Well connected – Successful collaboration between Telekom and MICE Portal

The Challenge

Deutsche Telekom's previous MICE management reflected the typical requirements of a large corporation: different processes, numerous participants, and a high need for coordination made the process challenging and required greater transparency, reliable structures, and clear compliance rules. Together with MICE Portal, solutions were developed that promote both organizational efficiency and cost control, including the integration of framework agreements with hotels and venues and the consistent implementation of the company's own General Terms and Conditions of Purchase (GTC).
The collaboration has been in place since 2008. Over time, it has developed into a genuine
partnership. Subsequently, changes in the economy and politics have highlighted the
importance of flexibility. Digital and scalable solutions are crucial today, especially in event
and procurement management. These solutions help to respond quickly and effectively to
new challenges. This digital transformation now makes it possible to adapt event processes in an agile manner, increase efficiency, and manage budgets flexibly, which has been indispensable in recent years in response to the increasing unpredictability of conditions in MICE purchasing. In addition, the purchasing volume in the event sector is usually at least as large as that of classic individual trips, with a significantly larger “shopping cart.” This makes both compliance issues and contract drafting particularly complex and relevant, as is the case at Deutsche Telekom.

The Solution with MICE Portal

With the introduction of the MICE portal, Telekom has professionalized its previously decentralized event purchasing. Thousands of employees now benefit from a standardized,
digitally supported process that simplifies workflows, creates transparency, and enables efficiency gains. Framework agreement partners with negotiated terms are displayed preferentially in the system and can be requested with a single click. For all departments involved, the event purchasing process has become more efficient and, thanks to the established approval regulations, more transparent.

As a result of close cooperation between Deutsche Telekom and MICE Portal, the idea of a
MICE procurement agent was developed in 2022 and then introduced as a feature on the
digital booking platform in the second quarter of 2025. This intelligent tool analyzes incoming offers, checks and compares them against the Group's purchasing specifications, for example in terms of price limits, cancellation conditions, or contract compliance, and marks them with a visually understandable traffic light system (green, yellow, red).

Depending on the assessment, the downstream approval process changes automatically and supports quick decision-making. At the same time, risk factors are minimized. This makes the approval process and MICE management in general much more effective.

Implementation and Change Management in Event Purchasing

Together with Deutsche Telekom, the MICE Portal project management team configured the portal to fit their exact requirements. Our key account team then rolled out the portal within two months. We reached thousands of participants with online training courses, workshops, and webinars, thus supporting the successful implementation. With this onboarding concept and targeted support, we also established independent event booking for group employees and compliant purchasing within the company. In doing so, we worked closely with key stakeholders such as the group's travel management, purchasing, and event departments.

Over the years, we introduced approval processes, templates, and reporting functions into the purchasing processes and continuously developed them further through close cooperation and regular feedback rounds.

We also continuously strengthened and expanded the MICE portal knowledge of Group
employees through targeted training and webinar offerings.

The Results in Milestones

In the course of more than 17 years of collaboration between Deutsche Telekom and
MICE Portal, the company has been able to develop its own MICE management and
strategic purchasing of MICE services from a fragmented, analog process into an
intelligent, digital, and sustainable process. As a result, Deutsche Telekom will be one
of the most technologically advanced companies in MICE management within the
telecommunications industry by 2025.

The bidirectional interface between the MICE portal and Deutsche Telekom's internal
system eliminates duplication for portal users, provides the company with a true single
source of truth for event purchasing, and offers a comprehensive overview of the
various trades involved, e.g., suppliers, services, and billing data. With the interface we
developed specifically for Deutsche Telekom, the portal integrates seamlessly into its
ecosystem: It connects internal ERP systems (e.g., SAP, Salesforce, or Coupa) with
event booking, automatically synchronizes data, and supports structured purchasing
and approval processes directly within the company's infrastructure. These processes
now give Deutsche Telekom full transparency and control over all eventrelated
expenses.

Through the possibility of entering into contractual partnerships with service providers, more than 50 percent of all event bookings made by the Group were placed with preferred suppliers, resulting in average purchase prices that were approximately 10 percent lower. With a high booking volume such as that of Deutsche Telekom, the use of automated solutions accelerated processing and reduced the workload for employees.

Precise control using the MICE Procurement Agent enabled additional savings per
room booked. In addition, transparent presentation and automated evaluation enable
the group to purchase events more quickly and make more informed decisions based
on valid data.

By introducing its own portal with MICE Portal, Deutsche Telekom AG has not only
digitized its purchasing processes, but also made them significantly more efficient,
transparent, and cost-effective. This has also had a positive impact on its employees:
in a 2025 feedback survey, the majority of Group employees surveyed said they were
satisfied with the use of the MICE Portal.