Travel Agents Increase Use of GDS to Book Hotel Rooms - 3 views
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Advanced Search Search Products & Services News Releases Close Send a release Member sign in Become a member For bloggers For journalists Global sites Products & Services Knowledge Center Browse News Releases Contact PR Newswire
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he leading global provider of revenue generating solutions for hoteliers, clearly demonstrates how crucial Global Distribution System (GDS) platforms and GDS Shopping Displays are to travel agents:
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84 percent of respondents indicated that they were using their GDS platform the same amount or more often than in the past, with 35 percent stating that they are using GDS more.
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The Impact of a Point-Of-Sale System on Restaurant Management - 0 views
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This article begins by stating that the hospitality industry is one of the hardest for entrepreneurs to enter, and that one of the most important parts of opening a new restaurant is the installation of a good P.O.S. system. A point of sale system essentially performs all of the functions of a traditional cash register, but offers many more functions, as well. The author states that a P.O.S. system will improve a restaurant in many ways. These include improved margins, increased sales, better inventory tracking, and reduced operating costs. Improving margins is very important. When employees are using a traditional register, they can ring up items for any price. When using a P.O.S. however, prices are assigned, assuring that all items are rung up for the correct price, thus improving margins. P.O.S. systems also help control inventory. When an item is rung up using a P.O.S. system, it is taken out of inventory, so we know exactly what we sold and if we need to replace it. By knowing specific inventory, it is easier to better manage capital. P.O.S. systems also help to increase sales. By doing things such as integrating credit card transactions and printing receipts, sales can be processed faster, which in turn increases sales. The last point that this article touches on is how P.O.S. systems reduce operating costs. P.O.S. systems conveniently replace many things that the restaurant owner previously had to pay someone to do. Some of these things include year end counts, payroll, sorting through receipts at the end of the night, and meeting with the accountants. P.O.S. systems also reduce re-ticketing, with communication from servers to cooks done primarily through printed tickets.
Festival de gastronomia oferece menus especiais com preços fixos - NE10 - 1 views
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Um dos eventos de gastronomia mais importantes do País, o Pernambuco Restaurant Week
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O festival tem objetivo de aquecer o faturamento dos restaurantes participantes que, por sua vez, se comprometem a transferir parte do lucro para uma instituição social.
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O Restaurant Week surgiu há 20 anos em Nova York e hoje acontece em mais de 100 cidades ao redor do planeta. O festival é uma realização da Mica Ideias e Engenho de Comunicação e Marketing, patrocinado pela Mastercard,
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The article talks about how the most important gastronomic event in Brazil "The Pernambuco Restaurant Week" was promoted to attract a large population. This festival started 20 years ago in New York and nowadays it takes place in 100 cities around the world. By marketing the festival through different media channels and promoting it through e-marketing the participating restaurants are expecting exposure, brand recognition and an increase of business "The festival is aimed at warming the sales of the restaurants that, in turn, undertake to transfer part of the profit to a social institution. This year the organization was chosen as the Child Citizen Orchestra Boys of coke, which serves 130 youths, between 4 and 19 years." The main sponsor of this famous event was MasterCard giving the brand popularity, position, and exposure in the Brazilian market.
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Thank you for sharing this. I love Brazilian food. I will have to see if there is any restaurants in the area that are participating.
Hotel technology trends that are changing how hotels do business - 1 views
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Choice created the software in 2003 as an inexpensive solution for franchisees of its economy brands.
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The PMS had a lot of growing pains at first, but eventually it became more and more cloud enabled and was adopted across the company.
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“A lot of companies had outsourced their IT and now they’re bringing it back in house because they can do almost everything they need on the cloud or through software as a service.
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Choice Hotels has been a industry leader in the cloud PMS movement. They identified the opportunity to create their own platform 10 years ago when cloud was barely on the radar and have now successfully distributed it to 5,500 of their properties. Unique functionality built into the system is internet redundancy via cellular data plan, company-wide campaign pop-up messages to staff, interface to Pegasus and revenue management through predictive analytics. The platform has been so successful that, in response to inquiries from other companies who wanted to use Choice's proprietary system themselves, they created an additional revenue stream by establishing a separate company that sells and creates custom cloud PMS systems. One advantage pointed out is that managers no longer need to be on property to access and make changes to their PMS. While this is hugely beneficial to the majority of the industry (who already work long hours and visit the property on their day off), there may be some who take advantage of the situation. If this becomes the case, less oversight at the property means that operations has the potential to slip. It doesn't seem that this is a concern for Choice Hotels but it should be considered.
