C O M P A N Y O V E R V I E W
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:
Procurement
strategy pays off for Wyndham
In the hospitality industry, it’s the smallest details that can leave the biggest impact. The Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific procurement team delivers on value, quality and price on an international scale – and they do so without sacrificing that personal touch. Written by Sarah Megginson Produced by Erika Kracer
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alcolm Parker, Director of Procurement at Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific, is always focused on the bigger picture, but he also knows only too well just how important the finer details can be. Starting his career in hospitality as “the person who checked and stocked the hotel mini bars”, Parker says the polished outcome that guests experience when staying at Wyndham resorts is only possible due to the efforts of hundreds of people collaborating behind the scenes. “I have seven people on my team, but overall we’ve got close to 550 people in the Queensland office supporting the Wyndham Hotel Group and Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific, our vacation ownership business,” Parker says. “The company has grown really very quickly; 12 years ago, we had half a floor. Within a few years we had employees spread across five different buildings. Then five years ago we had to move into our current building, and our growth has continued ever since.” Parker’s group, which procures and purchases all operating goods and services, capital purchases, furniture, fixtures and equipment, has been particularly busy recently, developing its new ‘Procure to Pay’ solution. It aims to automate every step of the process, from raising a purchase order and receiving an invoice to approving payment, with an electronic process
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Malcolm Parker Director of Procurement Malcolm Parker joined Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific in 2004 as Director of Procurement, bringing with him more than 20 years of hotel industry experience. Malcolm is based at the Wyndham Corporate Centre on the Gold Coast and is responsible for a team of seven, overseeing the procurement functions for Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific and Wyndham Hotel Group in the South Pacific and South East Asia regions.. He joined the company after relocating from New Zealand, where he worked in a similar role with Millennium & Copthorne Hotels.
“We were consider: w look lik
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e always projecting ahead to what is our business going to ke in five to 10 years’ time?” – Barry Robinson, President and Managing Director
Barry Robinson President and Managing Director
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Barry Robinson has been the President and Managing Director of Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific since September 2003. In 2009, Barry launched Wyndham Hotel Group in the South Pacific. Barry has been the driving force behind many significant new property acquisitions, enhanced resort developments and has brought a renewed customer focus to the business. Under his leadership, both Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific and Wyndham Hotel Group in the South Pacific have expanded their portfolios in the Australian, New Zealand and South Pacific regions and are poised to actively expand into new Asian markets. Appointed President and Managing Director of Wyndham Hotel Group South East Asia and Pacific Rim, effective January 1, 2015, Barry will continue to lead the expansion of both Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific and Wyndham Hotel Group South East Asia and Pacific Rim across the region. Barry oversees a property portfolio of close to 100 hotels and resorts. With more than 30 years’ hospitality experience, Barry has a vast knowledge of the hotel and resort industry – from management, operations, development, branding and franchising. He has held a number of senior leadership positions in the Asia Pacific region and has worked for some of the world’s largest hospitality companies including Swiss-Belhotel International, Swissôtel Worldwide Partner Hotels and Choice Hotels International.
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Liam Crawley Chief Financial Officer that promotes full end-to-end visibility, thereby simplifying the complexities of procurement. “Traditionally the system has been very paper-based; we’ve had to raise a purchase order, get it approved and then authorise payment, which is a process that can take up to three or four weeks,” Parker explains. “Under the new system, assuming the right process is being followed, this is reduced down to a matter of days. It’s a hosted solution and it will provide some very good efficiencies.” The software system will streamline payment procedures and smooth out procurement processes across international sites. It will eventually be implemented across the entire business, including the hotels, vacation ownership reports and the corporate head office. “We’ve partnered with Birch Street Systems, a big player globally in this space, and we’ve been working with them on the complexities of our business for around eight months to get this right,” Parker says.
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Liam Crawley joined Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific in 2008 as Chief Financial Officer. He leads a team of more than 140 employees providing centralised support services and is responsible for all aspects of accounting, financial reporting, planning and analysis, payroll, procurement, internal audit, information technology, treasury, taxation and the consumer financing division within the Asia Pacific region. Liam has over 20 years’ experience as a senior finance executive at corporate, divisional and regional levels within publicly listed corporations. Prior to joining Wyndham, he commenced his career in Melbourne, Australia with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and later held senior finance positions at Mayne Group Limited in Melbourne in the corporate office, asset management, group finance, healthcare, diagnostics and logistics. He later served as the regional finance head for the Americas based in New Jersey (USA) - for Mayne Pharma Limited and then served as Global Vice President of Finance and Group Financial Controller, based in their London global office. He was responsible for the group’s ASX financial reporting, financial control and led a global finance and accounting team of 125 finance professionals throughout the Asia Pacific, EMEA and US regions. Liam is a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA), a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (FAICD), and a member of the AICD Gold Coast Regional Committee.
