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This article focuses on how the Santa Ana Star Casino utilized technology and software installations to manage their uniform inventory and tracking procedures. The Santa Ana Star Casino has a staff of 500 employees, and utilizes an inventory of over 9,000 uniforms. Having such an abundance of uniforms and employees, in order to prevent loss and reduce purchases, the InvoTech Uniform System allows the company to properly and efficiently track which employee has checked out which uniforms and how many, so that they can assess which uniforms, sizes, and par stock is on hand at the time. According to an employee from Santa Ana Star Casino regarding the use of the InvoTech Uniform System, "We automatically track who each garment is assigned to. This streamlines accountability and helps cut replacement purchase costs." Santa Ana Star Casino created a uniform room around the concept of InvoTech, and utilizes a staff of three people to manage the uniform room, and has seen dramatic decreases in labor costs and losses due to uniforms going unaccounted for. The technology provided by this system allows the casino to automatically track who each uniform is assigned to, and maintains records for each employee. According to the vice president of InvoTech Systems, "Most businesses that install InvoTech's Uniform System realize at least a 20 percent reduction in labor costs. Clients also report they have 100-percent protection against non-theft related losses because of the system's comprehensive tracking of each uniform article." I feel that this system is only a glimpse into our future - the future of technology changing the way operations in hospitality establishments are currently running. Eventually systems similar to the one in this article will be implemented in all aspects of the industry, replacing the need for excessive staff members and high payroll costs. Technology and software such as this not only decreases payroll costs, and reduces operating cost

The "Going Green" trend has been a true blessing since it's marketability took birth several years ago. Many industries are taking advantage of this technological and ecological trend. There has never been a better time than now to turn our business ethics into the direction of a better world. Basic utility expenses at any hotel or business can sometimes make or break their existence. Technology today has given us the tools to give back to both our beautiful Earth and our bottom dollar. Luxury brands and all the like are implementing new green policies and technologies that will cut costs and even beautiful their environments. By the end of 2015 The Intercontinental Hotels Group plans on equipping over 4,000 of their hotels with a system that monitors and assists in energy use and conservation. They have a goal of reducing their overall water use by 12% in California in part due to the severe ongoing drought. The Loews in Santa Monica Beach is investing $96,000 in a laundry-water recycling system. It will recycle nearly 70% of water use and pay for itself in less than 2 years. Apart from it's ability to cut-costs and truly give back to the environment, "going green" is highly marketable. One of the Intercontinental's General Managers was quoted saying "It's not a huge savings. I think it's about sending the right message." I have personally seen many RFPs from large corporate companies that request green-initiatives from hotels. Improving sustainability is important to the customer and the establishment. Around 60% of travelers consider green initiatives when selecting a destination and activity. Of those 60%, over half said they would even pay more to stay at an establishment that respected and helped improve the environment. In a world where we are fortunate enough to live in excess should we choose to, it's a shame it took this long for a global movement to "go green". Sustainability alone has built such a giant indu

This article talks about how the Santa Barbara Police Department uses Predictive Policing to help fight crime. Professor Cilli mentioned this in class the other day and it really caught my attention. It blew my mind how technology is so advanced that things like this can happen for the better of our country, and our citizens!  What the article talks about is how the Santa Barbara PD needed to make some budget cuts, and could not afford to hire more officers, so they decided a non traditional approach to fight crime, and that was the use of technology to predict crime in certain areas, this is known as Predictive Policing. What happens with this is basically old crimes are inputted into a database with all the details and information, and this piece of technology predicts when and where the next crimes similar to the older ones will happen again. This is all based on previous historical patterns of course, and the predictions obviously have their faults.

With the demand for sustainability initiatives by consumers, hotel are having to make major changes in order to oblige. Sustainability has become a major concern for many consumers and businesses have taken notice. As a result, major hotel chains across country have begun to put in order plans to make changes to their daily operations. As noted in the article by L.A. Times, changes have been made to features such as water usage, machinery operations and even landscaping design . These changes and updates are in the hopes to attract a wider consumer market which now includes Eco-friendly travelers.

