What's New in OPERA > V5.0.03.03
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V5.0.03.03
The following gives a brief description of New Features introduced in OPERA.
PMSThe Automatic Batch Credit Card Settlement functionality has been introduced.
When Credit Card Batch Settlement functionality is active, a new procedure and report is added to the Income Audit / End Of Day final procedure and Interim / Final Reports. These are added as inactive. Property must activate these.
When active, the procedure when executed will automatically settle the Batch credit card settlement for the business date the night audit is being executed. Once the procedure is complete, the CC batch settlement report will be generated that will list all the successful and failed settlement. This report is also available from Miscellaneous reports.
Internally OPERA will execute the settlement procedure 2 times, 1st to settlement all the pending settlements and 2nd to settle any failed settlements duing 1st iteration.
The existing functionality that allows users to manually settle batch credit card settlements remains unchanged.
A new application parameter "FOLIO EMAIL PER WINDOW" under Reservations group has been introduced. This parameter will be available only if REMOTE CHECKOUT FOLIO DELIVERY setting under IFC group is set to “PRINT” and CASHIERING -> FOLIO EMAILING application setting set to YES or NO and RESERVATIONS -> PAYMENT TYPES PER WINDOW parameter is active.
When activated, 2 new columns called “EFolio” and “To Email” will be available on the multiple Payment Methods screen. Selecting EFolio check box per billing window will determine if a folio will be emailed for any particular billing window.
Auto Folio Settlement and the remote checkout will also refer to this EFolio check box for emailing folio.
When FOLIO EMAIL PER WINDOW parameter is active, the purpose of the FOLIO EMAILING (1-8) setting will be to determine if the EFolio check box on the Multiple Payments screen will be checked by default or not. If set to Yes, then EFolio check box will be checked by default if Allow Email is checked on the Profile. If set to No, then EFolio check box will not be checked by default even if Allow Email is checked on the Profile.
The package Begin Sell and End Sell Dates have been introduced in OPERA. These date fields are available when Package Pricing and Availability Attributes parameter is active. The dates can be set on the Package elements and also on the Rate Packages.
The concept is that a package may be associated with a new reservation or existing reservation either via rate code or manually only if the current business date is between the Begin and End Sell dates. If package is being manually attached, the Begin and End Sell dates on the package element are referred to and if via rate code then the Begin and End Sell dates on the Rate Products are being referred to.
In case a Rate Refresh is performed on an active reservation that has never been reinstated, then OPERA will still refer to the original reservation create date to either attach the package or remove already attached package.
In case a Rate Refresh is performed on an active reservation that has been reinstated i.e;; Canceled or No Show reservations, then OPERA will still refer to the latest reinstate date to either attach the package or remove already attached package.
Begin and End Sell dates simply indicate that a package can be sold only during that specific period. These dates do not impact or are not related to the Start and End dates on the package details.
If a Package Group contains a package(s) that is not available for sell on a given business date, then the entire Package Group will not be available for sell.
OPERA is happy to introduce new functionality for Max Bedding Per Room Type. In order for this functionality to work, RESERVATION AUTO ATTACHMENTS, ITEM INVENTORY and RATES BY DEFINED BUCKETS must be active and defined. Two new application settings under the Reservation Group for PACKAGE FOR EXTRA BED and PACKAGE FOR CRIB are available. Once the desired packages have been created along with inventory items and assigned to the settings, the Calculation Rule will be updated with Per Extra Bed and Per Crib accordingly. This will then be disabled unless the setting values are changed. Only those packages which are configured with an inventory item and do not have the Sell Separate checkbox selected will be available in the setting LOV. A new field will be available on the Room Type configuration screen for Max Bedding Per Room Type. The number defined in this field represents the physical number of beds in the room. When a reservation is booked for a Room Type in which this field is populated, OPERA will check the number of adults against the number of physical beds and if exceeded, will automatically attach an extra bed package and inventory item to the reservation. When a child(s) is added to a reservation, OPERA will check the MIN and MAX RATE BUCKET 1 values and if the child's age falls within this range, a crib will be attached to the reservation.
A new setting "Permanent Folio Storage File Name Format" under Cashiering group has been added. This setting is available only when Permanent Folio Storage parameter is active. This setting provides several different field names / variables from the Folio$_tax table which can be used to create a format string that will be used to assign a name to the folio storage file that is created based on the Permanent Folio Storage functionality.
Certain special characters such as / \ * ? : < > “ | may not be used in addition to these values to build a format string.
The values available in the Permanent Folio Storage File Name Format setting will be dependent on appropriate functions / parameters being active.
