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By Jeff Wuorio If you're a veteran retailer, you know the problem: Your inventory doesn't match your tallies. Sales are going unrecorded. Your staff is spending far too much time chasing mistakes instead of tending to customers.

1. Your "sudden shrink" no longer goes undetected

Retail Management System are designed to immediately record any and all sales. Not only does that mean timely and accurate sales tracking, but a POS system also lets you readily identify inventory levels, particularly when what you have on the books doesn't jibe with actual stock

The bottom line is that huge cost savings can be achieved by re-engineering the way departments operate. Today’s chief engineer is no longer the guy in the basement, wearing blue overalls, oily rag in hand, who just makes sure that guests have hot water and that the kitchens are working to capacity.

the new team will be dedicated to the expansion and customization of unique e-commerce and omni-channel platforms for the sandwich chain.

SUBWAY® Digital is building the framework for a comprehensive digital strategy around the world. With the creation of SUBWAY® Digital, the newest division for SUBWAY® restaurants, the brand is looking to add at least 50 jobs this year, and up to 150 total over the next few years, including five on the new team in Vancouver.

“Being the only provider that has deployed online ordering at such a large scale, in multiple countries, has put us in a great position to pursue our mission of providing convenience while bridging the in-store and online experience for brands and customers alike - a real omni-channel approach,” says Jason Strashek, Avanti’s founder and CEO.

SECAUCUS, N.J. – Northstar Travel Media, the world’s leading business-to-business media company serving the travel and meetings industries, has announced that it is supplying a unique hotel identifier that solves the problems associated with multiple identifiers. “For nearly a decade the travel industry has struggled with the costs and problems created by multiple identifiers, said Sheila Rice, VP Business Development & Licensing. “Over the years, each business created its own system resulting in a proliferation of identification numbers. A single entity may have numerous proprietary codes across different systems. As each segment of the industry tries to integrate information with suppliers, travel agents, hotels, GDS systems, CRS providers, content publishers and payment processors, predictable problems ensue.” With a history spanning more than 70 years, Northstar Travel Media is already established in the business and process of identification numbers. It is uniquely positioned to lead a solution for this long-standing and increasing industry problem. As the content provider of unique hotel identifiers, Northstar Travel Media has been supplying this data to leading travel and hospitality companies for more than a decade. Northstar’s database of 200,000 hotels worldwide contains up to 300 fields of data for each hotel. “Northstar Travel Media has a pristine reputation for providing data that is comprehensive, accurate, reliable and flexible,” said Tom Kemp, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “We look forward to providing more content solutions with our unique hotel identification numbers.” Licensing of the unique hotel identifier data includes hotel name, address and telephone number. Content packages can be customized to provide solutions to meet specific needs. The Unique Hotel Identifier builds on Northstar’s existing hotel products and services that include more than 60,000 hotels around the world reviewed and classified using the company’s industry-standard consumer classification hotel rating system. Northstar Travel Media is the leading provider of news, information and data for the travel, meetings and hospitality industries and parent of brands Travel Weekly, Business Travel News, Meetings & Conventions, Successful Meetings, Incentive and TravelAge West. NTM’s electronic directories — Travel Weekly’s Hotel & Travel Index and M&C Facilities Search — provide in-depth data on hotels, meeting and convention properties, and business travel in the United States and internationally. In addition to its directories and periodicals, NTM publishes a number of online subscription information resources, including travel42, Weissmann Reports, STAR Service Online, Intelliguide Corporate and BTP24. Northstar also is an industry leader in marketing services, custom communications, content licensing and database management serving the travel and meetings industries. Additionally, Northstar recently acquired PhoCusWright, the premier global travel, tourism and hospitality research and event business at the intersection of the Internet and the global travel industry. Based in Secaucus, New Jersey, the company also has offices in New York, Glen Ellyn, Illinois; Los Angeles; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Northstar Travel Media, LLC is a portfolio company of BV Investment Partners, a leading private equity investor in the media and communications sector.

Technology spending will grow this year in the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America, offsetting declines in Europe and North America, a Gartner survey of 2,335 chief investment officers found.

Appetite for investment appeared strongest in Latin America, where IT budgets were set to rise 12.7 percent, and in the Asia-Pacific region, where IT budgets will rise 3.4 percent

Investment will fall 0.6 percent in North America and 0.7 percent in Europe.

