Corporations Gain Control Over Far-Flung Food Spend

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Feb. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Ask any corporate CFO who manages multiple offices and large, remote sales forces how they manage their spending on meals for corporate events, and you're likely to get a shrug of the shoulders. In an era of micromanagement of nearly every corporate expense line, it's still a challenge for many corporations to know who's spending what on delivered meals.

One web-based corporate catering service sees huge opportunity in the need for control over business meetings and the meals that fuel them. Vmeals ( www.vmeals.com), a leading online meal ordering service, offers a single point of real-time information for harried corporate accountants.

"In businesses as varied as pharmaceuticals, financial services and consulting, which rely heavily on catering services for client meetings, spending on food is highly fragmented," said W. Carter Hoerr, chief executive of Vmeals.  "Companies have multiple credit cards in the hands of office administrators and field salespeople. Budgets are a moving target because catering invoices are coming from many sources, making invoicing a nightmare and monthly expense reporting late and unreliable.

"Our technology gives our corporate customers a level of budget control that has not been available to corporations before," said Hoerr. "That includes meals ordered in multiple cities by multiple offices from multiple restaurants. It includes meals paid by either invoice or credit card. Finally, our technology provides critical information about each meal order, including date, time, delivery location, buyer, number of attendees, total cost, and more."

The current economic downturn has increased demand for technology to control meal expenses. Even as spending on delivered meals slumped across some customer segments in 2009, Vmeals increased its investment in technology, marketing, and customer service to meet the demand.  "We felt that it was critical to continue investing in our brand and web services," says Hoerr. "As the economy strengthens, we are in a strong position to provide our customers with expanded choices, better service and even more spending controls."