Group items tagged

companies that reduce spending on capital projects can both quickly release significant cash and increase ROIC

As the cost of capital goes up, discipline in managing large projects will become increasingly important.

organizational drivers that impede capital expenditure management affect all stages of a project life cycle, from portfolio management to project execution and commissioning.

Definition of Capital Expenditures Capital expenditures are the amounts spent for tangible assets that will be used for more than one year in the operations of a business. Capital expenditures, which are sometimes referred to as capex, can be thought of as the amounts spent to acquire or improve a company's fixed assets.

Examples of Capital Expenditures Capital expenditures include the amounts spent to acquire or make significant improvements to land, buildings, machinery, equipment, furniture, fixtures, vehicles, computer information systems, leas

ovements, etc.

Venture capital firms ask themselves tough questions these days.

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?"

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?

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

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

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

Lower interest rates, revenues that are outpacing expense growth and below average supply additions are combining to give lenders and investors a greater comfort level with the U.S. lodging investment market,

"Double-digit profit growth, coupled with the low cost of capital and limited supply growth, make hotel real estate an attractive option to commercial real estate investors," said Scott Smith MAI, vice president in the Atlanta office of PKFC

"Institutional investors and private equity funds are showing a bias towards full-service and resort hotels in the major markets, where profit growth has been the greatest,"

Hotels, conference centers and other meeting venues are increasing group business with new technology, and it isn’t just a hotel app. To invest in the property’s overall capital, hoteliers are creating cool technology tools that market venues, increase group business and enhance the guest experience. Technology is just another way hotels are winning group business and marketing a hotel or conference center. What are some of these new hot tools for leisure and business travelers?

Investment in Hotel Technology Pays Off with Increased Group Revenue Tuesday, July 10, 2012 by Sarah Vining Hotels, conference centers and other meeting venues are increasing group business with new technology, and it isn’t just a hotel app. To invest in the property’s overall capital, hoteliers are creating cool technology tools that market venues, increase group business and enhance the guest experience. Technology is just another way hotels are winning group business and marketing a hotel or conference center. What are some of these new hot tools for leisure and business travelers? Virtual concierge service on guest room TVs At Hyatt Hotels with in-room HD TVs by Roomlinx Inc., guests are able make service requests, check email/weather, use the Business Center, print documents, and receive customized messages from meeting planners. Service requests like housekeeping and in-room dining are instantly sent through the system, improving the venue’s departmental efficiency. All of these virtual functions are hoped to appeal to new markets and drive group business. More efficient billing In the article, “Insert IACC blog post title URL” we learn that in 2012, meeting and group planners are prioritizing finance as very important during in their planning process (which made the top 10 list for the first time). Hotels making large investments in revenue management systems are taking advantage of new features that automate and process data to improve efficiency and increase revenue for properties. Virtual business centers Socialization through technology and food and beverage outlets is increasing revenue for TRYP by Wyndham in the NYC Times Square South property. Google TVs and access to Google Chrome laptops near the Gastro Bar in the hotel’s lobby offers guests an opportunity to enjoy a dining experience with the comfort of complimentary technology use. On-staff IT team When planners were surveyed, reliability was listed as a top concern of IT services in the white paper “What Do Planners and Trainers Really Want in Their Meeting Service?” All IACC-certified conference centers are required to have an on-site IT team to ensure technology functions properly. Now, the need for a knowledgeable IT team that really understands technology and can cater to individuals and group business is spreading to other hotel markets.   These impressive technology tools improve the guest experience and lead to a quick return on investment, especially in F&B. As we move beyond the discussion of required hotel Wi-Fi services, there will be a focus on technology amenities that provide the same comforts of home or the office. To increase group business, hoteliers are comfortable with this investment knowing there’s a return on investment with generated buzz/venue marketing and satisfied guests. Want to learn about other ways hotels are using technology to build relationships? Check out Enhancing Your Social Networking Site with a Social Concierge! to maximize social media and connect with guests, attendees and planners!

A leading cyber security firm says criminals and a group affiliated with China are capitalizing on growing fears over the coronavirus, leading to a spike in malicious online activity.

