Like most hotels and chains, you are probably still using software (PMS and CRS) that was purchased and installed in the mid to late nineties. While the software may be running fine, the software vendor is very likely trying to encourage you to upgrade to their latest and greatest version, containing even more bells and whistles. In fact, you may even be forced to upgrade, as the software vendor will soon cease to support your old system.

So should you upgrade your PMS and CRS? The problem is, even the very concept of PMS and CRS is simply very nineties.

Check-in, check-out, housekeeping, call-center reservations. These have all been solved already. There is very little innovation you can expect when it comes to front desk software.

After all, would you upgrade your toaster to a new model with extra buttons? Probably not. It's simply not necessary, even though the toaster vendors would like to convince you otherwise.

As a smart hotel manager, you are probably thinking about issues that are more relevant today: managing distribution, increasing bookings at your website, building a central guest database, optimizing rates real time and reducing the learning curve for your staff. Unfortunately, this also means adding new software vendors to the mix and increasing your interface hassles 10-fold, not to mention dealing with exploding IT infrastructure costs.

We all know these issues very well. They have been unsolved for years. However, recent advances in service oriented architecture and internet technology have made it possible to create a new generation of hotel management software never before possible. A true gamechanger.

The next generation of hotel technology will not just be about PMS and CRS. It will not be about channel management, CRM or website bookings. In fact, those stand-alone concepts will disappear and be replaced by a much simpler and more elegant solution, where all of sales and operations fuse together. Interfaces in the traditional sense are gone. A central data repository is a matter of course. Entering data multiple times for multiple distributors will be as archaic as, say, distributing software on disks.

As an internet user, you probably already use some of this technology. You have seen it on sites such as Google, EBay, Amazon and Facebook or even Salesforce.com. You may not realize that you are using such highly advanced technology. That's the beauty of it. It disappears behind the surface. It simply works.

Installation? Did you ever install Yahoo or YouTube? Did a technician from eBay come to your hotel to train you on how to use the application? Installation is another "nineties" word.

Extensibility? Take a look at Facebook, Salesforce App Exchange or iTunes App Store to get an idea of what extensibility means today.

A distant dream? In fact the first of these new generation hotel management systems will be on the market and running live soon.

Be alert, as there is more news to come within a short time. Before you upgrade your old system to just another version number, you just might want to wait and see what you're missing.

Ian Millar

Professor of Information Technology
Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne
[email protected]