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“There are a number of different aspects, such as tax codes, which need to be considered. It has been a long process but we’re now ready to launch, starting with our South Pacific sites.” This latest initiative has been the primary focus of Parker and his team for the last 12 months or so, but he admits it is just one of a number of areas where he is focusing his attention. As he manages procurement for Wyndham’s two different business arms – the vacation ownership (or timeshare) properties and the franchise-owned hotels – he must keep on top of two different procurement strategies, as each business model has unique requirements. Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific develops, markets and sells vacation ownership interests across a network of 27 resorts in the Asia Pacific region. Meanwhile, the Wyndham Hotel Group, as part of the Wyndham Worldwide family of companies, is the world’s largest hotel company, with over 8,000 hotels under brands including Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, Ramada, Days Inn, TRYP by Wyndham Super 8 and Howard Johnson. Parker’s territory encompasses close to 100 of those properties across South East Asia and the Pacific Rim. This means Parker provides procurement support across a range of functions, to provide value to a range of stakeholders
Key People
Matt Taplin Senior Vice President Resort Operations and Property Development Matt Taplin joined Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific in late-2012 as Senior Vice President of Resort Operations and Property Development, bringing with him more than 25 years of hotel industry experience. In his role with Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific, Matt is located at Wyndham Corporate Centre on the Gold Coast and is responsible for a team of approximately 540 employees who work in resort operations and property development across Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. He joined the company after relocating from New Zealand and has extensive experience in a variety of roles across different locations, with a proven record of building and leading large and diverse hotel teams. In his previous role as Vice President of Operations at Millennium & Copthorne Hotels New Zealand Ltd, he was responsible for the overall operation and performance of 30 owned, managed or franchised hotels with more than 1,200 employees.
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based on volume and economies of scale. “We were predominantly vacation ownership, which was quite simple in itself, as it enabled us to ensure consistency of product and manage supply. We are now also looking after the hotel group’s interest, which covers both managed and franchised hotels,” he explains. “We also have a mixed-use model, where we have timeshare apartments and hotel rooms within the same building. Across the whole portfolio there are a lot of variations and moving parts to consider.” Now overseeing around $190 million per year worth of supplier contracts across the Asia Pacific region, Parker says there is “a lot of ground work” behind the scenes to promote seamless processes at the front end. “What we’ve got here is a very large direct spend, so that really helps in a lot of ways. With our resorts, we have a six to seven-year cycle where we refurbish on a cyclical basis. There are always three to four of these refurbishments going on at any one time, so
Year founded
2000
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there’s an ongoing relationship going projecting ahead to consider: what with some key suppliers,” Parker says. is our business going to look like in “As a result of this, we’ve got five to 10 years’ time?” he says. strong compliance and we’re “We wanted to work with supply able to provide our franchise partners who were keen to come on customers with that added value that journey with us and who had the as well as purchasing power.” footprint to deliver on an international When he joined Wyndham Vacation scale. Ecolab, Xerox and Samsung are Resorts Asia Pacific in 2004, good examples: they’re global Parker adds that there players. They’ve got were only three or people on the ground four properties to in various countries, consider; now which makes it Approximately with Wyndham a lot easier for Hotel Group us when we operating in move into a the region, new country, employees at there are more rather than Wyndham Vacation than 100. Their going in cold.” Resorts Asia Pacific position now has Developing a not been arrived at by range of strategic accident, but is instead the alliances and relationships culmination of a long and considered with suppliers has been paramount approach that Parker has been to their success in building a positive building towards for over a decade. brand and guest experience, as it “We have always been looking allowed them to leverage group buying toward the future. We knew where power without sacrificing quality. we were going, so we put the work in However, fostering seamless with the suppliers that we partnered supplier partnerships is one side of the with. For example, we were always coin when managing procurement for
2,000
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“We’ve got strong compliance and we’re able to provide our franchise customers with that added value and that buying power” – Barry Robinson, President and Managing Director
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an international hotel chain; the other side involves factoring in each market’s unique characteristics. “There are so many different countries we’re working in, and they each have their own systems and local customs, so we do have to be very mindful of that,” Parker says. “About 18 months ago we were appointed to look after South East Asia, which had previously been handled out of China, and fortunately we get great support out of our Singapore office in this regard. They’re on the ground working hard and that helps us a great deal when we’re looking to initiate any procurements in those regions.” He also leverages the resources of Wyndham Worldwide, based in the United States, which boasts a strategic sourcing and an international team that includes Parker and his colleagues in the UK, China and Latin America. “We communicate on a regular basis and push out global initiatives where we can,” he says. Whether working out of Wyndham’s Asia Pacific headquarters on the Gold Coast, collaborating with Parker’s global counterparts in various overseas markets, or leaning on their team in Singapore, one thing is clear: Wyndham’s extraordinary success in delivering superior procurement value and support is a team effort.
$
250 million Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific annual revenue
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Wyndham Corporate Centre Level 7, 1 Corporate Court Bundall QLD , Australia, 4217 Tel. +61 7 5512 8888 www.wyndhamap.com