Hotel Online Special Report 
hsupply.com Empowering Hospitality Suppliers and Distributors to an e-fulfillment-enabled Operation PHOENIX, April 12, 2000 – hsupply.com, the leading e-services company that is simplifying procurement for the $16 billion hospitality industry, today announced the completion of its National e-Commerce Distribution Network™ (NeDN™) made up of the industry’s premiere distributors from coast-to-coast. The announcement was made at the American Hotel Motel Association’s (AHMA) Annual Conference in Phoenix, Ariz. Having this powerful distribution system reinforces hsupply.com’s commitment to consistency in price, product, customer service and rapid delivery, and further solidifies its position as the only provider of a one-stop e-procurement solution.
With its distribution network in place, hsupply.com will now execute its proprietary “Excellence in e-Fulfillment™” program that establishes the framework to migrate hospitality suppliers and distributors from their current state of operation to an e-fulfillment-enabled operation. The program will include features such as real-time inventory status, real-time order acknowledgement and online invoicing, and focuses exclusively on ensuring quality in the core distribution services such as picking, packing and shipping—getting the right product to the right place, at the right time.
“The one outstanding quality that sets hsupply.com so far apart from everyone else is the investment they make in their relationships with buyers and suppliers alike. Their dedication to helping us streamline the supply chain by giving us access to their logistics expertise is unmatched.” said Ronnie Wrenn, president of Franklin Supply Company, the leading hospitality distributor in the Southeast. “It’s no wonder hsupply.com has jumped to the forefront of this industry. Their approach is unlike any other in that they create a win-win for both the buyer and the seller and don’t strong-arm distributors by charging us for putting our content on the hsupply.com marketplace. We see the value hsupply.com can bring to our customers—one centralized source for all their procurement needs.”
Franklin Supply is currently fulfilling the orders of Noble Investment Group, one of the country’s leading hotel management and development companies and a recently announced hsupply.com customer. Similarly, Western Paper, a premier hospitality distributor located in Denver, Colo., currently delivers supplies to hsupply.com’s first charter member, Stonebridge Companies. Both distributors, together with hsupply.com, are bringing the next generation of e-procurement to their customers by providing the only solution of its kind that manages the entire supply chain and takes full responsibility for invoicing and customer care, allowing them to focus on what they do best—getting the right product to their customers at the right time. “The relationship with the distributors in the NeDN™ is testament to our rapid success in the hotel supplies market since the launch of hsupply.com this past January. They recognized that our solution facilitates a painless transition to e-commerce,” said Larry Hall, hsupply.com’s president and chief operating officer. “This alliance will further accelerate our sales efforts with both management companies and franchisors. With the expertise and experience of the members of the NeDN™, we are confident that hsupply.com will maintain its command of the competitive marketplace and its leadership position as the e-procurement solution for the entire hospitality industry.”
About hsupply.com hsupply.com is a leading B2B e-services company that is reinventing procurement for the $16 billion hospitality supplies industry. Its unique Next.0™ approach integrates the power of the Internet, customer relationship management and comprehensive supply chain management into a seamless, one-source destination site—the hsupply.com Marketplace—to allow product selection, ordering, fulfillment, tracking, payment, and reporting to be performed via one easy-to-use tool. Designed to meet the disparate needs of hotel buyers, franchisors and suppliers, the hsupply.com Marketplace facilitates the entire procurement process from search to settlement.
Unlike other procurement solutions, which just match buyers with multiple suppliers, and then leave them to work out fulfillment and settlement, the hsupply.com marketplace is a “next generation” web-based procurement solution that is customized to be the only resource hotels need to meet all of their procurement needs. hsupply.com remains the one point of contact for all customer care needs including supply selection, ordering, delivery, invoicing and payment. Additionally, other e-procurement solutions either tax their members, or charge a transaction fee, for using their services. There are no fees attached to any e-commerce transaction made with hsupply.com.
The Atlanta-based company was founded in 1999 by e-commerce expert and best-selling author Dr. Ravi Kalakota and boasts an executive management team with more than more than 100 years of combined hospitality and technology industry experience.
Contact: hsupply.com www.hsupply.com 404-705-9450 [email protected] Also See: hsupply.com is Reinventing the Entire Procurement Process for Tharaldson and Buckhead America / April 2000 hsupply.com Now Serving More than 600 Hotels; Glenn R. Kruse and James E. Banks Head Up Sales Division / Feb 2000