HT-1221

PLUS: MURTEC Executive Summit Recap POS Software Trends RTN’s Winning Initiatives

REDEFINING THE GUEST EXPERIENCE Hotels are doing more with less, balancing shrinking budgets and enduring pain points with enthusiasm for innovative guest-facing technologies.

WINTER 2021 VOL. 25.4 WWW.HOSPITALITYTECH.COM

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WIN T ER 20 21 Vo l . 4

CONTENT This month on www.hospitalitytech.com

FEAT URES & CASE ST U DIES What’s Next for Restaurant Payments and Ecommerce Transform the Guest Journey From Pre-Stay to Re-Stay Efficiency on the Menu: Delivery, QR Codes & More How Hospitality Employers Can Help Workers Recover From Long-Term Unemployment BOO! Is Walmart the Scariest Ghost Kitchen in the World?

Beyond the Booking: How to Maximize a Digital Concierge Best Practices to Counter the Rise of Cyberattacks in Hospitality

• • • • • • • C O V E R S T O R Y PAG E 8

EXCLUSIV E RESEA RCH

2 02 2 LO D G I N G T EC H N O LO GY S T U DY:

REDEFINING THE GUEST EXPERIENCE

Customer Engagement Technology Study: Powering Hospitality’s Recovery

Hotels are doing more with less, balancing shrinking budgets and enduring pain points with enthusiasm for innovative guest-facing technologies.

What do hospitality customers really want from technology? After more than a year of disruption, the human touch — assisted and augmented by innovative solutions — is more in demand than ever. This annual report, now in its 10th year, gives an in-depth look at how consumers are redefining “value.” https:// hospitalitytech.com/customer-engagementstudy-2021

By Mehmet Erdem, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Hotel Operations & Technology, William F. Harrah College of Hospitality, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; and Robert Firpo-Cappiello, Editor-in-Chief, Hospitality Technology

DEPARTMENTS: 4 EDITOR’S NOTE 6 HTNG CHECKS IN 7 NEW HORIZONS 36 RTN TABLESIDE

2021 Restaurant Technology Study: Building the “Next Normal” According to HT’s exclusive research, restaurant IT budgets remain tight while strategic goals and investments acknowledge the need for innovation and meeting new customer expectations. https://hospitalitytech.com/restauranttechnology-study-2021

E-N E WS L E TTE R

20 SPECIAL REPORT

28 EVENTS

2022 POS Software Trends Report: Integration, Mobility & Analytics

MURTEC Executive Summit & Showcase Recap

Restaurant operators are unleashing the POS to deliver omni-channel experiences wherever guests prefer.

Highlights, insights and key takeaways from the educational sessions presented at MURTEC Executive Summit & Showcase.

W W W.T W I T T E R .C O M / H T M A G A Z I N E

The HT Alert is delivered every Tuesday and Thursday to your inbox, making it the most reliable source for IT news and trends.

Manage your subscriptions at www.hospitalitytech.com

W W W. L I N K E D I N .C O M / I N / H O S P I TA L I T Y T E C H N O LO G Y

W W W. FA C E B O O K .C O M / H O S P I TA L I T Y T E C H N O LO G Y

YO U T U B E .C O M / H O S P I TA L I T Y T E C H M A G

HOSPITALITY TECHNOLOGY (USPS 0016-745, ISSN 1520-491X) is published 4x frequency per year March, June, September and December by EnsembleIQ, 8550 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Ste. 200, Chicago, IL 60631; (973) 607-1300.

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Appetite for Innovation We’re all trying to do more with less. Macro: We’re taking a step back to ask, “How can we do, well, everything better?” Micro: We’re asking, “How much can we actually accomplish with our current resources?”

That tension between innovative thinking and targeted investment defines much of our professional lives, and this issue of Hospitality Technology.

Our 2022 Lodging Technology Study: Redefining the Guest Experience (page 8) speaks directly to that tension. Yes, most hotel IT budgets have shrunk — with real-life consequences affecting overall tech, analytics maturity, and guest-facing technologies. But at the same time, operators report healthy rates of adoption for digital signage, in-room entertainment, mobile reservations, check-in, and much more.

Our 2022 POS Software Trends Report (page 20) tells a similar story, with operators making significant investments in POS platforms that can support integration, mobility, and analytics. This year, we have added a new category, gauging restaurant IT leaders’ use of POS data to drive priorities such as personalization, loyalty, menu optimization, and workforce efficiency.

If you, like us, have yearned to return to in-person industry events for the better part of two years, turn to page 28 for our MURTEC Executive Summit & Showcase Recap for highlights from our educational sessions and a spotlight on the winners of our annual MURTEC Breakthrough Awards.

Read all about the Restaurant Technology Network’s amazing initiatives and how you can get involved in the coming year (page 36). And take a deep dive into the world of HTNG workgroups (page 6) — a great way for hotel technology professionals to contribute their expertise to solving industry challenges while acquiring new skills and making new contacts.

Wishing the HT community a meaningful holiday season and a prosperous new year! As always, my digital door is open (rfirpo-cappiello@ensembleiq. com), and I look forward to hearing what you think!

Robert Firpo-Cappiello EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

RESEARCH ADVISORY BOARD

Karen Bird CIO, HOA Brands

Mike Blake CEO, HTNG

Simon Eng VP of IT, CTF Development Nelson Garrido Senior VP Information Technology, Thayer Lodging, Brookfield Hotel Properties Michael Hassel Dir. IT, Momofuko Holdings Ted Hopcroft Vice President of Technology and Professional Services, Americas iT, Marriott

Corey Kline EVP of Technology, Noodles & Company Rocky Lucia Dir. IT, Fireman Hospitality Group Brian Pearson CIO, Mendocino Farms Sandwich Market R. P. Rama VP Technology, JHM Hotels Joe Tenczar VP, Information & Technology/CIO, Sonny’s BBQ Marcus Wasdin CIO, Atlanta Hawks & State Farm Arena

Natasa Christodoulidou Professor California State University Cihan Cobanoglu, PhD School of Hotel & Restaurant Management University of South Florida Daniel J. Connolly Ph.D. Professor of Business Administration Drake University Russell Dazzio Chairman, R&R Hospitality

Mehmet Erdem Assistant Professor, UNLV Hotel College

VICE PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER Abigail A. Lorden alorden@ensembleiq.com EDITORIAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Robert Firpo-Cappiello, rfirpo-cappiello@ensembleiq.com SENIOR EDITOR, RESTAURANTS Anna Wolfe, awolfe@ensembleiq.com SENIOR EDITOR, HOTELS Michal Christine Escobar, mescobar@ensembleiq.com SALES SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Katherine Ware, kware@ensembleiq.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Noell Dimmig, ndimmig@ensembleiq.com EVENTS EVP, EVENTS & CONFERENCES Ed Several, eseveral@ensembleiq.com VICE PRESIDENT, EVENTS & CONFERENCES Megan Judkins, mjudkins@ensembleiq.com MARKETING VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING & BRAND ENGAGEMENT Darren Ursino, dursino@ensembleiq.com BRAND MARKETING MANAGER Molly McLoone, mmcloone@ensembleiq.com ONLINE MEDIA VICE PRESIDENT, DIGITAL PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & AUDIENCE Jason Ward, jward@ensembleiq.com ART & PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, OPERATIONS Derek Estey, destey@ensembleiq.com DIRECTOR, DIGITAL OPERATIONS Whitney Gregson, wgregson@ensembleiq.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR Colette Magliaro, cmagliaro@ensembleiq.com ART DIRECTOR Lauren DiMeo, ldimeo@ensembleiq.com DIGITAL OPERATIONS MANAGER Megan Aquino, maquino@ensembleiq.com SENIOR PRODUCTION MANAGER Pat Wisser, pwisser@ensembleiq.com AUDIENCE LIST RENTAL MeritDirect Marie Briganti 914-309-3378

SUBSCRIBER SERVICES/CUSTOMER CARE TOLL-FREE: 1-877-687-7321 FAX: 1-888-520-3608 contact@hospitalitytech.com

Lee Holman Lead Retail Analyst, IHL Consulting Jungsun (Sunny) Kim, PhD Assistant Professor, William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration, UNLV Fred LeFranc President & CEO, Results thru Strategy Barry N. Shufeld Senior Managing Director – BNS Associates, LLC

8550 W. BRYN MAWR AVE. STE. 200 CHICAGO, IL 60631 PHONE: +1 773-992-4450 FAX: +1 773-992-4455

CORPORATE OFFICERS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Jennifer Litterick CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Jane Volland CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER Tanner Van Dusen CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER Ann Jadown SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CONTENT Joe Territo

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Make 2022 the Year You Join an HTNG Workgroup!

Bring your expertise to the table and collaborate with industry peers to help solve critical problems in hospitality technology.

Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG) workgroups bring together hoteliers, solution providers, consultants and academics to tackle ongoing challenges to the hospitality industry.

