Topics: Day 1 | Week 1 | Week 2 and beyond | "Go live" new implementations only | Managing property versus corporate values

Administrators getting started guide

Welcome administrators! As the administrator you have access to Setup and other areas of the system where changes you make can effect functionality for all users—so it's important to have a clear understanding of how things work.

How much access do you have? It depends on if you're a corporate or a property administrator.

If you're the only property in your org, you will perform the duties of both the corporate and property administrator roles. Let's take a look at what you need to do for a new property, as well as on-going maintenance.

Getting Started

Your system is already populated with your property's function rooms, users, setup values, and other property—specific data. You don't have to start from scratch; instead, you need to verify the data and begin to take note of areas you might like to refine or customize further. The following tasks are prioritized to help you get up and running using the system as quickly as possible.

For guidance on how to perform any of these tasks, go to the Administrator Help area or just use the Search box in the top-right corner of the Training & Help page.

 

  • Training

Encourage all users to complete one of the training courses available on the Training & Help Home page. This will ensure that your team knows how to log in, search for accounts and contacts, check availability, and enter new business. Of course it will take practice, but between the online training and intuitive user interface you'll be up and running in no time!

The training will take approximately three hours to complete—but you don't need to learn everything on day one. Complete a few lessons and then practice what you learned. Don't be afraid to make a mistake.

Clear your schedule!

Everyone is so busy these days—and hospitality professionals are masters of multi-tasking and maintaining a relentless pace. Carve out some time to allow yourself to focus on setting up the system so it truly reflects and facilitates how your property books business.

Log In

Make sure that you and your supporting leadership team log in to the system so you can quickly address any user name or forgotten password issues. After you've had a chance to set up the system and review the configuration, you can have the rest of the team log in.

See topic: Getting Started

Please do not try to complete all of these tasks on day one! Read through the list, divide tasks amongst the team, and then set a few milestones. If it helps—print this list.

Availability page

Review your property's Availability page. Verify the function rooms and combination rooms and, if applicable, double-check your guestroom information in the Daily Information section. Take note of any information that is not correct or any new values you want to enter.

Enter Business

Log in and enter an account, contact, inquiry, booking, booking event, and guestroom block. If you have a contract already entered in the system, merge it. Open a booking event, add menus and items, and then use the merge feature to create the event order and banquet check. Experiencing the entire booking process from start to finish will help you learn the system and identify any areas you want to refine.

Merge Document Templates

Document templates are used to generate form letters and other Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF documents, such as contracts and proposals. Each template defines the content of the document and includes variables called merge fields that pull data from your system, such as the contact's name and address, the booking arrival date, and so forth. Document templates can be merged from accounts, contacts, inquiries, bookings and volume contracts.

While your BEO and banquet check are provided, other site specific documents are created by administrators. The first step to being able to create merge documents is to download the Merge tool. Watch the videos below for step-by-step guidance.

Menus, Items, Text, and Choice Groups

It's easy to add menus and items to booking events, assuming the menus and items have been entered in a thoughtful and logical manner that reflects how you sell.

Prepare for this data entry by making sure all menus are updated and have accurate descriptions and pricing (don't forget about audio visual menus too). Think about the items you might put on a BEO that are informational, such as common text phrases—it's a good idea to have a list of these as well.

See topic: Overview: Menus & Items

 

Banquet Check

Merge the banquet check to familiarize yourself with the layout and verify your property taxes.

Event Classifications

Event classifications can be configured to have the following values auto-populate based on the selected event classification:

  • Default start time
  • Default end time
  • Default Event Setup (Rounds of 8, Boardroom, etc)
  • Post (Yes/No) ? This determines if the booking event will display on the Event Posting report and on your reader board if integrated.
  • Average checks for food, beverage, resources, admin, rental, other, and any other custom revenue classifications. This is used for forecasting.
  • Menus and items, you can select menus and items to default to the booking event.


Decide which options make sense for you and plan to update this area.

See topic: Overview: Event Classifications

 

Function Rooms

Each function room can be configured to have the following values auto-populate based on the selected function room:

  • Event Setup (Rounds of 8, Boardroom, etc)
  • Room Rental
  • Setup Duration
  • Teardown Duration
  • You can further define the function room capacity for each function room using the following: Function Room Setup, Setup Time, Teardown Time, Per Capacity


You can also enter additional information about the function room, such as its height, width, and description, which can be viewed by users directly from the Function Diary. Take note of any information that is not correct or any new values you want to enter.

See topic: Overview: Function Rooms

 

Packages

If your property sells packages, keep reading. Otherwise, skip to next section. A package is a collection of services that are sold for a flat daily rate on a per person basis. A package can include events, guestrooms, and/or other items that generate income for your property (for example, transportation fees, golf, spa, and ski tickets). If your property sells packages, then you will want to add your property's packages into Setup—this will allow your Sales Team to add the package to a booking.

When you create a package, you assign the default events, guestrooms (types and rate), and other income items that will be available to users when they add the package to a booking. The Sales Manager can choose to add all the defaults, or they can customize the package by selecting only those services the group has requested.

