From rate contracting to payment solutions

Procurement service benefits

Worldmeetings’ procurement service offers the following benefits for procurement officials:

-                      savings - create purchasing power by channelling and consolidating volumes

-                      transparency of costs and booking behaviour

-                      payment solutions - outsourcing control, consolidation and reconciliation of payments

-                      logistic advantages - central RFP-service and reservations.

Management Information Report (MIR)

Procurement managers have an online tool at their disposal for the real time monitoring of their meetings expenses and savings realized by Worldmeetings’ branches worldwide. This tool enables procurement managers to obtain comprehensive management information on meeting expenses across a division, department or the entire company.

For a detailed presentation on this facility, select ‘Restricted area’ in the top horizontal menu bar and login by entering the combination procurement/procurement. Then select ‘Management information online’ from the left vertical menu bar where a Power Point presentation can be uploaded.

Best-available rates and negotiated rates

When starting up meetings procurement projects, savings will be realized by negotiating the best available rate per request. By channelling reservations through Worldmeetings’ service centres, in due time, a clear view will be obtained of a client’s booking behaviour, thus enabling purchasers to negotiate dedicated rates including a standard discount.

In countries where Worldmeetings supports several procurement projects, the volumes of these organizations have been consolidated within a Pool Procurement Programme. This set-up enables Worldmeetings’ purchasing specialists to increase their buying power for the benefit of their clients even more.

Furthermore, with the contracting of negotiated rates, the possibility arises of contracting customized meeting packages offering the same content per venue, including all items regularly purchased. In doing so, clients no longer depend on the packages and rates distributed by venues publicly, which often differ in content. This makes it easier to compare the rates being offered in proposals and to control annual rate increases.

The use of meeting packages offers financial advantages for small and medium size meetings up to 40 persons. For the bigger events negotiations will be conducted per request.

Maximizing savings in the long run

By outsourcing meetings procurement all the necessary data is assembled within the Worldmeetings reservations system, providing important information on bookings behaviour from year to year. This enables a company to maximize savings in the long run - both by monitoring the volumes per venue and by monitoring the booking behaviour of the various staff members involved.

To channel the internal volumes of our clients, Worldmeetings’ staff offer full support to the internal sales of Worldmeetings’ services. This support can be offered by visiting frequent bookers, by giving presentations during internal staff meetings or during meetings organized by themselves. Of course, to achieve maximum results organizations need to launch these projects with the greatest possible effort in order to accomplish as much purchasing power as possible.

Any corporate policy prescribed by procurement managers will be monitored by the appointed staff members within the applicable service centres. These can be policies with respect to the payment of certain costs incurred during a meeting (costs on account/costs to be paid by attendees), the mentioning of cost centres on invoices, cancellations, etc.

Invoice management, consolidation and reconciliation of payments

If desired, Worldmeetings regulates the settlement of payments by redirecting the flow of invoices via their offices. Each invoice received will be checked with the reservation system whereafter it is forwarded to the proper billing address. If there are any discrepancies, Worldmeetings’ staff will take the necessary measures. This invoice management enables to monitor the corporate policies regarding corporate expenses thoroughly and thus to take greater control over expense management and employee spend.

In addition to this, solutions can be offered for electronic billing, also in co-operation with solutions offered by AirPlus and American Express.

Various benefits of Worldmeetings’ financial services are:

-          meeting expenses held separate from other costs for more accurate analysis and tracking

-          company-wide meeting policies to improve monitoring of meeting expenses can be implemented

-          increased control and accountability through consolidation of meetings invoices

-          gain an edge in negotiations with suppliers using complete and accurate meeting expense data

Dedicated service teams

For the efficient handling of bookings, Worldmeetings clientele are assigned dedicated service teams including an account manager and staff for reservations, sales and financial services. Procurement managers will be contacted on a regular basis to evaluate the co-operation in general and to discuss any specific problems, should any have arisen.

The central dispatch of bookings provides a clear view of the occupancy levels of venues within the various geographical regions as well as the rate policies of the various properties involved. It also allows cancellation costs to be minimized by replacing bookings with reservations from third parties, all additional ways to increase savings.

Of course, the outsourcing of the various activities with respect to procurement, international venue finding, bookings and payments reduces the burdens of meeting planners, allowing them to spend more time on strategic meeting planning activities.

Dedicated websites