European Members Meeting

1
European Members Meeting Conference 200708
10 October 2007Lausanne, Switzerland

• Property Web Services
• Workgroup

2
HTNG PWS Workgroup

• Agenda
• Objectives
• Participants and organization
• Team presentations
• Progress and accomplishments
• Next steps
• Benefits to hotels
• Benefits to vendors
• Q A

3
HTNG PWS Workgroup

• Objectives
• This workgroup is charged with developing a set
  of Web Services designed to promote
  interoperability and information exchange among
  systems that service the needs of hotel
  properties.  The workgroup is platform-agnostic,
  and includes active participants using a variety
  of Microsoft, Java-based, and other toolsets.

4
HTNG PWS Workgroup
5
HTNG PWS Workgroup

• ActivityTec, LLC
• Agilysys
• BearingPoint
• Cigital
• Cox Business Services
• Datavision Technologies Inc.
• Delaware North Companies
• Enrich Systems
• FCS Computer Systems Sdn Bhd
• Folio Exchange
• Four Seasons Hotels Resorts
• Four Winds Interactive
• Graphic Systems, Inc.
• IBM Corporation
• Infor
• Infosys Technologies Ltd.
• INTEGRITYOne
• InterContinental Hotels Group

• Knowcross Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
• KoolConnect Technologies
• Marriott International
• MICROS Systems
• Microsoft Corporation
• Newmarket International
• Novell
• NxTV
• OpenCourse Solutions
• PAR Springer-Miller Systems
• ReServe Interactive
• ResortSuite
• SAP
• Symon Message-Link
• Starwood Hotels Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
• TAC GmbH

6
HTNG PWS Workgroup

• Organization
• Protocol Message Architecture Team
• Open Data Exchange Team
• Identity Compliance Services Team
• Single Guest Itinerary Team
• Guest Self-Service Team
• Digital Signage Team
• Back-Office Integration Team
• SGI Team has completed Phase 1 of its work

7
HTNG PWS WorkgroupSpeakers

• Bill Frizzell, Microsoft Corporation
• Industry Technology Strategist
• Thomas Roessler, TAC GmbH
• Director, Software Development
• Brigitte Diem-Guy, SpaSoft, PAR Springer-Miller
  Systems Canada
• General Manager
• Natasha Nelson, Four Seasons Hotels Resorts
• Director, Hotel Information Systems
• Neil Schubert, Marriott International
• Vice President, IT Strategy
• Axel Janz, SAP AG
• Director, Industry Solution Management
  Hospitality
• Dr. Peter Agel, MICROS-FIDELIO GmbH
• Vice President - Distribution

8

• Property Web Services Workgroup
• TEAM
• Protocol and Message Architecture

9
HTNG PWS WorkgroupProtocol Message Architecture

• Participants
• Agilysys
• IBM
• IDeaS
• KoolConnect Technologies, Inc.
• MICROS Systems, Inc.
• Microsoft Corporation
• M-Tech

• Newmarket International, Inc.
• OpenCourse Solutions
• PAR Springer-Miller Systems
• Percipia Networks
• TAC GmbH
• Trust International

10
HTNG PWS WorkgroupProtocol Message Architecture

• Purpose/charter
• The purpose of this team is to develop a next
  generation connectivity mechanism based on a
  Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), using Web
  Services and the application of industry
  standards and best practices.

11
HTNG PWS WorkgroupProtocol Message Architecture

• Benefits to hotels
• Establishes a common gold standard for
  reliable, predictable interfaces.
• Utilizes mainstream approach (SOA) to
  communicate, well supported by operating system
  and connectivity vendors everyone plays nicely
  together
• Common approach to connectivity simplifies and
  lowers cost of ownership

12
HTNG PWS WorkgroupProtocol Message Architecture

• Benefits to vendors
• Vendors are able to concentrate on interface
  content rather than handshake
• Opens up inter-connectivity capability for ALL
  vendors vying for business resulting in better
  competition
• Establishes a common gold standard for
  reliable, predictable interfaces.
• Utilizes mainstream approach (SOA) to
  communicate, well supported by operating system
  and connectivity vendors everyone plays nicely
  together

13
HTNG PWS WorkgroupProtocol Message Architecture

• Status
• Web Services Framework 2.0 specification revision
• Asynchronous transport added to specification
• MTOM adopted for SOAP attachment transport
• WS-Reliability not required
• Specification outlines allowed SOAP headers
• Final version to be posted this week on team site
• Some team participants have implemented via
  examples
• SMS
• Newmarket

