Newly Opened Hotelier Makes Strategic Decision to Streamline Purchasing
Newport Beach, California, Sept 23, 2008 – BirchStreet Systems, a leading provider of e-procurement and back office automation solutions to the hospitality industry, today announced that the InterContinental Chicago O’Hare has selected BirchStreet’s Single Property Solution (SPS) to streamline purchasing and inventory control. One of Chicago’s premiere hotels, the InterContinental Chicago O’Hare is the latest property to adopt BirchStreet’s Single Property Solution to manage critical hotel operations.
BirchStreet’s Single Property Solution is a comprehensive back-office business system built for the specific needs of the hospitality and food service industries. The system was designed to automate the Procure-to-Pay [P2P] cycle cutting inefficiencies out of the process while strengthening financial controls.
“We wanted to ensure our spend management controls were in place prior to opening our doors,” David Hall, CHA, general manager of InterContinental Chicago O’Hare said. “Once I asked our other location – the InterContinental Chicago – about how they benefit from BirchStreet’s solutions, I knew I had to implement it here as well.”
BirchStreet’s solutions are available for single-property, or enterprise-wide portfolios to help identify ways to leverage collective buying power. Its solutions provide comprehensive tools to drive consistent business processes and financial control. 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.
“SPS is the perfect solution for InterContinental Chicago O’Hare,” said Doug Sanborn, president of BirchStreet Systems. “It provides everything needed to automate the hotel’s procurement process, and supports all of the purchasing needs of a large hotel property in an affordable and flexible package. The solution offers best-in-class property-level automation benefits and leverages our network of more than 30,000 integrated industry suppliers.”
About The InterContinental Chicago O’Hare
The sophisticated, modern design-forward 556-room InterContinental Chicago O’Hare…’Where Authentic Experiences Define the New Luxury’ is Chicago’s newest destination hotel for meetings, events and business travelers. Managed by Portfolio Hotels & Resorts in Oak Brook, IL, InterContinental Chicago O’Hare features a variety of amenities, including an unprecedented art gallery, which is managed by full-time curator Editions Limited, and displays a bi-annually rotating collection of commissioned artwork from well-known local and international artists. Daily champagne site tours of the new hotel and its beautiful original paintings and sculptures are available. In addition, the property boasts 70 Executive and VIP suites with soaking tubs and invigorating steam showers; the exclusive InterContinental Club Lounge; a dedicated flight center where guests can check the real-time status of their flights and take advantage of online check-in; and three world-class restaurants, including McCormick & Schmick’s and The Capital Grille.Ê For more information, visit www.icohare.com.
About Portfolio Hotels & Resorts
Headquartered in Oakbrook, IL, Portfolio Hotels & Resorts is a hospitality management company that specializes in managing unique, boutique-style hotels, destination resorts and significant branded urban hotels in domestic and international markets. The company was established in 2005 by former Chicago based Coastal Hotels founders Helmut Horn and Graham Hershman, industry veterans whose past experience includes development of the Hawthorne Suites brand, the Highlands Inn in Carmel, CA, and Cheeca Lodge in the Florida Keys. Their current portfolio of 16 branded and independent hotels includes the four boutique Inns of Monterey properties in Monterey, CA; the Orchard Garden Hotel in San Francisco, the first newly constructed LEED-certified hotel in California; the 426 room Holiday Inn Select in Naperville, IL, and the 570 room Radisson Hotel LAX. For more information, visit www.portfoliohotels.com.
About BirchStreet
More than 1,800 properties, 28,000 users, and 131,000 suppliers utilize BirchStreet’s P2P solutions worldwide, making a bold statement about BirchStreet’s strength in becoming the leading hospitality spend management solutions provider. BirchStreet delivers its Web-based platform to some of the world’s most recognizable companies including; Hilton Hotels Corporation, Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Omni Hotels, Interstate Hotels and Resorts and Carlson Hospitality. It helps customers reduce the risk, complexity and cost associated with regional or worldwide procurement and back-office operations, while empowering business users and delivering unprecedented ROI. BirchStreet offers solutions for global hospitality organizations, mid-tier management companies, and single-site properties. Headquartered in Newport Beach California, the company is managed by a team of enterprise software veterans. For more information, visit www.BirchStreetSystems.com .