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With cloud computing such a big hit in all levels and industries, restaurants are also shifting their approach from more customer service, less techonology investment to vice versa. This article summarized the upcoming trends, features in demand and purchsing plans for POS in 2013.

Hotel operators are looking to better POS system which can positively impact the customer experience, increasing hotels innovation and investment. There are two trends of 2013 POS: more platform innovations, and overall purchasing plans. For the suppliers, they will make some forms of mobile-ready solution of POS. The new technology of cloud-based POS is also being brought to market. What is more, tablet hardware, social media will be integrated into the POS. POS Features in Demand In HT's survey, we know that most restaurants desire for more advanced POS technology. And online ordering is the number-one to be upgraded in the next year for them. They also Interest in mobile phones for ordering and payment. Cloud computing has a biggest jump, which is desired by 36.2% of restaurants. For the POS Purchasing Plans, most operators need add new functionality, features or modules to current POS software. More restaurants are investing in POS technology. A third of all restaurants are in a "testing and research" phase for POS upgrades. There are many specific Predictions and Plans in different companies, for example, integrating mobile applications into POS, more interactive options, simpler points of contacts, online ordering for mobile devices, Apps accessible from any phone at any time, personalization, recognition, rewards and outstanding, etc.

This article analyzed what POS can bring to nowadays' hospitality industry and forecast the future trend. Any technology investment should be a balancing act. All the hotels should make specific forecast and plans about their designing about their POS.

HP has released two new POS systems, which can be found in Australia. The two systems released are: HP RP3 Retail System, Model 3100, and the HP RP7 7100, Model 7100. One system can be used in higher temperatures up to 40 degrees Celsius. This enables it to be placed outdoors, in a building with no air conditioning, at a serving counter, or closer to a kitchen. The RP3 model can be placed under a counter or above a cash drawer. This particular model does not need external cooling and is geared towards hotter locations. The RP7 can be wall mounted if there is no counter space. It is also dust, splash, and smoke resistant. The ability to not have to worry about external cooling for the one system is extremely important. Even today some technology can become overheated and malfunction. With the ability to place the one POS system outdoors or near a kitchen is a great convenience. This would help business owners not having to worry about temperatures or where the POS system is located. The POS system can be in 40 degree Celsius temperature (104 degrees Fahrenheit). I especially feel this would be useful in South Florida where it can be warm and muggy outdoors. Also on the RP7 system I found the splash resistant feature to be useful, especially for a bar where drinks can easily be splashed. Both systems I feel have some advantages in the POS world.

POS is common in today's restautant operation since of its powerful function and wide approach. Thus, most properties have installed a matural POS for their daily operation. On the other, smartphone or tablet is a trend in recent years because of its convenient and fashionable. For this reason, how to combine these two innovative products has become a new task for retailers who are eager to improve their performance. Some POS service companes have offered some new products to the market whcih can give their clients an absolutely different style of service providing. All of these products have similar advantages like more accesibility, more storage, and more spreading. So we can make a positive forecast that this combination will be more and more demanding in the future.

Consumers and hoteliers are focusing more on green technology since global warming, water shortage and other environmental problems are becoming serious. Some surveys revealed that more consumers would like to choose sustainable hotels even they have to pay more for that. Additionally, some hoteliers would budget more on green technologies, such as wireless controllers, new lightening and air conditioning system, etc. Although some eco-friendly technologies may cost more, hoteliers have to think about their social responsibility and long-term development. Considering the above factors, hoteliers should introduce green technology as a foreseeable choice.

More and more people are deciding their hotel accomodations based on how eco-friendly they are. This is forcing hoteliers to make changes to their hotels so they can be competitive with the other green hotels.

Point of sales systems are a business main tool for processing transactions. There are so many different software that business are using around the world. In the top ten reviews of 2017 some of the best POS systems will include new software updates. These system updates will be easy to set up and wont cost the business a fortune. The POS system in this years line up will be all formatted to suit a general retail business. With the exception that some businesses have specialized POS solutions for example restaurants POS systems have options to manage tables and deliver complicated orders to the back of house. Then you have retail systems that are equipped with the tools to help owners keep up with inventory. It's not easy ranking the best POS systems they are all compared by their choice of credit card processors since finding credit processors is the most difficult thing a business owner will make.