Workgroups brainstorm and collaborate, network, and build substantial connections with industry peers. Take a look at the workgroups below and visit ahla.com/htng-workgroups to learn more or to sign up.

5G for Hospitality — Evaluates the technologies that make up 5G and works on deliverables to educate hoteliers on 5G’s impact on the guest experience, operational needs, business models and more.

911 Location Information — Produces documents to explain new safety laws, such as Kari’s Law, to help ensure hotels’ multi-line telephone systems (MLTS) and other protocols are compliant.

AI for Hospitality — Creates a framework for hospitality artificial intelligence (AI) strategies to help companies accurately evaluate the solution marketplace and set the direction of AI adoption at their organizations.

Attribute Modeling for the Distribution Ecosystem — Determines how hotels can provide detailed availability, rates and inventory (ARI) information that enables revenue management strategies to allow a traveler to purchase their experience based on how a hotel chooses to merchandise their product.

Business Analytics Transactional Extract — Develops a standard specification for extract, transform and load (ETL) targets to create consistency and improve analysis leveraging property management system (PMS) and point-of-sale data.

Express PMS Integrations — Brings together PMS providers and ecosystem partners to explore and develop best practices that drive improvements to integration processes.

Fiber to the Room — Defines best practices for effectively delivering and deploying fiber networks in hotels. This group is currently documenting case studies and power deployment scenarios.

Global Privacy Regulations — Focuses on im-

portant regional privacy regulations that companies need to abide by, such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and the General Data Privacy Law. Guest Room Entertainment — Produces market data and research to inform the industry on the current state of guest room entertainment usage across content providers, over-the-top delivery technologies, and guest preferences for various service offerings.

Indoor Air Quality for Hospitality — Evaluates the potential risks, discovers the benefits around healthy building movement, defines hotel energy efficiency, and explores implementation opportunities.

Hybrid Meetings and Events — Expedites the return to recovery by creating a playbook to help hospitality companies adapt to the short- and long-term effects of the pandemic, both in business and leisure events.

Optimizing Hotel Content Distribution — Transforms the current manual and fragmented content distribution process into a digital, integrated and dynamic ecosystem.

Optimizing Relationships Between Marketing and IT — Creates best practices to improve the relationship between IT and commercial business units within an organization, including a marketecture diagram that defines interactions between systems and stakeholders.

Payments — Creates secure payment system communication standards, best practices, and adapts new and emerging technologies.

Refining Marketing Initiatives — Addresses the shift of customer priorities, leaner teams, and reduced budgets to help technology teams focus on new markets, respond to market trends and adjust their top-line strategies accordingly.

Unique Hospitality Identifier — Defines the value proposition of a unique hospitality identifier (UHI) to the industry which will lead to an initial associated business model and minimum viable product, and a governance structure to encourage industry buy-in and participation. HT

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S

Beyond Allies: Building a Network of Support One of the most common things we hear at NEW, particularly from men, is that they just don’t know where to begin supporting women — or how to go about it in ways that really make a tangible difference.

There’s always more to learn about allyship, and the conversation is changing all the time. What we do know is how important allies are to advancing women’s equity. Allies can become sponsors and mentors and can create change in policy and culture that have vast ripple effects on the lives of working women. We developed our own allyship program, Beyond Allies, to meet this key need.

“Research reveals that men often struggle to recognize gender discrimination and harassment in real time,” noted Beyond Allies Facilitator Tom Foley. “While 77 percent of men report doing ‘everything they can’ to support gender equality at work, only 41 percent of women agree. Men often remain on the sidelines rather than being true advocates and allies. Situational awareness is key and demands training and preparedness.”

and start making tangible changes immediately.

One manager stated that, immediately following the program, it “already has helped give me the language for a pay equity issue and [I am] looking forward to helping others in the future.”

OUR PILOT NEW piloted Beyond Allies in 2020 and early 2021 with 276 men and women of all seniority levels and across many organizations. To say it hit the spot for participants is an understatement! One VP-level participant told us that it “gave [them] as a veteran leader the inspiration to coach and develop the next generation.” An HR Partner stated that “the content and small group discussions were valuable in gaining insight into how I can effectively be an ally … It also gave me a great perspective on how my male colleagues could be thinking about allyship and how I can support them.”

Participants consistently mentioned how immediately actionable program content was; they could take what they learned into the workplace

THE KEY TO ALLYSHIP Creating strong allies takes more than a single conversation. Our programming has been built to support men and women who want to do what they can at every step of their journey to take real action. To build a network of strong allies at your organization, start with education, but make sure that education is backed up with real conversations and ongoing learning. One DEIB session won’t be enough to create momentum; it takes continuous pushing and learning, and a lifetime of listening.

For more information about NEW’s Beyond Allies program, keep an eye on newonline.org/beyondallies for news on our next cohort, and follow us on social media @newnational. HT

Karen Jones has more than 15 years of experience in organization effectiveness, leadership development, talent management, inclusion strategy design and execution, change leadership and organizational process improvement. She currently serves as Head of Learning, Development, and DEI for the Network of Executive Women.

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REDEFINING THE GUEST EXPERIENCE Hotels are doing more with less, balancing shrinking budgets and enduring pain points with enthusiasm for innovative guest-facing technologies.

BY M E HM E T E R DE M, P H.D., AS S OCIATE P ROF ESSOR OF HOT EL OPERAT I ONS & T EC HNOLOGY, WI LLI A M F. HA RRA H CO L L EG E O F HO S PI TA L I TY, U N IVE R S ITY OF N E VADA, LAS VEGA S; A ND ROBERT FI RPO-C A PPI ELLO, EDI TOR-I N-C HI EF, HOSPITALITY TECHNOLOGY

TITLE SPONSORS

UNDERWRITERS

GOLD SPONSORS

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2022 LODGING TECH STUDY Our 2021 Lodging Technology Study: Redefining the Guest Experience is a mix of clearly articulated pain points — shrinking budgets, labor concerns, and the residual effects of nearly two years of a global pandemic — and an unabated enthusiasm for innovation, especially where guest-facing technology is concerned.

The hotel professionals surveyed this year represent more than 26,300 properties worldwide, with 63 percent identifying themselves as IT decision makers, 27 percent having input into decisions, and 8 percent approving purchases. Our survey results reflect the points of view of the people who make hotel tech happen.

Less than

3%

of overall revenue went to IT budgets in 2021

WHO WE SURVEYED 63%

“I am a decision maker” “I provide input into decisions” “I approve purchases” Other

DISTRIBUTION OF HOTELS’ IT BUDGETS

27% 8% 2%

63%

Survey respondents represent more than

26,300 properties worldwide.

Hotel IT Budgets Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the downward trajectory of hotel IT budgets that began in 2019 continued in 2021, with a much larger group of our respondents reporting that between 2 percent to 2.99 percent of overall revenue went to IT budget (last

Maintaining existing solutions

30% Rolling out and implementing new solutions

7%

Research & Development

of IT budgets are allocated for implementing new solutions, up from 24% last year

HOW 2022 BUDGETS COMPARE WITH LAST YEAR 19% of hotels will increase budget by 10% 22% of hotels will increase budget by 5-9% 25% of hotels will increase budget by 1-4% 31% of hotels will have no change 3% of hotels will decrease budget by 1-4%

of hotels plan to increase IT budget in 2022

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2022 LODGING TECH STUDY

36%

rolling out and implementing new solutions (30 percent, compared with 24 percent last year), and a smaller percentage devoted to maintaining existing solutions (63 percent compared with 68 percent last year), and a slight increase in R&D dollars (7 percent compared with 6 percent last year). A year ago, hotels’ IT budget distribution reflected a “hunkering down” and making do with what was on hand, in line with 2021’s shrinking budgets reported above. We’re pleased to see a modest return to new implementations.

of respondents believe that guests increasingly prefer limited housekeeping services, while 39% disagree. year, that percentage was between 3 and 4 percent).

In addition, a sizable number of respondents report that IT budgets reflect between 1 percent and 2.99 percent of overall revenue.

Our data also demonstrates the consequences of a shrinking IT budget — those brands that report having a budget between 1 percent and 2.99 percent of overall revenue also report feeling behind the competition when it comes to overall technology innovation, including analytics maturity and guestfacing technologies. It’s significant to note that hotels in that 1-2.99 percent budget demographic do not feel behind the competition in COVID safety — shrinking budgets don’t necessarily impact essential services, but innovation does take a hit.

The good news is that most hotels do not expect their 2022 budgets to further shrink, with only 3 percent reporting a declining budget year-over-year.

In fact, we see an optimistic increase for 66 percent of respondents. Whether this optimism is borne out over the course of 2022 will no doubt be a critical focus of next year’s study.

