Active Network Inc. recently entered into a strategic association with Hogg Robinson Group (HRG). Describing the association with HRG as favorable, Active Network will now offer HRG Meetings Manager powered by Active Network StarCite to its customers. The solution permits international sourcing of meeting settings and other meeting-related services, offering a unified view of meeting expenses. Customers will therefore have increased control over meetings, resulting in decreased expenses and less risk.

According to analysts, today only one-fourth of enterprises have instantaneous visibility into meeting expenses against corporate budgets. Nearly 205 million people have most likely attended 1.8 million meetings, resulting in $263 billion in direct expenses in the United States. It has therefore become imperative to implement strategic meetings management.

In a statement, John Harvey, special projects director at HRG, said, “Our preferred relationship with Active Network will enable us to make the business of strategic meetings management more effective for everyone involved. Intuitive for our travel consultants to use and well suited to helping us manage our clients’ strategic meetings programs, the use of HRG Meetings Manager in an increasing number of countries enhances our worldwide capability and means that clients and suppliers can receive quality, consistent and cost-effective sourcing across multiple markets.”

HRG Meetings Manager is widely used in several European markets. A phased roll-out will be initially initiated across additional HRG international networks in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. In the future, roll-outs are also planned in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.

JR Sherman, SVP, Business Solutions at Active Network, said, “Just as we’ve seen corporations make a priority of automating their sales and human resource departments, Active Network believes that SMM is another level of global corporate spend that needs to be automated in order to help ensure the financial health of a company. We’re fortunate to have a partner like HRG who recognizes the importance of SMM and can help us pioneer the industry. Together, we’re confident that we can achieve more accountability and ultimately greater insight into meetings spend worldwide.”