Month: December 2018

Across-the-board transformation is disrupting the hospitality industry. Organisations can prepare for a future expanded loyalty ecosystem, staff-less lobbies and tech-driven guest experiences. Today many digital convenience and options continue to evolve along with mainstream consumer expectations and an Enterprise Command & Control Center platform is something that will revolutionise the hospitality industry. As technology reinvents every touch point on the travel journey, the on-site experience is no exception. Guests’ growing comfort with technology is driving several disruptive trends and an EC3 platform is an all-in-one tool to perfectionise your guest experience as well as your hotel management system.

An Enterprise Command & Control Centre (EC3) platform to uplift your hotel management system

An EC3 for the hospitality sector should effectively be the lifeblood of your property, controlling and automating any number of hotel operations. That is why a hotel’s EC3 platform is so important and why shrewd attention should be paid to it. The nature of a hotel’s EC3 platform and capability is evolving all the time and hotels need to stay up-to-date to maintain the ease of operations they now enjoy, as well as ensuring a positive experience for their guests.

It is no longer enough to control core functions like guest registration, inventory maintenance, housekeeping, and finance. The best property management systems can now encompass the all-important facets of the hotel operations – one example is the impact on guest services, loyalty and guest experience which can be improved dramatically. If an EC3 platform is not already viewed as the primary control centre for a hotel, it soon will be. Given most operations are largely integrated, no critical decisions will be enacted without first passing through a single window platform.

The features and capabilities of an EC3 platform for the hospitality management

• Registration, guest accounting and reservations management capabilities

Guest-facing applications are hugely important for hotelier’s in regards to capturing bookings, checking-in or out, and integrating with other channels like in-room systems, central reservation systems, and online travel agents.

• Housekeeping features

Guest satisfaction can be impacted by many factors, including housekeeping. If a room is not cleaned properly or in a timely manner, or room service and other requests aren’t fulfilled, a bad review will not be far away. A good platform will help organise this process by storing data and helping create personalised guest profiles.

• Technology and data integration

Being a key part of day-to-day operations, it is imperative the platform integrates easily with your other technologies, such as a channel management system, and data sources to ensure everything runs smoothly.

• Mobile capabilities

Mobile optimisation is a key component of any hotel technology, and that includes the processes involved in a property management system such as mobile check-in and communication with staff.

• Point-of-sale features

A payment system built into a platform is perfect for processing minor guest charges such as transport tickets, attraction tickets, postage stamps, or other sundry items.

• Performance reporting

Visibility into the key drivers of your property’s performance and revenue is essential to successful business strategy. The mountain of data hotels are sitting on is invaluable and a good platform will provide reporting capabilities.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a technological capability can enable new opportunities and help achieve business goals in the construction space. Armed with complex algorithms and features that allow machines to display their own type of understanding and problem solving, AI has the potential to support the construction industry to cross new frontiers. AI will push innovation to new levels, and what construction processes may be made possible through AI’s continued evolution in the smart building era.

The roles of artificial intelligence  

In the construction sector, AI is most often used across four main areas. These stages cover planning and design, administrative management, construction methodology, and post-construction.

Planning with equipment

Construction plans can be created quickly by implementing artificial intelligence. Autonomous equipment is considered to be a form of artificial intelligence as it is aware of its surroundings. It is also capable of navigation without human input, meaning it can work alone without an operator or driver. In the planning stages, AI machinery can survey a proposed construction site and gather enough information to create a multitude of planning assists, such as 3D maps, blueprints and construction plans.

Administrative roles

Artificial intelligence can also be applied once construction has moved past the planning stages and the actual building process begins.  Various programs and software can be used to manage projects and control specific tasks within a project. For example, workers can input sick days or sudden departures. Vacancies for job posts can also be entered. With this information gathered, the system can build a database and use that knowledge to adapt the projects as needed. The artificial intelligence of the system will understand whether or not a task needs to be moved and reassigned, such as when a worker if off sick. Best of all the software will do this of its own accord.

Construction methodology

With a wealth of information gathered and stored in its database knowledge, artificial intelligence can support engineers by informing them of how projects should be completed. The software can not only inform a process, but suggest processes based off its understanding of previous data of similar projects. For example, if engineers were working on a proposed new bridge, AI systems would be able to advise and present a case for the best method to construct the bridge.  It would base this answer on past projects from the last 50 years of work, as well as cross referencing with pre-existing blueprints and maps for the design and implementation stages of the project. By having this information to hand, as well as having it cross-checked in real time against previously gathered information, engineers can make crucial decisions based on the evidence that they may not have had previously at their disposal.

Post – construction

Be it a commercial or domestic project, after it has been completed, artificial intelligence is frequently integrated into the live structure in the form of various software and hardware. Back in 2016, the Wynn hotel chain declared that it would be installing Amazing Echo software in to each one of its rooms in its Las Vegas hotel by the end of 2017. These devices can be used from the comfort of the room to control various aspects such as lighting, temperature, and any kind of audio-visual equipment contained in the room. These systems can also be installed in a domestic setting; with such artificial intelligence systems already on the rise within homes.

The support artificial intelligence brings in the construction industry

The importance of information
It is important to hold as much information as you can about a project, including management decisions and this is easier to do with the help of building information modelling (BIM).

Conversational features can be added with the use of virtual assistants (VAs) that will also provide a person with information. By combining VAs alongside NFC (near-field communication), VAs can give additional information to the building itself in real-time from various sensors in the building. For example, if there were structural problems with a building, then VAs could inform engineers specifically where the problem was and how it can be fixed.

VAs, AIs and building design software can help make savings in the construction sector, whilst keeping up the same standard of work. As the future of AI becomes more of a reality within construction, only time will tell how reliant upon intelligent machines we will have to be in order to construct innovative building designs.