2020 was a year full of technology – development, innovation, and adaptation. But, there’s a lot to be thankful for!

This year started out like any other but, turned out to be worse than a nightmare for the hospitality industry. It led everyone to set different strategies, adopt new plans, and survive the market. With welcoming the new year, to can’t wait for it to pass by, we have now come to its end. And, we’d like to take a moment to thank our biggest supporters, YOU!

If I’d ask you to describe 2020 in one word, I’m sure you would say – challenging. However, despite the hardships, we still had a busy 12 months, standing by your side, to overcome the obstacles.

For us, it was a year where – We Came. We Saw. And, We Conquered!

Our expertise made us plan long term recovery goals for ourselves as well as our end users. We delved into our data, spoke with our customers and partners, understood their difficulties, and brought in solutions fit for their requirements. It has definitely been a transformative year for the industry, but we all made the most of it by adapting to the new normal. 

2020 made us realize, we had to slow down on production because our family (clients) needed us now, more than ever. With our finest sweatpants on, we learned:

• Work from home was our new office.
• Virtual meetings were on our to-do list.
• Contactless solutions were the top pick. 
• And, varying guest expectations was the new in. 

Well, we must say, we never left the hands of our partners and users on the empty streets. (We were there, then, now, and will always be, for them!) 

As many businesses experienced a loss, failure, and downfall, we knew it was time for us to open up the buried books down the table. This year we focused on user experience, stability, contactless services, modern solutions, and new goals for 2021. 

Check out some of our inescapable highlights:

• One-stop solution for free resources

We believe the hospitality industry has a lot to offer and take care of, so we brought all the essential trends and practices in one place, making it easier to download and access at your convenience. Ready-made COVID19 webpage, COVID19 Guidelines for the hospitality industry, business performance report, revenue management, N number of templates; we’ve covered it all for our industry here.

• New and improved integrations

Digging into the facts, we realized, the hospitality industry faced several obstacles in data management, which affected customer experience and staff productivity. eZee brought its centralized platform on the table – Open API for third-party hardware and software applications to integrate with its solutions. This Open API vastly streamlines hotel operations and user experiences. More than that, it enables better data sharing capabilities between hotel management applications, by improving communication between and across all departments.

• Encouraged contactless solutions

Earlier, going digital was a luxury but now, it has become more than a necessity. 2020 forced everyone to adopt contactless customer services, for safe business practices. Here our cloud-based hotel PMS, offering contactless solutions since 2017, was the top pick for many. Addressing their evolving needs, we spread our hands to the F&B industry, making our restaurant POS software contactless too.

• Set eZee Panorama in motion

Despite the hustle-bustle of the pandemic, we never stopped catering to the requirements of our customers through our cutting-edge technologies. On the 74th Indian Independence Day, in the presence of top industry experts, we expanded our existing technology solutions, by virtually launching eZee Panorama, a website builder solution, designed for hotels and restaurants. This comes with a dedicated website designer, a DIY option to make edits, freedom to select from an array of expertly crafted templates, and much more; all at an affordable cost.

• Made long term plans

You cannot turn your dreams into actions unless you have a plan. And, this year helped us brainstorm to set some vivid future goals. Together with our parent company Yanolja, we are working on our most awaited solution Y FLUX, a completely automated hotel management platform. The Y FLUX solution will revolutionize the way hotel businesses are conducted, which is perfectly suitable for the post COVID-19 era. 

In addition, we are revamping our PMS product entirely with the latest technology stack, where we aim to provide the next level of user experience and simple workflows with optimum speed. 

We are also working on our revenue management tool – “eZee Mint,” which was a missing piece in our offering. It will help hotels drive better revenue with minimal interactions. Parallel to this system, we are also coming up with revenue management services backed by experts and online listing management that would enable hoteliers to enhance the property’s online presence across OTAs and meta-search engines.

With new and enhanced products in the pipeline, we are not only opening the path towards a better customer experience but also making our products feasible for the larger segments.

