Markham, Ontario - Maestro PMS just made advanced payment processes safer and more convenient for independent operators and their guests. Maestro adds to its full array of mobile and online solutions with the launch of its Payment Portal module that engages guests online by connecting them with a property to quickly make payments against their upcoming reservations. The new system also saves the property time and reduces collection fees by automatically emailing deposit reminders. Maestro PMS is the preferred cloud and on-premise property software solution. Maestro offers web browser and windows access in either deployment for independent hotels, luxury resorts, conference centers and multi-property groups."Maestro's new Payment Portal is ideal for guests who want the flexibility to self-serve their advance deposit payments. It is a perfect way for properties to engage with guests and meet the mobile needs of today's travelers," said Warren Dehan, Maestro PMS President. "Our Payment Portal module lets guests make payments anytime from any device without giving their credit card number over the phone. The system uses a secure website that is fully integrated in Maestro property software so advance deposits are posted real time."The module lets a hotel automatically email payment reminders with a link to the Payment Portal at predetermined intervals to free the accounting staff for other duties. Maestro's Payment Portal website is branded with the property software's look and feel and is fully secure for credit card payments. "The module is flexible to adapt to any property's billing policies for single or multiple advance deposit payments," said Dehan. "In the future the Payment Portal will be available for use by condo properties, club member payments and corporate contract groups."The Maestro Property Management System delivers flexible and scalable deployment options with an identical full-featured web browser or windows solution available in the cloud or on premise. Maestro's revenue-generating hotel management software tools and services increase profitability, drive direct bookings, centralize operations and provide personalized and mobile guest service tools to enhance the guest experience. Click here for more information on how to engage and socialize with Maestro PMS.About Maestro PMS Maestro is the preferred cloud and on-premises PMS solution for independent hotels, luxury resorts, conference centers, vacation rentals, and multi-property groups. Maestro's PCI certified and EMV ready enterprise system offers 20+ integrated modules on a single database including web and mobile apps to increase profitability, drive direct bookings, centralize operations, and enable operators to engage guests with a personalized experience. For over 40 years Maestro's Diamond Plus Service has provided unparalleled 24/7 North American based support and education services to keep hospitality groups operational and productive. Click here for more information on Maestro.

Greenville, S.C. - November 13, 2018 -ProfitSword, hospitality's premier developer of business intelligence and data integration software, has announced the implementation of its ProfitSage operational and financial reporting solution by Auro Hotels, a hotel developer, owner and manager overseeing 30 upscale properties across the United States. Originally utilizing its own in-house business intelligence platform, Auro Hotels selected ProfitSage in order to implement a more robust and systematic forecasting strategy that could adapt to the company's ongoing growth and increasing complexity, while also maximizing operational efficiency and increasing the potential for additional revenue."After identifying ProfitSword as one of the most highly regarded organizations in serving hospitality's business intelligence needs, along with its impressive customer base, the decision to implement their solutions was a straightforward one to make," states Luke Finley, Chief Financial Officer at Auro Hotels. "Since partnering with ProfitSword, we have been very impressed with the company's commitment to offering personalized support and ensuring that our properties continue to benefit from an unmatched level of data management efficiency."After extensive research in comparing competing solutions and examining the experiences of other hospitality companies, Auro Hotels identified ProfitSword as the industry's go-to provider for implementing a uniform and effective business intelligence process that could also seamlessly integrate with pre-existing systems used across its portfolio. When using ProfitSage, hoteliers at each property will be able to instantly forecast metrics, such as monthly bottom lines, daily labor expenses and accounts payable. With such information automatically uploaded into the ProfitSword user interface in real time and also made available via pre-scheduled reports, Auro Hotels can further ensure that both local hotel and corporate leadership have the necessary data to make informed, yet timely decisions."Like many hospitality management organizations that are experiencing substantial business growth, Auro Hotels required an effective business intelligence solution that could address the increasing number of disparate systems used at each location, and yet still provide staff with the ability to fully understand what their data means and how to use it most effectively," said Colin Findley, VP of business development at ProfitSword. "We are honored to have been given the opportunity to identify the challenges faced by Auro Hotels, and work with them in implementing a solution that precisely meets their needs."As a comprehensive provider of business intelligence solutions, ProfitSword's line of data management platforms also includes ProfitPace, ProfitPlan and ProfitWizard. A solution developed to effectively manage sales data, ProfitPace allows businesses to efficiently monitor sales team efforts to ensure that the company is on track to achieve individual and company sales goals. It also allows for the comparison of sales pace to forecast, budget, prior years and same time last year trends. Using ProfitPlan, hoteliers can incorporate stylized report templates to produce several types of reports required to manage daily tasks and information. ProfitSword's data analysis tool, ProfitWizard, combines business intelligence, decision support, performance management and ad-hoc reporting for efficient analysis of data.

