News Briefs

John Keells Group, the parent company of Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts, a diverse chain of hotels with a portfolio across Sri Lanka and the Maldives, selected the Oracle Hospitality OPERA Cloud suite of products, including property management, sales and event management, and MICROS Simphony Cloud point-of-sale. To best serve guests across their hotels, resorts, and restaurants, Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts was looking for a centralized, intelligent platform to run its operations. By choosing an integrated suite from Oracle, the company has ensured its staff members will gain a holistic view of its facilities and guests to better optimize administrative, technical, and service delivery tasks. 

Its upcoming flagship project Cinnamon Life Integrated Resort in Colombo, Sri Lanka, as well as Cinnamon Dhonveli Maldives, Cinnamon Velifushi Maldives, and Cinnamon Hakuraa Huraa Maldives, were the first properties to launch the suite. The three resorts in the Maldives include contemporary suites and bungalows while Cinnamon Life Integrated Resort in Colombo will open its doors to residential apartments, large-scale events and meeting venues, vibrant restaurants and bars, world-class entertainment experiences, wellness centres, kids’ clubs, and swimming pools, as well as other amenities. The group looks to introduce the Oracle solution across all other 12 hotels and resorts located in Sri Lanka in the near future.

“Visitors can choose from a number of properties when traveling, so the ability to create a consistent, extraordinary guest experience across the Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts brand is a key differentiator,” said Nalaka Umagiliya, Chief Operating Officer – Group Information Technology, Senior Vice President, John Keells Group and Head of Business Systems, Leisure Group. “We’re confident that Oracle technologies will help us integrate our operations at scale, from the front desk to dining, leisure, and beyond. We anticipate that the property management functionality gained with OPERA Cloud will improve ease of use for resort staff and further enhance the guest experience.”

Spicing up its property and restaurant management 

With its cloud-based architecture and hundreds of pre-built integrations, OPERA Cloud has addressed the limitations of Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts previous system by enabling its hotels to easily connect their back- and front-office systems, making it convenient for the central reservation office to view room availability and make reservations at a new location. The centralized property management system now offers the brand a complete view of hotel operations, giving leaders comprehensive insights to make impactful decisions and identify opportunities for growth.

With OPERA Cloud Sales and Event Management software, hotel staff can conduct site inspections, check the availability of inventory, and make changes to the customer’s bookings while on the go, streamlining operations and maximizing revenue. And with MICROS Simphony Cloud,staff have an intuitive restaurant point-of-sale system that has helped streamline kitchen operations, reservations, inventory, and recipe management, all while helping ensure transactional and payment information is easily accessible and stored securely in a cloud environment.

By adopting an integrated system across the resort through a single vendor, Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts has given itself a simpler way to consolidate its back-office functions to automate administrative tasks, increase employee efficiency, and connect day-to-day operations across their properties and restaurants for a more seamless guest experience. 

“An integrated resort requires a truly integrated system,” said Patrick Andres, regional vice president, JAPAC hotels and food & beverage, Oracle. “The functionality and analytics built into OPERA Cloud’s property management, sales and events, and MICROS Simphony point-of-sale systems will help staff at the Cinnamon Life Hotel continue to elevate guest experiences while they improve operations.”

For electric vehicle owners in British Columbia, Tim Hortons is now fueling road trips in more ways than one.  The company has announced the expansion of its electric vehicle charging station pilot launched earlier this year in Oakville, Ontario, by unveiling six new charging stations at restaurants throughout  British Columbia.

Tim Hortons announced the pilot in February in an effort to study the technology, its usage and opportunities.

"We have been thrilled with the results of the pilot so far.  Usage of the charging station in Oakville has surpassed our expectations and we received many calls with requests to expand the pilot," said Paulo Ferreira, Senior Director, International Strategic Restaurant Design and Building Standards, Tim Hortons. "With more than 3,300 eligible restaurants across the country, we continue to look for opportunities to expand the pilot and contribute to the EV infrastructure."

The BC expansion, supported by the Province of BC's Community Charging Infrastructure Fund and Koben Systems Inc. (KSI), placed charging stations strategically in Nanaimo, Langford, North Vancouver, Burnaby, Abbotsford and Coquitlam to create paths within the province, allowing guests to travel from restaurant to restaurant strictly on electric power.

Tim Hortons offers charging stations as a courtesy to guests at six locations.  As of March 31st, 2013, Tim Hortons had 4,288 system-wide restaurants, including 3,453 in Canada, 808 in the United States and 27 in the Gulf Cooperation Council. 

MOD Super-Fast Pizza Holdings LLC   updates to its popular MOD Rewards program, allowing customers to earn free MOD faster.

MOD SuperFast Rewards now allows loyal fans to start earning rewards with just 50 points, offers a wider choice of reward options, and provides exclusive offers and special deals throughout the year. Additionally, MOD Rewards members will now be able to give back even more to their communities with an enhanced fundraising program, along with the ability to pay forward their reward to the MOD Opportunity Network (MOD O.N.), to help support job seekers facing employment barriers.

• 50 points: Free No Name Cake, free non-alcoholic drink, free alternative crust upgrade, or $1 donation to one of the MOD O.N. partners.
• 100 points: Free Cheesy Garlic Bread, free delivery, or $2 donation to MOD O.N.
• 150 points: Free Pizza, free Salad, or any single menu item, or make a $3 donation to MOD O.N.

Making an Impact

MOD Rewards members can organize a fundraiser at their local MOD, and in return, receive an increased benefit of 25% of sales back to their organization – higher than the standard 20% donation.

