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MSI Introduces The Helm

A seamless interactive tool, centrally located, providing real time access to data management across an entire hotel portfolio

PHOENIX — NOVEMBER 9, 2007 — The Helm is a tool so finely targeted and so interactive that you can be absolutely confident of having a complete and up-to-date picture of the operational aspects which are the most critical—across each and every one of your hotels. Your ideas, your thoughts, your intentions are deployed across all of the properties in your portfolio instantaneously.

MSI, a leading provider of integrated property management solutions, is pleased to announce The Helm, MSI’s response to an overwhelming need in the industry to customize the way in which data is used to deliver superior customer service and to make informed decisions. With The Helm, a management company or brand uses one system to view data across all properties and to make changes that take effect immediately. The Helm is designed around a single point-of-entry paradigm providing customer relationship features and rolled up statistical information, with the convenience of a clear and spontaneous bird’s-eye-view into property-specific database information.

“The first version of The Helm is designed to complement the EnterprisePM system—MSI’s ASP delivered Property Management System,” Said David Kantrud, MSI’s VP of Software Engineering. “We’ve developed this product using Service Oriented Architecture, offering the services for our other property management systems. The final phase, to be completed early next year, will include specifications that will assist a management company with brands using proprietary PM software, to empower their entire portfolio using The Helm.”

One aspect of The Helm, the centralized Corporate Profile, is the perfect distribution vehicle, as it can affect all reservations associated with the corporate profile in a chain. Rates negotiated at the corporate office are instantly and seamlessly available to all properties connected via The Helm, and user-defined fields make communication with the desk clerk effortless. Making a corporate decision or negotiation—such as allowing direct bill, for example—is an instant reality for all reservations across the chain! Boosting a database that allows guest history to be shared across all properties, The Helm seamlessly manages past, current and future reservation activity. Another benefit of guest history shared via The Helm – other options such as ‘VIP’ and ‘Do not Rent’ are available for sweeping updates. Updates or additional profiles entered at the property level are shared across the chain via The Helm.

Management companies using The Helm will have access to real time statistics for all of their properties, and can drill down to further detail. For example, the drill down capability can be used to see transactional detail at the property level including folio details, or in house lists. The management company can set up regions on the fly, as well as move properties into temporary regions—i.e. a user with properties experiencing renovations can instantaneously view updates of available rooms, rooms off market, and other inventory statistics. Security makes it simple to strategize the data that both corporate and local hotels are able to view and change.

Features of The Helm:

The sleek, contemporary design and intuitive drill-downs into the local property management system make this product the perfect compliment to the centralized property management system. “The Helm combines years of MSI’s experience in assisting management companies and brands in achieving their goals with distributed data,” commented Tim Tiller MSW, MSI President. “Building the system from the ground up gives MSI a huge advantage in real-time processing and ease of implementation, as well as allowing for the broadest range of integration possible. MSI's end users gain the vast benefits of MSI's abilities to control all aspects of the integration process. Since the product offering does not depend on bolt on solutions from 3rd party vendors, the savings are passed on to the customer. In addition, the MSI development team is able to fully integrate customer's specific needs—placing the customer in the product management seat.”

About MSI
Servicing the hospitality industry since 1990, MSI (Multi-Systems, Inc.) is a leading supplier of hotel technology and property management systems. MSI empowers the lodging industry through great people, superior service, and innovative technology. With an installed customer base of close to 3,000 hotels and resorts throughout North America, MSI is one of the largest privately held providers of fully integrated property management, sales, marketing & catering, point of sale, web booking module, and centralized corporate services. MSI specializes in "total system solutions" for management companies and hotel chains, by providing central reservation and property system integration. Its customer support team has been recognized as the industry leader, and is key to the success of MSI’s products and services. For additional information about MSI’s technology solutions, please contact Teresa Galler at 800-331-7890 or info@msisolutions.com. For more information on MSI, visit www.msisolutions.com.

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