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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
THE LEADING HOSPITALITY NEWS AUTHORITY SINCE 1875 | Vol. 232, No. 9 | June 13, 2017
WHAT’S NEW IN NONTRADITIONAL POS
Traditional client/server POS solutions are often associated with high capital-expenditure costs. These
deployments are top-heavy with hardware, licensing and implementation outlays. To find out how the POS
world is trending in the opposite direction with an operating expense model featuring lower upfront costs
and less capital requirement, visit us online and search keyword “POS.”
BY ESTHER HERTZFELD@ESTHERHERTZFELD
As mobile devices gain popularity across all of the hospitality industry with more applications and additional capabilities, mobile point-of-sale systems are playing a more prominent
role in creating guest satisfaction.The main drivers of this mobility revolution are centered on guest
personalization, portability and easy access to a more connected, mobile network, said Jan Larsen, senior director of product manage-ment and strategy, POS technology for Agilysys. “These factors play a prominent role in mobile POS for hotel operators who want to increase guest service and satisfaction across their properties, espe-cially in food-and-beverage environments,” he said.
Mobile POS is definitely growing, especially in the resort space, said Amanda Wisell, marketing manager at Springer-Miller Sys-tems. It enables convenient service at nontraditional locations, such as cabanas on the beach and golf courses.
“Food-and-beverage is a core component of hospitality and guests are looking for the complete service experience when they’re at a hotel—whether that is a drink in the lounge or table service in the fine dining restaurant, or even picking up a snack from the to-go counter,” she said. “There’s that expectation that food-and-beverage is part of the hotel offering. Moving to mobile POS allows a hotel to extend its F&B offering.”
Mobile POS is essential in today’s marketplace because it ad-dresses two of the most pressing challenges facing hoteliers: escalat-ing pressure to improve efficiency and unprecedented demands from consumers who expect faster, better, individualized and hassle-free service, said Peter Agel, global segment leader for hotels at Oracle Hospitality. “Mobile POS units untether hotel staff and free them from ordering stations, meaning they can cater to guests anytime, anywhere, to expedite service and increase sales,” he said.
Mobile POS devices have been shown to be more flexible, lower in cost and superior in terms of delivering exceptional guest service. “Businesses can sell anytime and anywhere with mobile POS, help-ing with line-busting by moving guests through the queue more quickly and driving increased revenue,” Larsen said.
This also provides the opportunity for servers to build relation-ships with customers and makes brand consultants out of cashiers. These brand consultants are conversationally taking orders and even upselling based on the conversation that’s taking place, ultimately differentiating the business from the competition, Larsen continued. “A cashless, even cardless transaction platform is rapidly becoming a force in the F&B POS marketplace,” he said. “The growing demand for portable, device-based sales and settlement transactions further illustrates this point.”
Wisell said that mobile POS systems also provide greater credit-card security as well. “Now that the industry is able to provide mo-bile [Europay, MasterCard and Visa] devices for the U.S. market, this will allow for greater security for cardholders as their card will not leave their sight,” she said.
From a broader operational perspective, mobile POS also can enlarge the footprint of a hotel’s food-and-beverage enterprise, Agel said. For example, operators could extend service to patio areas or poolside, which converts “dead space” into revenue opportuni-ties. Hotel staff also can use a tablet to pull up a complete wine list, with descriptions and reviews, to help guests make a better selection. Just as importantly, staff can send guests’ orders to the kitchen and bar even before leaving their table, ensuring speedy service. HM
68%SAY GUEST EXPERIENCE HAS
IMPROVED
Sixty-eight percent of
diners agree that server
handheld tablets improve
their guest experience.
Source: Toast
20%SAY INVENTORY
MANAGEMENT IS TOPS
The top features
restaurateurs are looking
for in a POS upgrade are:
inventory management at
20 percent, online ordering
at 13 percent and PCI
compliance at 9 percent.
