News Briefs

Otelier, the hospitality performance optimization platform that puts data and efficiency at the heart of hotel operations, has launched a new product, Otelier DigiPay, that automates accounts payable workflows to unlock efficiency for hotel operators.

DigiPay eliminates unnecessary time and money that hotel general managers and finance teams spend processing invoices and cutting and mailing checks to pay suppliers. The software automates hotel accounts payable workflows, allowing businesses to receive and store invoices digitally, route invoices for authorization, verify billing accuracy, and pay suppliers online.

“As labor costs continue to add pressure to the bottom line, finding ways to work more efficiently and effectively has become paramount for hoteliers,” said Otelier CEO Vic Chynoweth. “Accounts payable is a critical function within hotels and management groups, and reducing the number of hours it takes to manage, approve and pay invoices, while assuring accuracy, can result in significant savings.” 

DigiPay solves for three of the top challenges accounts payable teams face today:

• Authorize supplier invoices quickly. Hoteliers can easily verify invoice accuracy and streamline workflows to automatically direct invoices to the proper stakeholders.
• Pay suppliers online. Hoteliers can automate writing checks for supplier payments, send invoice payments with no fees, and track payment statuses with a secure bank connection.
• Manage supplier profiles and invoice records. Hoteliers can ensure invoices are accurate by managing billing and payment histories with detailed invoice records and supplier profiles in indexed cloud storage. 

"With DigiPay, I no longer worry about duplicate invoices, and we were able to implement an auditable approval process. Paying invoices became highly organized and easy from a manager and back-office perspective,” said Prince Singh, Chief Operating Officer at Five Rivers Hospitality, an owner-operator with more than 30 hotels. “We were probably spending 6 to 7 hours per week paying invoices, and now we can do the work in almost half the time.”

DigiPay can be implemented as a standalone accounts payable automation tool or bundled with Otelier’s other back-office automation and business intelligence solutions for more robust accounting functionality and deeper analytics. Otelier’s suite of products includes: 

• DigiAudit: A night audit compliance software that allows hoteliers to centralize and store nightly reports, automate signature workflows, and stay in audit compliance, while reducing operating expenses.
• TruePlan: A budgeting and forecasting software that allows hoteliers to simplify and streamline budgeting processes and forecast with confidence.
• IntelliSight: A business intelligence software that allows hoteliers to aggregate cross-functional data for powerful analysis and insights. 
• DigiPay: An accounts payable automation software that moves supplier payment workflows into a digital environment to manage, verify, authorize and pay invoices.
• Rec: An automated financial reconciliation software to automatically detect accounting discrepancies for bank and OTA reconciliations and income audit journaling.

See DigiPay in action at HITEC 2024! Book a meeting at Otelier booth #1036 for a live demonstration. To learn more about how Otelier automates back office tasks and eases decisions making to help hoteliers get back to hospitality, visit otelier.io.

PopID and Steak n Shake announced today that all Steak n Shake locations in the United States now accept PopID Check In (to review favorite orders and loyalty points) and PopPay for checkout. With more than 300 locations, Steak n Shake is the first national restaurant brand in the United States to adopt biometric check-in and checkout nationwide. PopID’s biometric check-in feature makes kiosk ordering faster, easier, and more personalized.

The implementation of PopID in every Steak n Shake location was accomplished rapidly and at low cost through a partnership between PopID and ACRELEC, a leading supplier of kiosk-ordering hardware and drive-through products. Cameras were shipped to every restaurant for attachment to the existing ACRELEC kiosks. “As explained in our recent publication, ACRELEC believes that our integrated biometric solution provides various benefits to restaurant operators related to throughput, ticket size, and loyalty engagement,” says Bruno Lo-Re, President of ACRELEC America.

“We are thrilled about our partnership with PopID and to be on the edge of biometric technology for the benefit of our customers. Our guests now have the option to use biometrics for a faster and more seamless experience,” says Sardar Biglari, Chairman of Biglari Holdings, the parent company of Steak n Shake.

Now that biometrics are enabled for all ordering and payment inside Steak n Shake restaurants, PopID and Steak n Shake will begin implementing biometric check-in and checkout at the restaurant’s drive-through units. “Similar to the kiosks, biometric check in can increase loyalty participation and revenue at the drive thru while also reducing payment processing costs,” says John Miller, CEO of PopID and Chairman of Cali Group. “Additionally, biometric payment at the order confirmation screen enables staff members to work on tasks other than taking payments by card and phone at the order pick-up window.”