IATA waded into the controversy over the optimal method of distributing ancillary products, claiming that GDSs “are unable to handle the rapidly increasing range of product offerings from airlines.” In an article in its Airlines International magazine, IATA said that “a GDS screen today looks much like a screen from the 1970s.” The article included lengthy quotes from Montie Brewer, former chief executive officer of Air Canada and a long-time critic of GDSs.

While going for hotel software, a client should look for the following essential features

Operations at reception- the reception is the face of the hote

Manual entering and recording of details could be very cumbersome if database has grown large.

A key outcome of that anaysis was that taking a global approach to brand communications would create a range of new opportunities and help to ensure Tourism Fiji a maximum return on its marketing investments.

"We’ve already had a huge response of agencies wishing to work with one of the world’s most magical brands," he said.

The initiative involves automated analysis of point-of-sale-system data to determine, among other things, where servers perform below their same-restaurant peers in different sales metrics, such as number of appetizers or desserts sold nightly, the companies said.

The mentoring system also represents “an opportunity to enhance guest service,” according to Brandon Coleman III, Mac Acquisition LLC chief marketing officer.

Coleman said the mentoring program’s comparative analysis of wait-staff members on a restaurant-by-restaurant basis, as opposed to using chainwide norms for such comparisons, improves the accuracy of its findings and staff buy in. That’s the case, he indicated, because chainwide performance norms might not reflect the very real impact on sales and menu mix at specific restaurants of such factors as location, climate and regional consumer dining preferences.

world's leading hotel companies

Roomkey.com, an innovative new online hotel search engine

Roomkey.com provides travelers a search and book experience tailored for ease of hotel shopping through an uncluttered and trustworthy site

Leveraging the power of social media and text messaging not only boosts the interactivity of an email marketing campaign, but it provides a vehicle for brands to create a dialogue with customers,” said Tim Kopp, ExactTarget’s chief marketing officer. “ExactTarget’s sophisticated one-to-one marketing platform provides the industry’s most flexible solution to power true one-to-one communications – from email to social media

Finding the right hotel is complex and, unlike booking a flight or reserving a car, it is a personal decision process - one which no one understands better than hoteliers.  We believe Roomkey.com will provide consumers with an innovative resource that will give them unprecedented confidence in their booking decisions

Choice Hotels International has deployed its cloud-based hotel property management system, choiceADVANTAGE, to its 5,000th hotel

. The software's innovative features include efficient guest servicing, sophisticated revenue management, complete groups functionality, remote access, and full integration with the company's programs. As a cloud-based software, the system is also accessible from any computer that offers Internet access.

"Specifically designed and built to seamlessly interact with our central reservation and customer relationship management system on the Internet, this software adds value for our hotel owners and we're thrilled for its now truly global footprint."

Green Button initiative, a recent White House effort to bring together the nation’s utilities, energy consumers and private industry to develop Internet and mobile phone-style technologies and business models aimed at reducing energy consumption.

greater control over their home energy usage and save money,

Making this data available to the public would in principle lead private-sector companies to develop technologies like energy management systems and smartphone applications that can interpret and use the information.

Thanks to the ever-growing presence of portable wireless devices in professional circles, your attendees are likely to find distraction during a meeting in their cell phones, laptops, or personal digital assistants (PDAs). For instance, handheld Internet devices called BlackBerries are proving especially popular among execs--in fact, they're sometimes called "CrackBerries" because of their addictive quality. That's why so many white-collar workers can't stop checking their e-mail while they're supposed to be paying attention. Since portable wireless technology is still relatively new, rules of etiquette have not yet been uniformly established. A 2004 survey by Menlo Park, CA-based Robert Half Technology found that two-thirds of chief information officers think technology-related blunders are increasing in the workplace. This would include behavior at meetings, where the most common offenses include leaving cell-phone ringers on, sending instant messages and e-mail using wireless devices, and typing on laptops out of turn. Internet etiquette, or "Netiquette," is a sore spot as well. The unchecked use of wireless devices at meetings is a drawback of the new gadgets

when the Caribbean Tourism Organization gets underway tomorrow, delegates, diplomats, tourism trade representatives and others will also be getting down to some serious business. Thursday’s Investment Power Forum on the Caribbean, honoring internationally-renown Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and featuring the chief executive of Branson’s Caribbean-based Branson Center of Entrepreneurship, an economic development initiative, is a perfect example of the key networking events tailored for decision makers in the tourism, travel and investment fields.