HTNG Workgroup to Develop Open Standards Architecture for Hospitality Industry

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. October 14, 2008

CHICAGO, IL, October 17, 2005. Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG) today announced the charter members of a new workgroup that will put forward the first open standards based architecture guidelines for the hospitality industry. This workgroup - the initial sponsors of which are Agilysys, Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa, IBM, SAS, Sea Island Company, SSA Global/Infinium, and Station Casinos - will work together to develop and define a hospitality-specific systems architecture that can support customer-centric, product-rich solutions from multiple technology providers.

"Hotels face the challenge of delivering consistent customer service while using disparate systems from multiple technology providers. Interoperability is the key to unlocking this obstacle. Our goal is to address this challenge by introducing new design guidelines that can substantially reduce the barriers to integration," said Bradford S. Iverson, Segment Executive of IBM Travel Related Services.

"HTNG's vision for the future is one where hotel systems can seamlessly work together to serve the customer," said Douglas C. Rice, Executive Director of HTNG. "We believe that this vision can be achieved by taking concrete steps to move the hotel community and its technology partners toward a common vision. It is no longer necessary to sacrifice these objectives in order to buy the best available technology for each business need. We simply need some 'rules of engagement' for all platforms to enable consistency across architecture for applications, data services, integration, and solutions."

In addition to the seven sponsors, applications from other hotel companies and technology providers will be accepted through November 9, with a maximum of 20 companies. These organizations will provide a balance of insights from a variety of organizations serving the hospitality ecosystem.

The goal of the workgroup is to define the architecture and for members of the workgroup to successfully incorporate the recommendations into existing product(s) over the next 18 months. Workgroups typically set interim deliverables goals every six months to ensure concrete and continual progress. Specifications are released to HTNG members as they are created and placed in the public domain once the workgroup has completed its work.

The functional scope could include the following areas, with the actual scope to be determined based on the final selection and interests of participating companies:

Reservations (rooms/condos/cabins, tickets, activities, etc.)

Distribution (GDS, intermediaries, internet, etc.)

Property Management (front desk, maintenance, housekeeping, etc.)

Activities Management (golf, dining, excursions, etc.)

Group Sales, Catering, Event Management

Inventory Management (single image of inventory)

Guest Recognition (single image of the guest)

Reporting, Planning and Analytics

Since the focus of this group will be on the architectural design rather than functional specifications, it will where appropriate work with other HTNG workgroups that are implementing interoperability in these functional areas.