual tasks and reducing errors. They can now capture and centrally store all important meeting information in their own Cvent instance, creating a single source of truth for their entire events portfolio. Michelle employed functional logic within the tool to guide users through different scenarios and ensure requester approvals were processed by the appropriate parties, such as finance segment leaders. Funneling processes through segments means requesters stay within the boundaries of their role and budget.

They’ve also incorporated the Budget Management solution into the simple meetings workflow to more accurately track project spend and savings. This automated solution ensures the organization can effectively analyze key aspects of spend through a robust reporting engine, access “at a glance” reporting, compare actual versus estimated spend, and more. “It saves us time, it’s efficient, and it’s lean,” says Michelle. She also created a simple budget estimator calculator included in the MRF. At the end of the event, requesters are able to update the budget actual numbers through an automated report. This helps Michelle’s team quickly reconcile budgets within a report.

Empowering users to effectively source venues with Cvent Supplier Network

Users are also empowered to leverage the Cvent Supplier Network (CSN) to efficiently source venues for their meetings. With a network of over 300,000 global venues, CSN ensures they can quickly build and send Simple RFPs while centralizing all venue data in one location. Requesters can view important details like meeting space dimensions and filter results based on specific criteria. They can automatically attach documents to RFPs. In addition, requesters can award, decline, cancel, edit, resend, or retract awarded RFPs – saving valuable time for the small event team.

Importantly, requesters can compare bids, add contract details, and utilize a DocuSign integration for contract signatures for maximum efficiency. Robust reporting allows Michelle’s team to track and demonstrate cost savings back to the organization through an optimized sourcing process.

Arming associates with the resources they need for self-service meeting adoption

To encourage program adoption, Michelle created a dedicated resource toolkit within the Access Portal to empower users. This kit contains video walkthroughs, best practices, and a step-by-step guide on how to complete the meeting process, such as requirements for credit card use and contract review. Requesters can refer to the toolkit for guidelines, negotiation tips, and process details as the system is designed to cater to a range of users, from mid-level managers to admin assistants.

Woman in yellow top and woman with curly hair working on a laptop while drinking coffee

From the system admin perspective, Michelle says having automated status notifications keeps her team informed and connected with requesters. Admins can pull needed reporting in an instant and that reporting is tied to the self-identified segment in the MRF by the requester. She adds, “Being admins of our own account, we are able to own and track both the simple meetings as well as our standard meeting requests to see how often businesses are requesting meetings along with trends for spend and savings per event.”

The feedback from their associates so far has been extremely positive. Initial testers provided reviews and questions, allowing Michelle to tailor their strategy to better drive adoption. She finds the self-service model creates consistency for users, who enjoy the fact that there is no middle person required since there is often little time between meetings. This expedient process and satisfaction with the ease of self-service are drivers for enterprise-wide adoption. Michelle notes, “We are now able to customize what integrations work best for our business, implement change as our associates become more independent for their simple events, and manage metrics with data independence to move forward as a small but efficient team for the enterprise.”

RESULTS

Smart growth for the future with Cvent

Michelle insists that the adoption of their own Cvent license has opened up new possibilities for her team. She says, “We have gone from having limited access to Cvent’s capabilities to exploring the unlimited possibility for productivity enhancements.” Michelle also notes the value of moving to their own Cvent license, as it provided a 15% overall cost reduction by eliminating reliance on a third-party agency. Her team also spends less time managing simple meetings so they can focus on larger, more strategic events. She notes they would typically spend 15 hours managing a single simple meeting, so the self-service tool has saved her team nearly 2,200 hours collectively when it comes to managing these tasks.

Two women in a striped shirt and grey jacket working on a computer together

As they continue to grow their partnership with Cvent, Michelle is excited to explore opportunities for continued engagement with the platform. She finds the Cvent Community particularly invaluable, noting how articles, discussion posts, and connecting with fellow Cvent users has benefited her day-to-day work. She is also enrolled in the Cvent Academy training and certification program, where she is able to develop her skills while gaining industry-leading certifications to validate her expertise in the Cvent platform.

Michelle also makes note of how the Self-Service Meetings program has positively impacted their team. She summarizes, “We have proven to our organization we can digitize these types of events through efficient work processes and create optimal savings while being able to use our planners’ skills to serve larger, full-service projects.”