14
HTNG PWS WorkgroupProtocol Message Architecture

• Next steps
• Need more implementations!
• Full PWS workgroup vote at next meeting Please
  Review!!!
• New specification should be folded in to
  certification program
• Next release of specification should include
  changes
• Publish in common format (in work)

15

• Property Web Services Workgroup
• TEAM
• Open Data Exchange

16
HTNG PWS WorkgroupOpen Data Exchange

• MICROS Systems
• Microsoft Corporation
• SAP
• Starwood Hotels Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
• TAC GmbH

• Participants
• Agilysys
• Delaware North Companies
• Four Seasons Hotels Resorts
• Knowcross Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

17
HTNG PWS WorkgroupOpen Data Exchange

• Purpose/charter
• To develop a simple way for any two systems can
  connect to exchange agreed data in any format
• A common way to move data reliably, without
  regard to the format of the data
• To enable legacy interfaces to take advantage of
  Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) architectures

18
HTNG PWS WorkgroupOpen Data Exchange

• Benefits to hotels
• Removes a major barrier to sharing data between
  systems
• Allows ESB tools to provide monitoring,
  reliability, redundancy, and recovery for legacy
  interfaces
• Without needing to rewrite underlying interface
  code
• Establishes a single agreed way to move
  interface-related data
• Without requiring changes to the data itself
• Over time, can add standards for definitions and
  formatting of common data, e.g. statistical data
  defined by Uniform System of Accounts, HEDNA,
  OpenTravel, HTNG, or other bodies

19
HTNG PWS WorkgroupOpen Data Exchange

• Benefits to vendors
• A much easier first step for vendors just
  starting with web services
• Connectivity can be accomplished in interface
  module, with no change to application code
• Low-risk learning opportunity, to gain experience
  in the web services world
• For experienced vendors who must connect to many
  systems (e.g. PMSs)
• Standardizes the process of establishing the
  connection the first and often time-consuming
  step in every interface project
• Combined with middleware tools to transform data,
  ODX can make many legacy interfaces from
  different vendors look the same to the host
  system

20
HTNG PWS WorkgroupOpen Data Exchange

• Status
• Finalizing selection of standard for exchange
  mechanism
• Primary candicate is W3Cs SOAP Message
  Transmission and Optimization Mechanism (MTOM)
• Well supported by current/next versions of
  development toolkits
• Microsoft to develop quickstart implementation
  guide for .NET based Web Service implementations
  for fast ramp-up
• Looking for someone to do the same for Java

21
HTNG PWS WorkgroupOpen Data Exchange

• Next steps
• Finalize specification
• Hotel companies will test using the quickstart
  guide
• Get internal developers able to begin moving
  internal interfaces to ESB

22

• Property Web Services Workgroup
• TEAM
• Identity Compliance Services

23
HTNG PWS WorkgroupIdentity Compliance

• Participants
• Delaware North Companies
• Four Seasons Hotels Resorts
• InterContinental Hotels Group
• Marriott International
• MICROS Systems

• Microsoft Corporation
• Novell
• OpenCourse Solutions
• PAR Springer-Miller Systems
• ResortSuite

24
HTNG PWS WorkgroupIdentity Compliance

• Purpose/charter
• For user account management efficiency and
  accuracy, this group plans to define a solution
  for automating user accounts and roles for setup
  and compliance audits between an HR or gold
  standard system and all other systems housing
  user accounts. The solution will include account
  setup, compare reporting, notifications, and
  alerts.

25
HTNG PWS WorkgroupIdentity Compliance

• Benefits to hotels
• Save time creating, modifying, and inactivating
  accounts.
• Ensure and document regular account review by
  management required by audits.
• Increase accuracy and standardization of assigned
  user roles.
• Streamline user account change request process.
• Benefits to vendors
• Common interface to handle user authentication
  and authorization
• Across Enterprise Platform Vendors

26
HTNG PWS WorkgroupIdentity Compliance

• Status
• Hoteliers have provided use cases for account use
  and management
• Novell and Microsoft are reviewing
• Jointly developing phased approach
• Based on Interoperability between
• Liberty Alliance
• Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS)
• WS- Implementation

27
HTNG PWS WorkgroupIdentity Compliance

• Next steps
• Novell Microsoft to finalize and present phased
  approach to team for approval
• Delaware North and Novell to conduct Pilot on
  first phase

28

• Property Web Services Workgroup
• TEAM
• Single Guest Itinerary
• two success stories

29

• Property Web Services Workgroup
• Single Guest Itinerary
• From Reservation Assistant
• TAC Gmbh.

