What's New in OPERA > V5.0.04.00
V5.0.04.00
The following gives a brief description of New Features introduced in OPERA.
For example, the user can define if ‘Rooms Occupied’ should include Day Use and No Show Rooms or exclude Comp and House Use Rooms. When the Out of Order and Out of Service Functions are active the user can also define if Out of Order/Out of Service Rooms should be excluded when calculating the ‘% Occupied Rooms’.
Up until now OPERA was able to Split Transactions by Amount and Percentage. With the release of v5.0.04.00 OPERA has introduced the ability to Split transactions based upon Quantity.
If a single transaction having 1 quantity is selected for split then the Quantity option is not available. If multiple transactions are selected and any of the transactions cannot / did not split, then a message is displayed that "X Charge(s) Not Split".
Transaction postings can be split by 1 or more quantities below is an example.
Suppose 4 guests (3 Family Members (Dad + 2 Sons) and 1 Friend) book to play a round of golf at the hotels golf course. Each round of golf costs a flat rate of $150. The Dad has arrived earlier than the 2 Sons and 1 Friend and has the whole transaction (Quantity of 4 @ $150 = $600) posted to his bill. But when the dad is settling his bill, he would like one of the rounds of golf split off and transferred to the Friends bill. The Cashier splits the $600 transaction by a quantity of 1 ($150), transfers the quantity of 1 to the Friends bill, and leaves the remainder amount Quantity of 3 = $450) on the Dad's bill.
When Credit Card Surcharge functionality is active, the Transfer button is now enabled for deposit transfer even if the deposit was paid with a credit card with surcharge applied. The amount that can be transferred excludes the Surcharge Amount and can be transferred to one or multiple reservations.
For Example- A Deposit of 90.00 is paid using a credit Card that has a 4% surcharge applicable.
- The Deposit Payment is recorded as 93.60. The 3.60 credit card surcharge has been posted to the Guest Ledger using the transaction code defined by the Cashiering>Default CC Surcharge Trn Code application setting.
- On the Deposit screen in the lower grid, select the deposit payment record and click the Transfer button.
- Select the reservation to transfer the deposit to.
- When the Deposit Amount screen is displayed, the Available Deposit amount is displayed as 90.00, not including the 3.60 credit card surcharge.
A new permission called "POST RATE CODE OPEN FOLIO" has been introduced. This permission will control if a user bill be able to use Post Rate Code billing option for a Open Folio reservation. If user does not have this permission then the Post Rate Code billing option button will be disabled.
Upon upgrade if user has the existing "POST RATE CODE" permission assigned, then the new permission will be assigned automatically.
Further more, though OPERA does not post packages to Open Folio reservations per existing functionality, OPERA will now prompt that the packages will not be posted and have the user decide if they wish to continue.
A Modification has been made to the Report screen (STA2.fmx) to allow for users to select multiple Account Types for the Profile Production (profileproductivitystat.rep) report.
OPERA has now introduced the ability to create Task Assignments for rooms that are marked as Do Not Disturb (DND) or rooms that do not require service (NSR). This is offered when the application function FACILITY MANAGEMENT and/or TASK ASSIGNMENT in the ROOMS MANAGEMENT group are active. Further configuration is available to indicate the No Service Reason.
Any Room that is set to Do not Disturb via the Guest Service Status screen will be assigned to the DND Task Sheet and all rooms that are not assigned to any of the regular Task Sheets are assigned to the NSR Task Sheet.
Housekeeping Supervisors always desire to view a summary report of all the Task Assignment Sheets. This is now available after the generation of the Task Assignments. The report will show a summary of all rooms in the property along with Housekeeping and FO status, Task Assignment and Task Sheet information. Additionally, the report will include the rooms that have not been assigned to a Task Sheet as the room is under a Do Not Disturb or No Service Required request along with the reason why.
A new Guest Preference Report (preference_forecast) is being introduced. The report will show a summary section for the selected date range and then a detail section grouped by Preference Groups and showing all forecasted Preferences within the groups. The Report will show any Reservation Preferences for Stayovers, Arrivals Expected, Arrivals Actual, Departures Expected and Departures Actual and Preferences. There will be number of Preferences, number of Adults and number of Children below each of the categories.
In the report output, the results will automatically be grouped alphabetically by Preference Group and then alphabetically by Preference within each Preference Group.
The results of the report are displayed into two different sections. The first section is a summary and displays an overview of the total number of Preferences for the day per reservation status along with breakdown of the property occupancy by Adults and Children by reservation status.
