PHILADELPHIA - February 14, 2008 - StarCite, Inc., the leading provider of On Demand Global Meeting Solutions™, today announced continued growth in 2007 resulting from major client wins across a variety of industries, the formation of a number of key partnerships, and the ongoing growth and adoption of strategic meeting management processes by companies worldwide. StarCite’s on demand global meetings solutions are now used by more than 15,000 corporate and small business meeting planners. The requests for meetings (eRFPs) sent through StarCite’s Online Global Marketplace in 2007 represented more than 20 million room nights, representing an estimated $7.5 billion in meetings business, an increase of 30 percent over 2006.
“I am very proud that some of the world’s largest and most innovative organizations selected StarCite as their meeting management technology platform in 2007,” said Michael Boult, StarCite President and CEO. “Their choices demonstrate how companies are increasingly recognizing the bottom-line savings, efficiency and convenience that meeting automation can deliver. As we move further into 2008, we will continue to deliver many benefits while expanding the reach of our meeting management platform so companies can gain visibility into and control over an ever-greater percentage of their overall meeting investment.”
“With businesses focusing more on strategically managing meeting spend as they have long managed other areas of indirect corporate spend, we anticipate growing interest in solutions for small meetings with real-time booking, dinner meetings, and other typically unmanaged areas of a company’s overall meeting and event program,” Boult continued.
Client Expansion
StarCite saw a 38 percent increase in major clients securing many new corporate logos across a diverse range of industries in 2007 including ConAgra, R.J. Reynolds, Liberty Mutual Group, JM Family Enterprises, SunTrust Bank and many others. There are now more than 150 Fortune/Global 500 clients in its roster.
StarCite also experienced a significant expansion of the number of companies purchasing its mid-market meeting management solutions, including Coloplast Corp., Stiefel Laboratories, HealthStar Communications, AMD and Jeld-Wen. This sector will represent a growing area of focus in 2008.
StarCite’s Destination Marketing group also signed an exclusive agreement with the Korea Tourism Organization and announced a partnership with DMI, which is an exclusive collection of hotels, convention and visitor bureaus and destination management companies.
New Partnerships
StarCite also expanded in 2007 by fostering new strategic partnerships. In September, StarCite announced a partnership with American Express Global Commercial Card to launch Meetings360, an innovative web solution that combines the meeting management capabilities of StarCite with the payment and purchasing data of American Express bringing powerful reconciliation features to the StarCite meeting management platform.
StarCite also expanded its distribution channels through an agreement with Pegasus Solutions Inc. The agreement linked StarCite with Pegasus’s portfolio of more than 78,000 hotel properties, allowing StarCite customers to take advantage of real-time access to information on rates, availability and reservations from hotels worldwide. In addition, StarCite entered into a partnership with Orbitz that will allow users and meeting attendees to book travel on Orbitz directly through the StarCite Attendee Management application.
StarCite also partnered with Meeting Strategies Worldwide to provide customers with MeetGreensm, a comprehensive program that examines all elements of meetings and conferences and offers recommended practices that help reduce the environmental impact of meetings. This effort achieved a goal of providing help to hundreds of companies and thousands of meeting planners worldwide incorporate environmentally healthy decisions and products into every element of the meeting planning process.
Global Company Growth
StarCite is continuing to invest in its global infrastructure as many of its client’s programs have expanded their meetings programs globally and awareness of Strategic Meetings Management and meetings procurement best practices expands outside the U.S. In 2007, StarCite focused on building out a full-service EMEA headquarters in Düsseldorf, Germany and hiring Pieter Reider to lead its European and Asia Pacific efforts.
Recognition
In recognition of his impact on the business travel industry through his leadership at StarCite, President and CEO Michael Boult was named as one of Business Travel News’ most influential executives of the year for the second year in a row. In addition, StarCite was named to the Deloitte & Touche Fast 500 for the fastest-growing technology, media and entertainment, telecommunications and life sciences companies in the United States and Canada, as well as to the “Philadelphia 100” list for the fastest growing private companies in Philadelphia. |