Hospitality Technology
International (Pty) Ltd

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Humour for the day!

Zoo Job

One day an out of work mime is visiting the zoo and attempts to earn some money as a street performer. As soon as he starts to draw a crowd, a zoo keeper grabs him and drags him into his office. The zoo keeper explains to the mime that the zoo's most popular attraction, a gorilla, has died suddenly and the keeper fears that attendance at the zoo will fall off.

He offers the mime a job to dress up as the gorilla until they can get another one. The mime accepts.

So the next morning the mime puts on the gorilla suit and enters the cage before the crowd comes. He discovers that it's a great job. He can sleep all he wants, play and make fun of people and he draws bigger crowds than he ever did as a mime. However, eventually the crowds tire of him and he tires of just swinging on tires. He begins to notice that the people are paying more attention to the lion in the cage next to his. Not wanting to lose the attention of his audience, he climbs to the top of his cage, crawls across a partition, and dangles from the top to the lion's cage. Of course, this makes the lion furious, but the crowd loves it.

At the end of the day the zoo keeper comes and gives the mime a raise for being such a good attraction. Well, this goes on for some time, the mime keeps taunting the lion, the crowds grow larger, and his salary keeps going up. Then one terrible day when he is dangling over the furious lion he slips and falls. The mime is terrified.

The lion gathers itself and prepares to pounce. The mime is so scared that he begins to run round and round the cage with the lion close behind. Finally, the mime starts screaming and yelling, "Help me, help me!", but the lion is quick and pounces. The mime soon finds himself flat on his back looking up at the angry lion and the lion says,

"Shut up you idiot! Do you want to get us both fired?"

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HTI in association with...

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Breaking News

HTI Executive Committee (EXCO)!

HTI (Pty) Ltd recently formed an Executive Committee to discuss and implement mutual objectives on an ongoing basis. The EXCO consists of representatives from key areas within the company, such as Finance and Administration, Development, Operations, Marketing, Support, Technical and Upper Management.

The EXCO met for the first time at the begining of this month and it was a huge success based on the constructive content that we managed to table, discuss and present to the committee on the day. The major points of discussion will be published to existing customers and you will be able to track our progress thereafter. The primary objective of the EXCO at present is to formulate a group strategy to improve the product offering and service that we currently provide. One of the themes that came from this discussion also involved a road map that must be made available to the customer in order for them - our most valuable asset - to keep abreast of all the developments and product features that are planned for implementation.

The HTI EXCO members are as follows:
(Standing, from left to right) Fanie Labuschagne (Technical Manager), Danny van den Heever
(Support Manager), Mark van der Heever (Development) and Rory Montgomery (Marketing).
(Seated, from left to right) Judy Tipograph (General Manager), James Montgomery (MD) and
Stephanie Byl (Finance & Accounts) - Absent: John Hoog (Director)

HTI at Indaba 2009

HTI will be at Indaba 2009 - to visit our existing customers and to meet with prospective customers. Please feel free to contact us beforehand if you would like to set aside some time to discuss our solutions or just to chat about your plans going forward and we will be happy to assist where possible.

Email us at info@hti-systems.co.za or call us on 011 803 2208 - to schedule time at Indaba.

Help us Help you!

In our ongoing effort to provide exceptional service to our users, we will be asking you to participate in a survey regarding your service experience with HTI. In the next week, you will be receiving a questionnaire that we hope you will respond to honestly. Your experiences and opinions are very important to us and are never taken lightly, so please take the time to complete the form and return it to us.

We have also implemented a policy of following up on all new installations and site visits. In addition to understanding how we might make our time on site more productive, we will be asking some pointed questions about your particular experience with our consultants. Although often perceived as an opportunity to criticize, we hope you'll take this opportunity to offer compliments where appropriate as well.

Staff Stories

Who said Techies were boring...

Recently, the Managing Director of eRes® had one of those moments when all sense and rationality goes out the window... or should I say 'out the door of a plane'? Andre Richards ended up strapping himself to an adrenalin junkie and put his life in the hands of this skydiving mad-man as he plummeted to earth! It is good to know that he got through it, but personally I would stick to scuba-diving Andre!?!

There goes the plane, and you are not in it...?

Cool, calm and collected!!

Support Report

More New Faces

Recession? Who says there's a recession? It's business as usual at HTI, with lots on the go. Even in this month with lots of holidays and short weeks, we're managing to keep busy with new installations, conversions and new staff.

Joining the Support and Installation Team this month are Clinton Milne and Bryn Barcza, both of whom come to us with strong experience on the Food & Beverage side of operations. Currently Clinton and Bryn are busy training with Jeanine, who we understand is quite a tough taskmaster! Jeanine has given both of the guys high grades and promises to have them "up and running" in the support centre in no time.

            
Clinton Milne                                                Bryn Barcza

Product Spotlight

eRes® Version 5!!

eRes® version 5, which is due for release in early May 2009, introduces the following new features:

The Services functionality has been improved and the following key features are available:
- The Services booking procedure on the front end has been streamlined
- Service can be linked to one or many Properties
- Services may be marked as mandatory at certain Properties which results in the service
  being automatically booked when the Property concerned is booked
- User Right: Auto Assign Service date: Forces the user to indicate the Service date at
  booking stage API

The eRes® API offers the following enhancements:
- Implements OpenTravel Specification 2008A
- Ability to book by Room Category
- Ability to search by room features
- Services may be booked via API
- Linked Services are now returned in the Availability responses to API

Synchronise Unit Breakdown
The ability to synchronize the Unit Breakdown is available in version 5. In essence, when dealing with a multiple itinerary reservation, the user may amend the Unit Breakdown to accommodate the required rooms configuration. Should the user wish to apply the amended Unit Breakdown to all itinerary lines, an option is available to synchronize.

