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Technology is making deep inroads into the hospitality industry, and hotels across the world are looking to use technology to make operation smooth and efficient

These are also popularly known as Property Management System (PMS), and Hotel ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) – if you are looking at a larger, more comprehensive management system.

came up with the term ERP to denote enterprise management software which automates a large number of business function such as human resource, finance, accounting, supply chain management etc.

ERP — which encompasses financials, human resources, CRM, production and procurement — is the enterprise

27% already were deploying their financials within a private cloud as of last year, and 12% were using public cloud services. Another 28% had their human resources and benefits functions in a private cloud, 22% were using public cloud. Eight percent and five percent were using private and public cloud, respectively, for supply chain and demand planning

we are seeing a lot more desire from the end user community to take on cloud ERP as an entirely complete solution, or as discreet bits of functionality

When Tetherow, a now 700-acre resort in Bend, Oregon, first opened as a golf course and clubhouse in 2008, we were a small business with big ambitions.

Today, Tetherow is made up of twenty individual entities rolled into one wholly owned subsidiary, including a 50-room boutique hotel, a pool, two restaurants, vacation rental homes, an events pavilion, a recreation center, a golf academy, and various residential neighborhoods, as well as the 18-course golf course that started it all. In addition to our leadership team, our rapid growth has been led by our financial team’s investment in a technology that allows us to grow fast, under pressure, and with limited risk.

We came to realize that the technology and accounting systems that we had added piecemeal over the years to support our burgeoning business, a combination of Jonas restaurant software, QuickBooks, and Excel, didn’t allow us to scale and sustain growth.

Whether you are into hospitality & housekeeping, guarding & security or maintenance & engineering services, you actually put the smile back on customers’ faces. However, this is no easy task. You need to manage major roadblocks like attrition, disconnect between operations and payroll, service continuity, on-time and accurate billing, compliance, etc., which hamper your day-to-day operations and strategic growth. Allow Abaris to transform your business process, to accelerate your success.

We cater to different segments in this industry, namely: Hospitality/ Housekeeping Services – Hospitality/ Housekeeping Service Providers can manage all aspects of their business including lead management, sales, operations scheduling and billing, to contract termination. They can benefit from special features such as zone-based deployment to sites, and Rostering to improve employee-wise plans.

Security/Guarding Services – Security and Guarding Service Providers can use Abaris ERP on Cloud to mount hurdles specific to their industry, often characterized by unorganized departments spanning multiple sites & customers, and complex processes. Apart from a complete view and integrated management of their business, they can also improve resource deployment and timely billing.

Hotel management software can be utilized to perform important organizational and financial tasks

Hotel management software can be utilized to perform important organizational and financial tasks and activities by hotels, resorts, motels, RV parks, condos and other

These functions include reservations, customer relationship management, property and maintenance management, accounting, and employee scheduling.

Indra’s Travel Management Suite services all the business needs of a hotel chain or management company in one system, hosted in the cloud or on-premise. The system is modular and each module is also available individually as a stand-alone entity.

Minimizing the number of different systems that hoteliers have to deal with onsite and replacing them with a seamless, uniform tool for all of their needs paves the way to higher levels of guest service and much more efficient operations. After all, accessing accurate guest information from all parts of the operation in real time and from a single database is what the lodging industry has been aspiring to for some time, and there’s a strong demand from CIOs to reduce the number of inter-system interfaces they’ve been struggling with for years.

Several vendors are developing new systems, though none have yet approached the rich functionality of older products with years of enhancements built into them.  At the same time, many multiproperty brands are looking to replace their existing standard property management systems, but as their strategic emphasis has shifted from central reservations (CRS) to customer relationship management (CRM) they’ve been wondering whether the new PMS really needs to have as much functionality as the old one.

Some brands developed their own PMSs, such as Marriott’s FSPMS and FOSSE, Starwood’s Galaxy and Hilton’s OnQ; others standardized on third-party systems. However, in all cases they mandated only the PMS and left it up to the individual properties to decide what to use for their other operational areas.  As a result, several vendors who concentrated on chain-hotel business focused on producing pure PMSs, with functionality covering the traditional core of individual and group reservations, check-in/checkout, folio charges, housekeeping/rooms management and the all-important CRS interface. MSI, RoomKey, Galaxy, SkyTouch and Infor’s epitome and HMS are examples.

