Another property that found a substantial silver lining to the cloud of a non-Y2K-compliant system is The Carriage House, in Calgary, Alberta, a 157-rm property with 9,000 sq ft of function space and an extensive variety of F&B outlets.

"We were using a locally-developed PMS, but our S&C operation was all manual" says Keith Grainger, Rooms Division Manager. "Given that the sales and catering offices are physically located in different parts of the hotel - and remote from the front desk - tracking our group activity accurately was a nightmare. Having to replace the PMS gave us an opportunity to re-think what we really needed."

The solution they adopted was to install a new integrated system from Visual One, providing not only PMS but also full S&C functionality, thereby giving all staff in all offices access to the same database of both transient and group booking information. "The difference has been tremendous," says Grainger. "With everyone now looking at identical booking records, and being able to see the history of each group on past visits, there's been a dramatic improvement in our ability to provide outstanding service. And the increases in efficiency, such as from merging contracts directly from Visual One instead of having to prepare them manually in WordPerfect, are incredible."

What advice would they give to other properties going through the same experience? "Allow enough time for data entry and practice on the system before cutting over," suggests Grainger. "Some properties are tempted to go live immediately after training, but that can lead to a lot of pressure. We found that giving ourselves a month to practice and to enter all the data into the new system really paid dividends, especially in familiarity both with the software and with our client information. The Windows screens are attractive and very user-friendly, and new staff pick it up quickly, so we haven't needed any refresher training from the vendor at all."

"This was one of those times when we can truly say that the technology has been a real benefit to us. The whole team now pulls together."

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