From strategic meeting management to holistic MICE management
Your entry into digital event purchasing—efficient, secure, and transparent
From strategic meeting management to holistic MICE management
Your entry into digital event purchasing—efficient, secure, and transparent
For more than two decades, Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) has proven itself as a company-wide, systematic approach to planning, managing, and optimizing meetings and similar events.
The SMM model encompasses the management of data, standards, and processes relating to expenditure, volume, and service providers for meetings and internal events in order to achieve measurable business results that are in line with the company's strategic goals. Strategic Meeting Management is a systematic approach to improving process management for meetings, similar to Travel Management for business trips.
systematischer Ansatz zur besseren Prozesssteuerung, wie das Travel Management für Geschäftsreisen.
Evolution of Strategic Meeting Management
Strategic MICE management builds on the principles of strategic meeting management and uses modern technologies for further development. What used to be considered too complex—such as the centralized purchasing of diverse event formats—can now be easily implemented thanks to digital MICE booking platforms [LINK MICE Buchungsplattform]. They enable uniform control, analysis, and compliant processing of meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions.
Strategic MICE management thus pursues a holistic, process-oriented approach that uses modern technologies to help companies make their entire event purchasing process more efficient, transparent, and sustainable. Processes are coordinated, optimized, and continuously developed with regard to security, compliance, and governance.
Why strategic MICE management?
Taking MICE further: Strategic MICE management expands the focus of “meetings” in the SMM model to include all MICE services. In contrast to strategic meetings management, this covers the entire MICE value chain and becomes an essential part of corporate travel management.
Companies benefit in event management when they bundle all event formats centrally: Uniform sourcing and standardized processes create organizational synergies and clear economies of scale, especially in purchasing. This allows the classic SMM model to be applied to all types of events.
Bundling also increases transparency in the purchasing process, enables comprehensive analyses, and empowers travel and event managers, who can then negotiate on a more informed basis and achieve better terms.
Strategy instead of chaos
Uncoordinated and uncontrolled event purchasing, known as maverick buying, is proactively avoided with the holistic approach of strategic MICE management. With strategic MICE management, companies can use smart tools to centrally control and monitor the entire event purchasing process—from booking to implementation and, finally, digital billing [Link digitale Abrechnung Info].
Added value through strategic MICE management
Cost control and budget transparency
Centralized MICE management bundles cross-location and cross-departmental expenses, creates transparency, and enables targeted control. Framework agreements, standardized booking processes, and digital approval workflows reveal potential savings and allow budgets to be clearly monitored. This enables companies to maintain an overview at all times and avoid overspending. Purchasing platforms [LINK Buchungsplattfom]such as MICE Portal form the digital basis for this.
Increased efficiency and economies of scale
Strategic MICE management streamlines processes from supplier selection to billing, reduces effort, and speeds up procedures. Uniform standards ensure consistent quality and facilitate cooperation with proven service providers. Employees are relieved of work, interfaces are minimized, and planning is improved, as clearly structured processes significantly reduce the coordination effort.
Process reliability and compliance
Clear guidelines and integrated compliance rules ensure legally compliant and reliable processes. Strategic MICE management ensures that all steps comply with internal specifications and external requirements such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (German abbreviation LkSG). This reduces risks, increases transparency, and enables companies to create a verifiable, sustainable basis for responsible event management.
Three strategic steps to successful MICE management
STEP 1
Recognize
potential
STEP 2
Develop
a strategy
STEP 3
Implement
optimizations
The first step is to recognize the state of maverick buying and systematically remedy it. Well-designed MICE management enables companies not only to optimize event costs, but also to increase quality and efficiency in event purchasing.
In short: cost efficiency for the company and a high-quality event experience for participants.
The following eight MICE management topics offer the greatest potential for optimization in strategic event purchasing by companies:
1. Compliance, event guidelines, and sustainability
Company guidelines ensure compliance with legal requirements, such as the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (German abbreviation LkSG) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in MICE purchasing. In addition, they also promote environmental responsibility and resource conservation. Event guidelines based on these principles can be used to proactively minimize risks and make purchasing processes more efficient.
2. Purchasing MICE services
Traditional MICE purchasing can be optimized, centralized, and standardized using digital booking platforms in accordance with individual approval guidelines. At the same time, mapping framework agreement partners ensures that the negotiated terms and conditions are consistently applied.
3. Control elements in MICE purchasing
In strategic purchasing, companies have various control elements at their disposal to adapt or edit individual process chains as required. With digital quality assurance tools, for example, framework agreement rates can be negotiated and managed in order to enforce the company's own purchasing and cancellation conditions and to define individual user roles with different approval rules.
4. Evaluations, reports, and savings
Depending on their individual objectives, companies benefit from real-time access to and analysis of their own purchasing data in their purchasing management. Factors such as achieving savings, avoiding CO2 emissions, focusing on preferred suppliers to improve quality, or the transparency required for successful MICE management are essential for companies to proactively manage the MICE purchasing process.
5. Billing solution, accounting, and payment solutions
The structure of an event invoice is as multifaceted as the hotel market itself. Due to the different invoice formats, invoice clearing takes time and usually requires consultation with the invoice issuer. With a platform provider and the option of digital billing (e.g., AirPlus), the payment process can be significantly improved and optimized.
6. Data security, GDPR, and data protection
Company events are subject to trade secrecy. This means that almost all event- and participant-related data in this MICE sector is subject to corporate security regulations. The audit-proof storage of all data, access to real-time data, and security standards for contract creation are based on the legislator's requirements for data security and compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
7. System integration and interfaces
MICE purchasing is just one of many product groups for organizations, which makes seamless integration into the digital purchasing environment of the respective company, for example through single sign-on (SSO), essential. Easy access, defined interfaces, and secure data exchange via standard protocols ensure rapid adaptation of the MICE purchasing process.
8. Participant management
Participant management software is ideal for optimizing marketing and securing event invitations. During the registration process, linking to this software can lead to an immediate reduction in the MICE services required, thus avoiding unnecessary costs.
Strategic MICE management as a competitive advantage
Strategy instead of maverick buying — By optimizing their MICE activities, companies are focusing on a structured, transparent, and secure purchasing strategy for events that enables long-term savings.
Strategic MICE management is particularly suitable for companies that regularly hold events and want to expand their travel policies in a meaningful way. This is because participation in a meeting, incentive, conference, or trade fair is often associated with a business trip. In addition to classic travel management, strategic MICE management creates a continuous process: from travel requests and bookings to evaluation. The result: greater cost control, higher transparency, and a significant reduction in the burden on internal resources.
Your expert for MICE management
Daniel Ritter
MICE Expert | Senior Sales Manager
Arrange a no-obligation consultation with me and let's find out together how our solution can simplify your MICE procure-to-pay process and make it more efficient.