We're all familiar with the big-name stars on the technology team, the Reservations, Front Office, POS and Sales & Catering systems that are the first to come to mind when hospitality technology is discussed.

They're seen pretty much as necessities these days, applications you have to have in order to stay competitive and for which the payback is well-known.

But behind the scenes there are a host of other, less glamorous areas where the right technology can make a big difference to operating efficiencies and the bottom line. Because these more specialized "stagehand" systems aren't in the spotlight as much as the headline stars, they're often overlooked.

Let's take a look backstage at some of the "lesser known" contributors that are very real, not just in better financial returns but also in terms of improved staff morale. And there's a very strong correlation between the happiness of your staff and that of your guests.

Sit back as we explore how automation can help in five such areas, either on their own or in conjunction with other systems.

The areas are:
1. Two bar-coding usages:
2. Package Tracking & Uniform Control
3. Restaurant table management
4. Energy management
5. Maintenance management
6. Guest Rapid Response

Bar Code Applications
Apart from more mainstream applications such as inventory/purchasing control, bar coding offers a combination of ease of use, speed and accurate location tracking that can be unexpectedly valuable in many areas.

Package Tracking
A simple job, right? A package comes in for a guest, you check to see which room they're in, and you deliver it. Simple. And yet.... Even for a small property things are seldom so straightforward, and for a large convention property with packages being delivered for a dozen functions at once every single day, it becomes a formidable task. How often are packages received for guests before they arrive at the hotel, yet can't be found when they check-in? How much ill will – or worse - is created every time a carton of important presentation materials is delivered too late for a critical boardroom meeting, or exhibition materials are lost until after the show?

To take the strain out of this highly-visible area of guest services, you need to know what's arrived, who it needs to go to, where it is at any time and when and where it was delivered to its intended recipient. The overnight delivery services have gotten this down to a fine art, but their services stop firmly at your door. Fortunately, you can take advantage of the technology they've developed and put it to use internally. And the key to all this is bar coding.

Bar coding allows you to record the arrival and movement of any object you like. Virtually every overnight package you see has a bar code these days, although each delivery company seems to use it's own version. Not to worry; modern tracking systems can read them all, and can generate self-adhesive bar code labels for anything that isn't already tagged, such as letters or guest baggage. They can even import the complete batch of barcodes for every package in a shipment from the delivery driver's terminal, without having to scan them in individually. Give the tracking systems PC access to the PMS for guest name look-up, and you know what has to go where and when. And that includes knowing that it needs to stay in a storage area until the guest's arrival date.

The critical factor is making sure that a deliverable item is scanned every time it's moved – when it's received, when it's put into storage, when it's taken out for delivery, and when it's delivered. Apart from the general improvement in efficiency this brings, the date/time information captured can be invaluable, whether it's who signed for a package (and where and when) which a guest may later mislay, peak traffic numbers to help forecast staffing needs, and the timeliness (and any noticeable damage) of the packages delivered to you. Even the delivery services welcome this; it's much easier for them to resolve shipping disputes if you have simple, clear records of delivery.

Two systems worth exploring in this area are from RHR Systems and A2B Tracking. RHR's Automated Package Distribution System uses wireless Windows CE-based hand-held terminals to scan codes and print two-part receipt forms for the guest to sign, and includes direct guest name look-up interfaces for the major vendors' PMSs. A2B's Trackpad similar system incorporates signature-capture functions in its hand-held units.

Either has the potential to transform this important area, improving staff morale (since they now have control over the data) and eliminating rebates given to irate guests. They can also considerably reduce the manual effort spent on manual tracking systems, not to mention the inevitable waste of expensive staff time spent frantically searching for missing items. And for even greater benefit, look at integrating them operationally with a rapid response system, discussed later.

Uniform Control
Another area where you can put bar codings simplicity and accuracy to good use is in controlling the purchase, issue and maintenance of your staff uniforms. Bonding a permanent barcode label into each uniform piece allows you to track who's been issued with what, when, how often it's been cleaned - and so when it's reaching the end of its expected life - and how often it's been repaired by your seamstress.

The benefits come from several areas. The biggest is in reduced purchasing costs, since you know exactly which pieces of which style and size your staff actually need, either as new or for replacing worn-out items. Having an itemized list of each item sent out in each laundry batch can also have a significant impact in catching errors in cleaning bills; tracking how quickly items need replacements or repairs can help you monitor manufacturers' quality guarantees, further reducing replacement costs. You could also reduce labor costs by tying in a conveyer system to retrieve an employee's uniform at the swipe of his or her ID card, and, of course, you'll know quickly which items must be returned when an employee leaves.