As part of 2018's wave of growth and development, and to support its overarching drive for excellence, VENZA recognized the need to bring on an additional layer of leadership. This week, VENZA announced the appointment of Josh Bergen, CHAE, CHTP, to the position of President. Jeff Venza, formerly President & CEO, will remain with VENZA as CEO and Chairman of the Board.The move to President will leverage Bergen's hospitality background, leadership skills and financial expertise and help to position VENZA at the forefront of data protection in the hospitality industry. Jeff's focus will now be on the creation of the VENZA Board of Directors and the securing of additional strategic business partners to continue growing the business.Josh has been employed with VENZA for just over a year, and in that time, moved from VP of Marketing to Corporate Controller to the new role as President. What has been behind this quick rise through the VENZA ranks? A resume that reads like a who's who in the hospitality industry, for starters, with Josh having held several executive roles since 2006. In his esteemed career, he's also held many different positions within the hospitality industry--from operations and finance/accounting to SaaS-based sales. Hailing from Florida and having graduated from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelor of Science in hospitality management and accounting, as well as a Master of Science in Hospitality Management, his academic prowess is perfectly aligned with VENZA's goals and strategic vision. And for those who have attended the annual HITEC conventions, his street cred is legendary, having danced onstage with Wyclef Jean and Flo Rida at successive events. Bergen's diverse hospitality background, team-building skills and exceptional leadership style have been an asset to VENZA thus far and will now be fully utilized within his role as President."As President, Josh will provide leadership to position the company at the forefront of data protection within the hospitality industry, as well as develop a strategic plan to advance the company's revenue, profitability and growth. This will all be accomplished while maintaining our company's mission to guide good people to do great things," says Jeff. "He will work in conjunction with Diona Reeves, our COO, to ensure production efficiency, quality, customer service and cost-effective management of our resources."VENZA's focus will not change with this new parsing of corporate duties, "The success of our customers is the lifeblood of our company, everyone should be doing their part to protect sensitive data in this age of identity theft, using our training hotel staff are able to protect guest data on a daily basis just as the VENZA staff focusses on solving real-world data protection/compliance challenges for our hospitality clients." said Josh Bergen, President.

PITTSBURGH - Aptech Computer Systems announced that The Peabody Memphis upgraded its back office financial system to cloud-based PVNG Enterprise Accounting to simplify accounting operations and safeguard data in the cloud. The landmark 464-room Memphis luxury hotel was named the 2018 'Best Historic Hotel' in USA TODAY's 10Best Readers' Choice Awards. Aptech is the leading provider of hospitality business intelligence, budgeting and forecasting, and enterprise hotel accounting software systems. Click here for more on Aptech's products and services."Aptech's PVNG Enterprise Accounting is easy to learn and use for our staff. One of our growth initiatives is to put as much data in the cloud as possible, PVNG hotel accounting software does this for us," said Kristen Barnett, The Peabody Memphis' Director of Financial Reporting. "Our conversion process to PVNG was simple, and the system's navigation is intuitive." The Peabody Memphis accounting team uses Chrome and Internet Explorer browsers to access PVNG. The system is compatible with all major internet browsers. Aptech hosts the PVNG system at its secure network data center in Pittsburgh.Sam Costa, Aptech director of customer service said, "The Peabody Memphis used Aptech's Profitvue hotel accounting software system for a number of years. We engineered PVNG to enable smooth data conversion from other back office systems. The system is cloud-based so Aptech's team can provide personal hands-on support to simplify the upgrade process.""Aptech support is excellent. Their experienced professional staff ensured every detail of our conversion was addressed and completed," Barnett said. "PVNG's response time is very fast. This makes it easier for our accounting team to move between accounts payable and G/L modules to get the work done faster. It does what it is supposed to do quickly."PVNG provides an easy to navigate architecture. Its robust functionality emerged from Aptech's legacy application, Profitvue, used by thousands of hotel accounting professionals. PVNG supports one property or a large multi-brand, multi-property portfolio. It uses the most current technology platform and incorporates AP, GL, AR, Statistics, Financials, and a Bank Reconciliation, all with familiar browser navigation. PVNG also makes it simple to become 11th Edition compliant by implementing its packaged chart of accounts and financial statements.About Aptech Computer Systems, Inc.Aptech Computer Systems, Inc., based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the only provider of a fully integrated enterprise accounting, business intelligence and planning ecosystem to the hospitality industry. All of its clients are companies like yours, which own or manage hotels. Its solutions help customers at both the corporate and property levels understand their financial and operational data for faster goal achievement.The company is renowned for introducing business intelligence into the hotel industry, and offers a solid resource of hospitality professionals. Aptech is an IBM Software Value Plus partner and Premier Solution Provider, as well as a Prophix Premier Business Partner.Incorporated in 1970, Aptech's state-of-the-art back office, true business intelligence and enterprise planning solutions are 100% hotel specific. Solutions include PVNG, Execuvue and Targetvue. Clients comprise over 3,500 properties - including large chains, multiple-property management companies and single-site hotels. Execuvue is registered to Aptech Computer Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are owned by their respective holders. For more information please visit www.aptech-inc.com

