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Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau
June 1, 2005
Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau
Wayne Chappell, GHCVB's VP of Convention Sales and Services, Explains Decision
Houston, Texas, June 1, 2005"
While we went looking for software, what we found was a solution" began Wayne Chappell, VP of Sales and Services for the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau.
"We were looking to replace our CRM software and after performing a careful analysis, we found that New Media Gateway and their Destination Business System delivered far more than other options."
And he should know. As a 30-year veteran of the CVB industry, Mr. Chappell has served as the CEO of the Baltimore and Kansas City CVBs and as chairman for IACVB before coming to Houston. He's seen a lot of CRM, sales & marketing tools in his time, but none like NMG's.
Houston joins Austin, Dallas, Indianapolis, Irving, New Orleans, Phoenix, San Diego, and Vancouver as a few of the CVBs using NMG's destination sales and marketing solutions, as well as resorts like Boca Resorts, Breakers, Broadmoor, and Mandalay Bay.
Mr. Chappell went on to explain GHCVB's rationale: "No other option compared to what NMG was capable of delivering for us. Their products, people, and company were in another league."
"In regard to their products, The Destination Business System was a solution, not software. This was important for us because selling a destination today requires more than having a great CRM application… We need to be able to market and communicate with prospects and customers more quickly, efficiently, and of course cost-effectively.
The DBS not only delivered the CRM functionality we need, but it also hooks into our Web site with content management tools, and has some remarkable marketing and sales tools built-in.
It's totally INTEGRATED, meaning that all of our data and departments work together, and it's custom-built to match our existing language, process, and flow. This will enable us to drive more leads, increase sales and reduce costs than any other system available to GHCVB."
Other GHCVB departments were equally impressed: "Our finance and admin people liked that all upgrades are free for the life of the system.
And they don't charge per user, by the amount of information stored, or by the number of emails sent. Our business is in a constant state of change, and we can't worry about costs which fluctuate.
NMG is an impressive company. Not only do they have a solid track record of creating solutions for Fortune 500 clients, they've re-purposed many of those solutions for CVBs. This meant that GHCVB was able to obtain solutions that we otherwise might not have been able to afford.
We were also impressed by NMG's Hospitality Division personnel experience which represents 100 combined years in Convention Sales and Services, Tourism, Marketing, IT and Media.
In addition to that, they are also able to talk our language. Not everyone on our staff is a technology expert, and NMG understood that. They were able to show how their solutions could complement our process and work flow in terms we could easily understand.
With NMG, we have gone from feeling satisfied to feeling enthusiastic."
GHCVB's DBS is expected to be deployed in late 2005.About Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau
The mission of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau is to improve the economy of Greater Houston by attracting conventions, tourists, film projects and international government officials to the area through sales and marketing efforts. The Bureau exists through a public and private sector partnership that fosters economic development by helping Houston realize the full economic potential of the convention and visitors industry. Additional information on the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau can be found at http://www.visithoustontexas.com.
About New Media Gateway and Its Hospitality Division
New Media Gateway packages technology into unique sales and marketing solutions, delivering 2,100 projects a year to 2,600 companies worldwide. Additional information on NMG can be found at http://www.newmediagateway.com. NMG's hospitality division provides innovative business solutions to CVBs, hotels, resorts, associations, and arenas across North America. Additional information on NMG's Hospitality Division can be found at http://hospitality.newmediagateway.com.
This Web-based press release may be considered for immediate release. Please contact Lou McErlean 800.330.9450 for more details.