Starwood to Use Newmarket's MeetingBrokerSM Lead Management Solution
PORTSMOUTH, NH. June 17, 2008. Newmarket International, Inc., the leader in sales and catering solutions for the hospitality industry, today announced that its MeetingBrokerSM solution has been implemented in all Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: HOT) individual properties across the world. MeetingBroker enables the passing and managing of all leads between the proprietary CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system used by Starwood's global sales offices (GSO) and its individual properties in North America. While all properties worldwide have MeetingBroker, the lead passing capability with the GSO will go live with those properties outside of North America by October 2008. By implementing MeetingBroker, Starwood minimizes manual processes and creates a standardized platform in which all property and GSO sales associates can work. This results in collaboration between all of the hotels, quicker response to customers and in turn, improves revenue production.
"With MeetingBroker, we are able to prioritize leads, respond to customers quickly and streamline our sales process," said Barry Goldstein, Vice President of Sales Strategy and Operations, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. "Ultimately, it allows us to get closer to what is really important, one global overview of the customer and the optimization of their business with us all over the world."
In addition to a quicker response to customers and a consistent way to respond to leads, MeetingBroker has a positive effect in resourcing people. If there are many hotels clustered in one city, Starwood can consolidate the response and get back to the customer quicker. One of the greatest benefits of MeetingBroker, notes Goldstein, is the integration with the Delphi(R) sales and catering system. For those properties with Delphi, the sales person only has to work in one tool and doesn't have to leave the application, creating a truly effective and efficient sales process.
The subscription based model proved for an easy rollout of MeetingBroker across Starwood Hotels & Resorts with no interruption to their business. Newmarket's training is available 24/7 and over 2,000 people have already been trained to date. "This is the foundation we are building on to bring our customer relationships to the next level," concluded Goldstein. Starwood is the first hotel company to achieve the global implementation of this vision.
"Customer service and response times are two critical elements of any successful hospitality business and Starwood is leading the industry in these areas," said Sean O'Neill, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Newmarket International, Inc. "We are excited to be working with an innovative company like Starwood on such a significant business initiative."
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