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This newsletter is sent periodically to HTNG members to update you on HTNG activities and opportunities that may be of interest to you.
European Member's Meeting & Conference
Monitor HTNG Workgroup Mailing Lists
Register for HTNG Conferences and Workgroup Meetings
Submit Topics for HTNG Thought Leadership Program
The second annual HTNG European Member's Meeting and Conference, to be held Monday-Wednesday, October 8-10, in Lausanne, Switzerland, is open for registration. This meeting is open to all HTNG members and to invited guests, and will be immediately followed by the first European meeting of the full In-Room Technology Workgroup.
Starting with a welcome reception at the Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel in Lausanne, Switzerland Monday evening , the conference itself will run for two full days (Tuesday and Wednesday) at Ecôle Hotelière de Lausanne (EHL). Software security expert Gary McGraw, who has written six books on the subject, will deliver a keynote address on the first day, and several other first-rate speakers are now confirmed or likely. Thought leadership sessions are in the final planning stages, and the HTNG workgroups will provide updates on their accomplishments and practical information for both hoteliers and technology providers wanting to convert their efforts into profit opportunities.
As always, there will be plenty of opportunities to meet other senior technologists from the hotel and vendor community. Our hotel members regularly tell us that they find HTNG conferences to be particularly efficient in helping them identify new technology providers and products. This year, HTNG will offer structured vendor-customer meetings as one more way to help both buyers and sellers of next-generation technology meet each other.
Full and up-to-date information, including links for registration and hotel requests, can be found at www.htng.org/euroconf.
After the conference, the In-Room Technology Workgroup will hold its first meeting on European soil on 11-12 October, also at EHL. This meeting is open to all members of the workgroup as well as new applicants and invited guests. HTNG members can apply to join the workgroup (see information below), and can then register to attend. If you would like to attend one meeting as a guest before deciding whether to apply, you can request the opportunity to do so by e-mailing workgroups@htng.org.
HTNG recently announced the formation of its sixth workgroup, which will focus on payment systems and data security. Open signup is now available for all interested members and will continue through at least September 15. The workgroup will hold a kickoff face-to-face meeting later this autumn.
The full charter of the workgroup can be viewed here. While the specific activities will be determined by the workgroup members after the formal launch, they are expected to fall into the areas of:
Because many hotel companies operate globally, and the issues vary significantly across world regions and specific countries, the scope of the workgroup is global. The workgroup may choose to focus on specific geographic areas or regional issues at various points of time, or in the context of regional teams or sub-groups.
The In-Room Technology Workgroup completed two white papers that were released at HITEC 2007, including a Buyers’ Guide to Next-Generation Entertainment Services and a guide to understanding Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) for deployment in hotels. If you don’t know about DAS, it’s a single cabling infrastructure that supports a wide range of wireless frequencies. Hotels have successfully deployed DAS not only to provide cost-effective WiFi (802.11) coverage, but to connect to cellular networks and eliminate mobile-phone “dead spots” – all with a single set of common-area cables. All white papers can be downloaded here.
In June, HTNG announced the launch of a new "Open Data eXchange" (ODX) initiative. Housed within the Property Web Services workgroup, ODX is designed to ease the process of connecting any two systems to exchange any data, in any mutually agreed format. Like other HTNG web services, ODX will use a standard way of encapsulating a payload into a secure message that can be delivered across the Internet or any internal IP-based network.
The goal of ODX is to provide a platform for solving the basic problem of sending and receiving messages. While other HTNG efforts focus on the content of those messages, ODX's objective can be likened to the need to implement a telephone system. There are benefits to being able to "reach" anyone, anywhere, anytime, regardless of who you want to talk to, why, or even whether you speak the same language (that's what translators are for, after all). The first challenge with any telephone system is to get everyone connected to the system. That doesn't guarantee that every party will have meaningful conversations on day one, but it at least makes it possible!
ODX brings several advantages of HTNG's early interoperability work to the table, and can be used where structured messages do not yet exist or where vendors are not ready to implement them. It still delivers benefits of significant value to hoteliers:
ODX also makes it simple for any technology vendor to connect to any other ODX-compliant system quickly, reliably, and without the need for custom code to manage the connection. ODX alone will not get two systems "talking the same language," but it simplifies the connectivity - making it as simple as setting the IP address of the other system, providing authentication credentials, and configuring security mechanisms like firewalls to permit the traffic through.
It is expected that ODX will be based primarily on the current HTNG Web Services Framework 2.0 specification, meaning that any vendor product that has implemented that protocol should require minimal additional effort to achieve ODX compliance.
In years past, HTNG's workgroups often enjoyed a lull during the summer months. This year, however, strong momentum has led many of the workgroups and teams to continue meeting right through the summer, driven by the desire to get product to market. Some highlights of recent activity are outline here; members interested in learning more should check the collaboration site at www.opengroup.org/htng/protected, or sign up to get on the workgroup or team's mailing list. Members interested in participating can contact the chairperson of any workgroup or team by following the e-mail link on that workgroup's or team's main page on the collaboration site for more information (click the link in the navigation bar at the left), and can apply to join any workgroup or team by following the links on our public site at http://www.htng.org/workgroups/common/appinfo.htm.
