Increasingly, companies are incorporating elements not traditionally in the mix, such as ground transportation, into their SMMP.
Cvent and American Express Meetings & Events have partnered with miMeetings in a move that will help meeting planners incorporate ground transportation into their SMMP. The platform lets users source ground transportation for multiple transportation providers and assists with negotiating and securing event-specific pricing and delivering services that are consistent with corporate best practices.
“More mature SMMPs are adding additional categories of spend under their control, such as audiovisual and ground transportation,” confirmed Betsy Bondurant, CMM, CTE, president of Bondurant Consulting and a long-time leader in strategic meetings management. “This is especially helpful for companies that are managing regulated healthcare professional meetings. Platforms such as miMeetings are very helpful in tracking and accounting for all of the spend that quite frequently flies under the radar.”
The move by both companies is designed to alleviate the major pain points of managing ground transportation for planners. The miMeetings system minimizes flight manifest errors through connectivity with FAA data, intelligently groups attendees to eliminate unnecessary rides, and allows for detailed reporting, standardized invoicing and simplified payment process.
According to American Express Meetings & Events, meeting planners can expect to save 22 to 30 percent off their total ground transportation costs when using the company’s Meetings Ground Transportation platform, supported by miMeetings.
“With the right solutions and partners, it is possible to make ground transportation a strategic component of any meetings program,” said Linda McNairy, vice president of the Americas at American Express Meetings & Events. “Meetings Ground Transportation makes management of ground transportation simple and easy, which has not been possible to this extent previously.”
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