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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 7, 2002
STARWOOD HOTELS & RESORTS HAVE STATABILITY BUILD "EXECUTIVE DASHBOARD" TO MEASURE PERFORMANCE
ATLANTA, January 7, 2002 - Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., (NYSE: HOT) one of the world's leading hotel and leisure companies, has teamed with web-based reporting company Statability to create a new way of measuring performance.
Starwood announced in 2001 that it had embraced Six Sigma, the internationally recognized program that dramatically accelerates and maximizes business performance. Pioneered by Motorola and made famous by GE, Six Sigma has helped some of the world's leading companies greatly improve customer service and increase financial returns. Although Starwood has systems inplace to collect the key performance metrics it wishes to track, it needed a more effective way to report and communicate results.
"Starwood didn't want to tie up its managers with the time-consuming tasks of entering, formatting, and distributing data, so we developed a new web-based product Starwood calls their 'Executive Dashboard'. It works like a scorecard, letting managers at the hotel, regional, and corporate level see and use information in real time," said Statability Co-founder Michael Goldenberg. "The Executive Dashboard enables Starwood managers around the globe to access much more information easier and more efficiently than they were doing before."
"The Executive Dashboard gives us information about key performance measurements, all in one place," said Ed Netzhammer, Starwood's vice president of revenue management. "In a user-friendly product, we can see reporting on guest satisfaction, financial results, turnover, booking pace, and just about anything else we want to measure. What Statability has done is deliver us the tool we need to improve performance by embracing Six Sigma."
The new Executive Dashboard, which went on-line in October 2001, is the latest collaboration between Statability and Starwood. The two started working together over a year ago, when Statability began providing web-based mystery shopping reporting (through their alliance with HSA), and then continued in early 2001 when Statability developed an on-line booking pace and banquet/sales reporting system for Starwood.
"We did exhaustive research and evaluated a lot of tools that promise to deliver what Statability does for us," said Netzhammer. "Even though many of those other products cost more, none come close to delivering the functionality we found with Statability."
Statability, located in Atlanta with offices in Minneapolis, was founded in 1999. Clients include Marriott International, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, and Six Continents Hotels and Resorts. Statability also partners with several companies, including HSA, NoBarriers, and Smith Travel Research.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with more than 725 properties in 80 countries and 120,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. With internationally renowned brands, Starwood is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchiser of hotels and resorts including: St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Sheraton, Westin, Four Points by Sheraton, W brands, as well as Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit www.starwoodhotels.com.
For more information about Statability, call 952/322-5865, e-mail Info@Statability.com, or visit the company's website at www.statability.com, which includes client testimonials and descriptions of its reporting products.
For more information about Starwood, call toll-free 866/4-STAR-PR (866/478-2777), or visit the company's website at www.starwoodhotels.com.
CONTACT:
Jennifer Hellman
651/292-8062
Pager: 651/969-0220
KC Kavanagh
Starwood Hotels & Resorts
914-640-8339 (tel)