PAR pushes cloud-based hospitality product

NEW HARTFORD — Earlier this year, PAR Technology Corp. (NYSE:PAR) subsidiary PAR Springer-Miller Systems, Inc. launched a new property-management system for hotels that company officials say puts PAR ahead of its competition and stamps the firm as an innovator.

The Stowe, Vt.–based PAR subsidiary began work in 2009 to create a new property-management system for the hotel industry that would open up more of the market to the company, which was focusing primarily on the luxury hotel market. That luxury market only comprises about 15 percent of the total hotel rooms around the world, so PAR knew there was a large untapped market it could reach out to if it could create a product the market needed, PAR Springer-Miller President and CEO Larry Hall says.

“We needed to bring a new product to market,” he says. Specifically, PAR needed to have a product that anticipated the needs of hoteliers in 2012 and beyond. “We had to anticipate and evaluate trends in the market,” and build a product around those trends, Hall says.

The result of that effort, started in 2009, is ATRIO, a cloud-based system PAR launched earlier this year with its first installation at Hotel Diva in San Francisco. 

ATRIO, which utilizes Microsoft’s Azure cloud system, accomplishes two things, Hall says. First, it capitalizes on the advent of cloud computing and does so on the forefront of the growing trend, he says. PAR Springer-Miller brought its clients a cloud system before cloud computing became the norm, not after the fact, he notes. ATRIO is built for cloud computing and provides an innovative user experience, modular design, and the use of an enterprise service bus, PAR contends. The cloud-based platform also has lower implementation costs for clients.

Second, it creates a new type of user experience that better fits the modern work force. Today’s work force wants products that are intuitive and easy to use. It doesn’t want burdensome technology that comes with a hefty operator’s manual and requires days of training to learn how to use, Hall says. 

Those two factors, he says, set PAR’s product ahead of anything competitors have to offer, and, more importantly, set PAR apart as an innovator.

That innovation is important as PAR looks to grow beyond its roots as a point-of-sale hardware provider to the quick-service restaurant industry. The company has a long history of doing business with McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD), and the fast-food giant is still PAR’s single largest customer. The problem with such an arrangement was evident in PAR’s second-quarter earnings results. The company reported that product revenue slipped 11.4 percent to $20.1 million from $22.7 million a year ago because of a decline in domestic sales to McDonald’s, which had completed its significant technology upgrade program with PAR in fiscal year 2011. 

However, PAR’s total revenue rose 10 percent to $62.1 million in the quarter from $56.4 million in the second quarter of 2011 as the company benefitted from revenue gains in other areas.

Products such as ATRIO will help build the PAR brand in the hospitality industry and further diversify the company’s customer base and its product offerings, Hall says.

Reaction to ATRIO has been positive this year, he says. He declined to disclose sales totals or sales projections, but did note the company is in sales talks with several major brands in the hospitality industry.

ATRIO positions PAR as a player in the market with a product that provides flexibility for clients to choose the elements they want and need and the ability to quickly add new features and capabilities as the market demands them, Hall says.

“We think we have a highly innovative piece of technology,” he says. Reaction to ATRIO has exceeded his expectations so far, he adds.

PAR Technology Corp., headquartered in New Hartford, acquired Springer-Miller Systems in 2004. John Springer-Miller founded the company in Stowe, Vt. about 30 years ago and got his start creating comment cards before developing a hotel and resort property-management system.

PAR (www.partech.com) has two main operating segments. Its hospitality technology segment produces and sells technology products for restaurants, hotels, spas, retailers, cinemas, cruise lines, stadiums, and food-service companies. PAR’s government segment develops geospatial and full-motion video systems for various levels of government and provides communications and information-technology support to the U.S. Department of Defense.

PAR’s stock price has increased 35 percent year to date, through Sept. 12. And in early trading on Sept. 13, PAR was at a new 52-week high.        

Contact DeLore at tdelore@tmvbj.com