Sex for sale in Las Vegas

Sex for sale in Las Vegas 

    

During a two-week period in the middle of January, Las Vegas - sets aside its otherwise upstanding morals to the selling of porn. And, what's more - it's completely legal!

Hundreds of thousands of people descended upon this desert oasis, which has more than a bit of a reputation for being a party town, and perhaps none more so than at this time. This high profile period also attracted thousands of the world's Press who waited patiently in breathless anticipation to unravel what's new and hopefully captures the money shot.

And in case I have confused you with my introduction and the blog's title, I was referring to two events that ran back to back this month in Las Vegas -- the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and Adult Entertainment Convention (ADULTCON). What is hot and what is not depends on your perspective. Both events attracted massive crowds but my attention was transfixed on the former.  

There were lots on offer @CES, and I have to tell you, that as much as I enjoy eating candy, there is only just so much you can take! Some of the CES attendees I met post-event claimed to be suffering from  'SOS' - Sensor Overload Syndrome, and with this being my first CES, I was pretty blown away by the excessive consumerism.

Parts of my body were thankful that the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) ended after four days (you can also see this from some of my photos of people resting in massage chairs) - and perhaps not a moment too soon - for me. Although the show ran through this time frame, officially four days long (TUE-FRI), it felt a lot longer. There were numerous early morning and late night activities surrounding it and wanting to make the most of it, to see, absorb and experience everything. Actually, the event spanned six days for me, as I attended some pre-show events. Quite honestly, I now feel like a used AA battery - drained of all energy.

Often positioned as the world's largest tradeshow, Las Vegas would definitely experience more than a blip on their revenue radar should they ever lose it. The sheer scale of this behemoth is such that it literally envelops everything, with huge revenues to all manner of establishments. One such beneficiary are those involved in the people moving business. Everything from stretched limos to the monorail, to buses and taxis were working flat out with all leave and sick days apparently being cancelled. I was chuffed that on one of the occasions I ordered a car to transport me from my place of lodging to an event, a stretched Hummer turned up. And when I got out at my destination - the venue for an HTNG Board Meeting, people standing outside of the off-strip Platinum Hotel, seemed intrigued who I was. It was a great Kodak moment for me. On the flip side, I was also pleased that on the penultimate evening of the show, I was not one of the estimated 500 people waiting for a cab at the Las Vegas Convention Centre.

  

 The importance of the Chinese customer in Las Vegas - Lunar New Year decorations to welcome in the Year of the Dragon

 

The sheer volume of human traffic must have generated some additional heat. Even though this is wintertime in Vegas, the area immediately around the Convention Center seemed to be a couple of degrees warmer than the rest of the town when aggregating all the hundreds of thousands of sweaty bodies. Of course the amount of BS and hot air originating from the mouths of some of the attendees may have also been a contributing factor to this local phenomenon.

Here are some interesting facts about CES:

• The Show is in its 44^th year
• There were 3,100 exhibitors showing over 20,000 new products
• The show covered 1.861 million square feet of exhibit space and used three primary venues: The Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), Venetian Hotel and Las Vegas Hotel (formerly The Las Vegas Hilton). Other locations were enrolled as hospitality suites and for Press Events - such as Showstopper at The Wynn, and Keynotes at the Venetian.
• More than 153,000 Attendees showed up, of which over 34,000 (22%) were International, and 17,000 Press.

Normally one has to pay big bucks to attend CES, but I was fortunate to be accredited with Industry Analyst status classifying me as Press, and granted an all areas access pass. This was extremely helpful since it permitted me preferential queuing for Keynotes like Steve Ballmer's where I was number 9 in line, even though this meant I had to arrive three hours early and then wait to get in. Coincidentally it's worth noting that up until a few months ago the two most powerful people in the Computer industry were both called Steve. Now there's just one - but I'm very sure the memory of the other lived on in spirit...

One of the many interesting experiences I had @CES was actually queuing up for the Ballmer Keynote and seeing people sitting on the floor and working around me. Some grabbed the opportunity to rest, while others networked as a passing magician entertained them, or someone volunteered to clean and polish your smartphone. To avoid line cutting, control was tight, but if you needed a bathroom break, a smartly dressed individual - usually in a Morning Suit would stand in your space until you got back from doing your business. From time to time, folks also passed by and gave away some premiums like a ballpoint pen, logo stickers, hand sanitizer and breath mints, but alas, no energy drinks, water or snacks. I guess they need a little more Hospitality Service training...