30
HTNG Single Guest Itinerary Workgroup

• Accomplishments
• Completed development of interface specifications
  and message flow documentation
• Completed certification documents within overall
  Property Web Services specifications version 1.0
• Completed development of Single Guest Itinerary
  1.0 specification

31
HTNG Single Guest Itinerary Workgroup

• Benefits to hotels
• Improved customer service due to simplification
  of schedule management
• Less staff time required to manually consolidate
  appointments across multiple systems
• Better guest experience due to improved schedule
  access
• One standardized interface to exchange all
  relevant business data between multiple systems

32
HTNG Single Guest Itinerary Workgroup

• Status
• Reservation Assistant HTNG Certification since
  27-Feb-2007
• Reservation Assistant Micros Certification
  since 17-July-2007
• First beta implementations currently in progress

33
HTNG Single Guest Itinerary Workgroup

• What is available today
• Profile exchange/synchronisation
• Request hotel reservations from PMS including
  packages, and rate codes
• Send activities
• Send guest messages to PMS
• Send Room charges to PMS
• Transmit revenue and payments to PMS

34
HTNG Single Guest Itinerary Workgroup

• Examples of what is available today
• Hotel reservation and guest profile

Reservation Assistant
Opera
35
HTNG Single Guest Itinerary Workgroup

• Examples of what is available today
• Activities

Reservation Assistant
Opera
36
HTNG Single Guest Itinerary Workgroup

• Examples of what is available today
• Consolidated Activities in PMS

37
HTNG Single Guest Itinerary Workgroup

• Next Steps
• Add further enhancements to the message
  specifications based on the experience of the
  first beta implementations
• Establish a new Workgroup to move forward on the
  Single Guest Itinerary 2.0 specification
• Next Steps for Hoteliers
• Order the interface to achieve the next
  generation level of guest service and system
  integration

38

• Property Web Services Workgroup
• Single Guest Itinerary
• From SpaSoft
• PAR Springer-Miller Systems

39
HTNG PWS WorkgroupSingle Guest Itinerary

• Accomplishments
• Delivered since October 2006
• Single Guest Itinerary
• Certified systems can share guest-centric
  information via real-time
• bidirectional communication. The enhanced
  interface links guest profiles,
• notifies users of system-wide reservation
  events such as
• changes or cancellations and sends posting
  charges seamlessly
• between the activity system and the PMS. All
  activities are then
• displayed for the hotel guest in a Single Guest
  Itinerary.
• March 2007 First certifications announced at
  the HTNG Annual meeting
• June 2007 First successful live implementation
  between MICROS/Opera
• and SpaSoft at a Luxury Resort in Maui at
  Wailea,
• Hawaii.
• Average Message speed between the 2 systems
• 000000.50
• In progress for delivery in 2007-08
• Key milestones achieved to date

40
HTNG PWS WorkgroupSingle Guest Itinerary

• SGI - Benefits to hotels
• Impact on Operational Cost Employee
  satisfaction
• Guest Profile Lookup, Fetch Update both
  directions eliminates re-entering and/or updating
  guest profiles manually. Search possible by Last
  Name, Room Number, Hotel Confirmation and Date
  Range.

SpaSoft Search by Last Name Date Range, result
from Opera
41
HTNG PWS WorkgroupSingle Guest Itinerary

• Impact on Operational Cost Employee
  satisfaction
• Post all payment types (credit cards, cash, room
  charges) to PMS automatically. Eliminates manual
  Accounting procedures.

Opera SpaSoft Cash Payments Display
42
HTNG PWS WorkgroupSingle Guest Itinerary

• Impact on Operational Cost Employee
  satisfaction
• Activity Lookup both directions.

Opera SpaSoft Activity Activity Flag lit
43
HTNG PWS WorkgroupSingle Guest Itinerary

Opera SpaSoft Activity Activity Display
44
HTNG PWS WorkgroupSingle Guest Itinerary

• Impact on Guest Satisfaction Experience
• Automatic Guest Status, Out of Scope and Cancel
  Activity Notification from PMS. Guest can avoid
  activity cancellation fees.

