Amex, StarCite Meld Card Data

American Express and StarCite last week announced a co-branded integrated meetings payment system that will upload commercial card data directly into StarCite's meetings budgeting tool, allowing users to separate spending data into multiple categories and more easily compare expected and actual meeting expenditures. The companies expect to roll out the first phase of technology to customers in November.

The system, which will be available only to companies that are clients of both StarCite and American Express, also will allow customers to view daily unbilled card information, in order to catch erroneous charges before billing. Only StarCite clients who use its spend management suite—rather than simply its request for proposals transmission or site-sourcing tools—will be able to use the product. "This will be a part of our spend management suite going forward," said Michael Boult, president and CEO of StarCite.

"The initial phase will allow companies to use the StarCite technology to download all of the charges they have against all of their relevant meetings that are on their American Express meeting card product, and pull those directly into the budget and reconciliation capability that we're building," Boult said. "This has been, for many meetings, a multiple-week, multiple-man effort to get it done. It's very time-consuming and very inefficient to collect the data and allocate the data against your budget. We believe that this is going to take 80 percent of the workload away from companies using this new integrated solution. This allows the company to get unprecedented levels of data."

The specific spending categories the tool will include will depend on how properties break down the information on the bill. Customers can also go in and further break down the information "to an almost atomic level" if they wish, said Boult.

Shelle Santana, vice president of global corporate card marketing for American Express, said that one of the biggest problems meeting planners have is "trying to reconcile what they budgeted for meetings versus what they actually spend on a meeting."

"They'll be able to view on a daily basis both unbilled and billed transactions, so they'll be able to see in advance what is exactly is being planned to be billed to the card," Santana said.

Meetings technology consultant Jeff Rasco, president of meetings technology company Attendee Management Inc., was supportive of the concept. "It's exactly what we've been asking for years," he said. "We've got to be able to get more and more of that event data into one place to where planners can get a hold of it."

The system has been in development since May. The collaboration between the two companies came after customers for both asked for a system that would allow for faster data management and the two companies decided to work together to provide the service. "We've had a long relationship with American Express," Boult said. "We've known each other since there's been a StarCite."

While the initial phase won't be rolled out until November—with subsequent phases launching in March 2008 and later that same year—a prototype will be sent to certain clients in the next few weeks. Client feedback will be incorporated into the first two launches.

Card data will be entered into the system by American Express and StarCite after the firms authenticate user information.

Those companies with planners who do not have an American Express commercial card can order one through the system. Customers also will be able to see American Express' preferred offerings for hotels on their StarCite site.

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

"It really takes a lot of disparate processes that meeting planners are trying to do now and pulls them together in an online environment," Santana said. "It allows them to accelerate the whole process."