Ballmer's Keynote (the last one for a while as Microsoft also takes a break from CES) is available online: Here you can witness his excitement over many things to include the Windows Phone, Windows 8 and what are now termed: Metro apps.

Another interesting Keynote I attended was that of Paul Jacobs - Chairman of the Board and CEO of Qualcomm - who appear to power the mobile Internet. Honestly, it's quite astounding when you are a big company and have almost unlimited marketing funds for the type of show you can put on.  You have the chance to utilize stupendous graphics, and have guest appearances by A-listers such as Ryan Seacrest the MC for Ballmer, and Stephen Elop CEO of Nokia plus Kermit from Sesame Street for Qualcomm. We were even treated to a musical rendition of Trending Tweets by The Tweet Choir. All manner of peeps are on-hand to lend support to your cause. It's akin to attending a rock concert with a dash of the Shopping Channel thrown in. Qualcomm's keynote can be watched here

Traipsing the aisles as I did for four straight days, and gratefully losing a couple of Kg in the process - I was both surprised and upset that some companies did not like you to take pictures of their booths or products - after all, why are they there if not to show off and promote their wares?

One such company that P-d me off, was selling ear buds fashioned as jewelry items. The man in charge was quite offensive until I told him I needed the pics as part of my show review. He insisted on getting my name card (I gladly gave him one) so he could receive a copy - so here you are 'my friend' - and I hope you like what I have to say. "You have a cute and innovative product, but I'm sorry to say - your attitude leaves a lot to be desired!" Actually, I partly blame the CES organizers for not correctly briefing booth holders what the different color badges represent, and the design of them. Regardless of whether I could or could not, I shot over 600 photos some of which I'm sharing with you here in this BLOG and have been regularly posting onto Facebook.

 

As for the badges, pure Press had red color holders, and Industry Analysts (like me) had grey ones - others had less costly clear plastic ones. But another issue was that our badge holders were embossed with the BestBuy logo, so some of the booth holders mistakenly thought we were actually from BestBuy - and you can imagine their sheer delight at the sight of us walking onto their booth, only to have the smile quickly wiped off their faces when told we were not - at least I did. Some others with fewer scruples may have led them on so as to get free swag.... Anyway, perhaps for the 45^th CES, the organizers can do a better job at briefing the exhibitors. After all, these things take time to filter through...

Talking about ear buds - headphones of all shapes and sizes were everywhere! But I noticed a lot of men sporting oversized earrings - practically the size of M&M chocolates, some even shiny in texture almost like cufflinks for the ears. I wonder why the ear bud and speaker manufacturers haven't colluded into morphing these into mini loudspeakers and maybe using Bluetooth to beam sound to them - these people could become a whole new generation called "Boomears"...

Foodservice was far from great @CES - and not surprisingly there were long lines selling overpriced junk food like hot dogs, pizza and burgers. Trying to be smart and sensible, I circumvented this and followed the philosophy of BYO and did so with healthy snacks and a water bottle with built-in filter. Maybe next CES along with some buddies we should open a noodle or dim sum stand catering to the numerous Asian participants many of whom I saw typically eating instant noodles. Could be a chance to get rich quick...

As I'm sure you've read in other articles, Apple (the tech industry's superpower) was conspicuous by its absence, but essentially had one of the largest virtual presences because their hardware is everywhere, and companies are designing products and services around their IOS ecosystem and product line.

For example, in the North Hall of LVCC, I estimate that 50% of those companies would not have been there if the iPhone or iPad had not been invented. Although I'm told that in previous years this space catered to such devices as the Palm Pilot and perhaps to a lesser extent, the Blackberry - which incidentally did have a large booth at the show - but sadly no one was on-hand to help fix my crapped out Blackberry BOLD which left me with withdrawal symptoms for 10-days. Not surprising that their top two Exec's have just stepped down.

