How often are new features available?
Too often: 6%
Just often enough: 58%
Not often enough: 36%
Computer technology has changed the lives of
meeting planners (not to mention the rest of the world) drastically
in the past 10 years. To find out how satisfied planners are with
the software they use to track their event data, M&C and NTM
Research conducted an online survey in November.
More than two-thirds (68 percent) of the 352
meeting professionals who responded report using some sort of
software to track meetings data, but a surprisingly large number 32
percent are still using paper.
No one meetings-specific system is prevalent among those who use
software to track meetings data. The program cited most often was
Peopleware Pro; 9 percent of those polled use it. Of the 239 people
who wrote in a type of software they use for meetings other than
the choices provided on the survey, 10 percent named Microsoft
Access, Excel or both.
Two thirds of respondents are satisfied with their current
software. Almost half (48 percent) were formally trained on how to
use it, but almost as many (45 percent) trained themselves.
Thirty-seven percent make good use of their system’s entire
functionality, yet a larger 47 percent of those polled take
advantage of only the parts of the system they need.
Despite a relatively high satisfaction with their tracking
software, 38 percent say they would switch if they could. Still,
among the remaining 62 percent who would not switch, 80 percent say
there is not enough money in the budget to make a change, 32
percent note their IT departments will only support the current
system, and 26 percent still want to learn more about their
system’s capabilities.
