ISO Merging Mtgs. And Travel

Insurance Services Office Inc. in 2000 slashed its meetings costs by more than $250,000—a number that represents only savings on hotel sleeping rooms—through a firm consolidation program, and officials at the Jersey City, N.J.-based firm hope to cut spending by at least 10 percent in the coming year by enveloping transient travel and trade show management into the program.

ISO transient travelers, like its meeting sponsors, now will be required, within reason and based on availability, to use Hilton properties, said Bill Mattes, ISO manager of meetings and travel management.

The move to merge meetings and travel operations was a natural progression of a three-year-old consolidation program at ISO, with which Mattes officially became employed in February. The success of that program, Mattes said, led ISO's senior management to agree that greater management of transient travel would generate similar cost savings.

ISO, with $3.5 million travel and meetings spend—a figure that does not include air—developed a new travel policy, effective in June, as part of the decision to merge meetings and travel. Previously, Mattes said, the company exercised minimal oversight over transient travel, much as it did before the 1998 commencement of meetings consolidation. "The new travel policy doesn't really have too many restrictions," Mattes said. "We do require the use of available Hilton properties unless there's a business case for the use of another hotel. We require airfares to be booked 21 days out when possible and to work with domestic agency American Express to book the lowest airfares."

ISO has not developed preferred carrier relationships, Mattes said, because a single carrier deal would not cover its scattered corporate locations.

The company, after an extensive search, selected Oakland, N.J.-based Isis Corp. to integrate its Gold System software into the ISO meetings program within the next 60 to 90 days. Mattes said Isis' data management tools particularly will be useful. His staff of three planners, a trade show coordinator and a registration coordinator currently use Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to tabulate budgeted and actual meeting expenditures. "We looked all over the map, including at Internet products, but they didn't allow for full meeting management," Mattes said, adding that he'd likely look to the Web for an event marketing solution.

ISO began reengineering its meeting division three years ago, upon the realization by senior management that the meetings department managed only four events, a fraction of the 200 meetings that eventually would fall under its control.

The meetings department also made the decision to charge individual departments for services, which made it doubly important to convince internal meeting sponsors of the financial impact of ISO planners' cost-saving skills, as the charge-back model enhanced the standard employee hesitation that accompanies many consolidation efforts.

This was facilitated by securing senior management support—not difficult, as the decision to change the meetings program originated there—and imparting the positive financial impact meetings consolidation has bestowed upon other corporations, Mattes said.

The company introduced a meeting request form, including proposed dates, locations, goals and objectives, the benefits of the meeting to ISO and a detailed budget proposal for each particular department budget that must be completed as the first step to scheduling an event. The form has been posted on the corporate intranet travel page, where a planner creates a request for proposal based on the meeting request form.

By consolidating volume with Hilton, ISO not only was able to realize better rates but also build a history of volume that has served it well in past negotiations. The company also employs the American Express Meeting Card and, as Amex is its agency, benefits from its negotiated rates with the chain. Those changes were the predominant drivers in saving $250,000 in sleeping room charges.