Optimizing the customer experience
Optimizing the customer experience
Agilysys offers a host of software solutions to help casinos improve customer service, trim costs and maximize profits
By James J. Hodl
What keeps patrons returning to casinos based in hotels or on resorts is the overall quality of the guest experience. But in today's increasingly competitive market, customers are developing higher expectations of what they should experience between arrival and departure.
Helping hotel and casinos clear this rising bar of expectations is Agilysys Inc., a provider of enterprise computer technology solutions based in Cleveland, but soon to relocate its headquarters to Boca Raton, Fla.
"We know the needs of the gaming industry. So Agilysys offers a broad range of software-based solutions to help casino operators better manage their properties in ways that boost customer service, while trimming costs and boosting profitability," said Bill Lashley, senior vice president of Agilysys.
"Our Hospitality Business Intelligence systems are geared to help property managers better collect and analyze data from their operations to respond to challenges, take advantage of marketing opportunities and better serve guests. By using these systems, they can better align staff with guest levels, improve loyalty marketing programs to synchronize with guest preferences and better manage food and beverage budgets," he added.
Automated management
Agilysys traces its history back to 1963 with the formation of Pioneer-Standard Electronics in Cleveland. Initially a distributor of industrial electronics components, the company moved into selling products that addressed its customers' IT infrastructure needs in the early 1980s. Within a few years, a Computer Systems Division was formed to create its own enterprise computer solutions, which proved so successful that the electronics components business was sold off in 2003, and the firm renamed Agilysys Inc.
"While Agilysys serves many markets, our strength is in the hospitality market, of which the gaming industry is an important segment," Lashley said. "The bulk of our hospitality systems cover all management needs of a hotel/casino off the gaming floor."
The key hospitality product offered by Agilysys is its Lodging Management System (LMS), a software solution that automates every aspect of hotel operations, from reservations and credit card processing to accounting and managing in-room services. This system also links customers' gaming accounts to hotel accounts through a platform that runs 24/7. A variety of other computerized systems can be linked into LMS.
One such system is LMS ResNet, a real-time reservation system that enables customers to book rooms directly over the Internet with no human interaction required. When customers go to a hotel-casino's Web page, they see room availability for the dates sought, choose the type they need and enter their own credit card data. Confirmation follows immediately by e-mail.
Smooth operations
According to Lashley, customers especially dislike having to wait in lines for service. But it is unavoidable, as hotel and resort lobbies fill up whenever an airplane lands, creating a bottleneck at the front desk.
"As hotels cannot financially justify staffing front desks at levels adequate for the busy periods, Agilysys has created solutions that get guests into rooms faster during peak periods, and likewise onto the gaming floor, restaurants, golf course or spa," he said.
LMS GuestExpress Mobile Solution enables wireless curbside check-in of guests as soon as they step from their transportation. Through a handheld computer device literally worn by an employee, reservations are confirmed, rooms are assigned, credit cards are processed and room keys are immediately created. Customers can thus avoid the front desk and go immediately to their room, he noted.
Guests also can check in without human assistance through the LMS GuestExpress Kiosk in hotel lobbies. They begin by inserting their credit card into the kiosk, which matches it to a reservation, confirms the reservation, offers a choice of rooms and encodes the room key. The kiosk also speeds guest checkouts by presenting a bill of charges, which once the guest approves it by pressing a touch pad, posts the charges of his credit card and bids him goodbye.
Depending on local regulations, hotel-casinos can provide customers with a three-stripe card upon checking in the serves as the room key, a means to charge on-premises restaurant and retail purchases to their hotel bill, and as a player card, Lashley said.
Yet another computerized system that can link to LMS is ARTS (Activities Reservation and Ticketing System), which enables guests to make reservations for restaurants, shows, concerts, limousines, golf tee times and other venues on and off the casino property.
Streamlining F&B operations
At many large hotel and resort-based casino operations, food and beverage operations-from bars to sandwich stations to upscale restaurants-are a growing profit area. But as these operations grow through multiple on-premises locations, problems arise.
The Materials Management System (MMS) is a turnkey software solution that allows properties to manage their inventory and procurement process through e-commerce. Able to integrate with nearly all leading financial and point-of-sale software products, MMS manages all aspects of hospitality, including food and beverage, retail operations, and general inventories.
A key feature is MMS Bar Coding, which enables use of handheld radio-frequency data collection devices that read bar codes to take error-free counts of products in inventory. This system records the date an item entered inventory, which enables use of older items first; an important ability for on-premises restaurants so that perishable food items can be used before freshness periods expire and it becomes waste.