Also when deactivating these functions / parameters, OPERA will prompt if Permanent Folio Storage File Name Format setting contains a values that is dependent on such functions / parameters.
The AR Traces report has a new GEN1 parameter screen which provides an ability to filter data using date range and owner accounts.
A change was made so that a default value can be set for any of the Pop Up Blockers without having to hide the message. For example, if the Add Room Features to Profile message has the default value of Yes selected, then the message will still be displayed and will have the Yes button selected as the default.
A change was made to be able to copy bank account set up for travel agent and source profiles to other properties in a multi property environment.
If a bank account has been selected for a new/edited profile commission details record, upon selecting the OK button OPERA checks if any other properties meet the below conditions:
If there are properties that meet those conditions, then the message: "Do you want to copy this Bank Account to other properties?" appears.
When selecting the OK button, the bank account setup will be copied to the respective properties.
IFCWith OPERA IFC Controller version 5.3.10 and IFC8 Web Service version 1.17 additional fields are masked in the IFC8WS and OPERA IFC Controller logs when set to DEBUG or TRACE.
Added the ability to handle Chip Cards for the Courtesy Card functionality in PMS. The user initiates a Read Card request from Memberships where the Membership number is provided from the Chip&Pin device and populated in to the MEM_MAINT form. New configuration for "Chip & Pin" is added to the Membership Type configuration that when checked enables this functionality.
Additional functionality was added to the IFC Controller and IFC8 WebService that will allow the ReaderBoard file to be generated and written out through them.
This allows for the file to be written locally, UNC, or FTP. The IFC Controller V5.03.011 and IFC8 WebService V1.18 is needed for this functionality along with this OPERA version.
Added suite room functionality to the IFC submenu (Shift F8) to allow changing status for the suite and its component rooms individually.
Added a failover URL field for credit card transactions in IFC Configuration (with Vault active it is in Application Settings). Added a new User Permission to enable/disable the failover functionality. When enabled, all credit card transactions will go to the failover URL.
SC/SFAAn attendee management module has been added to the business block / catering modules of OPERA S&C. The functionality can be activated by activating application function CATERING - ATTENDEE MANAGEMENT.
This module allows linking of Day Delegate and Residential Delegates on block level and on event level. In order to be able to link attendees to events, the attendees must first be linked on block level (Add Day Delegate), or they must exist as residential pick-up reservations against the block. Day Delegates can be added manually through a grid similar to the business block rooming list, or they can be imported via an XML import file that can be updated via MS Excel.
Events that are eligible for registration, must be checked as 'Registration Required' before attendees can be linked to it. It is possible to set attendee preferences and event preferences. Event preferences can then be linked to each attendee. It is also possible to assign a table and/ or seat number to an attendee.
The event fields 'Registration Required' and 'Registered Attendees' are available in data extraction for events, in OSR for events, and in S&C Advanced Reporting for events.
The Event Shortlist report (SAMPLE_EVENT_SHORTLIST) has had a flag added to print attendee details for events. If checked, each event line for events that require registration is followed by a collection of attendee details, like name, preferences, table / seat number, residential Y/N and if yes, then which room number.
A new S&C Quote report (SAMPLE_SC_QUOTE) has been created, using BI Publisher technology.
This report combines catering and accommodation details per day in the same grid. Unit prices and revenues are shown as net and gross amounts. Net amounts for guest rooms include PMS package elements, but do not include generates (taxes) for the guest room, or for included PMS packages. The gross amount includes all generates (taxes). A flag on the report order form (REP_SC_QUOTE) allows including or excluding excluded PMS package elements in the gross price and revenues.
The Sales & Catering Contracts (rep_cont_merge & sample_cont_merge) now have the option to print the Net Room Rate and Catering Prices, the Gross Room Rate and Catering Prices, both the Net & Gross Room Rate and Catering Prices or to print the amounts directly as they have been entered in OPERA (which is the way the Contract has functioned in the past).
The Net Room Rate calculation considers the following:
The Gross Room Rate calculation considers the following:
The Activities edit form now offers a hyperlink option to generate an iCalendar file for export of appointments and meetings to supported third-party software products such as email clients or calendar applications (PC or tablets).
The update my calendar hyperlink on the activities edit form will generate and download an iCal file that will be opened by the associated software for the ICS file type extension. The associate account, contact, block name, resort code and activity note are included in the detail.
OBIAdd the ability to point the OBI background jobs to a specific node in a RAC environment. This will allow to improve the performance by controlling the load on the database and avoid affecting servers used by the users or ones that are already used by other interfaces.
Adds the ability to refresh the OBI cache to prevent partially failed cache refresh from producing incorrect data on some or all reports and adds Last Cleared Cache times/dates to the cubes.
