Although they are often at odds with one another, incentive travel planners and procurement departments can, in fact, get along, suggests a recent survey from the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF). Concluded in April and released last month, the survey explores the often-conflicted relationship between those who plan meetings and those who pay for them.
"Incentive travel planners are driven to create the most effective program and award experience possible for participants while procurement departments are tasked with containing costs," Bob Dawson, chair of IRF's Research Committee, said in a statement. "It's no surprise conflicts arise. This survey points to actions that can improve and enhance the ways incentive travel planners and procurement and purchasing departments work together."
Titled
The Involvement of Procurement or Purchasing in the Incentive Travel Business, the IRF survey was conducted over a three-week period among incentive travel providers, corporate incentive travel buyers and suppliers. Among its findings:
• Fifty-two percent of respondents say procurement is involved in incentive program planning.
• Of those, 59 percent—or six out of 10—feel the overall effect of procurement department involvement is negative.
• Of respondents who report procurement involvement, 52 percent—or four out of 10—feel negatively because procurement emphasizes costs at the expense of results.
Despite the large distaste for procurement among incentive travel planners, survey respondents did identify several advantages to working with procurement departments. For instance:
• Procurement departments force planners to adopt fresh perspectives.
• Procurement departments enforce cost considerations.
• Procurement departments enhance program efficacy.
• Procurement departments facilitate the standardization of planning practices.
Based on procurement departments' pros and cons, IRF has made several survey-based recommendations that it suggests will improve communication and collaboration between incentive travel planners and purchasers. It suggests, for instance, that incentive travel providers address procurement needs and issues during the proposal and implementation processes, and that they educate procurement executives about their value, with a strong emphasis on showing how incentive travel programs can produce more for less.
For more information, visit
www.TheIRF.org.