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Windows - based tool that serves the needs of multiple properties in one system; NetDelphi Sales, the industry's first browser-based sales and marketing system; and Newmarket NetXchange, the first B2B e-commerce service for the hospitality industry, MeriStar has been able to effectively leverage its strong presence in multiple geographical areas.

Newmarket International's products and services provide MeriStar with new-found capability to cross-sell hotels and centrally manage accounts and inventory. MeriStar's success with NetDelphi Enterprise is yet another example of Newmarket International's ability to deliver a significant return on investment within a short time period in an operationally live environment.

MeriStar's upscale, full-service, and limited- service hotels and resorts comprise a diverse mix of brands, including top North American brands such as Hilton, Holiday Inn, and Sheraton. MeriStar Hotels and Resorts Inc. leases and manages properties. Many of the company's locations are owned by MeriStar Hospitality, an affiliated real estate investment trust fund (REIT) that has agreed to be purchased by FelCor LodgingTrust. The company, a division of MeriStar Hospitality Corporation, also leases and manages about a dozen golf courses in addition to new extended stay facilities. With MeriStar's continued growth, it was important to invest in an infrastructure that would guarantee longevity into the future. MeriStar was able to leverage the experience from previous users of the Newmarket Inter-national suite of products, which led to their selection decision of NI products. The current technological foundation, provided by Newmarket, has been set to facilitate the addition of more properties and servers in the future for each cluster using MeriStar's WAN. MeriStar now has the appropriate framework to support a full implementation of Newmarket International's NetMarketplace, which will create a global hospitality business exchange.

Among the criteria for evaluating a new system to accommodate continued expansion was ease of platform administration. Since most users are familiar with the Microsoft layout and highly intuitive navigational tools, MeriStar decided to run the Newmarket product under Microsoft technologies. MeriStar also wanted to be able to take advantage of their highly trained Microsoft SQL Server™ database administrators. MeriStar benefits from Newmarket's close relationship with Microsoft because of the cut-ting- edge, low-cost, feature-rich solutions the .NET platform provides. Newmarket's NetDelphi Enterprise solution provided MeriStar with the opportunity to reduce operating costs through streamlined resources. Today, MeriStar benefits from the NetMarket-place business solution. For example, Wyndham proper-ties managed by MeriStar are receiving leads directly from their corporate Electronic Request for Proposal (ERFP) site, which in turn are referred to the best-suited hotel(s). Once accepted, the lead becomes a NetDelphi Enterprise booking without any re-entry of data. Reporting has become more uniform since all clusters use the same standards. The reports are generated through the NetDelphi Enterprise application and forwarded to the corporate office. With future implementation of Newmarket's NetData Analysis, MeriStar can partake in Web reporting of consolidated data from multiple sources. Melissa Biele, the West Coast Cluster Director of Sales System Specialists, says, "If it's not in NetDelphi, it does not exist." This includes all leads, conversations with clients, and all history and revenue details. Of prime importance is the increase in the level of customer service. With the appropriate application security, sales managers are empowered with the ability to review customer details and check the availability of rooms and meeting space at multiple hotels. The customer, in turn, gains a one-stop marketplace.

Newmarket employs project management methodology in its solutions and dedicated onsite consulting. "2000 was done well, yet in 2001 Newmarket International has shown us the flexibility a company can have with training and customized programs to ensure the product meets MeriStar's standards," Pam Suhr, Vice President of Sales Hotel Division for MeriStar, notes. "The consultant participates in weekly calls to ensure success. If issues arise, everyone is quick to bring full attention to the challenge at hand and come up with a solution."

Newmarket International's training group consists of more than 40 qualified trainers and business consultants. The model used for the MeriStar implementation consisted of the following:

• Project Management: Newmarket employs project management methodology in its solutions because it is a critical skill in today's business environment. Project management is made up of the tools, knowledge, and techniques necessary to define, plan, organize, lead and control projects and timelines.
• Dedicated On-site Consultant: A dedicated Newmarket consultant currently operates and manages the implementation directly onsite at MeriStar's headquarters in Washington, D.C. The NI consultant's responsibilities include custom course development as well as product training. In addition, the NI consultant's responsibilities were expanded, at MeriStar's request, to include cross-property selling techniques.

The implementation of Newmarket Inter-national's systems began in March of 2000 and the first group of 56 properties was successfully installed in February of 2001; the second phase of 27 hotels is underway and the final phase is in the planning stages. With the ability to leverage the existing scalable investment made in Newmarket soft-ware and the infrastructure housed within the corporate WAN and their distributed cluster architecture, MeriStar has created a foundation for the future deployment of Newmarket products and services.

