News Briefs

BluHost is entering 2024 with a new enterprise accounting solution backing its portfolio of select service and ultra-luxury hotels and a mix of fine dining to casual restaurants. José M. Suárez, president and CEO of the Puerto Rico based hospitality management company, selected PVNG by Aptech because of past positive experiences with the company.

“When BluHost was founded, it began looking for a unified financial system that could be leveraged across our many hotels and restaurants,” said Lissette Rivera, BluHost director of finance. “Mr. Suárez has always been a big fan of Aptech. As a relatively new and growing management company supporting multiple business owners, we constantly need instant access to reports without having to purchase a lot of user licenses and the ability to quickly copy and share information between properties. The cloud based PVNG system is easy to use, economical, and gives remote access to whomever needs it. Time is money, and as far as BluHost is concerned, this is the perfect accounting system for our developing hospitality environment.”

PVNG features the Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, General Ledger, Statistics, Financials, and Bank Reconciliation that today’s hotel operators are seeking with much-needed browser navigation. Its automated invoice processing, myriad of payment options, drill-down capabilities in financial statements and reports, ability to handle single or multi-property accounting, and the fact that it can be deployed as a hosted service, explains why this accounting solution is in such high demand.

“Giving our staff the ability to work any time and from anywhere is a real plus,” Rivera said. “So is Aptech’s responsive 24/7 support. Even though there is a one-hour time difference between Puerto Rico and Aptech’s Pittsburgh headquarters, I am 100% confident that if I send a support email to their help desk after hours or leave a voice message, I will receive a response – and a solution to the problem – instantly. The client support team really knows their stuff. Even if an owner requests a report that doesn’t currently exist, we can still deliver on that request thanks to the support team’s immediate turnaround. Being able to give our owners what they need as soon as they ask for it is something that sets BluHost apart from other management companies. We owe that to Aptech.”

Relationship Building

Aptech has been a pioneer of hospitality software technology for more than 50 years. The company is focused on connecting people with computers and information to solve significant problems in the hospitality and service industries. PVNG was just named a finalist in the "2024 Hotel Tech Awards" by Hotel Tech Report in the category of "Best Finance & Hotel Accounting Software."

“Like Aptech, BluHost is focused on building relationships, not only with its guests but also with owners,” said Aptech Vice President Jill Wilder. “Their success is achieved through excellence in execution, integrity, and transparency. Aptech is helping BluHost achieve these goals through excellence in financial management. As BluHost continues to grow, we plan to introduce additional Aptech solutions for business intelligence and budgeting and forecasting in hopes of taking their successes to new heights. Innovation is in our blood, and we are dedicated to keeping our customers aware of industry changes in technology. We are delighted that BluHost has joined our family of happy PVNG customers.”

Aptech is an IBM software value plus partner and premier solution provider as well as a Prophix premier business partner. The company is also a proud member of Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP), Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG), the American Hotel and Lodging Assn. (AHLA), and Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI).

For more information on Aptech solutions, visit http://www.aptech-inc.com.

Tock, the reservation, experiences, and events platform for the hospitality industry, announced its latest innovation today, Multi-Experience Tables, to help restaurants drive greater profitability across the dining room. This new feature allows Tock customers the option to offer guests a unique experience, while simultaneously marketing the same table for a different experience or standard reservation.

"Today's guests are more intentional in seeking out unique and personalized experiences when dining out," said Matthew Tucker, Head of Tock. "Our restaurant partners are very creative in the experiences they offer on Tock, and have learned to turn every square foot of their dining room into a monetizable experience. With Multi-Experience Tables, restaurants now have even more ways to experiment with what appeals most to their guests. This is something our partners have been asking for and we are proud to be the first to bring this to the industry."

Nearly a decade ago, Tock revolutionized the hospitality industry by introducing prepaid experiences. Today, Tock has generated over $2.25B in total revenue for its partners through experiences. The introduction of Multi-Experience Tables now makes it even easier to assign various experience options to a single table, allowing a restaurant to maximize what sells best.

Among Tock's many restaurant partners using experiences is Ella Elli, a California-meets-Mediterranean restaurant in Chicago that offers highly sought-after wine experiences. "Our experiential offering has grown into an integral part of our brand, allowing us to extend our reach beyond the traditional dining experience and offer new ways to drive consistent sales during a time and day when our restaurant was not even open otherwise," said Dan Harris, Vice President of Food and Beverage at Ella Elli.

Riana Mondavi of Charles Krug Winery, another Tock partner, touts the benefits of Multi-Experience Tables: "The addition of Multi-Experience Tables creates a platform that allows us to stay creative. We can offer a range of experiences from the everyday wine tastings to specialized food and wine pairings, allowing us to stay top of mind with our guests. Now, we get to see what appeals to our guests at any given time and learn more about what works best, without taking away things we know they love. It's the best of both worlds."

Little Caesars  has selected Deliverect to help integrate and scale its global third-party delivery operations. The international, family-owned pizza chain, with stores in 28 countries and territories, will bolster its delivery services across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico and enhance operations across additional international markets.

As the world's third-largest pizza company, Little Caesars is known for the convenience it offers its guests, from carry out to its Pizza Portal self-service mobile order pick-up stations, to delivery. To better meet the needs of and serve a broader customer base, the company continues to innovate by expanding its digital presence and use of third-party delivery partners. As a result of these efforts, consumers can now easily order Little Caesars through the company's website, mobile app, and third-party delivery channels, bringing them value, quality, and convenience. 

