Newmarket International Announces ...



IHG Selects Newmarket International’s Hospitality Solutions to Drive Revenue Growth, Customer Satisfaction at Properties Worldwide

Newmarket International’s MeetingBroker Lead Management Solution and Sales and Catering Applications to help maximize sales performance across the global IHG enterprise

Portsmouth, NH – August 13, 2009 – Newmarket International, Inc., the leader in sales and catering solutions for the hospitality industry, today announced an enterprise wide agreement with IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON: IHG, NYSE: IHG (ADRs)] to implement MeetingBroker® as their lead distribution and management platform for every property worldwide along with ™ as its online sales and catering solution for IHG’s midscale properties. IHG selected Newmarket International’s solutions following an internal study on the optimal business processes to innovate in order to grow revenues, market share and customer satisfaction during this challenging economic period.

MeetingBroker enables passing and managing leads from multiple online sources and has a proven return on investment in the hospitality marketplace. is a “cloud based” sales and catering application built to optimize the management of corporate transient, groups and meetings. By implementing MeetingBroker, IHG will provide associates with a standardized platform in which all leads will be distributed and managed. The result will be an increase in conversion rates, enhanced business data and improved brand communication.

“We are in a challenging economy; however, with our great brands, we believe we can gain a competitive advantage by deploying a technology solution that will focus on the management of leads for the groups and meetings market,” said Stephen Powell, Senior Vice President, World Wide Sales, IHG. “By centralizing our lead distribution and management on the MeetingBroker platform we will be able to understand sources of business, how leads are managed at the property level and have a holistic picture of our customers across the global enterprise.”

In addition to a faster response to customers and a consistent way to respond to leads, MeetingBroker will have a positive impact on sales effectiveness. For locations that have multiple IHG hotels located in one city, for example, IHG can consolidate the response and a faster, more complete response will be delivered. “MeetingBroker is a platform we will leverage to make smarter business decisions to increase our market share,” concluded Powell.

In addition, stated Powell, “ is a highly intuitive web application, so the sales and catering teams will be fully functional almost immediately.”

During the past year, Newmarket International has implemented extensive platform upgrades, including migrating to Microsoft’s most advanced operating system to date, Windows Server 2008 and utilizing the Microsoft .NET Framework in its and MeetingBroker applications. Newmarket International, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, has also developed a comprehensive reporting warehouse using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services and SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services to provide IHG with enterprise-wide reporting on RFP activity through the MeetingBroker application.

“With online channels dramatically shifting the distribution and lead generation process, hospitality providers must now rely on powerful tools to quickly assign, respond to and analyze leads,” said Sandra Andrews, U.S. Hospitality Industry Solutions Director, Microsoft Corp. “Newmarket is utilizing the latest Microsoft technologies to create solutions that enable hoteliers to respond to leads faster than the competition by eliminating bottlenecks, escalating preferred accounts and focusing on the most profitable channels.”

“IHG has a strong portfolio of brands known for delivering superior customer service,” said Sean O’Neill, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Newmarket International, Inc. “We are excited to be working with IHG on such a significant business initiative.”

About IHG

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is the world's largest hotel group by number of rooms.  IHG owns, manages, leases or franchises, through various subsidiaries, over 4,300 hotels and almost 630,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world.  The Group owns a portfolio of well recognized and respected hotel brands including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo®, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn® Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites® and Candlewood Suites®, and also manages the world's largest hotel loyalty program, Priority Club® Rewards, with 44 million members worldwide.

IHG has nearly 1,600 hotels in its development pipeline, which will create 140,000 jobs worldwide over the next few years.

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group's holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales.

IHG offers information and online reservations for all its hotel brands at  and information for the Priority Club Rewards program at . For the latest news from IHG, visit our online Press Office at media.

 

About Newmarket International

Newmarket International, Inc. () is the leader in delivering sales, group catering and event software solutions to the global hospitality and entertainment industries. Newmarket International’s suite of business solutions can be found in hotels, casinos, restaurants, visitor bureaus, stadiums, meeting arenas and convention centers throughout the world. Newmarket International has over 80,000 users worldwide, with over 18,000 installations in over 154 countries. Newmarket International is headquartered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with international offices in London, Shanghai, and Singapore.

Newmarket and MeetingBroker are registered trademarks of Newmarket International, Inc. is a trademark of Newmarket International, Inc.

Contact:

Cassie Heppner, Marketing Manager

Newmarket International, Inc.

cheppner@

tel: +1 (603) 427-6499



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