Microsoft Business Solutions Customer Solution Case Study

Hotel Streamlines Accounting Systems, Simplifies Management

Overview “By upgrading Microsoft Great Plains, centralizing, Country or Region: United States and using Microsoft Services Premier Support, we Industry: Lodging, Entertainment, and Gambling achieved ROI [return on investment] within three- and-a-half months.” Customer Profile With 19 four-star hotels across the Pam Burke, IT Consultant, Millennium Hotels and Resorts United States, Millennium Hotels and Resorts is the North American branch of With 19 four-star hotels in cities throughout the United States, the international Millennium & Copthorne Hotels. Millennium Hotels and Resorts prides itself on its exceptional customer service. Its 10-year-old implementation of Great Business Situation An older Great Plains® Dynamics Plains® Dynamics, on the other hand, was delivering less than solution required separate installations at exceptional service. Great Plains Dynamics had been installed each hotel, resulting in high support and licensing costs, while the outdated locally at each of the 19 hotels using an outdated version of the Btrieve database led to inefficient Btrieve database system. The local installations began to cause processes. support issues. Working with InterDyn AKA, the company Solution centralized its installation at one location and upgraded its The company upgraded to Microsoft® Business Solutions–Great Plains 7.5 database to Microsoft SQL ServerTM 2000. The company also running on Microsoft SQL ServerTM 2000, contracted with Microsoft Services Premier Support for technical centralized the solution, and contracted with Microsoft Services Premier Support support. As a result, the company achieved a return on for technical support. investment (ROI) in less than four months and implemented a

Benefits solution that will continue to help streamline business  Achieved a return on investment within processes. three-and-a-half months  Reduced support costs by 55 percent  Improved technical support  Simplified management “With Microsoft Situation support costs were high. And when the As the international hotel division of Hong support person could not solve issues Services Premier Leong Group Singapore, Millennium & immediately, hotels faced downtime. Support, we have a Copthorne Hotels operates 88 hotels in 16 countries and is Singapore’s largest hotel Millennium Hotels and Resorts needed to guaranteed response chain. The company’s North American update its accounting systems. The final time, and we feel division, Millennium Hotels and Resorts, is push toward a new solution came when headquartered in New York and operates Microsoft® Business Solutions, a division of secure knowing that 19 four-star hotels across the United Microsoft, announced that it would no the depth of knowledge States. longer be supporting Microsoft Business Solutions–Great Plains® on Btrieve. of Microsoft is always In 1994, Millennium Hotels implemented an Although the company debated the merits available to any of our early version of Great Plains® Dynamics, of switching to a J.D. Edwards accounting running on the Btrieve database system; solution, it finally opted to upgrade to users.” each property—including headquarters— Microsoft Great Plains 7.5 instead. John Edwards, IT Director for North had its own installation of the accounting America, Millennium Hotels and Resorts software. Although the solution had proved effective for many years, the separate Solution installations began to cause problems over In June 2003, Millennium Hotels and time, because each hotel used the system Resorts contacted Microsoft Gold Certified differently. Members of each hotel’s Partner InterDyn AKA to help with the accounting department had to maintain the implementation. InterDyn AKA concurred software as well as perform their jobs, with the plan to upgrade Microsoft Great which resulted in lowered productivity. In Plains but also recommended that addition, each location maintained its own Millennium Hotels and Resorts centralize Btrieve database, which had a flat file its solution at company headquarters. To system that could not structure data illustrate the benefits of centralizing, effectively for reporting purposes. To InterDyn AKA calculated that—when one complicate matters, the increasing amount factored in licensing and support costs— of incoming information caused the Btrieve upgrading each local installation databases to perform slowly. individually would cost twice as much as upgrading and centralizing. For support, The decentralized implementation of Great InterDyn AKA recommended that the Plains also affected how the company company use Microsoft Services Premier managed technical support. When the Support as a technical help desk. solution was first installed, supporting each hotel was relatively easy. As needs In October 2003, InterDyn AKA upgraded became more complex, however, each the company’s headquarters to Microsoft hotel needed more service. And with only Great Plains 7.5 running on the Microsoft