Introduce a new utility to create a subset of an OBI installation in order to provide a proper size and growth estimate for future OBI clients / installations.
Added functionality in OBIEE where when users hover the mouse over any attribute or measure of any Subject Area; a window will popup displaying a description of the column as well as how the values are calculated when applicable.
Created a new package in Opera to check the free space in the TOOLS Tablespace. The location of TOOLS Tablespace will depend on where the BI schema is installed. Either in the Opera Database or a different database.
If the Tools tablespace doesn't have enough space then the installation wizard will prompt the user to add more space before proceeding with the install.
Integration with the wizard is handled in scr 204483
Added the ability to interface with the MICROS 3700 POS system
The POS cube contains check details information summarized by Menu Items, Revenue Center, Resort, Guest and Market.
Overview:
The POS system is responsible for exporting the data(transactions) files into a shared directory that Opera can access,
- A new Job called "BI_external File Import" runs periodically and imports these files into the opera tables (opera scheduler),
-The POS build jobs are scheduled using opera scheduler tool and the cube is updated accordingly,
- Data from the POS transaction files is linked to the guest's profiles in Opera using the check number from the POS system
In the continuous effort to improve the build timings of the Pace Cube we introduced the ability to run multiple daily maintenance/Incremental jobs of the PACE Cube in parallel.
The jobs will load the data from OPERA to the BI temporary tables at the same time but only one job will build at a time.
This feature will allow more flexibility to schedule multiple Pace builds (by property) throughout the same day.
Customized the OBIEE skin and style to be more in line with the OPERA Suite of products.
ORS/OISAre you looking for a more efficient way of handling the match and merge process for your profiles? With the release of v5.0.03.03, OPERA Customer Information System (OCIS) has made vast improvements to the internal profile match and merge process by introducing a way of de-duplicating existing profiles, thereby improving the data quality of all profiles.
Establishing profile data quality is critical to large chains with integrated, multi-property environments that maintain large amounts of profile data and require a fast, efficient way of merging their profiles. This provides substantial benefits to hotel chains, such as the ability to extract clean, meaningful and reliable profile data for their marketing campaigns and research.
To achieve a better profile automerge process, a more dynamic process is now used to identify and reconcile duplicate profiles and merge logic has been improved to provide users with greater options for merging their profiles. OPERA users can now define match and merge criteria and associate points with the criteria. This new process involves a user defined upper and lower points threshold system to exclude profile records from merging that are either below the lower threshold (do not meet the minimum points requirement for a match) or exceed the upper threshold (identified as possible matches). Profiles that fall between the upper and lower threshold will require user intervention to reconcile.
After the profile eligibility job has run in OPERA and potential matches are identified, the Profile Merge screen is used to identify and take action on profile matches. OPERA users will have the ability to manually exclude profiles from the merge process if they are determined to not match. Additionally, profiles that are excluded from the merge will not be considered in future profile matches.
Power up one level to the latest OPERA profile handling features by upgrading to OPERA v5.0.03.03. You will find that your hotel chain can handle increasing profile data with better efficiency and avoid common errors with duplicate profiles.
A new utility was added to ORS->Utilities->Update Central Currency.
This utility will update the current central currency to a new currency and will convert the central currency on the existing stay records based on the currency conversion for that stay date. User can change the exchange amount in the utility before it is run if they so desire.
New functionality introduced for Reservation E-certificates where if configured as such and a reservation is canceled that has an E-Certificate associated with it, the E-Certificate will be canceled and a new one will be issued in lieu of the canceled one. This is only for Canceled Reservation, does not apply to No Shows.The following has been implemented
Changes made to accommodate new ARC Agency List File format.
Introduced new functionality for folio lookup used with the ORSSC interface.
Introduced gaming lookup functionality in ORS. When the OPR_<version number> OPERA Reservation System license is active, the General>ORS_CM (hidden) application parameter is set to Y, the Membership>Lookup application function is set to Y, and the Membership>Lookup Type application setting is set to GAMING, then selecting the Lookup button displays the Gaming Lookup screen.
Introduced new chain ownership mode in ORS based on internal parameter. Set the General>Generic CRO application parameter to Y to set the selected CRO as a GENERIC CRO. Set the parameter to N to set the selected CRO as a CHAIN CRO.
GENERIC CRO - Has the ability to be linked to multiple chains, but with limited ORS functionality.
CHAIN CRO - Can only be linked to one chain, but with full ORS functionality.
When the OPR_<version number> ORS license is active and the General>ORS CM (hidden parameter) and CRO>General>Generic CRO application parameters are set to Y, all of the properties that are attached to the GENERIC CRO that the user is logged into, will be displayed in the property list.