The LA Times article, "More hotels are going green, and not just to save water or money" highlights how an "earth-friendly image" is important to many corporate travel managers. Research suggests that having an environmentally friendly hotel not only aids in decreasing operational cost and avoiding city or county fines but may also be a way to differentiate a firm's brand and compete more effectively in the market. With travelers specifically seeking out eco-friendly choices and demonstrating a willingness to pay extra to accommodate a hotels ability to provide these services; going green could be a strategic solution implemented in a manner that allows for increasing market share while reducing operational cost.

Good Afternoon, It good to see hotels are being proactive about being environmentally friendly. It also great they mentioned that corporate travelers are looking for Eco-friendly hotels. I know a lot of companies require corporate travelers to seek out hotels that meet certain green levels and along with there corporate rates. Hotels are demonstrating that they are willing to invest in green technology not only for money but because it the right thing to.

this is a good article that goes over some trend changes in events, such as the Super Bowl, with regards to green initiatives. the Super Bowl committee developed a list of programs to make the event more sustainable; donating carbon credits, recycling, free bike programs, and more. I specially found it interesting that they recycled all the promotional material by collecting it and making it into other consumer products such as bags and wallets. I've always wondered why events as big as this one dont have recycling programs for the incredible amounts of wasted promotional items. When you think about it, not only does this help reduce waste but also helps generate some revenue from the products that are eventually sold. The article also shows that this trend seems to be happening at all levels from the committees, to the teams, and even the consumers! 

Aptech Computer Systems, Inc., the leading provider of hospitality software for business intelligence and enterprise financial accounting, announced about four new hotel companies who have selected their hospitality solutions to improve their business intelligence, budgeting and forecasting, and accounting. M&R Hospitality Management in New York and San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara, CA, are among the companies implementing Aptech's financial solutions. Excuvue is a web based hospitality Business Intelligence application which gathers and coordinates data from different hotel systems, including the Smith Travel Research report. This system can convert written online ratings, comments, and the guest satisfaction ratings into metrics. This basically helps in optimizing the revenues as they can match up with the customer's idea and with their current daily performance and also with their competitors. It is very essential to bring about changes in the department where your competitor is excelling at. This sort of information can help them make quick changes for profitability and customer satisfaction. The interesting part is that companies are looking outside to leverage financial solutions in order to better manage their standards and keep up the pace. and many more hotel companies are implementing this to streamline their back office processes.

This article focuses on how hotel companies are implementing a new system that has been introduced to simplify financial accounting. Aptech Computer Systems claims to be a leading provider of such software, allowing companies to improve their budgeting, forecasting, and accounting. Many hotel companies utilize Quickbooks to effectively manage their budgeting and forecasting needs, along with their accounting needs, and as these companies grow, they need a better solution to effectively manage these aspects. Companies with multiple properties need a system that can manage data from all of their different sources, and combine them to strategically analyze their profits, revenues, and their losses, as well as to make budgeting decisions and forecasts. Execuvue, a web based business intelligence application created by Aptech, combines data from a large variety of hotel systems, such as STR data, which is extremely valuable in assessing where each hotel stands in its competitive set, and how much of its market share that it is currently obtaining. The system also provides insight to operators as to recommended actions for the hotel to take with the data that is collected. The system also measures online ratings, comment card details and other guest satisfaction measurements, enabling hotel operators to utilize guest satisfaction ratings along with their profit standpoints and their current financials. This system seems to be a valuable resource in today's economy, and with the evolving technology. It allows users to utilize data from all sorts of sources to make decisions and assessments. Any operator or manager knows that seeing data quickly and efficiently, where the answer is simply laid out in front of you so that you do not have to seek information from multiple sources and then compare it with the other sources, allows you to make informed decisions much more quickly and be much more assured with your choices. It also enables those operators to find ways to opt

This article discusses "Hotel Computer Networks". The author keeps information brief but informative.Highlights include, explaining the point of a computer network and how such communication is made possible. "Hotel Computer Networks are used to: Facilitate communique via electronic mail, video conferencing, immediate messaging, etc." The article concludes by highlighting the various varieties of computer network's used in hotels i.e. Local Area Networks, Personal Area Networks and Campus Networks.