Increase Revenue per Customer, Optimize Room Rates, Improve Profitability

Guest post by Phyllis Yeo, Marketing Manager, Asia Pacific, Hospitality Solutions, SoftBrands, an Infor Affiliate

There are a number of reasons why you should visit Infor-SoftBrands at Food, Hotel & Tourism (FHT) Bali 2010, March 11-13, at the Bali International Convention Centre, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia.

The hospitality industry is booming in Indonesia, and now’s the right time to leverage this opportunity to build a stronger brand and drive more profitability.

The Infor-SoftBrands team is committed to the hospitality industry. Together, SoftBrands’ front-of-house business software for property management systems (PMS), central reservation systems (CRS), and leisure management, coupled with Infor’s business software for financial management, performance management (PM), and customer relationship management (CRM), provide the industry with end-to-end solutions to help increase your knowledge about your business to make better business decisions, ultimately improving the bottom line.

Visit the Infor-SoftBrands booth, # B70 at FHT, and we’ll show you how our solutions are helping hoteliers around the world drive more revenue per customer, optimize room rates, and increase profitability while delivering exceptional customer service. You can also meet with our representatives to understand how the Infor acquisition of SoftBrands can help you grow your business and learn more about our new structure, combined solution, hospitality market direction, and future plans.

If you’d like more information or would like to schedule a meeting with a member of the Infor-SoftBrands hospitality team while at the show, send me an email, Phyllis Yeo (phyllis.yeo@softbrands.com), and I’ll be happy to help you out.

We look forward to meeting you and understanding what you need to drive the next level of growth for your business.

See you in Bali!

Infor Hospitality to Serve Up Solutions at Hostec-Europe

Guest post by Mehreen Moore, Marketing Programs Manager, Hospitality Solutions, SoftBrands,
an Infor Affiliate

The Infor/SoftBrands Hospitality team will be launching the new combined brand and serving up our solutions to the hospitality industry at Hostec-Europe, Europe's leading technology event in hospitality and foodservice, March 1–4, 2010. Co-located with Hotelympia 2010, one of the world's largest hospitality and foodservice events, attracts over 40,000 visitors to ExCel, London, over 5 days.

I’ll be on-site, along with Nigel Allport and Calum McIndoe, with a menu of demos to show you how our property management systems (PMS), food and beverage, web booking engine, and central reservation systems (CRS) can help improve operational efficiency, lower costs, drive revenue, and keep your customers coming back for more.

Together, SoftBrands’ front-of-house business software for PMS, CRS, and leisure management, coupled with Infor’s business software for financial management, performance management (PM), and customer relationship management (CRM), provide end-to-end solutions to increase your knowledge about your business to help make better business decisions, ultimately improving the bottom line.

If you’d like to meet with a member of the Infor hospitality team while at the show, send me an email, and I’ll be happy to arrange an appointment.

Will you be attending Hostec-Europe? Share your thoughts.

Everyone Loves a Cloud

Guest post by Bill Euler, President, PAS, an Infor Strategic Partner

Chances are you’ve heard the words Cloud Computing bantered about. Nice buzzwords, but what do they really mean for you as a hospitality professional?  Well, first of all, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page in defining cloud computing. In its broadest sense, cloud computing refers to data and applications that are hosted outside of the organization and provided over the Internet. But cloud computing is evolving. In a recent post on The View from Inside, Bruce Richardson, Infor’s chief strategy officer, discusses the future of cloud. He talks about cloud ultimately becoming the dominant deployment method for companies, and defines Cloud 2.0, the next phase of cloud computing, as the act of companies seeking out suites of multiple applications from a single vendor source.

Why Cloud Computing?
In the hospitality arena, what cloud computing offers is a robust solution that can reduce costs, streamline operations, and improve your business by taking your applications above the property. Let’s take a closer look at each of these areas:

• Lower costs: Cloud eliminates or greatly reduces the need to buy and manage hardware and software, and can mean reduced software licensing costs as well. Your applications are hosted off-site in a secure data facility—which means you don’t have to fork out the money for servers, worry about keeping them up-to-date, or deal with hardware/software maintenance issues. You’ll have greater capacity, more flexibility, and just pay as you go.  This translates to a smaller IT infrastructure and lowers up-front costs, saving you money in the short and long term.
  
  
• Operational efficiency: If you’ve ever gone through a hardware upgrade, you know how painful, costly, and disruptive to your operations it can be. Not only is that eliminated when you move your applications above property, but now it’s the vendor’s responsibility to continually provide best-in-class hardware, software, support, and service. In effect, the burdens of your IT department are shifted to the outsourcer, thus freeing up valuable IT resources to focus on strategies and tasks important to your business.
  