"This latter feature creates a history of products moving in and out of inventory," Lashley said. "For instance, if 50 steaks were removed from inventory, but the steakhouse only sold 40, the system will help pinpoint and plug where the profit-shrinking inventory loss occurred."
By automatically reordering products on regular schedules or when stocking levels fall below a set amount, the MMS Inventory system can reduce carrying costs that can trim profitability. The MMS Purchasing system automates procurement from sourcing through invoice and supports all purchasing-related documents. And MMS Retail keeps track of retail items, creates bar code tags for special items and calculates sale prices for each item.
To keep on-property restaurants profitable, the MMS Menu/Recipe Analysis tracks the cost of menu items down to the ingredient level. For instance, "if the price of salt goes up 5 cents a pound, this software solution recalculates the cost of making every recipe that includes salt, and flags those that might require an on-menu cost adjustment," Lashley said. "Using this solution, restaurants can build recipes whose ingredient costs maximize food revenue."
Keeping track
The DataMagine document management solution converts all documents to digitized images for storage in computerized files on the Web. The system automatically routes scanned documents to the appropriate people and files, digitally captures signatures for applying to scanned documents, and facilitates printing of specific documents on demand. Web-based document files can be accessed only by user I.D. and a security password.
The most recent addition to DataMagine is the eMail Archive module. It creates a separate online location for storing incoming, outgoing and internal messages, thus freeing space on the company server for other functions. The system can be programmed to erase e-mails after a specific time.
Agilysys prides itself with offering every software-based system that can help casino hospitality operations achieve better operation and management, Lashley said. It works with its casino customers to make its software solutions meet their needs. And often, if a new need or requirement is discovered, the firm will look into creating a solution for that need, too.
SIDEBAR:
Agilysys at a glance
Agilysys Inc.
(soon to relocate to Boca Raton, Fla.)
6065 Parkland Blvd., Cleveland, OH 44124
(440) 720-8500; www.agilysys.com
Executives:
-Arthur Rhein, chairman, president & CEO
-Martin Ellis, executive vice president
-Bill Lashley, senior vice president
-Kirsten Schloss, director of hospitality marketing
Company focus:
Enterprise solutions, services, software development and technology products.
Employees:
1,500
Products:
-Lodging Management System
-Material Management System
-DataMagine Imaging and Archiving Solution
Major markets:
Hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail operations, casinos
Geographic markets:
North America, Europe, Asia's Pacific Rim.
Sales in 2005: $1.74 billion
Agilysys offers a host of software solutions to help casinos improve customer service, trim costs and maximize profits
By James J. Hodl
What keeps patrons returning to casinos based in hotels or on resorts is the overall quality of the guest experience. But in today's increasingly competitive market, customers are developing higher expectations of what they should experience between arrival and departure.
Helping hotel and casinos clear this rising bar of expectations is Agilysys Inc., a provider of enterprise computer technology solutions based in Cleveland, but soon to relocate its headquarters to Boca Raton, Fla.
"We know the needs of the gaming industry. So Agilysys offers a broad range of software-based solutions to help casino operators better manage their properties in ways that boost customer service, while trimming costs and boosting profitability," said Bill Lashley, senior vice president of Agilysys.
"Our Hospitality Business Intelligence systems are geared to help property managers better collect and analyze data from their operations to respond to challenges, take advantage of marketing opportunities and better serve guests. By using these systems, they can better align staff with guest levels, improve loyalty marketing programs to synchronize with guest preferences and better manage food and beverage budgets," he added.
Automated management
Agilysys traces its history back to 1963 with the formation of Pioneer-Standard Electronics in Cleveland. Initially a distributor of industrial electronics components, the company moved into selling products that addressed its customers' IT infrastructure needs in the early 1980s. Within a few years, a Computer Systems Division was formed to create its own enterprise computer solutions, which proved so successful that the electronics components business was sold off in 2003, and the firm renamed Agilysys Inc.
"While Agilysys serves many markets, our strength is in the hospitality market, of which the gaming industry is an important segment," Lashley said. "The bulk of our hospitality systems cover all management needs of a hotel/casino off the gaming floor."
The key hospitality product offered by Agilysys is its Lodging Management System (LMS), a software solution that automates every aspect of hotel operations, from reservations and credit card processing to accounting and managing in-room services. This system also links customers' gaming accounts to hotel accounts through a platform that runs 24/7. A variety of other computerized systems can be linked into LMS.
One such system is LMS ResNet, a real-time reservation system that enables customers to book rooms directly over the Internet with no human interaction required. When customers go to a hotel-casino's Web page, they see room availability for the dates sought, choose the type they need and enter their own credit card data. Confirmation follows immediately by e-mail.