9 Event Management Software That Will Make You a Rockstar - 2 views
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Event organizers are planners to the core. If you’re an event organizer, you likely have a unique gift of being able to see both the big picture as well as the unique steps and resources needed to get to that vision.
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Now that we’ve given you a high-level overview of the most popular event management software, you can confidently decide which options to explore. Keep in mind that it’s not about which software we say is best, it’s about what works best with your personal style. After all, the right tool could very well turn you into a rockstar event organizer.
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Trello
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The software listed in this article will help with productivity of an event or project. - ...1 more comment...
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With the continuous developments in technology and its adoption in the hospitality industry, businesses are increasingly adopting event management software to enhance their performance and performance. This article looks at eight of the leading event management software that businesses can choose from. The article is a great read to all individuals in the event management business. -
9 Event Planning Software tools- While this page does point out benefits of other event planning software its basically a Whova ad.
Modern Management Technologies in the Hospitality Industry - 2 views
The article talks about how it's worth investing in proximity marketing to increase the speed of a customer's decision, increase engagement, and eloyalty. The article states that marketers who know...
Social media and tourism: creating a social media marketing plan | WAM - 0 views
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Digital marketing in tourism has always been an important factor, just like in hospitality, and is positioned in the epicenter of the user’s tourism experience. Both small and large companies in tourist destinations have to be aware of this and take advantage of the new opportunities that arise in the sector. Tourism and technology go hand-in-hand and we can’t understand one without the other.
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Trends on social media set the path and companies are required to revise their marketing strategies so that they are present on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The numbers don’t lie; there are 4.2 billion social media users around the world and they don’t use social media for just news, laughing at memes, or following celebrities. They are using social media to share opinions, choose travel destinations, and learn about brands. Social media tourism has an audience.
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Social media allows us to connect with our audience on a much deeper level. You create not just brand awareness with your audience, but also an awareness and a real empathy between the user and the product: a strong bond that brings us loyal clients and creates new business opportunities thanks to mouth-to-mouth, which adds a great value.
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This article explains social media in hospitality and tourism. I really loved the explanation of the SOSTAC method which stands for S-Situation analysis/ Who are we? O-Objectives/ Where do you need to go? S-Strategy/ How you'll meet the objectives T-Tactics/ Details of strategy A-Action/Do your thing C-Control/ How did you do. This method was created by PR. Smith in 1990. It was created for digital strategy, and we still use this method nowadays. This technology helps us define our goals and KPI's as well as understand the buying process, what audience we need to cater to to have a successful following and monetary outcome as well as how to keep that momentum.
What is VoIP and Can You Benefit? - 0 views
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After looking at telecommunication, i came across this article which broke down what Voice over Internet protocol (V.O.I.P) is. The article tells us with VoIP service, you are making and receiving telephone calls using the Internet.You do not have to be connected to the telephone company in order to make or receive a telephone call, as long as you have VoIP services and a high-speed Internet connection. I believe using VOIP can help save companies money on long distance and local calls depending on the company they decide to use. Do you feel VOIP will take over land phones? Take a look at this video it explains more to you about VOIP. http://youtu.be/o6CmqaVAf74
Point of Sale (POS) | What is it? - 0 views
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POS or PoS is an abbreviation for Point of Sale (or Point-of-Sale, or Point of Service). The term is applicable to a retail shop or store, the checkout/cashier counter in the store, or a location where such transactions can occur in this type of environment. It can also apply to the actual Point of Sale (POS) Hardware & Software including but not limited to : electronic cash register systems, touch-screen display, barcode scanners, receipt printers, scales and pole displays. Point of Sale Systems are utilized in many different industries, ranging from restaurants, hotels & hospitality businesses, nail/beauty salons, casinos, stadiums, and let's not forget - the retail environments. In the most basic sense, if something can be exchanged for monetary value - a Point of Sale System can be used
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POS systems are very prevalent in the hospitality industry.
