Mpoint.com focuses on planners

CLEVELAND -- PlanSoft Corp. launched a new and improved Web site under a new name.

Mpoint.com replaces the original site, www.plansoft.com.

According to PlanSoft chief executive officer David Hunt, the new site reflects results of research and surveys conducted to find what meeting planners want in an on-line site.

"With Mpoint, we're delivering what planners asked for -- an easy-to-use, efficient on-line resource that makes their lives easier," he said.

PlanSoft, which launched its Web site in 1997, is one of the largest companies that provides free on-line site selection and requests for proposals (RFPs) services to planners.

The new site comes after a year of growth for the company.

In August, planners submitted more than 600 RFPs on-line, which represented 115,000 hotel room nights, up from 30,000 for the same month last year.

Chris Stadler, vice president of marketing, explained that the firm's efforts had previously centered on only attracting meeting planners.

"Now we are going to a wider audience, and we've got to be able to deliver. We've spent a lot of time on our interface," she told Travel Weekly.

Stadler explained that part-time planners -- such as marketing, human resources, or training development employees who organize meetings -- will not spend time on-line unless the site's system is easy to navigate.

According to PlanSoft, half of the 21,000 people registered with the site are full-time planners who average 30 meetings a year.

Mpoint features many of the components of the former site, plus new and enhanced features.

The home page aims at making it easier to navigate the system, which, according to the company, has a database of 20,000 hotels and facilities and 30,000 suppliers (including all U.S. hotels with more than 5,000 square feet of meeting space).

The search engine features improvements that narrow down searches and is designed so users never get a "zero" result.

PlanSoft believes its new comparison section is unique.

Up to eight properties at once can be compared, with display information ranging from rates and size of meeting space to whether the property has a high-speed Internet connection or a golf course nearby.

Information on properties has been expanded, with more photographs, multimedia and floor plans.

RFP forms, which can be stored for future use, were simplified.

Three new features, resulting from contracts signed earlier this year for co-branded Web sites, are:

Meetingjobs.com site.

PlanSoft also has enhanced its five discussion forums, which cover such subjects as negotiations and legal issues, by providing an expert as moderator for each.

Web site offers weekly tips

CLEVELAND -- PlanSoft's new home page features a Tip of the Week section.

"Be Sure of Your Travel Agency" was the tip at press time.

"To be sure that the travel agency you may be contracting for your meeting can truly handle your business, you need to ask eight crucial questions," it said.

Click for more and the questions were: