Live from HITEC: Starwood Embraces Adaco as Recipe Management Platform

Following an in-depth vendor selection process, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. selected Adaco.NET, a leading hospitality procurement platform. The announcement was made at the HITEC 2010 conference that opened here today, the world's largest hospitality technology event.

"We had several team members looking at recipe costing solutions for more than a year," says Christoph Leu, corporate chef, Starwood North America Food & Beverage. "Our long-term strategy was to generate Costed Recipes tightly integrated with up-to-the-minute vendor pricing for recipe ingredients. Several requirements helped narrow our selection; for instance, we wanted to have a hosted enterprise solution, the ability to seamlessly convert metric measurements to U.S. measurements and vice versa, and the ability to deal with corporately-controlled vendors, products and pricing yet have the flexibility to add local vendors and pricing where appropriate.

Leu also cites Adaco's scalability, its ability to track nutritional values and the ease of sharing, exporting and importing information when required. Starwood's team went to great lengths before making its final decision, including a pilot program involving four independent Starwood properties and multiple vendors, user feedback sessions and even the provider's willingness to fashion new functionality.

"Bids were all over the board in terms of price, support and features," says Richard Faeh, corporate chef for Starwood North America and the project manager. "As the features were compared, it then came down to what each vendor could offer in terms of their own future and sustainability. Adaco would often ask, 'How can we help?' rather than say an enhancement couldn't be done."