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IBM, the largest I.T. corporation, are suing the Priceline Group for abusing IBM's patents without authorization and should pay for damages of infringement. Priceline has ignored IBM's previous warning about the same issue back in 2011. The patent being used by Prineline is a system that hundreds of websites are currently using. Is it fair that these system from IBM are patentable? However, if IBM has the rights to these systems, why should the Priceline Group be able to abuse it without any authorizations? Should this be a lesson with other companies practicing the 'wait and see approach'?

IBM, Apple, and HP are all major companies in computer hardware. While IBM used to be the major player, that position has been overtaken by Apple. HP, on the other hand, has had its ups and downs. This article discusses the possibility that HP will make a comeback. I was more intrigued with the fall of IBM and if it will come back. It is interesting to note how quickly things change in this industry. IBM has fallen, but will Apple follow suit? Apple, without its founder, may be in the position to fall if its I-phones fail to keep pace. I believe that Apple is about to become the next IBM, which is out-of-date and fails to keep up with the latest developments. I'm not sure if HP will replace Apple, but I think that without its founder it is likely to rapidly lose its current standing.

I believe every business, especially if it is a huge corporation, should protect and control their company's data. A company's data falling into the wrong hands can be a huge drawback for the company, especially if it comes into contact with a competitor. This article explains how IBM have introduced a new security tool with Big Data to identify any suspicious internal and external security threats as well as flag any company secrets from displease employee's emails and their social medias. The new system can alert any frauds and risks from decade worth of emails, financial transactions, and websites. CIOs will be able to conduct a sentiment analysis on employees to see which worker is the most likely to expose company's information. Some can argue that employees have the right to post anything on their social media's accounts but if an employee still is employed by the company then it should be all bets off. The company should have all rights in making sure their information does not get leaked out by an employee who is simply having a bad day.

ISS facility management company is partnering with IBM's Watson to increase the service aspect of different places. ISS is a group that focuses on different services that include cleaning, catering, property services, etc. IBM is a technological company that has its own form of artificial intelligence called Watson. ISS has a plan to place a multitude of sensors all over the interior of a building. This can mean doors, chairs, desks, etc. These sensors are going to monitor everything in the area around them, and report all of the data it obtains using ambient intelligence, or technology that is able to learn from its surroundings. This data will be logged on a blockchain ledger, and analyzed by Watson. With this data, Watson can text guests about the things they need in a room, turn off unused equipment, and calculate how many utensils or plates that guests in a room may need. The focus is not to only lower costs, but improve service as a whole. ISS has already implemented this into their Copenhagen headquarters, and they plan to spread it to over 20,000 more locations.

A new study done by IBM has discovered that nearly sixty percent of organizations are embracing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), having their sights set on improving privacy, security, and data management. This is a relief to see as this particular subject in the hospitality industry has frequently come up as a major talking point with the developing technologies in the industry; the fact that industry leaders are viewing the GDPR in this manner rather than a compliance issue/restriction is refreshing. Seventy percent of survey responders are disposing data ahead of the deadline for compliance in an attempt to reduce their exposure. IBM did a separate poll that found only twenty percent of US consumers completely trusted organizations to maintain the privacy of their data. Due to this, businesses are using the recent GDPR compliance as a statement to consumers that they're looking to build trust and reliability with customers and drive innovation. However, even with the opportunities at hand, only thirty six percent of responders believed they will be fully compliant by the deadline. To minimize the amount of data an organization is managing, companies are taking measures such as reducing the number of people who have access to personal data or simply cutting down on the amount of data stored. Additionally, studies have found that the primary challenges organizations are facing with the GDPR include finding all the of the personal data stored in their business, ensuring the accuracy of said data, and making sure this data is in compliance in how it is shared or used. Another challenge to the new compliance is that companies are to report data breaches to regulators within 72 hours of the breach, yet IBM has found that only thirty one percent of companies have taken a look at the measures they have in place for incident response to account for this new rule in compliance.

In today's society, online booking is definitely a major form of reservation in the hospitality industry. Thus I think it will be profitable for the companies to understand why some customers booked and others just visited their website and left without booking. These kinds of information can be achieved with the aid of software, as shown in the article. This article is related to software utilization in monitoring the user journey on websites. Hotel chain Villa Plus decided to increase its properties by 40%, and because of this, Villa Plus began to implement IBM's sophisticated analytics software, instead of Google Analytics they had used. With the IBM's software, Villa Plus can track and understand customer needs and behavior across its website. These understandings help the company to advertise the right properties to the right people on the websites. Villa Plus is expecting this to result in high occupancy rates as well as a great return on investment.