POS systems are very individualized and the businesses need to be careful to select the best one for their needs. It is such a large investment that making the wrong choice could have big consequences. It is best to choose the one with the most features for reporting, user support, and ease of use/programming.

An Event planner has an interesting, fun and time consuming Job. The main tasks of event planners are to coordinate and manage conferences, meetings and parties. Some planners work exclusively organizing a specific type of event, such as those who specialize in wedding planning. Others may work with large corporate clients or smaller private groups. Many planners run their own businesses, while others may work for event planning agencies. Due to the nature of the work, many planners work long and irregular hours. As far as for Education requirements, The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that there are no universal educational requirements needed to start a career as an event planner. Nevertheless, they need a certain set of skills, and one way they may be developed is by completing a bachelor's degree program in hospitality, communications or public relations. Common core classes in these programs include risk management, event coordination and professional ethics. Some programs allow students to specialize their education through courses specifically intended for wedding planning while other programs may feature courses for students interested in careers organizing sports and entertainment events. Furthermore, it is very important that event planners have phenomenal communication and organizational skills.

This article introduces the requirements to be an event planner. For the education requirement, although the BLS reported that an event planner does not need the universal education, event planner needs some skills from the bachelor's degree program. As a professional event planner, they should get many skills from the special program in the hospitality university. On the other hand, event planner should at good at communication. As they always communicate with clients that need good ability of oral and writing. And the event planner should have excellent organization skills to handle different clients simultaneously. In addition, more experiences the event planner have that will attract more clients or events.

This article discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of technology in the field of human resources. An advantage is that it speeds up the process of employee training and adds to the useful HRIS. It also adds to the organizational factor to play. As far as disadvantages since some of the technology is new to this area and has caused some questioning of these tools by employees who are use to doing their work a certain way.

This article talks about the new technology that helps to improve HR efficiency. Several strategies with technologies can make big changes. It also can save time and is a precious commodity for senior executives. However, there are also risks in these technologies. 

Running a hotel in the cloud is a very new technology and most of the hotels are still in the trying process. There are pros and cons of running a hotel in the cloud, the atticle has solved most of our concerns about the problems that be occured when running a hotel in the cloud. However the temptation of the cost will be the most competive advantages of the cloud based PMS system.

The article clearly cleared up some of the myths in terms of internet connectivity which is a major concern. It is clear that if cloud computing is used as the option then internet redundancy should be utilized as well. It was interesting to note that a major corporation like Hyatt as moved its micros Pos and accounting systems to cloud. This will certainly encourage other hotels to get on board. On the matter of security especially for credit cards, it is good to know that PCI compliance is a must when utilizing cloud computing. Great article.

Nowadays, there are many concerns for hoteliers to adopt the cloud computing PMS system. People are reluctant to use the new technology because of the issues of control, security and connectivity. Hyatt and some benchmark hotels put most of their systems into cloud. Actually, when using the cloud PMS, data is not in the property which decrease the risk of operator. Also, as backups, network disconnection is rarely found. There are many benefits of the cloud, such as low cost, easy to upgrade software. Besides, it also has financial benefits. Many servers replaced the cloud PMS saw ROI within a year.

This article looked at the views on IT investments of Hospitality Technology's Editorial Advisory Board. The Board represents a variety of hospitality industries. The article focused on areas of improvement, emerging technologies, IT priorities for 2012, "wish list" IT investments, and more. Among the areas for improvement, guest Wi-Fi and mobile apps, loss prevention technologies, and social media targeting older clientele topped the list. Older guests connecting to and understanding social media are a worry among many of the Board members as well as lack of standardized, secure payment methods. Many also mention that their current systems (POS in particular) tend to hold them back from implementing new IT technologies because they would not be compatible.  Most Board members listed having mobile devices that could be used for a variety of purposes on the guest end as well as on the business end would be top on their "wish list" for IT implementations. With almost everyone owning smartphones today, I think this would be the smartest and most effective IT implementation to invest in. Many customers and guests are looking for easy and accessible ways of navigating through the hotel and restaurant environments without extensive help from others. Since many people, especially the generation coming up, are more and more attached to their phones and tablets, mobile apps for nearly everything seems like the smart way to go.  Cloud-based servers were a close second in terms of what they wanted in invest in. Many of the Board members pinpointed technologies that have been around but are still new, especially in their respective areas, when speaking of useful emerging technologies. Mobile apps, tablet and 73456