The distribution of hotels’ IT budgets shifted from last year in a slightly more optimistic direction, with a bigger percentage of budgets going toward

Hotels’ Confidence in Guest-Facing Technology Grows This year’s survey shows an overall improvement in hotels’ confidence in their own technology compared with competitors. Most notably, 81 percent of respondents report that their guestfacing technologies are either on par or better than competitors (up from 70 percent last year). We see a more modest increase in confidence in analytics maturity. But it’s important to note a decrease in confidence in hotel operational technologies, due no doubt in part to pandemic pressure and staffing challenges. (As noted above, under Hotel IT Budgets,

of respondents report that their guest-facing technologies are either on par or better than competitors

HOW DO HOTELS RATE THEIR TECHNOLOGY? Significantly lagging competitors

Somewhat lagging competitors

At par with competitors

Somewhat better than competitors

Significantly better than competitors

1

Overall technology innovation

9%

13%

28%

28%

22%

2

Analytics maturity

3%

31%

25%

25%

16%

3

Guest-facing technologies

3%

16%

44%

28%

9%

4

Hotel operational technologies

0%

26%

41%

13%

22%

5

COVID-19 safety protocols

6%

6%

44%

31%

13%

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GUEST-FOCUSED HOSPITALITY SOLUTIONS HOSPITALITY NETWORK is a nationwide provider of In-Room Entertainment, WiFi and connectivity solutions for the hospitality industry.

IN-ROOM ENTERTAINMENT A marketing platform that helps hoteliers drive revenue

CONTENT GUESTS CRAVE Free-to-Guest HD TV, OTT and casting capabilities

Visit us at coxhn.com ©2021 Cox Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

MANAGED WIFI Network design, installation and management

CONVENTION SERVICES Turnkey event technology solutions for convention, meeting and conference areas

2022 LODGING TECH STUDY

brands whose budgets reflect only 1-2.99 percent of overall revenue were the most likely to rate themselves as lagging competitors in these categories.)

Industry Pain Points When asked about key 2021 challenges impacting their hotels, operators are clear: COVID-19 remains the top challenge, with 75 percent of operators identifying it as a moderate or major challenge (virtually unchanged from last year’s 78 percent).

Two other pain points rank quite high as well: Lack of sufficient IT budget and difficulty integrating with legacy systems, further reinforcing the notion that innovation — especially integration among diverse systems — is more than just a capital expense but potentially a revenue driver. It’s also important to note that resistance to innovation, from partners and from organizations, is a pain point for roughly a third of hotel IT decision makers.

Responding to Customer Demand In HT’s 2021 Customer Engagement Technology Studying: Powering Hospitality’s Recovery, customers identified a range of technologies that were important when selecting one hotel over another. In turn, we asked hotels to tell us whether they have adopted — or plan to adopt — those technologies. In this category, free Wi-Fi remains the reigning champion, with 90 percent of hotels offering or planning to offer. More noteworthy is the rise of contactless payment to the number two spot, with 74 percent of operators either offering or planning to offer in the coming year. Similarly,

IMPACT OF 2021 CHALLENGES ON TECHNOLOGY (PERCENTAGE OF OPERATORS NOTING MODERATE OR MAJOR IMPACT)

Impact of COVID-19

75%

Lack of sufficient IT budget

60%

Difficulty integrating with legacy systems

47%

Resistance from partners to innovate

38%

Overall resistance to technology/change in the 75% organization

31%

of hotel operators cite lack of sufficient IT budget as a key challenge

ADOPTION OF TECHNOLOGIES CUSTOMERS DEMAND (PERCENTAGE OF HOTEL OPERATORS WHO CURRENTLY OFFER OR PLAN TO ADD IN THE COMING YEAR)

Free Wi-Fi

90% 74%

Contactless payment

68%

Mobile reservations

64%

Digital signage for way-finding and property information

61%

Smart TVs/content streaming inside the guest room Mobile check-in

55%

Two-way messaging with guests (e.g., chat, SMS)

54%

Mobile room key (guest’s mobile device unlocks the door)

42%

Check-in via kiosk

35% 26%

Guests can use their own mobile devices to control the guest room Voice-controlled devices (e.g., Amazon Alex) in the guestroom Robotics for contactless guest-facing solutions

13% 6%

of hotels either offer or plan to offer contactless payments

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L E A R N M O R E AT SAMSUNG.COM/US/ BUSINESS

EX EC U TI VE

I N SI G HT

Q & A:

Elevating the Guest Journey SHAWN O’CONNELL, DIRECTOR, HEAD OF HOSPITALITY, SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS

Our research suggests that hotel operators are making significant investment in guest room technology. What opportunities do you see for the guest journey in that space?

Customer engagement is changing rapidly. Guests are navigating through their own content, and we need to seek opportunities for them to engage with our content in a meaningful way. More than ever, hoteliers need to consider consuming personal data, like when guests log into an app on the Hospitality TV or they cast their content directly to the technology. This content relationship is taking on a whole new life, with many necessary considerations for hotel operators.

Mobility has become more important than ever, both for guests and brands. How can mobile devices such as tablets provide a solution?

Consumption of personal data is a big factor here.

With the “BYO” concept (guests bringing their own devices), there’s a lot of content moving from a personal small screen to the hotel’s large screen. We are seeing many in-room controls and order entry or POS being controlled with hospitality TVs, tablets, or even voice. Luxury hotels and higher-end, resortstyle properties have adopted tablet technology sooner than others.

Can you speak to the benefits of a cloudbased solution from your brand’s point of view?

The benefits of cloud are significant to hoteliers.

Many of our customers seek more sustainable ways to remove hardware from the network environment, and cloud-based solutions enable this. As hotel brands try to redefine and activate

their brand story in many hotel locations across the U.S., they need a centralized way to do this. Digital transformation and cloud allows hoteliers to bring a consistent brand message to multiple properties across the U.S., without the manual headaches of the past.

Customer engagement is changing rapidly... and we need to seek opportunities for them to engage with our content in a meaningful way.

What are the barriers to executing on the guest story in today’s environment?

The biggest pain point we continue to hear about digital transformation in the hospitality market is inconsistency in the guest experience. As a guest moves through your property, you should have a consistent brand message from the EV Charging stations outside, to guest check in, to signage and messaging outside the elevators, all the way into the guest room. Right now, for many hotels, there is a gap in this journey. Samsung knows cloud is here to stay, and we’ve helped hoteliers digitally transform in a meaningful way, to ultimately elevate the guest experience.

S P O N S OR E D

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2022 LODGING TECH STUDY

mobile reservations have been adopted at a high rate (68 percent). It’s also important to acknowledge that innovative technologies that are still unpopular with hotel operators are very unpopular: 65 percent of respondents say they have no plans to implement voice-controlled devices, and 77 percent have no plans to implement guest-facing robotics.

Hotels’ Top Technology Initiatives When asked to rank the importance of technology initiatives, responses aligned fairly closely with last year’s survey, with the notable exception of reducing physical touchpoints at the property, which fell from 80 percent to 36 percent — clearly an indication that over the past year, in response to COVID-19, hotels have already reduced physical touchpoints. We’re pleased to see the rise in the perceived importance of omnichannel reservations (via mobile, desktop, app, and other touchpoints), which followed a similar rise last year. The ability to think beyond the property’s

RANKING THE IMPORTANCE OF TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVES (PERCENTAGE OF HOTEL OPERATORS RESPONDING “VERY” OR “EXTREMELY” IMPORTANT)

77%

Driving guest loyalty

Improving physical safety of guests and staff 74% Enabling omnichannel reservations (mobile web, desktop, app, etc.)

71%

Enhancing data security

68%

Increasing employee productivity

68%

Improving analytics

67%

Reducing cost of managing technology

58%

Enhancing privacy of guest and staff data

58%

Enhancing bandwidth/connectivity

52%

Enhancing guestroom technology

45%

Reducing physical touchpoints on property

36%

Deploying the use of cryptocurrencies

64%

of respondents report that the pandemic has accelerated the automation of labor in the hotel industry. four walls when engaging with potential customers remains key. We must also note that a new survey choice — deploying the use of cryptocurrencies — was wildly unpopular, at only 6 percent. (We hope you’ll still attend our HT-NEXT session on crypto, which will directly address pros and cons, challenges, and opportunities.)

Enterprise Software Implementations Looking at major enterprise software implementations, there’s no overwhelming favorite among our study respondents. When asked to identify software they are adding, upgrading, or for which they’re switching suppliers, revenue management ranked highest, at 45 percent. Other software that ranked relatively highly include property management, employee mobile app, and employee safety, such as a panic button. Notably, 29 percent of hotels report that they will be changing

6%

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L E A R N M O R E AT ENTERPRISE.VERIZON.COM

EX EC U TI VE

I N SI G HT

Q & A:

How Technology Can Deliver Personalization and Loyalty

JERRI TRAFLET, MANAGING PARTNER, RETAIL, TRAVEL, DISTRIBUTION DOMAIN, AT VERIZON

Our surveys of hotel guests and operators suggest that personalization is increasingly in demand. Can you speak to the integration of technology into the guest journey, and how personalization can be delivered?

As hotels look for ways to differentiate their brand and cultivate loyalty, personalizing the guest experience helps build meaningful experiences and stronger relationships with their guests. Technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning can enable the delivery of real-time personalized recommendations for dining, excursions, and vacation packages based on the guest’s personal profile and travel history with the hotel chain.

