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Dear Customers,
A key advantage is being a
new incumbent and hence we bring fresh perspectives. We are not influenced
by outdated industry practices and preferences, but driven to ask the
burning questions and passionate about introducing new best practices. Of
course, industry standard vendors often boast of their user list as a sign
of their success. True, as it may be, but then why are independent
consultants and hospitality practices in IBM and Microsoft critical? Points
raised are related to integration of software, single source of the truth
and embracing best practices such as On Demand technology, Real-time, ERP
concepts, Service Orientated Architecture and Decision Support Systems
(Business Intelligence, Dashboards and cross functional reports).
Apparently, decisions on software selection should have the above on a
checklist.
Manufacturing industry use
ERP systems to manage their business, which is a single database
multi-modular software application from a single vendor. A standard RFP
(Request for Proposal) template to select ERP manufacturing software would
suffice to see which industry standard software vendor in the hospitality
world would even pass the 50% mark. Not so with momentohs®
enterprise. We have applied this test and are over 85% compliant.
The current business
climate demands even more timely reports, analysis and alerts to enable
Managers to make lightening decisions. Having a pulse of the business on a
daily, weekly basis when the industry is struggling with low occupancy,
drop in yield and controlling costs is the need of the hour. Meeting these
challenges can only be so, if the software adheres to above standards. With
momentohs® enterprise, the requisites are built
in. For example, it is commonly held that 47% of guest complaints are made
at the Front Desk, especially during check out. Front desk service agents
need to capture and deliver a level of service that ensures customer
loyalty. Having access to Guest Experience Monitor (as in momentohs® enterprise), allows the service agent to
instantly provide that little extra mile, such as two free meals at their
favorite restaurant or 50% discount on Spa during their next visit.
If guest preferences are captured across the hotel’s outlets and recorded
in GEM, the Front Office agents can access it and instantly make the
necessary pacifying concessions to ensure guest delight and loyalty.
We recommend hoteliers to see
how other industries are applying IT to be drivers of their business and
their approach to creating value and making IT a key differentiator.
Banking, Manufacturing and Telco are three good examples. In comparison,
Hospitality is way behind. No wonder, recognized independent consultants
and leisure, hospitality and travel consulting practices in IBM and
Microsoft are critical of the software and IT systems currently applied in
the Hospitality industry. momentohs®
enterprise is the result of addressing the gaps and bringing the industry
to meet the challenges. It is the most advanced Hospitality Management
Software in the market today.
Mehboob
Hamza
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Dr
Steve Lebruto is Associate Dean at the Rosen
School of Hospitality Management (part of the University of Central Florida
in Orlando). He has recently retired due to health considerations but was
happy to contribute an article for our newsletter.
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Best Practices for Software
Vendors
Fundamental
Philosophy
Managers are decision makers
and they rely on the quality and timeliness of the information that they
have available when making decisions. This makes real-time data of vital
importance in a property management system. Software providers in many
industries have developed Dashboards to provide managers with business
metrics that allow them to take appropriate and timely action to advance
their business.
Therefore, we believe that
the state of the art property management systems must be operationally
based and of benefit to the management team. These data can be rolled
up into higher level executive decisions, but it must start with the
operation if a difference is truly to make in delivering a higher level of
customer service.
Best Practices
In the hospitality industry
the greatest need for this type of information is in the service delivery
functions. Operations managers can use real-time data to monitor employee
performance and to intercede when necessary to ensure that customer service
standards are met. Here are a few examples:
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1. Over
Credit Limit List: This report would enable front office staff and
managers to know immediately when a guest exceeded his credit limit.
2. Staff
Punched in List: This feature assumes that the property's staff uses
the Property Management System (PMS) as a time clock or that a time clock
id interfaced. This, in itself is a good management control that should be
deployed. Managers would see exactly who is on the clock. Additional
functionality would compare the employee's actual arrival and departure to
a schedule. Imagine being a housekeeping manager and getting a text message
on your cell phone as soon as one of your staff was 5 minutes late for
work!