I like this Villa Plus, I think it can help customers as much as possible to get what they want and filter what they don't want, it can save time for valuable customers because they can get what they want at one time instead of searching from different websites or even leave without reservation. I also use online booking every time, I think this Villa Plus also can help me a lot next time when I book online again.

Nowadays, online booking is very popular. But hotels still face with low occupancy rate. I think this IBM software is good. It can help solve this kind of problem. Advertising the right properties to the right people on the websites and result in high occupancy rates as well as a great return on investment.

I-pad POS system may become a future trend of the hospitality industry.

According to the July 2011 results of the Sustainable Asset Management Survey by Gartner and TRIRIGA, an IBM company, only 8% of their 130 respondents in large corporations and public sector organizations indicated that they did not have an energy and environmental strategy. However, I suspect that this problem is more prevalent in medium and small organizations.

Article discusses results of study on sustainable facilities management and provides a rubric to set and reach energy efficient goals. Key point of the article I think was item number three in which the article instructs managers to focus on energy efficiency rather than renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and other areas. See also link below to study... http://1105govinfoevents.com/custom/IBM/sustainability_white_paper.pdf

Before hotels had the same number of tv channels, but now it's a race to see what hotel can bring more technological advances to the table to increase ROI. Hilton worldwide has adopted an AI-driven concierge in 2016 at a property which is powered by IBM Watson. The article also talks about 5 top emerging hotel technology trends. The first one is Smart guest rooms, the second one is obtaining more data, third is energy conservation. The fourth one is VR and AR which can show people special maps of guest rooms, while the fifth one would be mobile technologies, such as mobile key, room service request.

This article gives the concepts and examples of computer networks, introduces the working principles of computer networks, and gives common types of computer networks. In addition, network security issues are very important, and the article also provides measures to improve network security.

Highlights: International Business Machines Corp.'s IBM +1.11% chief executive, Samuel Palmisano, advised the Obama transition team last month that $30 billion in government investments in expanding broadband access, computerizing health-care records and improving the electrical grid could create more than 900,000 U.S. jobs. My Descriptions: This article show the data about how many jobs will created by it investment. I think it investment can create jobs in technique update and maintenance. At the same time , it improve the company's operation effectives which will bring more profits and demand , and create more job opportunities even in other department besides it

This article introduces the hospitality industry's first Mobile Management device solution. MVI, an Asia-focused hotel technology provider, partnered with IBM to develop the new enterprise class MDM solution. The MDM solution provides effective management of smart mobile devices to support interactive, live and on-demand video services in hotels. The usage of this new device was recently incorporated at the L'Hotel`elan in Hong Kong. An iPad is provided for guest use in all the hotel's rooms, and it serves as an entertainment device, offering eGuest services such as TV channels and interactive guest services including in-room dining. The MDM solution is fully integrated with hotel PMS and POS systems, which allows the device to become a part of a hotel's overall management ecosystem. This device not only provides the features of an entertainment device for guests, but it also offers hotels unique management features. A few of the features include customized workflow to streamline the installation of hotels' managed apps on mobile device, comprehensive push-based notification management, availability for all Apple mobile devices, and effective protection of guests' own data and personal information for apps that required login. I recently went on a site visit at Turnberry Isles Resort with one of my classes. While on the tour, the lady conducting the tour mentioned that with the rate technology is advancing in the near future many of the hotel procedures will be completed via Ipad (such as checking in and out of the hotel). After reading this article, it seems as if the near future has already arrived!!!

I really liked this article. Personally, I do not have a good experience dealing with people at the front desk. Many people do not want to deal with employees and would find this method a lot easier and stress free. Now you can check in and out from both your TV in your room and also the iPad device. Great article Nicole!

