Cloud and mobile testing company SOASTA has announced the results of its Cloud Computing Survey.
The aim of the online survey of 2,051 adults was to discover the prevalence of cloud computing in everyday life. The results show that 39 percent of all Americans use the cloud and of those, 86 percent say the cloud has improved the lives of Americans who work.
Merlin Software for Vacation Ownership, the leading provider of cloud-based software to the resort industry, is sponsoring the 12th annual Christel House U.K. charity golf tournament, which is taking place at Badgemore Park, Henley on Thames on Monday, June 9. Business…
These days there is much talk about CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and the notion from the acronym is always customer services or in our vacation ownership industry, member services.
The reality is that CRM or MRM (Member Relationship Management) is not only answering the phone promptly and taking care of member inquires. Even allowing members to make online reservations, process loan or maintenance fee payments or displaying their contract details on your web site is today pretty standard activity.
Don’t get me wrong all these are marvelous things to be able to do for our members, but they are simply not enough.
We live in a totally customer driven economy. The customer, or in our case the members, are now highly sophisticated and knowledgeable due to Internet content on almost every topic they are looking for.
Whether a single, multi-site or mixed-use operation, most resorts will have data stored on multiple systems which don’t talk directly to each other. Using Cloud technology, Merlin Software has a fully integrated software solution to streamline all aspects of resort management efficiently – meaning resorts of all sizes can get ahead in the clouds.
A single database is what every resort operation should be working from, according to Mike Pnematicatos, founder of software solutions provider, Merlin. Having been in the timeshare industry since 1983, when he became involved in resort development, the frustration and extra work created by using several disparate systems vicariously linked to each other inspired him to develop his own software in 1987, which launched in 2006. The software development was based on 17 years’ experience of resort operations, from sales through to day-to-day management.
Merlin is the only complete enterprise timeshare software system to be cloud-based and served on demand over the Internet. Users can access their Merlin accounts securely, via a web browser, anywhere with an Internet connection.
You want your resort to be as efficient and profitable as possible.
You know that you will need software to do this and that means business applications. But these can be very expensive and complex requiring an in-house data centre with licenses, servers, storage, networking equipment and IT staff.
And you pay for this upfront and then you pay again for upgrades as they are released plus more backup, security systems, extra storage, new staff….
This is the traditional way of running a business. Technology, however, has moved on. With the advent of cheap broadband it became clear that businesses don’t need in-house data centres. They also don’t need to be near the computer running the application as only a fast Internet connection is needed between them.
The result of this is the development of cloud computing and software as a service. And it changes everything.
The Heartbleed Bug is a serious vulnerability in the popular OpenSSL cryptographic software library. This weakness allows stealing the information protected, under normal conditions, by the SSL/TLS encryption used to secure the Internet. SSL/TLS provides communication security and privacy over…
The Merlin team has just returned home from ARDA World 2014 which took place at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas from April 7-9. I am sure that everyone who attended will agree it was a great convention with plenty of informative sessions, a good exhibition hall and some superb networking.
It was a great opportunity to meet with many of our clients, make some great contacts with new leads and show-off our new exhibition stand!
The Technology Smorgasbord panel on Wednesday morning was well attended and addressed many of the questions resorts ask when they are thinking of upgrading and installing new software. We hope that those who came along found it helpful and interesting.
When deciding which software to use to run your business or indeed when analysing your current software to audit its suitability, you need to consider the following:
Core Features
Timeshare Software should cover four core areas or modules:
Marketing module
Your timeshare software should have a marketing module that allows you to:
Merlin Software for Vacation Ownership, the leading provider of cloud-based software-as-a-service to the resort industry, will once again be participating at the upcoming ARDA World 2014. The event takes place from April 6-10 at the Venetian Resort Hotel & Casino…
IBM has announced the results of a recent survey that showed that nearly half of the businesses using Software as a Service (SaaS) are achieving competitive advantage, rather than simply reducing costs.
Leading enterprises — those gaining competitive advantage through broad SaaS adoption — are collaborating more effectively through social business tools, improving the customer experience, and accelerating time to market through their SaaS initiatives.
The survey was conducted with more than 800 IT and business decision makers worldwide by the IBM Center for Applied Insights.
Global spending on Software as a Service is expected to reach $45.6B by 2017, according to industry estimates.