SpaSoft Automatic Display of Reservation Status
in Visual Book
45
HTNG PWS WorkgroupSingle Guest Itinerary

• Impact on Guest Satisfaction Experience
• Guest Messages from activity system to PMS

SpaSoft enters Guest message in SpaSoft for
display in Opera
46
HTNG PWS WorkgroupSingle Guest Itinerary
Opera Display of Message from SpaSoft

47
HTNG PWS WorkgroupSingle Guest Itinerary

• Impact on Guest Satisfaction Experience
• Display of Single Guest Itinerary

Opera Display of SpaSoft activities
48
HTNG PWS WorkgroupSingle Guest Itinerary

• Impact on ROI Time line
• Immediate Impact after Installation.
• Training of Staff takes 30 min. to 1 hour
  depending on number of users.
• Immediate Labor cost reduction, ease of use and
  guest service/experience improvements.
• Short Implementation Time
• MICROS/Opera SpaSoft Remote Implementation
  and Remote on-line training
• Indirect Benefits Collaboration of Vendors via
  HTNG result in cost saving for hotel industry
• Active participation of hoteliers in design of
  interface
• MICROS/Opera and SpaSoft combined Development
  resources. Extensive internal testing.
• 2nd internal testing between the Support
  Departments (Opera and SpaSoft)
• Results
• Best of Breed Interface, meets hotel industry
  future needs, efficient RD process,
• short live-beta test, streamlined implementation
  and support process

49
HTNG PWS WorkgroupSingle Guest Itinerary

• TAKE ACTION!
• Vendors
• 1) Download Released Public Specifications
  from www.opengroup.org/htng/specs
• 2) Contact a participating PMS or Activity
  System Vendor and request a development and
  QA test environment
• 3) Certify with HTNG! The HTNG Certified logo
  on your product gives buyers the assurance
  that you promise interoperability backed up by
  specific conformance to industry-defined
  norms. It allows you to advertise this
  assurance to your customers while ensuring that
  non- conforming vendors cannot. Certification
  Fees apply.

50
HTNG PWS WorkgroupSingle Guest Itinerary

• TAKE ACTION!
• Hoteliers
• 1) Contact the Sales Offices of your PMS and/or
  your Activity System
• Vendors
• 2) Ask for the HTNG Single Guest Itinerary
  Interface
• 3) Refer your Vendors to HTNG should they not
  yet offer this Interface

51

• Property Web Services Workgroup
• TEAM
• Guest Self Service

52
HTNG PWS WorkgroupGuest Self Service
Participants

• ActivityTec, LLC
• Agilysys
• Cox Business Services
• Four Seasons Hotels Resorts
• Global Business Center, Inc.
• Hilton Hotels Corporation
• IBM
• Infosys Technologies Ltd.
• InterContinental Hotels Group
• LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation
• Maestro PMS
• Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group

• Marriott International
• Media Communications S.A.
• MenuLogic
• MGM Mirage
• MICROS Systems
• Microsoft Corporation
• OpenCourse Solutions
• PAR Springer-Miller Systems
• ReServe Interactive
• TAC GmbH
• Teradata

53
HTNG PWS WorkgroupGuest Self Service

• Purpose/charter
• Guest Self-Service team is outlining industry
  requirements for the next generation of
  technologies to enable hotel guests to perform
  various functions themselves, including booking
  and ordering of in-hotel products and services,
  using device of their choice
• Logical next step after having completed the
  Single Guest Itinerary interface

54
HTNG PWS WorkgroupGuest Self Service

• Types of Self-Service
• Viewing information that already resides in
  various systems (guest reservation information,
  guest itinerary information, group
  details/location/itinerary)
• Viewing and ordering from Restaurant menus
• Booking various activity appointments such as
  Spa, Golf, Dining, and others
• Types of devices
• In-Room TV
• Websites
• Kiosks
• Mobile devices used by Guests
• IP Phones in the guest rooms

55
Technology Touchpoints
Planning/Booking
Pre-Arrival/ In Transit
On PropertyStay / Work / Play
Post-Trip
Email
.com
Voice IVR
Email Confo
Web
Pre-ArrivalEmail
Mobile
56
FB Example
57
HTNG PWS WorkgroupGuest Self Service

