Are We Ready for Cloud Property Management Systems?

Technologies are becoming obsolete by the day. In such times it becomes imperative for businesses to update their systems on a regular basis to remain competitive. Going by the latest developments, CLOUD computing is the need of the hour. Software as a Service or SAAS platform is gaining wide acceptance across all industries and it is now the turn of hospitality industry to jump on to the CLOUD bandwagon.

Cloud based property management software have been the backbone of all hotels for more than two decades now, so much so that it is simply impossible to manage a hotel regardless of its size, without one. Ever since their development, property management systems have evolved significantly by adding more depth and functionalities in various hotel operations like folio management, check-ins, check outs, reservations, room availabilities, reservations etc. New modules such as activities, golf, spa, catering, sales, revenue management and more have been either developed or integrated (from third party vendors) into the systems.

However, complexity in hotel management has reached a level where focusing on all functions has become quite difficult. Going by the number of applications that are emerging to be integrated into the existing systems, the whole process is becoming highly unmanageable. Furthermore, the more the number of applications required, the greater the upgradations required in computer hardware to run those applications. With the growing emphasis on greener operations, such upgradations seem highly impractical and unsustainable. The answer to this dilemma lies in cloud computing.