Watch the following videos to learn how to enter your property's packages so the team can easily add a package to a booking.

 

Packages - good to know!

Before entering your property's packages into Setup consider the following:

  • Enter your other income items such as golf fees, spa, and parking before entering your property's packages into Setup. If you want to view other income revenue on the booking, then make sure you select S&C in the Revenue Association field on the Other Income page.
  • How do you want to report on other income items? Do you need to create any new revenue classifications? If so, you'll need to add the new Revenue Classifications prior to creating other income items.
  • Function room rental should be entered as part of the per person package price and therefore, do not enter a default function room rental on the Function Room page or you will accidentally charge the customer twice!
  • You can add multiple packages to a single booking. A common example is a kids version of the package. For example one booking could have the following two packages: Adult Ski & Stay and the Kids Ski & Stay.

  • Many properties struggle over whether or not to create unique event classifications for their package events rather than using their standard breakfast, lunch, and dinner classifications. There is no right or wrong answer—it just depends on how your property's packages are structured.

    Here's a tip. If your package events always include the same menus and items, you'll save users a lot of time if you create package-specific event classifications that include those menus and items. For example, if most of your package lunches include a standard buffet, you could create a special event classification called Package Lunch and add the Lunch Buffet menu to it. This makes the booking process much easier since the system will automatically add the menus and items to the package event and apply the correct charges.

    What happens when the menus and items are the same regardless of whether or not an event is sold as part of a package? In that case, you probably won't need to create a package-specific event classification. A good example of this is the Continental Breakfast. When the Continental Breakfast is sold as part of a package, the customer will be charged the package revenue breakdown for that event. When the Continental Breakfast is sold outside the package, the customer will be charged the menu or item unit price.

 

After you've been using the system for a few weeks consider completing these tasks. No rush, you can wait for the elusive "downtime".

Page layouts

While entering business did you notice any fields on the page layouts that you would like to remove? Do you want to rearrange a few fields into a more logical order for how you enter data? Is there a field you would like to add? Write this information down and set aside time to modify the page layouts

Setup values (picklists)

Are you happy with the picklist values throughout the system? Are there some values you would like to add or remove?

Email templates

Similar to document templates, e-mail templates save you time by providing default text and formatting for different types of e-mails you send again and again. Create Word documents in advance for each e-mail template you'll need so you can easily copy and paste the text from Word to Delphi. Then, you can customize the templates by inserting merge tags for standard fields, such as Account Name, Salutation, Contact Name, and so forth.

For additional information on creating e-mail templates visit Salesforce:

 

Preparing to "Go live"

All future business on the books needs to be entered into the system. We suggest you determine how many future bookings you have and then work with your team to set a realistic go-live date. By go-live, all active bookings in your current Function Diary and GRC Log must be entered. For example, if June 1st is your go-live date, then all future bookings from June 1st and on must be entered in the system. If a customer calls to check availability for June 2nd, your team can then check the Function Diary in here rather than using your previous system.

As the Property Administrator you should arrange the booking files chronologically, starting with the files furthest out in the future. You will work your way back to the present, period by period, until you reach your targeted go-live date. It is important to have the information entered accurately, following an organized procedure of checks and balances. Although entering a large number of accounts and future bookings can be a bit tedious, it is a great way for your team to learn the system. The key to success is to enter business using a very systematic approach.

See topic: Backlog go live process

A member of the Amadeus Hospitality Support team will need to make a few configuration changes to your system before you enter backlog, and again when backlog is complete. These changes will allow your team to manually modify the Booked Date and Last Status Date fields when entering bookings.

Sometimes, the most challenging part of configuring a system is figuring out where the information is located. Remember you have two different types of administrators—property and corporate.

Do not make changes in Setup unless you have been trained to do so. As a rule, never modify sharing settings on any managed Amadeus objects, as some changes are irreversible. If you have questions about configuring Sales & Catering - Delphi, please contact Amadeus Hospitality Support.

Property Administrator

To modify property-specific values, click the Properties tab and then click the name of the property you want to edit.

Property page

Corporate Administrator

There are several areas where you can modify corporate settings. Use the following as your guide.

Setup

Click Setup, in the top-right corner of any page to modify any of the following:

 

Page Layouts

You can add, remove, or rearrange fields on a page layout by clicking the Edit Layout link at the top of the Account, Contact, Inquiry, Booking, Booking Event, or Volume Contract page.

 

All Tabs Page

Corporate values do not display on the Property page, so we recommend you manage the following values from the All Tabs page. To open the All Tabs page, click the All Tabs (+) tab.

Summary

Amadeus Sales & Catering - Delphi is a powerful product with the flexibility to be highly customized—pace yourself and focus on the priorities. When something is new it can be overwhelming, but you're never alone. We have an extensive Training & Help system, use it to search for quick answers to common tasks (top right-corner there's a Search box). Encourage your team to get in the habit of searching Training & Help, watch a video, or complete an assessment to build confidence! You've got this.