KPMG Hires StarCite To Provide Registration Via Web

KPMG, one of the largest centrally managed meetings accounts in the country, has contracted with an external online attendee management vendor to provide online registration services for the company's meetings, which number more than 1,000 annually.

StarCite RegWeb will replace an internally developed registration application on KPMG's intranet. When implemented, probably by October, it will allow better tracking of meeting attendees' registration data, said director of meeting services Carol Muldoon.

KPMG had used its in-house application in conjunction with standard fax and e-mail registration applications, but sought a solution that would better service the large number and wide variety of KMPG meeting attendees, which annually number more than 100,000.

"Our in-house system was limited in its reporting capabilities and its availability to non-KPMG attendees," Muldoon said. "The functionality of the RegWeb product meets our needs and it is a very user-friendly tool, which we require, since we will have multiple people setting up meetings in the system."

KPMG formally explored three online registration products—Muldoon did not disclose the other two—including undergoing a formal request for proposal process and piloting the solutions. Eventually, she said, KPMG officials were attracted to RegWeb's functionality and its cross-reporting capabilities, the latter of which Muldoon said would improve her department's ability to track meeting and attendee data.

KPMG's meeting services department is heavily centralized and connected with the firm's travel department. The company has continued to roll out American Express' CTO online self-booking tool and it seems likely that Muldoon's department will explore potential relationships between the two products once RegWeb is implemented. "Use of RegWeb, along with CTO, will offer a total, one-stop registration process for meeting, hotel and air needs for our attendees," Muldoon said.

RegWeb was owned by technological consulting and management firm Cardinal Communications of Berkeley, Calif., before it was sold to StarCite in June, after KPMG had started its process of selecting a registration tool. "After such a thorough search process, we are especially pleased to win KPMG's business," said StarCite CEO John Pino. "Registration is such a vital part of the meeting process, and one where planners can have the most impact on quality and cost savings by managing it correctly."

KPMG, which operates its meeting and travel department as a shared-services entity for separate KPMG consulting and accounting companies, has taken steps to cut the $225 million it spent in 2000 on U.S. air. The firm late last year mandated a higher level of senior management approval for all internal meetings before conducting site searches.