Technology innovation and stuff for Hospitality, Leisure & Retail Entrepreneurs
Friday, 17 September 2010
Toolkit - Getting British Business Online
Toolkit - Getting British Business Online
Great opportunity to get yourself a free, real, pukka web site.
We did. www.unicentaopos.co.uk
Great opportunity to get yourself a free, real, pukka web site.
We did. www.unicentaopos.co.uk
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
Don't understand. Need help...
What is it about hoteliers; not seeing the trees for the wood? (Yes. I know the vigilant amongst you will spot the debilerate deliberate mistake)
I'll come to the point and tell you what's bothered me for the last few years;
I've travelled quite a lot in Europe on business in my time, and have stayed in my fair share of hotels that's for sure, only to find the same-old out-moded telephone system and services wherever I stay. If that wasn't enough, the astronomical per minute call rates continue to amaze.
As a Guest though, I can take it or leave it... I'll leave it for now, thanks. I've got my trusty mobile phone.
OK Mr Hotelier, you will catch a needy traveller, or two, and scrape up a bit more secondary spend every now and again. You know very well that's the case.
You've done your costings as well; the revenue numbers in your worksheet have continued to shrink, and you have convinced yourself that it's no longer worthwhile even providing an in-room Guest telephone.
So, what if I told you you are missing a trick here. Missing a way of restoring an area of your business to profit you currently regard as a liability. A way of generating secondary spend that's just gagging to be exploited. Yes. Exploited.
Offended by the word, exploited? Look what the dictionary says;
ex·ploit (eksploit, ek-sploit) n.
An act or deed, especially a brilliant or heroic one.
tr.v. (ek-sploit, eksploit) ex·ploit·ed, ex·ploit·ing, ex·ploits
1. To employ to the greatest possible advantage: exploit one's talents.
2. To advertise; promote.
Would you exploit, Mr Hotelier? Of course you would.
You did it back in the days when mobile phones were a rarity. It's in your blood. So, why not do it again? You have the opportunity. You could exploit and you should exploit.
The equipment's already installed; you're more than likely signed up to a provider giving you insanely low local and international tariffs; you've even installed VoIP... now all you need to do is encourage Guests to use your phones instead of their mobiles.
Great. All ready and rarin' to go then!
Er. No. What do you do? You continue to charge insanely high Guest rate call charges - just like the good old days, eh - and yet still have difficulty understanding why that particular budget line refuses to nose upwards out of the red. You thought by lowering call cost you'd make more money. Well, yes. I guess you do. I can't argue with the equation; Sell High - Buy Cheap = More Profit. It's a given.
You really need to "get" this though;
Unless I have a pang of conscience about depriving you of a living or I've forgotten to pack my mobile phone... the handset in the room is just an ornament and will gather dust.
Give me lower, realistic international call rates - which beat the mobile operators - and my money is all yours for the taking!
On the other hand, if I also have my trusty laptop me with me, you are going to need to compete with the likes of Skype.
But, how you do that... is for my next post.
See you then.
I'll come to the point and tell you what's bothered me for the last few years;
I've travelled quite a lot in Europe on business in my time, and have stayed in my fair share of hotels that's for sure, only to find the same-old out-moded telephone system and services wherever I stay. If that wasn't enough, the astronomical per minute call rates continue to amaze.
As a Guest though, I can take it or leave it... I'll leave it for now, thanks. I've got my trusty mobile phone.
OK Mr Hotelier, you will catch a needy traveller, or two, and scrape up a bit more secondary spend every now and again. You know very well that's the case.
You've done your costings as well; the revenue numbers in your worksheet have continued to shrink, and you have convinced yourself that it's no longer worthwhile even providing an in-room Guest telephone.
So, what if I told you you are missing a trick here. Missing a way of restoring an area of your business to profit you currently regard as a liability. A way of generating secondary spend that's just gagging to be exploited. Yes. Exploited.
Offended by the word, exploited? Look what the dictionary says;
ex·ploit (eksploit, ek-sploit) n.
An act or deed, especially a brilliant or heroic one.
tr.v. (ek-sploit, eksploit) ex·ploit·ed, ex·ploit·ing, ex·ploits
1. To employ to the greatest possible advantage: exploit one's talents.
2. To advertise; promote.
Would you exploit, Mr Hotelier? Of course you would.
You did it back in the days when mobile phones were a rarity. It's in your blood. So, why not do it again? You have the opportunity. You could exploit and you should exploit.
The equipment's already installed; you're more than likely signed up to a provider giving you insanely low local and international tariffs; you've even installed VoIP... now all you need to do is encourage Guests to use your phones instead of their mobiles.
Great. All ready and rarin' to go then!
Er. No. What do you do? You continue to charge insanely high Guest rate call charges - just like the good old days, eh - and yet still have difficulty understanding why that particular budget line refuses to nose upwards out of the red. You thought by lowering call cost you'd make more money. Well, yes. I guess you do. I can't argue with the equation; Sell High - Buy Cheap = More Profit. It's a given.
