IDS Softwares, 25th Anniversary. Interview with Vissal Matthew

from Hotelier Indonesia Magazine

www.hotelier-indonesia.com

December 2012

Hotelier Indonesia would like to congratulate IDS Softwares on their 25^th year in business.  We’re privileged to be joined by Vissal Mathew, Founder & Joint Managing Director of IDS to discuss their path to this momentous occasion. 

[HI]  Congratulations on 25 years, it’s quite an achievement.  As a starter, what is the IDS footprint in the global hospitality market?  

Our global footprint can be looked upon in two ways. One, in terms of our presence in 40 countries. These include South Asia, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and of course India.

Hotelier Indonesia
December 2012

Secondly, our footprint in the global hospitality market can be looked at in terms of our large bouquet of products. We are probably the only company with a solution for every market segment, from luxury and starred hotels, to boutique hotels, serviced apartments, resorts, standalone properties, limited service apartments, restaurants, lounge bars and clubs. 

While many software providers may simply downsize their software and offer it to a particular segment, this is not how IDS NEXT does it. We have built our solutions from the ground up for each market segment, keeping in mind their niche needs. We spend months understanding the operations of a luxury hotel, a chain, serviced apartments, and design solutions to automate their specific processes.

Our extensive bouquet of offerings, enterprise wide ERP solution and the comprehensive set of modules the application covers, from Front Office to Accounts Receivables, HR, to PoS, Inventory and Maintenance, besides others, have enabled us to go places.

What has also helped IDS NEXT grow rapidly is our ability to partner with other hospitality technology vendors to offer third party products. These interface with our Hotel ERP and widen its scope to provide users a more comprehensive solution.

[HI]  Where and how did IDS get their start in August 1987?

Our first client was Taj Residency in Bangalore. They were exploring the benefits of computerization and wanted to know if it would work for them. One of the most important areas of a hotel is the credit department. Most hotels conduct a lot of business on credit and it is critical for them to bring back this revenue at the earliest. IDS NEXT began by helping Taj Residency computerize their credit department and to their pleasant surprise, they were able to turn around their age-wise outstanding from 180 to 60 days! This encouraged them to computerize other departments and our application went along, growing to offer automation from one department to the next.

Other benefits of computerization experienced by Taj Residency include optimization of their manpower, responding to customer requests faster on accounts related queries and access to reports that helped them monitor revenue and expenditure in the hotel.

[HI]  What were the early years like?

The early years for IDS NEXT were tough, like they are for most other start-ups who enter the market early. We needed to create a demand for our product and show hoteliers the value of computerization and automation. During the early years, only large chains were willing to make the investment and adopt technology. Then technology was expensive too. However IDS NEXT was able to successfully offer hospitality software to a few prominent independent hotels and this acted as excellent case studies to convince the rest.

In the late 80’s and early 90’s there were few hospitality technology providers. We had to spend time understand their needs and develop customized solutions for each segment. We invested months in research. As hotel staff began to see that automation was not putting them out of jobs but was actually speeding up their work and making things easier, the barrier of initial resistance dropped and it became easy for IDS NEXT to grow its presence in India, rapidly.

[HI]  What were some of the significant benchmarks that have contributed to the company’s growth and longevity?

·         We are where we are today because IDS NEXT has an open minded attitude. We constantly take customer feedback and tweak/ refine our products to the changing needs of the market. Our products are flexible, easy to configure and customizable to our clients’ needs - be they geography specific needs, product offering, accounting methodology or taxation requirements, and it is this ability to change to satisfy our customers that has helped us go to 40 countries.

·         Every 3-4 years all our products are rebuilt from the ground up to adopt the latest technology. This process makes our products more robust, fast and in keeping with the newest technological advances

·         We are also backed by an excellent group of developers who understand how to code well

·         We always put our customers first, sometimes even if it seems economically unviable, we never say no. We partner with our clients and believe that their growth is our growth. This is one of the key reasons while 40% of our business is based on referrals and over 30% of our customers have been with us for over 10 years.

·         Our software has undergone so many iterations and improvements that it imbibes a host of best practices. When a property adopts our solution they don’t just invest in a IDS NEXT software but buy into a system with in-built intelligence which gives them a competitive edge.

[HI]  What product and operational enhancements does IDS plan for the coming years to address changes in technology and market needs?

In the coming years you will see IDS NEXT offering

·         Platform agnostic solutions that lower the TCO for our clients

·         Greater forays into mobility solutions – we have already launched Envy Dine, a restaurant software that is intuitive, has in-built intelligent and offers users a fantastic opportunity to upsell, cross sell and grow revenue

·         Foray into virtualization and cloud computing as this is the way technology is heading. We have a cloud based solution ready for launch in the form of a loyalty management tool called Guest Dynamix

·         Training – IDS NEXT software is functionally rich, and if hotels are to exploit this to the fullest they need to train staff. We offer training facilities through IDS NEXT Advantage Academy so our users can leverage our software to the maximum and grow their revenue

·         Consolidation of technology so that it does not operate in a siloed manner, but talk to each other for enhanced operational efficiency

·         Solutions that are able to communicate to a host of third party products, so that our Enterprise wide ERP can widen its scope to suit individual hotel needs

[HI]   How do the IDS systems integrate with social media?

