AOL affiliate TechCrunch is a go-to news site for all things — you guessed it — technology-related. While it’s best known for covering trends and breaking news from the tech world, TechCrunch also hosts industry events for the stars of the startup scene.

With these events — held all over the world —  comes the not-insignificant issue of tracking and organizing the thousands of registrations that come in. With so many moving pieces, it was also difficult for the field marketing team to manage and report their successes.

To alleviate these pain points, the TC team needed a simple and automated registration system. And to procure this, they also needed an RFP platform that would make it quick and easy to evaluate vendors.

TechCrunch is no stranger to technology, so they knew that while there were a few tools out there that claimed to deliver on that promise, a cloud-based procurement platform was their best bet to successfully manage the sourcing process.

Here’s how the TechCrunch team leveraged a strategic e-sourcing solution to streamline supplier selection, centralize data, and help them make more informed purchasing decisions, faster:

Harnessing usability to get up and running, faster

With an event coming down the pipeline, TechCrunch needs to quickly find a replacement for their obsolete registration system, which was responsible for coordinating event attendee information (and we’re talking about a lot of information — each event hosts up to 5,000 of the world’s most prominent technologists and venture capitalists).

By finding a simple and straightforward solution that was easy for the whole team to use, TechCrunch’s marketing team was able to assemble and deploy their event registration vendor RFP in only 30 minutes — and that was even with limited strategic sourcing experience under their belts.

Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork

TechCrunch is an “all hands on deck” kind of company, so when faced with the challenge of finding a new vendor for their registration system, the whole team came on board to get their event initiatives running smoothly.

Instead of jumping straight into the procurement process, marketing worked with the operations team to first find an RFx solution that would streamline their sourcing experience. This was the first — and necessary — step to eventually procuring an event registration vendor.

Finding a sourcing tool that was build for collaboration was what could take TechCrunch to the finish line. By implementing a platform that give all stakeholders visibility into the procurement process, the team was able to accelerate response times and provide up-to-date information for all parties — from the office of Finance who approved the spend to the field marketer who needed to tie up all of the event’s loose ends.

Simplifying evaluation

By looking to a strategic sourcing platform first rather than going straight for a marketing supplier, TechCrunch was not only able to launch their RFP in just 30 minutes, but was also able to easily select a preferred supplier in a mere two weeks.

This speedy and successful sourcing event was all down to compiling vendor data into an easily-digestible form by using centrally-collated supplier information and vendor comparison to score responses and evaluate specific requirements side-by-side. This allowed team members to hone in on areas where responses varied without having to parse out and reformat information by hand in another document (such as Excel, where things can get lost or outdated quickly).

As marketers, we all know how arduous and complex it can be to find the right vendor to help deliver marketing success. TechCrunch’s team knew there was technology out there that could help get the job done. And, while it might have seemed like an extra step to some, bringing a cloud-based solution into the procurement process first was all they needed to successfully evaluate and identify a new supplier that could support their efforts better than ever.

About the Author: Michaela Dempsey is Senior Director of Marketing at Scout RFP, a cloud-based strategic e-sourcing solutions provider that help organizations achieve better outcomes and make a bigger business impact. Scout’s simple, effective interface enables companies to streamline supplier selection, centralize data, and make more informed purchasing decisions, faster.

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