• Benefits to hotels
• Provide additional ROI for in-room TVs and IP
  Phones by enabling those devices to generate
  revenue
• Having multiple vendors use the same
  specification (internet design, kiosk, Video on
  demand, PMS, Activity Scheduling, FB POS)
• Reduced implementation cost and no costs
  associated with proprietary technology
• Benefits to vendors
• No need to develop several proprietary interfaces
  to various other in-hotel system vendors
• HTNG Certification to demonstrate compliance to
  hotel technology buyers

58
HTNG PWS WorkgroupGuest Self Service

• Two current tracks
• FB menu ordering
• Activity scheduling
• Specifications donated by
• Micros Systems Inc. for FB menu item ordering
• TAC Gmbh for Spa Activities Self-Service
• Completed to-date
• High level white paper outlining general
  information flow
• Began reviewing and modifying of Spa Activities
  specifications donated by TAC

59
HTNG PWS WorkgroupGuest Self Service

• Next steps
• Continue by-weekly conference calls (1 hour long)
• Complete review and finalize specifications for
  Activity Booking interface, making it more
  generic to be able to cover Spa, Golf, Dining,
  Concierge and any other type of activities
• Consider and address Content Management component
• Upon completion, create test environments and
  move into the development stage
• Create prototypes for delivery on each device
• Identify pilot projects
• After testing and development, move into
  certification stage

60
HTNG PWS WorkgroupGuest Self Service

• Hoteliers
• Next few months are critical for hoteliers to
  provide their input for specifications document
• If interest exist, please join by-weekly calls
  and provide your point of view
• Will you be interested to take a lead on any
  other guest self-service initiative?
• Vendors
• If you have similar product offering already,
  this would be a good chance to align it with the
  new standard by adding your expertise to the
  group
• If not, this could be a good venue to learn about
  various opportunities

61

• Property Web Services Workgroup
• TEAM
• Digital Signage

62
Technology Touchpoints
Lobby Displays
Meeting Room Signs
Elevator Signs
Guest Room TV Channel
Back of the House
Way Finding Signage
63
HTNG PWS WorkgroupDigital Signage

• Purpose/charter
• The definition of the interface and messaging
  between digital signage systems and various
  information systems, such as sales/catering, PMS,
  human resources, and Internet media.

64
HTNG PWS WorkgroupDigital Signage

• Participants
• Agilysys
• Four Winds Interactive
• Graphic Systems, Inc.
• JANUS
• Marriott International
• MICROS Systems
• Microsoft Corporation
• Newmarket International
• PAR Springer-Miller Systems
• Symon Message-Link

65
Requirements Snapshot

• Selection Criteria
• by property identifier
• by date/time range (with some limit on the number
  of days)
• by event identifier
• by exhibit flag (Y/N)
• by postable flag (Y/N)
• by room grouping (physical location, such as a
  wing)

66
Requirements Snapshot

• Response Data
• Hotel Name and related identifier
• Group Name and related identifier
• Group logo URL or pathname
• Event Name and related identifier
• Event logo URL or pathname
• Event Post As Name
• Host Event Identifier (parent of this event, used
  to indicate a Host/Affiliate relationship)
• Meeting Room Space Display Name and related
  identifier
• Meeting Name and related identifier (e.g.,
  breakfast, lunch)
• Meeting Post As Name (free form description of
  meeting)
• Start Time (local time for the property)
• End Time (local time for the property)
• Postable Flag -Y/N
• Exhibit Flag Y/N
• Backup Meeting Room Space Name
• Overflow Meeting Room Space Name
• Response Complete Y/N

67
HTNG PWS WorkgroupDigital Signage

• Benefits to hotels
• For hotel management companies, a single
  interface for multiple digital signage products
• Uniform messaging to public displays and
  guestroom televisions
• Benefits to vendors
• No need to develop multiple proprietary
  interfaces
• HTNG Certification to inspire confidence to your
  customers that your products will work well with
  other vendors
• Lower your interface development and support
  costs through re-use

68
HTNG PWS WorkgroupDigital Signage

• Specifications donated by
• Newmarket International
• Interface specification
• Latest version is posted in April 2007, v1.4
• Combines API and business specification
• Includes WSDL, sample SOAP envelope data
• Actual schema files also posted (Meeting Space
  API 0.6 23

69
HTNG PWS WorkgroupDigital Signage

• Next steps
• Certification conformance registration will be
  filed by end of the year
• Allow vendors an opportunity to become certified
  prior to next HTNG annual meeting

