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Birch Street 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 Carlson 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 roll-out of the brand’s new interior design upgrade to keep the Country Inns and Suites by Carlsonsm brand relevant and appealing to today’s business and leisure travelers staying at mid-priced hotels. Birch Street’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, Birch Street’s CPMS manages renovation timelines and purchase order scheduling, enforces brand standards and monitors compliance with the renovation schedule. Built on top of the Birch Street’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 Birch Street’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 last June 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, Birch Street’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.” (only need mark on first reference)
Birch Street 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, over 1,300 hotels and over 21,000 registered users rely on Birch Street’s e-Procurement Application Suite. With over 50,000 suppliers, Birch Street operates the most comprehensive e-Procurement solution in the hospitality industry.
About Birch Street
Birch Street (birchstreetsystems.com) 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. Birch Street delivers its on demand eProcurement and back office solutions to some of the world’s leading hospitality companies, including Hilton Hotels Corporation, Hyatt Hotels, Marriott International, Interstate Hotels and Resorts, and The Marcus Corporation. Over 1,300 hotels use the company’s full-featured, full-service procure-to-pay solutions in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The solution combines flexibility, reliability and scalability with the operating advantages of an outsourced service. Multi-lingual and multi-currency capable, Birch Street's solutions provide "best of the web" capabilities to mid-tier and global hospitality companies. Birch Street allows customers to reduce the risk, complexity and cost associated with large-scale procurement and back-office solutions, while empowering business users and delivering unprecedented ROI. The application suite leverages Birch Street’s network of over 50,000 industry suppliers and includes strong food and beverage features, e-procurement and RFQ; budget tracking and workflow; recipe management and menu engineering; inventory and receiving; AP automation; and capital project management. Headquartered in Newport Beach California, the company is managed by a team of hospitality and enterprise software veterans.
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