Marriott Sales Staff Turns To CRM Tool

A year into its implementation of Siebel's customer-relationship management software, Marriott International has put the tool in the hands of 2,000 salespeople and event-booking staff.

With the hospitality industry seeing a softening of demand this summer, Marriott is focusing on ways to use the software to keep in touch with event planners and the high-volume business they deliver, says CIO Carl Wilson. If a group is interested in the Manhattan Marriott Marquis but the property is sold out, the software helps salespeople cross-sell other Marriott properties across its brands. Since its Y2K conversion, Marriott also has been standardizing its desktops on Microsoft technology and its databases on Oracle, Wilson says. Marriott is the nation's largest hotel chain in terms of annual revenue and third-largest in number of rooms, behind Cendant and Bass.