Santa Clara, CA and Las Vegas, NV - SLS Las Vegas Hotel & Casino has signed an agreement to begin utilizing the entire Nor1 Merchandising Platform Product Suite to actively engage their guests throughout their journeys. The Nor1 Merchandising Platform Product Suite is designed to deliver intelligent, personalized, compelling offers to the right guest at the right time and at the right price and includes eStandby Upgrade, eXpress Upgrade, CheckIn Merchandising, and eReach, all powered by Nor1's patented, dynamic decisions intelligence engine PRiME."We are extremely excited to partner with SLS Las Vegas to use our entire Nor1 Merchandising Platform at their distinctive luxury resort and casino," stated Pavan Kapur, Nor1's SVP of Global Gaming. "The ability that our full product suite provides includes the right upsells at the right times during the guest journey, when the guest is contemplating how to make their trip more enjoyable and they're most ready to spend their travel dollars, which is key to enhancing guest experience and maximizing revenue.""The Nor1 Merchandising Platform provides us with the decision intelligence and easy-to-use tools we need to provide smart, personalized, compelling offers to our guests for our premium rooms and services, as well as our on-property amenities such as Restaurants, Spa, Entertainment, and Gaming," said Brian Christensen, VP of Revenue Management, SLS Las Vegas. "Being able to present these opportunities to our guests at the most appropriate times, in a manner that enhances our guests' experiences and satisfaction while maximizing our revenue is a great win-win for all."About Nor1, Inc. Nor1 is the leader in hospitality upgrade, up-sell, and merchandising technology.Headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices across the world, Nor1 provides data-driven pricing and merchandising products that maximize incremental revenues for Hilton, IHG, Radisson Hotel Group, Accor, Wyndham, and other global hotels and resorts.Nor1's real-time pricing and merchandising intelligence engine, PRiME, powers eStandby Upgrade, eXpress Upgrade, CheckIn Merchandising, eReach, and eDirect to recommend the most relevant upgrade to the right guest at the right time for the most optimal price.Our investors include Concur Technologies, Goldman Sachs, and Accel Partners.For more information, please visit www.nor1.com.About SLS Las Vegas SLS Las Vegas is an all-encompassing resort and casino with 1,615 guest rooms and suites in three distinctive towers, over 95,000 square feet of flexible meeting space and a collection of acclaimed restaurants, bars and entertainment venues. The inviting casino occupies 60,000 square feet and features approximately 600 of the latest slot and video poker machines complemented by more than 50 classic table games. An impressive selection of culinary and cocktail offerings include Bazaar Meat by Jose Andres, named "Best Restaurant in Nevada" by Business Insider; Katsuya; Cleo; Umami Burger, Beer Garden & Sports Book; 800 Degrees Neapolitan Pizzeria; Northside Cafe & Chinese Kitchen; The Sayers Club; and The Perq. The resort is also home to The Foundry, an intimate, live entertainment venue. Additionally, SLS houses a sports book operated by global gaming leader, William Hill. For more information about SLS, please visit slslasvegas.com and stay connected on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.MEDIA CONTACTS Nor1, Inc.David Hallmanmedia@nor1.comSLS Las VegasThe Publicity LabSLS_PR@thepublicitylab.com

RobertDouglas announced today that it advised McNeill Hotel Company, a leading developer, owner, and operator of premium branded select-service hotels, in securing a commitment of up to $150 million from an institutional capital source to invest in the company's existing portfolio and fund future growth opportunities. The commitment was made by a fund managed by Almanac Realty Investors, a New York City based private investment firm specializing in providing growth capital to vertically-integrated real estate businesses.McNeill Hotel Company, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, was founded in 2015 by Phillip McNeill, Jr. and Mark Ricketts, second-generation hoteliers and former senior executives at Equity Inns. Members of the company's leadership team have on average in excess of 30 years' experience in hotel investment, asset management, and operations. McNeill Hotel Company's existing portfolio consists of 18 properties comprising nearly 2,000 rooms. Going forward, the company will deploy capital in carefully-underwritten secondary markets with strong, recognizable demand drivers, while continuing to manage its properties subject to franchise affiliations with industry leading select-service brands."The combination of its deeply-experienced leadership team and strong asset management credentials make McNeill Hotel Company one of the most impressive vertically-integrated investors in the select-service hotel sector" remarked Rob Stiles, Principal & Managing Director at RobertDouglas. "We are proud to have been able to assist this best-in-class team at an important inflection point in the growth of their company.""This transaction highlights the degree of sophistication that now exists in the capital markets for the select-service segment of the broader hotel industry," commented David Smith, Director at RobertDouglas. Lindsey Whang, a Senior Associate, added "With a substantial and flexibly-structured financial backing from an institutional investor, the McNeill platform is now ideally poised to capitalize on new ground-up construction, acquisition, and third-party management deals, and we are excited to be a part of its ongoing emergence as one of the most important players in the sector."