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A Check-out Counter, Cashier Stand - is the aisle (or station) where individuals transport and place the items or products they have chosen to purchase from the location, a good example would be a supermarket (e.g. Wallmart) or department store (e.g. Macys). Although for such environments as supermarkets is usually a long counter, which most often makes use of moving belts, and contains a photocell to stop it once items reach the end - it can also refer to a single register at a smaller store. The cashier scans and rings up each item on the cash register and obtains the total. All items are placed in bags while customer makes payment.
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There is so much information that can be had at the Check-out counter/ cashier in Macys. Many transactions could be conducted just in one visit. You may pay a bill, make a purchase without having your physical credit card, return a previously purchased item, and increase your credit limit.
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Point of sale systems are utilized in many industries, however, it is prevalent in the hospitality industry. Point of Sale Systems is also referred to as Point of Service. A POS system encompasses various hardware and software such as touch screen display, barcode scanners, cash registers, scales, and receipt printers. Improvements in technology such as POS have made cash registers, paper tapes and journal tapes almost obsolete. During the late 80's and 90's credit card processing was implemented making it easier for customers to easily transact business with operations. Today hospitality POS systems are among the most sophisticated, powerful and user friendly networks. Many POS systems are fully integrated so managers can track inventory, sales, rental services, accounting and customer relation management. Depending on the size of the hospitality facility, management may be primarily concerned with implementing POS systems. Some o f the questions pertaining to POS that managers may have include: a) How many POS terminals do I need? b) Should I run credit cards through my POS system? c) Which style of computer is best for my facility? d) Do I need pole displays or customer displays? e) Should I have a back office computer?
How EBay Failed In China - Forbes - 0 views
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In 2004, eBay had just entered China and was planning to dominate the China market. Alibaba was a local Chinese company that helped small- and medium-sized enterprises conducting business online.
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As a defensive strategy, Ma decided to launch a competing consumer-to-consumer (C2C) auction site, not to make money, but to fend off eBay from taking away Alibaba’s customers.
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While visiting Alibaba’s headquarters in Hangzhou, I felt the same “insanely great” energy of entrepreneurship as I felt in Silicon Valley.
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This is a very interesting article. As a Chinese teenager, I can experience all the changes and development of Taobao and how it won Chinese market that the author mentioned in this article. eBay can be successful in an international market, while failed rapidly in Chinese market. Firstly we can see how competitive the online market is. After this we also want to ask why eBay was beaten in China? The author of this article listed four reasons: 1) Compared with eBay, Taobao has better marketing strategies in dealing with local market. At the beginning, Taobao promoted itself through TV ads and later used short messages, which were more popular than Internet in China. 2) Taobao has less limitations on buyers and sellers through the whole process. For instance Taobao charges no listing and transaction fees on its sellers and it's free to register as a user in Taobao 3) Products made in China gives Taobao more chances to sell goods in competitive price. 3)Taobao has better terms for its customers, which helps it o to earn a good reputation and also makes Taobao more flexible in customer service. 4) The way that Taobao lists its items are more customer centric and adaptable to Chinese customers' tastes. E-commerce can bring unlimited chances and is full of adventures. As for me, marketing skills, excellent customer service and high-tech are the same important for a company if it wants to increase the share of market and makes profit. Taobao can be set as a good example in e-commerce history.
UK's leading cruise lines to be pulled from GDS Amadeus - Travolution.co.uk - 0 views
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This article is about GDS and cruise industry. What this article talks about is that UK's cruise market leader P&O Cruises, Cunard and Princess Cruises, will end its distribution through Amadeus, which is one of the largest GDSs in the world, in November 2011. The reason behind this is because these cruise lines figured out that almost 95 percent of its cruises are sold via its own website so they think GDS is no longer necessary for them. However, other major cruise lines such as Carnival Cruises, Royal Caribbean Cruises, and Norweigian Cruises will still continue to feature on the GDS. According to a spokesman of Amadeus, the company keeps investing in distribution solutions, easier and more secure cruise booking application for cruise lines. This article shows how cruise distribution in the UK is shifting. This change would probably affect not only cruise lines but other sectors such as hotels, airlines, etc. Yet, it is still uncertain if the impact of the change on cruise industry worldwide will be significant. Still, most of cruise lines including the three major cruise operators which have large market share in the cruise industry use GDS; as well as, it is doubtful if cruisers are willing to go on a same cruise ship over and over. Cruisers look for various cruise options while booking online so they will be more likely to visit GDS-based website where they can search for various cruise ships throughout the world; rather than to visit website where there are much less cruise options. Everything will be clear after we see if the UK's cruise operator is successful.
