David Dvorak, Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ vice president of catering and convention services, knows minutes matter when it comes to sales proposals. Booking windows have continued to shrink during the downturn and now that groups are getting back to business, those windows have narrowed even more in some cases with pent-up demand being released. So it’s imperative his sales people are getting proposals to prospective clients as soon as possible, but not at the expense of actual face-to-face meetings with prospective clients.

Starwood’s answer, like many across the industry, is using an online marketing solution. Starwood uses Cendyn’s eProposal system across all its brands. The Internet proposal response tool allows sales people to instantly respond to bid requests with media-rich electronic proposals. Starwood also uses Cendyn’s eMenu module, which allows clients to easily customize catering menus online.

Dvorak took some time to chat about the sales and catering business and the importance of this online technology:

Why is sales and catering software so important, especially in today’s tough lodging environment?
The key is really providing systems that actually help our sales people do their job more efficiently. It’s about giving them the ability to work with customers the way they want to work. Some still want a bit of interaction by phone or email, but more and more want to move to this electronic format. We need to be in that format to create flexibility. It definitely puts us to a level where it’s much easier to do business. We want our sales and catering folks spending more time with customers than typing into systems.

Is the online and electronic sales and catering focus industry wide and when did this begin happening?
It’s definitely industry wide and happened over the last five years. One of the things I tie this to is when Amazon.com came about and everyone said no one would go and order online, but within a year it became one of the most used systems out there. That’s how this took stride. Now people are comfortable with this and it’s how they shop. It happened over the past five years, but within the span of 18 months it’s really accelerated. I think it has to do with many more Gen-X and Gen-Y (employees) coming into positions that do meeting planning. This is what they do; it’s their way of life.

What are the advantages of Cendyn’s eProposal system that Starwood uses?
It makes us more competitive. You can provide a proposal in a much quicker method. Faxes aren’t viable anymore. You’ve got to be quick; you’re up against competitors and a lot of times the one that gets back to the customer quickest gets the business. The windows for booking have shortened. There’s more pressure on the planners and us. In order to be competitive, you need to get the information to the customer as quickly as possible.

What are the key elements in a good sales and catering software system?
One of the things is keystrokes. The less keystrokes a sales person has to put in, that’s what we’re looking for … There is a lot more technology pushed out to the customer, so we’re putting a lot more emphasis on the systems we use to ensure they are integrated into our PMS and other point of sale systems. More integration: that’s the focus for our IT folks.

As hotel sales people get younger, is it easier to indoctrinate and train them on systems like this?
They’re more familiar with this so it’s easier. We make sure we continue to train them. We do know our younger people don’t have as much patience with technology, so if it’s slow they get frustrated and if it doesn’t work, forget it.

How do you ensure sales people don’t rely too much on technology instead of traditional skills?
It is one of the things we train quite a bit on. They’re going to interact with the customer the way the customer wants to. If they want face to face or fax or computer, we’ll do it. We’re not going to push out all this technology unless they want it. So we train our sales people how to interact, we make sure they have those skills to pick up a phone, for a face-to-face meeting, for prospecting.

Why are the booking windows getting smaller?
A lot has to do with the downturn, but now it’s about pent-up demand. Say you as a company had been holding off on sales or training meetings through 2009, but you now need to get out there so once the funds are released, they are released in short order and the CEO says we’re meeting.

Why did you choose the eMenus module?
Our eMenu product is state of the art. All our catering menus are online in real time. The customer can actually see what they want at any time and not in PDF format. Our eMenu product is in all of our brands, with the same layout, but by brand the feel could be different. It makes it easier for customers who do business with us. Customers can go online and build a menu; it allows them more flexibility and they don’t have to fax or email.

What would you like to see in future sales and catering software systems?
More integration of those tools: Where today you get an order from a customer and you may have to type it into the sales and catering system, (in the future) you would have what the customer is putting in automatically feeding into that system so you don’t have to worry about typing errors. We’re working hard to eliminate the BEO (banquet event order), which is typed-out information from what the customer gives you and that’s what we want to eliminate. And the other big thing is seeing where we can take advantage of touch screen and mobile applications.