View the entire 2009 SMMP Software Buying Guide

THE ORIGINAL
StarCite

The Story: StarCite jumped out in front in offering meeting management consolidation tools and site selection. “We see ourselves as a platform to support strategic meetings management,” says Kevin Young. “We don’t just provide tactical planning tools.” Launched in 1999 as a spinoff of meeting management firm McGettigan, StarCite acquired a few companies early on, such as B-there and RegWeb, to add attendee registration, meetings management, and budgeting tools to its online marketplace and e-RFP offering. In late 2006, StarCite merged with OnVantage (itself a merger of PlanSoft and SeeUthere). The combination resulted in a new StarCite platform.

Product Type: SaaS

For Meeting Management:

• Meeting request and approval
• Enterprise calendar
• Planner resource management
• Venue database and e-RFPs
• Budget management
• Attendee management, including registration, surveys, and e-mail marketing
• Custom reports on cost savings, cost avoidance, and spend, aggregated or segregated as needed
• Small Meeting Solution to book smaller meetings

Supplier Database? Yes, with 93,000 suppliers, created by StarCite and updated by both StarCite staff and hotels themselves

Supplier Database Marketing Packages: Several packages are available. “We offer suppliers many opportunities to promote themselves,” Young says. “They can come up higher in the search list, add enhanced content to listings, banner ads, a host of opportunities. Suppliers who invest in Search Engine Optimization see better results when they make themselves easier to find.” (StarCite declined to offer pricing information.)

Do you get commissions or finder’s fees from hotels? “We never collect commissions,” Young says. Previously, StarCite charged a per-room-night fee to hotels, conference centers, and destination management companies booking business from StarCite RFPs. However, Young says, “we will be moving away from transaction fees on RFPs to suppliers. Those fees will end beginning in 2010.”

RFP Customization: “Our clients can customize the cover page of their RFPs and highlight critical information or instructions,” Young says. “There is also a section of our RFP for custom questions.”

What are the ways hotels can respond to your RFPs? “StarCite provides every supplier in our marketplace access to the Group Lead Center to manage and forward RFPs,” Young says. “We also have several lead-management technology products that are used by chains and national sales offices to manage RFPs for their properties. StarCite is integrated with NewMarket International’s MeetingBroker. We also have integration partnerships to allow several major brands to respond directly from their internal sales systems.”

What do corporate clients pay for? An annual subscription fee based on “the depth and breadth of a client’s meetings program and the total meeting spend a company will be managing in the system,” Young says. “There is an implementation fee (which varies with the level of integration deployed within a company’s internal technology). StarCite also provides additional consulting services for companies that want help creating strategic meetings management programs, or establishing preferred-vendor programs, a meetings policy, or a standardized contracting process.”

Credit-Card Partner? American Express. Meeting planners can automatically upload their AmEx meeting card charges to easily reconcile to the event budget.

Enhancements: Quarterly

Support: 24/7; personnel are based in StarCite’s headquarters in Philadelphia, Pa.; and offices in Dusseldorf, Germany; and Shanghai, China.

Our Differentiators: “First, our technology itself,” Young says. “We are an end-to-end technology platform designed for SMMPs. We have 400 clients who have been using us for years. Second is our experience. Our team members can consult on any piece of the process. Third is that our software has been designed for global deployment. We can handle multiple languages and currencies. Finally, StarCite’s Global Meetings Marketplace and e-RFP tool are the most widely used in the industry and have set the standard for managing meetings and events. One thing that sets StarCite apart from others is that all of the information contained in StarCite’s e-RFP stays within its database to be managed by both the planner and the supplier. This enables faster responses as information does not have to be rekeyed. It also enables planners to instantly compare results side by side online.”

Other SMMP Software profiles:
Arcaneo Metron
Cvent
Lenos
StarCite
Certain Software
Meeting Evolution