• Rewards from the top industry leaders

It was a year for survival of the fittest. However, we retained our position by earning several recognitions from top industry leaders. And, we could make that possible because of you and your unconditional support. With our whole heart, we are grateful to you all for giving us wonderful feedback, sharing your success stories, and loving our solutions like always.

Thank you for growing with us

Today, having a family of more than 22K users and 200+ partners worldwide gives us a sense of trust, togetherness, and joy. We are growing and we are doing that with all of you.

The year was rough, but it’s not going to last forever. We are getting back on our feet and so are you. We have less words to thank you for that, as we know and we have seen this through – it really takes a lot of strength to bounce back. Together, let’s wash away the bad memories and welcome the coming year with new aspirations.

Adios 2020!! What an incredibly wretched evolving year you’ve been. With rising hopes for 2021, let’s grow bigger, better, and brighter!!

eZee, the global Top 2 PMS provider along with its parent company Yanolja, recently signed a partnership with Bnetworks, a global Internet of Things, to empower Southeast Asia’s hotel industry with cloud-based solutions running on contemporary automation.

Around a year ago, we announced our alliance with Yanolja, a global leisure platform and the No. 1 cloud-based hospitality solutions provider. Since then, we have been actively pursuing collaborations with hardware and software companies which would further solidify Y FLUX, the fully automated hotel management system built on AI, blockchain and IoT.

Bnetworks Sdn Bhd provides comprehensive IoT solutions for smart city, smart living, connected hospitality, and assisted living segments. Its bWave Universal IoT solution is a multiple award winning, locally manufactured and the 1st commercialized IoT solution in Malaysia, that has been leveraged by top property developers and telecommunication partners in the country.

Partnership with Bnetworks will facilitate and support the development and launch of the Y FLUX GRMS, with the hardware components which will be seamlessly integrated with the software applications. Incorporating IoT and smart sensors in hospitality businesses would make them more efficient and reduce their operational costs; aligning with the underlying purpose of the Y FLUX Solution.

The companies would further work together to launch and deploy Y FLUX GRMS in Malaysia and neighbouring Southeast Asian countries as a complete technology stack of software and hardware.

On this occasion, Tharmaindran K. Gannasin, the CEO of Bnetworks shared, “The fact that eZee and Yanolja aim to provide the best to all the stakeholders is what motivated us to go ahead with this collaboration. We are quite excited to be a part of such a breakthrough revolution in the hospitality industry. And we look forward to working with the industry giants and spreading the use of modern technology far and wide.”

And, Andrew Kim, Chief Business Officer of eZee commented, “Digitalization is the need of the hour. With Y FLUX GRMS, our aim is to transform the course of traditional hotel management practices and introduce the best guest experience. This alliance with BNetworks is going to accelerate our expansion, and strengthen our offerings to the industry. This is just a stepping stone which will be followed by many partnerships to expand and enhance Y FLUX’s operational functionalities.”

eZee and Yanolja have had the vision to solve the pain points and inefficiencies in hotel operations as well as disparate technologies. They have now taken the first step to fill this gap through modern and seamlessly synced technology; which will give independence and control to guests, while allowing hotels to have transparent communication with guests in real-time.

Ever since its inception, eZee has been known in the industry for its determination to acknowledge the minutest pain points and bring the best solutions with consistent R&D and innovations. Their deep-rooted know-how of the hospitality industry has helped them establish their presence across 160+ countries serving 22,000+ clients globally.

“Alexa. Call my hair-dresser”
“Hey Google, Set the timer of 30 minutes”

Well, we’re sure these you must be aware of what we’re talking about here.

These days technology has been a part of everyone’s everyday lives. And we’ve become accustomed with this technology to such an extent, that we cannot imagine a day without it. The modern technology is pertinently advancing and comforting our lifestyle, business methods, and our routine interactions.

One such outcome of avant-garde technology is – CHATBOT. Better explained as, a chat robot that simulates the conversation with the humans. Keeping pace with the advancing technology and the need of such technology in the hospitality industry, we’re about to include this masterpiece in our zenith dominion of products.

Certainly, hospitality is the industry that relies highly on customer engagement. Delivering an exceptional guest experience is what the entire hospitality works for. So to lend you a hand in achieving this aim, we’re introducing chatbots in our booking engine and hotel PMS mobile app.

