BOSTON, MA, January 16, 2001 - The hospitality industry is beginning to
embrace electronic procurement, resulting in enormous supply chain cost
savings, according to a new report by a national research agency. The
report also indicates that GoCo-op of Florida is leading the effort to
address the electronic marketplace needs of the industry.
The study, by The Aberdeen Group, shows the hospitality industry spends an
estimated $50-60 billion per year on supplies and services, and that number
is expected to continue a steep upward trend in the coming years. The
report indicates the sector stands to benefit enormously by moving its
purchasing operations to the Internet.
The resulting increased efficiency is expected to save companies millions of
dollars each year, as purchasing managers gain better control over their
procurement business and also cut down on off-contract purchases ¡V a costly
problem for the sector. For example, WynSource, an e-procurement platform
set up by GoCo-op for Wyndham Hotels, caught such a ¡¥maverick¡¦ purchase at
one property and determined the buyer was spending tens of thousands of
dollars more on flatware than was necessary.
In the past year, several large hospitality electronic marketplaces have
been created that will eventually handle nearly $13 billion per year, the
study found. The largest of those is the Avendra network, in which
Marriott, Hyatt, Bass and Club Corp all are using the GoCo-op procurement
platform to purchase goods and services.
The hospitality sector has traditionally lagged behind other industries,
such as manufacturing, when it comes to electronic procurement,¡¨ said Mark
Withington, an Aberdeen analyst who coordinated the report. ¡§But now hotel
companies are taking advantage of the Web-based applications that are
available to easily upgrade their purchasing systems, resulting in immediate
dividends.¡¨
The Aberdeen report pointed to several e-procurement platform providers that
have developed solutions for hotel companies that solve many of the
traditional purchasing process problems, such as the drawn-out process of
getting and responding to bids. Other traditional problems and their
e-procurement solutions include:
h Limited accessibility to the marketplaces ¡V Web-based e-procurement
applications only require a standard Internet browser for participation.
h Overwhelming manual catalog searches ¡V Most applications allow for easy
uploading of keyword-searchable catalog information, so it is no longer
necessary for purchasing managers to flip through piles of catalogs.
h Lack of market-clearing mechanisms such as reverse auctions ¡V Auctions
can reduce the prices paid for goods and services by as much as 20%, and
most hospitality e-marketplaces now offer this capability.
h Limited product support ¡V Support now is often only a mouse click away.
The report indicated one company, GoCo-op, is considerably further along
than the others in addressing these issues.
GoCo-op is the visible market leader in the hospitality e-procurement
race,¡¨ said the report. The company¡¦s current deployments into the
Avendra network, its experience in deploying and managing online procurement
communities in other industries, and its deep domain expertise and
experience managing hospitality procurement (most recently expanding
internationally via HotelnetB2B.com, a European/Latin American hospitality
e-Marketplace) demonstrate a technology stability and process understanding
that others are only beginning to accrue.¡¨
To obtain a copy of the Aberdeen report, go to www.goco-op.com.
Aberdeen Group is a computer and communications research and consulting
organization closely monitoring enterprise-user needs, technological changes
and market developments. Based on a comprehensive analytical framework,
Aberdeen provides fresh insights into the future of computing and networking
and the implications for users and the industry.
Aberdeen Group performs specific projects for a select group of domestic and
international clients requiring strategic and tactical advice and hard
answers on how to manage computer and communications technology.
GoCo-op, Inc. develops and hosts Internet-based procurement systems and
vertically integrated business-to-business trading communities for
hospitality and hospitality-related industries. GoCo-op offers a rapidly
deployable, end-to-end purchasing solution, Procura, which significantly
reduces overall costs and inefficiencies for buyers and vendors. Procura is
a Web-based, hosted solution that enables users to make immediate real-time purchases or issue RFPs to sellers. Procura allows searching aggregated multi-vendor catalogs, issuing purchase orders, order tracking, custom reporting, and interfacing into a company's accounting and inventory control systems.
GoCo-op¡¦s Procura solution is being implemented and used by a number of
companies including Marriott, Hyatt, Wyndham, ClubCorp, Bass, and Guest
Supply. For more information on GoCo-op and Procura, please visit
www.GoCo-op.com.
Contact:
Neal Stein
Edelman Public Relations
321.722.9788
|
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