Nearly one year after the acquisition of meetings management firm McGettigan Partners by Maritz Travel Co., Maritz CEO Jeff Reinberg and McGettigan president and COO Christine Duffy spoke with Meetings Today editor Chris Davis about the progress the combined entity has made in the past year, the gradual acceptance of meetings consolidation and the folly of seeking a simple, fully integrated, technological tool.
Meetings Today: Could you describe the current structure of Maritz and McGettigan?
Jeff Reinberg: The smartest thing we did is not stepping between McGettigan and its customers. We've coordinated McGettigan sales and Maritz sales, but there was little overlap in customers, so we haven't hurt those relationships. It's like the physicians' oath: First do no harm. We bought McGettigan for their credibility in terms of the meetings business and consolidation, and their technology expertise has enhanced us. Our reputation on incentive and international programs has enhanced them. From an organizational standpoint, in the back office, some things were redundant, but our structures were similar, so major moves were not necessary. We did merge offices on the West Coast.
Christine Duffy: The West Coast was the only place where there was overlap, in terms of calling on and closing with similar customers. Outside California, we were assured we'd operate the same way. That's important. The benefits will be longer term, enhanced value while continuing to operate with the same people. Any changes were in the back office.
MT: How have the two companies' technology offerings been handled?
Duffy: There has been some integration. Our core enterprise technology platform is structured differently than their incentive, large-meeting technology. The technology platform for meetings consolidation is different as well.
Reinberg: We're working on an attendee management tool.
Duffy: It's going to be implemented on the West Coast and the beta is in the spring. Each function is handled ad hoc on a consolidated platform. We've also gone to Maritz customers and talked to them about consolidation. Both Maritz and McGettigan are partners with online portal StarCite, so we already had integrated their services into our platform for the Meetings HQ product.
MT: What was the impact of the merger on both companies' clients?
Reinberg: Each client was different. McGettigan clients were happy because Maritz has an expanded international presence that McGettigan did not. Plus, there were other services in the reward and recognition area that could be offered. There were some clients that were doing business with us both.
Duffy: We've been focused on McGettigan enterprise accounts. We are seeing a lot of new activity in the market. Some Maritz clients have expressed interest, and we will work closely with them. We will take Maritz performance improvement services and bundle them with our consolidation offerings.
Reinberg: We used to talk a lot about integrating solutions, but now we find that the clients we work with need solutions but not necessarily integrated ones. They want discrete, individual solutions. It's not that easy to do. Large companies operate on an independent basis, and it's not necessarily conducive to say they have to behave in the same way. You don't have to do it. We want to help with their policies and help with implementing what they need.
MT: Has there been much progress in the acceptance of meetings consolidation concepts?
Duffy: It's a long process. There's a belief that consolidating meetings is like consolidating transient travel, but transient is much more transactional. We know much of this is led by procurement departments. We think there's more understanding of why meetings are different than transient, and that a bundled or customized solution is better than insisting on integration.
Reinberg: Buyers felt tremendous pressure to negotiate one half cent out of their contracts. But you can negotiate down a price with the airlines, for example, then find that they change the rules, as opposed to saying that this is how we will manage our travel and air, and focusing on the total management of the program versus one individual item.
MT: Have there been further links between Maritz, McGettigan and Maritz parent TQ3's transient management side, and have your clients been interested in those services?
Duffy: One of our largest and oldest customers is looking at TQ3. Because we work on the group air side, a lot of customers choose to work with us because there's a good level of service and value. TQ3 offers a different level of service than lower-cost solutions, and we've seen an opportunity with TQ3 with some of our accounts, and an opportunity for them to bring us in to introduce consolidation and enterprise solutions.
MT: Given the changing nature of the industry and the soft economy, does it make sense to introduce a widescale meetings consolidation program now?
Duffy: We see new opportunities. It's very prevalent in the pharmaceutical industry, and we're seeing it in insurance too. Any industry where procurement is an emphasis has been active.
Reinberg: Travel managers and procurement executives are meeting and discussing this. There's more interest, especially in bundling services instead of integration—they're looking for what fixes their problems and their company's problems. It's an unusual economy, with buyers scrambling to cut costs. We'd like to see a period of relative calm with decent corporate earnings. Then people will spend more time making analytical decisions, and we'll see interest. A war is a wild card.
Duffy: There's also more senior management reporting overall. And this is such a long-term process, which touches all areas of the organization, that if there's resistance, it will fall to the wayside without senior management reporting.
MT: There has been no shortage of new tech tools for consolidating meetings. Is there enough demand to justify this?
Reinberg: We tell our customers that if they need shoelaces, this is like the people selling shoelaces also saying they could sell them an entire wardrobe. No matter what you call it, there is no single, comprehensive, end-to-end system that can manage travel or meetings consolidation. It's complex. There must be bricks and mortar people that go along with this and help you, or you're buying half a loaf.
Duffy: But most buyers are savvy. They understand this is not a quick decision, and when they bring in the players to answer their 96-page request for proposals, they will have to prove that they can do it. There are technology enablers. But we have been at this for a long time. There's more interest, and it's more mainstream now, but we still have the broader solution. Plus, as we just saw in the news a few weeks ago when a company went out of business
(Meetings Today, Aug. 12), how are you going to make sure you're going to be here for the long term?
MT: How do you see 2003?
Duffy: We see steady progress from where corporations were with Sept. 11 and the tough economy. We all thought the economy would be stronger by now, but the second-quarter 2003 booking pace is better than at the same time this year. We see customers looking at international programs too, but companies are waiting longer to make decisions, even quarterly, and there's a lot of pressure on suppliers.
Reinberg: Decision making is delayed, but there's a lot of activity compared with this time last year, when we were dead in the water. Our presentation activity to clients is comparable—the closing rate is a little less, but we're encouraged by the present activity.