1. Booking engine chatbot

Generally, your website visitors have queries about the size and type of the room you offer, or the charges on additional pax, about the services you provide, about the deals and promotions you’re running and a lot more. Now, presently they might be dropping you an email or calling you at your hotel to get their queries resolved.

And that’s because they want instant replies to their questions. They want to make fast and right decisions about their hotel booking. On the other hand, while your staff is already occupied with important tasks, it becomes very arduous for them to respond to these questions on time (and of course, with required patience).

In such scenarios and many more, a chatbot in eZee Reservation booking engine can be of a great help. A chatbot can give instant replies to the guest’s queries and complaints without any human intervention. Thus your front desk receives comparatively less number of phone calls, and they can focus more on imparting good experience.

Here are some more benefits of having a chatbot on your booking engine:

• It is available 24*7. Hence your guests will get a timely response.
• It saves your valuable time and money.
• A chatbot can convince more guests to book direct.
• It stays connected with the guests and thus enhances your guest engagement.
• It can upsell your hotel’s other amenities too.

Want a chatbot for your hotel?

2. Hotel PMS app chatbot

While soothing your guest engagement, the chatbot in our hotel management app will lighten the burden of managing all your hotel operations, just by a simple voice command. Right from check-in to room allocation to arrival lists to all the tasks which make your hotel management simpler; the chatbot in the hotel PMS app will work as a savior in disguise.

Moreover,

We’re no longer teaching our people to communicate with the system. We’re teaching our system to communicate with the people.

This is just a glance of the forthcoming intelligent technology to aid you with the best ways to manage your hotel and get more bookings. So, stay tuned to be in the know of the industry’s game-changer.

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Surat, Sept 25:

Technology is consistently advancing at a really fast pace. From our login details of any account to our credit card credentials, all the details are collected and processed on the web.

On these lines, the PCI-DSS council mandated that all payment processors and anyone who conducts their business online should move to HTTPS. Now currently, you might be experiencing a wave of migrations from HTTP to HTTPS and a lot of jumble for the TLS updates. But ever wondered, what exactly is the benefit of these updates? And why are they required?

Let us explain you the in and out of this migration.

To start with, what is PCI-DSS?

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of requirements designed to ensure that ALL companies which process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment.

PCI-DSS standards are applicable to all organizations or merchants, regardless of size or number of transactions, that accept, transmit or store any cardholder data. If any customer of that organization ever pays the merchant directly using a credit card or debit card, then the PCI DSS requirements apply.

PCI-DSS and hotels

The hospitality industry is highly vulnerable to the cyber attacks mainly because of a large number of transactions.

The hoteliers use to keep card data in several different places: reservation system, third-party partners, the front desk, emails, and card authorization forms – the POS software and PMS (Property Management Systems) software. So, there are simply too many places where card data is vulnerable to theft and intrusions are possible.

Once a hacker has hacked a software application, they can remain logged into the system for days, months or even years, without being discovered. When they are in the system it is not just credit card information that is at risk but also personal information of your guests; such as names, addresses, ID numbers, and passports. All this data is not stolen by hackers only to be used for a purchase, but also to be sold.

In the hospitality industry where very few vendors are PCI certified, there appears ambiguity over being PCI compliant and PCI certified. It is significant for hoteliers to check whether the vendor is certified by a PCI council appointed QSA and not just PCI compliant.

Now, what will happen if the hotels don’t follow the PCI-DSS convention?

If you aren’t upgrading as per the latest convention, following things will HAPPEN:

1. All your guest’s data is at risk.
2. Your system or software will be not PCI-DSS compliant.
3. Your data remains vulnerable to data-breach.
4. If the data breach happens, your ability to process credit cards will get terminated.
5. You might have to incur a huge amount of fine.

In a nutshell, being PCI compliant is the only way to avoid unwanted security breaches against your company and customers.

