Hotel Technology Next Generation

Greg Pesik, President & CEO of Passkey, said that the Passkey Enterprise Solution gives companies a distinct competitive advantage by providing clients with a consistent portfolio of services to drive incremental group business by providing meeting management functionality that reduces costs and increases productivity for hotels.

"This reseller agreement, which details how Newmarket International will provide sales and customer support for the Passkey Enterprise Solution throughout EMEA, complements our two companies' technology integration alliance announced earlier this year at the Hospitality Information Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC 2002) in Chicago," said Sean O'Neill, Newmarket International's President & CEO.

The closely related nature of Newmarket International and Passkey's products made the earlier product integration agreement a natural fit. As that relationship progressed, the companies realized that the selling processes and target markets for their respective applications were essentially identical. Because Newmarket International already has offices and a growing, well-respected presence in EMEA, it made sense for the company to leverage its position and market knowledge to represent Passkey. This was especially true in light of the ways Delphi and Passkey complement one another.

Dan Hiza, Managing Director, Newmarket International - EMEA, said that the expanded partnership would benefit both companies and their clients for many years to come.

"Our integration alliance with Passkey and subsequent exclusive reseller agreement in EMEA for the Passkey Enterprise Solution will help the entire meetings and conventions industry by removing significant work-flow process gaps, providing comprehensive end-to-end meetings and events management for groups and attendees," Hiza said. "Passkey has an excellent reputation in North America in the meetings and conventions market for delivering quality and efficiency, and now our technology partner is well positioned to capitalize on growing opportunities in EMEA."

Tom Walker, Passkey VP - Alliances, said that not only will the efficiencies created through this expanded partnership provide both companies with new business opportunities, but it also will further cement existing client relationships by improving satisfaction and the return they can expect from their investments.

"Our decision to award Newmarket International exclusive rights to resell the Passkey Enterprise Solution in EMEA will spur a significant expansion of our marketshare," Walker said. "We've worked in the same space for a number of years, but now we're working together globally — which is great news for our companies and the industry as a whole. There are significant synergies between our firms, and Newmarket International has the infrastructure, network of hotel clients, and technology sales track record to achieve tremendous success representing Passkey in EMEA."

After a meeting is turned "definite" in Delphi, Passkey systems take over blocked inventory management, delegate handling, fulfillment functions, and update Newmarket's statistics in Delphi as booking activity occurs. At the close of a meeting, Newmarket's solutions capture post-departure actuals and update Passkey's data accordingly, creating the industry's most complete repository of crucial booking pace and final materialization information for hotel group business for events of any size.

"Once-dissimilar systems now can share critical, real-time information at any point in a meeting's life cycle," O'Neill said. "As a result, significant time, cost, and margin-for-error associated with traditional manual processes are reduced thanks to intelligent automation."

The Passkey Enterprise Solution features a fully integrated suite of Web-based applications, including:

About Newmarket International
Newmarket International, "the makers of Delphi," is the leader in delivering groups, sales, catering and banquet software solutions to global travel and entertainment organizations. Hotels, Casinos, Visitor Bureaus, Meeting Houses, Convention Centers and Arenas all use this powerful technology. Newmarket International provides competitive advantages to all of its customers by enabling leads to electronically transfer across cities and around the world. By harnessing award-winning technology and support, the industry's best return on investment, domain expertise, and a commitment to the travel industry, Newmarket International enables customers to increase efficiencies and maximize profits. In addition to its headquarters in Portsmouth, N.H., Newmarket International has offices in London servicing Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and in Singapore servicing Asia/Pacific. For more information, please visit www.newmarketinc.com.

About Passkey
Passkey (www.passkey.com), the industry leading ASP solution for group reservations management and distribution, provides all channels of this industry's planning process with better, more efficient ways to manage events. The Quincy, Mass.-based provider empowers users with web-based applications that provide all parties with real-time reports and updates on every facet of the planning process. Industries served include Convention and Visitors Bureaus (CVBs), Global Distribution Systems (GDS), hotels, travel agencies, associations, corporations, meetings RFP engines and registration vendors. Travel providers who are Passkey-enabledSM can also leverage Passkey technology to manage group housing for both citywide and single property meetings. Passkey investors include: Lazard Technology Partners; Sabre [NYSE: TSG] (www.sabre.com); Galileo [NYSE: GLC] (www.galileo.com); Worldspan (www.worldspan.com); TravelCLICK (www.travelclick.net); DRV and McCord Group Travel Services ().

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