SUMMING IT UP
• Because they are interconnected, maintaining the integrity of the systems that are already in place should be a top priority. |
A painless IT upgrade at your property? It can be accomplished through a steady mix of pre-planning and wise choices.
The signs are starting to pile up—employees are complaining about system limitations and frequent failures, your members are demanding data capabilities that you can’t meet, and you’re well aware that since the time you installed your current computer system, a whirlwind of new technology has blown through to make it nearly obsolete.
If any of this sounds familiar, there is hope yet. Club & Resort Business recently spoke with two industry-focused information technology (IT) coordinators about their regular approaches to smooth upgrades and implementation at their properties.
An Ongoing Process
For Vincent Longo, Jr., Director of Information, Technology and Security for the Atlanta Athletic Club (AAC) in Duluth, Ga., maintaining the integrity of the intricate systems already in place is the main focus when doing any type of upgrade.
“We never upgrade all IT systems at the same time,” Longo explains. “Speculatively, most IT systems are modular and do different things, but work together to perform interactively. These systems may include, but are not limited to, a network backbone, network server, application servers, mail servers, firewall and security, and point-of-sale (POS) and phone systems.”
Thaddeus Fox, Corporate Director of Technology at Middleburg, Va.-based Salamander Hospitality, is currently finishing an upgrade to the IT systems at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club, a Florida property acquired by Salamander a little over a year ago. “This comes pretty close to what we used to call a ‘forklift upgrade,’ ” Fox says. “Many servers, desktops, POS terminals, operating systems software and all critical hospitality systems software were either upgraded or the vendors were changed.”
In addition to Innisbrook, Fox says, upgrades are planned for the first quarter of this year for Salamander’s Woodlands Inn in Summerville, S.C., and a new installation is planned for the Salamander Resort and Spa, currently under construction in Middleburg. But attention to the IT systems at each of the three properties is always individualized, he says—any perceived benefits of simultaneous upgrades should not be pursued at the expense of proper focus on the properties’ different needs.
Anticipating IT needs in the annual property budget is critical to being proactive in keeping systems current, both men stress. Longo adds that he makes sure to plan for regular equipment upgrades. “We don’t want server crashes, so we upgrade those pieces every three to five years,” he reports.
For each of its properties, Salamander creates a capital reserve and a specific plan for replacement cycles for servers, desktops and laptops.
“We do this typically on a three-year cycle, allowing for upgrading CPU processing speed, faster hard drives, and more memory,” Fox explains. The plan dovetails with vendors’ standard three-year maintenance contracts, he notes. “Our company will try to stagger purchases so that one year is PC replacements, with another year for server and major application replacement,” he adds.
Before You Begin
Some critical considerations before doing an upgrade are more obvious than others, Fox says. “For example, make sure that the Group Rooms Commitment log and other booking tools for all of the areas in consideration—like golf, leisure travel, and special events—are reviewed to ensure that no upgrade plan is made that will disrupt your business flow,” he advises. “That may mean having to break up the installation into a series of events over a period of time instead of jamming everything together in one point of time—and finding a vendor willing to do that with you. “
An Expert for the Experts
When Thaddeus fox and the IT team at Salamander Hospitality began to plan implementation of a new system for the Salamander Resort and Spa, scheduled to open in Middleburg, Va. in 2010, a key part of the investment, they decided, should include a third-party consultant specializing in hospitality systems.“We wanted to make sure we availed ourselves of the best possible solutions, some of which we may not have been aware of,” Fox explains. “The sheer number of vendors, systems, properties, installations and users that a good consultant has seen brings all of that experience to bear in helping your property maximize its dollars.” Many vendors will offer to essentially write your request for proposal (RFP) for you. But as Fox points out, “That is not the same as having a technology consultant ask you, the owner, some tough questions about what you must have to be successful for your operation—and not the competition’s solution.” A qualified consultant will write your RFP to be specific to customer needs, Fox says. “These specifications will include measurable statements of completion,” he says, “as well as measurable processing metrics—such as how long it takes the system to process a credit card at check-in, the length of time it takes to process a night audit, or whether the system will interface to your current call accounting system.” |
To help form a clear-cut strategy, Longo advises gathering a team to weigh all the options. He often makes decisions in consultation with his chief financial officer, administrative staff, department heads, and numerous Board and committee members. “This way, we’re pretty much able to stay with what the management team is looking for,” he says. Member input is also critical, he adds, as “an important source of information needed to make decisions on many of our internal POS, billing, Web and golf tee-time reservation systems.”