Hilton Fort Lauderdale to Install Six Wind Turbines | Green Lodging News - 0 views
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Costa Dorada Associates, Miami, is behind an effort to install six 40-foot, 4 kilowatt wind turbines on the roof of its 375-key Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort.
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the wind turbines are part of a larger effort to increase the percentage of electricity provided through renewable energy technologies.
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the first step in a process that will also include rooftop solar panels in 2013 and possibly even street-level wind turbines in another two or three years.
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This article announces the use of Wind Turbines as one of Hilton Fort Lauderdale's green initiatives. Six 40-foot turbines will be installed on the roof of the hotel and are the first part of a process that will include solar panels and possible even street-level turbines. Both methods will help increase the amount of electricity provided by renewable resources. The wind turbines are projected to provide 5-10% of the hotel's electricity, and the solar panels could add another 5-10%. I think this is an excellent green initiative, and I've never heard of a hotel undertaking it before. The possibility of 10-20% of the hotel's electricity coming from wind turbines and solar panels is pretty significant. According to Andreas Ioannou, general manager, the hotel is hoping to get up to 25% of their energy from these sources. It appears that the resort has been very energy conscious since its opening, and is the first resort in Broward County to receive the Florida Green Lodging designation. They also have a Green Team, which oversees other green initiatives such as recycling all paper, using fluorescent light bulbs, and automatic water flush-o-meters in public restrooms.
Effective Marketing Strategies for the Hospitality Industry | b2bmarketing.net - 0 views
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In the digital age, social media MUST be a part of hospitality marketing and it goes without saying that every hotel or restaurant needs to have a high quality website – preferably with an online booking system.
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With hotel review sites such as Trip Advisor becoming more and more popular it’s important to have a digital presence and be involved
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you should also have a Facebook page and Twitter page where you can interact with your customer – plus you can highlight special offers and events at your business and throughout the local area. Think about it, the more followers you have digitally, the more people you can connect with and attract to your establishment
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In the article "Effective Marketing Strategies for the Hospitality Industry," author Grace Owen highlights the importance an online presence to gain market share. She showed how popular online sites that are frequented by the general public can assist in bringing patrons to hospitality establishments and increase market share. According to Ms Owens, "in the digital age social media must be a part o hospitality marketing and it goes without saying that every hotel or restaurant must have a high quality website." Regardless of how one may feel about technology it is important that it is incorporated in the marketing campaign as this is the way to reach persons and engage with them and a company that chooses not to embrace digital marketing will be at a disadvantage.
The Role of Global Competer Reservation Systems in the Travel Industry Today and in the... - 0 views
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the best known global CRSs are AMADEUS, GALILEO, SABRE, and WORLDSPAN with AMADEUS being the only one which is largely owned by European airlines. Together with GALILEO, it is the leading system in the European market. GALILEO, however, also has a strong position in the US market after it merged with an American system. SABRE and WORLDSPAN have been developed in the US. So far, SABRE is the only CRS which is wholly owned by one single airline.