Sojern, a digital marketing platform built for travel and a member of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), today announced its suite of Guest Experience Solutions is available on Oracle Cloud Marketplace and can be deployed on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and integrated with OPERA Cloud via the Oracle Hospitality Integration Platform (OHIP). Oracle Cloud Marketplace is a centralized repository of enterprise applications offered by Oracle and Oracle partners.

The Sojern Guest Experience Solutions enables hotel marketers to answer questions, resolve guest issues, and upsell services throughout the entire customer journey. 

Oracle Cloud Marketplace is a one-stop shop for Oracle customers seeking trusted business applications and services offering unique solutions, including ones that extend Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications.  

OCI is a deep and broad platform of cloud infrastructure services that enables customers to build and run a wide range of applications in a scalable, secure, highly available, and high-performance environment. From application development and business analytics to data management, integration, security, AI, and infrastructure services including Kubernetes and VMware, OCI delivers comprehensive security, performance, and cost savings. In addition, with multicloud, hybrid cloud, public cloud, and dedicated cloud options, OCI’s distributed cloud offers customers the benefits of cloud with greater control over data residency, locality, and authority, even across multiple clouds. As a result, customers can bring enterprise workloads to the cloud quickly and efficiently while meeting the strictest regulatory compliance requirements.

"Joining Oracle Cloud Marketplace marks a significant milestone for Sojern’s hospitality customers. This two-way interface enhances real-time guest engagement, with a suite of tools designed to enhance the guest experience and operational efficiency within OHIP. Sojern’s Reputation Manager empowers hoteliers to efficiently gather and manage feedback using generative AI for automated responses. Hospitality customers will also have access to advanced text and email marketing, along with auto reconciliation, simplifying marketing, performance, and measurement,” said Noreen Henry, Chief Revenue Officer, Sojern. “Sojern’s participation in Oracle Cloud Marketplace further strengthens our commitment to the Oracle community and enables customers to easily reap the benefits of Sojern’s Guest Experience Solutions. We look forward to leveraging the power of the OCI to help us achieve our business goals.”  

For more information about Sojern’s Guest Experience Solutions, click here.

Aptech, a hospitality company providing finance and accounting software for more than 50 years to hotels, will reveal a NEW dashboard for its PVNG enterprise accounting solution at HITEC Charlotte, to be held June 24 to 27 at the Charlotte (N.C.) Convention Center. Developed at the request of its customers, the tool provides a quick view of the status of a hotel’s financials from the previous night and more. All data is updated in the system in real time, enhancing the ability for hotel operators to make more informed decisions, improve efficiency, and achieve strategic goals.

“Aptech is known industrywide for exceptional support and quick response to our customers,” said Aptech President Jill Wilder. “Users asked us for fast access to financial and operational data – accounts payable, general ledger, statistical data – all on one screen and without having to execute multiple reports or inquiries to provide a pulse of where they are now and how they are progressing financially. PVNG was the only one of our three products that did not have a dashboard, so we went to work. Wanting to provide the most value, we asked specifically what they would like to be included on the dashboard – and we delivered.”

The PVNG Dashboard provides a quick glimpse of:

• Bank account balances for each bank account
• Open invoice balances for top five vendors
• Overall Accounts Payable Aging: Current / 30+ / 60+ / 90+ Days
• Comparative analysis on user selected KPI’s; Yesterday/Month to Date/Month to Date Last Year

“Our customers are saying they cannot wait to visit us at HITEC to see the dashboard in action,” Wilder said. “This tool will give users real-time access to data, enabling them to monitor performance and trends as they happen. This immediacy provides quicker reactions to changing conditions, such as market shifts or operational issues. The dashboard will also improve decision making. By consolidating data from various sources into a single, easy-to-understand interface, the PVNG dashboard will help operators work smarter, not harder.”

Just like the dashboards for its Execuvue (Business Intelligence) and Targetvue (Budgeting & Forecasting) solutions, the PVNG dashboard can be accessed from any web browser, enabling users to access all data via mobile phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop. This dashboard is a standard feature of PVNG and will be included in the next software release slated for July 2024.

