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Top POS Predictions for 2017 “Windows will no longer be the number one operating system in the market, as multiple operating systems are being offered to allow greater flexibility to consumers. Data collection will be a bigger selling point for consumers, not only to track sales and inventory, but also to manage shifts and training, as well as deploy customer loyalty programs.” — Bematech “We will see increasing configuration flexibility to adapt to more fluid layouts in a hyper-channel oriented world, smaller counter footprints, more intensive future-proofing and increased value.” — Fujitsu America, Inc. “Major restaurant chains will continue to adopt online ordering and line-busting technology and POS hardware will do a better job of connecting wirelessly to each other (Internet of Things) and to mobile (smartphone and tablet) devices. It will also integrate with sensors, cameras and video monitors to provide smart advertising to customers based on environment and purchasing trends.” — Epson “A lot of the new requests for hardware are around supporting initiatives for increasing customer engagement. These come in the form of minimizing the barrier for traditional POS, installing kiosks of varying sizes and form factors, mobility solutions, and customer-facing screens on the POS for supporting both touch and non-touch versions.” — Par Technology Corp. “In the end, hardware is simply the platform for software and consumer omnichannel demands. The rise in mobile payments and the EMV mandate will prod hospitality to upgrade legacy POS systems because of the need for security compliance and to accept more payment options. Tablets, smartphones, software- (SaaS) or POS-as-a-service models, and cloud-based POS will continue to drive the need for POS hardware to adapt to new IT and consumer interaction.” — Posiflex “POS hardware will expand connectivity in keeping with the IOT revolution, so operators will be able to provide a more personalized experience to customers at checkout.” — Toshiba “There will be increased investments in WiFi, location-based services (LBS), mobile computers and data capture solutions as more consumers use their smartphones to engage in mobile ordering and loyalty programs for personalized offers. In addition, businesses will have an increased need for visibility in automating food safety processes.” — Zebra

Affordable and customizable communication

“We are able to share with our customers more products that we have every day because those are the most important products for us,” co-owner Zach Steffens says.

Quick solution for quick serve restaurant

Cvent operates the number one marketplace for group meetings business in the world and has driven $3.4 billion in meetings spend through the Cvent Supplier Network through the first half of 2012 – a 50% increase over 2011.

In consideration of how investment in hospitality technology can support business growth, rather than being an added cost, or unnecessary financial burden, to a hotel – it is important to look at what operational efficiencies the technology can bring, including any improvements in staff activities and morale that can be delivered and how the technology will ultimately benefit the hotels revenue performance.

In consideration of how investment in hospitality technology can support business growth, rather than being an added cost, or unnecessary financial burden, to a hotel – it is important to look at what operational efficiencies the technology can bring, including any improvements in staff activities and morale that can be delivered and how the technology will ultimately benefit the hotels revenue performance.

Those hotel groups that fail to recognize the speed of change in technology and what this can bring to the business will find themselves significantly under prepared when the market starts to strengthen. While “its never too late” to act – there is a significant opportunity cost in doing nothing or worse still, cutting technology out of the day to day operations. For a hotel to effectively operate and ensure it is maximizing its incoming revenue, the right technologies needs to be in place. Through investing in the right technology at the right time, savvy hoteliers will be ensuring that their facility(s) are able to effectively maximize their ongoing revenue capability now and into the future.

etc hospitality aims to revolutionise accounting processes by understanding the way financial information flows within a business - and how it interacts with people, the systems and processes along that journey.

We constantly adapt and update our processes to ensure the needs of your business are always met, meaning you can relax knowing your finances are in safe hands. We deliver 3 main streams of business in the accounting space: PROCESSING99.5% Accuracy: We are continually evolving our UK based delivery model to process the thousands of invoices and credit notes we deal with each week in the most efficient way possible. Our mantra is that data should only be entered once. This combined with a focus on cloud-based systems has meant lower cost delivery, increased accuracy (99.5%) and improved scalability over traditional accountancy providers. SYSTEMS100% Real Time: We have invested in the latest 'Software as a Service' technologies to deliver real time data, accessible anywhere. We provide independent advice to our customers on the latest technologies as a stand-alone service, as well as having partnerships with a number of the key players. Our processing arm means we employ many of these technologies ourselves from Salesforce.com through to cloud accounting packages. STRATEGIC100% Useful Data: Real time, highly accurate data means better business decisions. Our strategic accounting and consultancy services can help you interpret data and take decisions which have real impact on your business. Our customers are then able to use use up-to-date information for strategic decision making, helping them deal proactively with changes in the business environment and stay ahead of the competition.

In today’s mobile age, power lies more and more in the hands of the customer and the value of delivering a great guest experience has never been more prominent.

