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Worktopia's Universal Meeting Solution(TM) Now Available via GetThere

Posted on: Wednesday, 18 February 2009, 07:00 CST

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Feb. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Worktopia(R), Inc., today announced expanded capabilities offered through its relationship with GetThere(R), the world's leading online corporate travel procurement solution. Worktopia's innovative Universal Meeting Solution(TM) (UMS) now integrates directly with the GetThere DirectCorporate system; allowing GetThere's corporate customers to control their unmanaged meeting spend, with preferred suppliers at pre-negotiated rates and terms.

Worktopia's Universal Meeting Solution provides live quotes and real-time booking of guest rooms, meeting space, audio visual and simple catering enabling companies to shop, compare and buy within policy guidelines for the first time. The new service is marketed by both firms.

GetThere's customer base leads the industry when it comes to deploying automated technologies that save money and make travel-related processes easier for business travelers. Since 2006, GetThere Meetings has grown its base of meetings-related trips at an average of almost 40 percent per year.

More than 3,000 companies use GetThere, including the majority of the 100 largest business travel programs in the U.S. Worktopia's UMS will be available to corporations with direct relationships with GetThere.

Adding this service to their existing GetThere agreement means GetThere subscribers can provide their employees with seamless access to a private label version of the Worktopia service. Travel and procurement managers will be provided unprecedented visibility and control over spend with management of preferred suppliers, and approvals.

"This expanded offering with GetThere represents a real milestone for the travel industry, providing true corporate spend management for simple offsite meetings," said Worktopia CEO John Arenas. "The full integration of our service within GetThere allows us to reach and serve the needs of this important Fortune 500 customer base immediately. Our software as a service platform means GetThere's corporate customers can activate this additional service and simply toggle on their supplier preferences for instant meeting spend management".

"Our approach is to provide our customers with best in class tools to manage their travel related spend," said Jeremy Stubbs, director of Go to Market Strategy for GetThere. "Worktopia's UMS offering leverages our platform and takes the lead in addressing our customer's demand for control and management of off-site meeting spend."

The Worktopia UMS also provides a range of tools with measurable benefits for meeting planners and corporate buyers. These include attendee management capabilities, user administration tools, detailed meeting activity reports, and cost analyses to assist executives in controlling meeting spend and ensure compliance within company policies and conformity with industry compliance standards.

GetThere customers can also choose to subscribe at the UMS-Corporate Edition level, which allows them to customize the template with their own branding. The UMS-Corporate Edition caters to organizations that have pre-negotiated contracts with hotels and business centers around the world, allowing such customers to direct bookings to preferred vendors and access their own designated rates, along with rates negotiated by Worktopia.

About GetThere(R)

GetThere is the world's leading global online corporate travel procurement solution, surpassing $9 billion in gross travel bookings in 2007. Through its unique technology sharing arrangement with Travelocity(R), GetThere is an established innovator in the travel arena. GetThere enables global corporations and government agencies to provide a convenient way for employees to book travel and plan meetings online while significantly reducing costs. GetThere estimates that corporations using the GetThere system collectively saved more than $600 million in airfare in 2007. GetThere's advanced technology works with all major global distribution systems (GDS) and all travel management companies. More than 3,000 corporations, including a majority of Fortune 200 companies that have online booking sites, use GetThere. More information is available at www.getthere.com.

About Worktopia(R) -- Worktopia, Inc. offers integrated solutions that allow meeting planners to search, compare and book simple meetings and group accommodations online in hotels, business centers and airport lounges worldwide. Worktopia's solutions also serve the needs of corporate executives, by providing new visibility into what their companies are spending on simple meetings, facilitating control, compliance and cost reduction efforts. The Worktopia meetings booking engine can be found at www.worktopia.com, in private label versions, and in TMC corporate booking tools and GDS agency desktops. Worktopia also delivers attendee management services in partnership with SignUp4.com. For more information, visit www.worktopia.com.

SOURCE Worktopia, Inc.

Source: PR Newswire

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