The presence of social media is growing and hotels across segments are looking for a solution that can incorporate the benefits of social media. Our cloud based Loyalty Management Solution - Guest Dynamix is designed to do just that.

[HI]   How does IDS use social media for its own use?

Social media offers low investment, high online advantage to any company be it B2B or B2C. IDS NEXT has a large presence on social media be it Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube or document and picture sharing sites. It gives us great visibility, branding and helps us reach out to both, our clients and newer markets cost effectively.

[HI]  Where do you see IDS in five years, in ten years?

We are one of the few providers of hospitality ERP. Our solution is the most comprehensive, low on investment and licensing, functions on a single, integrated database that offers drill down visibility into hotel processes. We hope to keep expanding our ERP to offer modules like BI, revenue management, GDS and more. In the next five years we hope to also consolidate our presence in India, Asia Pacific and Middle East, while expanding our presence in the emergent markets of Africa and Central Asia.  

We also hope to consolidate our offering as a holistic provider of total technology solutions, which would better help our customers manage their hotels.

In the next 5-10 years we also hope to go public.

[HI]  What is IDS vision for the Indonesian market?

Hospitality is a key industry for Indonesia and one of the problems we see in Indonesia, is the dearth of trained hospitality manpower, we are currently working with hotel management colleges to offer our software so that students can be trained and increase their employability.

We also have partners and a sales and service team in Bali and Jakarta, and will continue to expand this team to sell more software. In the next three years we definitely hope to have a top presence in the country and be considered as a valuable international technology partner for the hospitality industry.

Hotelier Indonesia would like to thank Vissal Mathew for his participation.   We join IDS in celebrating their 25^th year anniversary.

Century Club Leverages IDS NEXT Membership Management - Manages 5300 members and a host of club facilities

Published in Hotelier Indonesia

March - April 2012

www.hotelier-indonesia.com

www.idsnext.com

The Century Club, located in the heart of Bangalore, is a sprawling 5 acre property surrounded by towering rain trees and serene tropical environs. The club has a long and illustrious past as it was started by Bharat Ratna Sir M. Visvesvaraya in 1917. Located in Cubbon Park, the Club gets its name from the 100 members it began with, and has since grown to 5300 members, with a waiting list of 15-20 years for new members!  The Century Club, incidentally, was the first club to install the IDS Club Management System.

 

The Club boasts a large and impressive set of sports and recreational activities including 3 tennis courts, a swimming pool, billiards, snooker , a library, an indoor and outdoor restaurant and even a supermarket and pharmacy. The Club also has 20 well furnished rooms and suites.

Business Problem

With such a large membership and an ever growing set of facilities, the Century Club needed high quality, well tested membership management solutions to help them automate services, provide reports that offer insights into day to day activity, and business intelligence to ensure faster decision making.

Being a renowned club, offering quality service to highly discerning guests, the Club did extensive research on various club management solutions, before selecting IDS NEXT’s Club Management solution.

Solution

While the Century Club leverages the benefits of IDS Fortune Enterprise, it is the integrated Membership module which has brought them the most visible benefits.  With this application the accounts for the entire club have been centralized, pulling up and viewing reports in now so much easier, point of sale now has extensive transparency and visibility and most importantly, the software has been quickly and easily customized to the many varied needs of the club.

IDS NEXT Club Management includes:   

• Complete system to check for membership, accounts, inventory, facility management as well as member loyalty
• Automatic daily transaction management- to reduce time and costs
• Membership accounts and profiles management - with invoicing features
• Secure data management - with easy maintenance and accessibility
• Strategic decision making and promotions planning through collated data and reports
• Easy accounting - including receivables management 
• Budget friendly - in terms of resource costs
• Smart card interface - With the use of smart cards provided to each member, the Club authenticates members’ identity through photographs and signatures stored in the Club Management System. This ensures that members’ accounts are not misused and that only authenticated members have access to the facilities of the Club.

Business Impact

After the application was installed in 2003, the Club staff and members were introduced to a host of positive changes.

Increased Guest Satisfaction

IDS NEXT’s Club Membership module brought in lots of improvements. Notices to members go out on time, members can quickly know how much is due to the club, members are mailed about programs and events at the club and there is greater participation. On the whole guest satisfaction went up by 30-40%.