With 5G technology, hotel operators should be able to deliver more personalized messages to their guests and get a deeper understanding of the guest journey. 5G and complimentary technologies such as edge computing can enable guests to proactively receive customized travel tips and recommendations based on individual preferences.

Offering guests an elevated and differentiated experience provides an opportunity to create an emotional connection to your brand. How do you see hotels using technology to enhance the brand experience?

Many guests like to be entertained and surprised. Augmented reality powered by 5G could enable hotels to go above and beyond the standard experience, especially around guest entertainment. Through the use of sensors and video analytics, guests should be able to use augmented wayfinding to navigate large hotel properties prior to booking the stay and while they’re checked in.

While in their hotel rooms, guests could experience seamless TV, including on-demand screen casting, live, and mobile TV; enhanced gaming

speeds to deliver near-real-time virtual experiences; and virtual exercise classes.

With 5G, augmented reality is expected to change the face of hotel.

As labor costs and staffing challenges continue to impact hotel services levels, how are you seeing hotels improve operations with technology?

From an operations perspective, hotels can leverage advanced technologies like motion and temperature sensors and artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor room temperatures and lighting throughout the hotel, enabling efficient and sustainable energy consumption. New asset tracking capabilities can enable operators to easily locate equipment, luggage racks, and cleaning carts. Leveraging robots, unified through a speedy 5G network, can be implemented for routine tasks such as cleaning common areas, security, delivery services, and guiding guests.

How can mobile operations management enhance loyalty?

Convenience is often a top priority for busy personal and business travelers. Hotel operators are constantly seeking ways to streamline the guest experience with new digital tools and platforms. Leveraging the hotel’s mobile app on the guest’s phone, enhanced smart room technology can enable guests to conveniently control room temperature, lights, shades, TV, and other in-room amenities. Using voice assistant technology on speakers or a mobile app, guests can opt into ordering room service and book other hotel activities and services through voice-recognition. Technologies like augmented reality can give hotels a range of tools to illustrate their services and convey information, while providing new interactive experiences. 5G is the primary communications infrastructure that can bring devices, data, analytics at the edge, and opportunities for streamlining operations and costs.

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2022 LODGING TECH STUDY

52%

revenue management system suppliers in 2022 — a sizable investment, and a sizable opportunity for vendors. Other significant opportunities for vendors include 19 percent of hotels seeking new mobile back-office capabilities and 19 percent seeking a new property management system.

of respondents report that guests increasingly prefer digital service encounters over encounters with staff.

Guest-Facing Technology Implementations The big story in guest-facing tech implementations is the rapid rise of the chatbot: 36 percent of hotels report adding, upgrading, or changing chatbot suppliers in 2022, a big increase in interest over last year’s 16 percent. The chatbot is a great example of the ways

CHANGES PLANNED FOR ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE (PERCENTAGE OF HOTEL OPERATORS WHO ARE ADDING, UPGRADING, OR SWITCHING SUPPLIERS)

45%

Revenue Management System (RMS) Property Management System (PMS)

41%

Employee mobile app

41% 35%

Employee safety (i.e. panic buttons) Data privacy management

32%

Central Reservation System (CRS)

32%

Predictive analytics

32%

Point of Sale (POS)

29%

Internet-of-Things Platform (IoT)

29% 26%

Business intelligence reporting Labor management systems

22%

Mobile back-office capabilities

22%

Sales & catering technologies

22%

Compliance monitoring

22%

Corporate/Enterprise Software (ERP - Accounting & Labor)

16%

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Q & A:

The Benefits of Analytics, AI, and Data Management

BRAD EGNOR, SENIOR INDUSTRY CONSULTANT, SAS

Thanks to digital transactions and engagement, hospitality brands are collecting more data from customers than ever before. Broadly speaking, how can guest data be leveraged to enhance guest experience and revenue?

Hospitality has led the growth and promotion of loyalty program CHRIS KNOTHE, PRINCIPAL benefits with their customers INDUSTRY CONSULTANT, SAS for decades. These industry developments have enabled companies to automate data collection and build customer-centric profiles with appended behavior-based datasets. Consumer behavior becomes another layer of data segmentation that increases a marketer’s ability to better know their customers and speak to them in personalized ways through multiple channels like email, mail, website portals and mobile apps. Thoughtful and targeted personalization reduces costs, increases sales, and improves customer loyalty.

More specifically, how can analytics help with pricing and revenue management?

It all starts with a robust forecast. Especially during and post the pandemic, we cannot rely on traditional time-series forecasting, but have to look at more advanced technologies including AI and ML. Once, a more reliable and trusted forecast has been established, the fine-tuning of pricing, as well as staffing can kick in.

Second, your revenue strategy should include a predictive analytics software solution, that automates processes from forecasting to pricing recommendations.

Finally, expand into other property outlets other than rooms (like spa, retail, etc.) in order to

maximize total topline revenues, as well as the bottom line.

How can hospitality data be analyzed to help streamline operations?

We recently visited a customer team at their casino-resort property that uses advanced analytics to forecast demand in hospitality operations in today’s post-COVID environment. It is a unique case with many variables to process, but in facing the labor challenges across the hospitality industry and additional safety measures in place to reduce throughout, this customer was relying upon analytics to help strategize which pieces of their operation they should open. After analyzing report results and mapping out a strategy, this property’s customer service scores have increased, and their profitability has peaked to record levels.

Research suggests that hotels are seeking more digital engagement with customers.

How can analytics enhance digital marketing?

Digital marketing can be enhanced through analytics in innumerable ways. Understanding if and where a customer exits an online purchase funnel can lend insight into how pricing, availability and operations are influencing consumer behaviors.

Tracking engagement, and inclining and declining behaviors within populations and segments, helps us understand which programs and activations are driving positive results and which are not. Modeling targets based on current profitable customer types in paid social and other digital media helps marketers serve ads to more receptive consumer populations. Providing tailored offers to select database segments through individualized channels like portals and apps creates more meaningful touchpoints and reasons to click “book now.”

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2022 LODGING TECH STUDY CHANGES PLANNED FOR GUEST-FACING TECHNOLOGY (PERCENTAGE OF HOTEL OPERATORS WHO ARE ADDING, UPGRADING, OR SWITCHING SUPPLIERS)

42%

Mobile payments

39%

Public Wi-Fi Customer mobile app

38%

Chatbots (i.e. for online customer support)

36%

CRM/Loyalty

35%

Instant messaging

29%

Interactive digital signage

26%

Tablets at front desk

26%

Customer service kiosks in lobby

22%

Location-based technology (e.g. beacons, proximity marketing, etc.)

19%

in which machine learning and communications technology can deliver new levels of guest experience, providing guests with a “digital concierge.” Significant implementation opportunities in 2022 also include 16 percent of hotels adding chatbot technology for the first time and 16 percent of hotels changing customer mobile app suppliers.

RANKING THE POTENTIAL OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

Emerging Technologies Despite shrinking budgets and relatively modest implementations in 2021, the potential of emerging technologies gets a big thumbs-up from this year’s respondents. With 81 percent of hotels reporting that contactless payments hold moderate or major potential, 71 percent seeing the potential in 5G, and 68 percent embracing AI for analytics/predictive intelligence, we must ask: At what point do these technologies graduate from “emerging” and become “essential”? We look forward to finding out.HT

of hotels will either add, upgrade, or change suppliers to implement chatbot technology

(PERCENTAGE OF HOTEL OPERATORS RANKING MODERATE TO MAJOR POTENTIAL)

Contactless payments

81%

5G

71%

Artificial Intelligence (AI) for analytics/ predictive intelligence

68%

Contactless tipping

65%

Voice enabled devices (such as Amazon Echo) 55% RFID enabled tracking for a hotel’s assets

49%

Biometrics

49%

Interactive walls (wall surfaces become gesture-controlled monitors for interactive content) 32% Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality experiences 32% Digital glass (Glass TVs, walls, etc.) 2

29%

Blockchain technology

29%

Robotics (robot concierge, robot butler, etc.)

29%

Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS)

26%

Cryptocurrency

23%

Electro-responsive fibers in bedding/pillows

13%

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Q & A:

Effective Communication Delivers an Exceptional Guest Experience How is technology helping to meet the post-pandemic challenges that hotels face?

There are two major challenges facing the lodging industry. The first is the guest experience — there is a real demand for more automation, self-service, and for a range of alternatives for checking in, checking out, and interacting with staff and housekeeping. That guest expectation has led to some wonderful tech innovations. The second challenge is a significant shift in staffing — the labor shortage, and related challenges in hiring, development, and retention. That challenge is ongoing and there has been no obvious tech solution, but it often comes down to doing more with fewer people on staff. Relay is helping by ensuring that hotels have effective tools for communication and the coordination and streamlining of resources.

BARBARA SHARNAK, VP, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & MARKETING STRATEGY, RELAY

Please speak to some of the benefits and challenges of real-time communication.

