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Who we are? |
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Delivering competitiveness is what Terra Infotech brings to the table when it takes on any assignment. Its vast repertoire of competencies begin...
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Hospitality |
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Leading hoteliers and foodservice operators are fundamentally changing the rules of engagement with their customers, embracing innovations that create new opportunities for collaborating with guests, for understanding their preferences, and tailoring their experiences to match their specific preferences. The edge of the enterprise, the hotel or restaurant, is where most of the labor in the enterprise is deployed, where much of the capital is spent and, of course, where all the guests are. Terra Infotech believes that the edge of the hospitality or foodservice operation will be the focal point of Integrated innovation and the place where the redefinition of the value that hospitality operators offer their customers occurs. Through Integrated innovation, technology can enable a hotel or foodservice enterprise to get closer to its guests—both while they are in the property and before and after their visit—and drive sustained value from that interaction. This will allow the guest to personalize the experience with the hotel or restaurant establishment, while incurring minimum implementation costs.
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To enable foodservice providers and hoteliers to compete based on Integrated innovation, Terra has created Integrated Hospitality. This white paper provides an overview of the functional and technical architecture that underpins Integrated Hospitality. It describes the value this architecture can provide for hospitality and foodservice information technology (IT) organizations as well as for independent software vendors (ISVs). It reviews the Terra Infotech’s technology that underlies the architecture and defines an Interoperability Framework to help applications integrate with one another more seamlessly. Last, this white paper reviews the key implementation considerations for bringing this architecture to life through deployment within a hospitality or foodservice enterprise. |
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The Integrated Hospitality Architecture can serve the needs of the hotelier or foodservice operator developing new applications, as well as the ISV developing Integrated Hospitality solutions. Hospitality and foodservice enterprises can choose to build and deploy applications that utilize this architecture or buy solutions that conform to the Integrated Hospitality framework. The end result is more seamless solution integration—Integrated innovation—that drives value in the way a hotel property or restaurant operates, in the way a hospitality enterprise sells to its guests, and in the way the property or restaurant delivers a compelling guest experience. |
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Technology Life Cycle |
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Many large capital projects—such as the replacement of a property management system (PMS) in a hotel or a point-of-sale (POS) application in a foodservice operation—have been delayed for many years due to both fiscal and technical constraints. In addition, it can be argued that the functionality of these systems, despite their growing age, has not changed enough to justify the inherent dislocation that comes with system replacement. Only now are hoteliers and foodservice operators stepping up to take on this daunting challenge, due in part to the aging and obsolescence of their property infrastructures but also to the availability of new technology that will add value to the guest stay in the hotel or dining experience in the restaurant.
Hospitality enterprises are seeking ways to ensure that this updating of the technical infrastructure in the lodging or foodservice operation can have greater longevity and provide a platform for growth, especially as new and emerging technologies such as next-generation mobile devices, speech recognition, and radio frequency identification (RFID) become prevalent.
As described earlier, the Integrated Hospitality Architecture is based on mature and stable technology that has been used in production enterprise solutions for quite some time. As Terra works within its R&D organization as well as with industry groups such as Hotel Technology Next Generation and standards bodies such as The OpenTravel Alliance (OTA) to define new solutions for the hospitality and foodservice industry, the Integrated Hospitality Architecture will be the technology infrastructure that will underpin those innovations. When emerging technologies such as RFID or new wireless and in-room and restaurant terminals become available, Terra Infotech will support these innovations and they will be incorporated into the architecture.
The Integrated Hospitality Architecture is a solid platform for growth that allows the hospitality enterprise to leverage its existing investments in skills and technology while establishing a foundation for adopting new innovations as they emerge in the marketplace. Hospitality enterprises have choices in the marketplace for their technology platforms. With the Integrated Hospitality Architecture, they will have not only a robust infrastructure to build on, but also Terra InfoTech’s technology leadership to mitigate the risks of technology obsolescence in the long run.
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Integrated Hospitality Architecture: |
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The application areas included under Integrated Guest Experience follow:
Front Desk and Room Services. Front Desk and Room Services are the interactions with the guest involving check in and checkout from the hotel property, as well as guest interactions related to concierge services. Such services might involve a Web-based interaction from the airport before arrival at the hotel, the actual check in and checkout process as well as the processing of the guest payment. Actual guest transactions may be performed from a kiosk, a guest-owned phone or PDA, or a more traditional front desk property management system (PMS) terminal.
Reservation Services. These services include room reservation functions, restaurant reservations, as well as arrangements for meeting space or catering needs. The function includes the ability to create and modify this information through different channels. The reservation services may be directly with the guest or through a business partner. The services may be offered through a Web interface or through a centralized enterprise reservation clerk. Regardless of the method of service, the same level of data and access to guest-centric data is made available.
In-Restaurant Services. These services involve interaction with diners during their experience at the restaurant. Functions in this area include guest interactions with the host or hostess stand, the server or sommelier at the table, or at the bar before or after the meal. These services might include ordering a meal at a fast-food restaurant, or food or beverages from a box seat or skybox at a baseball game.
In-Room Services. In-Room Services provide guest services directly in the hotel room. These services include in-room beverages or food, call or Internet access accounting, wake-up services, voice mail, an in-room checkout function, room entertainment, and mini-bar service. In-Room Services are also offered through independent restaurants or restaurants located in the hotel.
Retail Services. Many hospitality locations include retail operations within the hotel, resort, or restaurant. As mentioned above, the retail store is described in a separate architectural document. It is included in the Integrated Guest Experience part of the Integrated Hospitality Architecture. The business layers of the retail architecture are quite different from the hospitality application function. The lower technical layers of the architecture are essentially the same.
External Customer Services. Many foodservice enterprises service customers outside of their restaurants. These services might include such areas as home or remote delivery or carryout services. Remote foodservice operations such as kiosks, food and beverage stands, food carts, or vending machine are also included. The common thread of services in this area is that a subset of the foodservice, along with employee or guest devices, are operating away from the main hotel or restaurant location. |
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