American Express Business Travel, the travel management company, announced the first electronic solution for negotiating…
American Express Business Travel, the travel management company, announced the first electronic solution for negotiating corporate meeting venues. The web-based application was developed exclusively for American Express Business Travel by StarCite, the provider of On Demand Global Meeting Solutions, to complement the services offered by Corporate Meeting Solutions, a meetings procurement practice at American Express.
The new American Express electronic auction (e-auction) solution brings corporations and hoteliers together in a transparent Internet arena, providing greater visibility into the venue bid negotiation process. The tool helps meeting buyers and procurement professionals to quickly identify and source strategic hotel partners for their meetings needs and field competitive package offers consistent with their corporate travel policies and preferred supplier strategies. When used in conjunction with American Express’ strategic sourcing practices the new e-auction solution brings greater rigor to meetings procurement, helping corporate buyers gain greater control over and derive more value from their meetings spend.
Additionally, the e-auction technology helps buyers to reduce cycle time and achieve improved sourcing and decision-making efficiency gains. It also helps hoteliers to focus on providing the best, most competitive meetings packages possible.
The e-auction tool will be available in January for American Express’ U.S.-based clients, with a global release to follow later in the year.
“The new, ground-breaking American Express e-auction technology supports an historically complex event management bidding process, making it easier than ever for corporations to realize greater value from their meetings investment, better leverage preferred supplier relationships, and more closely link meetings purchasing to their overall travel procurement strategy,” said Jay Roseman, Vice President of Corporate Meeting Solutions, American Express Business Travel. “When used in conjunction with our strategic purchasing programs, the American Express e-auction tool helps to further streamline deal-making, allowing meeting and procurement buyers and hotel suppliers to more effectively negotiate and together generate the best overall meeting package.”
“This tool is just the latest example of StarCite’s long and productive partnership with American Express Business Travel. We’re pleased to have been asked by American Express to develop such a complementary addition to their Corporate Meeting Solutions practice,” said Michael Boult, President and CEO of StarCite. “Meetings management is one of the last great frontiers of unmanaged corporate travel spending. As a leader in strategic meetings management technologies we’re excited to provide the tool that will help pave the way for smarter, more efficient and cost-effective bid negotiations for all participants.”
How It Works
Using the American Express e-auction solution for meetings management is simple and straightforward. First, corporate buyers identify a threshold volume for meetings and events that must be competitively bid via the e-auction tool. For each unique event, American Express Business Travel procurement specialists then initiate a site search based on the client’s stated meeting requirements, preferred supplier strategy and travel policy. Based on the tailored availability report generated, the buyer narrows its venue options down to a short list of suppliers and properties that appear best prepared to provide the value clients require. Finally, American Express hosts the actual e-auction via a secure extranet-site allowing the buyer to customize the bid process and receive a formal offer within minutes. The auction thereby gives buyers significant flexibility during the bidding process, allowing buyers to tailor their requests.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
