Document Collation in Hosptiality Industry A case study

Introduction

It is estimated that the Global Hotel Industry revenue in 2016 stands approximately at a staggering value of $550 Bn and it has seen an increase in 2017, 2018 and 2019. 

The U.S. travel and tourism industry generated over $1.6 trillion in economic output in 2017, supporting 7.8 million U.S. jobs. According to Department of Commerce projections, the United States will welcome 95.5 million international visitors annually by 2023 (nearly twice the amount in 2000). The United States leads the world in international travel and tourism exports. From 2009 to 2017, US hotel gross bookings grew from $116 billion to $185 billion.

One of our hotel management clients, manages 30 hotels across the United States and prepare annual individual hotel business plans for the coming year for management and investors. The work of accumulating all data and forms and collating them into a business plans with the appropriate management signoffs was being done all manually and taking four months to complete. They were looking for a more efficient, timely and better controls in developing their business plans.

Finding the right technology

Having looked at document collating and management technologies in the past, the solutions on offer didn’t have the capability to intelligently automate the current manual process. The group therefore did not see the benefits required and the search was halted with the group continuing to work in the same way.

In mid 2019, with an ever-increasing desire to automate and improve the current processes the group Vice President of Sales and Marketing, restarted the search and began setting out a criteria for what was required.

Key criteria included:

• Ability to scale the operation and re-deploy experienced General Managers into a more productive role for the company
• Seamless integration to reduce duplication of effort and provide easy access to documents
• Automatic routing of documents for approval
• Full visibility of documents throughout the process
• Improved accuracy and speed of processing

The chosen solution would need to reduce the amount of man hour being used and the effort it took to be minimized; a single document could be handled six times during the manual process.

Working with the right people

When selecting Proden Technologies as the preferred supplier the Vice President explained, “The people and support, plus a great product, sold it to us above the other vendors.” he goes on to explain that when working in an industry which is based around people and their expectations, it is important to have a good understanding and relationship with the chosen supplier, “There was good support and a good understanding. You work with the people as well as the company.”

Teamwork

With the VP leading the implementation alongside key General Managers and sales Directors from across the group, the project began in October 2019. “We worked as one big team even though it was across six sites.” It was important that all users were on board with the solution the VP explains, “You have to involve the users, they are the people who have the questions as they will be using the system.” The VP and the team required the system to be up and running successfully by the new financial year, 2020, “I didn’t want to start a new financial year and have part of a system. I wanted to start the financial year with the new system so all Business Plans from 2019 onwards would be automated and be presented at the Budget Meetings. 

Ultra Documents helped them to construct their business plan very easily by drag and drop different files in different format from different data sources including Smartsheet. MS Office, Smartsheet and Delphi Integration seemed very simple and easy and the business plans are created in few minutes. All the managers are happy and are at ease. They felt that the Business Plan looked very professional and more presentable at the budget meetings. And infact they were literally amazed by the excellent support that the Ultra Document Support team had provided 24/7.

Smartsheet Integration:

 

Easy integration with Smartsheet:

 

Delphi Integration made easy just in three simple steps. Login to Ultra Documents – upload PDF files – map the columns – integrate it with the existing Smartsheet.

 

A system that flows

With the solution going live in 2019, all Business Plans are now automatically routed for authorization to the relevant manager for verification and processing, a process which eradicates the previous manual sign off. The organization no longer struggle to create a Business Plan manually, the system just flows. “It’s great when the Business Plans are completed through now, managers don’t have to move around the place to build and authorize.”

As well as a seamless integration with Ultra Documents, Business Plans are created with various types of documents pulled out from various data sources are collated, processed, sent for approvals, electronically signed. A seamless workflow process is created, and a more perfect Business Plan is ready to be presented without manual hard work. A fully automated workflow triggers a fool proof process from getting the document to the approval signature for the Business Plans. 

Our client’s Hotels and its group also recognized that there would be value in using the Ultra Document Management system in other departments. All Business Plans are now automated, and the managers are now able to relax and concentrate much on other tasks leaving most of the headache to Ultra Documents. 

 

Flexibility, efficiency, visibility

Since implementing the Ultra Document solution across the group, the benefits have been endless. The flexibility that Ultra Documents has provided has meant that people no longer toil hard and waste man hours to create Business Plans. 

As well as the improved supplier relationships and cost savings in terms of automating the workflow, morale and staff engagement has also risen. Staff are no longer sat at their desks manually processing and creating Business Plans, or chasing people for approval, “Staff now have time to get involved in other aspects of the business and further their knowledge.”

For the VP implementing Ultra Documents was a huge positive for the staff, “They see you investing and being aware of what takes up their time, and in turn this creates a better working environment for them as well as for the company.” 

Conclusion

With improved access and efficiency the VP and his team continue to see the benefits of Ultra Documents across the our client’s Hotels and its group. Feedback from the other members of the organization has been very positive and managers are now enjoying the benefit of workflow automation for the hassle-free Budget meetings. Staff who previously spent their time manually creating Business Plans now involved in other aspects of the group’s growth.

The VP sums up the Ultra Document solution as “Pure efficiency… from the document received to it being approved for the Budget meeting. The support what we got is awesome”