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Global CRS's
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CRSs are systems for purely (information transfer) logistical functions
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CRS definition
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he network of the global CRS AMADEUS has additional 14 network nodes distribers who thus have the latest information about availability at any point in time and can use it as a basis for a new offer. In addition, the system can also store customer related information such as e.g. all services provided to a certain customer, type of payment, service information etc. ♦ Fare Quote & Ticketing: Just like the product presentation, the fare quote, ticketing and voucher generating process depend on the type and the complexity of the services offered. For flights, multiple fares are being offered which differ according to the reservation category, the date of the journey, the day when the reservation was made, the route and the length of the stay. That means that practically each fare needs to be calculated individually. In addition, fare quotes can change daily. The prices of other service providers, however, are relatively fixed so that in most cases, they stay an unchanged part of the offer. For the ticketing, travel agencies receive a fixed number of ticket forms which may only be used after confirmation has been availability of particular reservation categories and possibly the fare. It may, however, be difficult to describe the products of other service providers appropriately with only a limited amount of information. Hotels, for example, have so far only been able to provide information about the price, the size of the bed and its approximate location which alone is not a meaningful description for potential customers. For this reason, it is intended to link the particular offers to visual multimedia technology to be able to provide more detailed information to the customer. ♦ Reservation: The core function of reservation systems and the main reason for developing them is the reservation of offered services in the travel industry. To this end, a so called Passenger Name Record (PNR) or Guest Name Record (GNR) is created for each passenger or each group of passengers. These records contain all services-related customer information. At the same time, this information is transferred to the internal inventory system of all service providFigure 2 Principel structure of CRSs N N P pr S Fare Quote and T Hotel- or Car-Systems Travel Agencies Tourism Tourism Tourism Tourism Stickynote
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AMADEUS network modes and criticism of CRS
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This article discusses the role of CRS and GDS in the travel industry. The author discusses the well known systems used. The authors further discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using these systems and ways to reduce the costs. These systems were believed to be entering extinction; however, there are still uses in the industry.
Branded Strategic Hospitality Created by NYC Restaurant Owners to Connect Technology an... - 0 views
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New York City restaurant owners join forces to create a platform, Branded Strategic Hospitality "Branded" to capitalize on the opportunities to invest and partner with early and growth-stage Hospitality Technology companies
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The COVID crisis has accelerated the "Time of Tech" for the Hospitality Industry, and the Branded team believes that deploying additional capital as well as making new investments is the right course of action for this investment and advisory platform
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Branded, a hospitality technology investment & advisory platform (https://www.brandedstrategic.com), has positioned itself to continue to be at the intersection of technology and capital
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This articles discussed a synergistic partnership for technology investment by New York City restaurant owners. This is intended to encourage investment in technology in ways attuned to the needs of avidly Actual restaurants in practical ways.
Cybersecurity Budgets Increase for Retail & Hospitality Industry - 1 views
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70% of CISOs expect their budgets to increase again this year, while 60% also expect more FTEs, according to the CISO Benchmark Report released today from the Retail & Hospitality Information Sharing and Analysis Center (RH-ISAC).
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This year, business disruption emerged as a top 10 (No. 7) risk that organizations currently face, up seven spots from No. 14 in 2021. Similarly, 50% of CISOs now have business continuity/disaster recovery as part of their core responsibilities, an increase of 11 percentage points since last year.
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very few CISOs have fraud as part of their core responsibilities, according to the report.
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Chief of Information Security officers (CISO) report summarizes that hospitality and retail industries will be spending more accounting for 70% more providers. The report looks at a variety of benchmarks to assess like budgets and personnel. Fraud is not as prioritized as one might think and this time the focus is on business disruption. One core of responsibility seen by at least 70% of CISOs is of continuity and disaster recovery. They are also examining a new benchmark which is staff function priorities. The evolving of the industries is why cybersecurity threats are so complex. The report provides vital information to benefit CISOs on trends. The report in question is very interesting in how it examines what people are spending on their IT security budgets and breaks down where that money is being utilized and staffing. This would be a useful tool for hospitality providers looking to increase their budget because they can analyze other providers and what is currently trending in terms of threats and how to allocate assets whether money or personnel. If the biggest threat to providers is disruption then having an emergency action plan in place would highly benefit providers under underbudgeting. This would be a great tool for any organization to plan their IT strategy with security in mind.
