Amex Adapting Strategic Approach To Big Accounts

With the dissolution of the partnership under which Maritz Travel Co. handled group travel management for American Express Corporate Travel's large market clients, the spotlight has turned to Maritz replacement and Amex subsidiary American Express One. Jay Roseman, vice president of meetings and incentives for Amex, recently spoke with Meetings Today editor Chris Davis about the impact of the move and how the agency will adjust to work with large market clients.



MT: Could you describe the group travel relationship between American Express One and American Express?

Jay Roseman: The most important distinction is that our organization is now American Express Meeting & Incentives, providing meeting planning services to large market customers.

MT: How will you structure your offerings to the large market?

Roseman: We organize a bit differently, with three primary lines of business for customer-specific needs. One is meeting planning, with a focus on those customers seeking a consolidation solution who are looking to organize that business and outsource large, 100-attendee-plus meetings to us. That is the largest business for us. There are certain companies that may not want to outsource their meeting planning business and would rather do that themselves. For them, we have our other solutions, our hotel site search and meetings technology business. If there's been a downsizing of staff, they can work with us to take the tedious task of site search ad hoc or look into our Web-based attendee solutions.

MT: Have you had to change your approach to deal with Amex's large market clients?

Roseman: Larger accounts have a higher degree of flexibility when approaching how to respond to their needs. They have different needs on a national or global basis, so they may want or need a customized solution more so than a smaller company. A smaller company may want to customize, too, but it's usually not to as many systems as a Fortune 100 company, which will often link to an air booking engine and car payment processes.

MT: Are you worried about losing customers who were using Maritz's services?

Roseman: Customers who had relationships with Maritz through the American Express Alliance and want to continue with Maritz will not be a significant blow to us. If that's what they want, that's fine. There are tons of companies that need this kind of support. They still have great options here, even if they go to another travel company. We have corporate meeting cards and other ad hoc services.

MT: How do you think all of the recent consolidation in the industry will affect competition and Amex One?

Roseman: It is a significant occurrence for American Express customers to continue to tap into suppliers that have a global reach for meetings. We can compete with larger companies. As we talk to more accounts, we can take strategies incorporated on the corporate travel side and apply them to non-air travel. It can help people. So if they want a solution outside of their travel company, we can stand on our own. The consolidation is great for customers, as it blends nicely with our strategy.

MT: How do you gauge support among corporations for meeting consolidation initiatives, and does the current market help or hurt that interest?

Roseman: It's a big part of the meeting planning business. I don't think the internal meetings department goes away in light of 2001. As business comes back, so will meetings, and corporations will be forced to do more with less. So there's tremendous opportunity in terms of site search and technology for those corporations who plan their own meetings. Because of these reduced resources, it's more pressing to offer those solutions today. There are plenty of companies with unmanaged meeting business that they want to rein in and match their other organized business. With that, we've seen an increase in corporate RFPs for consolidation. It's an important trend. There's a lot of meetings volume there, and from a procurement standpoint it could be cleaned up.

MT: Are you seeing closer ties between corporate meetings departments and procurement or transient travel departments?

Roseman: Absolutely. Companies want to handle meetings with contracts that have consistency and with as much risk reduced as they can. We've done this for years and we finally see this of interest to corporations, which means it's going in the right direction.

MT: You've mentioned technology. What specifically is of interest in that field to corporate meetings departments?

Roseman: There's a lot of different options. There's air booking, attendee management, negotiating, sourcing and procurement solutions. We make products available to customers in all of these areas, but some may not want to use those tools, so then we become an integrator of technology. That's the approach we want to take, to be the leading integrator, not to go so far as to say clients must use a specific option. Different companies have different strengths and so we make sure to work together.

MT: In which ways do you see the corporate meetings business developing in the year ahead?

Roseman: We're seeing more meetings come back on the books. If those that were canceled aren't all the way back, companies are starting to rebook customer events, incentive programs and sales programs. They may not be in the same form as they once were, as there are many that have been regionalized, but they are more efficient and companies are supporting them more. I'm optimistic that will continue through the next year and there will be more of a procurement approach in corporations, especially regarding unmanaged meetings.