Enhanced Efficiency

Before the application was installed, all administrative records and POS were being maintained manually. Now the Club has a centralized system which saves time and has increased staff efficiency. The valuable data they gather helps management access reports and statistics, and engage in better decision making, helping the Club enhanced efficiency by 60-70%.

Reduced Manpower

 Initially the staff was hesitant to adopt the Membership module. However, now they thrive on the simple application. Information about members can be accessed with just a few clicks of the mouse while POS operations and room booking are simplified. Manpower efficiency has seen an upward climb and the Club now saves 20-30% physical effort.

Access to High Quality Reports

The Membership module offers quality audit reports at POS that facilitate business intelligence and faster decision making.

Kokopo Village Resorts, Papua New Guinea Addressing IT Challenges in the Developing World

From Gaming & Leisure Magazine

Fall 2011, 10th Anniversary Issue

www.gamingandleisuremagazine.com

Lying just south of the equator, 160km (100 miles) north of Australia, Papua New Guinea (PNG) is part of a great arc of mountains stretching from Asia, through Indonesia and into the South Pacific.   With more than 600 islands, 860 languages and a population of less than 7 million, PNG’s indigenous population is one of the most diverse in the world.

PNG has several thousand separate communities, most with only a few hundred people. Divided by language, customs, and tradition, some of these communities, until recently, were unaware of the existence of neighboring groups only a few kilometers away. The diversity, reflected in a folk saying, "For each village, a different culture," is perhaps best shown in the local languages.

With per capita annual income level at US$ 1180, and an “Ease of Doing Business” ranking of 103 (out of 183 countries) it can be difficult for local businesses, hotels and resorts to find suitable technology partners.   With a smaller pool of technology professionals to draw from, a successful systems implementation can be a significantly greater challenge than we’re used to in the west.

The following is a study of how the Kokopo Village Resort in Papua New Guinea was able to address these challenges and was empowered to achieve their full potential:

Doing business better

Hospitality enterprises often deal with multiple vendors to address varied technology requirements throughout their properties. The result: lack of a centralized, unified, information management system; multiple vendor coordination issues and disjointed processes and views.

When Kokopo Village Resorts decided to adopt a technology solution to keep their business agile and growing, they found a simple answer to this challenge: IDS FortuneNEXT Enterprise. This single, comprehensive offering catered to their multiple functional and departmental needs, helped usher in smarter processes, and improve productivity.

Changing with the times

Kokopo Village Resorts is a beautiful holiday destination in the idyllic settings of Papua New Guinea’s East Britain Province. This holiday home, known for excellent service and customer-friendly practices, was a popular choice with tourists.

However, once Kokopo Town began to emerge prominently on the tourism map, it saw a sharp increase in the number of hospitality ventures. Suddenly, there were more hotels, resorts, cafes and eateries. Kokopo Village Resorts had to rethink their competitive advantage. They decided to automate processes to enhance efficiency and dramatically impact customer experience.

Meeting operational challenges with smart technology

“The competition was increasing in our town and we needed more information then just financial data,” says Douglas Pidi, Kokopo Resort. There were a host of other similar, operational challenges, including:

·        Tracking inventory and tracing material costs;

·        Finding business details such as precise occupancy rates and customer spending;

·        Tracking room availability along with room revenue;

·        Reducing manual efforts and time taken to do the above.

The Resort decided to embrace smart technology to make a difference. While there were many vendors who took a piece-meal approach to solving these challenges, few had a holistic view of the business and technology requirements. Few could provide a seamless solution, which not just countered these issues, but also empowered the business to grow.

A single solution for multiple issues

IDS FortuneNEXT Enterprise emerged as the right-fit solution, with its unique ability to cover all aspects and functions of the Resort’s operations. From managing reservations to tracking inventory, this comprehensive property management solution became a centralized, efficient way of keeping the Resort’s personnel and customers happy.

Additional features that helped the Resort stay future-ready included:

·   Strong reporting and control functions

·   Compliance with local regulatory requirements

·   Plug-and-play interfaces for third-party products to enable seamless hotel automation

·   An easy-to-maintain technical build, which supports faster updates, and greater security

·   100% application uptime and complete scalability

·   No unique hardware investments

·   24x7, live, multi-lingual support, and free user training

Gains, gains, and more gains

Kokopo Village Resort realized the benefits of having a single vendor deploy a comprehensive solution to cover all their requirements. With IDS FortuneNEXT Enterprise, they gained from:

·        Improved profitability. Greater control over everyday operations, which has led to enhanced profitability. Drag-and-drop check-in and check-out, multi-window bill split option, revenue management tools, enhanced audit modules including a night audit feature, and other such intelligent features have also boosted enterprise productivity by an overall 18%. Food and Beverage gross margins have increased by 18.5%.

·        A single, unified view of data for gathering business intelligence. They can now access relevant information based on criteria such as market segments and business sources with a mouse-click, to make critical decisions quickly.