New Delhi, Sep 18, 2018: RateGain Technologies, a leading hospitality and travel technology solutions company, today announced the launch of an all-new, smart User Interface and Experience for its premier rate shopping tool , Optima, with the introduction of Cluster Dashboard and Smart Shopping. The new, sleek Cluster Dashboard presents all the essential rate shopping data in a visually appealing and descriptive manner. With this set of releases, the users surely will have all the ammunition to power their pricing decision in a single dashboard.Following are the highlights of the release:Cluster Dashboard: View multiple properties in a single dashboard through a highly intuitive interface which enables eyeballing rates across check in dates easier than ever before. The dashboard is equipped with a "Market Positioning Widget" giving you a graphical view of your price positioning vis-a-vis your competitors. A "Market Compression" indicator highlighting dates where you can yield better due to supply in the market going down and much more. All these insights are made available in an excel format as well for a consolidated view across properties.Iterative LOS: Gone are the days when you had to analyse rates across multiple LOSs to check if any of your competitors are putting min. LOS restrictions. With our new smart shopping capabilities, now you can easily identify minimum LOS rate restrictions placed by your competitors for obtaining higher yields on all your channels.According to Bhanu Chopra, CEO, RateGain, "We are pleased to announce the introduction of the new Cluster Dashboard in our rate shopping tool, a unique feature that would help our clients analyse their competition in a quick, comprehensive way so that they respond quickly to the market changes. The launch of Cluster Dashboard is a response to the clients' growing need to have all the important competitive real-time information bundled together at one place, without having the need to switch to different sections. We hope that the new feature adds value and the users make the most of it."Optima is RateGain's advanced rate shopping tool, which offers comprehensive rate intelligence to a growing number of hotels across the globe by efficiently tracking all OTAs, meta-search sites and other leading platforms. The Product had recently introduced a 'Lightning Refresh' feature in Optima, which gave hotels access to real-time competitor rates across various distribution channels.About RateGainRateGain is a leading provider of cloud-based innovative solutions for the Travel and Hospitality Industry. RateGain provides the latest technology in rate intelligence, price optimization, seamless electronic distribution, and brand engagement. Founded in 2004, RateGain has 12,000 clients around the globe including hotels, online travel agents, airlines, car rental companies, cruise liners as well as tour operators and wholesalers like IHG, Melia Hotels International, Lufthansa, Expedia, Hertz Corporation, Priceline.com, Carnival Cruise, etc. Through our unwavering commitment to excellence and our guiding principles, we help hospitality and travel companies make more revenue every dayForward-Looking StatementsCertain statements in this release are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including but not limited to the statements containing the words 'planned', 'expects', 'believes',' strategy', 'opportunity', 'anticipates', 'hopes' or other similar words. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding impact of pending regulatory proceedings, fluctuations in earnings, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services, data services and consulting services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, customer acceptance of our services, products and fee structures, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, our ability to integrate acquired assets in a cost-effective and timely manner, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-timeframe contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, the success of our brand development efforts, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies /entities in which we have made strategic investments.