Other vendors looking more to the independent and resort market expanded their PMSs to include sales and catering, spa/golf/activity management, CRM and sometimes even POS, both retail and food and beverage. For this segment of the market these integrated PMS applications (from vendors such as Agilysys, IQware, NORTHWIND and PAR Springer-Miller Systems) became their most strategic system. A few companies (including Cenium, IDS, Indra and Prologic First) have taken it even further, extending out into full ERPs that cover every operational area including financial and supply chain operations. MICROS falls between the two camps, offering a well-integrated PMS/S&C/CRS suite but relying on third parties for guest activity management and financial systems.

Rather than a web based demo, we advise you spend 1.0 to 1.5 days minimum looking at every aspect, and to schedule your various department managers into system functions affecting their responsibilities.

If the vendor isn't willing to spend the time on-site with you, you will never understand how the system is designed and how good the fit will be for your company, or what modifications might exist.

Experienced vendors often add great insight to the changes that their system will bring to your business environment, but also can tell you what changes will be required to take best advantage of their system.

This is not an HR system…it is a management system and is used specifically to support management decision making .

these ERP systems have their origin on software that integrates information from different applications into one universal database.

Technology has been a key driver of growth for the hospitality sector over the last decade. New technologies for jobs like real-time inventory access, seamless exchange of operational information and collation of key performance data, have transformed the hotel and restaurant business. And the biggest positive from this process has been the enhanced customer experience, leading to higher loyalty. Thus, technology has increased profits for restaurants and hotels, and also helped in reining in costs on a long-term basis by reducing manpower and improving the quality of service.

Key technologies used Currently the most popular technologies being used are accounting systems for back office needs and the Internet, along with POS solutions for front office solutions. These systems are found in over 90 per cent of the establishments in the industry.   K Ramakrishnan, president, Marketing, Café Coffee Day, says “The two key technologies we use are POS for our café operations and ‘SAP IS Retail’ for the back-end warehouse supply chain requirements. Besides, our Cafés are Wi-Fi enabled. We also use Facebook and Twitter to understand and listen to what our consumers have to  say. It serves as an excellent tool to receive reviews on what we do and how we can make the café space more fun and exciting. We use these inputs to refresh our menu, look and overall feel,” he adds.

Touch screen POS: Point of sale systems now have a touch screen  display to allow cashiers and servers to input orders. It automatically sends the order to the kitchen without the need for a call or a manual dining ticket. The latest POSs can even send separate dining tickets for different food preparations, for an order. Stock and time clock management: These two components can be directly integrated in the latest POS terminals, allowing employees to clock in and out of any POS. The central computer keeps tab of the hours worked. It also allows computers to keep track of food and dry stock, based on the orders that are coming back through the POS system. It alerts the server, if a particular ingredient is out of stock. Technology also helps accurately measure the exact amount that goes into a fryer basket or in portions/ servings. This helps in maintaining the same standards each time an order is placed. Modern financial control tools allow managers to make balance sheets, statements of cash flow and income. There are advanced softwares available, which help the management get a clear view of the finances involved in the day-to-day running of the restaurant. Future technologies Many new technologies are also knocking at the door of the Indian hospitality industry. Internationally, these tools are already in use to improve efficiency. For instance, client server technologies (CST) offer great advantages to mid and large sized multi-property hospitality chains. They allow owners to effectively integrate disparate systems like multiple computer platforms or software, accumulated over the years. They simplify report generation and MIS (management information system) support, making these functions more efficient. Players that are in expansion mode and are trying to overhaul their IT infrastructure can use these solutions to reduce their IT costs and improve staff productivity. Software as a service (SaaS) or pay as-you-go services (where software such as ERP solutions are made available on demand over the Internet and users are required to pay a monthly rental based on the time and nature of use) have also emerged as another cost effective way of handling data and processes over the Internet. Here, companies can reap big dividends by effectively cutting down on their system maintenance costs. Green technology is another option, players can look at. It helps improve sustainability in areas like energy efficiency through the use of solar power for cooking or water heating. Solid waste management, plastic and paper recycling machines, rain water harvesting, and water efficient technologies, are other green technologies. If deployed in earnest, restaurants and hotels can reap long term benefits,besides scoring high on environment friendliness and brand image improvement, among customers.

Venture capital firms ask themselves tough questions these days.

Among them: how can they dig out of the dot-com collapse? How should they invest going forward? How should the leader of a firm strike the right note for the future? And is it a field that graduating MBAs should aspire to enter?

The software industry has been heavily over-invested in for the last few years, according to panelists at the session "Can Software Recapture Investors' Interest?"