Six Continents Hotels, Inc with more than 3260 hotels including Holiday Inn & Crowne Plaza , deploys Open-Source Franchise Communication System.

- One of the worlds largest hotel franchisors deploys web based software solution for hotel communications. - Software enhances franchisee communications at lower cost and risk compared to commercial options while reducing email overload. - For the first time franchisors have a handle on the effectiveness and relevance of their outbound communications.

Atlanta (PRWEB) March 6, 2002 - Digital People, Inc. announced today the completion of the rollout of its browser based franchise information distribution portal at Six Continents Hotels, Inc., one of the worldâ€s leading hotel companies.

The system, designed to optimize distribution of corporate communications to over 8,000 operational positions, receives data from a variety of XML data sources and then aggregates and personalizes content for each employee by role and hotel. Employees accessing 6CMail messages are presented with a single personalized email newsletter containing all corporate communications targeted to their operational role.

Reports on content consumption and relevance are passed back to content originators to help them better understand how to optimize relevance of outbound communications, thereby enhancing the value of 6CMail to the franchisee community.

“The 6CMail system was built upon an Oracle and SUN foundation, and then extended to suit the clients requirements using proven open source components such as XML, Qmail and Java to create what has now become a major communication tool for its franchisee community and hotel operators," said Allan Regenbaum, co-founder of Digital People.

"Digital People provided us with a low cost, highly scaleable solution to meet our current and future communication needs," said Eric Pearson, vice president of E-Commerce for Six Continents Hotels. "It greatly improves how we communicate and interact with our hotels."

Digital People's content delivery system, suited to any franchise organization, is now being enhanced to deliver system content using new collaborative message types such as voice telephony. Modules have also been added to enable interactive surveys and training delivery via email messaging.

About Digital People
Digital People are an Atlanta-based solutions consultancy that specializes in leveraging the reliability and cost-saving opportunities presented by the combination of open source software with enterprise software platforms , to deliver solutions with reduced risk and cost.

Founded in 1997, Digital People has delivered database backed web solutions to the hospitality, school, apparel and corporate training marketplaces, where open source products have been used to add collaborative functionality to Oracle, Lotus Domino and Peoplesoft installations.

About Six Continents Hotels
Six ContinentsSM Hotels, the hotel business of Six Continents PLC of the United Kingdom [LON:SXC, NYSE:SXC (ADRs)], owns, manages, leases or franchises more than 3,260 hotels and 514,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories. Six Continents Hotels brands include: Inter-Continental® Hotels and Resorts, Crowne Plaza® Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn®, Holiday Inn Express®, and Staybridge Suites® by Holiday Inn®.

Digital People Contact : Allan Regenbaum , 1-770-403-5205
Six Continents Hotels : Autumn Murray, 1-770-604-5363

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The following are some of the service marks owned by Six Continents Hotels, Inc., its parent, subsidiaries or affiliates: Holiday Inn®, Crowne Plaza®, Holiday Inn Express® in the Americas, Express by Holiday InnSM in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Holiday Inn Select®, Holiday Inn Garden CourtSM, Holiday Inn SunSpree® Resort, Staybridge Suites® by Holiday Inn®, Holiday Inn Family SuitesSM Resort, Holidex®, Priority Club®, Inter-Continental® and Forum®. Centra® in Canada and Mexico; CentraSM in the U.S.; ParkroyalSM in the U.S. and Canada; Parkroyal® in Mexico.

Six Continents Club®, Six ContinentsSM, 6 ContinentsSM and the 6C logo are service marks of Six Continents PLC and used under license.

Six Continents Hotels, Inc. offers information and reservations capability on the Internet †www.6c.com, www.intercontinental.com for Inter-Continental Hotels and Resorts, www.crowneplaza.com for Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts, www.holiday-inn.com for Holiday Inn hotels, www.hiexpress.com for Holiday Inn Express hotels, www.staybridge.com for Staybridge Suites by Holiday Inn, and www.priorityclub.com.

For the latest news from Six Continents Hotels, visit our online Press Office at
http://www.pressoffice.sixcontinentshotels.com/