Opera property management system an evaluation report - Assignment Example

?Opera Property Management System An Evaluation Report By Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Property Management System4 Opera Property Management System 6 Key Features of the Opera Property Management System 8 Reservations 8 Rate Management 9 Profiles 9 Front Desk 10 Back Office Interface 10 Rooms Management 10 Cashiering 11 Accounts Receivable 11 Commissions 11 Reporting 11 Hospitality System Interfaces 12 Wireless Connection 12 Issues with the System 13 Comparison with other Systems 13 Recommendations 13 Conclusion 14 References 15 Introduction In the past few years information technology (IT) has brought a number of changes to almost all the industries. However, it has a serious impact on the hospitality industry. In fact, a large number of people from hospitality industry now consider that the implementation of latest and modern IT tools is necessary not simply to maintain and run hospitality related functions but also to set up a bridge with potential customers. In this scenario, these varying IT trends in hotel industry force all kinds of hospitality firms to effectively take advantage of any innovative technology that can offer their firm’s substantial excellence in forms of superior customer satisfaction and employee competence. Up till now a large number of researches and studies have been carried out by various researchers to find out the positive effects of IT tools and systems on the hospitality industry. For instance, (Lee et al., 2003) carried out a research in order to determine the impact of information technology supported systems in Australia, which demonstrated that the implementation of information and management systems can play a significant role in increasing the capability of hospitality industries. For instance, these systems can facilitate their employees, enhance service quality, increase efficiencies, gain competitive edge, effectively build and maintain profitable relationships with new and existing customers, and improve overall business productivity (Karadag & Dumanoglu, 2009; Lee et al., 2003; Galen et al., 2003). As discussed above, the use of IT supported tools and systems has become essential in the hospitality industry. In this scenario, different firms use different systems to manage their business operation. The selection of a property management system heavily depends on the nature and size of the hospitality firm. This paper presents a critical review of an information system that is particularly designed for managing and dealing with property related operations. In this paper I am going to review a modern property management system known as Opera Property Management System. This paper will discuss different aspects of Opera Property Management System. Property Management System Before going into the depth of this property management system there is need to understand the importance of using these IT systems in the hospitality industry. As Opera Property Management System focuses on Wi-Fi usage so we will also discuss the use of Wi-Fi technology in the hospitality industry. In their research, (Pandey, 2010) discuss the importance of information technology for the hospitality industry. According to their viewpoint from dealing with guests and customers and developing and presenting food menus to keeping track of their employees, IT tools and systems have not only completely changed but also restructured the way the hospitality firms carry out their tasks in this information technology based era. In fact, the hospitality sector for all time thrash about to find out more ground-breaking tools and applications with the passage of time as they make changes to the format of the hotel and restaurant business (Pandey, 2010). In addition, a large number of researches and studies have concluded that IT tools and applications have turned out to be a key driver of economical growth for the hospitality industry in the past few years. In this scenario, extensive availability of easy to use and state-of-the-art tools and software applications for performing business operations for instance faultless and continuous communication and sharing of business data and information, a compilation of significant performance data and coordinated inventory access, have revolutionized the structure of the hospitality industry. Additionally, one of the major benefits that the hospitality industry has got through this automation is improved customer experience and satisfaction, which led to higher devotion. These are only a few aspects that show how the implementations of management systems have helps hospitality industry increase their earnings, and also helped them in minimizing expenses on a long-standing basis by reducing the number of employees and enhancing the quality of service and business performance (Pandey, 2010). As we have selected Opera Property Management System for this paper and it also contains a feature of Wi-Fi technology, which is a latest technology to connect computers and communication devices without using the wires. It can be very useful in locations where there is no availability of wired lines (Bulchand-Gidumal et al., 2011; Williams, 2006). Considering the always increasing expectations and needs of their employees and visitors, a large number of hospitality firms have started making use of the modern internet technologies for instance wireless internet. Without