Many executives are leveraging information technology to address these challenges head-on. Information technology designed specifically for the hospitality industry, once used almost solely as a productivity enhancement or information storage tool, is now a major competitive weapon. Executives are now beginning to use the information from their point-of-sale systems to help them manage costs, as well as understand their customers' buying habits. This allows them to make adjustments to their product mix and service offerings, and increase their top line revenues.

With this in mind, W. Capra offers Point-of-Sale Selection and Implementation (PSI) services. PSI helps hoteliers replace legacy POS systems with leading POS technology that rapidly delivers operational and financial benefits to the organization.

PSI is a delivery methodology targeted to Point-of-Sale implementations for hospitality operations. This methodology has been used by many clients and has been proven to assist them with a successful, rapid implementation of POS systems.

Robust integration requires knowledge of business requirements and processes, technologies, vendors and best practices. W. Capra's consultants have extensive experience in creating congruent systems.

A successful implementation can be measured by delivering the solution on-time, within budget, and meeting defined organizational critical success factors.

PSI Implementation Phases
PSI combines methodology and techniques to produce deliverables and results. There are five phases of the PSI.

Phase 0: Project Initiation
Define project scope and project management procedures. Determine project critical success factors.

Phase 1: POS Selection
Confirm and prioritize business requirements, define the overall POS strategy and site systems plan. Define a vendor strategy, integration architecture and work process to select the POS hardware and software solutions.

Phase 2: POS Design & Build
Document specifications and design applications. Build interfaces to existing applications. Configure and standardize the POS database based on the client's operational requirements.

Phase 3: POS Verification
Integrate and test the POS hardware, application, and database. Execute formal Quality Assurance tests. Obtain customer acceptance of platform.

Phase 4: POS Deployment
Develop deployment plans and processes. Consider channel-of-trade and funding model differences. Pilot the POS at a few sites with a focus on deployment and support processes. Develop training materials. Schedule, communicate, and execute deployment.

Benefits to Using W. Capra
W. Capra's experience in the hospitality industry is extensive and our consultants have proven implementation experience. We have a strong knowledge of the requirements, vendors, and technology within the Hotel and Resort environment. By leveraging W. Capra's hospitality experience in your POS decisions you can achieve the following benefits:

• By using our experienced-based PSI model, you will reduce the time to selection increasing your Return-on-Investment.
• We will not waste your time and money by sending out 20 RFP's. We know the vendors and their strengths and weaknesses. We will leverage this knowledge to quickly narrow your selection to 2-3 vendors specific to your needs.
• Quality POS platform designed, tested, and implemented on time and budget to meet your current and future needs.
• Cleaner and consistent interfaces to network and legacy apps and much easier to support.
• Greater management control through enhanced reporting of key operational indicators.
• Increased employee efficiency and reduced training time as a result of a more intuitive and cognitively designed solution.
• Detailed transaction data for interfacing to downstream applications (i.e., inventory, labor, DSS/EIS).
• By using technologists with hospitality expertise, we will reduce your risk with selecting and implementing new systems.
• Increased revenue through suggestive selling, speed of service, and increased average ticket.
• Lower costs through reductions in training time, centralized item maintenance, and unlimited support for multiple operational concepts through greater software flexibility.
• Flexible purchasing options - ASP or outright purchase, we will help you understand which is best for you and your franchisees.

W. Capra's partnering approach ensures that client personnel are equipped to assume responsibility for ongoing system implementation and support after the PSI is complete. W. Capra also leverages the knowledge of the vendor during this process to maximize efficiency when working with the vendor's product.

For more information on W. Capra services, click here to contact us or call 1-312-873-3270.