Smooth operations
According to Lashley, customers especially dislike having to wait in lines for service. But it is unavoidable, as hotel and resort lobbies fill up whenever an airplane lands, creating a bottleneck at the front desk.
"As hotels cannot financially justify staffing front desks at levels adequate for the busy periods, Agilysys has created solutions that get guests into rooms faster during peak periods, and likewise onto the gaming floor, restaurants, golf course or spa," he said.
LMS GuestExpress Mobile Solution enables wireless curbside check-in of guests as soon as they step from their transportation. Through a handheld computer device literally worn by an employee, reservations are confirmed, rooms are assigned, credit cards are processed and room keys are immediately created. Customers can thus avoid the front desk and go immediately to their room, he noted.
Guests also can check in without human assistance through the LMS GuestExpress Kiosk in hotel lobbies. They begin by inserting their credit card into the kiosk, which matches it to a reservation, confirms the reservation, offers a choice of rooms and encodes the room key. The kiosk also speeds guest checkouts by presenting a bill of charges, which once the guest approves it by pressing a touch pad, posts the charges of his credit card and bids him goodbye.
Depending on local regulations, hotel-casinos can provide customers with a three-stripe card upon checking in the serves as the room key, a means to charge on-premises restaurant and retail purchases to their hotel bill, and as a player card, Lashley said.
Yet another computerized system that can link to LMS is ARTS (Activities Reservation and Ticketing System), which enables guests to make reservations for restaurants, shows, concerts, limousines, golf tee times and other venues on and off the casino property.
Streamlining F&B operations
At many large hotel and resort-based casino operations, food and beverage operations-from bars to sandwich stations to upscale restaurants-are a growing profit area. But as these operations grow through multiple on-premises locations, problems arise.
The Materials Management System (MMS) is a turnkey software solution that allows properties to manage their inventory and procurement process through e-commerce. Able to integrate with nearly all leading financial and point-of-sale software products, MMS manages all aspects of hospitality, including food and beverage, retail operations, and general inventories.
A key feature is MMS Bar Coding, which enables use of handheld radio-frequency data collection devices that read bar codes to take error-free counts of products in inventory. This system records the date an item entered inventory, which enables use of older items first; an important ability for on-premises restaurants so that perishable food items can be used before freshness periods expire and it becomes waste.
"This latter feature creates a history of products moving in and out of inventory," Lashley said. "For instance, if 50 steaks were removed from inventory, but the steakhouse only sold 40, the system will help pinpoint and plug where the profit-shrinking inventory loss occurred."
By automatically reordering products on regular schedules or when stocking levels fall below a set amount, the MMS Inventory system can reduce carrying costs that can trim profitability. The MMS Purchasing system automates procurement from sourcing through invoice and supports all purchasing-related documents. And MMS Retail keeps track of retail items, creates bar code tags for special items and calculates sale prices for each item.
To keep on-property restaurants profitable, the MMS Menu/Recipe Analysis tracks the cost of menu items down to the ingredient level. For instance, "if the price of salt goes up 5 cents a pound, this software solution recalculates the cost of making every recipe that includes salt, and flags those that might require an on-menu cost adjustment," Lashley said. "Using this solution, restaurants can build recipes whose ingredient costs maximize food revenue."
Keeping track
The DataMagine document management solution converts all documents to digitized images for storage in computerized files on the Web. The system automatically routes scanned documents to the appropriate people and files, digitally captures signatures for applying to scanned documents, and facilitates printing of specific documents on demand. Web-based document files can be accessed only by user I.D. and a security password.
The most recent addition to DataMagine is the eMail Archive module. It creates a separate online location for storing incoming, outgoing and internal messages, thus freeing space on the company server for other functions. The system can be programmed to erase e-mails after a specific time.
Agilysys prides itself with offering every software-based system that can help casino hospitality operations achieve better operation and management, Lashley said. It works with its casino customers to make its software solutions meet their needs. And often, if a new need or requirement is discovered, the firm will look into creating a solution for that need, too.
SIDEBAR:
Agilysys at a glance
Agilysys Inc.
(soon to relocate to Boca Raton, Fla.)
6065 Parkland Blvd., Cleveland, OH 44124
(440) 720-8500; www.agilysys.com
Executives:
-Arthur Rhein, chairman, president & CEO
-Martin Ellis, executive vice president
-Bill Lashley, senior vice president
-Kirsten Schloss, director of hospitality marketing
Company focus:
Enterprise solutions, services, software development and technology products.
Employees:
1,500
Products:
-Lodging Management System
-Material Management System
-DataMagine Imaging and Archiving Solution
Major markets:
Hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail operations, casinos
Geographic markets:
North America, Europe, Asia's Pacific Rim.
Sales in 2005: $1.74 billion
