Group items tagged

A leader provider of outsourced staffing solutions for the hospitality industry, Hospitality Staffing Solutions, announced that it has completed the sale of its assets to HS Solutions Corporation. HS Solutions Corporation is an entity formed by LJC Investments 1, LLC and a group of investors including Littlejohn Opportunities Master Fund,LP, Caymus Equity Partners and Management. This transaction allows HSS to reduce its outstanding debt and responsibilities. It also gives the opportunity to emerge with strong financial backing of a new owner.

This article talks about how there is a serious concern in the hotel industry when it comes to credit card and identity theft. They talk about how all the major brands in the hotel industry were all victims of highly publicized, major breaches in the last year alone. Also, including airline and banks, hotels maintain a wealthy amount of database of personal and financial data. For example, with new technology systems being created, POS systems are a weak security point for many networks because they are constantly in use and are not always updated or even protected from vulnerabilities. The article talks about personal details for hotel guests are frequently stored in a variety of locations including restaurants, facilities, and government buildings, so hackers have a greater possibility to access your personal information. The bigger hotels are in more danger because of the volume of guests that come in and out of the location. Smaller hotels should be concerned not just about their security but also by ransomware, an increasingly favorable tactic to extort hoteliers by hackers who encrypt the hotels data making it inaccessible until ransom is paid for. I believe hotels need a toolbelt of various securtiy technologies that can be used to prevent future malicious attacks. I think by managing and implementing a firewall is essential which helps get rid of dangerous traffic from coming onto the network and preventing sensitive data from being hacked.

MOD 10: This article discusses the main tactics of cyber hackers that target hotels. Point of sale (POS) systems are easy targets for hackers due to their constant use during operation hours and because of that their security measures aren't always up to date. Hotels have large data banks since they're storing consumer profile information such as home addresses, phone numbers and credit card numbers. There's a large risk when it comes to security breaches within franchises because they have access to their parent company's regional, national and global systems. If their systems are hacked and breached, then that puts the whole system of the brand at risk. Security breaches within a system can also damage a brands reputation with the public. According to the article, "Recent major breaches at Fortune 500 companies and household names across the retail, restaurant and hotel sectors demonstrate that anti-virus, anti-malware and firewalls alone are not enough to secure businesses from the ever-evolving threat landscape." Smaller properties are even at a greater risk because not only do they have to monitor their compliance with PCI but also monitoring their security systems for their database and PMS system. Some of the recommended software's that should be used by hotels looking to be proactive with their company's cyber security is File Integrity Monitoring(FIM), Unified Threat Management(UTM), and Security Information and Event Management(SIEM).

This article explores the different tactics hotels should use after a cyber attack. The article mentions several different type of attacks such as Phishing when hackers trick customers into giving up their login credentials. Ransomware, when hackers encrypt data making it unusable and inaccessible for the hotel. Not one solution but rather companies should be equipped with a series of technologies from firewalls to file monitoring programs. Some of these technologies, like SIEM requires an intelligent IT team to have the capabilities of analyzing and monitoring the reports produced. This may be more difficult for smaller businesses to implement and maintain.

This is a great article that provides tips on how to use green practices within the IT realm. It starts by giving statistics on how much energy can be consumed by equipment, and also how much electronic waste can be done when not reusing or recycling such equipment. There is tips on how to increase efficiency with your technology and also providing tips on how to properly purchase needed equipment. Another set of tips covers reducing the running costs of office equipment and reducing e-waste by the 'reduce, reuse, and recycle'. Lastly, developments for green technology and equipment are provided for us. My opinion is that this article is very informative and should be read by all hoteliers to look into and apply the tips given. Showing the statistics paints a great picture for the reasons why we should be going green with technology.

Current hospitality trends within the hospitality industry. These current trends are bringing awareness to cloud base storage, application mobility, social media marketing, and integration of amenity software. Companies are now outsourcing its IT department to minimize operating expense.

@corrie242 these six trends discussed are very important to keep efficiencies and competitive advantage, and I can confirm that at the Hotel company I work for, most of these are all in use. The social media use and monitoring has been a big shift in how we have changed the way we capture our guests' sentiment from comment cards being left or mailed to the hotel, to being able to receive immediate feedback in a very public way such as through Tripadvisor, Open Table, Facebook, Twitter, etc. We employ a digital media manager who assists in monitoring all that is said about us through these different channels so we can respond and try to stay on top of what is being commented.