Hotel operators devote much of their time to responding to guest requests, and they are focused on delivering what is necessary to enhance the guest experience. While there may be some predictability to that process — for example, requests for fresh towels — a great deal of that process is unplanned and reactive. Reliable communication is the most efficient and costeffective way to respond to guest requests. While two-way radio has been a common solution, it has limitations, such as bulkiness, limited battery life, and a high price for repairs or replacement.

Consequently, many operators are unable to provide all staffers with a radio.

What are some critical considerations for hoteliers seeking to implement a communication tool?

You need a tool that can do everything a radio can do, but eliminate some of the headaches that come with traditional two-way radios. You want something smaller, easier to wear, light, ultra-durable, and waterproof. The Relay device is basically a smartphone on the inside, and works everywhere your phone works. It allows for group communication, unlimited channels, customization of access, and the ability

Reliable communication is the most efficient and cost-effective way to respond to guest requests. to call direct for a one-to-one conversation — for example, communicating from a Relay device to a smartphone or a desktop computer if desired.

The Relay device also serves as a brand-compliant associate-safety device, with a “panic button” capability and Bluetooth beacons for five-meter accuracy. The device can also deliver language translation for both staff and guests — an increasingly efficient way of bridging language barriers among international travelers and a diverse workforce.

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RESTAURANT OPERATORS ARE UNLEASHING POS TO DELIVER OMNICHANNEL EXPERIENCES WHEREVER GUESTS PREFER.

WE LOVE IT WHEN DATA TELLS A STORY. In reviewing the results of our 2022 POS Software Trends Report, we certainly did identify a narrative: Restaurant operators are eager to keep pushing point-of-sale software, releasing it from its traditional fixed position and either physically (via mobile devices) or metaphorically (via integration) allowing POS to meet guests and staff at a variety of touchpoints and channels. We’ve also delved deeper into the various ways in which operators are using POS data to make meaningful analyses and predictions.

RESTAURANT PURCHASING PLANS FOR 2022 Getting the most out of existing POS software remains a top priority — it often makes good sense in the best of times, and can become essential TITLE SPONSOR

in a time of tight budgets and uncertainty such as we’re facing right now. But we also continue to see significant momentum in the direction of developing or deploying POS for use on a mobile device, with 35 percent of operators identifying mobile POS as a purchasing priority for 2022.

The concept of mobility for restaurant POS — the ability to meet guests where they prefer to order, pick up, and eat — gained momentum during the pandemic and has yielded significant revenue for restaurants, especially in transactional categories such as quick-service and fast-casual. Installing POS from a new vendor is a priority for 32 percent of operators — a sizable chunk of the industry, suggesting that roadmaps and implementations for 2022 and beyond are going well beyond current pain points, as they should.

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By Robert Firpo-Cappiello and Anna Wolfe

BUSINESS DRIVERS IMPACTING RESTAURANTS’ POS UPGRADES Enabling new payment options, such as e-wallet, remains a top business driver impacting POS upgrades for 64 percent of restaurant operators.

We believe the only reason that percentage isn’t higher is that restaurants have been enabling new payment options at a vigorous pace for the better part of two years. Customers have demonstrated a robust interest in alternate payment options, and operators want to provide them. Enabling selfservice and mobile POS remain crucial business drivers, in response to customer expectations, and a rising driver is tighter integration with other operating systems, at 46 percent. Tight integration is essential to providing omnichannel experiences for guests, whether they prefer drive-thru, curbside, dine-in, delivery, mobile ordering, kiosk, or other touchpoints.

What are the Business Drivers Impacting Yor Next POS Upgrades?

64% Enabling new payment options (e-wallet, etc.)

58% Enabling self-service options 46% Tighter integration with other operating systems

What are Your POS Purchasing Plans for 2022?

50% Add new functionality/features/modules to current POS software 35% Develop and/or deploy POS for use on a mobile device 32% Install POS from a new vendor 21% Test & research new POS solutions for possible implementation after 2022

39% Adding Mobile POS 39% Using data to understand guest preferences and behavior 36% Making systems PCI compliant 36% Integration with a third-party delivery system 36% Moving systems to the cloud 33% Building a robust POS platform 27%

15% Expand installation base of POS software from current vendor

Tighter integration with an e-commerce platform 27% Enabling multi-channel selling in locations 24% Addressing EMV

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FEATURES & FUNCTIONALITIES DRIVING POS PURCHASES Integration also shows up as a top feature driving POS purchases, at 69 percent, followed by online POS for ordering/payment at 54 percent, and cloud-based POS at 51 percent. The theme of integration continues, with strong interest in POS that includes loyalty tools and delivery functionality; as does mobility, with tablet-based POS software at 34 percent.

What Features & Functionalities are Driving Your POS Purchases?

69%

Integration with other systems 54%

Online POS for ordering/payment 51%

Cloud-based POS 49%

Loyalty tools

LEVERAGING POS DATA TO ENHANCE CX & DRIVE REVENUE We introduced a brand-new question to this year’s POS Software Trends Report: With all that data that POS can now collect, how are restaurants making use of that critical information to give customers what they want and to enhance revenue? Resounding answers include 86 percent reporting that they’re leveraging data for loyalty programs and for upselling and discount offers.

POS data is also being used to analyze staffing levels and performance (more relevant than ever in light of the current labor shortage) at 71 percent; menu optimization at 64 percent; and to optimize inventory and reduce food waste at 64 percent.

44%

Delivery integrations/functionality 37%

Mobile wallet 37%

Inventory management

How Are You Leveraging Data Gathered via POS to Enhance Customer Experience and Drive Revenue?

86%

34%

Loyalty program

Tablet-based POS software

86%

31%

Upsell or discount offers

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

71%

31%

Enterprise-wide/centralized POS

Determine staffing levels & performance 64%

26%

Menu optimization

In-house or native delivery

64%

23%

Optimize inventory/reduce food waste

Kiosks

50%

20%

Curbside integrations/functionality

Digital engagement (via text, email, browser) 50%

14%

Personalized offers based on previous buying habits

Chatbot

29%

9%

Line busting at drive-thru

Social media integration

14%

5%

Artificial intelligence (voice control/recognition)

Card on file/streamlining payments

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Q & A:

POS Mobility Enhances the Guest Experience

SARAH YANG, PRODUCT MANAGER OF ICITY SERVICE, ADVANTECH USA

POS is the heart of a restaurant operation. How can POS mobility and ease of integration enhance efficiency and ROI?

More frequently, restaurant patrons view self-checkout and tableside ordering tablets as a progressive trend that can enhance their experience. Restaurant managers recognize the technology’s ability to handle more customer volume and increase end-customer satisfaction and sales.

Leveraging tablets for tableside ordering, servers can select items swiftly through an easy touch interface and automatically update the order to the kitchen display system, cutting the server’s travel times and consolidate their role as “servers.” Feedback from chain restaurant customers have informed us that this has increased server productivity down to a 1 server per 10 tables ratio. There is also increased tablet use at drive-thru restaurants, with the increased use of pre-order servers with tablets mid-line to alleviate long drive-thru times.

In this new climate of reduced worker headcount in restaurant and hospitality business, there is an increase in applications of table mounted tablets for self-service. The customers can order at their own pace, without any rush, helping to expedite processes between servers, kitchen, menu or hospitality information, and customers.

How can the right POS enhance customer relationships and personalization?

Right away the addition of POS systems plays an important role to improve their experience. Customers commonly understand that a self-checkout POS system will speed up their ordering process. Also, corporate image gets a boost: Intelligent PC interfaces for restaurant/hospitality applications give the impression of a progressive business and demonstrate that image by the equipment’s professional look and feel.

Incentives for customer memberships translate to better personalized touches, such as serving a custom menu tailored to their interests, or a specific discount

promotion. This personalization helps grow the relationship between business and customer.

Restaurant operators are open to expanding options for self service. How is technology responding to this new demand?

Their lists of applications of customer facing PCs are expanding as customers now more frequently look for self-service terminals to provide fast and personalized service. These benefits include kiosks with biometric identification, such as fingerprint recognition, or with other new peripherals, such as payment modules, RFID, and printers, lending to a restaurant operating as fully cashless. This equates to better customer satisfaction and higher revenues.

Moreover, Advantech works with software partners to offer advanced kiosk services such as a touchless interface. With touchless integration, customers can scan a QR code on the terminal screen, giving on-phone directions to allow the customer’s phone to double as the interface with the kiosk PC, alleviating infection spread or other customer concerns.

What opportunities are there for technology to better manage restaurant staff, inventory, and operations?

With our POS software partners offering data management solutions for restaurant and hospitality applications, businesses can leverage POS and selfservice terminal data uplinked to the cloud for analysis.

Offering a dashboard view, this analysis can provide actionable information to allow restaurants to optimize their supply chain integration, server order accuracy, and make changes to reflect customer preferences.