The Property/Distribution Solution Workgroup, having completed its initial (2007a) specification for certification earlier this year, has had a team meeting virtually every week and has continued work to define the support for secondary functionality, such as sharers and groups.
The Property Web Services Workgroup has completed work on the digital signage specification, and is working on certification questionnaires and requirements. This specification, based in significant part on the contribution of pre-existing messages from Newmarket International, will connect a sales/catering/event management system to digital signage systems to ensure that meeting-room signage can be tied directly, in real-time or near-real-time, to changes in event names, times, and other key information.
The workgroup is also making rapid progress toward completion of a back-office integration specification, which will standardize and simplify the transfer of financial and statistical information from transactional systems to reporting systems and data repositories. Target completion of the specification remains third quarter 2007. They are already looking beyond this, and considering address purchasing, materials management, and accounts payables interfaces next.
The single guest itinerary initiative, which was completed earlier this year, reached a milestone when it went live at a five-star resort in Hawaii. Initial feedback from the staff was extremely positive, as the implementation opened up the systems used by each of the different departments (spa, golf, rooms, dining, etc.) to all of the information in other systems. There was minimal learning curve because staff in each department simply continued using the system they had always used, with no need to learn a "new" system.
The In-Room Technology Workgroup completed two white papers that were released at HITEC 2007, including a Buyers’ Guide to Next-Generation Entertainment Services and a guide to understanding Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) for deployment in hotels. If you don’t know about DAS, it’s a single cabling infrastructure that supports a wide range of wireless frequencies. Hotels have successfully deployed DAS not only to provide cost-effective WiFi (802.11) coverage, but to connect to cellular networks and eliminate mobile-phone “dead spots” – all with a single set of common-area cables. All white papers can be downloaded here.
The IP telephony team of this workgroup delivered a working demonstration of their Call Billing Visibility project at HITEC, with Mitel, Percipia, SDD, and Teledex all participating. The three IP telephony providers all showed real-time call accounting calculations from SDD on the guestroom IP telephone screen, allowing the guest to view the cost of any call - before the fact, while the call is in progress, or after the fact. The Call Billing Visibility is designed to help restore guest trust in hotel telephones by ensuring that that the cost of a call can be known in advance rather than appearing as a unwelcome surprise when they check out.
The European Chapter of the In-Room Technology workgroup was launched on May 21 with an organizational meeting in London. The workgroup will now operate with approximately two global meetings per year (one in North America, one in Europe), and two chapter meetings per year in each of North America and Europe (open to all members of the workgroup but targeted for regional participation). The first global meeting will be held in Lausanne, Switzerland, on October 11-12, immediately following the HTNG 2007 European Member's Meeting and Conference.
The European chapter will create more opportunities for information-sharing through face-to-face meetings in Europe, allowing European hoteliers and vendors to participate more actively. The five active teams will welcome participants from both the North American and European chapters and will continue to operate globally via teleconference.
The Distribution Content Management workgroup has largely completed initial specifications for delivery of distribution-related content (text, images, maps, videos, etc.) from hotels to distribution channels, and will be finalizing in preparation for certificaiton when they meet in Paris on September 6-7. A proof of concept is in development and documentation is being completed in preparation for a certification program
The Architecture Workgroup met in Atlanta in July and has formally adopted the TOGAF framework for designing and documenting an industry architecture. It has defined a single, simple hotel as its first target "enterprise" and started to prove out methodologies by documenting simple business processes.
HTNG is pleased to announce that TRUST International has certified its product “TRUST Voyager & Trust Connect 1.0” product combination to the HTNG Property/Distribution Solution 2007a specification. The TRUST product joins products previously certified to this specification from Easy (Ez) Revenue Management Solutions Ltd., IDeaS, and PAR Springer-Miller Systems.
Additionally, NxTV certified its NxTV 4.1 entertainment system product to the HTNG Property Web Services 2007a specification. NxTV's implementation allows a guest to view their on-property itinerary, including activities booked by any system that has implemented the HTNG Single Guest Itinerary initiative, including those from previously certified products from OpenCourse Solutions, PAR Springer-Miller Systems, and TAC GmbH.
HTNG Certification represents a commitment from technology providers to hoteliers that their products meet the most stringent requirements of interoperability, with open disclosure of specific supported functionality.
The current list of HTNG Certified products is always available in the Certification Register on the HTNG Certification Site at www.opengroup.org/htng/cert. Also available are the conformance statement questionnaires that detail the precise capabilities of each interface. The HTNG certification program is administered by The Open Group, the acknowledged world leader in certification of open systems.
HTNG's booth at HITEC 2007 in Orlando represented a major departure from prior years. With the results of many HTNG efforts now in production, and with dozens of new initiatives under way within its workgroups, we decided this year to make the HTNG booth an information hub, where HITEC visitors could find out about everything HTNG was doing, and then visit the booths of specific vendors where they could see the results of HTNG's efforts in action.
