Custom Vendor Landscape
End-To-End Hospitality Procurement and Hotel Purchasing Software
Prepared for: [Client Name Redacted]
An Important Note
Understanding a Custom Vendor Landscape
- Info-Tech’s Custom Vendor Landscapes are custom deliverables that are built with a heavy emphasis on the use cases and selection criteria of the requesting client. They are intended to provide an external point-of-view on a smaller or niche software marketspace. They are built over the course of one week based on secondary research by one of our Software Selection Services analysts.
- These deliverables may be sanitized and published for convenient access by our other members; it is important to understand that they are not intended to be general market analysis reports like our SoftwareReviews Data Quadrants or Software Selection Guides.
- This report is bespoke to the client that requested it and is not intended to be an omnibus view of the entire marketspace (these deliverables are limited to ten vendors, and the vendor shortlist is often dictated in full or in part by the requestor).
- Please ensure that you are conducting your own due diligence on vendors within the space; the sanitized version of this report may be a helpful starting point for initial vendor shortlisting; the limitations of its scope and the highly custom nature of the vendor list and analysis contained within does not make it synonymous with the analysis in our omnibus market analysis research (SoftwareReviews Data Quadrants and Software Selection Guides).
Understanding the Selection Initiative
Objective
[Redacted] currently utilizes a vendor (Fourth) formerly known as ‘Adaco’ database. Currently, [Redacted] utilizes Fourth for various use cases such as ‘rooms requests’, ‘menu engineering requests’, etc. The procurement system is not merely limited to ‘Food and Beverage’ procurement but will need to be scalable in servicing any sort of end-to-end purchase requisition request (e.g., China, Glass, Linen, etc).
Currently has various points of interfaces. E.g., Oracle Fusion System, API interface with a POS interface (Oracle Simphony), general ledger interfaces (e.g., storerooms in each hotel, and ability to requisition products from each storeroom to each individual call center). Ability to give credits to certain departments and charge other departments is a primary factor of what goes into general
ledger expenses.
Additional points for consideration: Integrate with workflow systems (DocLink – Web Client), ability to do inter-property transfers, mobile functionality for ordering, receiving, using a scanner device for OCR capabilities, punch out functionality, EDI invoices, electronic invoice by three-way matching for accounts payable. Current process is limited in terms of EDI, cXML invoicing, and three-way matching.
Vendor Selection Criteria
In evaluating the marketspace for Hospitality Procurement and Hotel Purchasing Software, Info-Tech’s analysts looked at the following vendor attributes:
- Breadth and depth of capabilities for Inventory & Procurement Management/Hotel Purchasing Software
- Vendor footprint (vendor market presence, vendor share of mind, vendor stability and long-term viability)
- Focus on vertical-specific capabilities
- Customization potential and ease-of-use
- Affordability transparency
Selection Rigor Matters.
Enterprise software is a key driver of digital transformation - having a strong approach to vendor selection is essential. Info-Tech’s research shows that 70% of application selections fail because of poorly defined requirements and inadequate vendor validation.
Defining the Hospitality Procurement and Purchasing Software Marketspace
Market Definition
- The hospitality industry continues to grow at a faster pace across the world which results in accumulating a significantly material amount of data in terms of employee details, property details, purchase details, vendor details, and so on.
- Hospitality procurement software is any tool or platform that assist hospitality professionals in sourcing, ordering, managing, organizing, and utilizing products.
- Procurement delays are an inevitable reality in a plethora of organizations. Hospitality teams are usually overburdened with several bottleneck processes at times which can affect quality and cost control.
- Some commercial off the shelf (COTS) platforms exist that can help rectify any constrained processes with respect to rogue purchasing, ad hoc ordering, punchout, EDI, etc. Moreover, online catalogs help transform the purchasing process, allowing for real-time product comparisons and price checks.
Key Trends in Hospitality Procurement and Purchasing Software Marketspace
Over 80% of hotels that implemented e-procurement systems reported improved efficiency in terms of their operational capabilities.
Source: Journal of Hotel and Business Management
A recent research study by Capgemini found that organizations implementing digital procurement solutions can achieve cost savings of up to 40%
Source: Digital Procurement Research: 2020-2021, Capgemini Invent
Top Level Features for Hospitality Procurement & Purchasing Software
Feature Name |
Description |
|---|---|
AP 3-Way Auto-Match |
Ability to automatically compare receipts accurately based on any defined custom rules. |
AP Self-Service Portal |
Online portal for users or suppliers to view invoice or payment status. |
Purchase Requisitions, Orders and Receiving |
Ability to conduct real-time tracking of purchase transactions and budget analysis. |
Analytics Reporting/Data Warehouse |
Ability to capture and report on various analytical KPIs within the hospitality e-procurement software. Data warehouse can be used as a centralized enterprise system used for the analysis and reporting of structured and semi-structured data from multiple sources (e.g., point-of-sale transactions, CRM data, etc). |
Recipe Management |
Modules to help hospitality organizations control food and beverage procurement costs and consistency across all your organization’s kitchens. |
PunchOut Catalog |
Also known as a PunchOut Website or PunchOut Marketplace is an e-commerce integrated method used in B2B procurement. A PunchOut Catalog integrates the buying process into the organization’s procurement system, making it more seamless and efficient. This integration is typically achieved using protocols such as cXML (commerce eXtensible Markup Language). |
Extensibility to support Mobile Device Interfaces |
Hospitality procurement system providing an interface for a mobile device user to perform certain activities. I.e., ordering from a personal device, inventory, utilizing a digital barcode scanner, etc. |
Key Players
Info-Tech identified 6 platforms applicable to the use case. The platforms are listed in alphabetical order.