On the same lines, it is very essential for the hoteliers to carry out all the actions required to be a PCI-DSS compliant. Thereby, deliver a secure experience to your customers and make them feel confident about transacting with you. Eventually, security is just another important part of providing a stellar customer experience.

eZee always sets the best leg forward by encompassing solution to each and every problem of the hotel industry under its umbrella. On the same lines, we never compromise when it comes to security. With the prime focus on data safety, we’ve kept on raising security measures from time to time.

That’s why we’re upgrading ourselves as per the latest PCI-DSS certification and working day and night to deliver the most secure solutions in the industry. And worry not, as you’re not alone in this!

Surat, Sept 5:

Evidently, all companies work hard on putting out their best of the best products for their clients but how exactly do you imagine the ideas in action?

The process goes in the following way-

1. The management would come up with an idea.
2. Then would discuss that with the board members or team members.
3. The Chief Technology Officer would then go back to his cave and start researching.
4. After coming up with the resources, he would discuss the plan with his entire development team.
5. The teammates would pour in their ideas and they would all wear themselves out, taking all the weight on their shoulders, working behind the grand project.
6. And when the product or the update is ready, the sales and marketing team would get busy in promoting it.

Well, that’s usual shebang and everybody does that!!!!

But don’t you think this is all boring? Do you have any other idea to bring out the best of your caliber?
Well, we didn’t just come up with the idea, but we dared to implement that idea… and guess what, the outcome is a BIG BLOCKBUSTER!

Because, in the end, we didn’t only have one big idea but we had SEVEN big ideas for catering the best solutions to our clientele and channel partner network – ideas that help them in the betterment of their business.

It all started with the idea of Hackathon 3.0 and the fact that at eZee, we have a single motto that promotes the thought of always learning, always growing. Which is why we have an internal (but exciting) competitions running every now and then, but it wasn’t until Hackathon 3.0 that it finally set the eZee brains on fire and gave out groundbreaking ideas.

Hackathon 3.0 was all about coming up with fresh and innovative perceptions that the hotel industry urgently needs to adopt and considering the fact that eZee has not one but more than 200 CEOs at their headquarters in Surat, finding the loophole and filling it up was the task of the entire eZee team. Hence was introduced the grand competition – Hackathon 3.0: The Real Headhunter.
There were seven teams with seven different innovative ideas. The teams were given around three months to fully develop their concepts followed by the grand finale on 2nd September where all the product and update ideas were put in the limelight.

The seven statements there were worked on, goes in the following sequence-

1. Common OTA connection layer
2. Common payment gateway layer
3. Chat bot for eZee support team
4. “Update centre” for the Channel Manager
5. Content Management System for Hotel Websites
6. Centralized Guest Profile for Chain Properties
7. API integration of eZee POS systems with Online Food Ordering Portals

The competition was thoroughly judged by the two founders of the company, Vipul Kapoor and Hitesh Patel.
Among all the ideas, the idea of having a common interface for OTAs was considered the best idea and was given the title of the winner of the Hackathon 3.0.

With 1Ninja – the common OTA connection layer, now setting up an interface with any OTA will become even easier and faster.

The idea of “Update center for the Channel Manager” and “Common payment gateway layer” were first and second runners-up respectively. Moreover, the idea of integrating with various leading food ordering portal is already live whereas, the rest of the other ideas are a work in progress.

Whether it takes coming up with such innovative ways every now and then or remaining true to all the traditional ways of the industry, We have always kept our promise and stood forth to cater to our clients. By organizing such big events to encourage these amazing initiatives going on at our headquarters, we affirm our single-minded aim to provide the best for the hospitality industry.

To know more about such exciting events at eZee Technosys,

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Since the introduction of Goods and Service Tax (GST) in India from July 2017, then there has been a prevailing confusion regarding GST filing. Businesses as well as hoteliers and restaurateurs are facing a lot of issues in filing GST. To ease out the hurdles faced while calculating or filing the tax returns, there comes a very high need for some process automation which simplifies the filing of the monthly returns.

