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CEOs of companies struggle with the decision of investing more in IT rather than in advertising or research/development tools. When and if investing in IT the question would be what kind of projects should have the focus. Recent studies have helped determine that since 1995 there has been significant positive profitability in IT investments. This research indicated that IT investments have a larger profit impact than spending money on advertising. IT investments are creative and use new technology that may help attract new consumers. Some IT projects however work better than others. They can be used to support sales by customer satisfaction and customer retention strategies. As more companies invest in IT investments, profitability increases due to competition. In conclusion business owners should focus on IT projects that will have potential growth in revenue over projects that only focus on cost savings.

Sam Colt wrote an article for Business Insider titled Tablets Are Making Waiters Obsolete - An Chilli's Is Leading The Way. This article bothered me a bit, because knowing what I know about Hospitality we build our brand around customer service and customer satisfaction and how can we do that if we are eliminating the person to person interaction. In his article Colt mentioned Chili's "has recently introduced tablets in dining rooms nationwide that customers can use to place orders, browse the menu, and entertain otherwise noisy children". I understand the thought behind keeping your guests entertain while they wait for service; however, I believe it should be just that, entertainment not self-service. Dine in restaurants should not be treated like a fast food restaurant and guests should expect a reasonable wait time. Having that person to person interaction makes a dining experience more enjoyable. E la Carte co-founder and CEO Rajat Suri argued "if someone does not want to spend time with a server, they're going to ignore the server anyways." My thoughts are why would you dine in a restaurant if you do not want to be severed, why not go to a fast food restaurant. Chili's states the tablets are solely for increasing customer satisfaction and increase revenue and suggests the tablets are making the life of waiters better.

This is a very interesting article related to how employees interact with one another. Industry leaders such as Russell Brumfield, CEO of Wizard Studios Global Events, are using gadgets and apps to improve team building with employees on a constant basis, even when the individuals can not be in the same place at the same time. By using this technology, they believe that the process of bonding and learning becomes more interactive and therefore more fun. The article mentions that the addition of these technologies are especially beneficial in motivating "jaded employees." As Ian Fraser mentions, the game element of these apps is attractive to modern day employees; it just makes sense to integrate a technology that everyone is already craving in their daily lives. It is also mentioned the advantages of being able to connect massive amounts of people simultaneously. Lastly, the article touches upon the fact that these technologies are not meant to replace face to face interactions; instead, this is meant to improve upon this by extending the ability to interact and therefore continuously develop teambuilding.

The equipment we use in technology such as out computer is not a determent of what prices we pay. Orbitz is showing mac users higher prices on hotels simply because they use a mac instead of a PC. The CEO states thats not a fact but facts prove that mac users are 40 % most likely to book a 4 or 5 star hotel. The engineers from Orbitz are experimenting with predicting what the consumer will search for and not giving mac users a higher price on hotel nights. Technology has now become a sterotype is how consumers are feeling by the futy posted in twitter. At the end of the day the consumer can search for different hotels prices and rooms no matter if a mac or pc user.

This article discusses a newly-formed partnership between The Big Salad and WhenToManage. WhenToManage is considered a pioneer for hospitality cloud-based software solutions. The Big Salad formed this partnership with them for their web-based inventory management software. WhenToManage is able to direct its efforts to all of the requirements for The Big Salad, and is designed "to make tedious management tasks simple and accurate". The CEO of The Big Salad anticipates being able to spend more face time with customers and FOH  since he won't have to stay in his office doing work. Yield management of items used in batch recipes/butchering, and analysis of usage trends are just a few customizable options WhenToManage offers. It can even be a complete operations package when coupled with its POS intelligence and employee scheduling software. Since all operational data from each location can be viewed on one dashboard, this software will be a huge aid to companies focusing on integrating and simplifying operations for their franchises.

Revel Systems is an iPad point of sale company that is backed by $3.7 million in funding. The Revel Router is an Apple certified made for iPad technology that allows shops to run their POS through an Apple iPad. The company is selling the device as a package deal which includes an iPad, the routerm peripherals and the POS software. Currently there are 300 locations installed. Revel CEO Lisa Falzone says that a restaurant owner or retail owner doesnt even know when the internet goes out and with the iPad being on either 3G or 4G connectivity this problem will not exist. Also the need for intenret is eliminated due to the iPad. The system isnt really designed for mobility but rather it aims to replace the existing, stationary setups at the point of sale. The starting package is $3,330 and includes an iPad, cash box, printer, credit card swiper, the router, and the software license. The company offers two support pacakges and meail and online ticketing support for $100/month or per terminal fee thats available 24/7. The use of the iPad will make it easier for an establishment that is just starting out. Rather than running wires and installing internet, the use of the iPad will give the same functionality that a regualr touchscreen POS can bring. The amount of downtime due to internet failure is virtually non existent and the cost is at a very affordable price for any restaurant..

Mobile Key Trio with Triple Play Reader is giving hoteliers the ability to upgrade the major electronic-locks on the market while significantly increasing security and creating new service opportunities for hotels and guests," said Pascal Metivier, OpenWays Founder and CEO. "Today, less than 0.05 percent of the 6.5 billion mobile phones on the market are NFC enabled.

