Mtgs. Consolidation: Elusive Objective

<B>Mtgs. Consolidation: Elusive Objective</B>

By Chris Davis

Despite a significant burst of interest in the past year in consolidating corporate meetings volume, very few companies--even those with the most advanced travel management operations--have been able to create such a program.

The problem, experts said, is not that corporate travel and meeting managers don't realize the potential financial benefits of consolidating meetings, rather many corporations feel other maneuvers require a higher immediate priority, while other companies encounter resistance to the concept.

"I wouldn't have thought this would happen because we had 13 requests for proposals within a three-week period in October 1999," said Janice Blevins, vice president of meetings management at St. Louis-based Maritz Travel Co. "Those RFPs attacked it from a broad-brush perspective--they would make decisions and implement within 30 or 60 days. They were very aggressive, but not many of those have really taken action. We've had numerous accounts where the client put us on hold for a decision for a 30-day period, wanted to implement within two or three months and we haven't heard from them seven months later."

Other travel management companies have seen similar results. "For more than a year now, a lot of companies have called to talk to us about meetings consolidation, but many of them never get farther than some good discussions," said Scott Graf, vice president and general manager of group travel services at McCord Travel Management in Chicago. "Either the companies have such issues as mergers and acquisitions that have to be dealt with first, or there are issues with the people holding the budget not wanting to change things."

Norwalk, Conn.-based conglomerate ABB Inc. has considered consolidation for the past few years, but doesn't plan any concrete action until next year, at the earliest. "We are interested in consolidating meetings but we have nothing formal planned, though we hope to at least get some information from the field in 2001, with an internal survey regarding spending," said Margaret Crowley, ABB's manager of business travel and fleet administration. "We're totally decentralized and don't really have our arms around that spend."

ABB is challenged not only by busy schedules but by the lack of desire throughout the company regarding consolidation. "It's just a matter of having other pressing priorities," Crowley said. "Plus, nobody but corporate travel is really looking at this. Nobody is hopping around waiting for us to do it. It's a monumental task."

Oracle Corp. of Redwood City, Calif., also has been contemplating a consolidated meetings program, but director of corporate travel Valerie Cordell said the size of the huge company has made the process difficult. "We don't have it off the ground yet," Cordell said. "There's so many groups that this crosses over to that don't report up to the same towers. A lot of our group and meetings work, for example, is done by our marketing folks, who have nothing to do with finance, generally speaking. They have their own finance people to worry about that. Getting buy-in from all of those groups has been difficult."

Oracle personnel changes have resulted in a new batch of managers, some of whom are more open to the consolidation concept, Cordell said, and the climate has become more amenable to push the program. Also, Oracle's online booking subsidiary, E-Travel, partnered with meeting portal StarCite, giving Cordell an opportunity to broach the topic again

"A big impetus was E-Travel partnering with StarCite. That gave me a reason to go in again and convince people that the time was right to jump in," Cordell said. "Now, the challenge is whether to take baby steps or roll everything out full-blown. We'll probably take baby steps."

While any consolidation can be complex and difficult, Graf believes the most important aspect is securing the backing of the highest corporate management. "You've got to show the highest management you can that the company can save a specific amount," Graf said. "That will turn their heads."

Blevins believes some of the corporations that proposed aggressive, companywide consolidation will take a more cautious approach. "They walk very aggressively out of the box, then they get the bids in and realize their complexity, take a step back and take a different approach," she said. "They may try to consolidate one division as a pilot program, or just purchase a technological solution that will eventually get them closer. I still think it's very much out there, but clients are looking at different methods.