Solution Overview
Company Profile
Wyndham International, Inc. owns, leases, manages, and franchises luxury hotel and resort properties and provides management services for third party owned hotels and resorts. Their three operating divisions, Grand Bay Hotels & Resorts, the Wyndham Hotel Group, and Management Services, represent a combined portfolio of 311 hotels and resorts with more than 74,000 rooms in 38 states, Canada, Europe, and the Caribbean.
Situation
Wyndham International recognized the potential for the Web to provide greater access to sales leads from Internet-driven electronic Request For Proposal (e-RFP) sites. The emergence of Newmarket's groundbreaking technology was an opportunity to evaluate the potential for capturing new business via the Web while enhancing customer service.
Business Solution
was implemented at four diverse properties all running Newmarket's Delphi or Delphi MPE automated sales solutions. A time motion study showed that subscription charges to the e-RFP sites were quickly recovered from sales staff timesaving alone. Return on investment from exposure to new sales leads will take longer to evaluate.
Benefits
The benefits of using Microsoft technologies for this solution are speed, power, ease of use, and the ability for Newmarket developers to create transparent Internet solutions that improve the ways hotels and meeting planners do business, with no change to the established business rules. The integration of existing Microsoft SQL Server 7.0-based application with the Web provides hotels with an instant e-commerce strategy and the ability to create an end-to-end system, global in scope, which leverages customer data. Rapid response time closes out the competition and enhances customer service.
Group sales are a critical part of the mix at Wyndham International's 311 luxury hotels and resorts, located in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and Europe. When Microsoft Certified Solution Provider Newmarket offered a groundbreaking technology that would route leads submitted by meeting planners at Internet-driven electronic Request For Proposal (e-RFP) sites directly to sales and catering systems, Wyndham immediately recognized the potential for new business via the Web.
Beta installations of at four geographically and technologically diverse properties created the perfect proving ground for Newmarket's MicrosoftÒ SQL-Serverä-based solution to pull leads from the Web and integrate them with existing Newmarket automated sales solutions.
The Early Bird Gets the Worm
In the world of hotel sales, especially group sales, the hotelier who responds to the meeting planner first books the business. Response time is also critical to the customer and directly reflects how they perceive customer service.
Prior to and the explosive growth of the Internet, hotels obtained the majority of group sales leads through prospecting, cold calls, tradeshows, or from national sales offices. Other leads were received via fax. Responding to a fax was a time-consuming process for the both customer and the hotel. The fax must first make its way through the hotel's mail chain, and if the business is accepted, the customer information must be manually re-entered into the sales system to create an account and a booking.
An Exploding Market
is one of the first B2B e-commerce hubs for the hospitality industry, offering a new way for hotels and destinations to tap into the Internet as a source of sales leads.
also eliminates the need to re-enter data in the sales system, saving valuable sales staff time. Since information is stored in the system, even if the hotel declines a piece of business, the meeting profile is maintained in their system, which might be sent to another hotel, or accepted in the future.
Long-Time Partners
Newmarket selected Wyndham International as the first hotel partner for because Newmarket's Delphi automated sales solutions were already installed in various versions at many Wyndham properties throughout North America. The four pilot sites were selected for their geographically and technologically diverse profiles. The premier 1620-room Wyndham Anatole in Dallas, Texas; the Wyndham Palace Resort & Spa in Orlando, Florida; and the Wyndham El Conquistador in Puerto Rico already used Delphi. The Casa Marina Resort & Beach House, located in Key West, Florida ran Newmarket's cluster sales solution Delphi Multi-Property Edition (MPE).
"The selection of the four beta sites was critical," explains Rodd Herron, VP North American Sales. "We wanted to see if the Anatole, our largest recipient of leads could stand up to the volume and if customers would start using the Internet more to send leads. We also wanted an overseas site to track our international business."
A Global Trading Exchange
is a B2B e-commerce vertical hub for hospitality sales, fully compliant with the Microsoft BizTalkä server. It provides standardization to the lead generation process by translating leads created on various platforms while remaining a fully open system. Transparent to the user, creates a "global trading exchange" for those who sell meeting and function space, and for those who seek it.
is an Internet Service: e-RFP Web sites sign on as publishing partners; hotels and destinations subscribe to the service, paying an annual fee. Newmarket immediately signed partnerships with the major lead publishing channels: AllMeetings.com, BusinessMeetings.com, HotDatesHotRates, Meeting & Travel Online, PlanIt Online, and RFPExpress.
When routes leads directly from the e-RFP site to destinations running one of Newmarket's SQL Server 7.0-based sales automation applications, the leads pop up on the to-do list of the lead coordinator. The hotel can immediately accept a piece of business, merge a proposal, and email it back to the planner in a matter of minutes, saving hours or even days of delay. Rapid response time closes out the competition and elevates levels of customer service.
Groundbreaking Technology
Newmarket developed using Microsoft technologies. The benefits-speed, power, and ease of use are provided by Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 ensuring access to real-time information during a sales call. No additional training was required, since integrates with existing Newmarket sales automation solutions.
For the server, Newmarket chose Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0, the Web server built into the Windows NT® Server operating system; SQL Server 7.0 (chosen for its unlimited scalability); and Microsoft Terminal Server. Most information processing happens on the server side. Each user has a little piece of the application on their system that converses with the server side of the application, using COM technology to pass XML strings.
The Wyndham integration began in February 2000. Roll out went smoothly and was completed in three months. In May 2000, the Wyndham Anatole received its first lead via .
Instant Web Strategy
For Wyndham, the integration of existing SQL Server-powered applications with the Web enabled them to create an instant e-commerce strategy, global in scope, that leverages customer data. More leads means properties will book the most profitable business more often. Since Internet leads require no prospecting or calling, the sales staff has more time to sell. A simple time-motion exercise conducted by Wyndham International showed that staff time savings alone was enough to recover subscription charges.
After the successful beta, Wyndham International plans a system-wide rollout of in all hotels. They are also considering adding their national sales office to the system and tying into their Web page Wyndham.com.
For more information
About Microsoft
Call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (800) 563-9048. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft office. For more information about Microsoft BackOffice®-based hospitality solutions, visit the Microsoft hospitality home page on the World Wide Web, at .
About Newmarket International
Newmarket International provides software and e-commerce solutions that automate sales and operations for every type of hospitality venue, from independent hotels of any size to resorts, casinos, convention centers, convention and visitor's bureaus, and the complete corporate enterprise. Newmarket is widely recognized as the premier innovator of scalable sales and catering systems, Web-enabled applications and today's business-to-business e-commerce strategies (). A total solutions provider, Newmarket offers leading-edge technologies, comprehensive training, consulting, project management, and superior support based on unparalleled industry expertise. Newmarket's groundbreaking was a 2000 finalist for Microsoft's Retail Application Developer (RAD) award.
Microsoft Software Used
Microsoft Cluster Services
Microsoft FrontPage® Web site creation and management tool
Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.0
Microsoft ODBC, 32-bit version
Microsoft Office 97 and 2000
Microsoft SQL Server version 6.5
Microsoft Windows® 95 and 98 operating systems
Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise
Edition version 4.0 and Microsoft Message Queuing and Microsoft Transaction Server
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0
Microsoft Visual Studio® development system
Microsoft Visual Basic® development system
Microsoft Visual C++® development system
Microsoft Visual InterDev® Web development system
