©1999 Corbin Ball Associates

There are at least 170 meeting planning software products that offer help with everything from pre-meeting budgeting, post-meeting analysis and nearly every job in between! The challenges are how to find the right products and how to incorporate them into your office environment. With the plethora of programs, where do you start? This article will cover several questions that should be considered in this process. Existing office environment: The first step is to look at your current level of computerization and determine if your IS (Information Services) Department will need to become involved: Do you work on a corporate-wide network? What database are you using and is it company-wide? Do you wish to integrate any new software products with this database? If the answer is "yes" to these questions, especially for medium to large corporations, you will need to involve your IS department. Many meeting planning software products are built around databases. Most can export and import into other (company-wide) databases, but this often is not a simple matter. Your IS department or an outside consultant can help you through these hurdles. On the other hand, if you are interested in tackling a specific problem, room diagramming for example, you may not require as much IS support. Your current software: The next step is to look at your current software, and at places where automation can help. Analyze your workflow to see where the bottlenecks are. Determine: What over-the-counter software (Access, Excel, WordPerfect) are you using? What meeting planning software products do you currently use? What problems exist with your current network, database and software products – are they user-friendly and easy to learn? What is needed to streamline your meeting planning tasks? What works well and what doesn’t? Is a total revamp of the system needed? What is your budget and timeframe for the change? What specific tasks and product categories will help the most? Specific requirements: Now that this groundwork has been done, it is time to focus on exactly what you will need.

There is a broad range of products. On the high-end, corporate and general meeting planning suites ("Swiss army knife" programs) handle a wide array of meeting planning and accounting tasks. These can cost a few thousand dollars to more than $100,000. These programs will require involvement with your IS and your accounting departments, as many are company-wide solutions to data flow and accounting in addition to meeting planning. However, there are also numerous task-specific products including badge making, budgeting, educational program management, exhibits, meetings specifications, registration, room diagramming, scheduling, site selection and may not need as much IS involvement. Typically, these products are less expensive and fill a specific need. To help in your search, I have just finished a new book, The Ultimate Meeting Professionals Software Guide and Directory, to be published by Meeting Professionals International this summer, containing detailed, categorized listings for more that 170 software products. See www.mpiweb.org for details. Narrowing it down: Once you have focussed on specific vendors, questions to ask should include: How long have they been in business? (There are many companies that have come and gone. Checking their longevity may help.) How many employees are in their company? What is the operating system that the software runs on and what are the system requirements? What are their support polices (help desk hours and costs, toll-free support, training, knowledge base on the web, email support)? What clients do they have that are similar to your company? What references do they have that include these clients? What are the costs, and how, specifically in an itemized manner, are these calculated? Do they have a demo version? Fortunately, many software companies now have web site with significant information, product descriptions and screen shots. Many offer free demo downloads as well. The future: Things are rapidly changing in the meeting planning software field. Many companies are developing or have recently offered web-based solutions for a number of meeting planning tasks. For example, on-line registration will likely become the standard in the near future. Make sure that the vendors you are considering are developing plans in this direction.

If you find this article helpful, please let me know by signing the Guest Book in the Contact Corbin Section..

BACK TO ARTICLES LIST