This article was a very interesting read and focuses on the savings and improvements that technology can deliver by outlining six trends. The main item that peaked my interest was the trend of Cloud / Software as a Service (SaaS) or cloud computing. I have been introduced to this concept over recent discussions with a close family member. Like the article noted, the argument that was given by my relative in support of this system was that this concept is the new way to go in information technology. This option is very cost efficient and like the article mentioned it has no initial hardware costs or associated expenses like full time, in-house IT staff to maintain the system. It can also allow management of your network system to be done offsite giving hospitality operators the time to service their guests more efficiently and effectively. With technology constantly changing it is very important for hospitality operators to be aware of the emerging trends in the industry. These trends can aid in considerable growth and improvements that can be beneficial to their businesses.

Since we spent time discussing both the positives and negatives of utilizing an electronic restaurant menu, this article primarily focuses on six positive things about utilizing electronic menus. One positive thing I did not even consider is that it allows for people that speak different languages to communicate what they want better since they would have a menu that is in their native language. It also makes updating the menus much easier on the restaurant owners because everything is online which makes adding and deleting items much easier overall.

This was light, I wonder why they never mentioned Chain Wide deployment as a key benefit? Imaging instantly changing all branch menus (adding/removing/editing) instantly across hundreds or thousands of stores...that is powerful.

A very straight forward article highlighting various benefits of the eMenu. Namely the: Visual Formatting (Pics easily added). Increased Order Accuracy. Easier to Update (edited in practically real time). Additional Information (ie. nutritional information etc. can be easily inserted as opposed to a traditional menu) Upsell Items Automatically (ie. recommend paired dishes automatically). Mutiple Languages ( save cost, while increasing the number of potential customers).

This article is about the integration of social media in marketing for restaurants, and particularly how that has adapted and changed as a result of the pandemic. The article gives a brief introduction with some statistics outlining the particular usage of social media by different generations and how they make decisions regarding the content they see on that social platform. It then goes into detail about how Instagram is the primary platform that leads to success for restaurants marketing. It then takes a slight turn and explains that many consumers are looking to give their business and attention to entities that take social or other stands and seem to have a genuine care for making the world a better place. It has also been shown that outsourcing of marketing has reduced as a result of the pandemic and the need to save money during the hard times. Additionally, there is something that consumers find appealing about the genuine marketing that an internal employee is able to do on a platform such as instagram. The article concludes that even though the pandemic has been a terrible thing, it has forced restaurants to become more proactive and innovative in their marketing strategies.

This article introduces the reason that the hotel needs develop its e-marketing. The author pointed that a successful internet marketing campaign is one that can strike a perfect balance between all these various practices associated with E-marketing. Here are the key reasons why it is important for the hotel. Firstly, advertising on the internet is much cheaper than advertising on TV, radio, or even newspaper. Secondly, e-marketing make it easier to find hotel's target audience. Thirdly, the success and failure of any marketing campaign on the internet can be tracked and analyzed very easily by using Google analytics, and various other means. Through internet marketing brands can establish a regular committed community of their fans and followers, and engage with them in a two way communication. A carefully, and strategically designed hotel website can provide its prospective clients a lot information. In addition, as most of the prospective travelers use the internet to gather information about their destinations, and hotels, hotel properties can ignore internet marketing only at their own peril. Also, the hotel can make use of Internet to show its property to the guests. A good designed web page can attract more customers for the hotel.

The article demonstrates the reasons that Internet marketing is important in recent days. To begin with, the author provides several ways of Internet marketing, such as SEO, SMO, PPC and so on. In order to see the effectiveness of each Internet marketing method, marketing campaign is one good choice. The author then tells us how the Internet marketing is superior among traditional media. The Internet marketing is cheaper, easy to target audiences, easy to track data and it also can establish a regular committed community, which attracts lcustomers. Moreover, Internet marketing benefits the hotel properties. For example, the hotel website can help customers better know the hotel. So we see that Internet marketing is crucial to hotels.

Internet market is super important in the hospitality world. It helps customers answer questions such as charges, tariffs, location, and etc. and they are able to get answers they need fast, and from a reliable source. Another great use for internet marketing is the ability to draw in customers by showing what their property has to offer through pictures and videos.

A little bit older of an article but it shows us the different programs that can be used in the HR field of business. Companies have many choices to make when purchasing an HR software program. They have to decide on and in-house system or a web-based system etc. Some of the functions that HR software performs are maintaining employee's salary, benefits, performance reviews, and time taken off. They assist these companies in moving towards a paperless operations. This in itself will help in the costs of running your hotel.

By outsourcing HR to a online or thrid party, there is no getting to know it's employees whether they be present or incoming. It makes it to easy for HR to say that's your probably should sexual or harrasment suits arise. There is no mediation or intervention. This could be rather problematic for a company. You may be saving a dollar but at what costs?

