Success Story ACCOR
600 consultants on assignment managed on OBMS
“By the end of 2024, the tool is deployed across all our business units. User satisfaction is very high today, it’s their everyday tool.”
Michael Rivet, Executive Director Digital Transformation – Procurement, ACCOR
ACCOR in a few words
A world leader in hospitality with more than 5,600 hotels in 110 countries and 45 brands, ACCOR permanently manages several hundred IT consultants on a time-and-materials basis across its departments and business units. Managing these intellectual services, which are by nature decentralised and high in volume, was a strategic challenge for the Procurement Department.
The challenge
Before OBMS was deployed, ACCOR operated with monolithic referencing: a single panel of suppliers for all teams, with no structured competitive tendering and no defined purchasing strategy. Managers called on contractors out of habit, with no visibility on daily rates or supplier performance. No consolidated data was available on time-and-materials consultants.
The solution
In 2023, Michael Rivet initiated a sourcing digitalisation project and launched a call for tenders. At the end of this competitive process, OPASE was selected. The OBMS deployment began in 2024, carried out in successive waves, team by team, to cover all of the group’s business units by the end of 2024.
Watch the video testimonial
Marie Lacaze and Michael Rivet look back on the project’s challenges, the deployment stages and the results achieved with OBMS within the ACCOR group.
80 %
of suppliers already referenced on OBMS
A frictionless supplier transition
During the deployment, one of the decisive factors was finding that 80% of ACCOR’s supplier panel was already on the OBMS platform. This continuity made the switchover particularly smooth for contractors, with no operational overload for the purchasing teams. As for the remaining 20%, their onboarding was an opportunity: access to new requesters and a wider commercial scope.
“In terms of transition, on the supplier side it was much lighter and softer than we thought. And it allowed the 20% who weren’t there to target other requesters and open up the market further for themselves.”
— Marie Lacaze, Intellectual Services Buyer and OBMS Project Manager, ACCOR
Group-wide digitalisation
In 2024, ACCOR began deploying OBMS across several business units, representing around 600 consultants on assignment at any given time.
The method : take over the existing set-up in the tool, train the teams, then support the change so that every operational user can launch their calls for tenders directly in the platform. By the end of 2024, all BUs are deployed, with better control over compliance with referencing and daily rates, making negotiations with partners far more relevant.
“The idea was to bring the existing set-up into the tool and then to do the training and the change management so that operational teams could launch their future calls for tenders in the platform and thus fully digitalise the process.”
— Michael Rivet, Executive Director Digital Transformation – Procurement, ACCOR
600
consultants on assignment digitalised
3
decisive criteria in the choice of OBMS
User experience
Interoperability
Modularity
At the end of the call for tenders launched in 2023, ACCOR chose OBMS for three fundamental qualities: ease of use, its ability to interface with the group’s ecosystem of tools, and its modularity, which makes it possible to fine-tune the referencing according to ACCOR’s organisational structure. These three criteria were confirmed throughout the deployment, and the user satisfaction rate recorded at the end of 2024 bears this out.
“Why did we choose Opase? Three qualities: the user experience — it is simple to pick up. The ability to interface the tool with our ecosystem of tools. And the modularity, which allowed us to configure our referencing properly.”
— Michael Rivet, Executive Director Digital Transformation – Procurement, ACCOR
Marie and Michael answer
How did purchasing of intellectual services work before OBMS?
Before the deployment, ACCOR operated with monolithic referencing: a single panel of suppliers for all teams, with no structured competitive tendering and no truly defined purchasing strategy. Each manager called on contractors out of habit. There was no visibility on data, KPIs or the ratings given to suppliers. No control was possible over the daily rates charged or compliance with the panel.
— Marie Lacaze, Intellectual Services Buyer and OBMS Project Manager, ACCOR
How was the OBMS deployment organised within the group?
The deployment was carried out in several waves, starting with the team with the highest volume of external IT resource needs. This gradual approach made it possible to adjust the configuration in real time, support users in getting to grips with the tool, and build on the lessons of each wave to improve the next. The OPASE team was present at every stage: training, supplier onboarding, support. By the end of 2024, all of the group’s business units were deployed.
— Marie Lacaze, Intellectual Services Buyer and OBMS Project Manager, ACCOR
What concrete benefits does Accor get from OBMS today?
The benefits are many. First, complete visibility on key indicators: supplier ratings, KPIs and the daily rates charged by the market, thanks to dynamic referencing. Next, a genuine purchasing strategy, tailored team by team, where none existed before. Finally, better control over compliance with referencing and rates, which strengthens the purchasing teams’ negotiating power. Not to mention the time savings generated by interfacing OBMS with the group’s other tools.
— Michael Rivet, Executive Director Digital Transformation – Procurement, ACCOR
Is your company facing the same challenges?
Find out how OBMS transforms the management of your intellectual services: from supplier competitive tendering to KPI management, including interfacing with your existing tools.