one employee supporting all the hotels, Windows ServerTM 2003 operating system. receiving timely technical support was often At the same time, the consulting firm a challenge. Because the support person replaced Btrieve with Microsoft SQL

had to travel to a hotel to resolve issues, ServerTM 2000. Now, each hotel accesses “With Microsoft the General Ledger module of Microsoft access to—and control of—its own records. Great Plains by using Terminal Services, a With its new solution in place, the company Services Premier feature of Windows Server 2003. With is now well-positioned to take advantage of Support supporting our Terminal Services, the company’s 63 users business process improvements. in 19 different locations can now log on to Microsoft Great Plains the main system remotely by using Citrix Achieved a Return on Investment in Less implementation, we’ve application server computers. In addition, Than Four Months the company uses Internet Information With a centralized solution, Millennium reduced our overall Services (IIS) version 6.0, a Web server Hotels and Resorts was able to reduce support costs by 55 designed to manage and monitor the internal support costs and cut its number of system. licensing fees from 19 hotels to just 1. As a percent.” A key component of the solution entailed result, the company achieved a complete Pam Burke, IT Consultant, Millennium the engagement of Premier Support. Like return on investment (ROI) within a short Hotels and Resorts many companies that don’t have a period of time. “By upgrading Microsoft dedicated IT staff, Millennium Hotels and Great Plains, centralizing, and using Resorts found supporting its users difficult. Microsoft Services Premier Support, we InterDyn AKA recommended that the achieved ROI within three-and-a-half company contract with Premier Support to months,” says Burke. provide on-site and Web-delivered training sessions, both for users and for the internal Reduced Support Costs by 55 Percent help desk staff. With the service, users can Under the previous solution, Millennium call Premier Support at any time to receive Hotels and Resorts was spending 40 support for Microsoft Great Plains; the percent of its entire IT budget to provide issues are resolved directly, either by service to 63 users in 19 locations. phone or through the remote management However, by replacing its internal resource of systems. For on-site support of its with Premier Support to provide assistance technical infrastructure, Millennium Hotels with Microsoft Great Plains software issues and Resorts continues to rely on InterDyn and InterDyn AKA for general support, the AKA. company has been able to obtain technical assistance for less than half of what the internal resource cost. “With Microsoft Benefits Services Premier Support supporting our Millennium Hotels and Resorts has already Microsoft Great Plains implementation— seen a variety of benefits from upgrading instead of the company relying on a single and centralizing its accounting solution— internal resource—we’ve reduced our including saved licensing costs, boosted overall support costs by 55 percent,” says employee productivity, and improved Burke. technical support resources. Furthermore, by implementing a centralized solution, the Improved Technical Support company has been able to divert the For Millennium Hotels and Resorts, using administrative burden of maintaining the Premier Support as a help desk for its systems away from the individual hotels, Microsoft Great Plains environment has while still giving each hotel unimpeded also resulted in much better service than the company received in the past. The Eliminating the need for each hotel’s company can now tap into a full support accounting department to maintain a structure—with dedicated support separate accounting program has led to individuals—that is available whenever higher employee productivity—key people users require it. Issues are resolved more now have more time to focus on their jobs. quickly, because users are encouraged to Furthermore, having a reliable external call any time they have an issue, instead of resource for immediate technical having to rely on a single support person’s assistance has boosted the company’s schedule. Furthermore, the support that ability to complete key financial tasks on Millennium Hotels and Resorts employees time. “Between Microsoft Services Premier receive is far more effective than it was in Support and InterDyn AKA, Millennium the past. “With Microsoft Services Premier Hotels and Resorts has the tools it needs Support, we have a guaranteed response to improve its productivity,” says Monique time,” explains John Edwards, IT Director Lopez, Director of Client Relations for for North America for Millennium Hotels InterDyn AKA. “This is a clear example of and Resorts. “And we feel secure knowing how an accounting office that needs to be that the depth of knowledge of Microsoft is concerned with its business does not need always available to any of our users.” to be concerned about its accounting software, because it’s supported by the home office.”

