NFS Hospitality technology solutions

We now have a new White Paper available to download for free. The Modern Workplace is the Mobile Workplace zooms in on a new generation of mobile worker; one who can hold any job title and who expects to be able to work from anywhere, at any time.

Our White Paper examines how this new mobile worker needs to work in a mobile workplace, also referred to as flexible workspace, hoteling, hot-desking or alternative workspace. Whatever you call it, this new way of working is steadily taking hold.

In order to manage your mobile workforce effectively, you will need flexible workspace-scheduling technology that can not only manage your traditional spaces – such as walled offices, cubicles and meeting rooms – but also new types of spaces – such as touchdown desks, collaborative space and video-conferencing & telepresence space.

Our Study also highlights the opportunity for mobile employees to schedule any type of space on their mobile devices, especially smart phones and iPads. With the new Workspace Mobile interface for Rendezvous Workspace, workers can use their iPads to search for and reserve any type of space to which they have access, and make changes to existing reservations.

Are you uncertain about how best to manage your new mobile workforce?

Our Workspace Mobile and Rendezvous Workspace solutions can help by allowing you to provide employees with the right mobile technology and the right scheduling tools, to manage the right types of space.

Find out more by downloading The Modern Workplace is the Mobile Workplace, our free white paper.

NFS are attending the Technology & Trends 2011 Executive Briefings for the first time ever and invite you to come and join us at this London event, which takes place 8^th and 9^th of March.

The mini conference will offer a condensed review of the latest workplace technology and innovations from larger, international shows such as CES, ISE and CeBIT.  It will focus on what new technologies are emerging for the workplace in the next twelve months, and how these innovations could affect the business world.

The briefings are a fantastic opportunity for anyone involved to create effective working environments, and also learn about technology enablers and the drivers of change. What are the key technologies being adopted by organisations to enable workplace innovation? How can you future-proof your workplace strategies?

NFS will be giving a short presentation about the company’s innovations for 2011, including Workspace Mobile, our new iPad interface for the Rendezvous Workspace scheduling solution. We will also have a stand, which you are welcome to visit and see the technology in action.

To register, please click here, but be quick.  Places are limited and many delegates have already signed up.  These include a mix of Managing Directors / CEOs, Heads of IT, Group Directors, Global Head of Facilities, Sales & Marketing Managers and Heads of Strategy. Delegates represent some big-name organisations, including AXA Insurance, Barclays Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, GlaxoSmithKline, Nokia Siemens, The British Council and the University of Salford.

See you there!

With our new, six-part eBook, Scheduling Technology – The Benefits, we hope to offer a comprehensive look at why organisations should consider implementation of an integrated software solution for room and resource booking, and the many business advantages they stand to gain through use of this technology. We also offer a checklist of features to look for when choosing a scheduling solution – because, after all, every business is unique, with its own set of requirements.

The first series of our eBook, Why Space Management is Important to your Business, focuses on the many benefits that are available to organisations that deploy a powerful scheduling solution.

Did you know that workspace scheduling solutions can save time, streamline operations,  increase productivity, reduce overall costs and also increase employee satisfaction? These are what we believe are the core business benefits of scheduling technology, and in the first part of Series One we explain how each benefit can be seen across organisations that use an integrated scheduling solution.

There are also a range of transformational benefits to be gained, including reducing operational costs, increasing mobility, offering better access, improving work / life balance and also lessening your environmental impact. A more detailed look at these benefits forms the second part of Series One.

But it doesn’t stop there. Here are some of the topics we’ll be following in later series:

• Scheduling Technology for the Mobile Workforce
• Managing Space Using Outlook Calendaring
• The Benefits of Video Conference and Telepresence Technology

Series One: Why Space Management is Important to your Business is now available to download on our website.  Click here to enter a few basic details – and start reading!.

Teleworking is a trend that was first mooted as long ago as the late Seventies. With the advent of mobile technology, broadband and cloud computing it has become more and more prevalent for today’s workforce.

TechCast, a virtual think tank based at George Washington University, forecasts that 30% of employees in industrialist nations will telework 2-3 days a week by the year 2019. They also estimate the market for related products and services at $400 billion a year.

Using figures released by the Telework Research Network (TRN), it has been suggested that employees’ productivity could increase by around 27%. Companies that have benefitted from teleworking include Best Buy and British Telecom, which have seen average productivity rise by 35% and 20% respectively.

Productivity increases due to various factors such as fewer interruptions, more effective time management, a sense of empowerment, and flexibility in being able to choose when to work. Teleworkers also tend to put in longer hours as they work through the hours not spent commuting.

Those adopting teleworking practices have moved away from the traditional and expensive notions of office space. They have enjoyed significant savings on lease/purchase costs, car park leases, furniture, supplies, maintenance, security and other related costs. Using a hoteling or hot-desking programme enables the increasingly nomadic workforce access to office facilities when needed.

As a result, is it has become increasingly important for these organisations to have an effective scheduling software solution to manage their finite resources. One such solution is Rendezvous Workspace. It is designed to enable bookings of hot desks, meeting rooms and video conferencing to be quickly made from anywhere in the world. Integration with Outlook ensures all bookings and communications to service staff can be processed instantly.

Our research has found that a number of companies have adapted Outlook beyond its standard email, calendar and task management functionality to encompass room and resource bookings. Whilst Outlook is a great solution as a personal productivity tool it doesn’t offer all the benefits, such as reporting and catering management, that a specific room booking solution does.

As many people spend a considerable amount of their day utilizing Outlook, for email and productivity, including such tasks as organising and confirming meetings, then it would make sense for them to use a room booking system which is seamlessly integrated with Outlook. This allows them to continue working uninterrupted.

