Omni Achieves Significant Return on Investment in First Months
Dallas, TX, and Newport Beach, CA – September 17, 2009 – BirchStreet Systems, the hospitality industry’s leading eProcurement and purchasing system provider, announced today that the luxury hotel brand, Omni Hotels, has now fully implemented BirchStreet’s Web-based eProcurement solution. As a result, all of Omni’s owned and managed properties are leveraging the new online marketplace portal to manage and process their purchasing transactions. A fully automated procure-to-pay (P2P) application designed specifically for the hospitality industry, the BirchStreet system is now being used by Omni for its hotel, restaurant and spa operations, including its Bob’s Steak & Chop House restaurant locations.
According to Omni’s Vice President of Procurement &Capital Finance, Jim Kuthy, Omni decided to investigate eProcurement systems in 2007, and “after a thorough analysis of eProcurement providers, we decided BirchStreet was ideally suited to help us automate all of our purchasing practices into a centralized solution.
“We needed to take all of our previous processes –from ordering and checkbook maintenance to approving, receiving and invoice reconciliation — and integrate them into one seamless solution,” Kuthy said. “We felt BirchStreet was the only vendor that could automate virtually everything in the procure-to-pay cycle from A to Z and provide value ‘out of the box’ without significant customization.”
Omni identified three objectives it wanted to accomplish, and according to Kuthy, BirchStreet fully met all three. “In fact, we even identified a fourth objective during the implementation that turned out to be one of the most important benefits of the system, in terms of return on investment.”
Omni’s first objective was to automate all of its disparate purchasing practices and roll them into one centralized P2P solution. Its second objective was to increase procurement efficiency and productivity across the portfolio. The third objective was to obtain visibility into all spending and reduce off-contract spending. But according to Kuthy, another valuable objective that was achieved was that of “three-way-matching.”
“This was one of the biggest successes,” he said. “We discovered that we could automate the matching of purchase orders to receiving records to payment invoices. With the help of BirchStreet President, Doug Sanborn, and his technical staff, we customized the application so that it automatically compares invoice unit pricing and order quantities to the prices maintained by the suppliers in their online Omni Marketplace to the purchase order. As a result, we have avoided potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in discrepancies.”
Doug Sanborn, president and co-founder of BirchStreet, said, “Now Omni Hotels has full use of the BirchStreet application, which provides them with their own secure online ‘marketplace’ portal on which to conduct all of its procurement activity.” In addition to streamlining the procure-to-pay cycle, the system and its built-in data warehouse provides real-time visibility and analytics across all properties, as well as top-down control over product choices, brand standards, supplier contract compliance and purchasing procedures and controls.
“The implementation and training went smoothly, the properties like it and we are already getting some great returns,” Kuthy commented. “Moving forward we are committed to using it strategically to better rationalize our spending, enhance property efforts and leverage the data to negotiate with suppliers. We also intend to consider BirchStreet’s Capital Projects module for our future property renovations and refurbishments.”
“Omni is definitely one of the most intensive users of our system and a testament to the fact that our system can stretch or shrink to meet the needs of any type of hotel company – from large to small, from budget to luxury,” BirchStreet Systems Chief Executive John F. Davis, III said.
“I would tell hoteliers who are contemplating a full-scale, procure-to-pay system that BirchStreet is a superior tool which truly has the flexibility to meet a hotel company’s P2P needs big or small,” Kuthy concluded.
BirchStreet provides the ideal procurement solution for hospitality companies, food service organizations, hospitals, universities and other organizations that conduct a mix of food and non-food purchasing activity. The BirchStreet Application Suite is delivered 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. It can be run as a single-property package or as an enterprise-wide solution to help organizations identify their collective buying power, improve operational execution and lower costs. The software is designed for organizations in which food and beverage represents a significant part of purchasing activity, and accordingly, includes numerous features to accommodate the unique needs of the food service industry. Additionally, Birch Street customers can leverage existing interfaces with more than 130,000 registered hospitality and food service suppliers and distributors.
About Omni Hotels
Omni Hotels creates genuine, authentic guest experiences that take guests on “A Total Departure” to 45 distinct luxury hotels and resorts in leading business gateways and leisure destinations across North America. From exceptional golf and spa retreats to dynamic business settings, each Omni showcases the local flavor of the destination while featuring four-diamond services, signature restaurants, Wi-Fi connectivity and unique wellness options. Known for its award-winning, personalized service, Omni leaves a lasting impression with every customer interaction, with a heightened level of recognition and rewards delivered through its Select Guest loyalty program and the company’s “Power of One” associate empowerment program. To get additional information or book accommodations, visit www.omnihotels.com or call 1-800-THE-OMNI.
About BirchStreet Systems, Inc.
As the recognized leader in the hospitality market, BirchStreet provides its Web-based e-procurement platform to restaurants, country clubs and some of the world’s largest hotel companies including Hilton Hotels, Hyatt Hotels, InterContinental Hotels &Resorts, Omni Hotels, Interstate Hotels and Resorts, and Carlson Hospitality. Currently, more than 2,000 properties in 25 countries utilize BirchStreet to access and manage more than 130,000 suppliers, processing nearly $1.5 billion in purchasing transactions annually. BirchStreet is privately held and has offices in Newport Beach, California, New Delhi, India, and Dallas, Texas. www.BirchStreetSystems.comhttp://twitter.com/BirchStreetSys