this article gives a great overview of the steps leaders in the Hospitality industry are taking towards new technology. In this article members of the industry were interview regarding weaknesses in the current hospitality market as well as emerging trends that each believe is in rapid increase. Some of the answers give very interesting approach towards technology. Although, overall it seems that the number one emerging technology is the use of cloud-based/mobile-based services.

This article analyzed the performance of TripAdvisor PPC activity in detail, and showed the results of an investigation regarding to hotels' commission level, traffic ranking, and conversion rate, then talked about whether it worth to invest by hotels.  That is useful for hoteliers to work on the ROI, and make right decisions.

This article is about whether to invest in Trip advisor's PPC program. It offers some benefits and correlations between the commission fee and Trip advisor's score. It introduces this program through several aspects, like the cost, the prerequisite. And the program do has some limitations, like the limited expenses control and hotel position preference. But it can provide properties social network, customer satisfaction, word of mouth through this new distribution way.

This article talks about important lessons hotels can use in their website to improve their traffic and amount of sales in the e-commerce world. E-commerce was meant for the hospitality market, nevertheless, it is an extremely competitive industry and there are countless of other hotels haunting for new ways to attract more customers (with the purpose of increasing sales and revenue), and provide an unforgettable guest experience. E-commerce literally forces hotels' websites and other hospitality related businesses to be improved and present the best internet marketing strategies for future customers. Within this article, one can expect different aspects of marketing strategies that can definitely increase the quality of any hotel's web site. These are as follow, focus on the landing page, focus on the content, have a strong call to action, provide live help, include real guest review, and so much more. Feel free to read and analyze the content and use it toward your career.

the website designing is important to the company. There are some important lessons hotel internet marketers can learn from their colleagues in ecommerce. In many ways ecommerce is more competitive than hospitality - with more focus on price and less flexibility to differentiate your offering with an exceptional guest experience. some tips are needed to be pay attention, like the landing pages, content, list and so on. 

Through this article, I learn that the Smart Hotel Software is very useful. It can help you manage the reservations, deposits, check ins, check outs, guest folios, payments, sales, housekeeping, maintenance and yield management, with a strong interface to many popular accounting systems. This software is suitable for independent and boutique hotels, resorts, motels, villas, apartments, hostels, and chartered yachts. For me, I think this software has 3 advantages. First, it will improve the customer service by having guest history at their fingertips, remember guest preferences and improve your guest experience. Second, it can increase the revenue by effectively managing reservations, rooms and rates with powerful Yield Management tools. Third, it will save costs by tying it all together.  Integrated systems: Website Bookings, Central Reservation Systems, Call Accounting Systems, In-room services, Back Office Accounting and more! Nowadays, some software becomes more and more popular in the hospitality industry. I think the manager need choose and use some good software to their hotels. It can make the employees work more efficiently and attract more customers.  

To know who your guests are and what they like is definitely a competitive strategy for hotels. From this article, there're tons of Apps working to assist and improve Customer Relationship Management system. According to what I searched, infusionsoft is very time consuming and team initiative to customize properly. It's hard to make each application perfect but the purpose behind them is clear: to communicate with customers as more as we can. Those Apps make teams spread across large distances (and businesses set in one location) to collaborate on leads, contacts, discussions and other items and make this extremely simple to do. So being able to collaborate on more aspects of your daily operations is much more beneficial to overall sales and customer experiences. Some applications bring collaboration to a few narrow aspects of CRM, some bring collaboration to the center of the app, and regardless if you're managing other aspects of your business through software you will need to find ways to collaborate on that as well. Many companies accomplish this by using a variety of applications, but it absolutely brings integration issues and high monthly bills. So a lot of helpful solutions are center collaboration with a feature-consolidating environment across a variety of aspects of business management software. WORKetc is a business management app that combines CRM, PM, Finances (expenses, invoicing, etc) and help desk software into one - and brings collaboration to all of these aspects. Thus, it's essential to collaborate them wisely instead of combining as more as possible.

