The Indra team at HITEC greeted an influx of hoteliers interested in learning more about a holistic approach to hotel technology — Photo by Indra USA, Inc
Indra Senior VP and General Manager for North America Connie Rheams explains the benefits of an all-in-one technology solution vs. multiple disparate vendor systems — Photo by Indra USA, Inc

The Indra booth was buzzing at HITEC last month with attendees flocking to the all-in-one, modular
hospitality Travel Management Suite; The solution replaces multiple systems with a unified
platform for all core needs to drive accurate guest information from all parts of the operation in real-time and from a single database

MIAMI – Chief information officersand purchasing directors across numerous leading hotel chains were drawn to the Indra booth during HITEC last month interested in learning how they can to plan their technology future on their own terms. Tired of multivendor integration coming with a big price tag, these information technology professionals were intrigued by the company's Travel Management Suite, which offers an all-in-one, modular, end-to-end, fully-integrated solution for hotel chain management.

The Indra team at HITEC greeted an influx of hoteliers interested in learning more about a holistic approach to hotel technology.

During Indra's exhibitor tutorial titled: "Doing Real-time Business with a Holistic Approach to Technology," hoteliers learned from Indra Senior VP and General Manager for North America Connie Rheams that a unified platform approach to technology provides easily and instantly accessible information online across all touch points with the guest. Built using industry best practices, the open and customizable Indra TMS platform means a lower total cost of ownership, greater economies of scale, shorter time-to-market with lower developmental / roll-out costs, and higher flexibilities and capabilities to meet a hotel chains unique business needs. It also serves as an opportunity generator, with information technology becoming a strategic competitive factor.

Indra Senior VP and General Manager for North America Connie Rheams explains the benefits of an all-in-one technology solution vs. multiple disparate vendor systems.

"From a client prospect perspective, HITEC was a very good show for Indra," Rheams said. "There was a lot of buzz about Indra's Travel Management Suite during the HTNG North American Conference in February, and we were pleased to see that hoteliers' interest in migrating to an all-in-one solution had not waned. In fact, several hotel companies that stopped by our booth said they heard a lot of discussion about Indra at the HTNG event, and it put us on their radar."

In "CIOs eye holistic approach for core technology," Hotel News Now News Editor Jason Freed, wrote: "Hotel companies are shifting toward replacing their core systems—property management, point of sale, central reservations, customer relationship management, etc.—with a more holistic solution that provides a platform for all of the solutions in one. Gone will be the days where hoteliers take piecemeal approaches and turn to different vendors for different parts of the solution, sources said at the Hotel Technology Next Generation annual North American conference last week."

Freed wrote that the holistic shift is in part driven by the increasing need to collect, host, transmit and shift guest data across all platforms and all systems.

In the HNN article, Tim Harvey, president and CEO of Core Ideas and former executive VP and CIO at Hilton Worldwide, said: "The shift to a holistic approach to core technology is being driven by the ability to anticipate guest needs. Brands and hotel management companies are rapidly losing ownership of the guest to online travel agencies, and being able to store and seamlessly share customer preferences in a cloud could provide unique opportunities. The shift is in part driven by the increasing need to collect, host, transmit and shift guest data across all platforms and all systems."

Also quoted in the article, Vineet Gupta, executive VP and CIO of Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, had this to say: "The hospitality business is becoming increasingly reliant on one-to-one communication with its customers, and a platform-based technology infrastructure allows that to happen more easily and frequently. Companies who don't have that data on the consumer are going to lose that communication opportunity."

Indra Stands Alone, Just ask Hoteles Catalonia

Only Indra's Travel Management Suite is built on the world-leading SAP technology platform. It offers unsurpassed functionality for any business area, and it is open, configurable, scalable and modular. Hotels can start with any of the TMS modules and add-on as needed in the future, providing a strategic approach to enterprise management.

At HITEC, hoteliers had the unique opportunity to talk with Hoteles Catalonia CIO Adolfo Sánchez Olmos, a satisfied Indra TMS customer, and one of the first hotel companies to implement a single platform across all their front-office and back-office operations. Olmos told his peers visiting the Indra booth that migrating to an all-in-one solution is the only way to operate in today's competitive and demanding environment.

"With an enterprise the size of ours, comprised of multinational and multicultural properties, we needed to be able to access data quickly and respond appropriately to changes in the market," Olmos said. "Previously, we were receiving information from numerous systems in differing formats. Being able to pull all relevant data into one unified database and make it available across the enterprise was near impossible, and it was making us slow in our decisions and our reactions. Due to the open nature of Indra's modular and configurable Travel Management Suite, we are now able to efficiently and effectively make chainwide policy decisions that keep us competitive, with a quick time-to-market response and a minimum investment. Unified information and one data structure is truly driving our business intelligence, which contributes to increased guest satisfaction, loyalty and revenues."

Indra's modular hospitality Travel Management Suite includes:

  • TMS for Hotels: PMS, POS, CRS, CRO, Spa and more
  • TMS for Web: Website development, content management, booking engine and mobile solutions
  • TMS for Analytics: Forecasting, budgeting and reporting
  • TMS for CRM: Customer Relationship Management
  • TMS for ERP: Financial accounting/supply chain management/workforce automation
  • TMS for Connectivity: Third-party distribution sales channels

For more information on Indra TMS, visit http://www.indracompany.com or call Connie Rheams at (214) 554-3851 or email her at [email protected].

About INDRA Company

Indra is the leading technology multinational in Spain and a leader in Europe and Latin America. It is the second European company in its sector in terms of R&D, with €550 million invested in the last three years. Its turnover in 2011 was €2.688 million, and 55% of its revenue is currently from international markets. The company employs 42,000 professionals and has customers in 118 countries.

Connie Rheams
(214) 554-3851