StarCite Goes Live with Life Sciences Industry-Specific Strategic Meetings Management Solution at ACTE Berlin

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--StarCite, Inc., the leading provider of Web-based solutions to strategically manage corporate meetings and events, today announced it will go live with its new Life Sciences Solution at the Association of Corporate Travel Executives Global Education Conference taking place in Berlin on October 3-5. This industry-specific strategic meetings management solution incorporates the best practices of StarCite’s array of top healthcare, pharmaceutical and life sciences clients and is pre-configured to help companies adhere to increasing regulatory demands to track and report all expenses that involve health care professionals (HCPs).

“We advise meetings managers to work closely with their purchasing and compliance officers to ensure that appropriate processes are in place and they can provide reporting for meetings and events expenses”

“We advise meetings managers to work closely with their purchasing and compliance officers to ensure that appropriate processes are in place and they can provide reporting for meetings and events expenses,” says Kevin Iwamoto, vice president, enterprise strategy, StarCite. “Implementing StarCite’s solution will help life sciences companies assure compliance with HCP requirements while saving time and money in their meetings programs. In the U.S. and across EMEA, getting ahead of changes in legislation and reporting rules resulting from health care reform is a critical concern of meeting managers at pharmaceutical companies, medical device makers and biotech firms since the inability to comply with local and national regulations could end up costing them millions of dollars in fines and penalties.”

The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), the European Union and individual country directives have set regulations around interactions between pharmaceutical companies and health care professionals. In the U.S., the Physician Payments Sunshine Provision in the recent health care reform legislation requires drug and medical device manufacturers to publicly report gifts and payments made to physicians and others such as teaching hospitals.¹ Meetings and events expenditures represent a significant portion of those expenses that must be reported.

StarCite’s Life Sciences Solution incorporates specialized budgeting, approval and reporting features within StarCite’s leading Meetings Management Suite, including:

Meeting request and approval processes that ensure all necessary data is being collected and all required approvals are obtained
Sourcing controls to ensure meetings are planned at HCP-appropriate facilities
Specific budget fields / line items and categories aligned with HCP requirements
New HCP reporting package
Integration opportunities that will allow clients to consolidate all HCP and other meetings data with other critical systems such as customer relationship management (CRM) and expense management systems.

More information on the solution will be available at the StarCite booth #12 at ACTE Berlin. StarCite and one of its leading pharmaceutical clients will also host an informational Webinar on the topic on Monday, October 25 at 2:00 pm ET. Visit www.starcite.com to sign up for the webinar.

¹ The Physician Payment Sunshine provisions were included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009 (H.R. 3590, section 6002) which was signed into law on March 23, 2010.

About StarCite, Inc.

StarCite, Inc. provides a technology platform that makes meetings and event planning, booking and management simpler, and more cost-effective for corporations, hotels, venues and meetings suppliers worldwide. StarCite delivers visibility, cost savings and control over meetings spending for businesses and enhanced revenue opportunities for suppliers. Through Web-based, on-demand technology, StarCite automates and supports every key element of the meetings planning and procurement process: planning, budgeting, buying, marketing and managing attendees, payment, and results measurement. Using StarCite’s proprietary online marketplace, meetings buyers can connect and conduct business with over 93,000 hotels, venues, destinations and suppliers globally. StarCite is based in Philadelphia, PA. Its equity holders include Internet Capital Group (NASDAQ: ICGE), TPG Growth, Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), and TL Ventures. For more information about StarCite please visit www.starcite.com.