In fact, I have never seen or even could imagine that there so many ways in which to cover, charge, connect, clean and polish, make water resistant, listen to, enhance, augment, bling and otherwise accessorize your "I" device. It was truly outrageous! Some companies just purely focus on blinging out I-devices and had humongous booths - and one could think disproportionate to the size of what they were selling. I know the market must be big - but when seeing the stands I was astounded by what must be the potential volume and residual profit.

Can't help wonder though if there is some collusion going on between two of the largest Korean CE (Consumer Electronics) manufacturers - Samsung and LG. Why do I say this? Samsung have gained a very strong foothold in the Smartphone and Tablet space, while LG are making spectacular advances with OLED TV. Perhaps somewhere on the golf course or in a downtown Karaoke Bar, policy makers have formed some kind of pact whereby instead of both companies pouring billions of Korean Won into the R&D of all products, they divide the space with one focusing on mobility and the other on TVs... This is pure conjecture on my part, and not substantiated at all. But it does make you wonder.... Doesn't it?

One must not lose sight of the fact that CES tries to cover a broad spectrum of age categories from newborns to silver surfers. Newborns? I hear you say - yes, there were even tech products specifically catering to babies like digital weighing scales that can have various sensors attached to them such as for monitoring heart rate and blood pressure etc. And as for Silver Surfers (60+), I saw one system that handled computer-less email - similar to a fax machine in design.

Late afternoon of Day Two I walked from LVCC to the Wynn for the Showstoppers event - an invitation-only session for Press to review in one location a few hundred of the products on display at CES - a kind of meet-the-press. During the walk I was attracted to an illuminated sign saying Cigar Shop. Well, as you know I have a passion for all things organic and in my esteemed opinion, cigars are the embodiment, so I made a detour and stopped off at Don Pablo Cigars on Las Vegas Boulevard. While enjoying my freshly rolled cigar (they are rolled in-store by expert Dominican Republic rollers) and chatting with owners Eric Boye and Marlene Moreau, in walked a celeb - John Salley - NBA Champion and TV Host.

Anyway, John and I got talking and during the short conversation he mentioned about being a vegan and would in fact be doing a Cooking demonstration the following day with Allison Fishman (Cooking Teacher and Cookbook author) at the Haier booth where he was going to be promoting healthy eating and using their induction cooker - watch the entertaining video here: Thanks John for also remembering me during your interview.

A specific device that caught my attention @CES was the Pico projector - these are small tabletop LCD projectors that since their first launch a few short years ago have made leaps and bounds in regards picture clarity and pricing. Several vendors had these on display, and one such company had six connected together in three pairs of two with images stitched together so that they formed a video wall - it was very kool! Gotta get me a new one of those - mine is a 1st GEN.

More than one company exhibited Transparent TVs - which are basically clear glass screens which you could look through when the power was OFF, but when ON, showed a regular TV picture. I believe they do this by sending a signal from the sides. I have some difficulty in understanding how to position these (in Hotels) unless you have a beautiful wall behind it, and would allow you to see through under certain circumstances. Having said that, this is one item that's not on my short-term wish list.

Some of the vendors operating in the music space and there were quite a few employed DJ's on their booths, and you could witness them at first hand mixing and scratching - combining state-of-the-art MP3s and traditional LPs. Perhaps in another life I could envisage myself doing that...It looked like a lot of fun. Oh yeah and try this one for size. Imagine a Guitar that's really an iPad case, and where you would normally pluck the strings, an iPad has been inserted (into the Guitar) and you actually run your fingers over the iPad screen which then simulates the sound through the Guitars externally connected amplifier.

Gesturing and speech control was fairly prevalent at the show - and some companies demonstrated controlling a computer with either brainwaves or the movement of your eyes. Whilst an interesting idea especially for the physically challenged, I question the wisdom and practicality of these devices as this could turn us into even more of a couch potato.

A few of the other interesting gizmos included a small 360 degree camera that fits onto the back of a smartphone - these could be particularly useful if you wanted to video a Board Meeting, or perhaps both sides of an Interview using just one camera.