In the second section of the report, a breakdown of the Preference Groups and Preference Codes is displayed. A count of each Preference Code that is attached to a reservation status for a given day that falls within the date range is displayed. This section is also broken down by the reservation status by the number of preferences, adults, and children.
Front Office staff knows how long it can take to prepare the house with the Arrival Reservations. OPERA has now taken Blocking Rooms one step further and minimizing the time needed by introducing Exchange/Reallocate Room Functionality.
Reallocate allows the user to take one ‘Blocked’ Reservation and re-assign it to another ‘Un-Blocked’ reservation. When the user has selected the reservation and wishes to Reallocate a new screen will provide which reservations are available to be selected. The user then selects the ‘Un-Blocked’ Reservation and OPERA will update both reservations.
Exchange of the Blocked Rooms can be done if two reservations have the same Room Type reserved. When the user has selected the reservation and wishes to exchange the Room number with another Blocked Reservation, by simply selecting the Exchange button OPERA will update the Reservations.
Wanting to record why guests are wanting to Move Rooms? Now with the release of v5.0.04.00 the user can now place the Reason for the Room Move.
The Reason field is optional, but can be made mandatory by activating the MANDATORY ROOM MOVE REASONS Application Parameter in the RESERVATIONS Group. The Room Moves Report (room_move) has also been enhanced to include a new Reason Code column which shows the Room Move Reason code and description.
When Nightly Revenue Split parameter is active, OPERA splits and posts the Rental Revenue to Owner Account(s) on a nightly basis. In order to maintain an up to date Owner Revenue amounts, OPERA now also allows Revenue Adjustments for the Rental reservations that are still In-house in addition to the Checked out reservations. New Arrival From and To fields as well as Stay Over, Due Out and Checked Out check boxes provide further search options.
OPERA is introducing new functionality for the calculation of Rotation Points for properties with an active OVOS license (Vacation Ownership).
Calculating and allocating Rotation Points for Out of Order and Out of Service units/ rooms will allow for improved room assignments for Reservations and encourage Owners to resolve any issues with their units. Subsequently, their unit(s) earns a fair share of Rental Revenue instead of being rotated without generating revenue.
Properties will now have the ability to set up Rotation Point Multipliers for Rooms that are Out of Order or Out of Service. Different multipliers can be set up for different dates, Room Types and OOO/OOS reasons which gives each property maximum flexibility. This new functionality is controlled by the Application Parameter ‘OOO/OOS Rotation Points’ in the Ownership Group. The Application Functions ‘Out of Order’ and/or ‘Out of Service’ in the Rooms Management Group have to be active for this new functionality to be available.
OPERA is introducing new Ownership functionality that allows assigning a Grade to a unit. The property can configure these Grade codes and their sequence will determine the higher Grade Vs lower Grade. The lower the sequence, the higher the Grade.
Properties with an active OVOS license will have a new Unit Grade option in order to assign Grades to Unit Rooms. This grading will then be considered within the room order on the ‘Available Room Search’ and ‘Room Assignment’ screens. The Grading is activated by the new Application Parameter UNIT GRADE in the Ownership Group. With this functionality changes have also been made to the Room Configuration report (cf_rooms) and the user activity logs. that allows assigning a Grade to a unit.
A Balance Forward column has been introduced on the Rotation Points screen. This column is displayed and editable while the property’s business date is within the 1st month from the 1st Rotation Points Reset Period’s start date. This column allows for the entry of rotation points that a unit may have accumulated, that have not been entered into OPERA due to being accrued with another system. Once these points are entered, they will be considered into the Total Points calculation for rotation assignment. Typically this column should be used to carryover the Rotation Points from a legacy system and add it to the Random Points allocated by OPERA so that when units are assigned to reservations in OPERA these Rental units maintain the same level of preference as in legacy system.
Adjusted Points column is to allow a user to enter an ad-hoc amount of points, either positive or negative, in order to increase or decrease the Total Points balance for a unit due to any reason. This points adjustment is irrespective of any reservation being associated with the concerned unit. Adjusted Points column can be entered and modified any time until the 1st Rotation Points Reset occurs.
When Vault functionality and properties have encrypted swipers OPERA now has the ability to restrict users from typing the credit card number within the MICROS Payment Application. This is controlled via a new application setting under General->Restrict Credit Card Manual Entry.
