A Value-prop in C-level Terms

“When executives understand the magnitude of the dollars being spent on meetings, and they understand that there is no central visibility into that spend, that's when they sit up and say, ‘You know, we could have a quick win here.’” That's how Kevin Young, vice president of marketing and midmarket solutions for meetings-technology provider StarCite, sees it. StarCite has developed a model to project the effect that a strategic meeting management program will have on earnings, the expected ROI of an SMMP, the payback period for this type of investment, and other metrics. StarCite weighs such factors as the industry in which the company competes, annual revenue, travel and expense spend, and how mature the company already is in terms of its meetings management.

Young says that, so far, the projections have proven to be pretty accurate. On average, the companies that StarCite analyzed saw a savings of between 15 percent and 20 percent from making the technology investment.

“We give this model to the people we are working with so that it is easier for them to go speak to their CFO and say, ‘Here is the business case for doing this.’” Without data, he says, “Frankly, the CFO doesn't care.”