Another was the 4G LTE Modem, which can create a mobile hotspot and as one vendor said to me; "very popular amongst business travellers since the user can avoid paying (exorbitant) Hotel Broadband charges". On that note, I believe Bandwidth usage in Hotels will decrease as (SMART) Guests BYOI (Bring Your Own Internet) with these 4G LTE Modems. And as people increasingly tether smartphones (it is rumored Apple is going to release a Gigabit Wi-Fi enabled device very soon) then this will be another game changer.

Prototype cars had a special place @CES, with models by Ford, Audi, Kia and Mercedes-Benz. Some other companies exhibited elements of new car designs to include head-up displays and integration with devices like the iPhone (see what I mean about Apple being there even if they weren't). Electric and hybrid seem to be the way of the future for cars.

Some of the companies in the car audio section showed off such powerful sound systems that the surrounding floor shook so violently you'd think an earthquake just hit Las Vegas.

Another celebrity hit the stands -Justin Bieber made a guest appearance to show off a dancing robot that mimics his moves. This would no doubt be popular with the teenybopper crowd. Sadly, I missed that event. Sob Sob.

Thin is in: Meaning we saw a slew of new Notebooks akin to the MBA (MacBook Air) - often classified as Ultrabooks, which actually is a category that does not officially exist - more of a marketing term used by some vendors like INTEL...

Some of the popular Tech shows staged live broadcasts from CES to include: TWIT, CNET, Engadget and Gizmodo.... Unfortunately, no one took up the golden opportunity to interview me. Maybe next time... Hint Hint.

A little lightheartedness - I thought of re-classifying CES to:

1. Consumer Exploitation Show
2. Consumer Experience Show
3. Connect Everything Show
4. Capitalize Emotions Show
5. Consume or Conserve Electricity Show

 Some of the TECH trends you could glean from CES:

• Mobility - SMARTer Phones + Tablets
• Wireless Connectivity between devices and to the Internet + Gigabit Wi-Fi 802.11ac 
• OLED TV - 2D and 3D - with 8K resolution 
• Gaming on mobile devices + TV
• Surface and Touch technology
• Human interface - Voice control and Gesturing
• Home automation
• Large headphones a.k.a. Cans
• Car Automation - to include mobile connectivity and driver assistance
• Blinging your devices
• MedTech
• Collaboration via the Cloud
• 3D Printing

For me, and I also guess for a lot of others, it was not hard to decide what was the best thing at the show - and I subsequently found out that this was also the case for the voting panel of CES  - it was the LG 55-inch OLED TV. Quite stunning and I can envisage this being in the homes of many people in the not to distant future - as well as some Hotels.

Now that CES is over, and I've said my goodbyes to Las Vegas, this is one time when I hope the famous saying does not come true - "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas"....    

Hasta la vista!

Note: Links in this article do not support or endorse any product or service and are meant for illustration purposes only

(c) Terence Ronson ISHC

26th January 2012

The Window into the future

A Plexpad, also called a Plex, is a computing device built in 2149 described as the cheapest, most energy-efficient data access device on the planet.

The Caprica Holoband is a device that allows its user to access and participate in the V-World. A device created by Daniel Graystone, they are apparently easy to hack, thus allowing programmers to set up rooms of illicit activity, collectively called V-Clubs. Produced by Graystone Industries, sales and licensing of V-World "rooms" made up sixty percent of GI's revenue.

A Plexpad, also called a Plex, is a computing device built in 2149 described as the cheapest, most energy-efficient data access device on the planet. (source: 20th Century Fox Television)

The Window into the future | By Terence Ronson

Featured in the hit TV series – Terra Nova, is a see through tablet-esque device called 'Plex'. This hand held unit [not at all similar in design to an iPad] allows it's teenage user to do homework, listen to music and just about anything else this demographic yearns in order to stop their world from falling apart.

In fact, when the 'core' of the Plex blew in the recent episode, the owner 'Maddy' went into an almost bi-polar state because - "I have everything on my Plex!" she cries.

In the now defunct TV show Caprica – inhabitants would sport a VR device aptly named 'Holo-Band' – allowing the wearer to escape into another world – where through the help of an avatar, they exist in a Second-Life type environment. Allegedly, they have all the senses and emotions one would have in real life – but without the consequences of ones actions. Another visionary technology shown resembles a folding screen with e-ink.