Silicon Valley, CA - Nor1, Inc. today announced a distribution partnership with Hospitality & Retail Systems (HRS) to expand its reach to more hotels around the world and enable them to increase RevPAR and ADR through the use of its industry-leading upgrade solutions eStandby Upgrade, eXpress UpgradeTM, and CheckIn MerchandisingTM.Nor1, Inc., the leader in hospitality merchandising technology, services more than one million rooms at more than 5,000 properties that currently benefit from its real-time, data-driven pricing and merchandising solutions powered by PRiME.HRS, a market leader in IT for the hospitality and retail industries and the largest Oracle Hospitality Platinum Partner worldwide, supplies innovative management solutions to more than 3,000 hotels, restaurants, and trading companies around the world."We are extremely pleased and excited to partner with HRS," said Jason G. Bryant, Nor1's Founder and CEO. "HRS's reputation of providing innovative solutions to the hospitality industry and their extensive knowledge and experience with Oracle Opera, make them well-suited to present our suite of upsell products to their hotels and resorts clients.""We are delighted to represent Nor1's industry-leading merchandising platform," stated Joanne Vaughan, CEO at HRS. "Our commitment to providing hotels with the most innovative solutions to improve their performance and increase their bottom line is a perfect fit with Nor1's real-time, data-driven upsell solutions."About Nor1 Nor1 is the leader in hospitality upgrade, up-sell, and merchandising technology.Headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices across the world, Nor1 provides data-driven pricing and merchandising products that maximize incremental revenues for Hilton, IHG, Radisson Hotel Group, Accor, Wyndham, and other global hotels and resorts.Nor1's real-time pricing and merchandising intelligence engine, PRiME, powers eStandby Upgrade, eXpress Upgrade, CheckIn Merchandising, eReach, and eDirect to recommend the most relevant upgrade to the right guest at the right time for the most optimal price.Our investors include, Concur Technologies, Goldman Sachs, and Accel Partners.For more information, please visit www.nor1.com. About HRSFounded in 1990, HRS was created with the aim of providing a superior customer experience, both for service industry companies and their clients. Now in its 29th year, HRS provides innovative management solutions for: hotels, restaurants, retail chains, stadiums, spas and fitness clubs. HRS has an impressive portfolio of products and services, these include: pre-project analysis, hardware and software supply, strategic IT consulting, solutions implementation and integration, staff training and consulting, 24/7 technical support, plus a wide range of professional customer services. The company has developed an excellent reputation for providing quality services together with a strong global presence. HRS has established itself not just as an IT solution provider but also as a proactive contributor to the hospitality industry.For more information, please contact Oleg Kudrin at okudrin@hrsinternational.com or visit www.hrsinternational.com.

Aptech Computer Systems announced that Oliver Companies, Inc. upgraded its back office financial processes to PVNG Enterprise Accounting. Oliver Companies converted from Aptech's Profitvue hotel accounting software to web-based PVNG to enable mobile system access to company financials and property performance reports. Oliver Companies is based in Duluth, MN. It operates 18 properties across eight states that fly flags from Hilton, IHG, Choice and others. Aptech is the leading provider of hospitality business intelligence, budgeting and forecasting, and enterprise hotel accounting software systems. Click here for more on Aptech's products and services."Oliver Companies upgraded its accounting platform to Aptech's PVNG because it is a flexible, online enterprise solution that lets our team oversee operations while traveling," said Nicole Murphy, Oliver Companies assistant controller. "Mobile access is important to us. We have two offices and our CFO can log onto PVNG and work wherever she is. Plus, if we have a heavy snow day we can work from our homes." Murphy noted that Oliver's conversion to PVNG went well. "Aptech's team helped us build processes for our 18 properties to share a standard format. Our full-service conference properties have slightly different requirements than our limited service hotels. PVNG hotel accounting software handles them all very well."PVNG provides an easy to navigate architecture. Its robust functionality emerged from Aptech's legacy application, Profitvue, used by thousands of hotel accounting professionals. PVNG supports one property or a large multi-brand, multi-property portfolio. It uses the most current technology platform and incorporates AP, GL, AR, Statistics, Financials, and a Bank Reconciliation, all with familiar browser navigation. PVNG also makes it simple to become 11th Edition compliant by implementing its packaged chart of accounts and financial statements."PVNG is easy to use because each field is clearly marked so we get our work done faster," Murphy said. "The system's processes are self-explanatory and intuitive. We just started a new accountant; he learned the system quickly and got started right away." Oliver Companies also uses Aptech's Execuvue Business Intelligence System. "PVNG automatically uploads property data to our Execuvue system nightly so we have same-day information on property performance to help us manage better."System upgrades evolve effortlessly because PVNG is web-based and hosted at Aptech's secure data center. "I am pleased with how responsive Aptech has been with our conversion," Murphy said. "We had functionality requests to make the system fit Oliver's operations. Aptech made the changes quickly. Aptech values its customers, like Oliver Companies, and this shows by listening to our requests and implementing them to make our operation smoother."About Aptech Computer Systems, Inc.Aptech Computer Systems, Inc., based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the only provider of a fully integrated enterprise accounting, business intelligence and planning ecosystem to the hospitality industry. All of its clients are companies like yours, which own or manage hotels. Its solutions help customers at both the corporate and property levels understand their financial and operational data for faster goal achievement.The company is renowned for introducing business intelligence into the hotel industry, and offers a solid resource of hospitality professionals. Aptech is an IBM Software Value Plus partner and Premier Solution Provider, as well as a Prophix Premier Business Partner.Incorporated in 1970, Aptech's state-of-the-art back office, true business intelligence and enterprise planning solutions are 100% hotel specific. Solutions include PVNG, Execuvue and Targetvue. Clients comprise over 3,500 properties - including large chains, multiple-property management companies and single-site hotels. Execuvue is registered to Aptech Computer Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are owned by their respective holders. For more information please visit www.aptech-inc.com.

