NFS Hospitality technology solutions

In order to capitalise on the tremendous growth in our business enjoyed in the venue and conference hotel market, we give a warm welcome to Charles Blowfield, a senior industry figure with over thirty-five years’ experience of the industry; the last six spent running his hospitality business consultancy.

In this new management position, Charles will set out to communicate to hotel and conference venue operators the many benefits of using our integrated meetings and events management technology.

“Rendezvous offers great potential,” says Charles. “The software suite is developed by NFS  for the hotel and venue market, and the hosted solution means that even small venues can benefit from an advanced scheduling solution.”

Luis Desouza, NFS Managing Director, comments: “I’m very happy to now have some great experience on board which we can channel into being more responsive to the needs of the market in our future developments. I value Charles’ input as we continue to develop our technology for meetings, venues and hotels.”

Want to know more?

Charles (charles@cbassociates.biz) will be delighted to hear from you and happy to answer any queries you may have about our Rendezvous suite – and most importantly – how it could benefit your business.

Click here to read the full release.

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Our technology is being used successfully by a growing number of leading venues and hotels around the world. Not only are we signing new clients and new employees, but we have moved our Head Office to larger, more spacious premises.

You can now find us at:

NFS Hospitality

15 Harforde Court

John Tate Road

Foxholes Business Park

Hertford

SG13 7NW

T: 01992 514 555

Please update your records accordingly, thanks.

Given the changing nature of the modern workplace, this month we held an informative webinar entitled: Flexibility Matters:  Advantages Impacting the Bottom Line, hosted and co-presented by Natalie Appleton, NFS Head of US Operations. The speaker was Diane Stegmeier, President of Stegmeier Consulting Group, author of the book Innovations in Office Design: The Critical Influence Approach to Effective Work Environments, and a recognised expert in workplace change management.

Attendees heard how flexible work programmes can substantially decrease workplace costs, while at the same time supporting the organisation’s employee engagement, attraction & retention and work-life balance initiatives.

The webinar looked at the following topics:

• Workplace flexibility… in the news
• Evolution of flexibility in the work environment
• Key workplace research findings
• Advantages impacting the bottom line of the organisation, including Workplace Cost Reduction and Workforce Performance Improvement
• Best Practices in Preparing for Flexible Work Programmes
• A product demonstration/overview of Rendezvous Workspace

Don’t worry if you missed this popular event – we now have the entire webinar available for download here.

Watch this space for news of our next webinar, and in the meantime, we hope you enjoy Flexibility Matters, and welcome your comments and feedback about the event.

Many forward-thinking companies are now introducing flexible working to their organisations with the aim of creating a better work/life balance for their staff.  In addition to the social benefits, what they may not know is that recent research suggests it can also be good for their staff’s health.

The facilities managements function has often been pivotal in driving this trend within organisations. A recent poll by the FM 100 reveals that just over 60 per cent of facilities managers report an increment in flexible working in the past five years.

What has enabled this increase is the ready availability of new technology, such as mobile broadband, which was simply not available five years ago. Established technologies such as smart phones are now so commonplace amongst executives that they are seen as passé. With wi-fi provided at many cafes and restaurants, coupled with faster and relatively inexpensive home broadband, it is now possible to work anywhere.

NFS have been cognisant of this trend for some time and have developed their Rendezvous Workspace solution to enable flexible working within organisations by empowering staff with the ability to book meeting rooms, hot desks and car parking from anywhere in the world, for the times when it’s necessary to re-enter the corporate office. Rendezvous Workspace is also unique in that it enables staff to book to video conferences across multiple time-zones.

There is certainly a business case that the golf and club market could start benefiting from easier marketing processes to win business. Our new CRM module, which includes Outlook Sync for email, customisable security levels for all employees, instant call logging capability, audit trail for all communication and a reporting suite for campaign statistics is the ideal solution for clubs which are looking to improve their marketing processes.

Recording customer communication may be tedious, but it is also vital for a company that wants to retain customers or members, because it is with this information that staff are able to cross-sell and up-sell products and services, and secure that essential repeat business.

There are many ways in which CRM can take care of the time-consuming but essential tasks that club managers face on a day-to-day basis. With full integration across the club, driving marketing campaigns and sending task reminders, users of the new module can let NFS software take the strain off everyday club business and communication.