At a time when the supply chain is impacted, it really helps our customers when we can offer an end-to-end data management vantage point rather than just focus on the interface itself. This lends to the restaurant being better poised to not only offer an ideal customer experience, but arm them with supply chain intelligence, enable them to monitor inventory, assess pricing, and optimize their business moving forward.

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KEY FEATURES & 2022 PREDICTIONS POS software vendors detail their innovative features and preview what’s to come in 2022.

Agilysys (agilysys.com) has enhanced scalability and POS service customization. API-based architecture can be integrated with other Agilysys platforms. In 2022: Agilysys PanOptic kiosk, a new AI-powered self-checkout kiosk. As soon as the guest places items on the tray, the PanOptic AI service uses computer vision and AI to scan the items, recognize them, initiate a new shopping cart and automatically add the items to the cart.

CBS Northstar (cbsnorthstar.com) has open APIs and integrates with every major payment provider.

In 2022: Deeper integration of third-party products that can be leveraged along with the POS data to provide out-of-the-box solutions for business problems. CBS Northstar believes this work is critical to the survival of the industry.

Clover (clover.com) app store offers 500+ apps for businesses. In 2022: Introducing Clover Delivery, which will provide restaurants an additional economical alternative to existing delivery options, and Clover Connect, which will allow independent software vendors to integrate their software directly into the Clover platform.

Givex (givex.com) provides actionable insights to reduce waste and find efficiencies. Order time analytics allow clients to see stores where they are underperforming and where staff needs more training. A recipe cost analysis tool shows the total cost of ingredients to make meals and granular per-ingredient breakdowns. Givex also offers a mobile app that is fully integrated with the POS system, direct integrations with thirdparty delivery platforms. In 2022: Adding more features and key functions.

GK Software (gk-software.com) helps QSRs benefit from full table-service functionality, integrations with kitchen production systems and enhanced APIs to enable third-party integrations and customization. In 2022: The desire for contactless and convenient solutions is the main driver for new features and innovations for POS systems within the hospitality industry. GK is further investing in pay at the table to support EMV and chip and PIN payments, as well as contactless payments through wallet functionality.

Infor (infor.com) offers fully native support throughout the omnichannel ecosystem, including Infor Kiosk, Infor OrderNow Mobile, and third-party ordering platforms that use the API to pull accurate menu data and submit accurate orders to Infor POS. In 2022: Infor will continue early explorations of adding AI into both the sales and analytics. This will be a multi-year effort, as technologies continue to mature and barriers to adoption drop.

Lightspeed (lightspeedhq.com) features analytics that inform operators of not only of their best selling items, but also of what dishes bring guests back.

Merchants also receive a daily email, putting the need-to-know data from their analytics in their inbox every day. In 2022: More reports and real data.

Linga rOS (lingaros.com) offers heated pick-up cabinets (PUCs). Integrated marketing modules allow the company’s restaurant customers to proactively market menu additions, special offers, loyalty offers, etc. to their patrons. In 2022: Robotics and AI. Linga rOS has designed these robots for food delivery in restaurants and plans to continue to enhance them to aid the kitchens of the future. AI technology solutions that bring machine learning into our marketing modules that learn customer behavior and are responsive to advertising and marketing campaigns.

NCR Corp. (ncr.com/restaurants) is an all-in-one platform for point-of-sale, kitchen production, business intelligence, digital ordering and payments. In 2022: Additional tipping capabilities to support new labor models, enhanced APIs and a new Partner Marketplace that will enable customers to easily find certified partners.

Oracle Food and Beverage (oracle.com/foodbeverage) Oracle GloriaFood is pure SaaS with an unlimited free-tier offer. Restaurateurs can set up a mobile ordering website in about an hour.

Payment Cloud Service offers transparent pricing with no service fees or long-term contracts.

Oracle MICROS Simphony is used by clients that run cross-border, multi-location operations from a single system. It offers regionalization capabilities: local tax, fiscal, payment, partner integrations, and language support. In 2022: Expanding direct integrations between GloriaFoods and delivery providers. Expanded use of machine learning. Moving all Simphony customers to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

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ParTech Inc. (partech.com) offers Brink POS with open integration ecosystem and omnichannel capabilities. In 2022: Streamlining the end-to-end order to fulfillment process workflow and management, regardless of the channel; continuing to enhance integration capabilities and services.

POSist Technologies (posist.com) is a subscriptionbased software designed for non-technical users and business owners who need data-driven insights. POSist is a completely hardware- and platform-agnostic software. POSist works offline in case of any internet outage. Offers over 150+ third-party integrations globally.

Qu (qubeyond.com) is available offline and allows synchronization so cashiers can switch from one terminal to another without losing orders. Cloud connectivity. In 2022: Adding intelligence to the platform to enable the operator to not only better monetize their guests, but also manage their menu and operations.

Revel Systems (revelsystems.com) is a cloud-based, transactional platform that provides an open API to quickly integrate new core and partner technologies.

Easy to scale. In 2022: Next-generation reporting; order management to help restaurants manage multiple digital channels more efficiently; additional drive-thru capabilities; a low-cost loyalty offering for small chain restaurants; and enhanced APIs. Shijii Group (www.shijigroup.com) Most innovative features: Infrasys Cloud POS has customizable, cost-effective and integrated features. Hotels can customize their systems by making updates and tweaks on what employees find most productive to maximize time with guests and minimize time on devices. Works on any hardware and operating system. Infrasys Cloud POS also allows for tableside ordering and integrations with various payment solutions, check splitting feature and more. In 2022: Deepening the API platform, improvements on cash drawer and labor management in POS, improving integration with other Shiji products such as MyCheck.

Silverware POS Inc. (silverwarepos.com) Clover Solution lets the staff manage the entire guest experience on a Clover device. Silverware also offers CRM and loyalty as part of its ecosystem. Integration with OpenTable that pushes guest details from into Silverware, providing restaurant staff with guest notes,

tags, allergies, history and more. In 2022: Silverware is launching a full kiosk solution.

SpotOn (spoton.com/restaurants) offers full and automatic Offline Mode. Fully integrated location aware QR code offers the unique location information with a scan - a specific table, a parking space or a single seat in a stadium. Compliant cash discounting capabilities. In 2022: Building out enterprise management capabilities. With Appetize now part of SpotOn, expect to see combined efforts in invoicing, reservations, labor management and more.

Square (squareup.com) for Restaurants is an allin-one restaurant POS system that’s cloud-based and easy to use. Square for Restaurants seamlessly integrates with Square Online so restaurants can set up and take orders via curbside pickup, in-house delivery, or courier-powered delivery through the on-demand-delivery feature. Team Management lets staff clock in and out via the POS, view sales by team members, and more. In 2022: Enhanced omnichannel capabilities.

Squirrel Systems (squirrelsystems.com) enables customers to choose from among best of breed solutions for their needs. In 2022: Squirrel will continue innovations in the areas that provide the most value and flexibility to customers.

Toast (toasttab.com) is fully integrated across point of sale, operations, digital ordering and delivery, marketing and loyalty, team management, financial technology solutions, and platform services. In 2022: Will help streamline restaurant operations.

Touch Bistro (touchbistro.com) offers proprietary and integrated reservation and guest engagement platforms that include loyalty, marketing tools and a custom web app. Integrated payment offering.

In 2022: Deeper integration and bundling of guest engagement platform. Additional focus on cloud centricity: expand menu, floor plan and reporting features. HT

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COVER STORY

RECAP

BY ROBERT FIRPO-CAPPIELLO, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, AND ANNA WOLFE, SENIOR EDITOR - RESTAURANTS

IT Leadership Panel: Integrating, Connecting, and Writing the New Playbook Moderator Angela Diffly, Co-Founder of the Restaurant Technology Network (RTN), sat down with Robyn Kesler, IT Director, Tupelo Honey Cafe; Karen Bird, Chief Information Officer, HOA Brands; and Stephanie Nardini, VP of IT, Jersey Mike’s, for an exceptional IT Leadership Panel to end our conference on the highest of high notes. Highlights included: • Customer expectations have changed, especially regarding personalization and self-service. Restaurants are a “people” business — it’s important to remove barriers between guests and the food. Personalization and off-prem solutions are now table stakes. Restaurants made sure staff could still prepare food and get it to guests during the pandemic, but it’s vital not to disrupt service and the personal touch.

• Build a proprietary POS or work with a vendor?

Brands that build their own POS do so in order to focus on their unique needs. Those that switch vendors require a deep dive into what is needed and what solution can deliver best. Either way, POS requires careful research and development. Ultimately, restaurants sometimes ponder the question, “Are we a food brand or a software brand?” The answer may differ from brand to brand.

• Industry pain points: We’ve heard a lot of challenges and a lot of wins. Integrations and the management required remain a challenge — standardization can ease that burden. It’s the

We’re delivering highlights, insights and key takeaways from the educational sessions we presented October 13-15 at “Restaurants Reunited in Business & Technology” in Orlando.

language that systems need to talk to one another. (And RTN can help with guidance via its workgroups.) Another challenge is that monitoring and alerting may have gotten lost — restaurants don’t always know when processes are failing. Kitchen capacity management is a major challenge — the orders coming into kitchens need to be managed more efficiently.

