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..