The new age is here for clubs, so don’t get left behind when it comes to revenue-generating solutions which offer a measurable return on investment and in the long-term increase the lifetime value of members to your club.

NFS provides integrated solutions for Golf, Leisure and Private Members’ Clubs and has a growing client base of successful Clubs across the UK, including The London Golf Club, Naval Club, Phyllis Court and London Clubs.

For more information about CRM, or any other of our club management solutions, please contact Steve Salter on steve@nfs-hospitality.com, or visit www.nfs-hospitality.com.

Since Earth Day and environmental efforts are very much in the forefront this week, NFS would like to remind you that Rendezvous and Rendezvous Workspace are inherently “green” solutions, helping our clients go green in the following ways:

- Reducing the use of paper
- Reducing energy consumption by integrating NFS solutions with your HVAC and lighting systems
- Accommodating a mobile workforce and flexible workspace with hotelling and hot-desking options
- Reducing the amount of commutes and traffic through the support of mobile workforces and flexible workspace
- Optimising the utilisation of the rooms and resources your company already owns
- Saving time and increasing productivity, helping your current staff to “do more with less”

Click here for more details on the above items and learn how Rendezvous and Rendezvous Workspace from NFS are fantastic tools in helping our clients go green!

Visit www.earthday.org to find out about environmental activities and events in your area.

NFS Hospitality Corporation believes in Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. We do our best to support these practices every single day.

Hostec-Europe 2010, the annual technology show for hospitality, foodservice and leisure, took place this March at London’s ExCel. NFS held a seminar there entitled The Compelling Case For Customer Loyalty, and Practical Ways To Make It Happen. It was presented by Luis De Souza, NFS Hospitality CEO, alongside Stuart Graffham, Operations Manager for Dover Street Wine Bar, an NFS client.

Since implementing NFS loyalty solutions, Dover Street has seen increased revenues, higher customer retention and significant repeat business. Luis and Stuart discussed the key business drivers in loyalty today, including the importance of customer retention and the pitfalls in not addressing such issues as lifetime value.

Highlights of this well received presentation included:

* WHAT is consumer behaviour conditioned by?
* WHAT is the total value of a loyal customer?
* HOW can loyalty increase revenue and improve retention?
* HOW can a successful loyalty programme utilise a range of methods to incentivise customers?
* CASE STUDY – Dover Street Wine Bar: how loyalty was implemented, the costs and benefits involved, and the future of loyalty at Dover Street
* WHAT is the future of Loyalty in the hospitality industry?

If you are looking for ways to improve your customer retention as well as increase lifetime value, then take a look at our PowerPoint presentation, available to download free by clicking HERE.

We recently joined the American Association of Museums, which since 1906 has been uniting museums of all types; connecting people with the greatest achievements of the human experience – past, present and future.

The AAM’s Annual Meeting and MuseumExpo takes place 23-26 May in Los Angeles, and Natalie Appleton, our US Head of Operations, will be attending the event for the first time.

Natalie and the NFS team hope that joining the AAM and attending the Annual Meeting will allow them to continue to understand the functionality needed by museum professionals to efficiently manage all aspects of their facility. “This is a great opportunity to share ideas, best practices and discuss ways that our Rendezvous room, resource and event scheduling solution can greatly improve their day-to-day processes,” she comments. “Existing Rendezvous museum clients are able to schedule events, meetings, weddings, and tours. All aspects are able to be managed, including catering, A/V, equipment, and visitors.”

The AAM conference brings together museum professionals from across the US and fifty other countries, offering them 150 thought-provoking sessions, great networking opportunities, and special events. This is the place where museum professionals go to learn, share, connect with colleagues and have fun.

This year’s theme, Museums Without Borders, explores the connections between cultures from around the world and in our own back gardens. AAM is introducing a new Global Issues Track to the meeting, with sessions simultaneously translated in Spanish and Mandarin.

Also for the first time, AAM will unveil a virtual conference to deliver educational content live from the 2010 Annual Meeting in LA. The AAM Annual Meeting Virtual Conference 2010, produced in collaboration with LearningTimes, is a two-day online conference showcasing nine sessions selected by AAM’s Standing Professional Committees that have the broadest appeal and greatest relevance to their constituencies.

What can NFS Hospitality can do for the museum community?