3. Arrival
and Departure Statistics: A basic report of these data would help
with seasonality and fluctuation issues during the day. Average Daily Rate
(ADR), Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR),
Projected Revenue, and Occupancy Percentage in real-time would all be
invaluable for optimizing revenue and labor adjustments.
4. Food and
Beverage Menu Tracking: A Point of Sale (POS) system that tracks the
number of portions of each selection available each day and deducted from
the total as units were sold would help servers to sell strategically under
the direction of management. An additional management benefit would be to
keep the rest of the property updated of the happenings in the food and
beverage outlets. If everyone knew that one outlet was particularly busy
they could recommend an alternate instead of driving additional traffic to
the busy one. Or, if one outlet was particularly slow an effort could be
made to send traffic that way. Again, selling is everyone's responsibility
and the optimizing of total property revenue must be the primary directive
along with delivery of extraordinary service.
5. Special
Event Tracking: Either the POS or PMS should be able to track
specific sales events that managers want to provide incentives to the
employees. At the front desk this might be an upgrade from a standard room
to a deluxe room. In the bar this might be the sale of a high value bottle
of wine. In either case if managers were immediately aware of the
occurrence of success in a selling situation they could reinforce the
behavior with a kind word or some other reward.
6. Human
Resource (HR) Management: On the HR side, an employee birthday list
and reminders about service anniversaries will encourage managers to
recognize employees on special days. Simple. These little things cost so
little and mean so much to the staff.
7. Back
Office Receivables: In the back office, an aging schedule with top 10
lists of oldest outstanding accounts or 10 top receivables would draw
attention to situations needing attention.
8. Service
Delivery Timer: Many quick service restaurants time service
delivery to optimize performance. This could be easily incorporated into a
PMS or POS. One specific example is to time the delivery of a housekeeping
request like the delivery of extra towels. If the property standard is 15
minutes then a flag could appear after the 15 minutes had expired when the
item is not cleared from the system.
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This, we feel, is a
start and the direction that at this point we think should be receiving
attention. We have spoken to a number of hospitality managers about
this issue and it seems that different managers will derive the greatest
benefit from different information. Quite understandable.
This would suggest
that the software provider should design a system with a customizable
dashboard that will allow each manager to determine what is most important
to them.
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Head Office Consolidation with momentohs®
sprint or entrée
Small chain hotels require
Head Office consolidation of their various properties. A true
multi-property system with Central Reservation can be costly for small
chain hotels with 8-12 sub 50 or sub 100 room
resort properties. What they need is visibility of core information such as
occupancy, advance bookings, revenues etc. Often, these small groups spread
their top management across the entire chain to save on HR costs and tend
to have central Sales & Marketing, They are still able to consolidate
at Head Office with momentohs® and do comparative
analysis with visibility at each property on a daily basis. Whether it is momentohs® sprint or entrée, it does not matter. The
replication of momentohs® is robust and scalable
across the Web with each property information available on a daily basis.
Let’s take a small chain with
10 resort properties each having momentohs®
sprint FO, BO, POS, F&B, SmartTrack and Spa
at the property level. At any point of time, Head Office could view the
replicated information such as room bookings, occupancy, POS/SPA revenue
and more. Sales team at Head Office could see room availability, bookings
received directly at the property. Rate profile can be assigned to each
property from the Head office. The Financial Controller could collate
revenues and consolidate multi-property accounting. AR and AP can be
controlled by the Head office with the help of Central AR invoice and
Central purchasing. If some properties are small (sub 30 rooms/chalets),
they could use momentohs® entrée FO only and each
day the property could submit accounting info where it would be entered at
Head Office. It would save the property to employ an accountant.
The diagram below presents a
detailed flow and activity at Head Office. momentohs®
sprint and entrée is built on Microsoft technology and provides the
versatility and reduced cost of ownership while addressing the requirements
of small chains enabling them to download and capture data across all their
properties at Head Office. This maximises head
office management team’s time, optimizes their efficiency and makes
available information across the properties without having to invest in
expensive Central Reservation software.
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Syed Irfanuddin Quadri
Business Solution Services
email : siquadri@sscomp.ae
Direct : +971 4 308 3645
Mobile : +971 50 7187292
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