This is article speaks to room automation in guest rooms as a means to make hotels more green. Through the INNCOM system, hotels are able to customize the guest's stays by allowing them to adjust the lights and temperature. It also allows hotels to reduce cost as they are able to turn off HVAC units and turn on automatic lights. By allowing hotels to do this, they can save money on their utilities. With the INNCOM system, hotels also can upload their room collateral which reduces the cost of print for the hotels.

Lee Nazari is the CEO and founder of a payment solutions company in the UK. He provides his thoughts on the tendency for British hospitality merchants to be slower at adopting modern technologies, particularly in the point-of-sale category. Nazari exalts the power of beacon-based advertising and marketing tied to these technological solutions. He illustrates a scenario in which even a micro-business can affordably increase visibility in the marketplace and, consequently, foot traffic and revenues. In particular, Mr. Nazari describes the shifting expectation of consumers to integrate convenient, highly visible technological solutions into hospitality interactions and implores British operators to move past their concerns regarding the initial investment in the technology for the sake of their long-term success. He warns that operations that fail to "fall in line with consumer expectations" will "be left behind".

In the span of just one week last year, a Russian airplane carrying tourists crashed with ISIS taking credit, 130 people were killed in Paris, and gunmen took hostages at a Mali hotel that ended with dozens of people dead. And the State Department has a worldwide travel alert issued until late February 2016.

The ATRIO is a platform that would make big changes in the hospitality industry. ATRIO will be installed at the boutique Hotel Diva of Personality Hotels which will make a competitive advantage among its competitors. "The ATRIO platform represents the most significant technology development to occur in the global hospitality industry in the last 25 years." By implementing ATRIO to the property it is assumed that the service and financial goals will exceed expectations. Larry Hall, President & CEO of PAR Springer-Miller states "We look forward to the world coming to know Personality Hotels as an operator of some of the finest lifestyle properties in the world and the launch client for ATRIO, the platform that moved an industry." ATRIO will follow cloud computing which will bring significant financial benefit to Personality Hotels "Deploying ATRIO in the cloud helped reduce our implementation costs considerably," said Lembi-Detert President & CEO of Personality Hotels.

This article is a comprehensive analysis of the problems existing in E-Commerce from the perspective of a CEO in New York. According to Kim, a lot of bad behaviors in offline commerce translate to online. Identifying those problems, he asserted, is the first step toward developing solutions. There are mainly four problems in E-commerce including pushy sales, No-service Sales, No Data, Wrong Data. He suggests four solutions to solve these problem. At first, they remind that not all consumers should be treated the same. The simplest ,most effective way is segementation, dividing customers into several groups. Moreover,he mentioned that merchant should offer different product to people of their own targeted values. The other two solutions are listen and serve, one chance.That means the merchant should be patient enough to let customer tells them what they want and provide updated activities to the customers on time.

Recent years, in China, hotel industry has a fast growth. Especially the Olympic Games and The World Expo were hold in China. For lots of high standard hotel, the WIFI internet access becomes necessary. China has been one of the fastest developing markets for many Wi-Fi firms, Ruckus is one of them. The Asia-Pacific region is the fastest growth region and China business is the fastest-growing part in the region. Globally, Wi-Fi technology is one of the few industries that could maintain a 20 percent increase over the years when the world economy is encountering a downturn. The global market scale for Wi-Fi networking providers is about $3 billion this year and it could reach $5 billion by 2015, the CEO of Ruckus estimated. For the China market and the problems of hotel, Ruckus published the high-speed Wi-Fi wall switch technology. This new technology redefines the deployment model and cost structure for hotels looking to converge their wired and wireless networks into a single infrastructure capable of reliably connecting a new world of in-room IP-based devices and services. Meanwhile, the rapid-growing hospitality industry in China is likely to become another gold mine for Wi-Fi providers. Ruckus wants to grasp this opportunity.

Great article about the use of Siri, Apple's voice activated virtual assistant, and the use of voice activated travel search. The video demonstrated by the CEO of Bonvoy Group travel demonstrates voice activated flight status searches as well as searching of future flights to which the Bonvoy systems emails you the results based on your search. The potential for voice activated flight is enormous and it will be interesting to see if other travel OTA sites such as Travelocity, Hotels.com, Orbitz etc, adopt similar uses of this technology. I can see the use of this on hotel booking sites either via thrid party as well as direct through the hotel. Also sites like Open Table make use of Siri for voice activated reservation. With Siri still in its "beta" phase, the opportunity for developers and the travel industry to build apps like these is very good.

I posted this article on Scoop.It. This is more evidence of the push towards mobile computing. It begs the question, when will we begin to see this adversely effect PC sales?

