SMMP 2.0

Next Generation SMMP: Centralizing Small Meetings
You've secured senior-level buy-in, centralized all meetings functions, communicated your policies and implemented your SMMP. Now what? Are small meetings the next frontier? With so many companies embracing the power of meetings to market themselves, it only makes sense that the market is maturing. In searching for additional savings and efficiencies, small-meeting spend has now become the low-hanging fruit for many companies. While certainly there is great opportunity, it will undoubtedly be a challenge, even for those with mature strategic meeting management programs.

Gone are the days of unmanaged spend, large expense accounts and discretionary budgets. The pharmaceutical industry pioneered the concept of SMMP in the early 1990s and provided sparkling results impossible to ignore by other industries. By the sheer volume of meetings, larger companies like Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly were able to save tens of millions of dollars in their SMMP infancy stages, to rave reviews by their management teams.

Now SMMP is all the rage in corporate America, with roughly 60% of Fortune 1000 companies having a program in place. With annual savings typically around the 10% mark for successful implementations, CFOs and CEOs have been very pleased with the results. With decreased consumer spending, most companies are in cost cutting mode, which means they’ll be thinking if we cut that much off our meetings budget last time, surely we can cut costs further. With a solid small meetings strategy prepared and a plan of action ready to be put in place, you’ll be in a position to shine. In a time of economic uncertainty, this might help to avoid project cancellations, budget cuts and staff layoffs.

Whether you recognize it or not, there are plenty of ‘meetings’ happening off the books. Some stakeholders want to maintain control of their programs, and there are many ways to stay under the guidelines radar. The most common is to have one program billed over several invoices. Your first step to overcoming these sorts of issues should be soundly communicating the reasoning behind such centralization. It’s not about taking control, but sharing a common goal of cost reduction and doing more with less. Many culprits are internal DIY administrators who lack contract negotiation and risk management experience.

“MEETING IN A BOX”
Preferred-vendor contracts are a favorite tool for controlling the costs of small meetings. Negotiate tiered pre-packaged programs that the individual user can select, even for as little as five attendees. This approach should allow for cancellation clauses, room night rates, function room rentals, F&B and A/V. With short lead times a constant for small meetings, hotels face numerous challenges in responding to requests quickly. Try to send as many individual travelers to preferred hotels in order to create more value as a partner (and leverage spending).

Like the stock market, hotel occupancy and rates are down significantly (numbers here). Average U.S. occupancy was down 7% in the first week of October over the same period in 2007. Rates dropped 1% and revenue per available room slipped 8%. Luxury hotels took the brunt, with occupancy off 12%, rates down 5% and revenue declining 16% . Hotels are looking to boost revenue any way they can, and what better way to do it than with those who are already spending? But there are limits. Small meetings mean smaller budgets, and certain concessions attained by larger groups are not as feasible in the smaller realm.

There is no ‘template’ to this initiative that will suit every company and situation. Internal interviews, historical data analysis and supplier research need to be conducted more thoroughly. You may also want to look at how you receive data from hotels when an individual’s credit card is used. During the data collection phase it will become clear that a single form of payment strategy will make ongoing data collection much simpler.

MEETING CARDS
Corporations with meeting budgets near $10 million a year and a meeting policy in place were the early adopters of meeting cards. But any company that wants a better grip on meeting spend could benefit from a card program. Meeting cards work to corral spending, then as control, and eventually as a more efficient management tool. Under a typical invoice payment system, employees can select any expense code they want. As a result, many meeting expenses end up in a miscellaneous category, which makes gathering data even more difficult. By issuing these pre-populated cards to the DIY administrators, you might find that their unmanaged spend comes into clearer focus.

TECHNOLOGY AS AN ENABLER
Most large hotel chains have developed internal technology solutions that interface with the small meeting applications provided by companies such as StarCite and Concur. Recently StarCite has made a big push in the small meetings area with an online booking tool that allows customers to enter their own negotiated rates and contract terms into the system. Hyatt and Hilton have also expanded their offerings when it comes to small meetings, recognizing the importance to their corporate clients. Be mindful of the fees charged to the hotels by your technology provider, as it will definitely affect your pre-negotiated rates. Worktopia recently launched an online meeting space booking tool that can prove to be very helpful when lead times are extremely short.

Another effective solution to cutting costs using technology is to push as many of these smaller meetings online as possible. Webconferencing works particularly well with smaller internal meetings that regularly occur amongst regional sales teams. Many of these stakeholders book meeting space at a hotel out of habit, when their objectives can be accomplished much more effectively and economically by hosting a web meeting. Assure them that face to face meetings will never be abandoned, but reducing the sales teams travel expenses and time out of the office will benefit everyone’s bottom-line. There is no shortage of great providers: WebEx, GoToMeeting, Adobe, Microsoft, ON24, Saba and Genesys. For additional information on their offerings, CLICK HERE

TIME MANAGEMENT
One thing all planners are short on is time. Once you’ve negotiated your terms, outsource as many of the non-core components as possible. Centralize your business with a third party outsourcing firm you trust and let them manage the time-consuming details that arise. BUCOM has assisted numerous clients with arranging small meeting packages with very reasonable rates.

Whether you choose to negotiate packages with hotels, utilize new technologies or roll out a meeting card plan, you will undoubtedly face many challenges, particularly in this uncertain economic environment. Maintaining your focus on the big picture, which means not getting bogged down with all the minutiae, is paramount to success in such a large initiative.