·        Simplified, integrated processes and operations across departments. A single, central solution has resulted in standardized practices across all departments, and a smoother information sharing experience. It has eliminated data redundancies, stand-alone processes, and subsequent confusions. 

·        Better customer acquisition and retention, with more nuanced view of guest profiles and behavior. The Resort can easily see who is a repeat guest, know how much a customer has spent, and go the extra mile to make the stay a memorable one.  Faster processes and ready access to data also means quick responses to queries and requests.

·        Reduced time and increased accuracy in completing essential tasks. An easy-to-use interface, customizable parameters, SMS alerts engine to remind staff of bills and room activities, and other such features has made it simple to navigate through modules and optimize the solution. 

Kokopo Village Resort was able to overcome the obstacles facing a remote resort based in a developing country.  The resort was successful in finding a solution capable of providing for their needs while overcoming technical support issues typically addressing similar markets.

We would like to thank Kokopo Village Resort for their participation in this review.

Kokopo Village Resort website:  www.kokoporesort.com.pg
IDS Softwares website: www.idsnext.com

IDS FortuneNEXT Enterprise: helping hotels smile their way to profitability

For hotels and hospitality enterprises that work around the clock, on-call tech support is as important as the business automation/ technology solution.

Airways Hotel discovered the advantages of a 24x7 support service with their new property management solution. And now they smile all the way to the bank!

Picture perfect… almost

The Airways Hotel, a 25 year-old hotel in Papua New Guinea is part of a reputed hospitality chain in the Pacific; and a business leader in industry trends. A winner of accolades at the World Travel Awards 2010, its uniqueness has made it Papua New Guinea’s leading hotel and the World’s leading Airport Hotel for the year 2010. Located near Jacksons International Airport in Port Moresby, it overlooks the Bootless Bay and the Owen Stanley Range.

The hotel successfully deployed a technology solution to automate their operations, soon began to see glitches in their solution, which started to impact the seamless operations at the hotel.

The management faced problems with the service provider as they had limited access to technology support since they were not a large subscriber at the time. The Airways hotel also grappled with issues like the vendor interface problems and stalled night audits affecting their operational efficiency.

Serving it on a platter/ A more comprehensive note

The Hotel evaluated alternative solutions and implemented IDS FortuneNEXT Enterprise.

The solution integrated all the hospitality functions – from front office to payroll – creating a single, centralised system of operations. It even simplified front desk management, and payroll, and inventory management.

This meant:

·        No lost interfaces, and therefore, no operational delays;

·        Inventory and payroll linked to finance and accounting, for better financial 

      calculations;

·        Smart features, such as the ialert, to allow efficient communication with guests;

·        Informative financial reports to aid decision-making.

The solution’s key modules included: Front Office Management • Point of Sale • Accounts Receivable • Sales and Marketing • Banquets • Telephone Management • Materials Management • Food and Beverages Costing • Financial Management • HR and Payroll • Maintenance Management • Quality Management • SMS Alerts

Additional features helped the Hotel stay future-ready:

·        Strong reporting and control functions;

·        Compliance with local regulatory requirements;

·        Plug-and-play interfaces for third-party products to enable seamless hotel

      automation;

·        An easy-to-maintain technical build, supporting faster updates, and greater security;

·        100% application uptime and complete scalability;

·        No unique hardware investments;

·        24x7, live, multi-lingual support, and free user training.

“The most commendable part is that IDS is open to modification should users request a feature which will enhance efficiency,” said Kevin Yaxley, Executive Director at Airways Hotel.

It all adds up to profits

The Hotel has begun to see the positive impact on key operational areas.

·       Easy and efficient handling of guest queries, quick access to guest history (such as number of visits) for relevant details, expedited check out processes, and efficient guest messaging have enhanced guest management.

·       Improved monitoring (and control) of costs with weekly F&B cost tracking, informative reports and tools to guide revenue management, and data to support financial plans have resulted in an average increase of 15% in the room rates. Revenue and cost management have never been this easy.

·    Reports on market and enterprise productivity measures, insights into the Hotel’s performance in different sectors, data to support assessments linked to critical decisions, and business intelligence to guide strategy – all these have boosted sales and marketing efforts. 

·       A document centre to give front-desk personnel easy access to information, an SMS alert engine, and a drag-and-drop check-in and check-out tool, have all enabled smart work. Implications: reduced time taken to complete tasks and gains in operational efficiency.

·    User-friendly features, touch screen versions at point of sales to post guest orders, easy communication  of guest requirements to bars and restaurants, and reports to aid menu engineering. All these have reduced errors and set the productivity curve soaring. 

IDS Softwares:   www.idsnext.com

Airways Hotel, Papua New Guinea:   www.airways.com.pg