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This article details the technological innovation that Burger King began in order to adapt to the changing food service climate during the covid 19 pandemic. The article also talks about how Burger King is utilizing unattended POS systems as well as contactless QR code systems to add to the ordering experience and make guests feel safe at their operation. The article details that at the time, these technological innovations were somewhat of an experimental trial, however now it is much more of the norm.

This article describes a concept Burger King designed in-house which incorporates a number of next-generation unattended-POS and e-menu technologies. The creators envision restaurants that are focused on different modes of delivery and take-out, emphasizing no-contact interfaces. Dedicated apps would be used for ordering, curbside pick-up notification and pick-up locker codes while eMenu-like digital menu boards are employed for the drive-thru lanes.

In this article, Viktor Nagornyy writes about the PlannerTech show. This event was designed in order to bridge the gap between internet technology and event planning. Liz King is a power event planner and is the owener of Liz King events. She is know for "embracing technology and utilizing social media." This PlannerTech event was scheduled to take place in New York City during the NYC Internet Week. The idea behind PlannerTech is to highligt internet technologies that cater to event planning. During the event there was time to socialize and mingle with event planners and discuss the advantages of the internet in their industry.

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 I believe that Apple is about to become the next IBM, which is out-of-date and fails to keep up with the latest developments.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.

This article introduced the new website of the Four Seasons Hotel, what the new functions are added to the new website, and how the new website help the hotel attract new customers. There are some differences between the old hotel website and the new one. Six key features of the new website can respect the strengths of the new website which are Ease of booking, On the go, Access to review, Every property has a story, Location and Personalization. Four Seasons Hotel also unveils its Four Seasons Luxury Trend Report. Some of the insights from the report include: Luxury is back, Branding moves to the social sphere, E-commerce is king, The rise of the iPad. Nowadays, most customers choose to use website to get to know a hotel, so the website has a great meaning for the hotel. The website not only needs to have enough information, images, but some unique functions to attract customers and provide better service through the internet. Like the Four Seasons Hotel's new website, it allows for multi-destination, multi-hotel, and multi-person reservations, it will paint an authentic picture of the local culture, and it will collect guests' personal interests, related content and recommendations, this information will become available on a guest's next visit and over time, delivering a completely personalized experience. Four Seasons Hotel notices that E-commerce is the king, as Seventy-eight percent of the affluent participate in social networking sites, with more than half using social media to connect with a brand. The luxury consumer is increasingly going online to research and make purchases. It is important for the hotel the keep up with the latest technology such as the iPad. According to the Four Seasons Luxury Trend Report, One-third of wealthy consumers own a tablet or e-Reader. Four Seasons revenue generated from the iPad and other tablets has grown 200 percent from 2010 to 2011. The new technology has a close relationship with the hotel and the e-business.

This article is about the Maestro Property Management Suite which allows properties to optimize their revenue by having access to centralized control and innovative capabilities. this system enables a property to lower costs; permitting guests to  have real-time direct booking for not only rooms but also, other services such as amenities, dining, and such. Maestro offers secure and accesible system which seems to be allowing companies, such as The Snow King Resort, to increase revenue and improve the services offered to guests and groups. 

This article discusses the importance of restaurants protecting their systems and data from a security breach. This is a major issue for the food and beverage industry. According to a data security research and investigation firm, "the food and beverage industry accounted for 57% of all data breaches it investigated last year." This finding was a 44% increase from the previous year. Author Barbara King notes important risk management measures for owners and managers. Using strong passwords and non-identifying network web names are simple preventative measures. A few more include firewalls and installation of antivirus software. These must be kept updated to be effective, though.  Another preventative measure she discusses is logging all remote access and utilizing two forms of user verification for access points which are considered higher risk. Still other measures include segmenting the network cardholder data environment so it will not be a target. Finally, one of the most important security measures is complying with PCI DSS. This is essential for protecting payment data from customers and securing networks. This standard also gives important guidelines for proper handling of such data. In the end, these are all things we must do to keep and protect a loyal customer base.

Summary: The variety of gifting options has grown from a simple plastic gift card to virtual cards delivered by email, text, debit/credit cards and more. The prediction for 2013 will exceed a billion dollars of digital gifting for the holiday season and continue to grow. Digital gift cards have made giving easy due to the convenience of redemption. Paper coupons have proven to be successful to draw in consumer activity, but the digital revolution in virtual gifting is expected to explode as people are so connected to their mobile devices. Even with the convenience and growing popularity of digital gifting comes barriers and security issues. Such issues include personal banking security and privacy. Some small to midsize businesses may not be able to participate in digital gifting due to cost barriers or lack of technology. Due to electronic process, paper receipts will be obsolete. Computers aren't perfect so how does one resolve dollar discrepancies. One benefit of virtual giving is the bar codes/QR codes. Companies are able to collect and retain additional information of givers and receivers by scanning the bar code/QR Code. Often people are reluctant to provide contact information, but in this case they aren't being asked, they have no choice. This is a benefit to the companies because they can make other promotional offers to engage and possibly retain both parties, thereby increasing sales. There are a variety of methods of virtual gifting and redemption. One example is Giftly. Giftly adds the value of the gift to the recipient's credit or debit card which can be used anywhere. This is super convenient for many people and they are able to choose whatever they wish rather than receive a gift chosen for them. This is certainly the digital age version of sending a check via mail to a loved one. Other corporate examples that have impacted the transition from plastic gift cards to virtual gifting are Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Applebee's and Starbu