Recent movies to include Mission Impossible, The Matrix, Avatar and TRON all exhibit one thing in common – SciFi futuristic gizmos. The super popular show CSI Miami employs a lot of holographic and head-up type displays to project images of corpses, maps and various other snippets of information adding to its excitement and state of wonderment by the viewing audience.

When I see these things I ask myself the question, how do these imagineersconjure up such innovation that makes us yearn for them – yet by contrast, the tech we use today (to include Hotels), although we think it's pretty advanced, resembles that of a steam engine.

Scientists busy themselves about how we would react if suddenly we're catapulted into the future by a trip in Dr. Who's Tardis to a place and time where such things exist. Would we salivate at the thought and accept them with open arms? Would the synapses inside our brain rapidly re-wire themselves to cope with this new demand on our grey cells, or would we be stumped and rebel – quickly seeking out an exit sign and the way back home?

In a few days time, the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) takes place in Las Vegas, and I for one will be there to see what wizardry is on display.

Who knows, HG Wells may even make an appearance and take me for a ride in her Time Machine… Please Please !

© Terence Ronson ISHC

YO! What's trending?

YO! What's trending?

As we near y/e 2011, I can't wipe away the feeling that as far as the economy is concerned, we are still on a wild roller coaster ride. I'm just not sure though if we are on the incline, or just about to reach a peak with yet another stomach churning steep decline in our midst. Whichever way it goes, these are for sure interesting times we live in.

Without doubt, one of the most disruptive technologies that we coexist with is Apple's ecosystem - called iOS. It is as omnipresent as the air we breathe, and I doubt a conversation regarding technology goes by, without some mention of this beast. The coming year, will likely see us immersed even deeper with new iOS based devices, and the most interesting one on my radar, is something I previously blogged about - The Apple TV (maybe called iTV). This is a real TV - maybe in two to three different sizes, you could hang it on the wall - it will be app driven, with content coming from the Web. Definitely a game-changer, and one where Apple fanboys will likely line up days ahead of the launch to get their hands on.

In my mind, this along with software and operating systems that we now happily and instantaneously download sounds the death bell for Blu-ray, DVD, CD and the associated players. Since they will no longer be required, it's very likely that Notebooks (such as already done with the MacBook Air) will also drop them in the coming year to save space and cost.

While on the subject of media, I can't believe that one PPV provider recently issued a list of Top Ten movies watched in Hotel rooms and there was no porn on the list... Must be a unique group of clients that they have compared to normal trends. Besides that, I just wonder how many people really purchase movies in a Hotel Room versus carrying their own, or sucking it (freely) from the web.

One can draw a parallel to the app world we now live in, and the Wild West land grab/gold rush of the bygone era. Everyone is trying to get a piece of the action. Whether you are launching a ninety-nine cents app, or a proprietary one, you are trying to get a slice of the valuable real estate on someone's i-device. It's a bun fight!  

Saying there is an app for that - is not as ridiculous as it once sounded. There are zillions of them, and all manner of folks are launching them with similar functionality as to what we invented in 2000 - called "Hotelinmyhand" for Hong Kong's Rosedale on the Park and heavily featured on CNN. The only real differences between that and those of today, are made possible by advances in technology.

Email, IM and SMS, voraciously erode the art of one on one, face-to-face conversation - and I wonder if your handwriting has become as illegible as mine. On those occasions when I've stayed in Hotels and receive a nicely handwritten card, I speculate if some form of smart printing was involved to closely resemble the penmanship of a fountain pen. Vocal conversations have been reduced to Tweet sized soundbytes, and the usage of three to six character acronyms has exponentially increased.

Web sites are swiftly becoming passé, and if you are a business without an app, a hashtag or some kind of storefront on a SNS [social networking site] - then you might as well pull down the shutters, and hibernate. Even the most popular SNS have apps, with this being an integral part of the mobile world we so enjoyably endure.

Hotels continue to struggle to find ways in which they can morph SNS into ATMs'. Turning Lookers into Bookers is an elusive recipe for them. But having said that, apps are taking over the role of the OTA, especially since booking windows are reduced - and being made at the last minute - sometimes on-board the very transport taking them to that destination. Thanks to technology that can sweep up excess inventory, customers can now take advantage of late booking windows, which may sometimes yield better pricing than bookings made 21 days in advance.