New summary tables have been created to vastly improve performance when calculating Account & Contact Statistics in S&C and SFA. These tables summarize by Profile, Resort and either Month or Year so that the figures are already calculated when generating the report for a Year or multiple Months. With this release, the changes are available in S&C Advanced Reporting, rep_acc_prod_diff, rep_prop_acc_prod and rep_con_production
To make things easier and maximize performances, we’ve included a new Dashboard ‘Account Statistics Template’ in S&C Advanced Reporting. This report should be used whenever creating a report that will be filtered on Stay Date. The report may be modified to include whichever criterion is required as long as each of the 4 sections has the same fields in the same order. The filters can also be changed as long as they too are the same in each of the 3 Criteria (Account Statistics) areas and providing that the Stay Date filter in each is NOT changed.
Before you can start using any of these reports, you must first update the tables with the existing statistical figures using the new Utilities we’ve provided.
You asked for it and we listened! Since Event Guarantees often come in day by day, you wanted a way to only update the Guarantees for Events on a specific date. Now that’s possible in OPERA! If you change the Attendees or Status of an Event, we have included a new option to update ‘Events on the Same Date’.
The CHAIN OWNERSHIP functionality is now also available in SFA. In order to link one or multiple chains to the SFA property, go to SFA - Configuration - Property - Property Details - select the SFA property - click on button OPTIONS at the bottom of the screen – select button CHAINS. Add the chains that SFA should have access to, and check the default column in the grid for the chain that SFA profiles should be created for.
The default functionality has also been added to the CRO Configuration for Chains in ORS.
SFA users will only see profiles that are either linked to one of the chain codes configured for SFA, or that carry chain code CHA, which is visible for all CROs and SFAs. Profiles of the Profile Types defined in application setting PROFILES - CHAIN OWNERSHIP PROFILE TYPES, that get created in SFA, will be created with the default chain code selected in SFA.
If not default is selected, the first chain code in alphabetical order will be used
It is now possible to check relationship types to be exempt from protection. If FULL PROTECTION is active, or Custom Protection has been set up to not allow creation, update and / or deletion of relationships, those relationships checked to 'Ignore Protection' can still be created, updated and deleted.
The default Company to Contact, Agent to Contact, and Source to Contact relationships will be checked to 'Ignore Protection' by default. Other relationships can be manually set to ignore protection, if required.
An additional hyperlink has been added to the Activity Main Screen, when the activity class is ‘Appointment’. This Hyperlink will allow emailing the activity as an ics file to the email address linked to the activity owner. This will enable the owner to update calendars other than the one on the local machine e.g. on a mobile device, with the appointment data.
A new field 'Territory' has been added to Configuration - Profile - Geographical Data - Cities and Postal Codes. When updated, the territory field on the accounts and contacts screens will be updated appropriately on creation, if a postal code with linked territory is applied to the profile. This will happen from the accounts, contacts, address, and quickprofile add screens.
Note: A support script is available (SCR 238011) to be run AFTER the territories have been configured and linked to the postal codes. This support script will update all existing profiles with the configured territory for the appropriate postal code. Please make sure to run this script manually after configuration of the territories, if you want to update the existing profiles in your system.
Note: When running the Postal Code Import utility for a country AFTER the territories have been configured for the appropriate country, this utility will remove all configured territories, as it re-inserts the postal code ranges after deleting them first.
A new application parameter is available now when OPERA is linked to webProposal. BLOCKS - WEBPROPOSAL SSO ACTIVE.
When active, it will not be necessary any longer to log into webProposal separately again when launching the application from within OPERA. The only condition is, that the OPERA user's email address is a valid webProposal user id. When the parameter is not active, the regular webProposal login will still appear when launching webProposal from within OPERA.
Note: When using SSO, it is possible to configure the browser session for webProposal through various flags in OPERA Configuration - Setup - Menu URL Setup - Menu URL Links - OPERA webProposal - Edit.
See Details
A new button 'Preferences' has been added to the event attendee screen. Select a few attendees and click on Preferences. Select a Preference and / or a Table Number. OK will apply the preference and table number to the selected attendees. If only preference is updated and table number is left empty, table number will be maintained as it is. If only table number is updated, and preference is left empty, table number will be changed, and preferences will be maintained as they are. If both fields are left empty and OK is clicked, a message will appear to remove the preferences and table numbers from the selected attendees. If answered YES, both fields will be removed from the selected attendees.