Source: Toast
14%RESTAURANT TECHNOLOGY
USE GROWTH
Restaurant operators have
increased technology
use by 14 percent since
2016, with 12 percent
calling their technology
“leading edge,” 54 percent
calling their technology
“mainstream,” 32 percent
calling their technology
“lagging,” and 2 percent
saying they “don’t know.”
Source: National Restaurant Association
6.8%BAR ITEM SALES GROWTH
Snack and nonalcoholic
beverage bar sales have
grown 6.8 percent in the
past year, totaling $38.3
billion in 2016 compared to
$35.9 billion in 2015.
Source: National Restaurant Association
QUICK STATS4
June 13, 2017 | HOTELMANAGEMENT.NET54 TECHNOLOGY
ONLINE EXTRA: FOR MORE ON POINT-OF-SALE SYSTEMS, VISIT HOTELMANAGEMENT.NET
POINT-OF-SALE SYSTEMS
Mobile POS systems are gaining groundTop left: Moving to a mobile POS allows a hotel to extend its food-and-beverage offerings.Top right: Mobile POS systems help move guests through the queue more quickly and drive increased revenue.
BY ESTHER HERTZFELD@ESTHERHERTZFELD
T echnology has allowed point-of-sale integration opportunities to grow im-
mensely over the past 15 years. The days of flat-file exports and serial communications have been replaced by web-service con-nections and open APIs. These
newer technologies allow devel-opers to loosely couple disparate systems and drive functionality through the sharing of data.
Integrations are important because they essentially amplify the value and power of POS sys-tems. They give hoteliers the opportunity to enhance guest service and increase revenue, said
Peter Agel, global segment leader for hotels at Oracle Hospitality. “Hoteliers are better catering to guests by enabling them to use mobile apps for easier, faster, in-room ordering,” he said.
Seamless interoperability between POS, property-man-agement and even customer-re lat ionsh ip-management
systems is very achievable, said Elizabeth Chidiac, POS prod-uct manager at Springer-Miller Systems. “These integrations can support features such as guest-profile access, integrated package postings, loyalty and customer spending,” she said. “Current-day POS solutions are also integrating with market-ing platforms, social media and reservation systems to drive top-line revenue and improve forecasting.”
Guests looking for a friction-less experience generally appreci-ate the convenience of not hav-ing to get their wallet out every time they make an on-property purchase or reservation, said Jim Walker, SVP of global revenue for Agilysys. “Guest self-service is another common integration consideration,” he said. “Most guests these days expect to see some form of kiosk or mobile service anyway, and F&B kiosks are becoming a popular way to upsell purchases using sugges-tive selling without adding labor cost.”
Hoteliers should foremost consider integration between their point-of-sale system and PMS. When the two systems from the same company are run at a hotel, the integration is more operationally beneficial than separate companies. The other advantage is that the business owner is then dealing with the same vendor and same support staff—one-stop shopping, Chi-diac said.
“As an industry, we’re just scratching the surface of addi-tional possibilities for interacting with social media and consumer-phone applications to create targeted guest offers, for brand recognition, to solicit guest feed-back and to take quicker action in the event of guest dissatisfac-tion,” Walker said. HM888.273.8726
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Integrations amp up POS benefits
June 13, 2017 | HOTELMANAGEMENT.NET56 TECHNOLOGY
Tablets and workstations transform a POS system from a glorified cash register into an interactive, guest-facing device—showcasing promotions, providing additional information and creating upsell opportunities.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
InfoGenesis® Flex is Agilysys’ mobility solution built around the
industry-leading InfoGenesis POS system. It offers a mobile
experience for foodservice operations and provides a sleek and
modern alternative to traditional point-of-sale installations. The power
of InfoGenesis POS running on a tablet gives users exceptional
flexibility so they can work in a wide variety of settings, such as pool
cabanas, spa treatment rooms, outdoor decks,
food and beverage carts and casino floors.
Rugged, weather-resistant tablets feature
bright and easy-to-read screens, long battery
life, resistance to spills and splashes, drop
resistance, and the ability to integrate with most
existing peripherals.