Beekeeper, the leading communication and operations platform for connecting a hotel's non-desk workers across locations and departments, announced today that it has raised an additional $13 million as a part of its Series A extension round. Built from the ground up for secure, centralized operational communication on mobile and desktop devices, Beekeeper plans to deploy its latest round of capital by continuing to invest in hospitality market growth, innovation and its information security management system to maintain their ISO 27001:2013 certification. This will ensure the platform delivers a simple and elegant experience for hotel workers while maintaining the highest security levels.Atomico and Keen Venture Partners led the round with a diverse group of strategic investors including Samsung Next, Edenred Capital Partners (ECP), and Swiss Post who have joined Beekeeper's mission to connect the nearly 2 billion non-desk workers who have been forgotten when it comes to digitalization within companies. All existing key investors, including FYRFLY Venture Partners, ALPANA Ventures and investiere.ch, participated in the round as well.Aligning employees without email addresses or corporate devices with the entire organization in a centralized, secure environment is a major challenge. Seventy-five percent of the workforce currently use their personal mobile devices to communicate with co-workers, and the lack of proper operational communication tools has forced employees to use consumer-based workarounds like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Data privacy scandals by consumer giant Facebook and the launch of GDPR has emphasized the importance of data privacy and security."Atomico is proud to support Beekeeper as their innovative employee communication and operations platform, built specifically for the world's two billion non-desk workers, continues to succeed on a global scale," said Ben Blume, Principal at Atomico. "Over the last few years we've watched Cris, Flavio and the team build not only a world class product and culture, but consistently win some of the world's most well recognized corporations as clients across a range of industries from hospitality and manufacturing to retail and construction. It is a testament to our belief that big enterprise SaaS winners will continue to emerge from Europe.""Beekeeper plays right into the heart of the digital workplace trend," said Robert Verwaayen, general partner at Keen Ventures. "We believe that Beekeeper is on a path to become an indispensable collaboration tool for the 80% of the global workforce that has been largely forgotten by digital technology. The market opportunity, strength of the product and the talent of the team gives Beekeeper a real shot at becoming a meaningful giant in the mobile enterprise space."This round of capital will also be dedicated to the next evolution of Beekeeper's Marketplace and plug-in ecosystem. As the central employee touchpoint, Beekeeper has the unique ability to streamline internal communications and operational tools within one intuitive app that desk and non-desk workers can access in real time from their mobile phone. Through Beekeeper's integrations and out-of-the-box apps, corporations can consolidate operational tools and communications into a simplified employee experience - something that will be imperative as frontline workers are introduced to corporate technology, many for the first time.Christina Bechhold Russ, principal at Samsung NEXT Ventures said, "Non-desk-based workers are one of the most overlooked markets for digital services, yet they are estimated to have a mobile penetration rate of 84% and only continues to grow. Beekeeper enables employers with distributed workforces from manufacturing companies to retailers to seamlessly connect everyone in the organization and transform the way information is disseminated and shared. A strategic investment for NEXT, this is a great opportunity to support a fast-growing scale-up leveraging mobile devices to define the future of work."Beekeeper's new financing comes within a year of closing its Series A round and marks a time of rapid corporate growth. In the past year, Fortune 500 firms across the globe have adopted Beekeeper to improve internal communications and streamline operations. Beekeeper has also increased its user base by more than 500% and is currently being used in more than 137 countries worldwide.

