Maritz Makes Mtgs. Impact

<B> Maritz Makes Mtgs. Impact</B>

By Lauren Bielski

Maritz is poised to expand its consolidation business with Impact, its client-server based system for complex meetings management.

The agency has managed 80 individual corporate meetings with the year-old system and at least 50 key accounts are scheduled for steady use of it this year to manage corporate incentives and events, said corporate vice president of information technology Richard Spradling.

"Leads on consolidation business has been a great by-product of focusing on building a vastly improved internal registration system for complex meetings," Spradling said. "We've set out to make a system more flexible than a mainframe-based one that can give meeting planners and program managers customized pre-trip, on-site and post-program reporting."

Although the initial rollout of Impact has focused on program administration, inventory management and registration--including rooming lists, dispatch summary reports and lists of daily itineraries--the agency intends by year-end to offer an air interface that works with Sabre to link passenger PNRs with other program registration information, and post-meeting financial reports that can support consolidation.

While Spradling said Maritz would be fine-tuning its development prior to pushing for more accounts, he acknowledged that capturing share in the burgeoning consolidations market was a sales objective for 1998. "We're in the business of providing extremely efficient, trouble-free meetings where all communications are extremely timely and accurate--which is a great selling point," Spradling said. "Having invested in client-server technology will be very useful for consolidation because we will be equipped to handle a continuum of group travel and meeting management, from the quick, roundtrip flight to Chicago to the 8,000 person incentive trip to Hawaii."

Impact is a continuation of the development started with Proview, a corporate travel management tool used by Maritz reservationists that also can register small corporate meetings. Like Proview, Impact is a client-service based system. It is designed to leverage the capabilities of Proview to manage the preference profiles of an individual traveler along with group logistical information, explained Susan Kallash-Bailey, director of systems and implementation for Impact. "Impact will enable a more comprehensive management of a given program's events, including activities, break-out sessions and room gifts," she said.

Richard Eastman, president of the Eastman Group, a Northport Beach, Calif.-based software developer for agencies, airlines and tour operators, said Maritz has an excellent reputation for delivering technology solutions as billed, and that the new system should offer improved service to Maritz clients.

"They have excellent internal IS development resources and have avoided the vaporware trap, so I think their group system is likely to help reduce redundant data entries and improve service," Eastman said, noting that he had reviewed literature on Proview's client-server architecture and praised the soundness of the approach. He said all meeting planning companies are trying to find computing methods that reduce keystrokes so that data entered in the CRS or keyed in by an agency reservationist, is passed through automatically for use by other systems.

Meetings planners can streamline registration management processes by using the Web-based registration released in December. Whether online or not the immediate gains of Impact, Kallash-Bailey said, will be more cost-efficient hotel room inventory management and improved communication with meeting attendees.