AMERICAN EXPRESS, STARCITE TO OFFER COMPANIES INNOVATIVE MEETINGS MANAGEMENT SOLUTION
Co-branded Solution to Help Companies Reach New Levels of Visibility, Control and Savings
NEW YORK, September 06, 2007 -- American Express and StarCite, the largest on-demand global meetings management company, today announced that they will create an innovative Web solution customized to help joint American Express® Global Commercial Card and StarCite clients drive greater savings from online meetings management. The two companies will create a solution that integrates StarCite's e-sourcing and planning tools with American Express' expertise in paying for, reconciling, and analyzing meetings spend.
Online meetings management is a fast-growing business practice across a wide range of industries. According to travel industry research firm PhoCusWright, as many as 60% of corporate meetings will be booked online by 2008.
"We're creating a global, integrated solution that seamlessly connects the front-end and back-end meetings management processes to enable clients and prospective clients with large, and often fragmented, meeting programs to access total meetings spend data -- something they have not been able to do before," said Gunther Bright, Senior Vice President of the Global Client Group at American Express. "With this new spend visibility, our clients will be better equipped to both control spend and improve their buying clout with suppliers."
"Though meetings and events are a major corporate expense, they remain a largely untouched area for spend management, providing companies with an opportunity to realize savings of up to 20%(1) through a more strategic approach," said Michael Boult, President and Chief Executive Officer, StarCite. "Our joint offering with American Express will make it easier than ever for businesses to achieve the savings and efficiency benefits of strategic meetings management by making an integrated solution -- from sourcing and planning to payment and reconciliation -- available for the first time."
In the first version of the co-branded solution, American Express and StarCite will introduce functionality to help companies minimize costs related to back-office administration of meetings expenditures. American Express Global Commercial Card spend data will be automatically uploaded into the co-branded solution, allowing clients to more easily and efficiently reconcile actual expenditures with corporate budget line items.
The following features will be offered as part of the co-branded solution exclusively for American Express Global Commercial Card clients:
- Broader capture of meeting spend data, including information that segments expenditures by multiple categories, such as catering, sleeping rooms, audiovisual and conference room rental charges. Reporting generated from meetings spend data will give Global Commercial Card clients new and more comprehensive insight into their spend -- via the American Express @ Work® Web-based reporting tool. This data can be used to more closely track employee compliance, as well as to improve future negotiations with hotels.
- Online transaction investigation. The integrated solution will offer meeting planners the ability to resolve issues with questionable charges via direct emails to suppliers.
- Powerful sourcing capabilities, with exclusive hotel offers from American Express. The co-branded solution will also feature StarCite's Web-based Global Meeting Marketplace for meetings services, such as hotel space, food and beverage services and ground transportation. This Marketplace links buyers with StarCite's nearly 100,000 properties and meeting suppliers in key markets around the world. In addition, companies will be able to take advantage of exclusive American Express hotel offers for their meetings spend.
American Express and StarCite will introduce the new solution to a select group of large and global corporations beginning this fall and will implement broadly early next year.
About American Express Global Commercial Card
Through its Global Commercial Card group, American Express provides the Corporate Card, Corporate Purchasing Solutions, and other expense management services to mid-sized companies and large corporations worldwide. In the US, it is the leading issuer of commercial cards, serving more than 60% of the Fortune 1,000, as well as tens of thousands of mid-sized companies. American Express issues local-currency commercial cards in 40 countries, and International Dollar Corporate Cards in an additional 100 countries.
About StarCite
StarCite, Inc. is the leading provider of On Demand Global Meeting Solutions(TM). StarCite optimizes global investments in corporate meetings and events, delivering visibility, savings and control. StarCite provides process efficiency, enabling technology and proven adoption management support to drive significant cost reduction to buyers and enhanced revenues to suppliers. StarCite is based in Philadelphia. StarCite's equity holders include Internet Capital Group (NASDAQ: ICGE), TPG Growth, Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), and TL Ventures. For more information about StarCite or its technologies and services, please visit www.starcite.com.
(1) "Leveraging Enterprise Meeting Management Solutions," a META Group Whitepaper, c 2004, and StarCite customer experience
Contacts:
Don Munro
516.328.7336
DMunro@optonline.net