Lightstone is a national real estate investor/developer with 28 hospitality properties nationwide. The company's current portfolio emphasizes select services hotels, branded by Marriott, Hilton, IHG, and Starwood. How big do you think its asset management team is?"I am responsible for overseeing hotel performance across our 28-property REIT and I am always on a plane," said Marc Dober, vice president, asset management for Lightstone. "We buy and develop hotels to grow our business. Business is based on numbers; budget, revenue, expenses, EBIDTA. The only way we could efficiently manage our portfolio by the numbers as we grew was to automate data gathering, analysis and reporting. Last year we implemented a hospitality business intelligence system called Execuvue from Aptech Computer Systems. Today I have a staff of two and go over the numbers on my handheld while I'm traveling."BI system replaces one full-time analystDober has a handful of reports he evaluates first thing every morning, regardless of where he is. "Execuvue automatically gathers and analyzes data from our Hilton, IHG, Marriott and Starwood properties at night audit. I also review the latest STAR data on my mobile. The system gives me analysis and reporting within minutes to support our business decisions or answer questions on the fly with near real-time data," said Dober. "Execuvue replaces a full-time staff member and makes it possible to manage more efficiently with better information." Execuvue Hospitality Business Intelligence is an IBM Cognos-based ASP enterprise hospitality business intelligence application hosted at Aptech's secure data operations center.Lightstone evaluates property performance based on brands and management companies. "We compare GOPs and other metrics from our hotels and Execuvue factors in monthly STAR numbers to help benchmark our management companies," said Dober. "A cloud-based BI system is very cost effective. It eliminates the need for hardware and servers and the physical system is secure off-site so I can focus on operating properties. The big plus for me is that I can access our data remotely in a mobile format if needed. This lets me review the reporting I need for my next meeting while I am traveling."Lightstone is developing Moxy properties with Marriott in several markets. Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS), named Lightstone's Moxy Times Square as Development of the Year Select/Limited Service hotel for 2017. "We are currently developing 6 Moxys. These properties have a unique F&B reporting format. We worked with Aptech to create custom reporting and a data interface with our Moxy property point of sale systems," said Dober. The Moxy concept replaces the traditional room service model with The Pickup, a twist on the traditional grab-and-go concept. Bar Moxy is the social center of the hotel that offers guests and locals a co-working space during the day while transforming into a buzzing lounge at night."Aptech is a great technology partner for Lightstone. They helped us customize a report for several processes that may be unique to Lightstone's operation," said Dober. "We recently developed an 'on the books' report that looks at reservations for a specific period and compares it against the same period last year. This lets us predict performance more accurately and adjust our strategy as needed."Aptech is the leading provider of hotel software for business intelligence, budgeting, and enterprise financial accounting. Click here for more on Aptech's products and services.About Lightstone Lightstone, founded by David Lichtenstein, is one of the largest and most diversified privately held real estate companies in the United States. Lightstone is active in 28 states across the country, developing, managing and investing in all sectors of the real estate market, including residential, hospitality, commercial, and retail. With over 176 existing properties, Lightstone's $3 billion portfolio currently includes over 6 million square feet of office, retail and industrial commercial properties, over 15,000 residential units, and 4,000 hotel keys. Lightstone also owns over 12,000 land lots across the country.Headquartered in New York City, Lightstone continues to grow its development portfolio with approximately $2.3 billion currently under development in the residential and hospitality sectors spread across New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami.About Aptech Computer Systems, Inc.Aptech Computer Systems, Inc., based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the only provider of a fully integrated enterprise accounting, business intelligence and planning ecosystem to the hospitality industry. All of its clients are companies like yours, which own or manage hotels. Its solutions help customers at both the corporate and property levels understand their financial and operational data for faster goal achievement.The company is renowned for introducing business intelligence into the hotel industry, and offers a solid resource of hospitality professionals. Aptech is an IBM Software Value Plus partner and Premier Solution Provider, as well as a Prophix Premier Business Partner.Incorporated in 1970, Aptech's state-of-the-art back office, true business intelligence and enterprise planning solutions are 100% hotel specific. Solutions include PVNG, Execuvue and Targetvue. Clients comprise over 3,500 properties - including large chains, multiple-property management companies and single-site hotels. Execuvue is registered to Aptech Computer Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are owned by their respective holders. For more information please visit www.aptech-inc.com.