Rendezvous enables museums, and also galleries, who host meetings and events, to manage all the essential elements of their business in one single, integrated solution. Rendezvous is already being used by The British Library, as well as other well known UK locations such as Tate Liverpool & Tate Modern, the National Museum of Scotland, the National Museum of Wales, and Taubman Museum of Art, in the US.

Should you wish to connect with Natalie at the show and discuss how NFS Hospitality could help your corporate events business, please contact natalie@nfs-hospitality.com.

And the educational webinars continue. Have you signed up yet?

Our next scheduled webinar, Enhance Overall Client Experience with Seamless Service, will focus on NFS’ Rendezvous solution and will highlight how Rendezvous can significantly enhance and streamline the booking of rooms and resources.

As a response to organisational needs, Rendezvous is designed to provide a scalable, highly configurable solution for both smaller and larger venues that require a fully featured room and resource scheduling solution.

Rendezvous offers:

o Browser-based technology, making deployment and support simple and cost-effective
o Powerful Outlook and Exchange Integration, giving all staff simple access to rooms and facilities
o A Self-Service module for the end user requiring more extensive functionality
o For the multi-site corporate, multi-property and multi-time zone handling
o Complete management of all meeting details, including Video Conferencing, Catering, AV, and more
o Reception and visitor handling, including security features and customisable badges

Rendezvous can help your organisation save time and money, increase productivity, streamline operations and empower employees.

Please join us at our upcoming webinar to learn more!

WHAT:
Managing Venues: Enhance Overall Client Experience with Seamless Service

WHEN:
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 13.00h EST
Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at 13.00h EST

To register for any of the free NFS webinars, visit www.myrendezvous.net/webinar.html today. Alternatively, if you would prefer to discuss your needs immediately then please contact the NFS team at sales@myrendezvous.net.

We recently published an article that focuses on how commercial meeting and events are increasingly taking place in unique venues, such as museums, galleries and libraries.

We look at the reasons why this trend is happening, including a substantial rise in demand on the part of the meeting planner or event organiser who is becoming more adventurous and looking for something unique; and the fact that the venues themselves want to widen their revenue-generation activities.

The hosting of commercial events is a relatively new concept for many unique venues, and means that their technology requirements have changed. As they now start to compete in the broader market, these venues need dedicated systems that can efficiently manage their expanding operations.

To help unique venues stage corporate meetings and events, NFS offer an integrated solution for venue and events management. Rendezvous enables unique venues, such as libraries, museums and galleries, to manage all the essential elements of events management, in one single solution.

To read the full article, please click here.

We are delighted to announce the latest in our series of informative webinars; the next discussion being: Rendezvous Workspace vs. Outlook – Why Outlook Isn’t That Great a Scheduling Tool.

This webinar will highlight how Rendezvous Workspace significantly extends and enhances what is already being done in Outlook in terms of room and resource scheduling. Focusing on our latest offering, it will include a live demonstration of this flexible and powerful scheduling solution as well as its benefits over using Outlook alone for scheduling.

Rendezvous Workspace works with Outlook in various ways, including:

• Full integration with Outlook – no need to disrupt your email session or open multiple applications; simply launch Rendezvous Workspace directly from Outlook.
• Ease of use – The user interface is uncluttered, user-friendly and efficient. With “drag and drop” functionality, schedules can be changed quickly on the fly and without the need to rekey data.
• Highly configurable – Rendezvous Workspace is customized to your exact needs and business processes, and it integrates fully with several database platforms.
• Portability – Simply use your laptop, smartphone, Blackberry or iPhone to do everything you can do in the office – book meeting rooms, hot-desks, catering and resources.
• Seamless automation – Save time by automating meeting reminders, change notifications, cancellation and service alerts.
• Video-conference scheduling – Schedule multi-timezone and multi-location video-conferences, and notifications will be sent automatically.
• Smooth Integration – Rendezvous Workspace is flexible; whatever your choice of email platform, it delivers. It integrates as seamlessly with Lotus Notes as it does with Exchange server technologies.
• Interoperability – With Rendezvous Workspace you are not tied to one browser. The system is interoperable and works perfectly with Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari and Opera.

To find out more about Rendezvous Workspace and to register to attend the free NFS webinar, visit www.myrendezvous.net/webinar.html today.