“We encourage people to come by Booth 2644 at HITEC to see the PVNG dashboard and provide their input,” Wilder said. “This is the first release, and we will continue to develop the dashboard to provide more flexibility and information defined by our customers.”

On Display at HITEC

PVNG is one of the top ranked solutions in the Hotel Tech Report “Best Finance & Accounting Software” 2024 popularity index. It ranked No. 2 out of 37 companies in the finance and accounting software category. Ninety six percent of limited service and budget hotels, 94% of luxury hotels, 93% of branded hotels, and 84% of resorts say they would recommend PVNG for enterprise accounting. The solution earned an overall score of 4.7 out of 5.0 for ease of use, customer support, return on investment and ease of implementation.

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. It features automated invoice processing, a myriad of payment options, drill-down capabilities in financial statements and reports, and the ability to handle single or multi-property accounting.

Attendees will also see Aptech’s IBM Cognos-based ASP BI application, Execuvue. It delivers visualizations of financial and operational data that hoteliers can act upon. The drag-and-drop environment provides easy-to-access reporting and analytics. The solution configures data portfolio wide, giving operators a performance snapshot by region, brand, and property. The scalability, flexibility, and integration capabilities of Execuvue sets Aptech apart from other BI providers.

Aptech’s hospitality-driven budgeting and forecasting solution, Targetvue, will also be showcased. The solution provides accounting teams with “one version of the truth.” It consolidates reports, identifies trends, and eliminates the maintenance and distribution of Excel spreadsheets throughout the organization. Automated forecast snapshots offers users ad-hoc capabilities to previous and future performance projections.

To learn more about Aptech solutions, visit them at HITEC Charlotte, June 24 to 27 at the Charlotte Convention Center in Booth #2644.

PAS (Professional Accounting Solutions, Inc.), Professional Advantage (PA) and LLP Group (LLP) announce the formation of a global alliance aimed at providing an Operational Intelligence & Integration platform to the hospitality sector globally. 

This strategic partnership brings together the collective expertise of all three organizations to deliver a comprehensive solution that seamlessly integrates with existing systems, across different platform environments whilst also providing visibility over key data. By leveraging their combined strengths, PA, LLP and PAS are committed to enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of hospitality services worldwide, ensuring that their clients can offer an exceptional operational experience through cutting-edge technology and insightful data analysis.

“We are excited to announce our strategic collaboration with PAS and LLP to introduce a comprehensive go-to-market offering specifically designed for the hospitality sector,” stated Neil Richardson, Business Lead, ISV Solutions, Professional Advantage. “This initiative addresses the persistent challenge of application integration faced by businesses in this industry, enabling seamless connectivity and communication between disparate software systems. By leveraging our combined expertise and cutting-edge solution, we aim to enhance operational efficiency, improve customer experiences, and drive digital transformation, empowering hospitality companies to thrive in an increasingly competitive market. This partnership not only signifies our commitment to technological excellence but also ensures our clients receive the most robust and reliable solutions available today.”

"LLP is excited to be part of this Alliance," stated Tim Smulders, LLP Group Western Europe Managing Director. "With over 30 years of SunSystems hotel experience and our deep expertise in multinational implementations of Infor SunSystems, EPM, HxGN EAM and PA solutions in over 70 countries, LLP Group is well-equipped to support global hospitality companies. By working closely with Infor, PA and PAS, we are dedicated to helping to provide complete Cloud finance solutions tailored to the needs of the hospitality sector, regardless of company size."

"This is a whole new collaboration of three teams that know hotels," said Gayle Edwards, VP Managing Director of PAS. "Together, we now have not only the technology but the application as well. Add that to our consolidated 24/7 helpdesk services around the world, and you have #oneteam to streamline communications and service for hotel properties. The extensive knowledge and scalability that PAS brings to the table are exactly why so many hotels across the world trust us with their back office needs. We are excited about these partnerships as we are able to add to our own existing team around the globe. Additionally, as partners of Infor – PAS, Professional Advantage and LLP Group will continue to support many of Infor's global customers as a team."

For those attending HITEC 2024 in Charlotte, please visit the PAS team as well as representatives from Professional Advantage and LLP Group in booth No. 935 to learn more about #oneteam, or you can schedule an appointment in advance here.