ECommerce business has rapidly increased in Chins and it will be a strong incresing point fro Chinese economy. The reasons that drive the development of this new economy pattern in China can be defined in three parts. First, the growing purchasing powe of high-income and mid-class in China has become the most powerful growth strive in China. They have enough money to make their lives more stylish and elegent whcih motivate them to seeking more worldwide brands. Second, some foriegn brands have been aware of this ttrend and begun to spread their business to this fantastic market. An obvious example it that China has become the largest consumer of luxury products although some of the upscale brands have not hully enterd Chinese market. Most of them are planning to grab their own segment strategically in China, which will insentive the development of ECommerce here. Last, online spending will be double increased in the following four years under a positive forecast. It is a more convenient and secure shopping style for young generations. For these reasons, sterting an ECommece business is a good choice for both local entrepreneurs and international corporations.

This article discusses some current trends in property management systems and how Maestro by NORTHWIND is ready to deliver. Maestro by NORTHWIND is a PMS used by many independent hotels and resorts and offers 20 integrated modules. One of the top trends for 2012 is mobile optimization for management and guests. More and more people are turning to mobile apps for personalized services, and express check-in and check-outs. Maestro Xpress Check-In App allows properties to use iPads and other tablets to do this anywhere there is WIFI. Maestro's App will also allow managers access to reports, and real-time activity from anywhere allowing managers more control over their business. Another growing trend is cloud PMS. Maestro has a cloud based system that claims it can increase productivity at the same time reducing costs. Managers can manage multiple hotels from a single location and reduce costs because they won't have to maintain an in-house PMS. There is also a steady increase in direct online booking from mobile apps and social media sites. Maestro Web Connection reduces the commissions paid to online travel agencies and 3rd parties by allowing guests to book reservations directly. Another way Maestro helps independent hotel chains is by offering them a guest loyalty system to help them offer some of the same incentive and reward programs offered by larger hotel chains.

Northwind Maestro leads the innovations of industry. Cloud system platforms are not just for the large chains. Small, independent operators also can use web-enabled platform with lower cost. Mobile is another trend of PMS innovations. Customers can check in and checkout on iPad by using Maestro Mobile Apps. In addition, direct-booking online from Mobile is the third top trend in 2012 PMS technology. Maestro's Guest Loyalty System with online capabilities is the first application to offer independents the same benefits as major chains to recognize, reward, and retain guests.

Seeing the rapid development of mobile devices and social media, hoteliers are connecting PMS with mobile devices and social media. NORTHWIND Maestro™ is a kind of software which satisfies hoteliers' current requirement. NORTHWIND Maestro™ is an Internet-based PMS. It brings plenty of benefits to hotels. To illustrate, Maestro can reduce cost, create operating efficiencies, secure cardholder information, and to have instant remote access to their property or hotel group's data. Furthermore, since more and more people are using mobile devices to book rooms, make dining reservations or some other services, Maestro also develops mobile apps. "The Maestro Mobile App enables operators to wirelessly connect to their Maestro centralized system and provides access to management reports, real-time activity and other features found in Maestro." Maestro also thinks of customer loyalty by tracking customers and establish database.

Technology is part of today's culture. It is almost impossible therefore, to imagine a hotel without some level of technology. If nothing else, even the smallest hotel is likely to have a property management system. Technology increases the efficiency of the staff and enhances the experience of the guest. Technology can be overdone. Cost plays a role in technology, as it does with every management decision. The relative price of technology has been in a downward spiral for many years, however, new products come come onto the market at high initial cost.

Great example of too much of a good thing can be bad. Technology can be a wonderful things, making our lives more effecient and accommodating, however as human we yearn for interaction. Specially in the hotels and restaurants, one the the greatest things I remember as kid was being checked it at a hotel. I felt grand; important that someone knew my name and welcomed me. With today's technology, that is a rare exisitance. I check myself in, swipe my phone to acess my room, order room service from my TV and check out withour ever interacting with a human, lets just say I would prefer the brass keys and red tassels.

