...but account management is just as important. As you know I have been holidaying in Devon and enjoying a round of golf or two. I played one game with a dear friend of mine who is a London City Finance wiz. As you would expect, by the 3rd tee we were discussing the economy and some work matters.

My friend said “You know Alistair, I am sick of doing all the Business 101 jobs (read account management) at work. I want to get back to cutting the big deals.” I tend to agree with him, as does Richard, Acentic’s UK Managing Director, who just made the thrilling win of 42 Marriott properties across the UK, well done Rich. However, we at Acentic, are advocates of great account management. It is the little steps everyday that we make in fine tuning our customer care services that keep the Acentic team a winner, even when the market is down. I am in agreement with the book review of Terry Gustafson:  “It’s so much to Noddy’s credit that he can adapt to any circumstance with a positive attitude.”

Enjoy the rest of your Summer and I wish you success everyday as well as a big deal this quarter!

It's always interesting to see the evolution of a trade show and the time it takes for the technology highlighted there to actually reach consumers. Within the broadcast industry, the key show in Europe is what we’re all talking about, IBC. IBC covers just about every field of broadcasting from content management to studio mixing all the way through to interactive services for viewers and satellite transmission. As such Acentic attends every year because whilst the hotel industry has its only specificities when it comes to technology its is important to use proven standards and to understand what will hit the living rooms in the future.

Ten years ago when Acentic first started visiting IBC, Digital TV and Video on Demand were the buzz words at the show, its fascinating to see that only now are consumers starting to receive VoD services at home. That’s a ten-year lag for the most mature consumer markets, probably a lot longer for many emerging markets. Interestingly enough, back then hotels were already offering VoD providing guests with total control over recently released blockbusters. For the last 3 to 4 years it has been High Definition Television that has taken the front stage at IBC with all sorts of predictions about consumer take up and services. We don’t think HDTV will take over ten years to develop - in fact HD broadcast services are starting to develop rapidly in Europe, whether its via PayTV providers or free to air offerings through digital terrestrial. HD VoD however has yet to take off significantly.

At Acentic, we believe its important to work with leading industry players in order to deploy HD VoD to hotels before it even figures on the service offerings of most consumer providers. The industry needs to work together with standards based systems so that cost effective HD solutions can be rolled out to the hotel industry bringing a new exciting viewing experience to guests, an experience which guests may once again have to wait several years to see in their living room.


Visit our link on the IBC 2009 official blog:
http://www.v-net.tv/BlogDisplay.aspx?id=141

A hotelier was telling me the other day that in their view interactive in-room entertainment was a thing of the past and that guests were no longer interested in such services. Possibly very true, when a hotel doesn’t invest in the latest technology and services. However, when a modern system is placed in a hotel we note that the usage of services is actually increasing. This is a reflection of the consumer environment. Looking at the 2Q 09 results of one of the largest PayTV operators on Europe Virgin Media, they have announced a 3.8% increase in average revenue per user (ARPU) on the 2Q 08 results. And this increase comes despite challenging economic times. The increase is driven by the increasing number of users that take multiple services i.e. HSIA and Digital TV but also by the increase in the usage of various available TV services. Amongst these services, Virgin highlights Video On Demand, as well as HDTV among the services that usage is increasing. Virgin’s VoD service is now used regularly by 53% of their subscribers and there were 62 million VoD views in 2Q09, up 38 Million views from this time last year. In fact the popularity of on demand services is highlighted as one of the factors in the record TV viewing figures reported by the BARB (Broadcasters Audience Research Board) in the UK, with average daily television viewing reaching three hours and 45 minutes per individual. That is up 3% from 2007 and at one of the highest levels in recent years (BARB Bulletin March 2009). Clearly, despite the increase in broadband and PCs, the television remains the key viewing device in the home.

As such, we at Acentic expect to see an increase in the take up of our services as guests become regular users of on-demand services at home and seek to adopt the same behaviour within hotels. The advent of HD will just reinforce this trend.

Sources: 1) Virgin media 2Q 09 results, 2) BARB Bulletin March 2009

We, at Acentic, have been busy monitoring major corporation IT security movements around WiFi acceptance.

As recently as 2005, only 25% of business travellers used WiFi in your hotel rooms. This was due to cultural and cost barriers as well as security concerns. Four years later and practically every laptop built is equipped with a built-in WiFi card enabled to access corporate LANs. Today, corporate IT managers don’t only allow WiFi usage, they insist upon it. We’ve seen growth in the hotel industry adopting WiFi. This is reflected in an increasing number of request for proposals being received by Acentic, all of which insist upon conformance to WiFi standards.

Although WiFi offers so many benefits for your guest, your IT managers have to deal with a myriad of protocol standards, with different levels of security. A New York Times¹ article quoted: “Business travel is dependent on fragile technological networks that have already shown the stresses of a sudden strain.” With this it becomes all the more important to partner with technology vendors that have experience with WiFi, security and the logistics that come with WiFi networking. With Acentic’s expertise and hotel heritage you have a partner that is fully equipped and focused to consult on their needs and fulfill not only today’s but also tomorrow’s requirements.

To underline Acentic’s dedication, we have created a new Business Development team solely dedicated to WiFi and other HSIA applications. Want to know more? Email them at john.waters@acentic.com

¹ Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/business/04road.html?_r=2&scp=30&sq=internet&st=nyt

Like most SME’s we have been busy in the past 12 months diligently tuning the business to reduce our costs and ride out the economic storm whilst doing our utmost to keep employment at a maximum level and never waning on customer services. It has not been easy, we have suffered in silence, and now we are proud to say that we are in good shape.

How? We took the hard decisions early and built the bottom of the harbour plan followed by a delayed recovery plan and we actually have a secret management tip on how to survive 2009, “When reading the newspaper this year start with the sports section move to the arts section then you will be much more relaxed when you get to the finance section.”

Again many Governments throughout the World have ignored support for the TLH (Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality) sector in favour of ailing manufacturing businesses. According to the Canadian Government and WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Council) estimates our TLH sector contributes ca. 9% to Global GDP. Having said that, I wish you all an expedited recovery.

I note our loyal industry friends at TRI Hospitality Consulting whom say:

“Pace of decline moderates. Despite 10 EU cities experiencing a decline in profit per available room in May 2009 relative to the same period last year, there are some positive signs in the market. In all 10 cities, in profit per available room terms, the pace of decline in May 2009 compared to the same period last year moderated relative to the pace of decline in April 2009. According to Langston: “Whilst a recovery in the hotel market may not be imminent, the gradual easing of the rate of decline in all city markets surveyed is a sign that the worst may have passed.”

Source: European Chain Hotels Market Review; (abridged)  – May 2009

We at Acentic follow their market trends http://www.trihospitality.com/Home.aspx?pID=69-0 and so far it has worked for us. Just always make sure you start with the Sports section.