Websites like Starcite will play an important role as a group channel for some time to come. And so will some of the software solutions that support them in improving sales management. 

StarCite is a leader in this market and offers on demand global meeting solutions that help hotels market, get and manage leads and book more revenue. StarCite’s Marketing Programs help suppliers gain a competitive edge showcasing their properties against thousands of others. Once you get the leads, StarCite’s innovative Response technologies help respond fast and track the progress of leads. www.starcite.com
 
Some other event websites include
www.worldmeetings.com
www.conventionplanit.com
www.sitevisit.com

When it comes to meetings and events, and supporting sales operations effeciency, here are two leading players - one is PASSKEY which is big in the US but not widely used in the European markets - they are a provider of web-based applications that automate the group housing management and reservation processing for the meetings and convention industry. www.passkey.com
 
And when it involves saving double entry for group booking and reservations teams, then a major player is MEETINGBROKER (part of Newmarket International). It is a web-based information service that distributes and manages leads from multiple business channels (example: starcite, company websites). MeetingBroker receives requests for proposals (RFPs) sent by meeting planners and provides a suite of online tools to more quickly assign, respond to, and analyze these leads. It allows the leads to be created directly in the sales and catering system used by hotels provided they are interfaced or if they use Delphi Sales & Catering.  
www.meetingbroker.com

The range of sales management tools in the industry is as bewildering as the types of hospitality organisations there are…this has in turn always meant that all companies struggle with their sales management tools. The advent of all the latest technology has not brought the hotel sales person an all-in-one system which would look after all their requirements and leave them with the time to do the one thing that they are supposed to be doing the most - SELLING.

But now there just may be some hope on the horizon with the latest product from Nexus World Services, called Hotelworx which is to be launched in March. This image is all I was able to capture from a sneak preview. This new system incorporates both the corporate RFP and group RFP requirements along with Account Management as well as event planning possibilities. Some further enhancements to improve sales analysis is also expected. While not competing with specialist Sales and Catering software like Delphi or Property Management Systems like Opera, Hotelworx from Nexus seems to provide a hospitality specialised sales management tool that is absolutely unique to the industry.

You can find more information at http://www.nexusworldservices.com/