Stanford
adds
that
the
cloud enables hoteliers to be responsive to and track customers and their expectations. “Customer convenience tools can make life easier for everyone,” she says. “By using a cloud system, an event planner can, for instance, track details and commu- nicate requests such as menu selection and so on. They can log onto a portal and see their information rather than having to send a query via email or phone a catering manager and wait for a response.”
THE ALL-IN-ONE ADVANTAGE Significantly, an integrated cloud system also enables you to analyse data better (see article on page 4), according to Simon Bocca, chief oper- ating officer at Fourth. “Every hotel generates masses of data each day, but meaningful inter- pretation is impossible without the insight provided by a connected, integrated insight hub,” he says. “Data presented in context with other data sets is significantly more useful. “Imagine the power of a complete picture of
how an employee is doing. With an integrated operations platform you can take data from all appropriate data sources and combine them into one coherent picture – taking into account time and attendance data, training, productiv- ity, tenure, upselling, skills, guest satisfaction, mystery diner data and tips. Using technology to automate as much as possible gets man- agers out of the back office and into front of house to focus on the guest experience.” Gino Engels, co-founder and chief com- mercial officer at OTA Insight, says that real- time access to data analytics across channels enables hoteliers to see at a glance what is hap- pening in their market and make informed decisions on pricing and distribution: “We’ve had customers able to increase revpar by over 15% in a 12-month period by managing demand, pricing and parity more efficiently across their room type variations and across the right channels.” Meanwhile, Whitbread’s Premier Inn has just introduced the Amadeus CRS and PMS, which will provide a real-time view of business. It is also adopting the Amadeus payments plat- form, which will let the company process guest payments more efficiently and safely. Premier Inn managing director
Simon Jones says: “All of our key data will be accessible via one screen. This will help us save time, as we’ll be able to focus more resources on analysing data in a mean- ingful way. With informa- tion on a centralised platform, we can ensure a more consistent guest experi- ence regardless of location.”
Scalability is a notable advantage of the cloud. Traditional hotel management soft- ware can’t be easily integrated with software from different providers, so adding features can be expensive and laborious. Cloud-based systems, though, can be connected to other compatible software, enabling you to custom- ise your management system and add all sorts
24 | Technology Prospectus 2018
of time-saving apps, from collecting deposits to capturing e-signatures. For instance, property management, dis- tribution and digital marketing tech provider Guestline works with partners Avvio, Digital Alchemy, GuestRevu, ResDiary and UpSellG- uru to meet customer needs for website inte- gration, marketing campaign management, guest reviews, restaurant bookings and so on. “Each integration is designed to support the PMS and enable hoteliers to improve their efficiency and in turn expand their ser- vices and/or distribution,” explains sales and marketing director Rupert Gutteridge. “We have recently launched new event ticketing software to enable hoteliers to boost revenue fur- ther by selling tickets to events.
The Online Ticket Sales tool was designed to integrate with Rezlynx and offers a web solution that can take payment and combine ticket prices with room rates if required from customer websites.”
NOT JUST FOR MAJORS
The good news is that to benefit from the cloud you don’t have to be a global force the size of Hilton. “Simplicity, remote access and affordability are key advantages for smaller
properties, whereas the ease of multi-site management, rapidity of deployment and scal- ability are major advantages for larger hotel groups, pub companies and serviced apart- ments,” Gutteridge says.
Amadeus is launching a new product in
early 2018 – a limited service cloud that recog- nises that not all hotels require all the features of the traditional cloud. “The full feature prod- uct is often more than a small operator needs, so we streamlined it for limited service prop- erties,” Stanford explains. As for affordability, businesses pay an ongoing subscription or fee for cloud solu- tions rather than paying heavily upfront for hardware. While each business needs to do its own analysis, in the context of maintenance, updates and security, the cloud tends to be more cost-effective.
“One of the differences here is operating expense versus capital expense,” says Stan- ford. “Given the ongoing cost of hardware maintenance, many organisations will pur- chase hardware and then amortise the expense over several years. Once fully expensed, they’re often dealing with repairs or looking to replace dated hardware. With cloud-based solutions, they’re eliminating these dependencies as well as the potential cost of employing a team or service to manage the infrastructure.”
www.thecaterer.com
▲
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