Pay It Forward

Members can also pay it forward by donating their reward to support one of the MOD Opportunity Network non-profit partners: Best Buddies International, Goodwill Industries International and FareStart. The MOD Opportunity Network connects its stores with non-profit organizations that support the readiness, placement and retention of job seekers deserving of a second chance or a first start.

“While we’ve seen the trend of restaurant rewards becoming more elusive, MOD’s new and improved program is truly focused on recognizing and rewarding our most loyal customers. Since the launch of MOD Rewards in 2019, we’ve continued to listen to the feedback and have responded by expanding our benefits to provide added value,” said Kevin Flaherty, SVP of Digital & Off-Premises, MOD Pizza. “In keeping with our community mindset, we’ve also created exciting new opportunities for our customers to give back and make a difference on a local scale.”

GiftAMeal, an innovative cause-marketing program that turns restaurant photos into meals for local families in need, is proud to announce they have been selected as one of 15 semifinalists for Amazon Business Small Business Grants.

GiftAMeal, HT's 2023 Industry Hero Winner, currently works with over 600 restaurants in 32 states, and has provided over 1.4 million meals to families in need. 

How GiftaMeal works

The program is free for restaurant patrons and is funded by restaurants as a mix of marketing and giving back. For every photo shared from a partner restaurant, GiftAMeal donates to a local food bank to help provide a meal to a family in need. Using the power of technology and social media, GiftAMeal has created a new way for individuals to get involved in the community in a simple and effective way.

Voting Online

The voting period, starting June 15 and ending June 25, will take place online. To vote, log on to your Amazon Business account. After logging in, the vote form will appear on amazon.com/smallbusinessgrants above the "Frequently Asked Questions" section.

In collaboration with Entrepreneur, the 15 shortlisted candidates will have the chance to win the $25,000 Grand Prize. Four finalists will receive a $20,000 prize, and the remaining 10 semifinalists will receive a $15,000 prize.

“We are incredibly grateful to be a semifinalist. We are excited to use these funds, no matter which tier we are awarded, to support our mission to get GiftAMeal in as many states as possible,” says Andrew Glantz, Founder & CEO of GiftAMeal. “More specifically, the funding will enable us to hire team members to perform market research on restaurants in new cities, fund conference attendance to network with restaurant personnel, implement advanced marketing initiatives, and invest in modern technology to better be able to serve our partner restaurants and food banks.”

GiftAMeal’s ranking inside the top 15 has positioned the company to receive ample funds as they invest in scaling strategies to expand into new states across the US.  

To learn more about GiftAMeal, visit www.giftameal.com.  

Zume, a company that raised $445 million from investors to for pizza-making robots before switching to developing sustainable packaging in 2020, has shut down, The Information reported.

Launched in 2015, the startup promised to remake traditional pizza delivery with pie-making robots. Its Doughbot was said "to make each pizza crust five times faster than before while improving the quality of work for staff and speed of delivery for customers."  

• Silicon Valley Bank and Beyond: What You Need to Know

"SoftBank’s $375 million investment symbolized the huge checks investors were spending on startups attempting to reinvent conventional businesses with technology," stated The Information.

Knowland, a provider of data-as-a-service insights on meetings and events for hospitality and a member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), announced the Knowland platform is available on Oracle Cloud Marketplace and will enable integration with the Oracle Hospitality OPERA Sales and Event Management sales and catering management application. Oracle Cloud Marketplace is a centralized repository of enterprise applications offered by Oracle and Oracle partners.

The Knowland Platform enables high-level operations and sales benefits by integrating data from the Oracle Hospitality OPERA Sales and Event Management application with Knowland's world-class meetings and events database for Knowland customers.

Oracle Cloud Marketplace is a one-stop shop for Oracle customers seeking trusted business applications offering unique business solutions, including ones that extend Oracle Cloud Applications. Oracle Cloud is an enterprise cloud that delivers massive, non-variable performance and next-generation security across a comprehensive portfolio of services, including SaaS, application development, application hosting, and business analytics. Customers get access to leading compute, storage, data management, security, integration, HPC, artificial intelligence (AI), and Blockchain services to augment and modernize their critical workloads. Oracle Cloud runs Oracle Autonomous Database, the industry's first and only self-driving database.

Jeff Bzdawka, CEO, Knowland, said: “Expanding Knowland’s data-as-a-service platform with rich data sources like the Oracle OPERA Sales and Event Management application is a key focus for us to deliver increasingly valuable sales insights that fuel hotel growth and profitability. Knowland’s participation in the Oracle Cloud Marketplace further extends our commitment to the Oracle community and enables our common customers to easily reap the benefits of rich, actionable data. We look forward to leveraging the power of the Oracle Cloud to enhance data access for the global hospitality industry.”

This collaboration will deliver sales efficiency and performance benefits to the hospitality industry in these areas:

• Increase data volume and quality using electronic data collection through an approved API. Enables the delivery of sales and event data from the Oracle Cloud directly into the robust Knowland database. Event information is quickly available to supplement market data and enhance account profiles, informing sales teams and thereby improving decision-making outcomes.
• Accelerate revenue velocity across hospitality businesses by taking advantage of the strong growth in meetings and events. Increase and maintain revenue base when other segments, such as business travel, are less steady.
• Improve efficiency and enhance sales productivity by providing accurate, timely access to market data. The Knowland and Oracle partnership enables customers to enroll in automated data contribution, thereby streamlining their reporting processes and providing timely insights to fuel sales decisions by leveraging the two powerful platforms together.