a doubt, the use of wireless internet is normally seen in hospitality firms in recent times because it is a very supportive service or facility for hospitality firms to get and adopt. In this scenario, many researches show that Wireless local area networks (Wi-Fi LANs) are believed to be a most attractive IT trend in the hospitality industry. In addition, the research also demonstrates that the use of Wi-Fi technology is at all times aimed at maximizing the efficiency of the hospitality industry by making uncomplicated registration and providing greater than before processes and capabilities to the management and employees of hospitality firms, rather than making use of it as a service to offer to people and visitors with a view to improving their experience. Despite the fact that, whatever the scenario is, Wi-Fi is always useful to the hospitality sector (Baines, 1998; Bulchand-Gidumal et al., 2011; Nikolis, 2008). Opera Property Management System As discussed above, the hospitality sector is a several billion dollar industry that complexly relies on attracting the visitors from all over the globe for this there is dire need for non-refundable revenue and availability of spare time. Basically, a hospitality firm for instance a restaurant, a hotel, or a banquet can comprise a number of diverse areas or departments working collectively. Some of the major departments that a hospitality firm can have comprise human resources, operations, finance, sales and marketing etc. In the past few years, the trend of staying at hotels has raised to a massive extent as an increasing number of people have started to stay in hotels, and dining in restaurants so it has become complicated for the hotel management and employees to effectively manage relationships and store data and information regarding transactions that are made in the property. In this scenario, the hotel operations are further divided into subdivision such as food production, rooms division management, food and beverage service and maintenance (BV2000, 2012; Sarvankar, 2011). In addition, the Rooms Division Management is also categorized into further departments comprising Front Office (also known as reception) and Housekeeping. However, the majority of hotels make use of Opera Property Management System for smooth functioning of the Rooms Division Management. In fact, it is purposefully designed to meet the varying needs and expectations of the hotel industry. It increases the firm’s efficiency and minimized the rate of human error significantly. Additionally, Opera Property Management System incorporates a wide variety of tools and features that would be required by a hotel staff for carrying out their day by day tasks for instance it incorporates a wide variety of tools to manage reservations, ensure visitor arrival and departure, assigning rooms and handling rooms inventory, managing account and billing matters and accommodating in the house guest needs (BV2000, 2012; Sarvankar, 2011). Figure 1opera PMS, Image Source: http://www.micros-fidelio.eu/~/media/images/micros-fidelio/images/eu/2%20opera%20pms%20individualprofile.ashx?mw=433&sc=1 Basically, the Opera Property Management System is tailored by the Micros Corporation in accordance with the particular needs and expectation of the hospitality industry. Moreover, Opera Property Management System is a very flexible application as it can be used by integrating it with other tools and applications for instance room service and Point of sale for the restaurant, as a customer and business information system for business and customer relationship management and so on. Above all, the Opera property management system is compatible with every kind of property’s particular needs and requirements and works in whichever multi-property or single-property manner, where a centralized and single database is shared by all properties in a complex sharing environment. Furthermore, this system is completely compatible and incorporated with opera gaming and computer accounting, opera catering and sales, opera vacation ownership system, opera central systems and the opera quality management system, opera reservation system (ORS), and the opera customer information system (OCIS) (BV2000, 2012; Sarvankar, 2011). Key Features of the Opera Property Management System This section presents a detailed analysis of different functions and features of the Opera property management system: figure 2Features of opera PMS, Image source: http://nikhilsarvankar.blogspot.com/2011/01/opera-property-management-system-for.html Reservations Opera property management system provides the hotel staff with a wide variety of functionalities and tools for creating and maintaining individual, group, and business block reservations, comprising cash management, terminations, wait listing, confirmations, sharing and room blocking. In addition, reservation features of the Opera property management system can be combined with additional features for instance cashiering, customer profiles and cash receiving. It also supports confirmations to send automatic emails to potential customers, and distributing requests if someone wants a smoking room or a sea facing room (BV2000, 2012; Sarvankar, 2011). Rate Management This system also incorporates a wide variety of features to establish and set and automatically keeping an eye on service charges, to quote rate, and to forecast and analyze the most comprehensive rate management system in the industry. In