StarCite Launches One-Stop Online Center for Hotels to Manage Corporate Meeting Business
Centralized Solution Will Give Hotels Greater Sales Visibility and Enable Faster Responses to Electronic Customer Inquiries
PHILADELPHIA, StarCite, Inc., the largest online procurement marketplace for corporate meetings and events today announced the launch of a new integrated Group Lead Center that will allow hotels and event suppliers to manage all incoming electronic requests for proposals (eRFPs) in a single, centralized online location.
Traditionally, the sales process for corporate meetings was inconsistent and labor-intensive, requiring suppliers to filter through faxes, emails and phone calls to review and manage incoming leads. The introduction of online sourcing significantly streamlined this process. In addition to providing the world’s largest online marketplace for meetings with a standardized eRFP tool, StarCite also provides more than 30 hotel brands and many other suppliers with a private-label solution to manage meetings business and eRFPs from their own websites.
Now StarCite’s Integrated Group Lead Center will provide a single screen that encompasses all electronic leads from the growing roster of StarCite’s corporate clients and leading business travel partners as well as any StarCite-powered website. StarCite currently processes eRFPs representing more than $6 billion in meeting opportunities a year.
“In 2000, StarCite introduced the concept of online lead management for corporate meetings, untethering hotels from their fax machines and email inboxes for the first time,” said Michael Boult, StarCite’s president and chief executive officer. “Now we’re furthering our commitment to helping suppliers improve and streamline the sales process with this new tool, which will allow hotels to focus more energy and resources on what they do best – selling meeting and event business rather than managing requests.”
The new Group Lead Center is equipped with powerful features that will allow suppliers to prioritize leads and instantly respond to or otherwise address online RFPs. The new center will eliminate the need for suppliers to visit multiple websites or click through numerous links and gives hotels a clearer view of the entire eRFP process from start to finish with a simple and easy-to-use tool.
The center is the first step in the company’s overall product integration of the StarCite Marketplace and the MarketView platform, which was recently acquired through StarCite’s merger with OnVantage. It will become part of StarCite’s standard offering for suppliers. StarCite will begin the process of migrating hotel brands to the new center throughout Q3 and Q4 of 2007.
StarCite will provide its first full preview of the Integrated Group Lead Center at the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition & Conference (HITEC), June 26-28, at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, FL. StarCite will be located at booth number 928 during the conference.