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Sales & Catering Systems *

Market Summary – Sales & Catering Systems

Market Overview

Sales and Catering Solutions (S&C) come in many forms. Their functionality is available from chains, brands, software companies, agencies, and service providers. The solutions are usually sold as software or services from either vendors or a brand. As a result, venues have multiple options, creating the need to review important decisions connected to a chosen solution. Affiliating with a brand, signing a contract with a management company, or even selecting a core system vendor may define the S&C solution a property will have. If choosing their own, venues may need to become familiar with a marketplace with more than 50 prospective software solutions to complete their due diligence on a purchase.

Sales and Catering solutions were created many years ago to meet the needs of a venue’s sales team. A systematic approach and a customer data repository are beneficial when coordinating with numerous potential groups as they propagate from a lead to a confirmed event group. As a venue’s sales resources discuss the needs of a group, the many complexities associated with the group while on property become imperative to track. When considering the vast array of group types, the range of needs, and the various participants in booking group business, it is apparent that today’s software and service-based solutions need to cover a comprehensive set of functionalities to meet the needs of the overall marketplace.

The introduction of the Internet and cloud capabilities are two key changes that have positively affected the solutions in the marketplace. As cloud-based solutions mature, they continue to offer more and deeper capabilities for the benefit of all constituents. Distribution across the web has enabled all of the participants within this channel to communicate with each other and transact electronically. Venues can better distribute their inventory, pricing, and availability. Planners can research and find suitable venues. Attendees can register or book within a room block if needed.

Marketplace Context

Sales & Catering Solutions play an important role in a venue’s software and technology infrastructure. In fact, the industry historically considered them the original CRM of the business. While this functionality focused on the group business instead of guests from general consumer segments, it was the hotel industry’s first foray into tracking customers with CRM-like features. More importantly, it helps a venue to manage a crucial business segment. Interfacing it with other systems can be essential when building or modifying a technology stack. Furthermore, Sales & Catering Solutions and the accompanying services can include numerous capabilities today’s marketplace provides.

A desired set of software may be purchased from one multifaceted solution provider or a combination of interfaced solutions. These systems require people to make them work well together. They are often packaged as a fully functional service encompassing a set of sales and marketing capabilities extending beyond the limits of any software. These combinations of services may be offered by software vendors, management companies, brands, or service-based companies specializing in hotel, restaurant, or country club sales and marketing. If multiple systems are purchased, the sophistication of integration across these systems becomes a consideration.

Sales & Marketing Considerations

S&C functionality is crucial to venues from a sales and marketing perspective. It provides access to group prospects through multiple booking channels, such as Voice, GDS, and Website for hotels to reach all prospect segments. Traditionally, a hotel must distribute its rates, inventory, and availability information to these customer segments to reach the audience responsible for purchasing or coordinating a group’s reservations and activities. Restaurants and Country Clubs, in a similar vein, seek to simplify the transaction and document the detailed needs of a group.

S&C implementations seek operational efficiencies where centralization is appropriate. Significant innovation is occurring not only in technology but also in marketing. This creates both opportunity and complexity when selecting and implementing S&C Solutions. These solutions work to meet venues’ marketing needs, such as venue marketing, event marketing, communication, and others. This rapid phase of marketing tool proliferation has created opportunities to improve businesses, reach new markets, decrease costs, and increase marketing exposure.

It has also dramatically increased the complexity of venue marketing since these solutions typically require people to manage and operate them, albeit with significantly increased technological efficiency. The result is that the bar is now set higher for a sales team to be efficient, and it usually requires the effective use of software to perform at a competitive level. Intelligent strategies can somewhat alleviate this, but more must be done with fewer MPTT resources.

Current Trends

While foretelling the future is entertaining, discussing the potential developments in the marketplace right now is more practical. Here are a few active trends influencing the S&C landscape.

1. The majority of S&C software is now available in the cloud, and this transformation is nearly complete for the category. However, not all clouds are the same.
2. While the S&C category was originally limited to a small number of solution providers, it is growing, as are the types of solutions buyers can purchase within it.
3. The specific needs of all S&C marketplace constituents are being addressed with more tailored solutions. Event and Meeting Planners, Companies, and Venues all have more and better tools to improve their ability to manage group needs in the context of their respective businesses.
4. Innovation is breaking the traditional bounds of the S&C category and now reaching into nearby capability categories such as Planner Needs, Venue Marketing, Event Marketing, Event Management, and Marketing Automation.
5. Digital channels are proliferating more than non-digital channels. This is definitely true within the group segment, and we are seeing new marketing and distribution sites for this segment.
6. Many event technologies are addressing the needs of multiple prospect segments, including hotels, vacation rentals, restaurants, country clubs, stadiums, and other venues.
7. Privacy regulation is becoming more prevalent around the world, with consumer information at the center of the deliberation. This affects marketing directed toward event attendees.

Questions for the Future

As the world of sales and marketing continues to change at a rapid pace, here are some questions your company may want to answer:

1. How will your business position itself to utilize innovative solutions within its potential Solution Map?
2. How will S&C software decisions affect each property, whether independent or part of a portfolio?
3. How will social and messaging channels affect your marketing, sales, and service functions at property, regional, and corporate locations?
4. What are the next steps in direct distribution, and what marketing and technology solutions will facilitate results-oriented innovation?
5. How should marketing automation be efficiently applied to your sales and marketing systems and business processes?
6. What role will innovations in venue marketing for country clubs, restaurants, and hotels play in these industries?
7. What new sales and marketing functions should be centralized, and how will they affect your capability roadmap?
8. What capabilities should your company consider to create and sustain a competitive advantage in the future?

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About this Report

This document reviews the marketing information and capabilities associated with this category’s solutions and the surrounding technology ecosystem. It contains original content written by Capsolve to provide a perspective of current trends affecting one or more of the hotel, restaurant, golf course, and country club industries. The analysis covers a statistically significant portion of the previously defined category marketplace.