What kind of ROI does this give you? According to Invotech, manufacturer of one such system ("GIMS"), most of its customers see a full repayment of their investment in 8-12 months – and the system will continue to produce savings and a comforting degree of control for years.

Table management
How much restaurant business are you losing through not knowing just which tables are free at any point? If the hostess can't see the whole layout from the front, how much time is wasted while staff constantly walk the room checking table status? And how long do your guests wait in line while this happens? Do you often seat parties of 2 at tables for 4 because you didn't know a two-top was available? How long does a ready table sit empty because there's no way for the busser to let the hostess know it's been re-set? All these problems can be solved with a table management system, and you can both fill the room more completely and turn the tables faster, as a result.

Even a straightforward system (TableCheck's room panels are a good example) can make a significant difference. Identical panels at the hostess stand, at the kitchen entrance and at server stations, graphically showing the room layout with colored LEDs for each tables status, let everyone know the current situation. The busser can reset a table to "ready" by switching the LED on the kitchen panel as he passes; the hostess sees it at once, assigns the table to the next guest and switches it to "occupied." Results? Well, the Anaheim Hilton reported an increase of 3.4% in covers served through more accurate placement of small parties, and a 38% decrease in guest wait time – and higher guest satisfaction all round.

More complex software-based systems give even greater control, and offer the possibility of guest data capture as well, especially when linked to a restaurant reservation system (see the screen shot in Fig.1, and the sidebar on Doubletree). You can offer a higher standard of service to your frequent diners if you have their information in a database and recognize them when they call for reservations – and even more if you combine this information with your PMS' guest history. Walk-up guests appreciate the freedom of being given a pager and being beeped automatically when their table becomes ready. The reduction in stress level at the hostess desk, from having accurate status information and computer-suggested table assignments for the most efficient seating, is tangible to staff and guests. And if the table management system is linked to the POS and can open a POS check as soon as the table is assigned to a guest, you've added a significant control over your brunch operation, too.

Guestroom energy management
Energy management first came to prominence in the 70's when fuel prices went through the roof – and quickly developed somewhat of a mixed reputation. Sure, they saved a lot of money, but the guestroom implementations were also inflexible and intrusive to the guest, cycling HVAC units on and off, shutting down when the guest went to sleep, and so on.

Not any more. Modern systems incorporate far more sophistication, and can work quietly away, saving you money day in and day out without the guest being aware of them at all. Not only that, they're increasingly integrated with other applications that really increase the effectiveness of them all.

What makes these systems really productive is the combination of an in-room guest sensor with a door switch and some elementary logic in the control unit on the HVAC unit itself. When the door opens and the sensor detects the presence of a guest, control of the thermostat is passed to the guest, bounded only by the outer limits you've set (to avoid pipes freezing in winter and the air-conditioner running flat-out in the summer). If the guest goes to sleep and there's no detectable movement– no problem, the door hasn't opened, the room's still occupied. If the door opens and motion or body heat is still detected afterwards, the room is still occupied; perhaps someone came in, perhaps the guest put his room service tray in the corridor for pick-up. Only when no occupant is sensed after the door has opened is the thermostat set back automatically to the "unoccupied" levels you've defined. And shutting off the unit when the balcony door is open prevents the guest from trying to heat the whole courtyard.

A neat trick that can be driven from this logic is an invisible indicator built into the door frame outside the room to show whether or not it is occupied. A small hand-held unit carried by the housekeeping staff, the engineers or mini-bar restockers can instantly show whether a guest is in the room – even if he's asleep and has forgotten to put out the "Do Not Disturb" sign – and thus make sure he's not interrupted. And if you tie these indicators back to one or more central display panels – as, for example, Lodging Technology's GEM system does – you have an excellent tool for checking housekeeping discrepancies, or for identifying intrusion or sleep-ins in unsold rooms. Even more important, you have a rapid way of identifying rooms that are actually occupied in case of fire or other emergency requiring evacuation, a real time and life saver.