InfoGenesis Flex is designed to keep revenue
flowing, even in the most demanding high-
volume environments, with no performance
loss. Managers have complete access to all
InfoGenesis tools, even on the floor, so they can
oversee operations on-the-go. As an enterprise
solution, InfoGenesis Flex is scalable to
hundreds of mobile devices in a single location.
It also offers enhanced signature capture and is
fully integrated with rGuest® Pay, the innovative
Agilysys payment gateway that enables secure
payment processing with PCI-validated point-to-
point encryption.
Transform point-of-sale into point-of-service
anywhere on property, allowing hospitality
venues to create lasting connections with
guests. InfoGenesis Flex, which is available as an on-premise or
cloud-based solution, rounds out the Agilysys technology offering
for food and beverage and retail outlets, which includes point-of-
sale, secure payment gateway, analytics, inventory & procurement,
workforce management, and restaurant reservations and table
management systems.
A transformative, game-changing technology for the hospitality
industry, the newly reinvented VingCard Essence by ASSA ABLOY
Hospitality is a next generation electronic locking solution that takes
the concept of minimalism to the extreme while providing guests with
the latest in contactless innovation. Featuring a stylish new design,
VingCard Essence seamlessly blends with any hotel décor by hiding
all electronics inside the door itself, making security virtually invisible
to hotel guests and creating a more personalized, homier feel to
hallways and room interiors.
When it comes to smart security, the industry’s most uniquely
appealing and functional locking system is now even smarter, with
improved reading distance on the RFID reader, and wireless online
capabilities. A solution that embodies the concept of future proof
technology, VingCard Essence is fully compatible with ASSA ABLOY
Hospitality Mobile Access, allowing properties to affordably upgrade
to the benefits of digital key functionality whenever needed. Once
empowered with ASSA ABLOY Hospitality Mobile Access, VingCard
Essence provides guests with the ability to skip front desk lines and
take control of their hotel experience by using personal smartphones
or watches as a way to access rooms. Depending on the method of
deployment, guests can also reserve and book their room using their
own mobile devices, providing total satisfaction and convenience
while reducing the strain on hotel resources simultaneously.
Leveraging ASSA ABLOY’s award winning Seos technology,
mobile access-equipped VingCard Essence also provides hotel with
the world’s first multi-platform ecosystem for issuing, delivering and
revoking digital keys. The Seos protocol meets the most stringent
security standards and includes messaging, strong authentication
and data confidentiality. Hotels can choose between three mobile app
variations depending on their specific needs. Properties can opt to
integrate Mobile Access into their own apps and back end systems;
utilize a third party certified partner app if lacking their own app but
wanting greater functionality beyond access control; or implement
ASSA ABLOY Hospitality’s off-the-shelf solution for ready-to-use,
basic mobile access.
Agilysys
1000 Windward Concourse
Suite 250
Alpharetta, GA 30005
www.agilysys.com
(877) 369-6208
HITEC Booth 1417
ASSA ABLOY Hospitality
631 International Parkway
Suite 100
Richardson, TX 75081
www.assaabloyhospitality.com
(800) 225-8464
HITEC Booth 1101
June 13, 2017 | HOTELMANAGEMENT.NET42 TECH PROFILES
Transforming Point-of-Sale into Point-of-Service
Revolutionizing convenience and design with VingCard Essence
TRANSFORMING GAMING BY BUILDING
LASTING CONNECTIONS
877-369-6208
www.agilysys.com
RE-IMAGINE YOUR POS GOING MOBILE.
SEE AGILYSYS IN ACTION AT HITEC IN BOOTH #1417
Copyright ©2017 Agilysys, Inc.
ADVANCED MOBILITY
SEAMLESS FUNCTIONALITY
With the full power of InfoGenesis POS in the palm of your hand, it’s
never been easier to improve guest experiences and increase your
bottom line. Leverage the latest in hospitality technology, so you can
provide an incomparable experience for each and every guest.
