19 February 2010 | Jake Kanter

Tesco has saved more than £3 million by improving its meetings spend.

The supermarket chain can now manage internal meeting space more efficiently and has greater control over external spend after purchasing a room management system early last year.

It managed to cut the cost of more than 50,000 meetings by an average of 24 per cent as a result of using the technology to maximise the use of internal rooms. The system only allows external venues to be booked once all internal rooms are taken.

Use of the system helped Tesco’s senior buying manager Mike Thomsett clinch the gong for ‘best innovation in a meetings programme’ at the European Travel Buyers Awards, which were held at The Business Travel & Meetings Show in London earlier this month.

Meetings and events firm BSI Group supplied the system used by Tesco.