Restriction: Close Provisional Reservations
A new restriction type where a Hotel is closed to Provisional arrivals has been developed. Applying this restriction on a Hotel will force the user to select Account or Credit Card prior to saving the reservation, thereby prohibiting any reservation that is not of Guaranteed status.

Opportunity Cost
Opportunity Cost can be calculated per day or per stay. Traditionally this setting was only available in the Settings table. eRes® version 5 makes this setting available on the Property edit screen, allowing each System Administrator to control the Opportunity Cost calculation method per Property.

Allocations in eRes® WebAdmin
Version 5 introduces the ability to add and maintain Allocations from the eRes® WebAdmin utility. In addition, the ability to define block out dates is available from the same module.

First Night Cancellation Rule
Cancellation Policy Rules have been extended to offer users the option of defining a First Night’s Accommodation rule Cancellation Policy rule, which, when applied, will charge the value of the first night’s accommodation as a cancellation fee.

Property Edit
Similar information on the Property edit screen has been grouped together and offers tabs for ease of access.

eRes® Reports

       Reservation Profitability Report
       Reservation Profitability report provides clients that utilize Cost Components in eRes®
       with cost price, selling price and margin percentage data per reservation, for an arrival
       date range selected. Similar functionality in a table format is available on the Summary
       screen, which provides the same core cost data. Only available to users of the
       Cost Components module.

       Agent Statistical Revenue Comparisons
       Three new reports are being developed in this category - they are Agent Statistical
       Revenue Comparison by Agent; Agent Statistical Revenue Comparison by Agent Region,
       Rep and Agent; and Agent Statistical Revenue Comparison by Rep, Agent Region and
       Agent.

       Search Statistics by Channel/Source
       Reports on the search to book ratio by Channel and Source code and provides statistics
       on the average lead time, nights and properties.

Technical Review

Backup and Backup procedures for your eRes® database

We have implemented more stringent backup and backup procedures for your eRes® database to ensure that your data remains secure and easily accessible.

Previously we had maintained a copy of your eRes® database on a daily basis and these daily backups were then stored on a dedicated backup server for a two week period, this means that 14 daily backups were stored separately. We also only maintained backups of your databases and we have not kept copies of the actual applications and all there requirements because they are easily reinstalled and reconfigured.

We have now implemented the following backup and backup procedures:

1. Daily backups of your eRes® database - stored on the database and backup server
2. Daily backups of your eRes® database - backed up on an external hard drive every day
3. External hard drive is swapped every second week (14 days) and kept safely offsite
4. Registry - backed up once a week
5. Applications and folders - backed up once a week

These measures will ensure that your data remains our highest priority and that they are kept safely and securely by our technical team. It will also allow us to restore your data if the need for it arises.

New eRes® Rollout plans

We are currently in the process of rolling out version 4.2 of eRes® to all of our customers, we have just started the process again and we once again ask for your participation in the User Acceptance Testing (UAT). We do understand that the UAT takes some of your time but it ensures that you are comfortable with the new release, understand bug fixes and changes but it also gives you the opportunity to understand and learn about new features we have developed for you.

This release will however be followed very closely with version 5 of eRes®, we have been limited with the amount of clients that can perform UAT per week but we intend to get them done as soon as possible and then get you upgraded to version 5.

Customer Chronicles

And the title goes to... DigiPos

HTI is very pleased to announce that we have recently named DigiPos Store Solutions as our preferred supplier for POS hardware. We have found the DigiPos products, as well as their service, to be reliable and exceptional performers, even in some very challenging environments. We are convinced that DigiPos offers great value for money and would recommend that you contact then first when looking for new or replacement hardware for PlusPoint.

For more information, contact HTI Support or Nadine Moses at DigiPos on 011 466 4000.

Closing Remarks

PlusPoint - POS and Stock Control for Professionals!

The origins of HTI are still firmly grounded in the traditional applications of Point of Sale (POS) and Property Management Systems (PMS).

PlusPoint is the leading South African developed Food and Beverage system, designed to service individual outlets or complex multi-outlet hotel chains.

'Click' to view the POS screen

The hotel F&B environment is significantly more intricate than a mass production food franchise. PlusPoint fits in with Central Purchasing at Head Office and cascades down to finger tip control of the working hotel.

In a single hotel PlusPoint provides control for multiple outlets and multiple stores; with menus and flexible stock item reductions for Non-Sales items such as cocktails, shooters etc. (including fractions and multiplications).

'Click' to view an online brochure of PlusPoint

Seamless integration with front desk Property Management System means no lost charges and a single point of daily reporting.

Have a look at our PlusPoint brochure above for more details and then if you have any queries, or would like to see the product in more detail, please don't hesitate to contact us on
sales@hti-systems.co.za.

'Click' to view the available reports in PlusPoint

Distributors of...

National Call Centre: 0861 HTI SYS (During office hours)
Tel: +27 11 803 2208
Fax: +27 11 807 1901
Web: www.hti-systems.co.za
E-mail: info@hti-systems.co.za
Contact Us!!