The Cloud looms large - and there are growing concerns over the viability, stability and security as I pointed out in an earlier BLOG. Interesting development is that the US Justice Department is now raising concerns over the Cloud, and how it potentially impacts data security and could contravene the Patriot Act. Go figure that one!

In an increasing effort to trim costs, Outsourcing and the use of Managed Services is on the upsurge. Groups are looking at constructive ways to benefit from both of them, and yet still maintain Company Standards and manage the Guest Experience.

The coming year should prove as interesting as the one WE are currently sun-setting, and I for one, can't wait to see what it brings.

See you on the other side

(C) Terence Ronson ISHC

Is YOUR Service Provider providing service to YOU?

Is YOUR Service Provider
providing service to YOU?

I attend meetings, talk with clients and Associates, read various articles and BLOGs, and when I do so, all too frequently I unfortunately hear adverse comments about Service providers and how woefully inadequate they are about providing service to YOU - The Hotelier.

In an industry that exists solely to provide service - I ask myself why is this? Why is it that a Service Provider (You) are not receiving service levels commensurate with your expectations? Is it conceivable that the customer - YOU, are being too demanding or have too high expectations, or is it really the case - the service you receive sucks?

Let's firstly ask ourselves - what kind of service levels are we looking for?

Personally, I think it's as follows:

• Someone at the end of a phone line, who can understand what we are saying [often under stressful and emotional circumstances], be sympathetic and responsive to our needs and have some diagnostic skills. Of course, they must also be able to converse in our language.
• They should not be just a pencil pusher or keyboard operator - and if you - my service provider are using a 3^rd party for this service - please test the lines yourself from time to time and see how efficiently that company operates. These folks are the front line to your organization, which WE are calling, and directly facing customers. Imagine the type of character, personality and social skills Hotel personnel possess in this role. Should your people be any different?
• They should - depending on the SLA [Service Level Agreement] YOU have with the supplier, be able to either handle the call themselves, channel it efficiently and speedily through to someone who can, or arrange for YOU to have a call back within a specified time.
• Vendor take note - If it's a call back situation - make sure it happens well within the agreed time and not at timeline - three hours fifty seven minutes if you have a call back limit of four hours...Be mindful that someone is at the other end of the phone pacing up and down waiting for that all important call.
• The person whom you speak with should have excellent interpersonal skills, again be sympathetic remembering you are possibly stressed out and emotional, have great diagnostic skills, and the requisite technical knowledge to handle the issue. If some information is already known about the incident type - then prior research should be made before the call takes place about a potential fix - and not always wait for the call to happen and then keep the caller waiting even longer at the other end. That is frustrating and a waste of both parties time.
• During the diagnostic phase, if the person taking the call analyzes that they cannot handle the case [hopefully this will happen quickly and without and any hit/miss situations], they should speedily expedite it to someone who can. This particular part of the process can be extremely frustrating for the caller since you are now passing the call to a third person, time has been wasted and stress levels significantly increased especially if we are talking about a mission critical system and Guest Service is being affected, so this process needs to be handled with the utmost care, sensitivity and attention.
• Once the remedy has been made, and confirmed to be working correctly, the support individual should thank the caller for calling the Support Line and ask if there is anything else they can help with. Whilst you may feel this can be opening yourself up to abuse, remember, the calling party is paying for this service, and often at a very high rate. Your job is to serve!
• If the problem cannot be immediately solved and knowingly is going to take some time, then a workaround should be offered [if practical and possible] and a specified time and process made for handling the follow-up process given to the caller. The caller MUST agree this to process otherwise potential conflict can happen.

Why do we need System Support in the first place?

When I hear the above points, I also challenge the person making the statement asking why they need to contact support - trying to understand the underlying reason(s):  

1. Is it a system bug? Remember, all software inherently has bugs, and is fundamentally broken. That's why we get regular updates for commercial Operating systems, Programs and apps. They are not just enhancements....
2. Is it that you are [incorrectly] expecting the software to do something in a certain way and it doesn't?
3. Do you, or your people have a lack of training and experience, and are calling the Support line to make up for this deficiency?
4. Are you handling first line support internally via Super Users and System Owners, or your own Help Desk - or just picking up the phone and calling Support because it's the easy thing to do and you think it's your God given right as you are paying for it anyway?
5. Is it because you want a Report to give you information in a particular way, and you can't find the data or it just does not?
6. Has the system crashed?