This website and company will provide Hotel owners who are working on a limited budget and can not afford HR personnel. Everything is done online or over the telephone. They also specialize in risk management, employee motivation, Insurance practices,payroll, etc. You are pretty much outsourcing your HR dept to a thrid party. This reduces the expense of the hotel having to pay for entire HR staff, all correspondences can be done either over the internet, telephone, mail ins, or however the employee chooses. The downside of this, is that the employee is never dealing with the same person on a continusis basis so they will be stuck with having to explain everything over and over again. It's like dealing with an insurance company you never get the same person on the phone. This program is meant to benefit the employeer more than the employee which kind of defeats the purpose of HR.

This website is for a company that offers Human Resource consulting in Hotels, Cruise Lines, Restaurants & Casinos. They offer assistance for companies too small to take on an HR coordinator as well as large companies looking to expand and need consulting services. This is something for us to consider as future managers as these services might be needed.

HRIS is the latest technology in HR. This software in my opinion is not one of the most needed in any company. When talking about organization, time, tracking large number of workers, etc. HRIS could be the perfect solution. Every HRIS system has different capabilities, depends on what the company really is looking for. The best HRIS system will be the one that fits your company needs. An HRIS includes benefits administration, employee data, and time saving for HR.

This article discusses some of the latest technology in Human Resource Information Systems technologies. I completely agree with your statement that this system is one of the most needed in any company. I do not see how a company could run with ease without it. The article states, "hSenid Biz as a leader in the HRIS domain showcased the HRM Enterprise XV which is the latest hSenid HRIS solution which offers strategic, administrative and strategic MIS HR modules which can help an organization address their increasing HR requirements and achieve better business results. In addition the hSenid's cloud solution PeoplesHR showcased the benefits of Cloud HR and the practical applications. hSenid also offers Human Resource Outsourcing capabilities to organization which makes hSenid a true and complete HR solutions provider." HRIS systems really have the ability to coordinate communication among different departments.

Over the years, some businesses have controlled almost all factors of production and distribution (Ford in its early days) whereas others have outsourced almost everything (Dell). In the early days of industry, large enterprises controlled and owned most factors of production and businesses like Ford Motor Company in the USA had their own foundries, railroad, forestry and electricity generating plants, In the UK, Cadbury's and Lever Brothers went so far as to build villages and amenities for their workers. The motivation for this vertical integration was varied but included cost and quality control, worker loyalty and protection of proprietary processes. As well as control of production, resources and employees, businesses like Ford also controlled the retail sales and service network.

The virtual value chain, created by John Sviokla and Jeffrey Rayport, is a business model describing the dissemination of value-generating information services throughout an Extended Enterprise . This value chain begins with the content supplied by the provider, which is then distributed and supported by the information infrastructure; thereupon the context provider supplies actual customer interaction. It supports the physical value chain of procurement, manufacturing, distribution and sales of traditional companies. To illustrate the distinction between the two value chains consider the following: "when consumers use answering machines to leave a message, they are using an object that is both made and sold in the physical world, however when they buy electronic answering services from the phone company they are using the marketspace-a virtual realm where products and services are digital information and are delivered through information-based channels." (Rayport et al. 1996) Many businesses employ both value chains, including banks, which provide services to customers in the physical world at their branch offices and virtually online. The value chain is separated into two chains because the marketplace (physical) and the marketspace (virtual) need to be managed in different ways to be effective and efficient (Samuelson 1981). Nonetheless, the linkage between the two is critical for effective supply chain management.

In this article we could check lots pros of the cloud PMS.This includes the ease-of-use, scope for customization and assurance of any-time, anywhere availability.When the Cloud first arrived, data security-related concerns were prominent. This is why computing solutions offered on the Cloud have risen as a dynamic solution for businesses handling the most sensitive kind of data, including financial/banking institutions and workplaces handling large volumes of personal information.Hotel owners have realized that investing in new IT infrastructure or manpower just isn't practical. This helps to raise the recall value of hotels and provides them with the most influential form of marketing recommendations from happier, more contented customers

The Planet One /Swisscom partnership results in a complementary voice, video and data service offering across the Asia-Pacific region while enabling Swisscom to serve its hotel partners globally with IT managed services. Planet One markets voice and data communications solutions, back-office system integration services, software development and outsourced applications support to the hotel industry. Swisscom has built a suite of IP convergent services (on site and above property) for the guest room, the meeting room, the public area and the hotel back-office. Both as a network manager and a solution provider, Swisscom has been supporting many of the world's leading chains towards the global implementation of their brand standards for many years. Above is the brief introduction of the two organizations. As we all know, telecommunication is a potential essential part in the hospitality industry. This article make clear to all that this technology will be more important in the future development.

This article discusses how banking and healthcare have been held to a historically high level of cyber security, but only recently has the hospitality industry. It highlights a cyber attack on Wyndham Hotels and their reluctant response to take corrective action. The article offers steps that a hospitality company should take to protect themselves as they launch and work to protect their guests, their information and their company.