Rendezvous Workspace gives you just this. A proven resource management solution tightly integrated with Outlook allows your employees to continue to use the interface they’re comfortable with, whilst providing easy access to all the feature sets of a powerful scheduling software solution.

Rendezvous Workspace is used by a number of companies, including leading law firm Wedlake Bell, who can testify to its benefits:

“The ability for our staff to make a room availability enquiry from within Outlook and to also request or book a meeting room and resources simply and efficiently will help with providing a better service to our team and also reduce the workload on reception,” comments Linda Webster, Head of IT.

Are you using Outlook as a scheduling tool?

Are you looking for an alternative to the traditional handheld terminal?

NFS recently launched a unique, mobile app for Aloha POS which works on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Time is Money (TIM) lets you do everything the Aloha point of sale software can do – and much more – saving your servers time and optimising your customer service.
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Our revolutionary new offering has many unique features, all designed to help a hospitality operation give the best customer service they can, at minimal cost, and in the least time.

The new TIM app offers restaurants quite a few benefits, such as:

Generate more revenue – with the innovative order-taking features exclusive to TIM, your servers can easily cross-sell and up-sell items using the pop-up screens built into the system.

Turn tables faster – as servers can effortlessly transfer tables and are able to merge bills, tables and tabs in seconds. In addition, table status can be communicated through the standard interface.

Streamline your ordering process – with wireless connectivity that sends orders directly from the table to the kitchen.

See more menu items at a glance – by capitalising on the iPad’s larger screen.

Have a greener restaurant – as there is no need to print a bill if the customer does not require one; alternatively, bills can be emailed to the guest direct from the device.

For more details about the new Time is Money app, please click here.

In these uncertain economic times, the contract catering sector is facing a pincer movement on two fronts. On the one hand, customers are squeezing their profit margins as they struggle with increasingly tight budgets for corporate hospitality and catering services. On the other hand, catering companies are also facing the increasing food costs that are symptomatic of wider economic problems. Whilst food price increases in staples such as grains are widely reported, other commodities such as tea have risen in costs by as much as 30% over the last two years.

Faced with these challenges it has become even more imperative for catering companies to adopt a strategy where efficient management of resources and sales opportunities is at the forefront of driving down costs, increasing revenue and ultimately maximising profits. The events industry is overall still very lucrative. According to a recent report by the Business Visits & Events Partnership, the sector is now worth £36.1 billion and sustains at least 53,000 full-time equivalent jobs.

What can catering companies do to improve?

One of the fundamental things a catering company can do is introduce a software solution to replace inefficient manual processes and offer a streamlined approach, thus creating a culture of efficiency. One such solution is the Aloha point of sale software.

Aloha is being used by a number of leading UK catering companies, including Kudos Hospitality, operator of Cambridge Corn Exchange, The Brighton Centre and Northern Ballet. In addition to increasing speed of service at the point of sale, Aloha also offers new and unique ways of working, such as the integrated barista video monitor, for fool-proof coffee preparation.

In a fast-paced environment such as Cambridge Corn Exchange, a major concert venue in the historic city, it is imperative to ensure that, for example, interval food and drink requirements are delivered smoothly. But increasing the efficiency of F&B services is only part of the equation. Increasingly, it has become more and more important for catering companies to maximise their sales opportunities.

Kudos Hospitality’s use of centralised, multi-location technology is making them more efficient in many ways.

o They are able to generate more business and revenue both for themselves and their clients
o They have improved management processes and accountability
o They are able to offer better customer service

Point of sale software offers tremendous benefits to catering operators. In these difficult times, what else do you feel can be done to increase efficiency and profitability?

Did you know that if you were to search for “social media” on Google you would find no fewer than 624 million results? That’s a lot of pages, and a fantastic opportunity for savvy marketers, whether they are a small restaurant operator or a large chain.

With the onset of social media, conversations about food which only occurred amongst friends are now open to a wider audience. Thanks to the phenomenon of “micro blogging” sites such as Twitter, conversations now happen in real time and amongst a large network of people.

Restaurant operators really should take notice.

Apart from the obvious uses of social media, such as posting specials or other events, restaurateurs are now finding that they can engage directly in conversations with their clientele. So, what tactics can you adopt to take advantage of social media to interact with your guests?

There are a number of things which you can do – all at little or no cost:

Remember that the secret to making social media work is listening, answering questions and connecting with others. Take advantage of the opportunities within social media to connect your customers to your brand – because by connecting with them, they’ll tell others about you.

Is your restaurant making the most of social media?

“The SME market is a natural for cloud computing, since these companies typically spend less overall on IT and are also usually short-staffed in IT. Anything that reduces their computing burden while still  offering application functionality will be embraced by this market segment,” says leading Cloud Computing expert Bernard Golden, CEO of HyperStratus, Silicon Valley-based consulting firm that helps its clients define and implement their cloud strategy and systems.

In response to the move towards cloud computing, particularly for smaller commercial and corporate businesses, NFS has developed an SaaS solution for conference and meeting room scheduling.

Although this solution is delivered on a SaaS platform, there is no compromise in the benefits that you receive.

For example Rendezvous SaaS offers:

Very Low Total Cost of Ownership

Rendezvous SaaS can be up and running quickly, and offers a very fast ROI.

High Security Hosting

Paramount to our product offering is security of data and reliability of service, which we ensure for our SaaS clients by using high-security data centres.

A Fully Managed Application Helpdesk

A 24/7 helpdesk for application support is available to all Rendezvous SaaS users as a single point of contact. The system is worry-free, with no additional maintenance charges.

Flexibility

We can offer you the flexibility to migrate to the latest release of the software automatically, with us taking care of all updates and upgrades.

Are you a small to medium-sized venue or conference centre looking for a  cost-effective, reliable, powerful solution to the management of your business?

For more detailed information, take a look at our website.

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

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