HITEC Minneapolis Rewinded
Viewpoint 3 June 2019
The Death of Yesterday's PMS: Embracing the New Normal
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Getting to know the NCR 4200 at Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne back in 1956.
The PMS' role as the center of a hotel's technology ecosystem is coming to an end. Crucial guest data sits locked up in today's disconnected data silos, making it very difficult for hotels/brands to optimize and bank in on the 'digital guest journey'. True? If so, how could a future application/data infrastructure or migration path look like? What's your take?
This viewpoint was created by
Henri Roelings, Founder & CEO at HospitalityNet
This Viewpoint is part of the HITEC Minneapolis panel
Mark Fancourt
Co-Founder at TRAVHOTECH
So we keep hearing and yet a new round of players are building new PMS products and a market is excited about buying them. I'm not sure that suggests the death of yesterday's PMS. Just the next round of the same thing with current technology in the stack. Cloud and API based technology is not exclusive - it's available to anyone. New and incumbent providers. The future holds promise, but there is still some way to go.
The role at the core of the PMS is the repository of pricing and inventory. At a minimum all hotels/motels etc. have room product. The need for the storage and management of that information is not going away. My view is that capability needs to become broader to cater for all product and service inventory. If 'Property' means anything then it is the entire property. A solution that encompasses the breadth of hotel operations is the next 'PMS'. Some call it HMS - Hotel Management System. Semantics, but the same thing.
The industry cannot redevelop customer oriented operational models and job scopes and provide across business visibility of the guest journey with more of the same silo-based technical solutions. That is what is coming to market, with even more additional slivers of capability in each new app or system bolted on to this model from another provider.
A casual review of new to market products demonstrates the same. The jigsaw puzzle is not going away.
Some argue that because systems are more 'open' and in the cloud, this is operationally a better solution. Technology operations certainly. However, If staff is forced to bounce around multiple applications to deliver product and service then the tools of today are not moving the operation forward any further than yesterdays.
Regardless of where the back end sits, the front end requires a unified operational experience. This is achieved in two ways. A single architecture product OR a skin or additional layer across a siloed line of business applications connected behind the scene with API's.
How does the future look? Modern CRM and ERP platforms will play a much greater role in our industry. CRM - because the guest demands we understand them more deeply across the business and engage. ERP - because as the supply chain becomes more electronically enabled it will be necessary to gain visibility, efficiencies, and speed of process through full automation. The remaining pieces for hotel operations address traditional line of business systems - PMS, POS, Lifestyle, Sales & Event Management and Service optimization migrating upwards and consolidating into a single solution across property or portfolio - a CRS/PMS style solution above and across the enterprise, but for all pricing and inventory. Exposure of the necessary customer facing and mobile capability a given, unlocking the Digital Guest Journey.
Without such organizational capability, the multitude of third parties will own the customer relationship and the journey.
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About this World Panel
Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®) closed another successful HITEC, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota in its 47th year. Produced annually by HFTP, the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC®) showcases the industry's latest innovations and provides a top-notch education program for attendees. This year 6,073 attendees participated, with 392 exhibiting companies in 888 booths set up in the exhibit hall. HITEC Minneapolis took place from June 17-20, 2019 at the Minneapolis Convention Center.
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Panel Champs
Lyle Worthington
Technology Executive and Consultant & Past President of HFTP Global
Henri Roelings
Founder & CEO at HospitalityNet
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