Amex, StarCite Developing Meetings Payment Tech

Meetings technology firm StarCite and American Express today announced the development of an integrated meetings management system that allows American Express commercial card data to be uploaded directly to StarCite's meetings budgeting tool. The companies expect to roll out the first phase of technology to customers in November.

Customers, who must be clients of both companies to access the system, also will be able to have meeting charges broken down into spend categories and have access to unbilled card information in order to catch erroneous charges pre-billing.

StarCite and American Express expect to roll out the system, in development for four months, in additional phases next year, beginning in March.

The system "really takes a lot of disparate processes that meeting planners are trying to do and pulls them together in an online environment," said Shelle Santana, vice president of global corporate card marketing for American Express.

"The more that we can automate, the more that we can, in time, give back to the planners so they can focus on what they do well," added Michael Boult, president and CEO of StarCite. "The more detailed information we can provide to corporations, the better the decision-making and the better leverage they have with suppliers."