The client is a large UK hotel group with more than 600 properties across the country. Revenue Management is managed in a central environment. The existing version of the Central Revenue Management System had come to the end of its shelf life, where new developments required by the business could no longer be supported.

A new version had been developed and promoted by the supplier, but was found to have a number of flaws that made it impossible to upgrade to.

The Brief:

• To manage the development pipeline
  – by ensuring the new RMS version would be robust and fit for purpose
  – by advising the business stakeholders on the development roadmap
• To project manage this substantial Web based upgrade of the existing revenue management system,
• To complete business analysis with the supplier to agree product enhancements in line with new business requirements
• To manage key relationships with suppliers and business managers
• To optimize forecast accuracy

 

The process:

System Upgrade:

• Initiated the project and put all project controls in place including Timelines
• Established Testing Approach & Scripts
• Executed thorough testing on systems and managed Product Bug Fixing & Improvement Cycle
• Launched and managed four pilots schemes to test robustness and user adaptation
• Managed supplier performance
• Upgraded the entire estate to the new platform

Forecast Accuracy:

• Defined and agreed with key stakeholders the measurement of Forecast Accuracy
• Developed and drove forecast accuracy optimisation plan
• Undertook business analysis and specified development and configuration change to support accuracy improvement

 

Result:

The entire estate has successfully migrated to a Web based Revenue Management solution and is finally benefitting from much enhanced functionality. It enables simpler processes and frees up valuable time for the analysts to complete revenue-generating tasks.

Forecast Accuracy reports were established and used to drive Forecast Performance which improved by 2.5 % representing more than £ 1.5 million for the business.

An additional outcome of the project was the creation of a lean onboarding process for new properties. With the client targeting to open 25000 additional hotel rooms within five years, all new hotels are now brought online in a timely manner to ensure they are open for sale at least six months before the opening date and can start automatic forecasting, once the required data has been collected.