  
• Business process improvement: Now more than ever, business success relies on your ability to immediately access and leverage data. Because cloud applications are available 24x7 from any computer with Internet access, you can be more efficient and responsive.  It also means you can have fewer resources covering multiple properties with standardized solutions. This improves connectivity above property, and also enables many more opportunities for collaboration and communication between corporate and the property.

What to Look for in a Vendor
If you think cloud computing is right for your company (and I’m betting you will, sooner or later), keep these things in mind when selecting the company you plan to work with:

• Industry expertise: Partner with a company that has experience within the hospitality industry and understands your business going in. They are much more likely to offer full-scope solutions and add value to the relationship. They will also be able to work with your staff more effectively and get you up and running quickly.
  
  
• Integration: Even if you're currently using multiple vendor applications, an effective cloud technology solution will seamlessly integrate all those applications, whether on property, above property, or SaaS, to eliminate duplication and error-prone tasks.
  
  
• Security: Get detailed information about the data center where your applications will be housed. Be sure you feel confident that you're receiving best-in-class technology, security, and service. Find out what certifications the vendor has and insist on a tailored service agreement that meets your specific needs.

As a final note, look to the future. Cloud 2.0 is right around the corner. Figure out not only what short-term needs can be met, but what the long term might look like, and find a company that can get you where you want to be.

About PAS
PAS has over 20 years of experience providing customers in the hospitality industry with best-in-class back-office financial solutions and services that simplify operations and reduce costs, including hospitality cores for Infor SunSystems FMS and PM 10, pasUnity financial integration tools, hosting, and more. www.pashospitality.com

Leave a comment. We'd like to hear your thoughts about cloud computing.

Software Analyst Bruce Richardson and The View from Inside

Bruce Richardson, software industry veteran and formerly chief research officer at AMR Research—now part of the Infor team—has launched a new blog, The View from Inside. Check out his blog each Monday for weekly insights and perspectives on the enterprise software market.

Ask Alistair: What strides is SoftBrands making with Epitome.net for a full-service hotel?

Question: What strides is SoftBrands making towards Epitome.net becoming a functional, stable PMS platform for a full-service hotel?

Answer: We are very confident in the hospitality solutions we develop for our industry. However, as with any product, there may be issues that arise and we are committed to helping all of our customers resolve their specific issues. The best way to accomplish this is to contact your local account manager or our customer care center at:

• SoftBrands customers: http://customercenter.softbrands.com/customer
• Infor customers: http://www.infor365.com/allogin/allogin.aspx

Sincerely, Alistair

Combining Forces for Success

Wouldn’t it be great if you could access all the software you needed to successfully and efficiently run your business in one place, and tap into the industry’s superstars? Adding SoftBrands to the Infor family does just that. So, you’re asking yourself “What does this acquisition mean to me and how can it help my organization do business better?”

Infor’s main focus for the hospitality industry is to provide enterprise-wide solutions that leverage our knowledge about your business, and deliver solutions that impact your overall ability to enhance customer service with both our technology and our people.

They say “two heads are better than one.” And it’s never been more evident than with Infor’s acquisition of SoftBrands. Each company brings unique, complementary capabilities that together form a solid foundation of offerings. By combining the product families that individually focus on the front and the back office, we’ve created a one-stop shop of applications that address all of your business needs, from finance and HR to property management and customer service. We bring best-in-class technology to the table with Infor Open SOA and the component architecture strategy that enable us to provide you numerous Infor and partner products to create one combined “hospitality solutions” offering.

To complement our technology, we’ve created a world-class, experienced team of industry veterans dedicated to you. The hospitality industry is built on customer relationships and partnerships. All of our combined team members have numerous years of hospitality industry experience with their respective companies, working with you and your peers, and have built valuable, long-term relationships out of trust and reliability.

No matter what kind of hospitality organization you’re part of, we’ve got the hospitality industry covered from top to bottom. The combined Infor and SoftBrands customer base spans various types of organizations where people go to have fun: casinos, hotels, restaurants, theme parks, race tracks, and professional sports organizations, including:

• 93% of gaming companies on the Las Vegas Strip, in Atlantic City, and most of the well-known, profitable Native American-managed properties using Infor FMS Infinium and HCM Infinium products
  
  
• Over 2,500 hotels and resorts in the world relying on our financial management solutions to help them drive their business
  
  
• US Joint Armed Services lodging facilities using SoftBrands Lodging systems within nearly 150 navy sites, over 100 air force on-base operations, 21 marine installations, and national guard units in 5 states

Our goal is to use our expertise to offer you combined solutions with a focus on exceptional customer service—delivered in the spirit of true partnership.

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Posted by Debbie Hawkins, VP of Global Sales Hospitality Solutions, Infor