Scaling M&E operations with 68% less POs

At a glance

A company growing 33% year over year needed its M&E program to keep up. The procurement process required up to 10 separate POs per event. Planned replaced hundreds of supplier relationships with a single vendor of record, cutting PO volume by 68% and saving 22% on direct costs.

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"We used to register every supplier individually and create separate POs for each one. Now it's a single PO through Planned and we can focus on the actual event instead of the paperwork."

Executive Assistant, R&D

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Challenge: Efficient event booking amid hyper-growth

The company was scaling fast, with annual revenue up 33% year over year. The events program was growing with it, but procurement couldn't keep pace.

Every event required separate POs for each supplier, sometimes as many as 10 per event. That meant onboarding new vendors constantly, managing approval workflows for each one, and reconciling payments across the board. The administrative overhead was enormous.

Leadership had a clear mandate: reduce PO volume, simplify approvals, and consolidate payments, all while continuing to scale the program globally.

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Solution: One vendor of record that scales with the business

Planned became the company's single vendor of record, replacing the need to onboard and manage hundreds of individual suppliers. The company issues one PO to Planned, and Planned handles everything downstream.

Payments are consolidated and suppliers are paid promptly, which strengthens vendor relationships and speeds up contracting. Approval flows are automated, removing the bottlenecks that slowed down the old process.

The program now spans global sourcing for events ranging from $25K to $3M. Planned is embedded with the company's marketing teams and scaling alongside the business as it continues to grow.

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Results

22% direct cost savings

68% reduction in PO requests

25 hours saved per event

With over 450 events completed and $15M+ in spend managed through the platform, the program has delivered consistent savings at scale. The 68% reduction in PO requests alone freed up significant procurement capacity, letting the team focus on strategic work instead of processing paperwork.