Lack of standardization constrained the quantity and quality of management information. It was difficult to perform in-depth analysis or generate customized and standardized reports. Like many companies, Radisson needed to continue accommodating change while finding an economical means of converting geographically distributed legacy business systems.
Choosing the Solution
Anticipating further growth, Radisson sought ease of use, improved reporting, and a straightforward way to integrate financial systems. For a growing managed hotel portfolio, reducing costs to convert existing systems was a key objective. The challenge was streamlining the accounting process while ensuring the operational efficiency and reliability of support systems—without growing infrastructure, staff, or budget.
Radisson was already familiar with the advantages of a centralized IT solution. Carlson Hospitality Worldwide maintained its industry-leading Curtis-C Reservation System and front-end support systems from a state-of-the-art data center in Omaha, Nebraska. The new accounting solution would have to operate autonomously and also connect with Carlson’s data center to make it possible to download and protect property-specific data.
After a thorough competitive analysis, Radisson decided to license Sage Accpac as a hosted application at Accpac Online. Competitive solutions had no hosting experience or infrastructure and only provided hosting through a third-party arrangement.
Beyond Accounting to Accountability
Sage Software was selected because of their confidence in their ability to deliver the technology, performance, and support they needed over the long haul. “We wanted to work with a top-tier organization—a company that would be in the online accounting space for years to come. Sage Software is a company with a history of enhancing its businesssoftware with advanced technology,” says Jim Grimshaw, Director of Hotel Systems for Carlson Hospitality Worldwide.
An Overnight Success
Radisson has been rapidly converting as many as four of its managed hotels per month to Accpac Online. Grimshaw attributes this swift implementation to the technical expertise and benefits of the Accpac Online ASP model and processes. “We’re working with experienced people. The conversion has done a terrific job moving the first hotels. They are equally fluent in the Internet, Sage Accpac software, and accounting. This combination has enabled our managed hotels to ramp up on the new system quickly.”
“Accpac Online further enabled growth of a centralized hotel accounting office,” says Ian Rogers, Director of Corporate Accounting for Radisson Hotels & Resorts. “We can more cost effectively manage the hotel’s accounting from a central office for properties that may not necessarily require a full accounting team on site. For hotels with accounting departments on property, we reduce training costs and set-up time because we standardize on the backoffice solution.”
Hosted accounting at Accpac Online also provides the flexibility for the hotels to implement the latest software features as needed, without requiring technical staff travel to remote locations. Each hotel can automatically upgrade their individual location when it is convenient them.
Grimshaw concludes, “Accpac Online allows us to standardize the hotels’ accounting without diluting our focus on front-line, customerimpact systems. Being able to seamlessly facilitate operational changes is a genuine advantage for us.
‘Accpac Online is ideally suited for companies that are constantly looking for ways to reduce costs while improving accessibility and back-office integration.”
