Amex Signs Worktopia To Develop Exclusive Meetings Product
American Express Business Travel has signed an exclusive agreement with meetings technology company Worktopia for a small meetings booking product scheduled for release at the end of the second quarter, according to Amex Business Travel senior vice president of global marketing and product management Lisa Durocher.
The exclusive agreement enables Amex to be the only travel management company to sell the customized tool, and "there are elements of the technology that are proprietary only to us," Durocher told Business Travel News.
The tool can book meetings inventory and related content for amenities through a single interface without having to wait for responses to requests for proposals from hotel properties. The tool "standardizes the contracts any admin would be accessing and also provides visibility into the cost structure for the company," said Durocher.
Amex over the last year has been exploring meetings technology vendors with which to partner to help clients manage their small meetings expenditures, which often represent unmanaged travel spending. "There is a lot of businesses out there that do a great job on helping control costs on managed meetings," Durocher said. "Managed meetings are the least of the big companies' problems because they can see those and they can shut them down. The ones that they are having trouble with are the ones going under the radar—the five people, six people who are flying in to have internal meetings and those are the ones where they are going to need the visibility to control."
Worktopia recently broadened its reach by bolstering its property inventory and signing distribution deals and partnerships with Pegasus International, Travelport GDS and Newmarket International and Sabre's GetThere online booking tool.