This article describes how a new company, HotelTonight, is attacking the market of spontaneous travelers. The company made an app for iPhone an Android users that sends "Impulse Rates" to users who have the app. Impulse Rates are heavily discounted rates on hotel rooms offered by hotels through HotelTonight for rooms that have been unsold that day. If users like the offer, they can book the room through the app in eight seconds with only three clicks.  There is also a little interview with HotelTonight CEO, Sam Shank in which he answers questions about how the company runs.  I think this is a great idea for company. It helps everyone involved - hotels increase revenue by selling rooms that otherwise would have been empty, consumers get great deals on rooms, and HotelTonight profits off of a nominal fee for processing the transactions. This is similar to the Ding! app from Southwest airlines but designed solely for mobile devices. 

Here is a link to the company's website. I don't have the app but it looks like it would be pretty easy to use. http://www.hoteltonight.com/

A great idea. Truly a win-win for all. I'm glad that they are finding the impulse rates are not affecting the amount of regular booking guests. I would like to try this myself and live life to the fullest.

Highlights of the article: REPORT FROM THE U.S.-After the initial jubilation over an online distribution channel with commissions around 10% wore off, hoteliers are now beginning to ask tough questions about how Roomkey.com will be marketed to compete with existing third-party sites. My descriptions: President and CEO at Hospitality eBusiness Strategies stress the importance of Room Key. He mentioned how large Room Key can cover and spread to the market. He and other members of the management team found the strategy of eBusiness is cost-saving.Emarketing can help their company cut half of the marketing budget. Hilton and Marriott international hospitality management company have already joined Room Key.And because franchisers have increase franchisers fees about advertisement, more and more hotel join Room Key.

There are concerns about how Room Key will gain a stable consumer base ".. the average consumer-how do they even learn about Room Key?" However it is clear that Room Key will be more accurate and reliable when consumers search through rates for participating hotels. Room Key has been created to offer "one last shot to convince the consumer." However, there are some hotel franchiser's that will not continue backing this project.

Highlights of the article: REPORT FROM THE U.S.-After the initial jubilation over an online distribution channel with commissions around 10% wore off, hoteliers are now beginning to ask tough questions about how Roomkey.com will be marketed to compete with existing third-party sites. My descriptions: President and CEO at Hospitality eBusiness Strategies stress the importance of Room Key. He mentioned how large Room Key can cover and spread to the market. He and other members of the management team found the strategy of eBusiness is cost-saving.Emarketing can help their company cut half of the marketing budget. Hilton and Marriott international hospitality management company have already joined Room Key.And because franchisers have increase franchisers fees about advertisement, more and more hotel join Room Key.

The termination of South Carolina Hospitality Association's director of accounting and membership, Rachel Duncan, is the latest development in the Tom Sponseller suicide investigation. CEO Tom Sponseller, leader of the South Carolina Hospitality Association for the past twenty years, was found dead last Tuesday in the company's parking garage after a suicide note was found in his office desk. Although the Feds have been conducting an ongoing investigation into the agency's finances, Sponseller was not their person of interest. The hundreds of thousands of dollars missing from the South Carolina Hospitality Association is tied instead to Rachel Duncan, the agency's former director of accounting. An outside audit of the association's finances is still being conducted however there are several sources of money embezzling being brought forth. Who is to say this tragedy may have been avoided if the Hospitality Association had outside parties conducting internal audits on a regular basis, but it would most definitely have shed light on the situation sooner.

Focusing on new trends, POS systems are being brought out and introduced in the new addition of IPAD. This new system called Revel hopes to be the go-to Ipad powered comprehensive POS system for restaurants. Revel systems can be used for payroll, inventory tracking, web ordering and email receipts. Lisa Falzone is the co founder and CEO of Revel System expressed how this new system is going after chains and restaurants that obtain at least $500,000 in yearly revenue. Launched in August 2011 Revel is seeing around $80 million in business processing with major brands and franchises ex: Freshberry frozen yogurt café, Rexs chicker, Dixie cream etc. This new trend with IPAD POS system is a great idea and a fantastic way to be more efficient. Usually POS systems are these screens that are not movable it mainly resides on one specific location while these ipads could be more convenient and mobile. This may help to bring out a better and faster customer satisfaction.

Revel Systems hopes to be the new POS platform for restaurants. This iPad works like a cash register, it can be customized for payroll, inventory tracking, web ordering, email receipts and more.The Revel system is going after chains and restaurants that have at least $500,000 in yearly revenue.

I had a doctor visit this past week and the office could barely function because their servers were down. If down systems can cause this much turmoil in a doctor's office where people expect to wait, imagine the trouble in a busy restaurant. The system sounds great, but there would need to be a back-up system or procedure in place. There are risks of a system crash, so why not have a more traditional processing system available if it is needed? The benefits of cyber storage can be considerable and likely down the road more safeguards will be in place to hedge against the negative effects of a system crash. This is definetely a technology worth researching (if your business is big enough to sustain it).

This article is about innRoad a New York based company that specializes in delivering SaaS and web based PMS and software solutions specifically targeted at independent hotels. The article mentions how the company just received almost $6 Million dollars to invest in expanding and and building their sales team. The CEO of the company brings up an interesting point about brands, and mentions that its becoming less and less about he size or name of the brand but rather how your peers and others rate their experience in a particular hotel. This will provide leverage for smaller independent hotels to gain popularity and grow. InnRoad's software is doing big things to help its clients better connect with customers and manage their properties.