This article summarizes how a particular advance in IT, specifically cloud technology, has made it easier for hotels to actually provide hospitality. By democratizing the industry-leading technology solutions, the cloud provides independent hoteliers with the ability to compete with their larger counterparts by increasing efficiencies. While the article identifies many of the general benefits of cloud technology that we have been discussing in class previously, such as uninterrupted access to business solutions and much lower hardware costs, it goes on to provide specific examples of how hotels can actually integrate software within the cloud to power their business. For example, revenue management solutions on the cloud often work on a pay-as-you-go model, not a subscription. This increases the number of connections that hotel revenue managers can make with OTAs, in turn driving conversion to actual bookings. Moreover, cloud-based revenue management solutions provide integrated software that decreases the need for a large revenue management staff. The article also cites the prevalence of mobile bookings, which are growing at 20% versus 2% for desktop bookings. More than a fifth of bookings are actually done using a mobile device. With all of this new consumer data, hotels can actually personalize their offerings for their guests. This will decrease generic advertising costs over time. The reason why it is important to take these mobile bookings into account is that mobile consumers are already connected to the cloud as they make these arrangements. With that in mind, hotels need to turn around and continue to push storage, advertising, and booking solutions on the cloud to meet this demand.

Proximity Marketing yields tremendous benefits to both the consumer and companies. There are six benefits that companies take advantage of inclusive of geotargeting being able to measure the roi on advertising as opposed to traditional advertising methods.

This article not only describes the 6 benefits of proximity marketing but also how to execute it. It explains what is proximity marketing, its benefits in detail, and how it's the future and is here to stay.

Proximity marketing is more beneficial than I originally thought. Geotargeting is the biggest advantage when using this marketing method and I think that a company can definitely take over a certain area by using this method.

Nowadays, with the development of information technology, there are more and more event planners using technology to plan events. Technology will help them a lot during the process of event planning, technology makes the planning process be more and more efficient and faster than ever. In addition, it also help event planner find more information related to their event and give them more ideas to create an excellent event. Moreover, it also help planners to collect data and information in a logical way. All in all, technology not only changed our life, but also change the way the event is planned.

"Technology is often overlooked by the event planners. It seems like it's the last part of the planning process. Possibly unknown to them, they leave it until the end or let someone else handle it. This is especially true when it comes to the Internet."

This article shows the importance of bringing technology to event planning. Once we take technology into account, event planning will become more and more meaningful and at the same time technology will change a little bit of event planning.

Online marketing consultant and social media strategist Ravish Kumar shares five necessities for hospitality industry succcess when marketing in the digital age on LinkedIn. Of particular note is that this article was created in 2015, and likewise mentions the very critical transition from the popularity of desktops/laptops to the rise mobile phones as a crucial element to current emarketing.

The 5 future internet marketing is true. It perfectly explain the 5 trends for the future marketing strategies.

It is clear that email is one of the most effective and efficient ways of reaching out to your consumers directly, however there are always the ups and downs to this form of marketing. It is predicted that by 2015 there will be an increase of nearly 4.1 billion email accounts compared to the 3.1 billion email accounts as of 2011.   The most common form businesses used email marketing was to send out newsletters, coupons, ads, alerts, etc., now consumers also are looking for more interaction with the business through social media. They want instant responses through Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and other social networks.  With using all the social networking sites in relation to the business, consumers can also see other consumer reviews.  Using these forms of communication for the business and client, helps to build their customer relationship with each other. As businesses track the movement of their website and emails by monitoring what the consumer clicks on, they gather information on what the consumer is looking for and can then cater to their needs. As positive as social media can be for a company, it can also be negative with bad user reviews and complaints.  Word of mouth is the fastest marketing tool for consumers when they have a bad review.  

this article introduces the two mainly cloud computing platform, one is Windows Server 2012 from Microsoft, the other is VMworld 2012. As an industry giant, Microsoft wants to provide a platform for companies to be able to manage between different data centers. As a NO 1 OS provider, Microsoft can ensure the consistency between its products. On the other hand, VMware would like to provide multivendor clouds where customers wish to move across environments with different workloads. 

Summary of the article Contactless payment is a new technology being used in the UK. Compare to the previous quarter, in the last month of 2011, cardholders using this system to pay for food has been increased. The contactless system allow customers to make a payment over 15 Europe dollar by scanning their credit card over the machine, it can reduce waiting time, especially in some popular branches. Although this machine has been available in the UK for 2 years, Visa card still limits its acceptance level to prevent those who may become a every-day habit. However, according to Mark Austin, he believes, especially in London, the Olympics could bring more people in using contactless payment as long as they get a chance to use it once, they will know how the convenience is. Based on the Visa card research, experts believe that contactless payment technology will become wildly used in the coming year than cash. For example, more and more retailers such as Subway, Burger King offer this system currently and Starbucks will offer the service soon.

This article talks about the capabilities of a PMS in the coming generation since being implemented thirty years ago. Tina Stehle that PMS will no longer be about seamless communication and integrated services. PMS will be used to 'capture all guest events, information, systems will be able to predict patterns such as spending and preferences as well as evolve the property's loyalty programs and VIP management.' Advancements in Hospitality today are exhibiting these qualities already. For instance, The Intelligent Room, which keeps track of a guest's uses and preferences. Once every business in the hospitality industry gets linked into this all inclusive, ease of access PMS, there will truly be a seamless integration that makes a guest's travel and accommodations easy and incredibly comfortable. However, Stehle says that 'the web will continue to be a major influence' on the changes made to the way PMS works and what it is able to do. The emergence of Cloud-Based PMS proves her point. The issue here is that what if the internet crashes? This question should be addressed now, rather than business relishing the cut in costs, the advancements with the web brings.