CHICAGO—Cloud5 Communications announced the launch of its new Vendor Management solution. Vendor Management leverages the Cloud5 Project Management Office (PMO) to help properties:
- Streamline, centralize, and manage multi-vendor projects, keeping them on time, on budget, and within scope. It can be applied to on-property projects as well as repeatable multi-property initiatives across a range of activities from IT investments to property renovations and development.
- Manage the lifecycle of vendor relationships, from contract negotiations and day-to-day management to issue escalation and resolution. Cloud5’s PMO serves as a resource for all vendor interactions, building strong relationships with vendors that can lead to better rates, cost savings, and a reduction of responsibilities for hotel staff.
This approach to Vendor Management is based on feedback from Cloud5’s clients and partners as well as ongoing trends impacting the industry.
“As staffing shortages continue to impact hospitality, and open positions are increasingly filled by workers that have little prior experience in the industry, we’re finding that many properties lack the internal expertise and resources to effectively manage projects,” said Mark Holzberg, president and CEO of Cloud5. “Our Vendor Management solution can reduce this friction, helping hotels and hotel management companies operate more efficiently and pursue transformational initiatives that keep them relevant, fresh, and compliant with brand standards while reducing the burden on their workforce and mitigating labor costs.”
With more than 20 years of experience in hospitality, the project management team at Cloud5 has developed processes to standardize and scale initiatives. The company’s team of project managers leverages built-in failsafe and checks to ensure that project details have the necessary attention and emphasis. Additionally, it uses proprietary documents and smart sheets to track and record project details, so it can provide dashboards that let stakeholders review where a project stands within the lifecycle.
Earlier this year, the efficacy of Cloud5’s PMO delivered its first vendor management project with long-time partner Highgate.
“Cloud5’s PMO team helped us integrate a new company and its disparate technologies and systems into our existing portfolio,” said Richard Tudgay, CTO at Highgate. “As a long-time client of Cloud5, Highgate has successfully engaged with the Cloud5 PMO team on network installations for many years, so when we found ourselves needing project management expertise, we knew where to turn.”