"As we continue to grow our presence around the globe, the ability to provide our customers with greater delivery options and to help our locations more efficiently offer delivery services, like we're doing together with Deliverect, is paramount," said Keith Faigin, Global Vice President, E-commerce & Data Analytics at Little Caesars.

Through Deliverect's reliable and secure technology, Little Caesars locations globally can now easily connect all of their third-party delivery channels to their point-of-sale (POS) system through a single integration. Deliverect's APIs allow brands to manage direct integrations more easily, shorten the time-to-market, and reduce costs when scaling their online delivery.

Locations also benefit from additional streamlined processes. They can eliminate the need for multiple tablets to manage order injections across all ordering channels, which ultimately drives efficiencies and better positions staff to focus on food preparation and customer service. Additionally, Little Caesars can now easily manage its menus and pricing across its stores anywhere in the world while allowing locations to customize their menus effortlessly for their markets as needed.

Additional benefits of the collaboration for the pizza chain include higher customer satisfaction, higher volume of delivery orders, and increased order accuracy.

ParTech, Inc. (PAR), a global restaurant technology company and provider of unified commerce solutions for enterprise restaurants, today announced that Bob Evans, the iconic family-style restaurant chain with 437 locations in the U.S., has selected PAR's loyalty and offer solution PAR Punchh . This choice reflects Bob Evans' commitment to enhancing and personalizing customer experiences, creating stronger connections with their guests.

Known for its farm-fresh cuisine and warm hospitality, this collaboration represents a significant step towards enhancing the dining experience and creating deeper guest connections. PAR Punchh will provide customers with personalized offers and rewards through the Bob Evans app, including family deals, value offers, and convenient online takeout options. 

“At Bob Evans, we extend our hospitality well beyond the delicious dishes we serve. We want every guest to come into our restaurant and feel right at home, knowing we’ve considered their individual tastes and preferences,” said Bob Holtcamp, President and CMO of Bob Evans. “With Punchh, we’ll achieve a new level of guest engagement and loyalty to enhance the overall dining experience whether in our dining room or theirs, all while doing what we do best: serving farm-fresh goodness to every table.

Leveraging PAR Punchh's AI-driven loyalty platform, integrations and services, the restaurant aims to improve customer lifetime value through personalized marketing campaigns and offers.

WorkJam, a digital frontline workplace, announced at NRF: Retail’s Big Show in New York City the launch of three new products: Site Coach, a digital dashboard for frontline employees; Analytics Insights Reports, which builds on WorkJam’s core reporting capabilities; and Extensive Audit Capabilities that supercharge task management. All three new products are embedded into WorkJam’s core technology, making the WorkJam super app more robust and cementing the company’s leadership in frontline workplace technology.

“With these three new product launches, we’re enhancing our offering for our enterprise customers and embedding all the solutions they need into our single super app,” said Steven Kramer, CEO of WorkJam. “These new products will help businesses prepare for the increasingly complex compliance landscape they’ll face this year and tap real-time analytics insights that help them operate more effectively and empower their teams. By taking a multi-pronged approach to enhancing visibility, reporting and analytics and clearly delineating task and audit functions, WorkJam is helping businesses scale operationally in ways legacy and other point solutions simply cannot.”

Site Coach is a new module of WorkJam’s super app that offers a kiosk experience for location-level information, tasks and scheduling to drive operational excellence and better customer experiences. Frontline staff working in a particular location can use the module’s dashboard to view task lists, resources and schedules, clock in and out, and more. Site Coach can operate as a stand-alone module or in tandem with other modules in WorkJam’s app, allowing employees to view information on the Site Coach dashboard and then execute tasks via the mobile app or shared devices at their work location.

Analytics Insights Reports builds on WorkJam’s core reporting capabilities, offering more robust, real-time analytics and operational insights that empower administrators and frontline managers with the data visualizations they need to better understand their workflows and how the business, as well as their location and team, are performing relative to defined business goals. The product enables users to make more informed decisions about how they leverage their store associates or distribution center staffs to optimize operations and achieve better results.

The new product marks the next step in the evolution of WorkJam’s AI-powered analytics capabilities and builds on the partnership WorkJam launched with Qualtrics last year. That partnership provides the two companies’ joint customers with AI-driven insights into frontline sentiment and empowers store and logistics site managers to boost frontline engagement, productivity and retention.

WorkJam’s Extensive Audit Capabilities provide enhanced intelligent auditing power to help enterprises maintain safe, efficient workplaces and compliant operations for optimized customer experiences. The new product supports operational efficiencies that allow time-strapped district and field managers to focus on performance and results. This new release offers significant administrative capabilities that allow task gatekeepers to author, configure and publish complex and optimized audits to the field with ease.

The audit results and configurable scoring also trigger any needed follow-up steps and workflows. By enhancing its audit capabilities, WorkJam is helping companies strengthen their businesses so they are prepared to operate effectively in an increasingly complex compliance environment.

As the leading digital frontline workplace, WorkJam enables large enterprises to orchestrate their frontline workforces to improve productivity, engagement and retention. The solution is the only one on the market that offers modules that enable frontliners to manage their schedules and tasks, access training and career development opportunities, and communicate with peers and leaders throughout their organization in a single super app. It’s also the only solution that gives enterprises the flexibility to buy one module and then turn on others as their needs grow. In 2023, WorkJam was named to the TIME100 Most Influential Companies list, which highlights companies making an extraordinary impact around the world.