While our solutions are already GST compliant, we further worked to eliminate GST filing hassles for you whether you own a hotel or restaurant, and integrated our PMS and POS software with GST Suvidha Provider JioGST respectively. As a universal technology provider to hoteliers and restaurateurs, we perceived the challenge you faced in handling GST. Thus, with an practical web platform for tax paying hoteliers like you, we’ve effectively bridged you with the government GST portal.

Even though government has released clear guidelines as to how to manage GST and file returns, tax filing on stipulated deadlines is proving to be arduous job. Nevertheless, in order to comply with the new taxation structure, taxpayers too will need to get equipped with modern tools and tactics to be in line with the nationwide reforms. Manually filing GST returns takes more time, inviting hassles of inaccuracy and increased costs of consultation. Which is why you need to turn to technology for easy filing of GST, which is also cost-effective in the long run comparatively.

We came up with GST ready PMS for hotels and POS software for restaurants as a provision to generate data required to file GST. Additionally, while using solutions integrated with JioGST, users can submit GSTR data directly to GST software.

Many of our users have been filing monthly returns with eZee PMS and and are finding it easier with the system to do so. Their expenses on tax expert has been considerably reduced nor do they have to face any errors of manual GST submission. Our PMS has simplified return filing every month.

As for the benefits of using these solutions integrated with a GSP, you’ll be able to calculate accurate GST. Guest check out speeds up as the need to calculate multiple taxes is no more in existence, with just one tax for you to configure in our PMS. You can get invaluable insights from the analytical reports of input tax credit and your own historical GST data.

All in all, you can provide your guests a precise breakdown of applied GST. Thus, clarity in transaction leads to increased customer faith, deriving a clear idea on the tax they are paying. Moreover, JioGST GSP is nominally priced with additional free of cost JioFi device and unlimited 4G data connection. Thus, you also need not make any hefty investment to utilize JioGST with eZee solutions.

Recently, we conducted a complete webinar on understanding GST and filing returns. Meanwhile, properties in India using our solutions have already successfully migrated to GST ready software versions. Hence, using our solutions you can go forward and run a GST ready business leading to stronger economy.

Check out our GST-compliant solutions and the webinar we did:

GST-ready on-premise PMSGST-ready online PMSGST-ready restaurant POS

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has chosen us as their Standard Technology Partner. This means that we have gained official recognition as an APN Partner through the ability to list our firm in the Partner Solution Finder, and we’ll be where businesses come and find the right APN partner or solution for their requirements. Building a wide scope in product stability, we’ll receive myriad of services from one of the biggest providers of cloud computing platforms, including safe storage services for our cloud-based hotel solutions.

The AWS Partner Network (APN) is the universal partner program for AWS, focused on helping APN Partners to build successful AWS-based businesses or solutions by providing business, technical, marketing, and go-to-market support. As an APN Partner, we’ll have new opportunities to create solutions while seeing a significant growth with the benefits provided by the APN Program. We’ll also be receiving business, technical, sales, and marketing resources from the APN to help enable us to grow our business and better support for the industry.

As per their protocol, APN Technology Partners provide software solutions that are either hosted on or integrated with, the AWS platform. Being a true tech company, we’ve been providing SaaS-based solutions to the hospitality industry. Always striving to offer innovative technology to the hospitality industry worldwide; we’re now in the list of one of the few companies to offer end-to-end and completely integrated cloud hospitality solutions. As an APN Technology Partner, we will gain access to a variety of tools, training, and support that will enable us to build our solutions on AWS more efficiently.

With this acclamation as APN’s Standard Technology Partner, we’ll receive a wider access to numerous technical training opportunities to support us in strengthening your AWS-based business, as well as other business, sales, and marketing enablement. Therefore, we look forward to more robust and stable hospitality solutions further.

Ensuring top-notch user experience and minimal security breaches through our solutions, we also recently raised our PCI DSS certification level to version 3.2. In addition, our HTTPS secured cloud-based PMS, booking engine and channel manager have been upgraded from time-to-time, all the while taking care of an hassle-free experience for our users while implementing our solutions for their businesses.

Try out our PCI DSS certified and secure solutions for your property and make your operations easy.

eZee Absolute online PMSeZee Reservation booking engineeZee Centrix channel manager