Zip brings procurement operations up to date at Calendly

The challenge

Calendly, the scheduling platform of choice for over 100 thousand companies and 20 million users, had a problem: a slow, confusing purchasing process that frustrated employees and offered limited spend visibility for the fast-growing business.

“The value of procurement to our business partners was obscured by time consuming, unclear processes and clunky, error-prone systems,” said Ivy Hershberg, Manager of Procurement at Calendly. “Calendly’s leadership demanded significant improvements to spend visibility and sensible procurement controls.”

Knowing that Calendly had outgrown the manual processes they’d relied on in the past, Ivy kicked off an RFP for a robust, scalable procurement platform. “I wanted to find a solution that would allow us to administer Procure-to-Pay end to end and manage changes over time without reliance on costly third-party consultants and developers.”

Enter Zip.

The solution

Zip’s transformation of Calendly’s procurement operations was apparent right from the start. “There was truly not a negative comment spoken about Zip’s launch because it was so easy to use,” recalled Ivy. “It was such a dramatic improvement from our prior processes and systems.”

As a single entry point for purchase requests, Zip significantly increased spend compliance and visibility. Ivy’s team began using Zip to efficiently manage all net-new, renewal, trial, and mid-contract purchase requests.

Sourcing was another area of dramatic improvement, thanks to Zip. After past experiences with sourcing tools that couldn’t integrate into Calendly’s existing systems, Ivy was happy to discover that Zip had no such limitations. “Zip’s sourcing offering is ideal in that it’s one part of the larger whole for engaging a third-party at Calendly. We don’t have to waste time on user training and the manual processes that would otherwise be involved in transitioning from an RFx event into a purchase request.”

Zip empowers procurement to maximize its value and realize optimal business outcomes for our stakeholders.

The result

After implementing Zip, Calendly saw a 35% increase in properly submitted purchase requests – while also slashing cycle time by 38%. “More work, done faster!” said Ivy.

But they didn’t stop there. “Post-launch of Zip, we began finding and creating other use cases. We now have a vendor termination request workflow and an MNDA request workflow. Our punch out with CDW is the latest use case we’ve implemented,” Ivy said.

Zip is now at the center of Calendly’s procurement operations – even on complex projects like building out a new office space.

“We utilized Zip every step of the way, from the initiation of the lease negotiation through opening our doors,” said Ivy. “There are many moving pieces in an office build-out, so it’s been wonderful having access within Zip to 100% of our facilities-related spend no matter the stage of the purchase.”

With Zip supporting and enhancing the day-to-day routines of procurement, Ivy’s team can now focus on spend analytics, sourcing strategy, risk assessment, and other objectives – putting them in a strategic position to move the needle on business metrics. As Ivy puts it, "Zip empowers procurement to maximize its value and realize optimal business outcomes for our stakeholders."