DALLAS— After almost 10 years of using an outdated property management system (PMS), Six Continents Hotels has finally inked deals for two new PMSs— OPERA by Micros for large hotels and PegasusCentral for smaller properties. Rollouts of the two systems began “quietly” during 2001, said Doug Lewis, evp/information resources for Six Continents. As a result, 80 hotels located in 60 countries are up and running, with all franchisees required to complete installations by 2005. The agreement marks the first major hotel chain to name PegasusCentral, developed by Pegasus Solutions, as a PMS standard for its properties. Delivered on an ASP basis, PegasusCentral is a single-image inventory system, offering traditional property management system and central reservation system functions off of one central database. PegasusCentral is also offering Six Continents some much-needed features, namely a Windows-based user-face that’s easier to navigate and requires less training time for employees. “Their existing system had old technology. The last time they did a rollout was eight to 10 years ago— it was pre-Windows,” said Pegasus Bob Bennett, adding that the old system was character-based and wasn’t compatible with a standard computer mouse. Both Lewis and Bennett commented on the extensive training time needed to learn Six Continents’ former PMS, and in an industry where turnover is high, many hotels constantly found themselves training new front desk employees. “When Six Continents looked for a new system, they wanted something that was easy to use with short training time,” said Bennett. “The future demands we have a new PMS,” said Lewis. “[The installation] does put a burden on the franchisee, but we can’t be competitive using the technology of the past.” Lewis added that Six Continents will begin a full-scale installation of the new two PMSs at its hotels within the next six months, converting about 100 franchised hotels per month, and beginning in April 2002 all new hotels will be built with one of the new PMSs installed. The original developer of PegasusCentral was Global Enterprise Technology solutions (GETS), a company that was recently acquired by Pegasus. The PMS features added functionality, including: detailed reports that can be sorted by date range, loyalty club membership, frequency of stay, etc.; increased customer relationship management by requiring less time for check-in; improved storage of guest profile information; a Web browser-based system with online training; and 24-hour employee system monitoring. The Pegasus system is designed for smaller properties not needing advanced group meeting functionality. “It has group functions but not for the large volume found at bigger hotels,” said Bennett. Six Continents is gearing the product towards its Holiday Inn Express and smaller Holiday Inn franchises, which Bennett expects will equate to approximately 2,500 installations. The system runs on either a Web-based server connected to Pegasus’ data center in Phoenix or by using a Six Continents server found at the property. “The Web-based system would take all of the systems issues off of the property,” said Bennett. “They wouldn’t need a server, and wouldn’t have to load the program. It’s simpler.” However, Six Continents has not yet decided on which connection method it will use going forward.
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