You really need to "get" this though;
Unless I have a pang of conscience about depriving you of a living or I've forgotten to pack my mobile phone... the handset in the room is just an ornament and will gather dust.
Give me lower, realistic international call rates - which beat the mobile operators - and my money is all yours for the taking!
On the other hand, if I also have my trusty laptop me with me, you are going to need to compete with the likes of Skype.
But, how you do that... is for my next post.
See you then.
Saturday, 14 August 2010
Dedicated uniCenta oPOS site
uniCenta oPOS now has a new dedicated uniCenta oPOS web site. Still available on uniCenta's main web site and Sourceforge, the aim behind the new site is to dedicate it to just oPOS activity.
In the months since its launch on Sourceforge, oPOS is running steady at just shy of 200 downloads per week... which is amazing considering.
In the months since its launch on Sourceforge, oPOS is running steady at just shy of 200 downloads per week... which is amazing considering.
Monday, 26 July 2010
Can the iPad really hack it?
Apple's iPad is stimulating a lot of interest in mobility across the hotel industry as a Guest centric self-serve information solution, and rightly so. Touchscreen kiosk and info' displays are becoming more pervasive in hotels and help alleviate peak-time pressures on reception staff so, if it's possible to make some of these services go mobile, it makes absolute sense. Why wouldn't you do it?
The iPad's durability and capability though in a commercial environment is questionable... surely some degree of "ruggedability" is paramount. Total Cost of Ownership has to be a consideration too. And then, there is "desirability" - we all know this exists, especially for the iPad, and it has to be accounted for. Will it be the towel or the iPad that gets snucked away, I wonder.
I can hear all the nay-sayers right now postulating the failure of mobility in hospitality. May be. But all I would say is cast your mind back over the last ten years and see how far technology in hotels has moved on, and into, the Guest space.
Apple's iPad has certainly raised awareness but it just might be too much of a lightweight...
The iPad's durability and capability though in a commercial environment is questionable... surely some degree of "ruggedability" is paramount. Total Cost of Ownership has to be a consideration too. And then, there is "desirability" - we all know this exists, especially for the iPad, and it has to be accounted for. Will it be the towel or the iPad that gets snucked away, I wonder.
I can hear all the nay-sayers right now postulating the failure of mobility in hospitality. May be. But all I would say is cast your mind back over the last ten years and see how far technology in hotels has moved on, and into, the Guest space.
Apple's iPad has certainly raised awareness but it just might be too much of a lightweight...
Friday, 9 July 2010
I bet the Apple iPAD can't do this...
...successfully run uniCenta oPOS on a Partner Tech EM-200 pad and it's very, very slick - will get some video of posted soon. But what's even better (for some) is that it was running on Ubuntu 10 (loaded Ubuntu 10 onto a USB stick and booted from there and preserved the original Windows 7 install).
Of course, with the EM-200 being designed for mobility it makes no sense to worry about kicking a Cashdrawer, unless the EM-200 is in its POS Base (docking station). Hooked it up to a Bluetooth printer too sitting across the other side of the room (already done the wireless network printer in a previous test).
Now things are really cooking! Everything doesn't have to be crammed or limited to the usual PDA type small screen.
The uses for this pad are almost endless!
Of course, with the EM-200 being designed for mobility it makes no sense to worry about kicking a Cashdrawer, unless the EM-200 is in its POS Base (docking station). Hooked it up to a Bluetooth printer too sitting across the other side of the room (already done the wireless network printer in a previous test).
Now things are really cooking! Everything doesn't have to be crammed or limited to the usual PDA type small screen.
The uses for this pad are almost endless!
Friday, 18 June 2010
uniCenta oPOS v2.50
Decided to bring forward v2.50 - which now includes several more Sales and Customer reports, fix for a couple of minor glitches and more Bonus Pack pictures inc' euro, GBPound, USDollar currency images to help customize uniCenta oPOS even further.
Goto http://sourceforge.net/projects/unicentaopos/files/app/Windows/unicentaopos-2.50-windows-installer.exe/download to get version 2.50
Update: uniCenta oPOS testing is well underway for Ubuntu v10 platform; so far we have successfully run this on a couple of PC and importantly the brilliantly versatile Partner Tech' EM-200 pad (10.1" tablet pc).
Show & Tell coming for you soon.
Goto http://sourceforge.net/projects/unicentaopos/files/app/Windows/unicentaopos-2.50-windows-installer.exe/download to get version 2.50
Update: uniCenta oPOS testing is well underway for Ubuntu v10 platform; so far we have successfully run this on a couple of PC and importantly the brilliantly versatile Partner Tech' EM-200 pad (10.1" tablet pc).
Show & Tell coming for you soon.
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