MICE Suppliers: What Corporate Procurement matter?

Recently started in this category, Meetings and Events is the new Procurement Playground

Mainly focused on Business Travels, M&E buyers try to setup Category Management fundamentals but are struggling. Why? Because while most the suppliers are the same, the business dynamic behind M&E is totally different.

For the Tourism Industry, MICE remain the last territory where they can make margins, after old school buyers squeezed them in Business Travels. Therefore, the industry is strongly defending this area, allocating a lot of energy and resources to protect their last margin maker.

In your shoes

What the industry must understand, is that despite what they believe, Procurement and Suppliers interests are not divergent.

In term of maturity, Procurement is now a teenager, ready to jump into the Young Adulthood. The rest of the corporation now recognize that Procurement as much more than savings to bring to the table. And while savings are still part of the mandate, Procurement starts developing Incremental Value Building approaches, based on Innovation, Collaboration and full redesign of relationships with suppliers.

As long as suppliers will see Procurement as the "Lemon Press" they will hit a wall.

What Procurement wants?

Procurement mission is bi-directional:

• Externally, they have to master the industry related to their category, be able to capture innovation, opportunities and bring that home
• Internally, they have to manage stakeholders, influence processes, guaranty compliance, control risk….
• Procurement job is 80% internal and 20% external

Moreover, what suppliers perceive as their customers' needs, is only the 10% emerging part of the iceberg, the 90% being purely internal and therefore inaccessible to suppliers.

To satisfy Procurement needs, you need to be able to answer their questions and requirements in three main domains:

1. Risk Management and CSR
2. Data, Data and Data: Insightful, Accurate and Consolidated
3. Visibility and transparency… on Everything

It also requires a mindset shift, from "Is it doable?" to "What does it take to make it happen?"

The way this category is currently manage is based, for both sides, on the wrong fundamentals. It's generating frustrations and tensions that prevent both parties from a healthy Business Climate.

Managing Meetings & Events like Business Travels, is like cleaning the kitchen according to Guestrooms cleaning standards, it doesn't make sense!

On both sides, they are some needs, requirements and constraints that must be considered and respected, but also lot of Opportunities!

This is the challenge that Xpendr.io has tackled!

Xpendr.io is a Smart B2B ecosystem addressing Corporate Meetings & Events, which Redefine Business Relationships based on:

• Unmet needs ful- filment
• Collaboration- rather than Transactions
• Corporate Social Responsibility as a core value and Business Driver

XPENDR has been designed in a "Blue Ocean" mindset, addressing the unmet needs of all parties and creating a Business Environment that delivers Opportunities and Results with CSR as background

It is made of 3 tools, which all together empower both Parties with Visibility on the unseen, Monitoring and Action Levers:

- Blind Reverse Auctions

Direct Access to the Corporate Customers Community

Get Real Time Business Opportunities

- Business Intelligence

Steering tool enabling organizations to make effective decisions, define strategies and measure their Impact/Results

- Targeted Promotions

Expend Business Efficiently by Reaching the Customers you target!

Because Corporate Social Responsibility is Everyone's Responsibility, we allow eligible Providers to benefit from our Discount Programs:

• WeRfamily: Family owned or Micro-entrepreneurs
• BeGreen: Providers demonstrating Environmental Responsibility
• BeDiverse: Providers demonstrating Diversity & Inclusion

Eligible Providers, on top of getting Discount on their Plan, are Tagged as such to the Corporate Customers, enabling them to make Informed choices and Report their CSR contribution to their Company Objectives

Because on Xpendr.io CSR means Business!

Be Part of the movement!

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