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It's about time. Our ever-shrinking world is abuzz with activity attempting to address the manmade rise of greenhouse gases. Eco-visionary James Lovelock published a radical idea in Nature to increase ocean uptake of CO2 through giant ocean tubes. New Zealand has kicked off an ambitious plan to get 90% of its energy from renewable sources by 2025. JC Penney, Office Depot and Kohl's have announced green building plans. In May, General Electric said it had doubled sales from environmentally friendly products, to $12 billion over, in two years .

Incident

going green makes good business sense because it cuts costs in many areas.

Many forward-thinking organizations have already developed strategies to incorporate green IT factors into their everyday business decision-making processes. Stretching far beyond just facilities and information technology, leading companies are creating holistic green IT plans that include the Finance, Purchasing, and even Human Resources departments.

Setting up and categorizing events Connecting the event to a webinar or partner system such as Cisco WebEx® or Salesforce.com® campaigns Cloning an event, including emails, forms and landing pages, to minimize configuration for future events Managing event check-ins with our unique iPad app. Analyzing the effectiveness of the event with easy-to-use flexible reports

A Cloud-Based Property Management System Open your doors to the Internet™ with WebRezPro, a powerful and affordable Cloud-based Property Management System. In addition to traditional hotel PMS features such as integrated accounting, GDS connectivity and multiple system interfaces, WebRezPro offers several advantages available only in a Web-based property management system. CLOUD PMS ADVANTAGES Simplicity WebRezPro operates over the Internet, eliminating many of the hassles and costs associated with a traditional PMS. Affordability While traditional hotel management software can cost thousands of dollars to setup and maintain, WebRezPro is available for just $5/month/room (min $60/month) and with minimal upfront costs. Integrated Web Reservations As an integrated and seamless online reservation system, there is no need to allocate separate room inventory for Web bookings. Anywhere Access WebRezPro is accessible to satellite offices and remotely-located personnel. You determine who has access to the PMS and from where. Data Security Your reservation and accounting data is automatically stored (and backed-up) in a secure computer facility complete with redundant Internet connections, 24-hour monitoring and diesel-powered electrical back-up.

"The result allows hotels to complete the process of removing all payment card data from all of their systems, dramatically reducing the cost of PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance," according to the framework's executive summary. "Because hotels have no obligation or reason to tell customers if a breach of useless data occurs, the cost and impact of remediation, and the effect on brand reputation, are minimized."

In addition, according to HTNG, guests' credit card numbers typically are shared with a number of third parties during the booking process. As well, many hotels are independently owned and operated, and these franchisees often lack the technical resources to ensure security and compliance.

Indra’s Travel Management Suite services all the business needs of a hotel chain or management company in one system, hosted in the cloud or on-premise. The system is modular and each module is also available individually as a stand-alone entity.

Minimizing the number of different systems that hoteliers have to deal with onsite and replacing them with a seamless, uniform tool for all of their needs paves the way to higher levels of guest service and much more efficient operations. After all, accessing accurate guest information from all parts of the operation in real time and from a single database is what the lodging industry has been aspiring to for some time, and there’s a strong demand from CIOs to reduce the number of inter-system interfaces they’ve been struggling with for years.

The easy-to-use choiceADVANTAGE solution provides Choice brand franchisees with advanced hotel management functionality, including efficient guest servicing, sophisticated revenue management, complete groups functionality, remote access and full integration with Choice's programs.

"choiceADVANTAGE is an above-property, private cloud based technology solution, purpose built for use on the Internet,

As an above property, Web-based solution, choiceADVANTAGE requires a minimal initial investment for hotel owners. Consequently, there is no need to purchase and maintain costly infrastructure and hardware associated with traditional property management systems. This lower total cost of ownership continues to be of tremendous appeal to prospective Choice franchisees that also benefit from being able to access the system from any computer with Internet access.

Las Vegas Sands is the first global developer of destination properties to offer SnapApp, a self-service enterprise technology that will allow Las Vegas Sands to sell, create and distribute customizable, branded mobile event apps.

Las Vegas Sands expects to roll out its mobile event solution at all of its properties in February 2013.  

With QuickMobile’s self-service SnapApp multi-event platform, Las Vegas Sands staff can quickly and easily develop custom event apps for event customers. 

Mandated upgrades to health care IT will demand heavy investments by providers but will help them minimize waste and standardize best medical practice.

New regulations that require US health care providers to use electronic health records (EHR) and adhere to strict data-coding standards will force hospitals to spend billions of dollars over the next decade to upgrade their IT systems.

We estimate that total savings across the US provider landscape could be on the order of $40 billion annually.

ecognizing that operating hotels is a global industry, HFTP determined that there is not a globally accepted method that financial professionals, ownership structures, investors and benchmarking information services can use to support efficient operations. There is also not a globally accepted method to monitor investment performance from region to region without significant assumptions and data mining.

