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By October 2015, all restaurants and other merchants will be subjected to new Europay, Mastercard, and Visa (EMV) standards, which reflect a shift from magnetic-stripe credit cards to chip-and-pin cards.

, the chip-based cards require insertion of the card into a terminal throughout the entire transaction.

chip-based cards are less susceptible to fraud.

Maestro PMS launched a new expansion to its group of system-integrated, online support and training tools for users.

The new support and training initiatives are tied into Maestro’s incident-tracking system. Support tickets are created in the system for each communication and resolution with tracking numbers. This enables Maestro to optimize support response times

“Our new support and training enhancements provide users with answers to system questions whenever and however they want. Personalized support lets them be more productive and confident in system usage.”

The Culver City, Calif.-based social media marketing company leverages Facebook Messenger as a modern direct marketing tool.

Misfit doesn’t cast a wide net. It targets Facebook users who are most likely to become repeat customers for a restaurant.

In the case of 5 Napkin Burger, an upscale full-service restaurant in New York City, Misfit ran a Facebook ad promoting a 2-for-1 burger special. Misfit aimed its advertising at people within proximity to one of the brand’s four Manhattan restaurants.

As if significant savings on electricity bills weren't enough, IT managers have another reason to embrace environmentally friendly IT practices: a bevy of federal, state and local tax incentives that could tip the scales to make green IT projects financially attractive. However, companies have been slow to take advantage of the available incentives, essentially leaving money on the table. One reason is that many tax incentives are for solar energy, which is still expensive. Another reason is that CIOs -- who don't often talk with tax experts -- may not be aware of what's available. Among the federal tax incentives is the Energy-Efficient Commercial Buildings Tax Deduction, part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. (Subsequent legislation extended this deduction through 2013.) Companies can claim a tax deduction of $1.80 per square foot on new or existing buildings by installing interior lighting, heating, cooling, ventilation or hot water systems that reduce a building's total energy and power costs by 50% or more. "If an IT manager is looking to retrofit or construct a data center, this particular incentive is absolutely appropriate -- almost a given," says Jenny Bravo, a director at Deloitte Tax LLP. "A 50% reduction [in energy and power costs] for a well-planned data center is absolutely doable."

Peak 10, the industry leader in IT infrastructure and security, highlights Vizergy's successful partnership in new case study. Vizergy provides stability, reliability and security to hospitality clients by combining proven digital marketing strategies, best-in-class marketing tools and their proprietary, cloud-based marketing system, hosted and supported by Peak 10, one of the nation's most advance data centers.

Vizergy has worked with Peak 10 for over ten years to consolidate IT environments and deliver high-performance, reliable access that drives business results. Backed by sophisticated technology and extensive support, Peak 10 helps enable Vizergy to provide the most reliable digital marketing, management and ecommerce system in the hospitality industry.

Vizergy's Digital Marketing System (DMS) is a true demonstration of client-focused innovation. This proprietary system enables hoteliers and hospitality professionals to easily and efficiently maintain their property websites, monitor social media, manage online reputation, deploy email campaigns and evaluate site performance from a single easy-to-use system. With personalization capabilities built into the DMS, clients can deliver tailored messaging that will be most relevant and personal to each individual site visitor.

Fortunately, new technology lets restaurants adopt some of ecommerce’s best practices. From an IT perspective, this requires four key elements:   A system to close the loop at the guest level on promotional offers. It’s not enough to have a POS discount key for “Father’s Day promo” anymore. You need to know which dad (or mom!) responded to that offer, what they bought, and who they brought in with them.   The ability (either directly or through your credit card processor) to access payment data in order to identify individual guests when they return. This data set is essential – it’s the lifeblood of ecommerce. Fortunately, the ecommerce players have pioneered safe, secure ways to get at data without compromising PCI safeguards.   A guest-centric data warehouse to store all the key data sets — check level POS data, payment data, marketing data, loyalty program data if available, reservations, online ordering, guest responses, and third party data such as Prizm or Mosaic.   An analytics layer. The requirements here go way beyond static or standardized reporting. Marketing needs to be able to cut data in an ever-changing variety of ways to identify key patterns and segments.   Marketing, in turn, must partner with IT on determining goals. What is the restaurant trying to accomplish and what can be left out? Take joint meetings with IT to look at vendors to help give a sense of what’s possible. But then let IT do their job. Next, build the business case. Moving to a data driven marketing strategy will require shifting budget from other media, or finding new budget dollars. Determine appropriate metrics and the desired payoff. Setting up high level, high visibility “report cards” is critical. For example, “Our 2015 goal is to grow the annual spend of our top three customer groups by 4%, thereby delivering $17.5M of incremental sales.” That will get the CFO’s attention and the goal is doable. Finally, design and execute the marketing plan. That will likely require a trained data and analytics expert, and/or a close partnership with a company that analyzes data 24/7. Either way, it’s important to not over-reach in the beginning. Year one is about becoming familiar with the data, drawing insights, and learning a new language—segments, deciles, annual spend, customer acquisition costs, and lifetime value. The good news is there is usually a great deal of quick wins, such as offer optimization.     Introducing data-driven marketing may seem like a daunting task, but the ability to predictably drive sales should incent even the most cautious. The benefits of bringing an early mover are huge. These restaurants will have more data to work with two to three years out. More data, gathered over a longer period of time, becomes its own competitive advantage. Just ask Amazon.

Keep Communicating With Your Guests

consistent social media updates

establish a connection

Artificial intelligence software that makes restaurant forecasting more accurate and less time-consuming. 

From employee scheduling and cutting down on food waste to projecting sales and planning promotions, the benefits of AI are numerous. Ultimately, it helps you minimize labor and food costs and maximize profits. 

sales forecasting is a set of processes that restaurants use to project their future sales. For many restaurants, this means looking at the previous year’s sales reports for a specific timeframe and using that as a benchmark for the current year’s sales over the same timeframe

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Be on the channels that matter - Instagram, Facebook and Twitter will be the most beneficial. Don't spread yourself thin by being on social platforms that will have little or no impact.

Post social coupons - Whether it's for food or rooms, these coupons and promo codes should be exclusive only to your channel's followers. If customers want a discount, they have to follow your page.

properties that work with Online Travel Agents (OTAs) perform significantly better financially than those that do not, with commissions being more than compensated for by the increased revenues, resulting in higher bottom-line profits

However, in reality, many hotels still have a (perhaps historic) negative opinion of OTAs

the commission levels reaching 25%, sometimes even 30%, that was steep. The current situation is more within the 15-20% range