"They've been sending people emails to prey on people's fears and open attachments

China-based adversary known as PIRATE PANDA uses major news events as a lure to implant malware that allows remote access to a victim's computer network

After an estimated $28 billion dollar sector bleed through COVID-19, hoteliers and hospitality professionals are facing record challenges. The first is the challenge of adaptation. Increased health and safety demands have created new barriers to normal operation. Most barriers require more staff or more capital, and with the concurrent decreased revenues and restrictions on personnel, owners are left at an impasse.

Next comes the challenge of maintaining client connections. Public concern has skyrocketed, motivation to safeguard finances is at an all time high, and maintaining physical distance compromises customer care to no end. After decades of perfecting the art of personalized guest interactions, the path forward is daunting and unclear.

Smart tech makes it possible to execute new health and safety protocol without needing more staff or impossible capital.

The “as-a-service” approach also has other benefits when it comes to flexibility. It’s much easier for a business to scale up and down as required. For example, adding new devices and services on a monthly basis or removing them. This flexibility ensures the business only pays for what it needs at the time, rather than having additional tech that is no longer required gathering dust in the warehouse.

Traditionally, if a business wanted to invest in IT equipment, such as new laptops or PCs, they would pay for their technology upfront as a capital expenditure (CAPEX).

The delivery of cloud-based technology solutions ‘as a service’ has made it possible to turn IT operations into an operational expense (OpEx), as opposed to a capital expense (CapEx), removing the need for any hefty upfront investments and replacing them with predictable monthly fees.

IT managers are realising that these smaller ongoing costs versus cyclic infrastructure builds are the key to bringing more value to the business and changing perceptions of IT.

According to a Cloud Technology Partners article, many companies carry up to 5 times the required hardware, networking, and data centre space during steady state business cycles. Most enterprises have hardware utilisation rates significantly below 20% because of the excess capacity required to handle peak demand, as a result spending much more on compute and storage than is required.

two UN SDG8 recommendations for policy and action: ‘[a]dopt a human-centred approach to embracing new technologies’ and ‘[s]hape the impacts of digitalisation with public policies’ (UN, 2019United Nations (UN). (2019, July 10).

Two aspects of surveillance capitalism hold explanatory power for understanding the potential direction of the worker condition and are drawn upon throughout this paper: first, worker freedom is replaced with digital monitoring, behavioural manipulation and other forms of worker performance management through instrumentarian power; and second, production mechanisms shift to create certainty of outcome through reducing (or replacing) worker autonomy (Zuboff, 2019Zuboff, S. (2019).

where ‘[m]achine processes replace human relationships so that certainty can replace trust’.

Human resources (HR) have been a well-established function in organizations for decades,

the department was typically perceived by many organizations as a “necessary evil,” that is to say, as an essential but in no way profitable or advantageous element,

even at the current time HRIS is not limited to technological elements alone, such as computer hardware and software applications, but also includes the people, policies, procedures, and data required to manage the HR function.

These benefits are not reserved for just large international chains: the low capital expenditure investment for mobile hardware and much reduced software costs mean that mobile is a viable option for small independent properties, looking to develop customer service as a competitive edge

Software delivered as a service, rather than held on premise is already a mainstream technology topic and despite being a new concept in the hospitality sect

Cloud / Software as a Service (SaaS)

Among the “shelves” on which buyers search for travel services are world’s global distribution systems and the Internet distribution systems

The airlines realized that by automating the reservation process for travel agents, they could make the travel agents more productive and essentially turn into an extension of the airline’s sales force. It is these original, legacy GDSs that today provide the backbone to the Internet travel distribution system

Recording Revenue

For both restaurants and hotels, revenue is earned when the meal or the hotel stay occurs. It is important to note that reservations often include a deposit for the first night's stay.

Payments received for deposits are considered deferred revenue until they are earned.

former World Bank executive

trustee of the James Beard Foundation and co-founded the JBF Women’s Leadership and the Women’s Entrepreneurship Leadership programs

The culinary “gastro ceiling” is especially appalling with less than 7% leading women executive chefs