Add-on features go on from there, of course. Once you have central monitoring of room data, adding another door contact to the guestroom mini-bar provides central monitoring of which bars have been opened – and you can see what a time-saver that can be in restocking! Take it one stage further with an interface to the PMS, and you can set back the room thermostat even further when the guest checks out (to your default "unsold" levels), and re-activate it to the "unoccupied" setting upon check-in. Of course, you'll need to set these limits with due consideration to the amount of time it takes a guest to reach her room after checking in, so that the HVAC system has time to bring the room up to a comfortable level before she opens the door. Energy savings are good; guest satisfaction and repeat business are better.

Multi-function systems like these (such as those from Senercomm and InnCom) can be installed with surprisingly little disruption to the hotel, since they use the existing in-room TV cabling system for data communications with their central controls. Infra-red links to other modules within the guestroom also mean swift and non-intrusive implementation; for example, such a link to electronic door locks provides all the extra security of centralized intrusion detection without having to wire each door. And InnCom even provides bedside control units with infra-red remote control of temperature, room lighting, drapes, and much more.

Overall, once you have the basic cost-saving energy management functions in place, you can build up to a whole different level of guest service that can grow repeat business, as well as incorporate whichever central control functions make sense for your property.

Taking integration in a different direction, other systems (such as Alerton's Microset) can provide not only occupancy-based guestroom energy management, but also can form part of a whole-property energy control system. This includes control of all boilers, coolers and air handlers, and even non-energy equipment (such as irrigation systems) that need to be controlled on a timed or sensor-driven basis.

Keeping energy-consuming equipment set to work accurately within well-controlled limits is the key to minimizing costs while still providing good guest service. Given that they can also provide early warning of potential failures by monitoring each item's critical parameters, you can also minimize replacement costs through pro-active repairs, saving even more money. And clearly you can leverage this information even further by passing it to systems such as Engineering Management or Rapid Response.

Maintenance management
Maintenance engineers have a pretty thankless task; they're only called in when something's broken or a guest complains about a room problem, and if they do their job really well and everything runs just perfectly, no-one notices. Yet it's not often realized how hard it is to track the thousands of preventive maintenance tasks efficiently, let alone make sure that all called-in work orders are handled with the appropriate priority.

Good maintenance systems allow for the pro-active scheduling of all the preventive maintenance tasks required by the hotel equipment, whether it be the heating boilers, kitchen dishwashers or guestrooms. They check to see that necessary supplies (filters, belts, etc.) are in stock ahead of time and create purchase orders to fill any shortages, balance the tasks across the appropriate trade skills on an achievable schedule, and generally bring a sense of order and control to a difficult and complex area.

Automating the creation, assignment and tracking of Work Orders as needed can also produce really significant benefits. Not only can a call be routed immediately to a pager carried by the appropriate person (a specific engineer, for example, or the dispatcher for a particular department) but other calls reporting the same problem will be recognized as duplicates and not passed on. The resulting improvement in efficiency from not having to check every call, and the ability to fix problems faster – especially guest-reported ones – make a difference both to the bottom line and to guest satisfaction.

Keeping track of the volume of open work orders and scheduled work can also pay big dividends when reviewing staff, making it easier to see which departments are overloaded, or which types of task are proving to be more of a problem than anticipated. Knowing the details makes a big difference to finding the best solution to the problem – and you've increased managements efficiency as well as the equipments.

Linking a maintenance system to an energy management can help, too, by having the EMS report usage statistics for equipment that need service after a given number of hours in operation, or by creating a work order when a monitored temperature setting is exceeded. And once you have the ability to record the assignment and completion of engineering tasks, it's a short step to extending that concept to many other areas of hotel operations. And that leads nicely into:

Rapid Response Systems
This is where it all comes together. Many hotel companies are looking at the single-point-of-contact concept to provide the best possible guest service, with just one number to call for any request, whether it's housekeeping, room service, bell captain, or anything else. There's an obvious correlation with engineering work order systems here; a system that records each request, assigns it to the best or closest staff member, and tracks it to completion is even more essential when guests are directly involved. Monitoring how long each request has been open allows automatic escalation when the hotel's service standards are close to being exceeded, and provide excellent data to review potential performance problems – and increase guest satisfaction still further.

And once you have the system in place, the opportunities for tracking all kinds of performance-related data and analyzing it for improvements is limited only by your imagination. For example, guests' special requests can be entered for housekeeping to action on the day of arrival, valet-parked cars can be brought up at the requested time, equipment sent out for repair can be tracked for prompt return, outside contractors' speed of response to service calls can be monitored against contractual obligations, and so on. You can only manage what you can measure; these systems can measure a lot of things.