Interactive Workshop: How to Innovate Under Pressure Andrew Rebhun, VP of Digital at El Pollo Loco, shared the secret to innovating under pressure with Hospitality Technology’s VP & Publisher Abigail Lorden: “Take little bets.” El Pollo Loco, a winner of a 2021 MURTEC Breakthrough Award, tackled four major initiatives at the same time: • Building a truly effective loyalty program that leverages relationships; • Launching a forward-looking artificial

Check out the MURTEC Executive Summit & Showcase Content Hub ICYMI or just a session or two, you can now watch key highlights on the MURTEC Executive Summit & Showcase Content Hub on hospitalitytech.com/murtec-executivesummit-2021. Plus, tech vendors share their insights and solutions for today’s restaurant challenges.

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IT Leadership Panel: Integrating, Connecting, and Writing the New Playbook: Moderator Angela Diffly, Co-Founder of the Restaurant Technology Network, with Karen Bird, Chief Information Officer, HOA Brands; Stephanie Nardini, VP of IT, Jersey Mike’s; and Robyn Kesler, IT Director, Tupelo Honey Cafe.

intelligence program to help analyze data and make meaningful predictions; • Taking curbside from zero to operational in six weeks; • Experimenting with backyard drone delivery for its top loyalty members.

The secret, “Take little bets,” is something Rebhun learned from Peter Sims’s book Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries. And to evaluate those bets, he suggested a three-question innovation litmus test: • Is it disruptive and will the customer notice it?

• Is it profitable?

• Is it operationally viable?

Rebhun advised that if the answer to two or to all three questions is “yes,” the idea may be worth a “little bet.” The workshop concluded with attendees breaking off into small groups to brainstorm their own “little bets” and bringing them back to the general session — the first step toward innovations to come!

Hot Now! Krispy Kreme’s Sweet Success Ben Hall, CIO, Krispy Kreme, sat down for a keynote “firechat” with Angela Diffly. With 1,400 locations in over 30 countries, 84-year-old iconic brand Krispy Kreme experienced record-setting sales during the pandemic and took a successful second stand on Wall Street, going public in July. Hall shared some cool insights into the brand’s growth and future plans. Highlights included: • Krispy Kreme donuts at the conference! Hall surprised attendees with boxes of fresh treats.

• Hall spoke of the challenges the brand faced in launching a flagship store in Times Square and working with New York CIty during COVID. The

Interactive Workshop: How to Innovate Under Pressure: Andrew Rebhun, VP Digital at El Pollo Loco, with Hospitality Technology’s VP & Publisher Abigail Lorden.

Hot Now! Krispy Kreme’s Sweet Success: Ben Hall, CIO, Krispy Kreme, with Angela Diffly.

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shop offers virtual queuing, virtual reservations, and many opportunities for social media synergies, including Instagram tables, giant donut boxes, and even a glaze fountain.

Hall noted that Krispy Kreme already had drivethrus pre-COVID, but the brand is working to improve the drive-thru experience, digital signage, and looking into how to do AI, loyalty, and perhaps eventually voice.

Hall maintains a five-year roadmap for tech implementations, which facilitates work with vendors, but he also reevaluates the roadmap each year because things quickly change within the industry.

Krispy Kreme is working to develop and improve native delivery and integrate with loyalty.

The issue with third-party delivery, of course, is that you lose some or all data.

Hall is focusing on “demand planning” technology to better handle challenges such as labor, supply chain and commodities. “Let’s get better at forecasting sales across all our channels, how much each factory needs to make, how many donuts each shop needs. Even the weather affects demand for donuts.”

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Reimagining Restaurants From the Ground Up: HT’s Senior Editor Anna Wolfe with Anita Klopfenstein, CIO, Little Caesars.

Another Broken Egg Hatches Tech Initiatives to Fuel Brand: Paul Macaluso, President & CEO of Another Broken Egg, with Angela Diffly.

Reimagining Restaurants From the Ground Up

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HT’s Senior Editor Anna Wolfe sat down with Anita Klopfenstein, CIO, Little Caesars, to get the lowdown on the brand’s extraordinary ability to imagine — then reimagine — their technology. So, how does Little Caesars foster a culture of innovation and reimagination? For one thing, Klopfenstein divulged that they have a group called Area 51 that works with mechanical engineers and electrical engineers.

Right now they’re trying to automate things like the Pizza Portal. It’s all about encouraging divergent thinking by asking “What if...?”

Klopfenstein also spoke about the company’s development of a native cloud-based POS for its 5,000+ stores: CaesarVision (CV). Their “modest” goal was to develop a POS so user-friendly that a new hire could understand it within minutes of starting the job. (They even tested it on Klopfenstein’s husband, whose training is in welding, and he was indeed up and running in minutes!) Breaking down her process for goal-setting on the multi-year process, she noted, it had to be easy to use, ensure that BOH reporting was improved, and feature fast performance. They completely rewrote their forecasting models, with an AI model built for every store that is trained to make forecasts based on that particular community, clientele, and even the weather. Then they showed their franchisees the product as a test — and urged them to be as critical as possible. By early 2022, the new POS will be operational at all Little Caesars.

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Off-prem went from 2 percent of sales to 15 percent during the pandemic — and continues to grow, with some cafes doing 20 percent.

The brand is focusing on labor and operational efficiencies: With a large concentration of cafes in Florida, where the minimum wage is rising, they recognized that they had to look at their operational performance and hired Labor Gurus to analyze “time and motion” to determine opportunities for efficiencies.

Another Broken Egg is testing a new POS to replace its current process, where a server writes down an order and brings it to the POS terminal.

Revel is implementing at-table tablets for the cafes, with orders going straight to the kitchen display unit, and a receipt is printed with a QR code so customers can pay with their smartphones. This process is saving more than 20 percent of time for servers, opening up opportunities for more tables served.

Touchscreens enhance the personal touch: Servers find that using a touchscreen actually improves customer service and the personal touch — it’s not the distraction that some may fear it is.

Franchisee win: The brand conducted an anonymous franchisee survey and scored extremely well, near the top of the food brands in terms of franchisee satisfaction. Questions such as “If you could do it over again, would you?” got an overwhelming “Yes!” — above 90 percent. But the lowest score was for using technology, so the brand has acknowledged it is an area to work on.

Another Broken Egg Hatches Tech Initiatives to Fuel Brand

Workforce Shiny New Objects

Paul Macaluso, President & CEO of Another Broken Egg, shared the brand’s tactics for growth. Some highlights of his conversation with Angela Diffly include: • Another Broken Egg has 77 full-service cafes in 14 states, mostly in the Southeast; it opened nine cafes in 2020, and 10 are opening in 2021.

HT’s Senior Editor Anna Wolfe moderated a lively panel with Chris Baggott of Clustertruck and Joel S. White, Vice President of Marketing, The Genuine Hospitality Group. Starting with the firm belief that hiring and retaining staff has never been more important in the restaurant industry, the discussion

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Workforce Shiny New Objects: HT’s Senior Editor Anna Wolfe with Chris Baggott of Clustertruck and Joel S. White, Vice President of Marketing, The Genuine Hospitality Group.

Interactive Workshop: Identifying Restaurant Technology KPIs: Joe Tenczar, Co-Founder, Restaurant CIOs; Phil Crawford, CTO, CKE Restaurants; and Angela Diffly.

featured two restaurant brands that are embracing technology in very different ways to ramp up efficiencies, increase employee satisfaction and maintain their current workforce.

White noted that Amara at Paraiso, part of The Genuine Hospitality Group and a 2021 MURTEC Breakthrough Award winner, employs AI (They call the system ELROY) to connect FOH staff using a NFC mobile device called an EMU, helping to manage workloads and enhance efficiencies — and also a health-monitoring bracelet to measure stress and help prevent burnout. White noted that he wasn’t sure how staff would react to the tech rollout, but was pleased to see them embrace its social-emotional benefits.

Baggott’s company, Clustertruck, is focused on solving one of the restaurant industry’s critical challenges: “Delivering food is the worst job in the gig economy; we wanted to make it the best.” The company has succeeded in minimizing the stress in the stressful food delivery game. Food prep is timed to the arrival of the driver, and kitchen staff can monitor everything on screen. Baggott said flat-out, “The driver is more important to us than the kitchen,” and the proof is in the numbers: Clustertruck has a low turnover rate and a waiting list for drivers.

As the workshop started, Tenczar and Crawford noted the importance of identifying goals. For instance, are you comparing KPIs to history? Or are you comparing KPIs to where you want to be in the future? Or both? Both leaders agreed that measuring speed of service and transactions is table stakes, but that it is always important to imagine what future KPIs will be relevant. The experience of the past year has shown that the game can change quickly.