86% of consumers are willing to pay more to receive a better customer experience, and only 1% of customers feel their expectations are being met consistently.

59% of Americans would try a new brand or company for a better service experience.

Technology has come a long way.

the hospitality industry now looks for other ways to appeal to an increasingly “been there, done that, got the t-shirt,” not-so-easy-to-impress clientele. And cutting-edge technology seems to be the answer.

Durham, North Carolina’s Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention Center, for instance, has introduced high-def, flat-screen LG televisions to its rooms.

Simply put, cloud computing is the delivery of computing services—including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence—over the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale.

Cloud computing is a big shift from the traditional way businesses think about IT resources. Here are seven common reasons organisations are turning to cloud computing services:

Speed

Massive investments into property renovations, new builds, and technology integrations means the hospitality industry is reshaping itself to cater to the modern tech-savvy traveler.

Investing in tools that guests demand in daily life is a great idea to attract more travelers, deliver quicker services, personalized guest experiences, and make considerable cost savings.

Mobile guest apps have proven to increase revenues and improve staff efficiency at hotels.

One surefire way to ensure you can socially distance during your stay is to have a robot deliver items to your room.

Rosé can bring you anything, either in-house or via a complimentary shopping service

The robot is sanitized after each delivery.

a central reservation system that allows travel agencies and their clients to access travel knowledge, buy and compare reservations choices and book travel

connects the travel service suppliers or vendors to the travel agencies in real-time, by providing a centralized service that covers the bookings of airline tickets and more.

The leading global distribution systems are Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo, and Worldspan.

Use automated check-in courtesy of geofencing. By utilizing geofencing – a virtual ‘fence’ around a specified location – hoteliers can provide guests with the option to check in as soon as they’ve landed (or when they’re nearing the hotel) by sending a push notification to their smartphone that takes them to the relevant check-in screen in the hotel’s app. 

So when a guest has checked in, and for the duration of their stay, beacon technology can detect when guests are near their room via their smartphone and unlock the door

Once in their room, that same technology can deliver all manner of wonderful a-ha moments – from switching on the lighting when guests enter, to turning on the air-con, to setting just the right room temperature

Hertz Corp. is introducing iPhone city travel applications to extend the brand’s reach beyond cars and enhance the customer experience.

In addition to New York, Boston and San Francisco, there are also apps for Dallas-Fort Worth, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami-West Palm, Sacramento-Northern California, Orlando, San Diego and Washington, D.C.

Customers can download the first app for free from the Apple App Store. After that, additional apps may be downloaded for $0.99 apiece.

Eco-friendly hotels are putting recycling bins under the desk and water filters in the bathroom. The days of tiny shampoo bottles are numbered.

It’s no secret that hotels can be bastions of wastefulness, with the average hotel guest trashing about two pounds of paper, plastic, cardboard and cans each day.

Indeed, hoteliers are finding a double incentive in pleasing eco-conscious guests while at the same time saving a few bucks through sustainable practices.

“This not only impacted revenue because of customers’ tendency to leave sites at the first sign of performance problems, it was detrimental to our brand. Motel 6 prides itself on delivering superior customer service. When this started happening, we knew it was critically important to re-evaluate our security infrastructure.”

“Crossbeam is the only provider who lets us take the security applications we trust from multiple vendors and consolidate them onto a single platform to achieve extremely scalable, low-latency security. This level of protection and management simplicity is exactly what we need to handle the demands of our environment, without sacrificing the online reservations experience for Motel 6 customers.”

Some believe the vendor RFP process allows a hotel company to pick the most qualified service/product provider through an unbiased decision process. Perhaps this is the case for commoditized supplies or services (housekeeping supplies, linens, laundry, etc.) where the RFP process allows for comparing the proverbial "apples to apples."

At a typical hotel, who is equipped with the latest best practices in digital technology and marketing to sufficiently and adequately prepare a vendor RFP? Very few hotel companies have the bandwidth and depth of knowledge to adequately identify the digital needs of the property. Nor can they convey the property's needs and wants in the digital space and where it needs to be in 6, 12, 24 and 36 months from now. Lastly, who at the property can afford to devote considerable time to research and prepare a vendor RFP that asks the right questions, conveys the right objectives and provides a solid framework for evaluating and comparing one digital technology and marketing firm to the next?

On the hotel side, the typical vendor RFP process easily takes 50+ hours from beginning to end. On the digital technology and marketing vendor side, time to review, respond, and present takes upwards of 25-40 hours. Typically, three vendors compete and with all parties combined the entire RFP process will cost upwards of $15,000-$20,000. Beyond the cost, this process consumes the time and energy of multiple people and departments on an average of every two years for the hotel company.