CARLSON HOTELS WORLDWIDE SELECTS BIRCHSTREET CAPITAL PROJECTS MANAGEMENT SUITE FOR BRAND PROPERTY RENOVATION PROJECT
Adopts Solution for Project Scheduling, Budget Tracking and Procurement for Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment
Newport Beach, Calif, April 22, 2008 – BirchStreet Systems today announced that Carlson Hotels Worldwide has selected its Capital Projects Management Suite for a major brand renovation project consisting of more than 250 Country Inns & Suites By Carlsonsm properties throughout North America. Carlson Hotels Worldwide is using the Capital Projects Management Suite (CPMS) to track and manage furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E) purchasing for managing the rollout of the brand’s new interior design upgrade to keep the Country Inns and Suites By Carlson brand relevant and appealing to today’s business and leisure travelers staying at mid-priced hotels. BirchStreet’s CPMS is the industry’s first comprehensive solution for the management of multi-property hotel renovation projects.
Arming Carlson with a hosted multi-property application, BirchStreet’s CPMS manages renovation timelines and purchase order scheduling, enforces brand standards and monitors compliance with the renovation schedule. Built on top of BirchStreet’s e-Procurement platform, the CPMS adds project management by room type and phase, and automates budget creation based on design theme selection and property profile information such as room count and common area square footage.
According to Jim Grimshaw, vice president – Guest Experience & Brand Standards, Carlson Hotels Worldwide, “A renovation project of this magnitude is highly complex with dozens of sub-projects happening concurrently. We wanted to ensure brand consistency while adding value by simplifying the process for our hotel licensees. We selected BirchStreet’s Capital Projects Management Suite because it is the only solution tailored to the needs of our industry that combines project management with procurement on a portfolio-wide scale.”
For the Carlson project, individual franchisees will utilize the CPMS to manage their property’s renovation project, make design theme choices and procure products to support their project. Carlson will be able to track progress from an online dashboard as each hotel moves through the renovation cycle. Detailed reports and drill-down capabilities are also part of the system, providing information at the product or room-type level. The CPMS will also highlight problem areas by measuring progress against a master schedule.
“We introduced the Capital Projects Management Suite in 2007 as we recognized a market demand for an application that combines automated e-procurement with budget tracking, workflow analysis and the ability to track and manage huge renovation and development projects,” said Doug Sanborn, BirchStreet’s president and CEO. “We are excited to be working with Carlson Hotels Worldwide and look forward to a successful partnership as they progress with the renovation of their Country Inns and Suites By Carlson brand.”
BirchStreet delivers the CPMS over the Internet, using the “Software-as-a-Service” (SaaS) model, which reduces the total cost of ownership compared with the traditional method of buying and maintaining enterprise software. Today, more than 1,300 hotels and over 21,000 registered users rely on BirchStreet’s e-Procurement Application Suite. With more than 50,000 suppliers, BirchStreet operates the most comprehensive e-Procurement solution in the hospitality industry.
About Carlson Hotels Worldwide
Carlson Hotels Worldwide is one of the major operating groups of Carlson, a global leader in providing corporate solutions and consumer services in the marketing, travel and hospitality industries. Other names among the Carlson family of brands and services are: Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Carlson Marketing, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, T.G.I. Friday’s and Pick Up Stix restaurants. The company has been recognized by both Fortune and Working Mother magazines as one of the “100 best places to work for in America.” Carlson corporate headquarters are in Minneapolis, Minn.
About BirchStreet Systems
BirchStreet delivers its solution over the Internet, using the “Software as a Service” (SaaS) model, which reduces the total cost of ownership compared with the traditional method of buying and maintaining enterprise software. BirchStreet delivers its on-demand e-Procurement and back office solutions to some of the world’s leading hospitality companies, including Hilton Hotels Corporation, Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels, Interstate Hotels and Resorts and Carlson Hospitality. Multi-lingual and multi-currency capable, over 1,300 locations use BirchStreet’s full-featured, full-service procure-to-pay solutions in North America, Central America, Europe and Asia. BirchStreet’s solutions represent the “best of the web” capabilities to mid-tier and global hospitality and food service companies. BirchStreet allows customers to reduce the risk, complexity and costs associated with large-scale regional or worldwide procurement and back-office solutions, while empowering business users and delivering unprecedented ROI. The application suite includes e-procurement and RFQ; budget tracking and workflow; recipe management, liquor monitoring and menu engineering; inventory and receiving; AP automation; and FF&E/capital projects management. Headquartered in Newport Beach California, the company is managed by a team of enterprise software veterans. For more information, visit www.BirchStreetSystems.com.