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Below are excerpts from the full text of the Interview that was submitted for the Feature Article that appears on Page 22 of the September-October 2007 issue of The Boardroom Magazine:
Boardroom Magazine – September/October 2007 – Technology Issue
Company Biography -
Abacus 21 has developed and implemented systems for the Hospitality Industry for over 26 years -- focusing on Clubs, Resorts, and HomeOwner Associations.
Software Application areas available from Abacus 21 include Membership & Accounts Receivable, Food/Beverage & Retail Point-of-Sale, Inventory-Purchasing, Menu-Recipe Costing, Golf-Tennis-Spa-Recreation-Activities-Ski-Marina Operations, TeeTimes, Lift Tickets, Rentals, Banquet-Catering, Event-Party & Dining Reservations, Gift Certificates & Cards, Loyalty Programs, Credit Book & Prize Winnings, Room Accommodations, Scheduling-Timekeeping, Payroll, Human Resources, Tournaments, WorkOrders, Concierge, Member-Guest Tracking, Photo ID Cards & Fingerprint Identification, BarCoding, General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Fixed Assets, Website Development Tools, Access Control, and Document Management.
Butch Lesniak is Abacus 21's President (and Founder). The Company has more than 400 Installations, 28 full-time Employees, and two Dealers (in South America and Australia). The Company is a New York State C-Corporation with Headquarters in Buffalo, New York.... and is 100% owned by Lesniak.
Questions asked by The Boardroom Magazine...
...and Butch Lesniak's Responses
- What new Equipment and/or Services can your Company provide to Private Clubs?
Amongst our ‘new-wave’ of devices, Abacus has incorporated Handhelds for POS and Check-In (and, of course, for Inventory Physical Counts, Requisitioning, and Ordering), Signature Capture for POS and various Approval processes, Photo ID & Gift Card Systems… and Fingerprint & Wristband Identification for Check-In, Approval, POS, and Timekeeping. On the Software-Services side, we are proud of our Concierge module (which pulls all Member-Client Reservations, Check-In, POS, Who’s-In-House, Access Control, Message-Broadcasting, PDA, and Phone System functionalities together) – along with our Data Analyzers (for ad-hoc slicing-and-dicing of data), our electronic Document-Report Storage & indexed Retrieval systems, On-Line Tutorials, and alternative Support options.
- How does your Product/Service benefit the Club as a business? Does it save time, money and/or resources (people)? Can these be measured?
In the case of our Handheld products, they offer the opportunity for the Club’s personnel to be at the point-of-contact or point-of-activity – improving the efficiency of the operation or function. When coupled with our Signature Capture or ID-Card or Fingerprint or Wristband technologies the security and integrity of the Club’s operations are enhanced. The Concierge module -- since it has the capability of providing a ‘panoramic’ overview of the Club’s Members (and Family and Guests) demographics, preferences, communications, histories, reservations, past-purchases, and ‘dynamic’ whereabouts – can be a powerful tool for personifying the highest levels of Member awareness and treatment.
- How does your Product/Service contribute directly to a Member's Club experience?
The underlying and pervasive premise of our entire application ensemble is its focus on the Member-Guest experience – with tools available to collect, remember, and dynamically recall any pertinent information… all threaded throughout our applications to pro-actively assist the Club and its Staff in providing the ‘ultimate experience’ to its Members and their Guests – while effectively tracking the Staff’s performance effectiveness. Furthermore, since the System retains all of this… it allows the Club (via an array of standard and ad-hoc tools) to analyze and assess ‘what has transpired’ and ‘what should be anticipated’ from an almost infinite number of perspectives.
- Do you feel the interoperability of your product/service with other, similar products/services is important? Why?
We are sometimes asked to interact with 3rd-party systems instead of utilizing our own modules – most often because the Client has already invested in a particular system… or, in some cases, has a particular preference. Examples include POS, PMS, TeeTimes, Payroll, Accounting (but never Receivables), Websites, etc. So, yes, it is important for us to be able to interface in these types of situations… and we have a list of these noted on our Website. In all cases, these are ‘interfaces’ rather than ‘integrations’… some "dynamic" but mostly "batch"… compromising some of the seamless-and-complete aspects that could have been possible.
- What is the most tangible take away a Club gets from your Product?
We pride ourselves on the breadth and depth of applications that we can offer a Club… a repertoire of application modules, sub-modules, and features that can be combined with our various hardware peripherals to provide the Club what it needs. Because all of our products & services are sold ‘ala carte’, the composition of products can be expanded as the Club’s need-desire grows… and since all of our software is parameterized, we can assist the Club in tailoring the software’s operation to complement its unique operations rather than forcing the Club to match canned-software’s confining restrictions.
- For Private Clubs, what separates you from your Competitors?
Our approach. First, our software’s inherent flexibility can meet the ‘demands and peculiarities’ of one Club versus another’s – and we capitalize on this to preserve and enhance the ‘character’ of the Club – distinguishing it from others. Second, we draw upon our 26-plus years of experience in the Industry… and the fact that the average tenure of Abacus Employees is almost 12-years (each with an average of 17-plus years each in Hospitality-Systems) to nurture the implementation. Abacus 21 does not mass produce-distribute-install systems. Rather, we feel that individualized treatment and continued person-to-person rapport is the key to a successful installation relationship. |
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