Meetings management technology provider Groupize has joined
the Concur App Center. The technology focuses on small meetings and
claims to bridge the gap between transient travel tools and heavier meetings
management technology stacks. It offers three levels of functionality:
multi-room booking, strategic sourcing and attendee registration.
Groupize CEO Charles de Gaspe Beaubien told BTN that the
company built the app from the ground up to work as a complement to Concur. “We
knew Concur Meetings was going away, so we capitalized on [an opportunity to
address] those needs. That was the minimum requirement, and of course we advanced
that with 2017 technology,” he said.
Arrangers can book meetings with up to nine sleeping rooms in
the app, which pulls in preferred properties and rates directly, for now, from
Travelport. Sabre currently does not accommodate multi-room bookings, though
Groupize has talked to the provider about the opportunity. While Amadeus does
take multi-room bookings, Groupize is not yet integrated with that provider. “We’ll
get there,” de Gaspe Beaubien said.
For larger programs, the app allows arrangers to negotiate with
multiple properties for various meeting elements—including sleeping rooms,
meeting spaces, food and beverage, audiovisual and special requests—via an email-based
bids system that tracks all stages of the process and facilitates internal
corporate approvals for budget and contract authorization. This functionality
sits on top of the Concur platform and is GDS agnostic.
Likewise, attendee registration closely integrates with
Concur Travel so that attendees can register for the meeting and book travel
simultaneously without re-entering their information. They can also wait to
arrange travel and the tool will prepopulate details from their registration to
initiate booking later.
Meeting arrangements and changes are tracked within the app
as are all attendee travel arrangements, itineraries changes and associated
spend. That said, the Groupize app does not yet integrate with Concur Expense. “There are things that we can do to keep expanding that
integration, with small meetings and the Concur partnership, and it is the next logical step,” de Gaspe Beaubien told BTN,
De Gaspe Beaubien estimated that 75 percent of the Groupize
pipeline are currently Concur customers. “We talk to the same audience and have
a great value proposition,” he said, “As a self-booking tool for meetings and
groups, we are a natural extension of what they already get from Concur.” He estimated that 80 percent of corporate meetings are "simple meetings" and that traditional meetings management technologies are not capturing that volume effectively. "Corporations know it’s the last piece of the puzzle for their
managed travel program and it’s time to bridge that gap," he said.
Groupize also markets to agencies, with a reseller model and
as a tool for agencies to support their clients. Groupize currently works with BCD,
Christopherson Business Travel and Traveleaders with several more in the
pipeline, according to de Gaspe Beaubien.