Conference Sessions Tackle Mtg. Negotiation, Tech Options
New York - Meeting and group travel management trends and tools were spotlighted at last month's Corporate Travel World conference, as several buyers discussed methods to better gain control of meeting expenditures and improve negotiations. Buyers agreed that drawing closer relationships between meetings and travel management and employing technological tools could help realize those goals.
Though the process can be logistically challenging and heavily dependent on senior management support, three buyers recommended pursuing integration of corporate travel and meeting departments and negotiations, noting subsequent cost savings should outweigh any procedural difficulties. TQ3 Maritz Travel Solutions vice president and general manager Kathy Dyer cited the potential for 10 percent to 25 percent savings through the maneuver, through improved policy management, consolidated reporting, integrated technology and better budget tracking.
CUNA Mutual assistant vice president of conference and travel services Steve Clark has been able to develop net-net combined airline contracts for transient and meetings travel and soon will transfer all travel and group functions online. "It's a culture change, but one we're ready for," he said. "Senior management support has been our biggest advantage. When we develop a mandate, they support it companywide."
New York Life Insurance Co. director of corporate travel Joseph Campise has developed net-net airline contracts and preferred meeting locations at his company's preferred airlines' hubs. "To do this, you have to train and remind your agents to use the appropriate identifier to get credit for meetings volume," he said.
Suzanne Fletcher, director of travel and meetings at Weyerhaeuser Co., has implemented one of the more stringent transient and meeting policies: Travelers must use preferred hotels if available, meeting site decisions ultimately lie with her department and no travel cost is reimbursed for site inspections by anyone outside of the meetings management group.
McGettigan Partners' Danamichele Brennan cautioned meeting buyers to give due diligence its due before selecting and implementing an online meeting solution. "Don't fall victim to entertaining a supplier until you document exactly what you and your company need," Brennan said. "Do a needs assessment and document your objectives, processes, current technology and any environmental constraints." In undertaking "technical" due diligence, Brennan told buyers to determine the functionality, scalability, flexibility, extensibility and especially the security schemas of the given products. "Firewalls are a given nowadays," she said, so find out what else is available to protect your data. On the business side, Brennan said, "You're seeking a partnership, so find out if the company has an established and working business model, how the leadership at the company will support you and particularly its financial stability. It should take six to nine months to go through the due diligence of evaluating suppliers."
Perspectives from the buyer side of the panel were similar: The importance of extensive research into their own companies as well as the partnering company was duly noted. ISO's Bill Mattes underwent the RFP process three times in less than two years, discovering each time that his needs had changed before settling on Isis Gold. "The biggest investment was our time," he said, "not buying and implementing but trying to figure out what we need."
Amway Corp.'s Craig Ardis agreed, saying he partnered with the IT division and created a process map to track Amway's needs. Four years later, IT was ready to build a tool themselves, he said, because "There aren't very many suppliers that can do everything. The all-encompassing management product is not out there."
Carolyn Pund of Nortel Networks, who was seeking a meetings management company and online registration company to partner with to maintain control of data, warned, "Any company can customize, but we didn't want to go through that pain." Pund stressed the importance of flexibility in the reports and cost-savings in deciding to go with B-there.