Simplified Management Improved Access to Data Millennium Hotels and Resorts has greatly Now that each company maintains a file on simplified the management of its the centralized SQL Server 2000 database, accounting solution. “Now that we’ve employees also have faster access to their upgraded our solution, it’s much easier to records. Although discontinued support for manage,” says Burke. “We’ve been able to Btrieve may have acted as a catalyst for take the burden of worrying about the the company to upgrade its Microsoft Great solution away from hotels, yet we’ve given Plains solution, performance had been an them the same level of control over their issue for quite some time. Because Btrieve data.” is a flat-file database system, it does not structure data; therefore, the more data it With simplified management, the company contains, the slower it runs, because it has has also improved the quality of its financial more information to sort. SQL Server 2000, data. Burke explains that the company is however, structures data so that size of now able to standardize its processes, database does not equate to loss of speed. rather than having 19 hotels with 19 “Now that we’re using SQL Server 2000, different systems. “Now that we can hotels access their information in a fraction monitor and control our systems centrally, of the time it took using Btrieve,” says we can also create standards for reports, Burke. security, and other functions,” she says. Enhanced Business Processes Boosted Productivity For More Information Millennium Hotels and Resorts views its Microsoft Business Solutions For more information about Microsoft new solution as a concrete way to improve Microsoft Business Solutions offer products and services, call the Microsoft its business processes. For example, integrated business applications and Sales Information Center at (800) 426- creating financial reports had traditionally services that allow small and midsize 9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft been a cumbersome process; each hotel organizations and divisions of large Canada Information Centre at (877) 568- created its own financial reports and then enterprises to connect employees, 2495. Customers who are deaf or hard- exported the results to a Microsoft Office customers, and suppliers for improved of-hearing can reach Microsoft text Excel 2003 worksheet. All the worksheets efficiency. The financial management, telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) were then consolidated at headquarters. customer relationship management, supply 892-5234 in the United States or (905) The company has recently upgraded to chain management, and analytics 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics– applications work with other Microsoft United States and Canada, please FRx® Professional, a reporting solution that software, including the Microsoft Office contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. creates customized reports directly from System and the Microsoft Windows® To access information using the World Microsoft Great Plains. As a result, operating system, to streamline processes Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com Millennium Hotels and Resorts will be able across an entire organization. This gives to significantly reduce the effort needed to businesses insight to respond rapidly, plan For more information about InterDyn create, consolidate, and distribute financial strategically, and execute quickly. Microsoft AKA products and services, call (212) reports throughout the organization while Business Solutions are delivered through a 629-6001 or visit the Web site at: standardizing the financial statements to be worldwide network of channel partners that www.akaes.com used by all the hotels. provide specialized services and local support tailored to a company’s needs. For more information about Millennium The company attributes its ability to Hotels and Resorts products and streamline its business processes to the For more information about Microsoft services, call (800) 892-7444 or visit the level of support it receives both from Business Solutions, go to: Web site at: InterDyn AKA and Microsoft. “One of the www.microsoft.com/businesssolutions www.millenniumhotels.com biggest benefits of using Microsoft Services Premier Support is that it is helping us with business process change,” says Burke. “And that only makes us more competitive.”

Software and Services  Services  Microsoft Windows Server SystemTM − Microsoft Services Premier Support − Microsoft Windows Server 2003,  Technologies Standard Edition − Internet Information Services 6.0 − Microsoft SQL Server 2000 − Terminal Services  Microsoft Office System − Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Hardware  Microsoft Business Solutions for  Citrix application server computers © 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Analytics–FRx Professional This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES,  Microsoft Business Solutions–Great EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, FRx, Great Plains, Windows, the Plains 7.5 Windows logo, and Windows Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation or FRx Software Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. FRx Software is a subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Document published January 2005