sehe ich inzwischen eher Starcite als Metastorm, denn Starcite ist einer - wenn auch Nische - weltweit haushoch die Nummer 1.
Hewlett Packard and Starcite
HP Finds ROI In Global Meetings Strategy
by Mary Ann McNulty
19 August 2010 Houston - Globalizing its strategic meetings management program has delivered a high return on investment to Hewlett-Packard Co., but the initiative has taken more than five years and "we're not done yet," HP meetings global category manager Shirley Kuhloie said here last week at the National Business Travel Association convention. Expanding and adapting a strategic meetings management program that started in the United States and Canada, HP's global travel and meeting services team has deployed the centralized service model to 18 countries in Europe, Middle East and Africa and four countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The program offers a meeting card in 10 countries and meeting service bureaus in Barcelona, Spain, China, Sydney, Australia, and the United States. Operated by an outsourced provider, the bureaus engage in hotel sourcing, attendee registration and air reservations, and other fulfillment needs of stakeholders. HP meeting planners, administrative assistants or other stakeholders are directed to register their meetings and request services through the StarCite technology that the company has selected. Meeting service bureau employees then contact the planners to fulfill the services needed. "Part of the reason we decided to go with a centralized team was to have a core group of individuals managing contracts, ensuring that they are HP legal-compliant and negotiating all the terms and conditions," Kuhloie said. "We think there's a great deal of risk in contracting and in letting individuals who don't have a background in planning meetings" do so, she added. "We look at the local team in the region as being critically important because they understand the cultural differences in contracting, understand the market and know what to ask for in terms of rates and concessions. It's very difficult for us to believe that we in the United States know what to ask for overseas." HP has a published global meetings policy, but employees are not mandated to use the program. Speaking to peers, Kuhloie said, she often has found that "there's a continued desire to have your program published and followed, but not often does leadership within an organization mandate that it be followed." Instead, Kuhloie markets the program benefits and services, all of which are funded at the corporate level. "The business units are more readily in tune with the benefits of using the program when they understand that it is centrally funded," Kuhloie said. "If they're able to obtain the assistance, knowledge and experience of a team of people to help with contracting, group air and setting up attendee registration Web sites, it's welcome."
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