Some of the above reasons should not cause you to call support lines. I'm not defending them in any way shape or form, but you should firstly have the requisite knowledge in-house to cope with some of these issues, and not tie up support lines for non-emergency items.  

To draw a parallel - if you cut your finger at home, and all you need is a Band Aid, or sneeze a couple of times - do you call the emergency services to send an Ambulance? I hope not!

Let's talk about in-house first line support

Firstly - day-to-day support of application solutions [like PMS, PABX, POS, S&C, HR, Accounting to mention a few] is not the job of the IT Manager! What? I hear you say. Yes, it is NOT his/her responsibility. The IT Manager should be responsible for the entire network making sure all systems work harmoniously - interconnect via interfaces and function smoothly - they manage the sum of all the parts - the IT ecosystem.

If you have a software issue with say your PMS - and you can't print a report, or something simple goes awry with the Point of Sale system [and I don't mean a hardware failure], then the System Owner - people within the owning group for this system (Stakeholders) in which it is a business tool should firstly try to handle this utilizing their diagnostic skills and higher level of training as a Super User. And in the unlikely event that they cannot handle the case - then the incident should be escalated to the IT Manager to call the Support line. If you don't already have Super Users in place - then you should develop some quickly to take care of this gaping need.

Calling Support

When you call Support - you MUST log the particular incident/case in some form of System Log - some Hotels use a Spreadsheet, some use a physical log book, and some have more sophisticated tracking systems - Like Unify. Whatever method you use, and you must use one - the call should be logged with at least the following information:  

• Unique number identifier of the case - can be a sequential number like 1,2,3, etc.
• Date
• Time
• Person making the call
• Issue reported by (department/name/time)
• Details of the issue - be as descriptive as possible - short codes are OK so long as others can understand what has been written
• System affected (if you have one book per system - which is the best method, this can be omitted)
• Person you spoke with at the other end - get their name and extension number or direct line
• Case status - (1) Resolved, (2) Pending
• Is it (1) Bug, (2) Unknown issue (3) Something wrong (4) Nice to have/enhancement
• Severity of problem (A) System crash (B) Partial failure (C) Workaround in place (D) Not critical
• What will happen next - if applicable
• When is the follow up to take place and by whom?

Follow-up the case

The IT Manager should review logs on a Daily basis so he/she knows what's going on - even if they have been woken up at home in the middle of the night to help support the case. This should be done prior to the daily Morning Briefing, since some of the issues may be raised at that time - especially if they were critical and affected the operation.

It's also a good idea to summarize system issues and find any trends/patterns. These should appear quickly if Logs are well maintained and analyzed. For example if you see printers keep failing, reports don't print, system hangs during a certain process - then you know there is a trend. More importantly if Support is being called because a certain process is not working on a regular basis.

Vendors should also be logging Support Calls and analyzing them on a regular basis with clients - understanding where issues are happening, and see if patterns emerge that perhaps require additional training or some form of operational modification.

It is important to point out to the Hotel if a particular person keeps calling Support for issues that could easily be handled on-property, then additional training should be given to enhance that individual's First-aid skills. This especially rings true with employee churn and after an upgrade has taken place. I know this is one of the arguments CIO's are using for moving systems off-property/tothe Cloud - and by doing so, reduce the need for on-property skills.

Fact is that the existence of (up-to-date) SOPs, which include the use of system functions (input/output), are a convenient vehicle to administer training (and re-training) ensuring consistent service. There is nothing worse for the business than outdated SOPs and I would go as far as binding the SOP maintenance and training activities to the annual bonus scheme of every supervisor. It includes updates as a result of either system enhancements/upgrades or business driven changes. 

But until that happens - both parties can benefit from higher levels of on-property skills, and more importantly by doing so, the Hotels' operation will be improved, and the Support line will receive less calls. Overall, it's WIN WIN

  

(c) Terence Ronson ISHC