CHMWarnick, the preeminent hotel asset management and owner advisory services company, announced today the launch of Proph+IT, a revolutionary technology platform that harnesses the power of big data from an ownership lens to optimize hospitality investments and has the potential to redefine asset management as the industry knows it today."For years now, the hospitality industry has been struggling with big data, from how to acquire it to who owns it and to how to truly use it to one's advantage," said Fern Kanter, managing director/EVP of CHMWarnick and strategic lead on the Proph+IT initiative. "Proph+IT was created specifically to take large amounts of property data and distill it through an ownership lens, to effectively and strategically utilize the information. With this platform, our asset management team can quickly and confidently analyze information, including automated alerts of trends and key variances, to better focus on a property's profitability and value enhancement."Proph+IT was custom developed to create the ultimate asset management tool. Data is provided directly from management companies, populated with millions of data points from each hotel's trial balance, across historical and current monthly financial data, as well as forecasted performance. This data is then automatically coded to CHMWarnick's chart of accounts, making it the most detailed benchmarking and analytics available within hotel asset management today. The platform was created to evaluate numerous industry issues, including gaining complete financial data access beyond the typical "owner's package P&L" and affording the most comprehensive and intuitive analysis and monitoring system of financial performance trends possible today."Automation and comparability of data represent a significant advancement, but this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of realizing our new data-driven capabilities. Proph+IT puts the data in the hands of the experts, and our ability to cross-tabulate data points and follow trends on a multi-dimensional basis gives us, and by extension our owners, insight into a whole new realm of thinking about the operating model," added Kanter."Proph+IT immediately raises the industry bar for asset management technology and the ability to achieve results," said Chad Crandell, managing director and CEO of CHMWarnick. "While benchmarking has always been a core practice of ours for identifying opportunities, the size and scale of our asset management portfolio today has given way to a whole new opportunity for benchmarking and evaluating profit contribution across all areas of the operation and influencing future performance. Having been the first company dedicated to third-party hotel asset management almost 20 years ago, this is a natural next step for CHMWarnick to set a higher standard within the industry and establish 'asset management 2.0.' With an ever more complex hotel operating environment and expense growth often outpacing revenue gains, we have created a platform that allows us to connect the dots faster to make strategic decisions that positively impact value and monitor initiatives in real time on behalf of our owners."The proprietary platform, available exclusively to CHMWarnick clients, draws from a database of more than 3.5 million data points, with approximately 150,000 to 300,000 data points added each month. The system ultimately will track all current and new hotels that come into CHMWarnick's asset management platform, as well as data provided by major brand operators and third-party managers, alike."Fully integrated, the system will comprise more than 70 hotels, including full-service, select-service, convention, luxury, union/non-union hotels and destination resorts, providing incredible benchmarking capabilities and efficiencies, saving the roughly 2,000-man-hours required annually just to produce models and reports for assets in their current form," said Dan Lomartra, CHMWarnick associate and lead programmer of Proph+IT. "Once you factor in time saved producing portfolio-wide analyses, benchmarking and expanding versions of current reports, we're talking vastly improved speed with respect to identifying opportunities across our asset management portfolio. This creates considerably more time to dedicate to examining trends and drawing correlations from data, rather than inputting. Furthermore, we've effectively reduced the average window by which asset managers can access property data each month by about ten days through this automation. Proph+IT saves time by accessing and synthesizing a trove of data in a fraction of the time. This platform will revolutionize hotel asset management as we know it."

CHARLESTON, S.C. (July 11, 2018) -- G2Crowd, the world's leading business solutions review website, has today released its Summer 2018 Report on e-signature software - and InsureSign ranks No. 1 for its usability and customer support.InsureSign is currently the highest rated e-signature tool for overall satisfaction on G2Crowd, with 4.9 out of 5 possible stars (a 97 percent satisfaction score). InsureSign's efficient, time-saving features make it a perfect tool for event sales."We've always focused on providing our users in the hospitality industry with the easiest way to get their documents signed and the best hands-on, personalized service," says Joe Floyd, founder and CEO of InsureSign. "We're grateful that our users have been so happy with our software that they've decided to tell others. Our customers tell us that their sales teams are getting almost all contracts signed and returned the same day, which never happened before using InsureSign."InsureSign has tens of thousands of users across several industries. All InsureSign users enjoy getting their documents signed the easiest way possible, along with unlimited signatures, documents and templates each month, and the benefits of audit trails, auto reminders, auto archival, company branding and more.InsureSign also offers a premium plan that includes a unique suite of innovative features, including text-message signing, in-person signing, reusable forms, a tool for securing company reviews and more.InsureSignInsureSign is the simplest, fastest and most secure way to get documents signed electronically. Trusted by thousands of businesses of all sizes across North America, InsureSign lets your customers easily sign your documents from their laptops, tablets and mobile devices - and even via text message. Curious future customers can try InsureSign free for 14 days at www.insuresign.com.