A new parameter, BLOCKS – BUSINESS BLOCK DELIVERY HISTORY, has been added to OPERA. When this parameter is active and the OPERA system communicates with external systems via OXI, OXI message failures or non-deliveries will be transparent in the OPERA application itself, without the need to monitor the messages in OXI for failures. Another application setting allows setting the time in minutes after which a message should be considered as non-delivered, if no SUCCESS result has been received. Business Blocks showing OXI failures and non-deliveries appear with a red mark in the first position of the business block search grid and the quick business block search grid. A lamp ‘Del. Failure’ will be available for these blocks. Clicking on this lamp will access the userlog screen for this block with only the failed actions being displayed by default. A new ‘delivery grid’ at the bottom of the screen details for which external system the failure or non-delivery occurred. It is possible to check each failure separately as ’reviewed’, or, alternatively an ‘All Reviewed’ button is available which will mark all failures for the appropriate business block as reviewed. Note: It is not possible to separately review non-deliveries, whereas failures can be reviewed separately. However, the ‘All Reviewed’ button will mark all existing non-success records as resolved, failures as well as non-deliveries.
When you prohibit logins to a property through Utilities>Property Config>Disable Property Login (whenever there is a need to keep others from logging into the property during maintenance, upgrades, etc.) you can now allow selected user groups access to these properties. These specific people may need to have access to the property, even though it is disabled from others.
The new application setting General > Settings > LOGIN TO DISABLED PROPERTIES will allow you to select the user group(s) you want to be able to access the disabled property. If desired, you may create a new user group for this purpose. User groups that were created in Setup>User Configuration>User Groups will appear for selection in the Value LOV in the setting.
Some considerations:
O2H (OPERA to HOST) involves migrating data from OPERA properties to a hosted MICROS Data Center ASP schema. With OPERA v5.0.04.00, O2H offers more flexibility than in previous versions. There are several new scenarios that provide various Source and Target options.
Scenario A - O2H can migrate all tables from one non-hosted individual OPERA property schema to a single chain in a hosted MICROS Data Center ASP schema. (Introduced in OPERA v5.0.03.00). In this scenario:
Scenario B – From an integrated ORS or ASP schema, O2H can migrate PMS properties to a single chain in the hosted MICROS Data Center ASP schema. If you want to extract more properties from the Source ORS or ASP schema in the future, they must be migrated to another chain in the Data Center (Introduced in OPERA v5.0.04.00). In this scenario:
Scenario C - Remote properties that were remote to ORS prior to the migration, can remain remote and, if desired, can also be moved to the Data Center (Introduced in OPERA v5.0.04.00). In this scenario:
Once certain requirements have been set up, installers with user rights can access a screen within OPERA and Start the migration process, as well as monitor the status and perform other tasks. This screen, OPERA to Hosted Migration Utility, is easily accessed by selecting Utility>Tools>OPERA to Host Utility.
When the OBI_SYNC_LOCAL_DATAMARTS_FOR_PACE and OBI_USE_LOCAL_DATAMARTS_FOR_PACE parameters are set to Y, data is loaded from the reservation_summary_log_lcl_vw and obi_reservation_stat_daily_lcl views. These views are built from local tables in the BI database.
The OBI USE 11G PACE CUBE application setting has been exposed in OBI to upgrade the structure of the Pace cube to the 11g Structure.
See Details
A new Profiles General Search screen is available in PMS and ORS. This feature is activated by enabling the Profiles>OPERA GENERAL SEARCH application setting.
The OPERA General Search screen gives a property the ability to complete a general profile lookup. If implemented with a vendor that supports the functionality, the agent’s phone line is monitored for a new call to be received. When the call is received and the caller ID is registered, information is used to query the database for the profile information for that guest. Once retrieved, the OPERA General Search form appears and is populated with the found guest information on the agent’s screen.
When manual changes are made to the allocated inventory for a block, the custom forecast pattern will automatically update based on the changes.
The OPERA Customer Marketing Management (OCMM) system presents hotels and resorts with a better way to maximize their profits, attract new customers, gain insight into their existing customer data and improve the overall experience of their guests. With OCMM, you can define segmentations from the OPERA database, create unique marketing campaigns based on the segmentations and schedule the campaigns to deploy at specific intervals. A target source option is available to direct campaigns towards specific segmentations and unique marketing content can be delivered to the target sources through an Email Service Provider (ESP).
The following target source types are available:
Segmentation (utilizes preexisting segments from the OPERA database or ad hoc segmentations)
Business Event (business event triggered campaigns, e.g. check in, check out, membership upgrade)
None (not targeted towards a specific segment)