70
HTNG PWS WorkgroupDigital Signage

• Hoteliers
• Encourage your Digital Signage and Source
  Information systems vendors to implement
  according to the HTNG specification when it is
  finalized
• Vendors
• Review the draft specification which is published
  on the HTNG collaboration site
• Certify your products with partner vendors

71

• Property Web Services Workgroup
• TEAM
• Back Office Integration

72
Back-office integration

• Objectives
• Enable suppliers to build interfaces between
  revenue capturing systems and accounting systems
  which are
• comprehensive
• easy to implement
• widely accepted due to standardization
• reliable and secure
• optimizing total cost of ownership

73
Back-office integration
Three roles Revenue capturing systems Mapping
system Accounting system
PMS
Golf
Spa
POS
SC
HTNG messages ?
Mapping system
Supplier specific ?
Accounting system
74
Back-office integration

• Message specifications for
• Post General Ledger (PostGL)
• Post Accounts Receivable (PostAR)
• Update Customer Records (UpdateCustomerData)
• Validate configuration mapping (GetMapping)
• Post Accounts Payable (PostAP)
• (future functionality now in early design stages)

75
Back-office integration

• Transferred Data
• detailed transaction interface- allowing
  detailed posting of transactions to reservations
  and A/R postings (initial phase daily summary
  level)- posting header contains reservation
  number in PMS- assignment in revenue posting
  item to reservation- assignment in payment
  posting item to invoice number
• traceability of invoice details in back-office
  system- support for dunning process- tax
  amount is reconcilable to invoiced tax in PMS-
  optimized clearing process in A/R

76
Back-office integration

• Benefits to hoteliers and vendors during
  implementation
• reduce implementation- and configuration time
• hoteliers can better and easier understand what
  certified suppliers are implementing
• implementation efforts become standardized too,
  in time and costs
• guarantee that the interface complies to HTNG
  standards, interface knowledge is publicly
  available
• reduce number of different back office interface
  specifications to support

77
Back-office integration

• Benefits to hoteliers during productive usage
• no manual data entry required anymore in the
  back-office system since revenue and statistical
  data is transmitted to the back-office
• accounting systems provide detailed information,
  statistical data, on a central basis (e.g. for
  hotel chains and management companies having
  multiple PMS systems in use)
• allowing detailed revenue analysis (e.g. market
  codes and room type revenues)
• providing customer segmentation based on all
  turnovers
• supporting internal benchmarking to identify best
  in class processes and best run hotels (all
  hotels within one chain are measured according to
  the same metrics)
• enabling plan vs. actual comparisons(costs/revenu
  es for single product, hotel, regions, etc.)
• providing managerial accounting information
  available to all relevant managers
• streamlining hotel-chain wide administrative
  processes

78
Back-office integration

• Active participants of the back-office
  integration team
• Birch Street Systems
• Cox Business Services
• Delaware North Companies
• Epicor Software Corporation
• Folio Exchange
• Four Seasons Hotels Resorts
• Global Hyatt Corporation
• Infor
• Infosys Technologies Ltd.
• MICROS Systems
• Microsoft Corporation
• PAR Springer-Miller Systems
• SAP
• TAC GmbH

79
Back-office integration

• MICROS involvement
• leading original workgroup organization
• participation in all workgroup discussions
• creation and maintenance of technical
  specifications (WSDL, XML schema definitions
  (XSD), supporting docs.)
• development is now in progress for implementation
  in Opera

80
Back-office integration

• Accomplishments (phase 1)
• back-office interface specification
• message specification (schema description)
• Created WSDL, supporting schemas, and descriptive
  document
• WSDL (Web Services Description Language is an XML
  language for describing Web Services)
• use-case document various use cases by several
  different source vendors
• testing environment provided by various
  suppliers
• Epicor, MICROS, SAP, Springer-Miller, TAC

81
Back-office integration

• Next steps
• final review of the specification (in October)
• finalization of specification (in October)
• obtain approval from the back-office integration
  team
• obtain approval from the property web services
  workgroup
• certification documents to be finalized within
  October
• make the interface and certification available to
  public in early November
• first certifications in November
• Phase 2 entry extend interface specification for
  accounts payable / purchasing and material
  management integration, rest of 2007 1H 2008
• looking for more Hoteliers participation

82

• Property Web Services Workgroup
• Questions?