Success story:
Windward
Windward Purchasing is a leading hospitality procurement company in Ireland, managing the procurement function for many hotels, large and small groups along with independent hotels, on behalf of their owners. They have extensive experience in hospitality procurement and front-line operations and ensure that their hotel partners can obtain the best possible products and services available, at the best prices available.
They provide a complete procurement solution and focus on the implementation of the necessary operational training and induction to procurement to maximise return for hotel operators and owners. Windward is a forward-looking company that embraces technology whether it be to make them more efficient, improve financial performance or enhance the experience of their hotels partners teams.
The Challenge
With a wide variety of hotel partners across the island of Ireland, City Centre Hotels to Country Retreats to 5* Resorts, including the likes of Farnham Estate in Cavan, Harvey’s Point in Donegal, Radisson Hotels Dublin Airport, and Mount Wolseley in Carlow to name but a few, Windward Purchasing needed a way of developing clarity over their order to delivery process. Visibility is the key to supporting operations at the hotel level.
- Difficult to control the order process across all units and as a result the daily, weekly, or monthly spending.
- The previous system was inefficient and laborious to use.
- No supplier price list was attached to the system and orders were placed manually via email or phone which wasted a lot of employee time on admin.
The Solution
Access Procure Wizard has given us a degree of control that we haven’t experienced before. We have full visibility of the product and price catalogue, prices are not changed without our authorisation, products contain live allergen data and you can establish very quickly product price comparisons.
Niall Kelly - Director of Procurement at Windward Purchasing
The Result
- Online ordering from Windwards pre-approved core supply partners with live pricing.
- Flash Reports allow real-time visibility which provides precise product lists and volumes to suppliers, improving negotiations on prices and time to turnaround contracts – it generated savings, further time efficiency, and less waste.
- Generated efficiencies in paying invoices with everything in one place
- Higher levels of consistency were achieved for food quality and allergen information for each participating hotel partner.
- The Windward team is now able to pull consumption reports from Access Procure Wizard, allowing them to get an accurate picture of what has been spent on what product and where, which is boosting consistency and quality for each of their hotel partners.
- Guest experience is of paramount importance at every one of Windwards hotel partners as customer satisfaction is the crux of their business. Windward Purchasing has absorbed Access Procure Wizard into its business with the aim of maximising the impact its hotel partners employees can make during their time at work. By using the system to significantly cut back the time they spend on admin work, employees spend more valuable time with the guests, ensuring that their visit is the best it can possibly be and giving stand-out service in comparison with competitors.
- Furthermore, consistency and availability are important to guests who expect to find comfort and familiarity when they visit or return to any hotel. Windward Purchasing ensure that everything that is served in bars, restaurants and throughout the property of their portfolio of hotel partners is ordered through Access Procure Wizard, from food and drink to amenities, and this gives a standard across any hotel that encourages loyalty and repeat bookings.