Camera At The Cash Drawer? Mobile POS and Cash Transactions - 0 views
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New technology brings new capability. Within the retail POS hardware industry, new technology is driving change in retail hardware platforms. Cloud-based software, coupled with the emergence of powerful and feature-rich mobile devices, offers new possibilities for retailers to better serve and engage their shoppers at the Point of Purchase. Typical construction of a Point of Sale cash register is centered on a PC workstation. These cash register systems are often positioned in one or more fixed locations in the retail store. They might be served by an array of peripheral devices: a touch display, a customer pole display, a handheld scanner, a receipt printer, and a cash drawer. These peripheral devices are typically configured with serial or USB interfaces and connect to a port on the PC workstation dedicated to each device. Software developers engage each device through OPOS or native DLLs drivers created by the hardware manufacturer. In this setting, a shopper is compelled to queue up at the cash register and stage their goods for itemized sale. By contrast, software functionality and mobile device technology allow a retailer to bring the Point of Sale transaction to the shopper at their Point of Purchase. In this way, a retailer can increase shopper loyalty by providing a more convenient, more personalized, and more interactive transaction experience. A purpose-built Point of Sale solution can be developed from the ground up for the mobile transaction faster than ever. Hardware manufacturers are creating new solutions to support this trend. By selecting hardware that maximizes the benefits of a mobile transaction, a retailer can significantly improve system performance and significantly reduce the total cost of the system. However, the current PC-centric workstation architecture presents several technical challenges as a retailer chooses to deploy a mobile POS solution. Consider this example: A mobile credit transaction performed on a smart phone
Google and The Future of Event Tech - 0 views
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During I/O, the annual developer conference, Google made several announcements that are set to have an impact on how we use technology at events.
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Google Glass is the gadget of the moment
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Event staff could immediately scan event tickets by wearing Glass or attendees could scan an intelligent code to get clearance. The technology is so event friendly that I anticipate lots of cool apps in this space.
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Google made several announcements at a developer conference that could bring drastic changes to event technology, both in the immediate future and further down the line. One of Google's latest gadgets is Google Glass. There has been much talk about both it's functionality and its detractors. However, it is highly functional for events. It allows you to scan tickets upon entry and it also allows you the ability to send a live feed of the event. This is advantageous for those who want to go to events but are not able to attend in person, for whatever reason and is ideal for Google Plus hangout integration. Google also announced that Youtube Live (live streaming on Youtube) would be available to all partners in good standing. Before, live-streaming on Youtube was only available to certain partners. So Glass now has greater potential to be used by more partners to live stream to Youtube. Lastly, Google planted sensors all around the convention center where the conference took place, and collected data (temperature, humidity, light, pressure (including nearby footfalls), motion, air quality and both RF and ambient noise) to study the crowd and how they moved around the conference. Crowd management and control is a delicate issue and this technology could give real time data into what the crowd is doing.
O.C.-based iPad restaurant touted as pioneer - 0 views
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Stacked could have easily failed for being "ahead of its time" when it launched its cutting edge iPad ordering system last year in Southern California. From start to finish, the iPad's touch-screen technology allows customers to control their dining experience -- from delivery of the first drink to type of burger toppings to timing of the check.
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Based on this article "Stacked" seems to have had great success with implementing the Ipad/eMenu type ordering in their establishment. I found this article to be very useful with the Q&A, addressing some of the major concerns with trying to adopt a similar system. One of the questions involved an older couple "shoing" the server away when offering ordering assistance. I had originally thought of that as a challenge, but when reading the answers, I discovered that it's not as big of an issue. It almost seems like a new challenge for customers to beat when faced with it the first few times. I have actually encouraged a friend of mine that lives in California to visit the restaurant and give me their feedback, I'm excited to hear the results when they come!
SoftBrands Acquires Hotel Property Management System Division from Amadeus - 0 views
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SoftBrands Acquires Hotel Property Management System Division from Amadeus
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an affiliate of Infor, the leading provider of business software for mid-market companies, today announced the acquisition of the Property Management Systems (PMS) division of Amadeus IT Group SA.
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with an installed base of more than 9,700 properties in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. SoftBrands will support and maintain all existing Amadeus PMS applications
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SoftBrands, the second largest provider of hospitality software worldwide, has announced about the acquisition of Amadeus PMS, who is one of the biggest DGSs in the world. This acquisition benefits customers with access to complimentary applications to the latest technology and they will be served better, because of the global reach of SoftBrands.