Technology is providing travelers novel experiences and interactions. The new technologies include: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), connectivity, and other technology. Artificial intelligence is currently being integrated into chat bots for phone calls, but there are far greater uses. Facial scanning and voice recognition is starting to gain traction. It offers more secure, faster, ad better customer service. Some hotels have even added Amazon Alexa devices for their patrons. The internet of things features hotel guests to unlock the door to their room using only their smartphone. Blockchain and cryptocurrency transactions eliminate the need for third-party mediators. As a result, hotels that utilize blockchain and cryptocurrency can offer better rates to the consumer without affecting profitability. All of the emerging technology frees up the preexisting staff to provide and maintain excellent customer relationships. "Over the last few years, travelers have been meeting robot butlers and concierges in hotels like Hilton's Connie, powered by IBM Watson AI technology." "SoftBank Robotics' Pepper, a humanoid robot developed with IBM Watson, has been introduced at Munich Airport and Václav Havel Airport Prague, where the robot not only informs but entertains passengers by dancing and offering to take selfies." "Gartner predicts that 85% of customer interactions will be managed without a human by 2020." "At Intercontinental Shanghai Wonderland, face scanners enable guests to verify their identity at check-in, pick up a digital room key and gain access to the dining room at breakfast." "Two Roads Hospitality has partnered with Amazon and Volara to develop a customised Alexa for Hospitality platform that facilitates daily tasks for staff, such as identifying maintenance problems or signaling that a room is ready for check-in." "Luxury hotels like The Plaza New York, Aria in Las Vegas, The Torch Doha in Qa

"And the changes keep coming. Among this year's winners, handpicked by InfoWorld editors and product reviewers, you'll find a number of "traditional" names: Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, Red Hat. But you'll also find the names of more open source projects than we've ever seen in the Technology of the Year winner's circle, thanks to the huge role open source has come to play in software development, data center (and cloud) infrastructure, and big data analytics. [ Read about the winning hardware, software, development tools, and cloud services in our slideshow: InfoWorld's 2016 Technology of the Year Award winners. | Get a digest of the day's top tech stories in the InfoWorld Daily newsletter. ] Docker, Kubernetes, Mesos, Spark -- these are only a few of this year's winners from the open source camp. In one way or another, each brings something new to the enterprise. Docker's clever take on Linux containers was so popular with developers, it became a standard even Microsoft sought fit to adopt. Kubernetes brings Google's cloud-tested technology for container management to the rest of us, while Mesos -- the U.C. Berkeley AMPLab project that gave birth to Spark -- offers an elegant solution to cluster resource management. "

This article is discussing the changes and updates in technology for the year 2016. It explains how the best IT products has been used for this year and the order of the ratings for them. It also explains the best hardware/software that has has been used by consumers and for businesses. This can help in the hospitality field by choosing which software is best to use.

This article discusses the implementation of computer technologies in hotels' green practices. Electricity use accounts for 60-70% of the utility costs and average daily water consumption per occupied room is 218 gallons. Management is permanently under pressure to cut these costs, however, this should be done without impacting guests' comfort. Installation of water-efficient fixtures and energy-efficient lighting helps to reduce utility bills. Computer operated systems aimed at consumption data collection, analytics and remote control are an essential addition to energy-saving equipment. Energy harvesting wireless sensors, thermostats, and other products help collect data that later is processed by IBM Watson, which applies predictive analytics to guest behavior to drive greater energy efficiency of HVAC and other equipment. Wireless networking in energy management enables the hotels to create customized profiles for different rooms depending on their exposure, season, occupancy, etc. based on historical data. Furthermore, satellite technology that tracks the weather and ground moisture helps limit excess irrigation. Computer technologies are meant to substitute guest's active efforts in resource savings. Yet sometimes the sustainability technologies become the selling point for hotels. For instance, guests, especially millennials, might be attracted by the hotel's energy panel that demonstrates how the power generated while using fitness equipment immediately adds to the hotel energy grid.

Three more hotel companies have selected Aptech's PVNG Enterprise Back Office System. PVNG is a browser-based accounting solution, which is simple, easy to navigate, and specifically streamlined for hospitality. One hotelier cites the ability of PVNG to downsize the accounting staff, which enables him to move more staff to guest services--the most fundamental part of any hospitality operation. The creator of PVNG, Aptech Computer Systems, is an IBM Premier Business Partner that purveys programs exclusively for use in hospitality. Aptech systems can be deployed either on site or via the cloud, offering tremendous flexibility for a company's portfolio.

This article is an case study on how one restaurant group could use cloud computing to improve their business. By not only securing the companies information by the customers as well. Reviewing the key points of sales interactions between customers and the restaurant, like the POS, Tableside payments, reservations and management assistants.

This article describes the benefits of cloud computing as well as what it may cost you depending on the needs of your business. The article states there are 3 benefits: improved productivity, more speed and lowered risk. This article also emphasizes that cloud computing may not be for everyone but that you should give it a try if you would really like to.v

This article explains what green computing is and how it is impacting businesses in order to reduce energy consumption. Provides us the evolution of green computing and how the Environment Protection Agency decided to promote and recognize energy consumption.