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ATLANTA and DENVER, Jan. 21 / The first customized hospitality e-procurement marketplace developed by is operating successfully, the company announced today. Stonebridge Companies, a Denver- based hotel management company, received its first order placed on the Stonebridge Marketplace, a custom Internet-based procurement solution for hospitality supplies.

Atlanta-based , a leading e-services company that is re-engineering procurement for the $10 billion hospitality supplies industry, designed the Stonebridge Marketplace to provide a centralized procurement hub that meets the unique requisition, ordering and fulfillment needs of Stonebridge Companies' 11 hotel brands. Stonebridge manages 29 hotels in five states, including Colorado, Washington, Alaska, California and Arizona.

"After searching for an e-procurement system for more than a year, we found that offered the best fit for our needs," said Navin Dimond, a principal of Stonebridge Companies. "A lot of companies offer the technology to automate procurement, but only provides complete customer service. The company handles all aspects of our procurement needs, giving us one point of contact for ordering, fulfillment and payment."

For companies such as Stonebridge, which manage multiple hotels with a variety of brands, offers customized online marketplaces with brand-specific interfaces featuring products and supplies that meet the various hotel brands' standards and requirements. Online order flow is tailored to reflect the organization's established internal approval and routing processes for orders and invoices. In addition, can incorporate pre-negotiated pricing agreements between the management company and its suppliers. Management companies benefit from cost and time savings realized from the Internet-based solution without additional investment in equipment or software.

"I was amazed with how simple it was to use the Stonebridge Marketplace. It took me minutes rather than hours to order everything I needed," said Allen King, general manager of the Hampton Inn & Suites-Denver/Cherry Creek, a Stonebridge-managed property. "It totally eliminated my old routine. Using , the paperwork is gone and I can see my desktop for the first time in years."

The first order placed on the Stonebridge Marketplace was delivered to King on Jan. 17. It included a variety of products used daily at the hotel, such as ice bucket liners, shampoo, lotion, tissues, gloves and furniture polish from Western Paper Distributors Inc., one of 's many distributors of hotel supplies.

"It's simply good business for management companies to provide their properties one source for supplies procurement," said Lawrence W. Hall, president and chief operating officer. "With multiple hotels placing multiple orders to multiple suppliers each week, it can be a logistical nightmare to ensure accurate pricing, fulfillment and billing. We manage the entire supply chain for both buyers and suppliers, streamlining the procurement process and helping all parties keep accurate records of purchases."

About the Marketplace

's flagship product is the Marketplace, a customized, fully transactional, Web-based source for ordering hospitality products. The Marketplace reduces the time and money spent procuring products and greatly improves the purchasing process by offering all the information necessary to make the best purchasing decisions. Hotel procurement managers get a one-stop shop for all of their procurement needs, including 24x7 customer care. Marketplace services include product searches, ordering, order tracking, fulfillment and payment management.

About

is a leading B2B e-services company that is re-engineering procurement for the $10 billion hospitality supplies industry. Its unique Next.0(TM) approach integrates the power of the Internet, customer relationship management and comprehensive supply chain management into a seamless, one-source destination site – the Marketplace. Designed to meet the disparate needs of hotel supply buyers, franchisors and suppliers, the Marketplace facilitates the entire procurement process from search to settlement.

Among 's differentiators is its development of custom marketplaces for management companies and franchisors to help ensure that the quality standards that maintain brand image are consistently met. The marketplaces manage purchase order and invoice approval routing and control transactions between buyers from multiple hotel brands and suppliers with different contractual agreements.

The Atlanta-based company was founded in 1999 by e-commerce expert and best-selling author Dr. Ravi Kalakota and boasts an executive management team with more than 75 years of combined hospitality and technology industry experience. For more information about , visit , or contact the company at 404-705-9450 or via e-mail at [email protected].

About Stonebridge Companies

Founded in 1992, Stonebridge Companies is headquartered in Denver. Stonebridge manages 29 hotels in five states, including Colorado, Washington, Alaska, California and Arizona. Its current brands include: Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Fairfield Inn, Hampton Inn, Hampton Inn & Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Spring Hill Suites, Holiday Inn Express, Ramada Limited, Sleep Inn and Super 8 Motel. Stonebridge also has three hotels currently in development: Radisson San Francisco Airport at Sierra Point, Homewood Suites-Anaheim/Garden Grove and Fairfield Inn-Denver North. For more information about Stonebridge Companies, visit , or contact Navin Dimond at 303-696-7700.

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