Re-engineering of Service Order Management solutions on a new technology platform

The challenge

Since 1992 Management Technologies (M-Tech), USA, has been focused on development and marketing of automation solutions for hospitality industry, it is recognized for its service order management applications - Espresso! product family. that helps to maximize quality of service and ensure guest satisfaction in over 450 hotel in 34 countries worldwide, including Marriott Hotels Corporation, Interstate Hotels Corporation, Inter*Continental Hotels, Sheraton Hotels and many others hotel networks.

As geographically distributed customer base grown, on-going maintenance of the system that involved on-site version updates, integration with other IS and user support, began to slow down further business growth of M-Tech. We decided to improve the deployment model changing it to ASP mode. To fulfill the new business idea it was necessary to design a new technological concept and to re-engineer the existing product family. For this purpose, in March 2003 we selected Aplana Software, Russia, as our development partner. Aplana suggested using web-services and Microsoft .NET framework as a core point of the technological concept of a new product - Hotel Service Order Optimization System (hotSOS) that complemented the existing functionality with many new essential features.

The Solution

Re-engineering of existing service order management solutions for the purpose of changing the deployment model to ASP mode in order to ensure faster and product implementation, to optimize on-going maintenance costs and lower cost of ownership for the customers. The project involved redesign of existing Espresso! Product family and development of a new product - Hotel Service Order Optimization System (hotSOS) that complemented the existing functionality with many new essential features. The system was designed as a set of distributed components that communicate over the Internet by means of an ASP interface, Hand Held Devices, Telephone Interface and external Interfaces such as PMS Interface.

The Results

The deployment of first commercial version of the system started in April 2004 and just within just 2 months 450 new hotels started its operation with hotSOS. Among the pioneers are the leading international hotel networks such as Marriott Hotels Corporation, Interstate Hotels Corporation, Inter*Continental Hotels, Sheraton Hotels and many others.

Anatoly Babaev, Director of Development, Management Technologies: "Our cooperation with Aplana is a good example of well-timed business idea being implemented competently using innovative technologies. Since the hotSos deployment started in, M-tech doubled its margins and doubled its customer base.We look forward to continuing cooperation in the area on further product development and its adaptation for the needs of business centers, medical and diagnostic centers, etc."

Key results of implementing the new technology are optimized on-going maintenance processes and faster customer base growth for M-Tech, as well as advanced product development perspectives:

• M-tech decreased significantly on-going maintenance costs of worldwide product installations due to fully automated workstation upgrade, interactive user support over the Internet and other features. It is indicative that technical support staff in M-Tech has been decreased from 20 engineers to just a few engineers
• M-tech qained a strong competitive advantage via better customer needs satisfaction for lower cost of ownership and plans to double it’s customer base just for the current year (from 450 to 900 hotels). The solution leverages Internet, and wireless networks for cost-effective centralization of key data about hotel operations and improved communications. It also provides feature-rich interface freed from the limitations of Web browser that gives users at the hotel level the tools they need to be more proactive and attend to guest needs while also giving corporate and regional managers greater insight into chain-wide operations and opportunities.
• Faster deployment because of standardized integration with PMS, standardized procedures of data import from legacy systems and predefined configuration templates. The deployment of first commercial version of the system at 450 hotels started simultaneously, within 2 weeks after it was released.Smooth and easy further product development due to web-services and .NET technologies employed and modular architecture: easy integration with legacy IS using a standardized web-service interface, quick connection of new communication channels, product adaptation for new business areas (for example business centers, hospitals etc)

The solution has excellent sales prospects - thousands of hotels are now evaluating the solution. Strong competitive advantage is based on the following customer’s (hotels) satisfaction factors:

• TCO of the new solution for the hotels decreased - at least 5-7 times lower because of lower HW requirements, lower licensing costs, no system administrators on-site
• Quick deployment – the system is ready to operate because of predefined templates for different types of hotels adjustable at the hotel/corporate/brand level, standardized data import and integration procedures
• Advanced functionality and higher reliability, handly interface tested for usability and easy training, interactive on-line support 24х7and immediate versions update