See-And Touch- The Future

See-And Touch- The Future
"A Look into Microsoft's Executive Briefing Center"

In Redmond Washington, amazing things are happening. Microsoft Home and the Microsoft Center for Information Work (CIW) are predicting and revealing the future in hospitality information technologies. In order to be successful, companies need to offer guests personalized experiences. Microsoft Home is developing technology that would completely eliminate the traditional room key altogether. It offers retinal and facial recognition technology in order to gain access to the room, as well as voice recognition and fingerprints. Upon entering the room, the guest's own personalized room settings are adjusted to what they prefer. This includes temperate, lighting, window shade position and even music. The technology can even change the walls and decor of the room to reflect the guest's current mood, and display family photos.
Many new technologies are being developed to assist people in the workforce who are working out of their homes or in more than one office. Microsoft Roundtable, developed by Microsoft CIW, is a new technology that will greatly enhance online meetings. It shows participants attending a meeting in real time, and includes a "smart camera" that will point to whoever is speaking at the moment. The CIW has also developed web-based workspaces where meeting attendees can collaborate their ideas and share information.
Microsoft has given me some faith in the hospitality industry in the coming years. If companies continue to be innovative and keep updating their technology there is no saying how far we can go with it. The retinal and facial recognition is great for hotels who are very concerned about the security of their guests. Imagine going to your hotel room with no room key, all you have to do is stand at the door and it will unlock for you. Personalizing the rooms is the greatest new technology that I am looking forward to experiencing. Many people who travel a lot may feel uncomfortable in hotel rooms, but these smart rooms are one great way to make them feel more at home and keep them coming back. Microsoft Roundtable gives you an experience unlike any other be being able to be in a meeting in the convenience of your own hotel room. Imagine the day when you can fly across the country to be on vacation, but still be able to participate in your meeting back home that you needed to be at. Then, when the meeting is done, you can go right back to what you were doing. New technologies like the ones being developed in Redmond Washington at Microsoft keep the hospitality business new exciting. I'm looking forward to the future. Are you?

The Customer Connection

Next Generation Table Management
"How leading restaurant operators leverage IT to turn tables faster while driving top and bottom line growth.

By Tim Clark, Contributing Editor

Hospitality Technology (June 2007)

http://htmagazine.com/HT/archive/0607/0607_04.html

In the highly competitive restaurant business, table management plays a very important role in how efficiently the restaurant is run. The goal is to turn tables faster, in order to serve more guests, provide more accurate quote times for a table, and to "enhance the dining experience for customers while maximizing profits."
When BJ's restaurant's decided to invest in a new table management system provided by QSR Automations, they were very happy. "The decision changed the way we looked at everything from welcoming our guests into the restaurants, to how we print up checks in the kitchen for our team member cooks." ConnectSmart Hostess is the system now used by all of BJ's 58 casual dining restaurants. When used correctly, ConnectSmart helps to shrink the amount of time that a table is empty. It also gives a systematic way to seat guests which has been very successful.
TGIF's is focused on keeping wait times to a minimum, because they know that their guests have many other choices of restaurants. This is why they purchased the Host Alert system from JTech. Not only does it offer a better view of table availability, but it also "enables faster mobile status updates, a custom view of wait lists, floor plans and on-screen keyboard and handwriting recognition." All of these things have increased productivity from the hosts and servers at TGIF's.
I know first hand how important table management is in a restaurant because I have been working in the restaurant business since I was 17. I worked 2 years as a host, and a year and a half so far as a server. In busy restaurants like TGIF and BJ's, table management is key. Technology like ConnectSmart Hostess and Host Alert can help with this. I have hosted at 3 different restaurants, and the more technology we had, the smoother things ran. First, I worked at Grotto Pizza in College Square shopping center. We rarely went on a wait, but when we did, I had no technology to help assist me. I wrote everything on a scrap piece of paper with the name of the party and how many people their were. However when a table became available I had nothing to help me contact the guest to tell them their table was ready, I just had to try and remember who was who. After that I worked at Don Pablos and we went on a wait every weekend. There, we had no technology besides a microphone to call someones name over the loudspeaker when the table was ready. Lastly, I worked at Bugaboo Creek. There we used pagers that were wirelessly connected to a paging device on the host stand, and we also had a microphone if it was needed. This was the most efficient way because it involved the most technology. I know first hand that technology can help improve table management and the overall restaurant experience for the guest and for the employees.

Testing 1, 2, 3

This is a test to see if this works! <3 Amber