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Orlando,
FL – June 6, 2011 –
There is certainly no question that the past two and
a half years have been difficult for the entire economy, including the
hospitality industry. The industry has
been hard hit with hotel foreclosures, bankruptcies and
receiverships. However, one technology company has not only
helped many hotels avoid such a fate during the downturn, but the
company
itself has experienced unprecedented growth. ProfitSword, LLC, based in
Orlando, Florida, has more than doubled in size during this same time
period,
has added jobs doubling its staff, and has added new office space for
the
company’s software development team. According to Partner and company President, Tili Findley, there are a multitude of reasons for their success. “There is no way I can point to one factor,” states Findley. “It is truly a combination of having the right product, at the right time, under the right conditions, with the right team of associates in place to execute our business model.” In 2008, ProfitSword had about 16 clients representing approximately 400 hotels – all located in the United States and Canada. Today ProfitSword boasts 32 clients representing more than 800 hotels worldwide, including Europe, China, Mexico, and the Caribbean. ProfitSword provides business intelligence applications for the hospitality industry. The ProfitSage Financial Business Intelligence application serves as both a tool for the individual hotels to help manage their daily operations, and a reporting tool for the corporate office, management company, and ownership groups. ProfitSage is fully integrated with all of the systems within a hotel environment including the PMS, POS, sales system, time keeping, and the back office accounting systems. ProfitSage mines the data from the different systems and pulls it into one centralized data warehouse. The application has several modules to process and report on the data, including daily revenue reporting and income journals, forecasting, annual budgeting, and accounts payable and general ledger integration. In addition, ProfitSage also pulls in Smith Travel Research data for competitive analysis. All of the data is provided in real time. “Having the best ‘mousetrap’ certainly helps,” said Findley, “however, the hospitality industry still lags behind other industries when it comes to adopting new technologies. When the downturn hit, many companies did not have the technology in place to help them manage their struggling assets. It is very difficult to manage using spreadsheets and static or stale data. Making decisions on old and out-dated data is a recipe for failure. I know – I’ve tried it!” Findley spent 25 years in the hospitality industry working her way up from a desk clerk to become the Sr. VP of Operations for a luxury hotel management company overseeing 12 dynamic properties. “The industry has changed a great deal in the past five to ten years,” says Paul Bennie, VP Client Relations for ProfitSword. “When I first started as an analyst, we provided reports to ownership once a month and often times the reports were submitted two to three weeks after the close of the month. This is no longer acceptable to management and owners – they want access to the operating data daily and in real time. The ProfitSage software meets that need giving leadership the ability to make better, timelier decisions that can positively impact the profitability of an asset.” Not resting on laurels has also been a trademark of ProfitSword. Over the past 18 months the ProfitSword development team has been working on several major projects that will enhance their clients’ ability to drive results for the company and portfolio. The ProfitPlan module is a full marketing and business plan that can be used in conjunction with the budgeting module within ProfitSage. Instead of collecting dust in a notebook each year, the business plan is a living breathing entity that is available online at the click of a mouse. Furthermore, ProfitSword has been re-engineering much of the code within their software products so that ProfitSage can be viewed on multiple operating systems – particularly for mobile devices. “More and more executives are leaving the heavy laptops at home and traveling with an iPad, Blackberry, or iPhone,” says Mike Patton, Partner and VP of Software Development. “We wanted to keep pace with this trend and you will be able to view ProfitSage on mobile devices for the first time at the upcoming HITEC show in Austin.” Finally, ProfitSword is planning on unveiling the highly anticipated ProfitWizard business intelligence, decision support, and financial performance management tool at HITEC as well. “We don’t want to spoil the surprise, but we are confident that ProfitWizard will create a lot of interest at HITEC,” beamed Findley. “It is the most exciting development we have done in the past few years and we are confident it will exceed all expectations as an analytical tool for management and ownership.” For more information on ProfitSword and their business intelligence applications for hospitality, stop by booth #709 at HITEC in Austin, Texas, June 20-24.  About
ProfitSword
| Founded
in 2001, ProfitSword is an innovator in business intelligence software
for the
hospitality industry. ProfitSage
provides seamless integration of data and real-time information to
enhance
hotel managers’ decision-making process and improve
profitability. ProfitSword is headquartered in Orlando,
Florida, and serves more than 30 management companies representing more
than 800
hotels. For additional information on
the company and its customized products and software solutions, contact
Colin
Findley at (407) 909-8822 or go to www.profitsword.com .
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