Several vendors have come up with excellent systems for this growing field. Management Technology's Espresso!, developed from an engineering management background, has proven well capable of extension to guest-related requests. An interesting approach is that hotel employees can call work orders in by phone directly to the system, which can then automatically dispatch the right person (via alphanumeric pager) to take care of it without having to interrupt a service center dispatcher who may be handling a guest call.

Metromedia's HotelExpert system came directly from the guest service needs of New York hotels, and is also now being used for many wider tracking applications, including engineering work orders – and, interestingly enough, package delivery tracking reminders.

Diversified Computer's Guestware also comes from the guest-focused direction, and includes interfaces to Espresso! (in Marriott properties) and Maximo (in Starwoods) for automatic work order generation for maintenance issues. It has also taken on a wider role as a more complete guest history system than is typically found in PMSs, working with them to enhance the repeat guest's experience. Guest requests and comments can be entered by any staff member, from bell staff to check-out clerks as well as central-service attendants, and guest comment-card data can also be entered quickly; folio data can be captured automatically from the PMS. An automatic review of the PMS' arrival report then produces a detailed list of all repeat guests' preferences and experiences with the property, and allows a very focused approach to preparing for their next visit, even to acknowledging any prior problems. And having that information available to management and to the front desk staff at check-out allows the guest's satisfaction with how a problem was handled to be checked before he leaves.

What's the payback here? An ROI study by an Espresso! user (The Sheraton Waikiki) showed annual savings of over $60,000 from preventing work order duplicates, and increases from 5-8% in guest satisfaction surveys. All the Sheraton properties in Hawaii now use the system, and have implemented centralized data tracking and reporting to improve efficiencies even further.

Other players to consider
Inventory and purchasing systems are another classic case where the automation of routine, behind-the-scenes work can bring major benefits in efficiency, both in tighter control of your assets and in ensuring that cost-effective purchase policies are followed. And yet a surprising number of properties still track outstanding purchase orders on paper, or in Lotus 1-2-3 worksheets, with minimal security.

Many of the major F&B vendors provide hotels with access to their own proprietary systems, and these can indeed streamline much routine work, especially if you have a single-vendor, cost-plus contract. But these can never cover all of your needs, and having an independent system can improve efficiency across the board (especially in a centralized multi-property purchasing environment) while giving you tremendously valuable information to help when renegotiating contracts.

The whole I/P area really justifies a separate article, especially with the rise in Internet-based bidding and purchasing activity, but in the meantime check out systems from Eatec, ADACO and Stratton-Warren for good examples of modern systems.
You'll have noticed from the above that one important element that leverages results across multiple operational areas is the exchange of information between different systems. This has become really vital to effective hotel operations, making key data available instantly to everyone who can use it, consolidating activity data into a cohesive whole that can be analyzed meaningfully and reliably, and preventing the errors and time-wasting that so easily arise from entering the same information into multiple systems.

Many of the principal systems out there already come with interfaces to other vendors' products, but if you have a less-than-mainstream combination of applications you may be out of luck. While most vendors will consider producing a custom interface for you if necessary, you're often at the mercy of their other priorities and marketing considerations.
But a relatively recent arrival from Microscript now provides an alternative: a product that allows you to interface any two systems without knowing the underlying source code or message formats, just from access to their screens (see Fig. 3). Once you're familiar with its approach, it can quickly repay the investment through really streamlining the flow of data – and of management information – throughout the organization. And you can update interfaces and develop any new ones you need on your own schedule, not a vendor's.

Summary
Every Oscar-winning producer pays tribute to the whole production crew, and rightly so. The success of any performance does depend a great deal on the big name stars, certainly, but they can't do it alone, and the task of production becomes immeasurably harder and more costly if the support technicians lack the tools to be efficient and coordinated as a team. Talk to the cast and the crew; they understand where the bottlenecks are, and how information can be transferred between departments more effectively. Then bring in the right tools – and clear a space on your shelf for a statue.

Jon Inge is an independent consultant specializing in property level technology. He can be reached at www.joninge.com. This article first appeared in Hospitality Upgrade magazine in the Spring 1999 issue, www.hospitalityupgrade.com.