Currently, research is being conducted into current practices. This research will identify who is doing what in different parts of the world, with a view to establishing best practice and providing practical guidance for students, practitioners and professionals involved in the industry.

In order to create a global resource for the hospitality finance industry, Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®) began development on a global hospitality accounting system users guide this past March. Recognizing that operating hotels is a global industry, HFTP determined that there is not a globally accepted method that financial professionals, ownership structures, investors and benchmarking information services can use to support efficient operations. There is also not a globally accepted method to monitor investment performance from region to region without significant assumptions and data mining. HFTP’s Global Hospitality Accounting System Users Guide (GHASUG) will address this need. Where does the project stand right now? Currently, research is being conducted into current practices. This research will identify who is doing what in different parts of the world, with a view to establishing best practice and providing practical guidance for students, practitioners and professionals involved in the industry. The guidance will be formulated by industry experts, based on the research findings. To date HFTP has commitments from major information benchmarking companies, hotel corporations, hospitality associations and globally recognized hospitality schools around the world. Once completed, HFTP will make the outcome accessible online, together with analytical tools. It will be available at a minimal cost and users will have the capability to print versions if they desire. The hotel sector currently enjoys the benefits of an accounting structure developed in the USA specifically for the industry.  The Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry has been widely adopted, principally by US based operating companies, and linked to management contract terms.  HFTP has been involved in this project for many years and will continue to sponsor the 11th edition in support and via a monetary contribution.

Payroll is one of the most important aspects of human resources management. If payroll is managed efficiently and properly, employees will be paid on time and the correct deductions will be made and sent to the appropriate places.

Having an HRIS handle these functions can help to reduce the likelihood of tax audits, can improve the odds of passing an audit, and can minimize the chances that you will be penalized for non-compliance issues.

An HRIS can be set up to send alerts when compliance needs change and can provide in-depth information about how to comply with new requirements.

Firstly, upfront investment is lower with the cloud as there are no initial hardware costs or associated expenses such as full time, in-house IT staff to maintain the system. Secondly, hotels like the idea of taking the headache and distractions of IT off their site, leaving them free to focus on the day-to-day business of looking after their guests.

tablets and smartphones revolutionise the way we interact with technology.

City Nites accesses its hotel management system on Apple iPads to eliminate old-fashioned, manual registration desk processes. This enables hotel team members to 'meet and greet' their guests at any location, improving the personalisation of the check-in experience and reducing the costs associated with static reception desks and all their technology at each location.

Energy has been a major issue for hotels. While cloud-based technology has revolutionized the way properties manage operations such as the front desk, housekeeping, distribution and even marketing, not a lot has been happening in the power department.

Replacing all incandescent bulbs with LED-based lighting and using energy-efficient public devices like vending machines have helped lower  carbon footprints to an extent.

Adopting renewable sources of energy is a great way for companies to exhibit their commitment to ensuring longevity for their environment, and themselves, in turn.

Top POS Predictions for 2017 “Windows will no longer be the number one operating system in the market, as multiple operating systems are being offered to allow greater flexibility to consumers. Data collection will be a bigger selling point for consumers, not only to track sales and inventory, but also to manage shifts and training, as well as deploy customer loyalty programs.” — Bematech “We will see increasing configuration flexibility to adapt to more fluid layouts in a hyper-channel oriented world, smaller counter footprints, more intensive future-proofing and increased value.” — Fujitsu America, Inc. “Major restaurant chains will continue to adopt online ordering and line-busting technology and POS hardware will do a better job of connecting wirelessly to each other (Internet of Things) and to mobile (smartphone and tablet) devices. It will also integrate with sensors, cameras and video monitors to provide smart advertising to customers based on environment and purchasing trends.” — Epson “A lot of the new requests for hardware are around supporting initiatives for increasing customer engagement. These come in the form of minimizing the barrier for traditional POS, installing kiosks of varying sizes and form factors, mobility solutions, and customer-facing screens on the POS for supporting both touch and non-touch versions.” — Par Technology Corp. “In the end, hardware is simply the platform for software and consumer omnichannel demands. The rise in mobile payments and the EMV mandate will prod hospitality to upgrade legacy POS systems because of the need for security compliance and to accept more payment options. Tablets, smartphones, software- (SaaS) or POS-as-a-service models, and cloud-based POS will continue to drive the need for POS hardware to adapt to new IT and consumer interaction.” — Posiflex “POS hardware will expand connectivity in keeping with the IOT revolution, so operators will be able to provide a more personalized experience to customers at checkout.” — Toshiba “There will be increased investments in WiFi, location-based services (LBS), mobile computers and data capture solutions as more consumers use their smartphones to engage in mobile ordering and loyalty programs for personalized offers. In addition, businesses will have an increased need for visibility in automating food safety processes.” — Zebra