New York - September 06, 2007 - American Express and StarCite, the largest on-demand
global meetings management company, today announced that they will create an
innovative Web solution customized to help joint American Express® Global Commercial
Card and StarCite clients drive greater savings from online meetings management. The
two companies will create a solution that integrates StarCite’s e-sourcing and planning
tools with American Express’ expertise in paying for, reconciling, and analyzing meetings
spend.
Online meetings management is a fast-growing business practice across a wide range of
industries. According to travel industry research firm PhoCusWright, as many as 60% of
corporate meetings will be booked online by 2008.
“We’re creating a global, integrated solution that seamlessly connects the front-end and
back-end meetings management processes to enable clients and prospective clients with
large, and often fragmented, meeting programs to access total meetings spend data –
something they have not been able to do before,” said Gunther Bright, Senior Vice
President of the Global Client Group at American Express. “With this new spend
visibility, our clients will be better equipped to both control spend and improve their
buying clout with suppliers.”
“Though meetings and events are a major corporate expense, they remain a largely
untouched area for spend management, providing companies with an opportunity to
realize savings of up to 20% (1) through a more strategic approach,” said Michael Boult,
President and Chief Executive Officer, StarCite. “Our joint offering with American
Express will make it easier than ever for businesses to achieve the savings and efficiency
benefits of strategic meetings management by making an integrated solution – from
sourcing and planning to payment and reconciliation – available for the first time.”
In the first version of the co-branded solution, American Express and StarCite will
introduce functionality to help companies minimize costs related to back-office
administration of meetings expenditures. American Express Global Commercial Card
spend data will be automatically uploaded into the co-branded solution, allowing clients to
more easily and efficiently reconcile actual expenditures with corporate budget line items.
The following features will be offered as part of the co-branded solution exclusively for
American Express Global Commercial Card clients:
- Broader capture of meeting spend data, including information that segments
expenditures by multiple categories, such as catering, sleeping rooms, audiovisual and
conference room rental charges. Reporting generated from meetings spend data will
give Global Commercial Card clients new and more comprehensive insight into their
spend – via the American Express @ Work® Web-based reporting tool. This data can
1 "Leveraging Enterprise Meeting Management Solutions," a META Group
Whitepaper, c 2004, and StarCite customer experience
be used to more closely track employee compliance, as well as to improve future
negotiations with hotels.
- Online transaction investigation. The integrated solution will offer meeting planners
the ability to resolve issues with questionable charges via direct emails to suppliers.
- Powerful sourcing capabilities, with exclusive hotel offers from American
Express. The co-branded solution will also feature StarCite’s Web-based Global
Meeting Marketplace for meetings services, such as hotel space, food and beverage
services and ground transportation. This Marketplace links buyers with StarCite’s
nearly 100,000 properties and meeting suppliers in key markets around the world. In
addition, companies will be able to take advantage of exclusive American Express hotel
offers for their meetings spend.
American Express and StarCite will introduce the new solution to a select group of large
and global corporations beginning this fall and will implement broadly early next year.
(1) "Leveraging Enterprise Meeting Management Solutions," a META Group
Whitepaper, c 2004, and StarCite customer experience |