October 8-10, 2007 – Lausanne, Switzerland
Reception Monday evening, October 8 – Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel
General Session October 9-10, Ecôle Hotelière de Lausanne (EHL)
Dinner Tuesday, October 9 – Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel
In-Room Technology Workgroup* meets October 10-11 at EHL
February 25-27, 2008 – Seattle, Washington, USA
All events at the Westin Seattle Hotel
Workgroup meetings* on Monday, February 25 all day
Welcome Reception Monday evening, February 25
General Session February 26-27
Dinner Tuesday, February 26
*Workgroup meetings are open only to members of the workgroup, to other HTNG members who have formally applied to join the workgroup, and to invited guests. See the section on applying for HTNG workgroups if you would like to attend.
It’s now simpler than ever to join an HTNG workgroup, or any “team” effort organized within a workgroup. Just visit our “join workgroup” page at www.htng.org/workgroups/common/joinwg.htm. Your company will automatically be put on the agenda for consideration at an upcoming meeting of that workgroup. As before, workgroups still retain control over admission of new members, but you will now be able to attend workgroup meetings while your application is pending or provisional.
Workgroups are particularly eager for greater participation by business unit representatives from hotel companies. Many of the workgroups now have formal mechanisms for hoteliers to become involved with less time commitment and expense. For example, many now have business requirements teams, consisting entirely or primarily of hoteliers, which meet periodically by teleconference to define the business needs and to review whether the solutions being designed by the technical teams are “on track.”
Not sure if you should participate? Consider attending one meeting before committing. Most workgroups permit one-time guests, to help you decide if the fit is right for you. To attend as a guest, contact the workgroup chair for an invitation (e-mail links can be found on the workgroup home pages on the HTNG collaboration site at www.opengroup.org/htng/protected). A per-meeting, per-person fee, which varies based on the workgroup and length of the meeting, normally applies to guests (see www.htng.org/workgroups/common/fees.htm ).
While many workgroups and teams meet periodically by teleconference (see the schedule at www.htng.org/Schedule.htm), new participants often find face-to-face meetings to be critical in helping them engage with the process. If you’re planning on joining a workgroup, or thinking about it, you may wish to hold the dates for one or more upcoming face-to-face meetings.
The Distribution Workgroup has not scheduled its next full face-to-face meeting as yet.
Members frequently ask us if they can be added to workgroup mailing lists so that they can monitor workgroup activities. We now have the ability to “cc” you on mailings to workgroups and teams of interest, without requiring that you join the group.
If you would like to be “cc’d” on workgroup correspondence for one or more HTNG workgroups or teams, just complete the online form at www.htng.org/workgroups/common/cclist.htm.
With the continuing rollout of HTNG’s new Member Services site, you can now register for face-to-face workgroup meetings online.
To register for any conference or workgroup meeting, simply visit the Member Services site (accessible through the link bar at the top of the public HTNG website at www.htng.org, or from the link in the navigation bar of the collaboration site, or access it directly at https://members.htng.org). Click on the Meeting Registration link to view the meetings open for registration.
If your company is a voting member of a workgroup, an applicant, a provisional member, or an approved guest, you should see a “Register” link for each meeting of that workgroup. Registration is free for the primary representative of each voting member company that has paid the annual workgroup support fee. Other representatives of voting members companies, as well as applicants, provisional members, and approved guests, will pay the per-meeting fee at the time of registration. If you are attending in place of the primary member, you will need to follow the instructions to avoid the per-meeting fee.
If you do not see a “Register” link, then either your company is not a member of the workgroup (or an applicant to join), or you have not registered as a representative of your company. To remedy this situation, complete the form at www.htng.org/workgroups/common/joinwg.htm.
You will need your login and password to the Member Services site to register for any meeting. This may or may not be the same as the login and password to the Collaboration site (we have no way to know your current password).
You can also use the Member Services pages to update your contact information.
We are looking for thought leadership topics for upcoming HTNG conferences, and for other industry conferences where HTNG is invited to speak. If you have a topic to suggest, please send it to our Thought Leadership Program mailbox, tlp@htng.org . We are actively starting to plan the program for our 2008 U.S. conference next February – so now is a great time to submit your idea if you have not already done so.
This year, we will begin to introduce “tracked” presentations in HTNG conferences, with subject matters that are of interest to members involved in particular areas of hotel technology, such as distribution, telephony, entertainment systems, front of house systems, back of house systems, and the like.
Topics should be of general (non vendor specific) interest to their target audience. Topics that would lend themselves to the inclusion of real-life case studies involving customers are more likely to be selected than purely theoretical or technical topics.
Submitting a topic does not guarantee that that the submitting company will be selected to speak. Selection of speakers for HTNG events is always based on the merits of proposals for specific speakers and presentations, which would be solicited after topics have been selected. Submitting a topic will, however, ensure that you are on the distribution list for the solicitation for speakers.
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