this scenario, the Opera property management system works in combination with the opera revenue management system as well as various other yield management applications (BV2000, 2012; Sarvankar, 2011). Profiles Opera property management system also allows staff members of a hotel to keep record of their guests. In this scenario, it provides staff members with the facility of profiles which hold full demographic data and information regarding their guests, contacts, business accounts, groups, sources and agents. In addition, these profiles contain some of the basic and personal information regarding people such as their addresses, types of membership, phone numbers, guest preferences, stay and revenue details and extra details that can be required for reservations management and it makes a number of other processes quicker and more correct (BV2000, 2012; Sarvankar, 2011). Front Desk Opera property management system provides a wide variety of features that can be used by the front desk staff to serve arrivals and in-house guests of the hotel. This feature of the system is used to deal with individual guests, groups, and walk-ins, and contains some of the major functionalities such as managing guest messages and wake up calls, room blocking, and developing and following up on inter-department advisories, or traces (BV2000, 2012; Sarvankar, 2011). Back Office Interface Opera property management system provides a wide variety of features in the form of back office interface to support various important business processes such as cash transactions and transfers, daily statistics transfers, market statistics transfers and city ledger transfers (BV2000, 2012; Sarvankar, 2011). Rooms Management This module of opera property management system contains a wide variety of features that are used to support all kinds of room supervision comprising room availability, maintenance, housekeeping, and facility management. In this scenario, there is another most important feature that is known as The Queue Rooms feature, which establishes a bridge between Front Office and Housekeeping activities when visitors or new guests are looking for rooms which are not right away available for allotment (BV2000, 2012; Sarvankar, 2011). Cashiering This module integrates a wide variety of features to deal with payment related matters such as passers-by and posting guest charges (together with taxes and other charges), managing cash deposited in advance, making posting adjustments, keeping track of balance, departure and folio printing are some of the major operations managed through opera cashiering. In addition, this module of the Opera property management system also supports different kinds of payment options per reservation comprising cash, credit cards, check and direct bill (BV2000, 2012; Sarvankar, 2011). Accounts Receivable Opera property management system provides an excellent support for accounts receivable. This operation is managed through a database which encompasses data and information regarding direct billing, account duration, invoicing, bill payments, account research and reminder and statement generation. In addition, in this database staff member can enter old balances from outside accounting systems (BV2000, 2012; Sarvankar, 2011). Commissions Opera property management system also incorporates a wide variety of features for computing, processing, and following up on travel agent and other kinds of commission charges, which are processed either by check or via EFT (BV2000, 2012; Sarvankar, 2011). Reporting This property management system can generate more than 360 isolated standard reports. In this scenario, different hotels can customize different reports depending on the requirements of each hotel and new reports can also be generated as required by making use of the opera’s integrated report writer (BV2000, 2012; Sarvankar, 2011). Global Perspective One of the most important advantages of opera property management system is that it takes into consideration global perspective. No matter in which country this system is going to be installed and use it supports multi-language and multi-currency in order to comply with the needs and expectations of international operations. In this scenario, charges and incomes can be changed to the local currency to any other currency used in the world. In addition, it makes use of the guest’s profile language to correctly select the language for guest communication (BV2000, 2012; Sarvankar, 2011). Hospitality System Interfaces This property management system integrates interfaces of a wide variety of third-party hospitality systems such as telephone, yield management and electronic switching, key lock, TV and video entertainment, restaurant POS, minibar, activities scheduling and wake up call systems (BV2000, 2012; Sarvankar, 2011). Wireless Connection Staff members and management can be connected with the property management system using OPERA2Go. In fact, this is a guest service agent-facing user interface that is purposefully developed to launch and work on all kinds of communication devices. In this scenario, the functionality and features available in opera property management system can be extended without making use of front-desk terminals. The use of wireless connection to PMS helps hospitality firms increase effectiveness by facilitating staff members to get connected wirelessly to the hotel PMS. In addition, it increases service accurateness by making use of