With the use of computer-based training (CBT) and virtual classrooms to educate employees, MeriStar again leverages their existing training assets and reduces costs associated with training new employees on the software and corporate standards. Newmarket International has released the first version of their Business Intelligence product, NetData Analysis. The product will enable customers to run reports for multiple clusters using the Internet. MeriStar is actively involved with focus groups on this product and may very well take part in this solution in the near future. Newmarket's NetMarketplace is a suite of products, which together, establishes a global electronic trading community for the hospitality industry.

MeriStar Hotels and Resorts Inc., a division of MeriStar Hospitality Corporation, leases and manages more than 230 hotels and resorts throughout Canada and the U.S. The company has expanded into the corporate extended stay market through the purchase of BridgeStreet Accommodations and its portfolio of almost 4,000 apartments in 26 cities.

MeriStar determined it was important to cross-sell properties. Sales managers did not have access to information on avail-ability of other hotels within the region. Customers suffered from the lag time required to check availability or had to do it themselves, in which case no priority was given to a MeriStar hotel. The company also needed to control the purchase of hardware and software through standardization. In the past, MeriStar had no way of controlling purchases and could not leverage their considerable hotel portfolio to warrant volume discounts. The hardware configuration made it impossible to create a unified marketplace where business could be exchanged over a Wide Area Network (WAN) or through the Internet. They also wished to end manual consolidation of reports, which created month-end chaos. The second challenge facing MeriStar is best summarized by the following quote: "Standards, business rules, hardware, and sales and catering software differed at each of our properties. We had no way of leveraging our considerable hotel portfolio for purchasing of hardware and software. Technology decisions were made independently at the property level. Software was inconsistent; we had everything from manual function books, DOS, and Windows-based applications in place across our properties," said Kathy Duddy, Director of IT Project Management for MeriStar Hotels and Resorts. Based on a successful roll-out of 56

hotels, MeriStar had complete confidence in Newmarket's ability to roll out aggressive projects. In addition, Newmarket had other hotels utilizing the exact model and highly recommended this model to MeriStar.

In researching the need for usability, MeriStar discovered that the product was feature-rich and intuitive, providing their staff with centralized access to customer and business profiles. Additional features include a robust Banquet Event Order, flexible reporting options and a dynamic multi-property space-checking diary. It was also important for the solution provider to co-exist with other distribution channels. NetMarketplace enables the customer (the buyers) to conduct business using their preferred distribution channel.

MeriStar deployed NetDelphi Enterprise, NetDelphi Sales, and Newmarket NetXchange Meeting Broker from Newmarket International. MeriStar sales managers can now review customer details and check availability of guest rooms and meeting space at any property in a region, which results in increased levels of customer service. With the current WAN and clustered solution, mandating standardization of data has been simplified and reporting has become more uniform across all hotels.

"Since our implementation of Newmarket's business solution our progress in the first quarter of this year has shown approximately $3,000,000 worth of additional revenue," Brian Garavuso, Chief Technical Officer, MeriStar Hotels and Resorts, says. This business would otherwise not have been retained and booked without the cross-selling functionality of the NetDelphi Enterprise product. MeriStar has experienced 99 percent uptime since implementing NI solutions, which require only five servers per cluster.

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-based hospitality solutions, visit the Microsoft hospitality industry home page on the World Wide Web, at www.microsoft.com/business/hospitality.

Newmarket International
135 Commerce Way
Portsmouth NH 03801
603/426-7500
603/436-1826 Fax
salesinfo@newsoft.com


Newmarket International is the leader in delivering Internet solutions to more than 10,000 users daily through the global hospitality marketplace. Because of NI's superior technology, extensive support, domain expertise, and commitment to the industry, Newmarket customers are empowered with the ability to increase efficiencies that maximize their profits.

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© 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This document is for informational urposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, ActiveX, BackOffice, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual SourceSafe, Windows, and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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Contact
Shawn McDonald
Director of Marketing
Phone: (603) 430-7434
Fax: (603) 436-1826
Email: smcdonald@newmarketinc.com

Organization
Amadeus Hospitality
https://www.amadeus-hospitality.com/
75 New Hampshire Avenue
USA - Portsmouth, NH 03801
Tollfree: 888-829-8871
Phone: 1 603 436 7500
Email: info@amadeus-hospitality.com

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