STATESIDE ORACLE
across the same chain; all of that information is consolidated into the same place and they’re given a reference. This essentially means that no stay feels like the first. The fact that we can enable that kind of profile sharing and ensure that the guest experience is personalised and customised is huge, it applies to everybody regardless of the market segment that they’re in. Whether they are big players staying at big hotels or somebody that enjoys the casino resort experience regardless of their spend on the casino floor, their guest profile information can be captured, shared across the hotel, and used accordingly.
CI: Can OPERA Cloud run your loyalty scheme? TP: I previously spoke about the component with the player tracking system and the seamless integration between the two. So that means that if I am an OPERA Cloud user and I need to reference data from the player tracking system, I don’t have to log in to the player tracking system separately. OPERA Cloud gives me all the information. Similarly with the loyalty tracking system, if the customer chooses to have a completely separate setup for loyalty, we do have integrations between OPERA Cloud and third-party systems. As part of OPERA Cloud, we have Oracle Hospitality Integration Cloud which comes with over 3000 API’s. Those API’s can be used to access, read and write any data that exists within OPERA Cloud itself. If I have a loyalty tracking system, through the integration platform I can integrate it fully into OPERA Cloud. While the OPERA Cloud user is checking somebody in, they don’t have to log in to anything else, directly in OPERA Cloud they can view the point balances the guest has, guest preferences, and any notes on the profile can be actioned immediately. Similarly, somebody that is logging into the loyalty tracking system will be able to view guest history information and any spend in order to run their loyalty programme accordingly. We’re big believers that in order to have an action be repeated 100% of the time, it needs to be easy to do. If I’m somebody that needs to use OPERA Cloud for my day job, everything I need for my day job should be in OPERA Cloud itself. Through these integrations is how we’re going to exchange information back and forth.
CI: Can you do all of your reporting through OPERA Cloud? TP: You can. OPERA Cloud comes with OPERA Reporting and Analytics, which is a reporting and analytics tool. Any data that exists within OPERA Cloud can be reported on itself. Having said that, a lot of customers have other information that they maintain somewhere else, for example they may have a CRM and they pull into that CRM something from social media. So it doesn’t mean that it necessarily replaces something that marketing needs to use for their reporting and analytics. For anything that operations need to do, such as arrivals or number of rooms booked and looking at how it compares to forecast or budget, reporting and analytics can give them that.
CI: How do you think having a piece of software that encompasses everything impacts on-property marketing? TP: In a lot of hotels reporting is isolated to the specific functional area. When you look at a number in isolation it means one thing, but when you compare it to five other points of data its means something very different. The only
FEBRUARY 2022 29
way to address that issue is to bring it all together, for example looking at why the pool revenue may be down, but the spa revenue is up. People are spending a lot of time generating the numbers which doesn’t give them a lot of time to do something about the numbers. They see a piece of data; they now need to understand what it means and come up with action items. Those action items can sometimes be the more difficult ones, but ultimately if we make the generation of the numbers easier, its gives people more time and opportunity to think strategically.
CI: What is OHIP? TP: The Oracle Hospitality Integration platform allows anybody outside of Oracle to communicate with OPERA Cloud. Partners and customers can develop applications with seamless integration into OPERA Cloud. Any piece of data that exists within OPERA Cloud or any field that OPERA Cloud has with data behind it and a corresponding API can be accessed by any partner or customer. For example, if a customer or a partner wanted to develop a new service application for the guest, they can easily do that. It is a self-onboarding process so they can sign up to the partner portal, they get access to the environment, they can do all the development, and we provide them with support along the way. The benefit for the customer is two-fold. 1. There is no longer a cost for the customer themselves meaning they do not have to buy an interface or integration, OHIP comes as part of OPERA Cloud. 2. They have access to more partners and vendors than they ever could in the past. In the past one of the big blockers to somebody offering a new application with a certified integration to OPERA Cloud, was the cost for both the partner and the customer. Now, removing those pain points has made the partner network more open and accessible to the customers.
CI: What are your 2022 hospitality predictions? TP: I think there is so much pent-up demand for travel. I think leisure will drive it all, business will still lag behind, and Group somewhere in the middle. People still want to meet face-to-face even if it’s once every quarter. My prediction is leisure and travel will come back aggressively.
Kalim/Adobe Stock
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