profile management to include individual guest requirements underway. Moreover, it also promotes faithfulness by providing a customized arrival and departure service for visitors and guests who want to keep away from the line at the front desk (Micros, 2012). Issues with the System Though, this system offers a wide variety of features to support almost all the operations of a hotel but there can be some issues with the system. For instance, it can be costly to purchase this system. The installation and use of the system require extensive computer skills. In this scenario, the management needs to invest in training the staff members. In addition, in case of any problem into the system the entie hotel business can stop as the hote completely depends on successful working of this system. Comparison with other Systems When we compare opera property manehement system with other property management systems such as Fidelio and OnSitePropertyManager we find it more effective than others. Without a doubt, no other property management system contains so many features which are available in opera property management system. In this scenario, OnSitePropertyManager provides some of the features but it is an online application and it cannot be installed on a system. And with such an online application a number of security risks are also associated. Recommendations We have discussed a number of features of opera property management system and its support for the hospitality industry. Without a doubt, its implementation makes the business operations simple. However, before the implementation of any property management system it is essential for a hotel to develop a comprehensive plan to address the process of implementation. At this stage, it is essential for the hotel to understand its basic operations and need for a computerized management system. In addition, a hotel must adopt a system through which guests can make reservations easily and the speed that its staff members can check them in and out can to a great extent improve the guest experience. In this scenario, a hotel must adopt a more user-friendly interface as it will be very effective in improving staff’s efficiency as a result improving performance and staff satisfaction. A hotel must keep in mind the priorities of its staff members before deciding the implementation of a property management system. In addition, before choosing a property management system it must evaluate different property management systems available in the market and in this process it should involve its staff members (UniDevCo, Inc., 2004). Conclusion This paper has presented a review of opera property management system. This property management system is created by Micros, which is an Australian firm. This system is a widely used by small, medium and large size hotels. This paper has discussed some of the important features of the system. This system contains a wide variety of features which support all kinds of operations conducted inside a hotel. All the features of this system are very attractive, which make it a number one choice of the hotels. This paper has also presented some recommendations that should be kept in mind before deciding for the implementation of property management system. References Baines, A., 1998. Technology and tourism. Work Study, 47(5), pp.160-63. Bulchand-Gidumal, J., Melian-Gonzalez, S. & Lopez-Valcarcel, B.G., 2011. Improving hotel ratings by offering free Wi-Fi. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 2(3), pp.235-45. BV2000, 2012. OPERA PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE. [Online] Available at: http://bv2000.com.pk/index.php/hms/pms/opera [Accessed 03 January 2013]. Galen, R.C., Tarun, M. & Cihan, C., 2003. Hospitality Information Technology. 5th ed. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. Karadag, E. & Dumanoglu, S., 2009. The productivity and competency of information technology in upscale hotels: The perception of hotel managers in Turkey. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 21(4), pp.479-90. Lee, S.-C., Barker, S. & Kandampully, J., 2003. Technology, service quality, and customer loyalty in hotels: Australian managerial perspectives. Managing Service Quality, 13(5), pp.423-32. Micros, 2012. Wirelessly connect to your hotel PMS via any mobile device. [Online] Available at: http://www.micros.com.au/en/Hotels/hotel-software/ecommerce/opera2go-portable-hotel-pms.aspx [Accessed 03 January 2013]. Nikolis, N., 2008. Information Technology in the Hospitality Industry. [Online] Available at: http://ezinearticles.com/?Information-Technology-in-the-Hospitality-Industry&id=1716799 [Accessed 06 January 2013]. Pandey, O., 2010. Technologies That Help The Hospitality Industry Cut Costs And Increase Efficiencies. [Online] Available at: http://consultbenefit.com/it-tools-for-your-biz/technologies-that-help-the-hospitality-industry-cut-costs-and-increase-efficiencies/ [Accessed 04 January 2013]. Sarvankar, N., 2011. Opera Property Management System for the Hospitality Industry. [Online] Available at: http://nikhilsarvankar.blogspot.com/2011/01/opera-property-management-system-for.html [Accessed 05 January 2013]. UniDevCo, Inc., 2004. How to Choose a Property Management System. [Online] Available at: http://www.uniresman.com/How_to_choose_a_PMS.pdf [Accessed 03 January 2013]. Williams, P., 2006. Wi-Fi security. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 21( 4), pp.117-17. Read More