ORMSA new Utility has been added to Utilities->Utilities->ORMS Modeling Data Reset.
User will be prompted to enter a password to access the utility.
New Permission has been created ORMS Modeling Data Reset under Utilities, This Permission will need to be granted to user in order to run the utility.
Logging into the utility will stop the ORMS possessor, if for some reason it cannot, the user will be prompted where it can be stopped manually.
The user can now select whether he wants to do a Reset of Modeling Data only or whether he also wants to ‘Re-Activate’ ORMS including all activation processes like i.e. Max. LOS determination, Wholesale Block setting, etc.
A new field in the Misc area of the configuration has been added called Send Configuration Report. This will generate and email multiple reports to the populated email address.
Enter an email address into this field where the reports are to be sent. Assumption is that you have email delivery configured in the PMS.
These reports are intended to be sent prior to Modeling to review that the configuration has been set up correctly.
The reports that will be generated are as follows:
Seasons, Yield Categories, Upsell Configuration, ORMS Events, Yield Category Rooms, Dynamic Rates, Yieldability, Base Price Slices and Booking Classes.
A new tab has been added to the ADF11 ORMS menu which will display when there are multiple ORMS license codes active in the same schema. The menu item is labeled Multi Property. When selected, the user can select up to 4 properties to display in the grid and the date range. When 1-2 properties are selected, there will be a 2 panel screen displayed with scroll bars and when 3-4 propertied are selected, there will be a 4 panel screen displayed with scroll bars. Each panel can be detached for ease of use. User can update hurdles and overbooking (when active) from this multi panel form.
OXINew XML type introduced to convey the consumption of item inventory to external systems. Also, added the ability to resync item inventory in a myfidelio OXI as well as adding a message request to HUB utilities( only for ODS-ORS (myfidelio) HUBS.
SCR has completly rebuilt the MFQueue manager to have the queue manager process messages belonging to each resort independently instead of processing transactions based on resort groups including OBI messages. As all resorts are processed independently, one or few resorts with higher volume will not affect other resorts with normal volume.
Processor will continue to have multiple threads, but those threads will behave more like a thread pool and they will cycle through the resorts and process messages for each resort.
As we allow multiple OXIHUB processors running on different machines today, even though it may not be necessary any longer with this new approach, we will continue to support the usage of multiple processors.
In order for this functionality to properly be implemented, new interface must be installed along with the update of the scema to the version of this SCR.
Important to note, that if the scehma is upgraded but the new interface is not implemented, the Queue Manager will not be able to process messages.(see scr unit notes for further information)
Parameters introduced in OXI to allow for the customization of the way in which we will convey room class information in RTAV messages to non opera external systems.When the Inventory Roomlass parameter in OXI is set to YP room class counts component rooms will be processed using the actual counts of the room types making up the component room. When set to YS we will send roomclass counts as though the component rooms is a single room.
OEDSConsumer website may now pass token instead of credit card via OWS.
The following web services have been modified to incorporate functionality for ATTENDEE MANAGEMENT:
The following web services have been added to incorporate functionality for ATTENDEE MANAGEMENT:
Now possible to sequence hotels within a region for availability search.
Availability and Booking responses now returns Chain specific Marketing Messages configured in Channel Marketing Text Configuration screen. The marketing text will be used for all properties in the chain.
• Marketing messages are displayed based on the following hierarchy:
• Property- With the Property being the highest in the Chain, Chain marketing texts will be overriden
• Chain - Displayed for all properties in the Chain.
• Channel - If a Property or chain has no marketing texts defined, the marketing text will be used for all properties
• Fidelio Channel - Marketing messages will be returned from the Fidelio Channel
Now possible to accept payment via PayPal via OEDS.
MICROS ADS Hurdle Processor - This service reads the hurdle data from the "ads_hurdle_queue" table and checks if the rate is closed due to restriction. If the rate is closed, it will insert the restriction as "CLOSE" for that rate-room combination in the gds_avail_upd_message table. If the rate code is not closed due to the hurdle, the service will check if there are other restrictions and will insert a record in the gds_avail_upd_message table with the appropriate restriction or OPEN status as "PENDING."
Extended ability to do availability and create booking by player rank to OWS.
New webservice for O2G for queue rooms has been implemented.
REQUESTED LANGUAGE CODE FOR GDS. Return the translated descriptions of channel rates, rooms, guarantee information, policies, marketing and error texts in the language code that is sent in the RLC element (Requested Language Code)of availability and booking requests from the GDS. If there is no translation configured for the language code sent, the response will default to the English description.
New Guest Request and LOV query to allow for the inserting of alerts from Opera2Go.
