Meetings technology firm OnVantage Inc. last month launched a new consulting practice to sell clients services that range from technology implementation advice to strategies for meetings management initiatives. The company plans to launch new benchmarking and data research to supplement the new practice, according the company's new director of consulting.
Lisa Palmeri, director of consulting services at Santa Clara, Calif.-based OnVantage and a former corporate meeting buyer, said the consulting team offers two types of services.
"One is component-based: strategic meetings management program components like sourcing, procurement, approval process, meeting registration process and payment process," she said. The other type of consulting services would be big-picture advice on launching a program or making an existing program more effective, she said. "Things like situation assessments, spend-data gathering, gap analysis and recommendations, writing a business case—those are more process-based."
OnVantage offers a menu of consulting services but realizes that most customers will need a hybrid approach, she added, to accommodate needs that will change over time.
"One of the biggest obstacles with any company deploying strategic meetings management programs with or without technology are some of the change-management and political hurdles that you have to overcome," Palmeri said. "It's the ability to rally the troops, to get employees to see the benefits, achieve buy-in and focus on the inclusion of all the right stakeholders. That's something that a lot of our customers and people that I talk to throughout the industry struggle with."
Palmeri has worked in the meetings industry for more than 15 years, first at third-party meetings management companies and then for four years as travel and meetings analyst at Abbott Park, Ill.-based pharmaceutical company Abbott Laboratories. Abbott Labs in December 2002 became a customer of OnVantage predecessor SeeUthere Technologies
(Meetings Today, Sept. 20, 2004) as part of efforts to create a strategic meetings management program, she said.
"A huge part of my job was bringing those divisional silos together in the context of meetings management. Every year I conducted a cross-divisional forum to bring the divisional meeting planners together to share best practices, benchmark and basically share information," Palmeri said.
As Abbott implemented OnVantage, Palmeri said her company needed help to marry new technology with existing meeting policies.
"It was learning how to optimize use of the technology and learning how to align best practices with the use of the technology," she said, adding that the consulting services team plans to research best practices and provide benchmarking data to clients.
"The most exciting piece about this is the benchmarking, the learning and the way that we are going to be able to advance the industry," she said.
The meetings market is primed for new consulting services, Palmeri said. "A few years ago, it might have been too soon for a lot of companies," she said. "Procurement is bringing a lot of attention on this area, so that's good for us."
Technology providers have an edge in consulting because of their knowledge of the meetings industry, Corporate America and technology, she said. "It gives us a good perspective," she said. "There aren't many companies out there that have all of those components."
The consulting services team offers help "to improve processes, deploy technology, and control meeting spend," said Colin Knell, OnVantage vice president and head of the new service, in a company release.
Consulting services have been priced as add-on packages to the technology system and Palmeri said there are three tiers of service.
"There's also flexibility so that we can price a particular project based on specific deliverables," she said.
There are three dedicated staff members on the consulting services team and, as the business grows, Palmeri said she expected more staff to be added.
"OnVantage is so tied to the industry with our product, this is a natural transition for us," she said.
Meetings technology firm StarCite Inc., a rival of OnVantage, also recently announced a consulting focus
(Meetings Today, Aug. 15). StarCite has integrated its tools into one package and promoted a Global Meetings Solution concept for "big-picture ideas," according to CEO John Pino.