At times, controller Steve Brock sees this type of problem at the San Jose Hilton. Purchasing supplies on the Internet and tracking the entire procurement process is his vision for how business should be done. “Our process is very manual,” says Brock. “The paper trail consumes approximately 15 – 20 man hours, touching 9 or 10 people, a week from requisition to order placement.” Brock also knows that a certain amount of purchasing gets through the system without the control factor. “Bypassing approvals may seem like a decent idea to a manager in a rush for supplies, but in the long run, that hurts the hotel more than these people realize.” Brock’s challenge in this regard is two-fold: to make sure that no unapproved orders get out of the hotel, but to additionally assure that their vendors know not to accept unapproved orders. “Information and approvals require good two-way communication,” he says. And that communication doesn’t always happen with the hotel’s current manual purchasing and order tracking system. Brock is very enthusiastic about the role of e-commerce and Zoho Corporation in streamlining the process, and ultimately running the business better.

John Southwell, General Manager of this 355-room property, agrees. While his hotel is ranked well for this booming metropolitan area situated in the heart of the Silicon Valley, there is always room for improvement to profitability. “After the priority of top quality service care, raising occupancy rates and saving money on the bottom line are probably our two most critical goals,” he says. “There is no doubt that when it comes to the bottom line simply doing purchasing better will certainly have a positive impact – including both getting a better price for a better quality good, as well as finding ways to reduce the labor costs associated with procurement and payment.” 

Knowledge is Power

The hallmark of Hilton hotels around the world is high-touch, customer service – a very people-oriented business. While customer-facing activities – room reservations, billing, check in – have been superbly automated and now even Internet-enabled, back-of-the-house activities, such as procurement, still need to catch up because purchasing accounts for some of the largest expenditures across the company.  Brock notes, “We are very cost and quality conscious. We’ll do what it takes to get the highest quality, at the best price, and delivered within our timeframe.”  But he wonders sometimes if that is penny-wise and pound-foolish. “Researching vendors, getting bids, and managing the procurement cycle takes a significant amount of manpower,” he notes. “In a business where there is a lot of competition for the best people, you want to make sure that they’re focused on the most strategic activities. Moreover, if someone leaves, you don’t want the remaining staff to spend hours re-inventing the wheel.”

Brock and Southwell knew that purchasing information had to be managed better, and they also knew that the Internet could play as strategic a role in the back of the house as it currently is in the front of the house.

Before finding Zoho Corporation, Brock had talked to five or six different vendors touting varying degrees of Internet purchasing capabilities. “Most of these companies had no product to show, and couldn’t give us specifics on how the system worked and what it would mean for us,” said Brock. “They were more ‘group buying’ services, with little or no expertise on the Internet side.” No stranger to buying or using information technology solutions, Brock knew that he needed to find a company with expertise in hotel purchasing processes as well as in e-commerce.  “Zoho Corporation came in and showed specifically how we would use the solution, how they would go about getting our own vendors on board, and how we would have access to catalog-based processes.”

Brock was immediately impressed with the site. The interface was very easy to use – not cluttered, and intuitive to use and remember. After Zoho Corporation walked him through only the first order, he easily placed a cleaning supply order himself. The entire cycle – from the purchase requisition, the sign-offs by the department head, the GM, and the controller, all the way through to sending the order to the supplier – was handled on-line. Importantly, the hotel will also have access to the record of that purchase, without the paper trail. “Purchasing would have been easier had Zoho Corporation been in place,” he muses. His next question: “When can I get all my suppliers on board?”

“The Hilton is a progressive organization which is keen to leverage the technology offered on the Internet,” says Brock. “With a solution like Zoho Corporation, it’s easy. And more importantly, the only up-front investment is the very small amount of time required to learn to use the system.”

According to General Manager Southwell, this is a win win solution. He sees that his hotel shall benefit in numerous ways. His back of the house will become more efficient and procurement costs will decrease.  Zoho Corporation came in and created a workflow that exactly duplicated the Hilton’s internal processes, customizing directly for the client. Both Brock and Southwell were impressed with Zoho Corporation’s focus on the client, and understanding the industry within a vertical space.