Managing Meetings At: 3Com Corp.
<B>Managing Meetings At: 3Com Corp.</B>
<I>Database Captures Savings</I>
By Chris Davis
By placing its meetings database on its intranet, 3Com Corp. was able to document $1.5 million in savings in its partially centralized meetings program in 1999--and for the company it's just the beginning.
The database of non-air expenses, which was developed at minimal cost by outside contractors and implemented by Santa Clara, Calif.-based 3Com's engineers, allows meeting spending data to be captured through RFPs submitted by company employees through the intranet meetings home page and transmitted to a single, comprehensive database, said manager of global meetings and events Vickie Smith. The $1.5 million figure does not include air savings, as 3Com's group and meetings air booking is handled and negotiated through Rosenbluth.
3Com worked to create the database throughout 1999, implementing a final version late in the year. Smith has spent a good portion of the year entering data from 1999 meetings, enabling her to document prior cost savings and pave the way for more.
The idea for the database, Smith said, grew from a desire to capture meetings data in an easier fashion. "I wasn't necessarily doing this to track savings--though that ultimately was our goal--but we really wanted to track information," Smith said. "The savings were already there, but now we can capture and prove it. Now we have even more solid negotiating data. I wanted to be able to go back to hotels to show them how much volume we're directing there, and get better rates."
The database will provide cost savings in other methods as well. While internal meeting sponsors will not see a tremendous change in the day-to-day operations of meeting planning, they will have access to comprehensive and more accurate meetings data. This, Smith said, will allow them to create more appropriate budgets and attendee lists, avoiding cancellation and attrition charges.
Before the database was created, Smith's five-member meetings department entered data for each meeting by hand on Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, which Smith would re-enter and combine quarterly, a process that took days.
The creation of the RFP on the meetings home page enabled 3Com to standardize logistical and spending data, enabling automatic data capture. Now, internal sponsors submit the intranet RFP, and all relevant data automatically is transferred into the database, letting Smith view and arrange it in any manner she wishes. "The data rolls up in management reports to me, so I can take that information and manipulate it," Smith said.
3Com's groups and events department handles about 40 percent of offsite non-training meetings--training meetings are held at 3Com's conference center in Santa Clara, and are handled by a different department--not an insignificant total, given the high number of small, regional meetings staged out of corporate branch offices.
Like many technology-oriented companies, 3Com does not mandate any portion of its meetings program, though it is "highly suggested" that Smith's department be consulted for larger meetings and contract negotiations. The groups and events department also doesn't involve itself with any meeting with fewer than 15 attendees, as a lower threshold would risk a final head count of fewer than 10, due to attendee attrition.
As such, Smith is pleased with the number of meetings in which her department plays a role--about 250 in 1999--particularly since she estimated that more than half of all meetings with at least 150 attendees or a budget exceeding $350,000 are staged through the groups and events department.
Employees planning to hold a meeting and wanting to involve Smith's department contact her staff through the intranet RFP, which includes basic logistical information as well as the desired dates and locations. Smith's planners will contact a number of properties and present each option to the meeting sponsor, with no mandate concerning which to choose.
With the site selection determined, Smith's planners then set out to negotiate the contract and enter the final terms into the database, which Smith then can consolidate to create reports for senior management or for negotiating purposes.
The possibility of adding a third-party software didn't excite Smith; she didn't find one that completely met all of 3Com's needs. So she received approval from Bob Lichtman--then 3Com's global travel manager and Smith's superior, and currently a consultant with The Corporate Solutions Group--for the company's engineers to implement the database. "Bob didn't need much convincing, but I can't imagine anyone would have a problem with a tool like this, considering we have a developer in house," Smith said. "The cost was minimal, and it paid for itself after only a meeting or two."
Smith realizes that not every company can approach meetings data consolidation in this manner. "I've been extremely fortunate to be in the high-tech industry because we have a lot of tools," she said. "If you look at manufacturing or banks, they just don't have the sense of strategic technology and it's difficult to get those wheels moving. Here, if you come in with a conceptual idea, the engineers are raring to go.