Sausalito, CA February 26, 2002 ProcurePoint Travel Solutions Inc. introduced ProcurePoint Enterprise, an online solution for corporate travel managers, meeting planners and procurement specialists seeking to source, negotiate and manage hotel lodging for group and transient travel.
The first offering in ProcurePoint Enterprise is EnterpriseMeetings, which the company said is designed to facilitate open-market negotiation for hotel lodging, as well as to eliminate the paper-based processes required to arrange and secure hotel lodging offsite meetings that take place every year within global enterprises. In addition, EnterpriseMeetings is said to promote compliance with corporate travel policy, making budget management easier with integrated corporate reporting capabilities.
Compaq, which annually spends tens of millions on corporate lodging for offsite meetings; and Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, which operates 203 hotels around the world, are among the first to adopt ProcurePoint EnterpriseMeetings.
Deborah Matarazzo, manager, global hotel program and meeting services, Compaq Computer Corp. said her company is making EnterpriseMeetings available to occasional planners throughout its U.S. divisions. "ProcurePoint provides us with the assurance that when our employees plan meetings for thousands of participants or for just a few they are also effectively managing our corporate bottom line by procuring the most cost-effective solution in the shortest amount of time with the right partners."
Joan Lowell, vice president, electronic distribution at Hyatt Hotels Corp. added that providing corporations with the right meeting facilities and services is a time-consuming process, and ProcurePoint Travel Solutions gives her company the opportunity to present its best offer on a fair playing-field to this particular customer segment.
According to ProcurePoint, EnterpriseMeetings also includes a customized request for proposal (RFP) development process with a sourcing database of more than 12,500 properties worldwide.
ProcurePoint is led by travel industry veterans Pat Foley, former president of Hyatt Hotels, and Ed Sarraille, a former marketing executive at Hyatt Hotels Corp, and backed by leading venture capital firms, including Sequoia Capital. Since its inception, the company has served more than 700 customers, managed nearly two million room nights in 500 cities worldwide, and has built a supplier network of more than 12,500 hotels.
