McGettigan, Microsoft To Develop Mtg. Software

<I>Philadelphia</I> - McGettigan Partners announced late last week that it has hired the Microsoft Consulting Group to develop a browser-based, 32-bit version of its CORE Discovery meeting management software in time for a September beta-test with key McGettigan and Rosenbluth International clients.

As was rumored for months in the travel industry, Microsoft--which has put Internet development atop its priority list--is in the midst of reengineering the original CORE Discovery product to offer an Internet/intranet version that retains all of the product's functions, including monitoring budgets, planning, expense analysis, supplier negotiations and attendee management.

McGettigan brought Microsoft on board to offer a version of the product that is easily scalable for thousands of users within a company, in contrast to the earlier version of the product which is optimally scalable to only 40 or 50 users on a single local area network.

"The Internet means global reach--we've taken huge steps toward creating the enterprise product that we've always envisioned. With this browser-based version of CORE Discovery, we will be able to literally link the meetings operations of a company's North American, European and Asian operations without an impossibly complex scheme of local and wide area networks," said John Pino, McGettigan president and chief executive officer.

McGettigan and Rosenbluth, which have been marketing their services together since the announcement of Synergis in 1996, and hired-gun Microsoft presented the prototype and concept for the online version of the meetings management product at a conference early last week in San Francisco to 35 key clients and prospects, including AT&T, Chevron, Cisco Systems, Nike, Parke Davis and Sun Microsystems.

The three partners did not reveal the identities of their beta testers, though McGettigan said that a September testing phase will begin on schedule.

While the "cost of ownership dramatically decreases" with the browser version, according to director of information technology Janet Christodoulou, the earlier CORE product is still ideal for many highly centralized corporate environments. Both CORE Discovery 5.0 and the earlier LAN version (first rolled out in 1994) will be offered, and both will be sold only to McGettigan and Rosenbluth clients as part of an array of management services.

"Because CORE Discovery incorporates McGettigan's meeting management process, the technology closely matches the way internal meeting planners operate," Pino said. Now, the application will likely further its popularity as the Internet continues to drive links between the previously disparate worlds of computer applications, travel management and corporate client-server environments.

"Development--specifically, the use of a browser solution in this upgrade--is being driven by West Coast-based clients," said McGettigan vice president of strategic planning Beth Truett. "They like the flexibility that this type of solution poses. For certain types of environments, an Internet and intranet approach is critical."

Truett said the continued strength of McGettigan's partnership with Rosenbluth, combined with Microsoft's developmental expertise, will only mean good news for all the players involved, as well as for their clients.

On the panel in San Francisco, Mike Paige, director of the meetings and conventions operations department for Parke Davis, the pharmaceuticals subsidiary of Warner-Lambert, in Morris Plains, N.J., explained the process he went through to consolidate the company's meetings. After six years, he has gained a high-enough profile to allow his group to handle most of the medical meetings, training sessions, product launches and sales meetings generated from all U.S. divisions except the research division in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Although he has reservations about the browser version of CORE, he said he was impressed with what he saw. "Because of corporate regulations regarding the safeguarding of proprietary information, and the fact that we need our data to be secure, we would need more convincing that any sort of Internet-based solution would be truly safe from hackers," Paige said. "However, we definitely are interested in investigating the possibility of upgrading from the LAN-based version to the browser-based Internet product."

Paige, who has been steadily progressing in his efforts toward trimming meetings costs--last year saving 15 percent--has CORE software housed in corporate headquarters. His in-house planners telephone the three McGettigan planners who book the arrangements, send the data to the system at the Parke Davis office, and turn the program over to in-house corporate planners for on-site management. The arrangement has worked well so far, but Paige said he can see the value of a more hands-on approach throughout the entire logistical process from the "points of initiation" throughout the dispersed organization, he said.

Lisa Ward, corporate event manager at San Jose-based Cisco Systems Inc., was impressed enough with the demonstration to agree to adopt the current version of the CORE Discovery software for a trial run with real data over the next several months. If CORE performs as billed, she said she would seriously consider signing on when the product officially rolls out. Ward said there is also a possibility that she would participate in the September beta test, although it's still too soon to confirm.

"I did an initial assessment of CORE Discovery during the demonstration and it looked pretty comprehensive. There are so many variables when you're planning a meeting--I really applaud McGettigan for giving it a good college try," Ward joked. She said that her company, which has mushroomed from 600 to more than 10,000 employees worldwide over the last six years, would require an Internet version to make the best use of the product.

"After my busy season in the fall, I want to put some guidelines in place to build some efficiency in this process," Ward said. "I don't want to be the police, but I want to be a resource."

In addition to the networking benefits, the new release will be otherwise enhanced, using the features of Windows 95 and NT to provide more user-friendly screens, multitasking memory management, security and application integration, so that CORE functions can co-reside with other applications on a company's network.

As with the original CORE Discovery product, the new version will rely on the software's online searchable database of global meeting sites to allow planners to electronically issue requests for proposals and to secure site selection information based on specific criteria. The browser version of CORE will have an even more robust RFP functionality, according to Pino.

In addition, the new version will offer open database connectivity, which means that databases from Oracle, Informix and other systems can be incorporated into a single data system.

The original CORE Discovery is a collection of related modules designed to capture meetings expenses, register and track activity, improve efficiency and negotiating leverage, and provide meeting planners with decision support tools. This relational database program--in the earlier version limited to the Microsoft Access product--was designed to consolidate meaningful program data, enabling planners to track all programs by size, location, internal client, division, department and planner.

Now, though, the developers are focusing on "extending our capabilities to the passenger or attendee level" by including a passenger management system that offers onsite capabilities for registration, name badge and report generation, where the original version of the product could not accept individual information, Pino said. Eventually, the company will consider adding agentless travel-booking capabilities as well, he noted.

He added that the product will give clients global reach, and will better cement the developing relationship between McGettigan and Rosenbluth. "With the previous version of CORE, we didn't have the same accessibility and the same saturation in the market as the Rosenbluth suite of transient travel management products does. That will change with the rollout of this product." The two companies plan to market their strengths and product lines together to attract clients that want true consolidation of transient and meetings business, he said.