Houston,
TX - September 11, 1998 - Candlewood Hotel Company, Inc., has been awarded
The Telman MasterTech Award for Bottom Line Profits for 1998. The
Telman MasterTech Award is given to the hotel management companies, hotel
companies or employees of such that are producing unprecedented results
through bringing people and technology together.
Candlewood owns, manages and franchises its own brand with 35 corporate
hotels open, 30 under construction, as well as 6 franchised hotels open
and 4 more under construction. Candlewood is currently implementing
an Electronic Imaging System to use as a records management system.
At the same time, they are implementing a new accounting system company
wide. A relatively new company, founded in late 1995, the Candlewood
brand is growing rapidly and seeing the critical importance of building
strong systems to support their growth.
Lisa Penn, Records Management Coordinator for Candlewood, explains,
�Prior to the implementation of the Electronic Imaging System , employees
could spend 1-2 hours looking for a specific invoice, and we really needed
a way to make it more efficient. We have been working the last 18
months to get this accomplished. While it is hard to say in exact
numbers what will be saved, the current estimate is about $90,000 in labor
savings in the first year of implementation. Plus, with this kind
of improvement, people can get their jobs done more efficiently and that
is important for our employees and our shareholders.�
Prior to the implementation of the new accounting system, Candlewood
was using a DOS based system with a windows interface. With their
new purchase and implementation, they are now using a highly featured,
windows-based system that allows them to do financial recording and reporting
on all their properties individually or as a group. Penn explains,
�A lot of Candlewood properties are set up as separate entities, and in
our old system, it was very time consuming to handle transactions on an
individual basis. In addition to other benefits, this new system
allows us to affect all the entities as a group, or individually if we
choose. This alone will result in greater productivity from our team.�
The other 1998 award winners are Prime Hospitality Corp., winner of
The Telman MasterTech Award for Guest Services, and Carol Beggs, Director
of Information Systems for Sonesta International Hotel Corporation, winner
of The Telman MasterTech Award for Individuals. The awards will be
presented at the HFTP Annual Convention�s Awards Luncheon, sponsored by
Telman, on September 26 at the Hyatt Crystal City in Washington, D.C.. |