Dunphy facilitated small-group discussion and brainstorming in two rounds, helping participants home in on the most important KPIs. Here are some of the KPIs identified as potential priorities: • Measuring happiness of customers and employees using facial recognition • Minutes saved per customer (for a better, quicker experience) • Which channels are producing the most tickets/revenue • What is your total system availability?

• Order accuracy and consistency (beyond guest complaints) • Employee satisfaction with culture • Loss-prevention measures • Customer acquisition cost, lifetime value, and frequency • Kitchen efficiencies (time on check, time in the kitchen, availability of menu items) • Employee satisfaction and engagement (use of available technology tools) • Through-put through third party (broken down by region) To learn more about Restaurant KPIs and other exciting RTN workgroup initiatives, visit the Restaurant Technology Network. HT

Interactive Workshop: Identifying Restaurant Technology KPIs What a lively and insightful workshop! We all know that key performance indicators (KPIs) are difficult to measure across the restaurant industry due to their varying definitions as well as the disparities among restaurant categories, size and structure. This interactive workshop, powered by RTN stars Joe Tenczar, CoFounder, Restaurant CIOs; Phil Crawford, CTO, CKE Restaurants; Angela Diffly, RTN Co-Founder; and Patrick Dunphy, RTN CIO, brainstormed KPI categories and concepts, as a kickoff for RTN’s newest workgroup, designed to identify, collect and catalog KPIs for all restaurants.

For video highlights of educational sessions, exhibitor interviews, and solutions, visit hospitalitytech.com/murtec-executive-summit-2021

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BREAK THROUGH 2021

2021 MURTEC Breakthrough Awards Sponsored by Fortinet, the 2021 MURTEC Breakthrough Awards were presented by HT’s Senior Editor - Restaurants Anna Wolfe and Fortinet’s National Retail CISO Courtney Radke.

The winners were: El Pollo Loco (Customer Engagement Innovator), Little Caesars (Enterprise Innovator) and Amara at Paraiso (Enterprise Innovator). The three runners-up were Firehouse Subs, Jersey Mike’s, and Taffer’s Tavern.

El Pollo Loco’s impressive list of accomplishments includes: piloting door-to-backyard drone delivery; an updated loyalty program; adding GPS-enabled curbside pick-up; and rolling out a new restaurant of the future design that emphasizes off-premise convenience and includes a double drive-thru option, to name a few. These initiatives illustrate the LA Mex restaurant’s continuous digital evolution and focus on customer convenience and efficiency through technology.

Little Caesars developed a brandnew cloud-based architecture. The CV Cloud platform equips franchise owners and store operators with a

system that would not only support, but also help grow and accelerate their business. The decision to design and build a custom store platform was rooted in the desire to retain the brand’s unique market position and competitive advantage, but also to equip the business with a system that would scale and adapt to changing needs of customers and operators. This is the Detroitbased pizza chain’s second trip to the winners circle. In 2019, Little Caesars received the MURTEC Breakthrough Award - Customer Engagement Innovator for its Reserve-N-Ready strategy — including its self-service mobile order pick-up station, better known as the Pizza Portal.

Amara at Paraiso is an upscale restaurant in Miami from a James Beard Award-winning chef named Michael Schwartz. Amara implemented a firstof-its-kind AI (named ELROY) that connects its front-of-house employees in real-time to reduce workload and increase efficiency via a credit cardsized NFC employee mobile device called an EMU. It is paired with an advanced health bracelet that monitors, with complete privacy, employee vitals (including stress) to help diminish burnout and more. Amara also uses interactive 3D modeling in conjunction with the employee efficiency and accountability technology to find blind spots and enhance routing of employees. These tools have become even more critical with the current labor crisis. Amara chose to use technology to enhance — rather than replace — the human element. With this technology, Amara has empowered its employees to work easier, smarter and happier. HT

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UNLV is known for having the finest Hospitality program in the world and generating the best talent for the industry.

—Joseph Kim, master’s student

TAKE THE NEXT STEP Be a part of the UNLV Hospitality Graduate Programs ON-CAMPUS MASTER’S DEGREE • 1-year program • Applied knowledge & skills • No work experience or GRE/GMAT required EXECUTIVE ONLINE MASTER’S DEGREE • 3+ years management experience required • Two tracks: Gaming or Hospitality Management • No GRE/GMAT required • Gaming Certificate option available PHD DEGREE • On campus, 3-year degree • Research-based with teaching opportunities • Funding available for full-time students

To learn more about each program or to apply, visit unlv.edu/hospitality/graduate-programs.

By Angela Diffly, co-founder, RTN

RTN in Review: What a Year!

Closing 2021 with a bang and looking forward to a shiny New Year

IT’S BEEN QUITE A YEAR for the Restaurant Technology Network (RTN), with significant membership growth, meaningful connections and critical technical guidance releases — with one goal always centrally top of mind: to help restaurants and solution providers work together to solve problems large and small, inspiring bold ideas for the future.

If you’re a member of RTN, a huge shout-out of gratitude for making this community what it is today. If you’re not yet a member, there’s no better time to join us. Here’s why.

As we close 2021, RTN boasts more than 200 restaurant brands and nearly 80 restaurant technology supplier brands in the community, along with more than 20 members of our restaurant Board of Governors and more than 20 members of our supplier leadership Vendor Advisory Council. (Scan QR Code to check out who’s who.)

One of the most important things RTN does is bring members together to solve restaurant technology challenges. Published works to date include the RTN’s Open API Framework, Menu Synchronization Standard, Native Delivery TCO Calculator, Cybersecurity Operations Guidance, Fast Match Tools for Contactless Technology Solutions, RFP Guidance for POS, and so many more. (Scan QR code to explore.)

RTN Workgroups were in full force throughout 2021, collaborating on a variety of hot topics, such as standardizing customer record and transactional data, creating restaurant technology capabilities framework (publishing soon!) and developing labor and technology management strategies.

RTN has also spearheaded the Restaurant Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Rest-ISAC) for restaurants to gather and share intelligence on cybersecurity-related technology solutions and

threats. We’d love to have your expertise in the mix!

(Scan QR code to register.)

RTN launched several industry events to create meaningful connections, including a new format called RTN Town Hall, where members gather to listen to experts about the industry’s hottest topics, the first of which was on customer data, privacy and third-party delivery. We also launched Supplier-toSupplier networking events, which allow industry power players like Comcast Business, Toshiba, Intel, PAR Tech, and so many more, to learn about emerging solutions and discover potential partnerships, helping new brands evolve and scale, while augmenting already-rich portfolios with even more diverse solutions.

In-person events came back in 2021, and it was invigorating to attend HT’s MURTEC Executive Summit and Showcase October 13-15 in Orlando (Read the show review on page 28 and see the highlight hub on hospitalitytech.com), as well as Food On Demand in November (which will be back in Las Vegas in May 2022). There were so many great learnings. (Scan this QR code to check out my recap of Food On Demand, jam-packed with the best quotes from the event.)

Look for us to show up even more in 2022, at events such as the big-kahuna CES / Consumer Electronics Show (January 5-6, Las Vegas); NRF Retail’s Big Show (January 16-18, NYC), HT’s own gold-standard event, MURTEC, (March 7-9, Las Vegas), National Restaurant Association Show (May 21-24, Chicago), and many more throughout the year.

RTN is nurturing start-up technology companies, bringing them into the community, connecting them with complementary partners, and introducing them to the industry at large at RTN’s MURTEC 2022 Start-Up Alley. Scan this QR code to check out just a sampling of RTN’s restaurant technology start-up companies in our Virtual Start-Up Alley, and stay tuned for RTN’s Start-Up

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Alley Competition. Nominations are expected to open the first week of December. If you’re interested in throwing your hat in this ring, come prepared for stiff competition and an amazing opportunity to showcase at the restaurant tech industry’s hottest event, over two decades in the making. MURTEC brings together 450+ of the industry’s most talented technology decision makers (some of whom will be our celebrity judges for Start-Up Alley). Space is very limited. Your nomination should be stellar; so make sure to bring it!

We can’t wait to see what the industry has in store for 2022. From mind-blowing valuations on Wall Street and acquisitions on both sides of the technology table to wow-moment milestones for virtual brands, ghost kitchens, drone delivery, and robots — things are heating way up. We’ll be watching every move, and RTN members will be right alongside us for the

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wild ride. Cheers to a fabulous year! Dare we say, the best is yet to come. Claim your seat at the RTN table; we’ve saved you one.

For more information about joining the RTN community, please visit www.restauranttechnologynetwork.com. Restaurants join at no cost!

Thank you to our rockstar technology brands who join, participate and give of their time, expertise and tech talent to the mission of helping restaurants solve technology challenges. HT

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Secure Retail Experiences, Everywhere You Need It. Protect the possibilities with Fortinet. www.fortinet.com/retail

1:41 PM

Brief team on tech updates for the week’s conference.

2:09 PM

Message lead engineer—could the mobile app include an AR map?

2:12 PM

Surprisingly frictionless call with Finance about frictionless payments.

2:24 PM

Time for lunch.

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