In 2007, the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) announced a global relaunch of the Holiday Inn Family of Brands, to be completed by the end of 2010. To identify the top needs of the Holiday Inn target guest, IHG conducted the industry's largest ever consumer research project, involving over 18,000 guests worldwide. Once the creative and brand concepts were finalised, the issue of global implementation raised some crucial management issues.

As Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels are largely run by independent franchisees, ranging from stand alone properties to large franchise groups, the question arose of how the overhaul would be rolled out to ensure consistency and quality control. How would the company ensure that the new quality standards, employee training, and hallmark installations were completed at every hotel worldwide? For the region spanning the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa, the answer came in the form of a single online portal to provide visibility on the re-launch of over 500 hotels.

The portal is managed by a small team of four people at the company’s head office in Denham, UK. The system allows IHG to keep abreast of the pace of the rebranding across the EMEA region, enabling accurate forecasting for approved suppliers and approval of hallmark items from local suppliers around the region. The portal also facilitates proactive assistance by the re-launch team to the hotels as they complete the individual re-launch steps.