2. 2
“Our goal at FHA is to always redefine our employee
and customer experience. The initial motivation behind
the Paperless Hotel was to make everyday tasks run
more smoothly and seamlessly for both employees and
customers, so they can focus on what really matters. “
Path to Paperless Vision
3. Path to Paperless – Innovation Project Finalist!
3
“Since the innovative change, four key initiatives have
been successfully implemented including Paperless
Check-in, Paperless E-sign, Paperless Payments and a
Mobile Housekeeping app.”
Howard Phung, IT Manager Australia
Greet Audience, Good Afternoon, Welcome to:
First, Let me introduce myself, I ***
Survey Audience
Joke, about systems down.
Observation one, loan application via bank manager
Observations, online bank loan application.
In recent years, cloud technology have shifted paradigm, flexibility, agility, automation vs complex systems. Connected cloud systems has made innovation possible by streamlining business and bringing home greater customer experience.
It is paramount for our industry today to make the move and transform enterprise out, our customers expects it, our employees expect it, I’m sure everyone in the room here expect it. Who hear today, are concerned how far behind our industry’s is falling?
At Frasers our we aim to continuously innovate in all areas of guest experience and operations. Innovation is a core value of Frasers Hospitality.
Earlier Adopters
Partnered with a number of market-leading technology’s to transform the digital employee experience, so our associates can focus on delivering memorable experiences.
By understanding how technology can maximize the impact of our associates. While understanding the need for businesses to outpace digital disruption and stay competitive in a rapidly evolving business environment.
The challenge was to figure out how to leverage the right technology to meet our business objectives and understand the true value of each opportunity by mapping ROI.
Our Aim is to look for opportunities that have high business value and are easy, inexpensive, and mostly important quick to implement.
Software –
We reviewed our current technology architecture to determine where they fit and how they can be incorporated in a way that delivers maximum value.
After a lengthy process assessing contenders, we appointed Infor to implement there latest property management System in 2015 to launch at Capri by Fraser in Brisbane.
Infor HMS solution allowed our business to start with a blank canvas and design the system from the ground up.
Integrated Payments
Frasers Hospitality establishes a relationship with Australia’s leading online payments company SimplePay Group, to deliver integrated Payment Solution across the business.
Frasers /Infor and SimplePay signed a partnership agreement to develop Australia first tokenize payments platform connecting into Infor HMS solution.
We needed our company and employees to understand, adopt, and embrace the changes that are coming their way. This requires more than flexibility or an open mind. It requires a shared support structure, along the lines of a shared services center, with skills across a variety of disciplines—such as change management, process optimization, and agile management, to name a few.but the goal is to build repeatable processes that are supported by a dedicated group of experts, who may or may not reside within organization.
Infor eagerness to develop HMS. Allowed us to be involve in companies development plans, with number of enhancements
Paperless E-Sign
Frasers Hospitality introduced Adobe E-sign to eliminate the paperwork and approvals that represent a large portion of the business compliance processes. We piloted E-sign at Fraser Suites Sydney three months ago and plan to roll it out nationally in quarter 3 this year, along with iPad Check-in. This means Authority Forms, Sales & Conference Contracts are now digitally sent for customers to sign. This IT solution offers our guests the ability to authorise contract/charge, without having to print the contract to scan and email or fax back to the hotel. For us, it enables the leverage of secure and paperless document management technology property-wide.
Paperless Payments
Frasers Hospitality engaged SimplePay in late 2016 to deploy Australia’s first-to-market tokenisation portal for the hotel industry. As with the Registration App, this has direct integration with the Hotel PMS.
This process sees hotel staff sent a payment token to save into the guest booking. All credit cards are validated through the process, essentially eliminating all manual paperwork required when guests faxed a copy of their credit card.
Tokenisation technology has enabled all our hotels to leverage banking-grade protection and adopt secure ways to process a credit card without being exposed to full credit card information. This process also utilises the SimplePay Global Risk platform that identifies fraudulent cards.
Phase two of this project has taken off this year, with our Innovation Team adopting Push to Pay/Guarantee concepts for every direct booking.
The software run’s offer cognos backend, allowing business to customize look and feel on the fly.
HMS Gateway, live at Fraser Suites Sydney, April 2018, remaining Australian properties to go live next month.
Significant efficiency achieved in Front Office operations, click / swipe and charge!
Pre-guest arrival credit card pre-validation, pre-authorisation and tokenization achievable.
Eliminate manual data entry to EFTPOS at check out with a click of a button via HMS / Simple Pay integration.
Eliminate full credit card details display in HMS. (only last 4 digits)
Synxis / Siteminder advance purchase / prepayment bookings can be charged on demand with a click of a button without EFTPOS via HMS / Simple Pay integration.
PCI and GDPR Compliance.
Global credit card fraud detection protection platform.
Future proof all payment types (e.g. Alipay, Wepay coming soon!)
Eliminate manual credit card reconciliations functions in Night Audit/Income Audit procedures.
Payment controls designed to prevent fraudulent credit card payments/refunds.
For example, ability set refund limits based on amounts charged, controls to prevent refund to different credit cards, prevent duplicate transactions (hackers credit card washing) and etc.
Mobile Housekeeper app
FHA worked with Infor to enhance a very basic housekeeping application to give it the functionality and robustness required for use in the group’s properties. The resulting app is now being piloted in Capri by Fraser in Brisbane ahead of a national rollout. Our team of housekeepers each carries an iPod Touch to guide their room servicing. They simply tap on the app to know their room cleaning priorities, take note of any special requests (‘only feather pillows please’) or to instantly receive any urgent messages sent from reception or other departments.
What significant changes in processes or services have been achieved?
Staff checking in guests, preparing their rooms or taking care of revenue no longer need to rely on a cumbersome and environmentally unfriendly paper-based administrative process. Instead, they now use mobile devices to manage their guest’s stay and have all the customer information they need sitting on one platform.
The group’s approach to all new projects is Test and Learn. A duplicate data centre was built to give the business the ability to complete rigorous testing for each new technology initiative and, through each test, identify a list of issues.
Project planning and pilots for SimplePay took place at our smallest property, Fraser Place Melbourne, for more than ten months to understand the impact of all the new solutions before we implemented the system nationwide.
“Being early adopters comes with a lot of unknowns,” says Innovation Team leader Howard Phung. “So, we find the Test and Learn process really worthwhile to simulate a live environment and provide the business with peace of mind the solution is ready to roll out.”
Our Technology 2020 vision entails delivering unparalleled GenMobile experience across our properties. With customers demanding more seamless experience, Frasers Hospitality Australia is on track to deliver our first unified Hotel Agnostics App.
3. Instant messaging with hotels
Guests often don’t know what they want so helping them book by communicating with them and answering their queries via live chat will be key in 2018. Responsive mobile websites are not a panacea - it's better to plug in to the instant communication apps guests are already using, like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, via a single dashboard to easily send out those messages. Furthermore, instant communication is best for time sensitive and personalised potential guest purchases such as a bike tour on a surprisingly sunny day.
We were listening intently at the Hotel Technology Revolution Forum as Benjamin Devisme of QuickText showed us how QuickText facilitated a guest’s birthday in Holland with a beer ordered by a friend in Australia using the hotel’s Facebook messenger.
