The biggest benefit that we can get from HRIS is the productivity. All the tasks that HR department is doing can be done by pen and paper and it has been using for past years. However, companies including hotels now want to run HR department more efficiently. This program help to reduce labor cost but improve communication with employees. On top of this benefits, it has much more advantages. However, there are still small hotels not using this program because of their financial budget. Once again, it is not a mandatory program as PMS but it is necessity.

Len Gauger is the founder of Message Blocks. Since he was younger, event planning was a big part of his job. He usually managed about twenty events per year. He learned a lot from his past mistakes: the more people involved in the planning process, the more chaotic it became. He saw a market for a software that would allow organizers to coordinate all planning documents in one place online, with the capacity to collect registrations, edit conference agendas, and incorporate real-time reporting all managed via a smartphone app. This is a very good example of using technology in the event industry. Instead of waiting until the morning to get hold of event planner, it is easy to communicate with the company 24/7 online.

Proximity marketing is the localized wireless distribution of advertising content associated with a particular place. It is now becoming one of the most popular marketing tools in any industry especially in hospitality. Marketing people from hotel industry were looking for new marketing tools past few years. Instead of sending out promotion mails or emails, they need to have better ideas. What they realized is that wish an increase in the use of mobile devices, hotels can communicate and provide better service with guest cell phone. They also realized guests usually watch TV, while they are waiting to be C/I. So hotel is now providing offers while guests are in line. It is a Win-Win situation. The way to find communication is now the key of marketing. Proximity Marketing is a type of eMarketing that will help to communicate with guests with low cost.

The hotel is a perfect place for hackers to attack because they have easy access to retrieve thousands of guest information including credit card information, billing addresses, and much more personal information. Nicholas Percoco, senior vice president of Trustwave's SpiderLabs, mentioned that the credit card and debit card information is the most in demand by hackers because it is easiest to turn into cash quickly. There are three main steps in a typical data breach and how attackers mostly operate at each level: initial entry, data harvesting, and exfiltration. Close to half of these attacks occur via remote access applications, of which 90 percent exploit default or weak passwords. Around 42 percent of attacks occurred via third-party connections; 6 percent via SQL injection; 4 percent via exposed services; and 2 percent via remote file inclusion attacks. Interestingly, less than 1 percent began with an email Trojan. As an IT manager of the hotel, it is crucial to recognize how serious the consequences are for the hotel should the data not be protected well. 

According to an Economist Intelligence Unit survey, the survey of more than 1,000 SMEs included businesses from the developed economies of France, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the United States. 53 percent of those in developed markets said growth were a top business priority. Effective use of technology was seen as a key priority in achieving growth, and according to respondents, the three main internal obstacles to growth were finding and keeping new customers, hiring and retaining people with the right skills and operating the business efficiently. When it comes to technology, becoming more efficient and using IT more effectively over the next year is among the top three priorities of those surveyed, with 46 percent saying using technology more effectively was a top business priority. The hotel industry usually does not invest enough to grow compared to other industries. I believe it is because they consider being a technological leader in this industry does not bring more profit than they invest. Investing on technology might not bring instant profits but it can be one of ways to become a top business priority.

Financial controllers are the one who has clear ideas about their budget in Hotels. Their job is to monitor cash flows, plan how to save, and follow up. However, it doesn't seem like there is anyone who has budget responsibility in engineering department. It sounds very odd but it is true that hotel should have someone who knows where we can save from and invest to in engineering department. On top of that they are still using Excel spreadsheet to handle on the financials, while advanced accounting software is widely used in every other department. Here is the why hotel should have someone who has knowledge about both financial and engineering. There are many expenses can be controlled in engineering department such as A/C, heater, elevators, and so on. For example, air-conditioning is responsible for almost 60% of a hotel's electricity bill and significant cost savings can be released by installing simple energy saving chiller devices, or by optimizing cooling tower performance. Instead of only fixing broken items, it is also helpful to think about which area can be improved and saved. Engineering department simply can adopt advanced accounting system to control staffing and budgeting at the same time instead of relying on financial department.

Many restaurants use their POS as their basic needs. They probably did not realize what other functions the POS has. This article introduces 3 ways to save cost by using the POS. First, it helps keep track of inventory management. It will track the products from the beginning of the day until you close. It prevents from theft and keeps track of the proper timing to order products when running low. New employees may not be trained enough to charge the proper amount of discount or daily specials meals. Instead of relying on employees to input the correct price, you can utilize your system to input the correct calculations for them. At the end of the day, you are not going to experience money being short. Third, it also helps to manage time and attendance for the employees. It is easy to lose track of your employees' attendance especially in the early morning or late night shifts. To avoid employee time theft, it is possible to set up the time and attendance software in your POS. In conclusion, the POS system does more than what people think. The POS is being underestimated and it is a good idea to take an advantage of the system to save your cost instead of setting up systems that cost much more money than this.

This article is about partnership between FAMA tech and PAR Springer-Miller Systems. It is explaining the advantages of partnership between two different IT companies. FAMA Technologies is an Information Technology Company based in Saudi Arabia. This company provides Software, Infrastructure and Consulting Services to the Hospitality, Leisure, Retail and Public Sectors. PAR Springer-Miller Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of hospitality management solutions in different types of hospitality enterprises worldwide. Hotels and Spas in Saudi Arabia are managing with the increase sophistication of their client base and thus need to equip themselves with the best tools. They require software and hardware that make their operations efficient which means reduce check in time and increase customer responsiveness. They are looking forward to grow service market in the region and maximize the service advantages of partnership.

Marriott Corporation set up an eco friendly program, which is called LEED volume program. Towneplace Suites is the main leader of this program and they created it because of they would like to teach and tell about what it really means to be social responsible. The goal of the program is to provide a pre-certified hotel design as green hotels. More than $100,000 can be saved per project and company will do all the work with owners pre-opening and post-opening. They usually focus on lighting and towel. They prefer to use motion sensors rather than regular light bulb and try not to change sheets and towels too often. They are some hotels trying to be green hotels but it is very rare that big corporation hotels try to be the one and lead industry. I believe it will bring positive effects to whole tourism and hospitality industry.

QR codes usually contain the information of its items. Before the customers purchase the items, they can simply scan the code to find out the details of it. The city of Costa del Sol in Spain used this technology to their benefit for their tourism industry. These QR codes are placed in different locations around the region and tourists  can simply use their smartphone to scan them. The positive side of this technology is that it is inexpensive and easy to generate compared to the traditional sign. On the other hand, there is a possibility that tourists might not have smartphone or internet access. If that is the case, each location needs to provide both QR codes and the traditional sign which makes generating QR codes meaningless. I believe that this technology will become very popular especially in certain countries that already provide wide internet connection.  

According to Meru Networks Inc, US wireless network provider, a wireless network market in the Asia Pacific region, especially Chinese, will be doubled in the next few years. The rapidly growing hospitality industry in China is part of the reason why the wireless network market has a need to grow. There are 651 five-star luxury hotels in the country as of now and 500 luxury hotels are waiting to be opened in the near future.  What we need to focus on are the customers who go to these luxury hotels. Nowadays, Wi-Fi is not just one of services that the guest enjoys. It is a part of life and a necessity. Providing high quality Wi-Fi service is a big portion of showing the quality of hotel. Therefore hotels strive to have a system that could offer the most reliable product with the lowest price.