CHICAGO (May 17, 2012) – Hospitality technology buyers and providers will benefit from one of the largest sets of new and improved standards ever incorporated into a single release cycle by Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG). Major elements of these just-released specifications result from three of HTNG"s most recently chartered workgroups. The new standards enhance the sharing of customer profile data across hotel systems; they enable improved delivery of guest folio data to systems that need it; and they provide a hosted payment scheme for hotel websites and central reservation systems (CRSs) that can potentially remove those systems from the scope of onerous PCI security standards. "Our volunteer leaders and contributors from across the industry, as well as the supporting HTNG staff, have been incredibly productive in the past six months. We and the entire industry owe them a debt of gratitude," said Douglas Rice, HTNG"s Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer. The workgroup volunteers who collaborated on these specifications represented more than 50 hotel companies and technology solutions providers from across the industry. "Their direction, expertise and collaborative focus have delivered – to hotels and technology providers alike – easier, standardized approaches for systems to exchange basic information," said Rice. "This allows IT organizations and vendors to focus their limited resources on capabilities that drive competitive advantage, rather than on basic functionality." A summary of the specifications follows.
This release also includes minor updates to HTNG"s very popular Digital Signage and Guest Self Service specifications.
The specifications are publicly available at the links above, including the documents needed to prepare for HTNG certification. By mid-June, HTNG"s certification program will be ready to support product certification for the new specifications. HTNG-certified products provide buyers with the best possible assurance of adherence to relevant standards.
Coming Soon: Standardized Interfaces between Point of Sale and Property Management Systems
HTNG recently launched an effort to address the often complicated and inconsistent interfaces between Point of Sale (POS) and Property Management Systems (PMSs). The new Point of Sale workgroup plans to complete initial specifications later this year. These specifications will reduce the effort needed to connect any PMS and POS system, while enabling them to cooperate more closely to meet the needs of guests, staff, and hotel owners. Standards will allow a POS system to look up guest information from the PMS and post charges to guest folios, even while the PMS is offline or unreachable. PMSs will be able to access and provide line-item check detail from any POS system. End-of-day reporting processes will be synchronized to ensure that accounts balance, even if the date-roll needs to occur at different times in the two systems.
In addition to these technical enhancements, the upcoming specifications should also reduce training costs due to simplification of systems and more consistent interface behavior across brands and systems. For more information about this workgroup and to find links to get involved, visit the Point of Sale Workgroup wiki.
For More Information
For copies of any of the specifications mentioned in this release, visit http://collaboration.htng.org/specs/ and choose the heading 2012A. A listing of all HTNG"s Released Technical Specifications is available on the association"s website as well as a listing of Specifications by Product Type.
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Part of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), HTNG the premier technology solutions association in the hospitality industry, HTNG serves members from hospitality companies, technology vendors to hospitality, consultants, media and academic experts. HTNG's members participate in focused workgroups to bring to market open solution sets addressing specific business problems. HTNG fosters the selection and adoption of existing open standards and also develops new open standards to meet the needs of the global hospitality industry.
Currently more than 400 corporate and individual members from across this spectrum, including world leading hospitality companies and technology vendors, are active HTNG participants. HTNG's Board of Governors, consisting of 22 top IT leaders from hospitality companies around the world, itself has technology responsible for over 3 million guest rooms and world-leading venues. HTNG publishes workgroup proceedings, drafts and specifications for all HTNG members as soon as they are created, encouraging rapid and broad adoption. HTNG releases specifications into the public domain as soon as they are ratified by the workgroups.
Contact
Brian Larson
Phone: 847-303-5560 x203
Email: brian.larson@htng.org
Organization
Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG) - AHLA
www.ahla.com/htng
1250 Eye Street N.W., Suite 1100
USA
- Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 1 202 289 3100
Email: ewilson@ahla.com
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