ARDA World 2015
The Merlin team is back from a great ARDA World 2015 convention. It was super opportunity to meet with our clients and make contact with other delegates looking to move from their legacy systems to Merlin's cloud. WE look forward…
Native Cloud Application- what that means for Merlin
One of the important aspects of Merlin Software for Vacation Ownership from a technological viewpoint is that it’s a native cloud application (NCA). For the non-techies this won’t mean much, but here is a brief explanation why it is so…
What’s on the cloud computing horizon in 2015?
2014 was an extremely busy year for cloud computing, as more and more businesses migrate and cloud increasingly becomes the de facto setting for IT.
So what does 2015 have in store for cloud computing? Here are a few predictions from cloud experts:
Cost will no longer be the biggest determiner for choosing a cloud solution. John Engates, CTO at Rackspace, believes value for customers won’t just be about cost in 2015. “While providers will become more agnostic, the importance of a trusted partner will grow stronger, whether you rely on that partner to manage your public or private cloud, automate your DevOps or keep tabs on your apps,” he says.
“Companies will have to ask themselves if they want to swell their payrolls hiring the resources needed to manage all of their tools and technologies. This will force companies to determine what matters most to them – focusing on IT management or their business.”
Greater emphasis on agile development processes. Allan Leinwand, VP and CTO cloud platform and infrastructure at ServiceNow, sees cloud platforms as an important way for business teams to convert ideas into applications. “By having a common platform to develop on, organisations can let their teams rapidly create and test their ideas – in days or weeks, instead of months,” he explains. “They can fail quickly – investing and risking less money. Think of the cloud platform as enabling the ‘series A’ investor within the enterprise.”
Cloud adoption trends
Over the next 12 months, the majority of business applications will be deployed to the cloud, with most of these being deployed to multiple clouds across multiple geographies.
That’s the key trend from a survey conducted by Equinix and reported by Cloudtech, looking at cloud adoption trends in which the overwhelming majority of the 659 global respondents (77 per cent) said they planned to deploy to multiple clouds in the next year, and a similar number (74 per cent) expect a larger budget in 2015 for cloud services.
91 per cent of new cloud-based offerings will be deployed in the organisation over the coming 12 months, while 45 per cent of new cloud-based apps will be deployed at a third party colocation provider.
It’s clear that multiple cloud deployments are the way forward, but the report also made mention of how this was going to take place: interconnected data centres. 87 per cent of respondents indicates that interconnection is required to meet cloud performance objectives, while 85 per cent argue that direct connections to cloud providers are “highly valued.”
The report found that globally, 11per cent of firms are planning to deploy more than 10 cloud services in the next 12 months, compared with only 6 per cent for North America. It’s an interesting trend, and shows how cloud deployments are catching up outside the US. 38 per cent of firms globally are going to deploy between three and five services, compared to 30 er cent for North America.
Merlin Software for timeshare
Merlin Software for timeshare has been tailored specifically for the industry - and its ever-changing products and services. We know that our industry is entrepreneurial, exciting and never stands still - so neither should your software. The Merlin team is…
Top cloud computing benefits for resorts
Moving your IT to the cloud has a number of benefits – many that are not immediately obvious but which are actually very important.
Here is our shortlist:
Cloud computing is energy efficient so if this is an important issue for your resort business, it is something that your IT department can contribute to.
Companies in emerging markets are currently some of the hungriest when it comes to technology solutions. With limited access to advanced infrastructure, accessing data centres and off-premise IT services means resort businesses in the most remote locations can enjoy Merlin’s technological advances.
For new resorts, the cloud allows them to get up and running with key business tools, a minimum of fuss and cost while allowing them to focus on their new business.
As Merlin is totally scalable, these companies can quickly and easily scale up as their business grows. This helps keep the resort flexible and stop it being bogged down in long term budgeting and licensing headaches.
Merlin Software allows resorts to add more users and use more services as a resort business grows – with the ability to scale back if things don’t run smoothly.
Turning to the Cloud – new thinking
In a recent blog, Dave McCary looked at some of the reasons why business is turning to the cloud.
In his view, it is down to risk and insurance.
With cloud computing, the provider absorbs all the financial risk and provides the technical expertise. While their clients simply “turn on the tap” to get access to all the computer power they need.
He believes there is an even deeper answer to why companies are moving to the cloud – insurance.
For a monthly fee, clients can purchase an “insurance policy” in the form of a cloud service agreement. This guarantees that you can operate your company in the event of any disaster—whether it’s equipment failure, a power outage, or a natural catastrophe.
Survey: 2 in 5 Americans use the Cloud
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.
Taking care of your biggest asset – the customer
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.
Ahead in the clouds
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.