American Express Issues Core Strategies to a Successful Meetings Management Program.

NEW YORK -- American Express Business Travel Outlines Strategies to Achieve Savings and Control of Corporate Meetings Expenditures

In response to increasing corporate demand, American Express Business Travel today released core strategies for establishing a best-in-class meeting expense management program. These strategies are designed to reduce companies' direct expenditures in the meetings arena and ultimately drive savings and establish control over meeting spending, while establishing and increasing compliance with corporate meetings management policies.

For the majority of companies, travel and entertainment expenses continue to be the second-largest controllable expense after salaries. Meetings spend constitutes between one- and two-thirds of overall corporate travel spend. Companies are increasingly seeking ways to reduce these expenses and many have identified the need for a formal expense management strategy to cut and control meeting costs including direct expenditures, such as airline tickets, hotel rooms, dining and ground transportation, as well as the administrative costs of managing corporate meetings.

"Corporate meetings are the next frontier for cost-savings in travel management," said Jay Roseman, Vice President of American Express Business Travel. "Corporations can achieve significant bottom-line savings through a strategic approach to managing their meetings spending. By systematically examining their meetings spend and implementing a disciplined approach to managing this category, as we've mapped out in our strategy, companies can create programs that will lead to reduced costs, greater control over spending and a high degree of compliance with corporate policies."

The core components of a well-managed meetings program include:

1. Policy and Change Management - Senior management should develop and endorse a meetings travel policy that is then communicated to the end-users.

2. Preferred Supplier Programs - Corporate Expense Managers should support their company's existing preferred supplier programs when consolidating volume under a meetings expense management program or develop preferred supplier programs with meetings service providers

3. Compliance Management - Actively managing end-user compliance to policy and preferred supplier programs is the key to modifying employees' purchasing behavior.

4. Payment Platform - The standardization of a payment platform is an important method to identify and consolidate meetings spend, with the goal being the insertion of new controls, leveraging spend in vendor negotiations and managing compliance with policy and preferred supplier programs.

5. Data Consolidation - Data is critical to a well-managed program and can be collected through a card product, corporate software or via selected meetings management technology applications. Data to be collected: final spend, savings, budgeting, preferred supplier usage, compliance and benchmarking data.

6. Benchmarking - Allows the meetings management program manager to evaluate and communicate program successes and enables the corporation to remain competitive.

7. Technology - An enabler that supports overall program goals. Technology tools play a key role in introducing process efficiencies, supporting preferred supplier controls, tracking spend data, reducing costs and improving servicing of meetings and events.

"Once corporate demand for meetings is centralized and total data on spend is compiled, a corporation will be in a much stronger position to track purchasing, leverage its volume and negotiate with suppliers in both its meetings and transient travel programs," continued Roseman.

American Express Business Travel helps corporations effectively manage their corporate meetings program by assessing current meetings processes, designing a strategic roadmap to support program goals, managing the implementation of policies and procedures and sustaining results through savings summaries and key performance indicators. American Express Business Travel strategic approach to corporate meetings management helps clients achieve savings, process enhancements and greater oversight of meetings spend.

About American Express Corporate Services 

American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. operates one of the world's largest travel agency networks, recording $19.9 billion in worldwide travel sales in 2004. More information on expense management tools from Corporate Services can be found at http://www.americanexpress.com/corporateservices.

The American Express Company is a diversified worldwide travel, financial and network services company founded in 1850. It is a leader in charge and credit cards, Travelers Cheques, travel, financial planning, investment products, insurance and international banking.

American Express acts solely as sales agent for travel suppliers and is not liable for the actions or inactions of such suppliers. CST# 1022318-10, TA# 002- Registered Iowa Travel Agency, TA# 149- Registered Ohio Travel Agency, NV# 2001-0126, ML#1192, Washington UBI# 600-469-694