Knowland Group

Knowland is a web-based software company that provides business development products and services to the hospitality industry.

Knowland

Industry	Web-based software
Area served	Global
Products	Target Net Insight Readers

History

Knowland traces its roots back to a small software engineering firm. This firm spent months developing an entirely new kind of hotel readerboard service, heavily reliant on web technology, for a client in the industry. When the client backed out, Knowland's decided to start their own hospitality field research service, and by the fall of 2004, an online readerboard service was launched.^{[citation needed]}

Knowland signed its first client, the Holiday Inn in Arlington, Va., in September 2004.^[1] During 2005, the company expanded to over 20 markets, serving a diverse clientele of single and multi-property clients. By the end of 2006, Knowland had over 400 clients in 60 markets and had tracked more than 200,000 events.^[2]

In 2007, Knowland introduced Insight, a tool that generates targeted sales leads with details on each prospect's event booking history.^[3] The company also activated a 7,000 square foot call center. The Event Booking Center employs research and sales support professionals who specialize in cold calling and can become an extension of hotel clients’ sales staff.^[4]

Knowland launched Target Net, a meetings management and sales force automation platform, in 2010. In addition to managing events from start to finish, Target Net also generated sales leads and opportunities.^[5] This product was discontinued in 2015.

Today Knowland is a provider of intuitive business intelligence products for the hospitality industry and has more than 3,000 client hotels and 50,000 users globally.^[6]

Products

Target Net, Insight, and Readers are the cloud-based products offered by Knowland. These products accessible from a computer connected to the Internet.^[7]

Target Net

Target Net is a salesforce automation and meetings management tool that allows hoteliers to manage their sales funnel.^[8]

Knowland no longer sells Target Net product, but continues to offer support for clients already using it.^{[citation needed]}

Insight

Insight is a search engine and sales lead-generation tool that gives hotel sales teams access to a database of groups that have held meetings at hotels and conference centers.^[9]

In 2014, Knowland released Insight's 3.0 update. Insight 3.0 included new features such as anonymous reviews of groups and their events, the ability to follow groups, properties, and people, and more detailed group profiles.^[10]

After receiving many unfavorable reviews from clients regarding the changes to Insight for the 3.0 release, Knowland launched Insight 3.1 the following year (2015). Insight 3.1 was designed almost entirely around user feedback.^{[citation needed]}

Readers

Readers is an online readerboard service that offers daily reporting and data on groups that hold meetings and events at hotels' competitor properties. Readers combines an online tool with Knowland's version of a traditional readerboard report, in addition to telephone-verified contact information. Each week, approximately 400 field researchers^[11] take digital photos of hotel readerboards. Those photos are uploaded each night to the Knowland database and the data made available online to clients the next morning. New groups are constantly being added to the database and detailed profiles are created and updated for each group.^[1] In April 2014, Knowland released a new data management process to help maintain the accuracy and freshness of the information provided.^[12]

References

1. "Knowland Group became one of the fastest-growing companies by taking photos of signs." The Washington Post. Retrieved 2011-05-11.
2. Johnson, Richard L. "Market Intelligence Firm Celebrates Tremendous Growth; Knowland Tracks Details on over 247,000 Events in 2006, Revenue Grows 548% in Second Full Year of Operations, Now in Over 60 Metropolitan Areas / January 2007". Hotel-online.com. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
3. Johnson, Richard L. (September 2007). "Knowland Unleashes INSIGHT on the World of Hospitality and Asks Hoteliers to Imagine... Imagine a breakthrough tool that provides access to over $3 billon In group bookings". Hotel-online.com. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
4. Johnson, Richard L. "The Knowland Group Opens 100 Seat Call Center in Salisbury MD; Market Intelligence Firm Continues Expansion, Opens Combined Call, Operations Center on Maryland's Eastern Shore / July 2007". Hotel-online.com. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
5. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-10-09. Retrieved 2014-10-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
6. (PDF). Cms.knowland.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-10-09. Retrieved 2014-10-06.
7. Johnson, Richard L. "Knowland Moves Reports to the Cloud; Innovative Business Development Firm Enhances Client Experience / October 2010". Hotel-online.com. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
8. . Archived from the original on 2011-08-14. Retrieved 2011-05-12. Retrieved 2011-05-12.
9. Resource, Hotel News. "Knowland Gives Hoteliers New Insight into Business Development". Hotelnewsresource.com. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
10. . Knowland.com. 11 December 2015. Archived from the original on 22 March 2015. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
11. "Knowland Group Introduces Its Business Development Suite For The Hospitality Industry". E-hospitality.com. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
12. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-10-08. Retrieved 2014-10-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)