Ihg - Using Technology as a Competitive Advantage

Ihg - Using Technology as a Competitive Advantage

IHG at a glance

The World’s Hotel Company

- a multinational company which operates 7 hotel brands

- world’s largest hotel operator (with 558,153 rooms)

- 3,763 hotels in nearly 100 countries

- world’s largest loyalty program (with 33 million members)

- 130 million stays per year

- headquartered in Windsor, England from 1777

Products

Brands include:

• InterContinental

• Crowne Plaza

• Holiday Inn

• Holiday Inn Express

• Staybridge Suites

• Candlewood Suites

• Hotel Indigo

Market Standing

ROI Derived from:

• Franchising,

• Managing,

• And Owning hotels

Operating Profit

Revenue delivery

• Almost $5.7B in 2006; $2.0bn from e-commerce

• $4B revenue from Priority club program

• Market Drive: top 3 in 6 of the 12 largest hotel markets in the world

Continuing Operating Profit

Reservation System

• Delivers almost $5Billion of room revenue

• $4Million in direct online revenue comes from IHG site

• 12 local language web sites

• 1st hotel company to set specific standards for 3rd party providers

Famous Quote

“Today, this organization is clearly one of the leaders in our industry building the kind of technologies that will help us truly serve the needs of our guests, our operators, and our owners.”

From Gustaaf Schrils, Vice-President of Hotels Technology and Services

Technology as a Competitive Advantage

• Holidex Plus: new advanced reservation system (part of the $75m next-generation project in 2002)

• Flight Management Data System (FMDS): to link Holidex Plus with 3rd Party airline and travel agents reservation system

• Customer Information Control System (CICS): transaction processing facility running 700 tps for database management

• Casper: the friendly case tracking system using WebLogic Server 8.1 for guest complaints as part of the customer retention program

• Web presence: Second biggest and fastest growing booking channel, 12 local languages, notching up 75 million site visits in 2006 using Apple XServe RAID

• 13 Contact Centers worldwide: local phones connected to the Americas, EMEA and APAC through VoIP from Avaya PBX systems over the Cisco Catalyst WAN

Did You Know?

• IHG manages world’s tallest hotel in Nanjing, China (432 meters high)

• started as a beer brewery in 1777 in England

• 1st ever hotel to reach 300,000 rooms in 1956

• introduced the 1st computerized reservations system in 1965

• Holidex, first to link directly with airline and travel agents reservation in 1977

• Priority Club, 1st frequent guest program, now world’s largest with 33M members

• Candlewood Suites, first