Front Desk/Back Office Considerations
Many of the POS systems and property management systems on the market today are modular, but use the same database platform, Longo points out. This makes integration of a new component much easier than it was just a few years ago. It’s a change the Atlanta Athletic Club made four years ago, he notes, and the club has since reaped the benefits.
“It’s saved us time, money, and IT integration and equipment costs,” he says. “Our POS software upgrades are part of the support package, which keeps us very much up to date as fixes become available. For all other upgrades for hardware and software needs, a plan for budget rotation is definitely a deciding factor.”
F&B Considerations
Most restaurant-specific POS programs these days have a menu-planning component that food and beverage managers can use to calculate costs by ingredient, allowing specific menu items to be price-adjusted to a specific profit margin. The trends-and-analysis capabilities of today’s systems can literally change the way an F&B department is run, with the data used to bring new efficiencies to everything from what specials to highlight to how much staff is needed.
As technological upgrades for these functions are implemented, experts agree, a key concern must be to ensure that the data-entry portions of the systems remain easy to understand and operate. If you have inexperienced staff dealing with a rowdy lunch crowd, having a more complex system isn’t going to do the server, the customer or your property any favors.
Golf Considerations
Golf staffs have a variety of tasks—tracking golf cart maintenance, caddy work schedules, pro shop inventory, and remote irrigation module control—that can all be made more efficient through well-applied technology. Not surprisingly, there is now an equally wide variety of available whiz-bang technological gadgetry that is all touted as “essential” for these purposes.
But while attempting to sort through the options, IT experts say, the biggest factor to keep in mind is to not overbuy and select packages with features that are not useful for your facility. Instead, the focus should be on ensuring that the technology fits nicely with existing IT systems, property-wide.
The IT systems for golf operations that can provide real value, they add, will include real-time data as well as historical, to help identify year-over-year and even day-to-day trends. Custom-analysis capabilities, and remote access from any Internet connection, should also rank high on the list of desired features. Remote access is especially helpful for golf-related applications when so much of the staff’s time is spent on the links, it’s noted, so relevant information can be accessed from a laptop or cell phone, and no issue has to wait “ ‘til I’m back in the office” to be resolved.
After the Upgrade
At Innisbrook Resort & GC, Fox and his team have used an integration strategy that splits training into three phases:
1. Configuration-training: A few selected managers and supervisors experienced in particular areas were involved in the project at the beginning. “We used this period to ensure that the system was not trying to mimic its predecessor, but was being configured in accordance with management reporting needs, marketing strategies, and ease of use,” Fox explains.
2. Installation: In this phase, he says, a larger group is trained on how to use the system, based on the configurations already agreed to and approved by management. This phase includes classroom training right up to the go-live date.
3. Post Go-Live: “This is where things that looked good on paper and during slow-motion practice may start to cause guest-service problems under actual use,” Fox says. Highly trained instructors with previous deployment experience are used to troubleshoot issues that arise in this phase. One common problem at this stage, he notes, can be security settings that have been set to be overly restrictive.
When Longo and his team implemented AAC’s new multi-module system, it was with a new vendor. He stresses the importance of choosing a vendor who has been thoroughly vetted and whose product is the right fit for a property’s particular needs.
“We felt it was important to use a vendor with a proven track record—their success, reliability, great support, and training program were all crucial to the decision,” Longo says.
Most of all, Fox emphasizes, technology “should align itself with business strategy, not supplant it.”
“Don’t let vendors dictate your problem set,” he says. “Instead, let your business strategy define an RFP that challenges vendors to solve your business problem on time, on schedule, and within your budgeted cost.”
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