Excellent Article...the growth of technological advances in the industry has become very important for the industry. The Food & Wine maganize reports that besides iPod stations, flat TVs and other commonly known electronics; hotels are adding moonpads that allow guest to set-up room privacy settings, book spa treatments, set-up lighting mood and many more...http://travelkit.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/05/07/11411992-high-tech-hotels-add-ease-and-luxury?lite

Social media nowadays becomes a very important role in hospitality industry, and most travelers will search a third party's property reviews like Tripadviser before making their decisions to choose a hotel. You can find either good or bad comments for the hotels around the world from it, and people believe that it has some influence on the travelers' decisions. However, most great hotel groups do not have a website for that use, and Daniel Craig thinks it is because hotel groups not only take care of the customers but also the owners, and as we know hotel group also has franchisers, so if just one unit not operated well, all the other properties will also suffer the reputation issue. But there are also some hotel groups try to do that but with some tricks. Starwood allows the guest to post reviews for some of its brands and list by ratings with the best first, and Marriot set up a new website for its members to post reviews and list by time with oldest first. In my opinion, most hotel groups focus so much on the influence of their brand loyalty, which is also very important, but comparing with the increasing influence of words of mouth that I list below, I strongly agree that those hotel groups need to have a trustful review website for their own ASAP: 1. 90% of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust opinions of unknown users (Econsultancy, July 2009) 2. 83% of all holiday shoppers are influenced by customer reviews. (ChannelAdvisor "Consumer Shopping Habits Survey", August 2010)

This article identified some factors that happening in the market which drives a trend for increased bookings through non-GDS hotels. Business travel buyers are increasingly looking at newer opportunities to cut travel costs. Business travel slowdown imminent, The Global Business Travel Association forecasts that the business travel growth is expected to slow in 2012. And business-travel growth will outpace anticipated GDP growth, despite uncertainties in the economy. Rate negotiation process is getting increasingly tougher With a declining market demand, hotels try hard to remain profitable, and have toughened the rate negotiations with buyers. Many are exploring alternative strategies to generate savings from their hotel programs. Some buyers are considering alternative negotiating strategies to derive savings. Due to the demand for wider range of rates to aid policy compliance, corporates are looking for a better value proposition in using hotel aggregators. Hotel aggregation offers key value proposition The latest versions of HotelHub indicate that hotel aggregation offers a major advantage in corporate hotel reservation process. GDS firms and non-GDS are realizing the gap, and aggregation makes Travel Managers save lot of time and cost in servicing booking requests. This article identified some factors that happening in the market which drives a trend for increased bookings through non-GDS hotels. Business travel buyers are increasingly looking at newer opportunities to cut travel costs. Business travel slowdown imminent, The Global Business Travel Association forecasts that the business travel growth is expected to slow in 2012. And business-travel growth will outpace anticipated GDP growth, despite uncertainties in the economy. Rate negotiation process is getting increasingly tougher With a declining market demand, hotels try hard to remain profitable, and have toughened the rate negotiations with buyers. Many are exploring alternative strategies to gener

In Amazon's last quarter, net income dropped by 57 percent from a year ago. Sales for the three months before December 31 came out to $17.4 billion, lower than Wall Street expected over the traditionally busy holidy season. It is predicted that for the next quarter outlook, there could be anywhere from a gain of $100 million to a loss of $200 million. While Amazon continues to profit in sales of its best selling Kindle devices, there were a variety of factors that contirbuted to its losses. The flooding in Thailand slowed down production for many tech companies. Third-party sellers (which give a 13% commission to Amazon as oppsoed to 100% commission when Amazon sells themselves) were used more than usual. Promotions such as the Amazon Prime program which allows the customer to pay a fixed rate and get umlimited two-day shipping hurt the retailer hard over the busy holiday season with shipping costs. Other reasons were lower demand for skimwords

This article mainly speaks of the positive influences that non-metro cities can have on the income of e-commerce companies. Due to the remoteness of some of these cities, e-commerce is a convenient way for them to purchase some products that would otherwise be unattainable. Although these e-commerce companies see the potential in these smaller cities, they believe that once broadband becomes widely available to the world their sales will increase in all aspects. The convenience of broadband in wide regions would give new locations the potential to buy and sell online.