Company insight
Finance software for growing businesses
With data and financial reporting increasingly driving business insights in the hospitality industry, it is now arguably more important than ever to ensure hotels have the right software packages at their disposal. Sam Hartley, finance director at Dakota Hotels, discusses his company’s experience using business software consultancy Percipient that successfully and quickly integrated Sage Intacct into the company’s operations.
D
akota Hotels’ luxury lifestyle brand is synonymous with style, impeccable service, dining experiences and a belief that it is the detail that really matters.
Its acquisition of two new hotels expedited Dakota’s need for a new business platform as its existing Sage 50 solution could no longer keep pace with business needs. Dakota Hotels selected Sage Intacct based on its ease of use, dashboards and reporting, value and scale, while Percipient was chosen based on its impressive credentials in hospitality and as Sage Intacct’s UK partner of the year.
Expediting time to value “Percipient really did bring so much value to this project,” Sam Hartley, finance director at Dakota Hotels, says. “The team’s knowledge of the hospitality industry and experience of similar deployments meant that we were incredibly focused on our project goals and went live within ten weeks. “The set-up of the system was fairly straightforward, helped hugely by the cloud
deployment model. And Percipient’s Cloud Connect API-led integration technology, which allowed Sage Intacct to easily integrate with Dakota’s other core systems, including PMS and procurement platforms, was also key.”
Elevating the role of finance “Using Sage Intacct, we can manipulate many data categories: by hotel, department, floor, room or time period,” Hartley says. “At any given point, we [...] can spot anomalies, patterns or opportunities. The value of this real-time insight is that problems can be headed off before they become business risks and opportunities can be leveraged to drive increased service or profitability while the window is most open. We also have a live group position which was difficult to achieve before.”
Energy for change
One of Dakota Hotels’ most innovative, and fundamental ideas to be facilitated by Sage Intacct is around energy usage across its portfolio of hotels. “We viewed the recent lockdowns and associated drop in demand
for our hotels, as an opportunity to better understand our energy costs and establish a benchmark from which to make improvements,” Hartley says. “Using sensors and meters, we collect data from a range of areas,” Hartley adds. “Sage Intacct contextualises and presents this insight to key roles around the business. The granularity of this information means that we can compare trends, review our costs and consumption and make adjustments, which benefit both the bottom line and our sustainability credentials. “At a time where costs are under close scrutiny this has been incredibly welcome as both a short-term saving as well as a long-term one. As we move increasingly towards renewable energy usage, the system will be crucial in evaluating its value against other sources.”
Unleashing potential
“Sage Intacct has quickly become the backbone of our business and, going forward, we’re looking forward to leveraging its capabilities to further automate and innovate,” Hartley explains. “While the cloud has undoubtedly become pivotal in modernising and innovating in 2022 and beyond, people really are the heart of our business. Sage Intacct will be key to helping our employees to unleash their potential, deliver value and become more strategic going forward.
“This ability to focus on our ethos and guests, rather than spending time looking for data, will accelerate our journey and underpin our future growth plans, and we look forward to embracing this with both Sage Intacct and Percipient as key partners,” Hartley concludes. ●
By leveraging financial reporting software, hotels can quickly identify business risk and opportunities. Hotel Management International /
www.hmi-online.com
www.percipient.co.uk 29
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 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61