This Microsoft Accounting System gets broken down into profit margins, trackinig key metrics, customer satisfaction, etc. It puts an emphasis on gathering trends, improving results and driving growth. A lot of this is based on statsical anylasis, charts, and diagrams. It has pop windows that would translate the data into plain english. It continuosly mointors your outsourcing vendors for quality staisfaction and rates. You don't have to be a mathematical genius to use this system either. The system will do it for you, as you can see there are many other programs that compliment this one.

Traditional PMS functionality is still the critical core at every property. By tracking and managing all aspects of guests' data, it's both a source and collection point for the crucial activity and preference information that forms the basis of all future relationships with the guest. But with the change of technology and the manner we do business today, hotels now need a wider function set than what a traditional PMS provides. Having a PMS on the web and in the clouds is getting more popular. These new Web services make it easier for new vendors to develop fresh approaches and link them quickly and effectively into established systems, providing hoteliers with richer and more varied options. There are more advantages than disadvantages when using cloud computing. The world is changing rapidly and in other for hotels to survive, they have to keep up with those changes.

Hey all, here is an article I found that talks about the traditional PMS systems for hotels and how it once rained supreme. Now a days, traditional PMS systems are not cutting it anymore because businesses are growing and are trying to find systems that have more functionality. This article brings up a few different options that a business could adopt and put into use. Installing software applications at the property is becoming unmanageably complex. Despite very worthwhile gains in functionality, no PMS will ever cover everything a hotel needs; none offer telephone service, for example. As more guest and operating information needs to be captured and managed, many hotels and resorts need multiple other systems to complement the PMS. The first option the article bring up is Virtualization, Server virtualization is not a new technology, but its adoption by the hospitality industry is relatively recent. The basic concept is that specialized control software allows the physical resources of a single computer server-memory, disk space and computing power-to be divided as needed between several different software applications, each perceived to be running on its own dedicated server. The second option is running a cloud based system, we all know what that is so I will let you read the article. Enjoy

The author attributes a growth in 'hotel complexity' that is driving the need for a change with traditional PMS systems and the limits of their capabilities. According to the article, the current PMS system is unsustainable and will need to evolve to meet client's demands- such as cloud computing, which is highlighted as being beneficial to hotels especially with regards to flexibility, better security, speed of implementation, etc. The pros and cons of cloud computing are clearly described, the cons mainly being loss of connectivity and security breaching. Although traditional PMS are essential for most hotels, cloud computing could put them at a competitive edge.

This article firstly reviewed the development of the PMS. Twenty years ago, the value of a PMS was in its computerized capabilities as properties began to switch over from manual systems. Ten years ago, the more valid comparison was between a DOS and a Windows-based system. And today the PMS has more functions and can do better for the hotel. As a hotel director compared the new PMS with the old one. The old PMS allowed only 20 or 30 letters for notes while the new one allowed him to review guest histories after checkout as well as to write unlimited guest notes on reservations. Lisa Jane Gibson, director of revenue management for the six Vintage Hotel locations, concluded three main trends with front and back of house systems. First is the wider use of technology to enable properties to run more efficiently. Another trend is more personalized interaction with guests. Finally, Gibson notes the upcoming deadline for all businesses to comply with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) mandate for specific security guidelines. The guest trend has an effect on the PMS, and the trend will lead the direction of the PMS product development. More and more people are becoming their own travel agents. The PMS is also very useful for the food and beverage management. The PMS can help the hotels or restaurants with tracking inventory and cost of sale as well as setting up and running reports for key areas of the business such as returns, refunds and promos. The new POS products can help the hotels save costs and cost saving becomes the hot topic for the new POS. For example, hotel management consultant Paul Lynch of PGL Consulting has been able to deliver a cost benefit of up to five to seven per cent on wage savings with H&L Canada Ltd.'s Workforce Management control system. Lynch initially used it to monitor staff rosters daily but now has embraced the package as a complete information and management tool for the sites that he controls.

Wi-fi is a service everyone expects everywhere, especially in hotels. It seems easy enough to install but proposes numerous questions and challenges for a hotel providing wi-fi, such as whether or not to charge a fee, who manages it and problem-solves, and how much and what type of hardware is required? This article reiterates much of what we already know about wi-fi but also poses some new ideas, including how wi-fi will develop and change and what that means for hotels.

Many are the different types of accounting software in the hospitality industry. However, hotel managers are always stressed to propose and procure the appropriate technology and software to run their daily operations. This article describes major factors to keep in mind before selecting the right accounting program, such as budget, annual revenue, national or international location, in-house vs outsourced operation, multiple sites and much more.