UNITED KINGDOM— In an effort to boost its Internet booking revenue, Six Continents PLC signed on with Art Technology Group (ATG) to make its website more efficient, user friendly and aesthetically pleasing. “We began talking to ATG about two years ago, but we didn’t start a formal relationship with the company for a few months thereafter,” said Del Ross, director/Internet business at 6C. “We went through a 10-month due-diligence program where we really looked at all the competitors before coming to a decision. “As part of that process, we polled customers and looked at the various products out there in the marketplace today,” Ross said. “It was a long and painful process, but we wanted to be sure that we made the right choice.” ATG is an 11-year-old software company that provides enterprise software for consumer companies to sell its services online. “We do roughly $100 million in sales a year,” said Victor Cheng, senior director/product marketing at ATG. “In the hospitality industry we work with both Hyatt and 6C on their web presence.” In the end, because of its track record, ATG was contracted to provide the software to run the various functions of 6C’s website. “Six Continents’ challenge was one of trying to tailor their website information to the various markets that they serve,” said Cheng. “For example, 6C has four or five major brands worldwide under their umbrella that span 10 countries and four travel segments. So, their challenge was to come up with a way to present this information on their website to cater to these very different groups. The company wanted to present a different look and feel depending on which brand and customer segment was on the screen at the time,” he said. “To give 6C what they were after, we looked solely at their business objectives,” Cheng continued. “We set up different sites for each brand that would appeal to the customer base most interested in that particular brand. As an example, if you’re a loyal member of 6C you are taken to a different page where you get a different look and different information than if you were going to stay at a 6C property for the first time. Another example of how the site is personalized to cater to different customers is its ability to project information in 10 different languages so that you can get the information you need to book a room in your vernacular language,” he said. ATG software powers the site to create the personalization 6C so desperately craved. “The application center we get through ATG has the ability to change the business logic for our entire website,” said Ross. “ATG also provides us with personalization software to govern the rules that govern how an individual coming to our site will be treated. We also have ATG software that sets up rules for the site to give it direction on how to react to a variety of different situations,” he said. “The software that our hospitality customers use most centers around online marketing,” added Cheng. “Our software allows the company to capture information about users, create content and categorize that content based on which users would be most interested in that area, and it also allows them to run their website to match the appropriate information to the appropriate user.” Six Continents went live with the software back in September. “With this software we’ve experienced no downtime, which is incredible given that we supported over $2 million of business on the first day we went live,” Ross said. In the future Ross plans to grow 6C’s Internet presence with ATG’s help. “It’s our low-cost channel, so it’s strategically important for us as a company to maintain it and keep it up to date,” he said. “Internet bookings have the potential to be a real driver for us going forward. As a result, we’re testing other ATG products at present in order to take the 6C site to the next level.”
