Recently, RFID implementations at two hotels were announced: one by Marriot Hotels and one by Aloft Hotels.

Marriott will use the VingCard Elsafe’s VISION at the Venezuela Marriott Hotel Playa Grande in Catia la Mar. It provides a solution to control access to every door on the property. According to the press release (which looks more like an VingCard Elsafe advertorial) this should be very easy to use for staff. And it will enable guest to remote check-in with an NFC enabled phone instead of with a card issued by the hotel, with which they can not only open the room, but also the safe – well, if the hotel chooses to use these features.

Aloft, also in partnership with VingCard Elsafe, is using branded RFID keycards for their customers of the Aloft Hotel in Lexington (MA), United States. Guest can use this personal card as a keycard - and can therefore skip the FrontDesk check-in. The keycard only needs to be issued once, and can then be used for all future stays. Eventually, the card can also be used to pay for drinks, foods and other purchases in the hotel. I wonder if they will also make the next step to use NFC enabled phones as tokens instead of the keycard, like Marriott might do.

But it all sounds pretty familiar to me – Am I having a déjà vu? lees verder…

De Belastingdienst in Nederland en in Mexico gezien hebbende, kan ik eigenlijk alleen maar concluderen dat hoewel het verschil erg groot lijkt, de Nederlandse en de Mexicaanse Belastingdienst eigenlijk helemaal niet veel verschillen. Toch lijkt het altijd of Mexico heel anders is: ver weg, andere cultuur, andere mensen… Op belastinggebied valt dit in ieder geval reuze mee.

Natuurlijk: alles gaat in Mexico nog een tikje bureaucratischer en er is hier relatief veel werk dat handmatig wordt uitgevoerd. Ook is het niet betalen van belasting in Mexico een groter probleem vanwege de minder goede infrastructuur, de relatief grotere armoede en misschien ook wel een beetje de mañana, mañana cultuur: morgen weer een dag. Aan de andere kant is het ook erg goed om te zien dat ze in Mexico in sommige opzichten al verder zijn dan in Nederland: lees verder…

There is a lot of discussion about the differences and/or relationship between CRM and CEM (Customer Think, 2006). Forrester Research seems to separate CEM as an unique discipline that is distinct from, but related to CRM (Forrester Research, 2005). Gartner on the other hand seems to leverage CEM as a skill set or practice within CRM (Gartner Research, 2006). Others see it as an extension of CRM to provide a true customer focus (Rance, 2006).

At its highest level, CRM defines what the company wants from the customer relationship and gathers the information and insight that is analysed against products and service to find opportunities to sell. CEM is the mechanism by which the customer is engaged to optimise the potential customer loyalty and long-term value that is defined by CRM (Rance, 2006). lees verder…

Recently I noticed this RFID concept: Live Checking Card

“Do you know who the Green Monster is? It’s that skunk-of-a-bill that you get at the end of the month; it devours all your Dollars because you overspent! Only if you could use something like the Live Checking Card! A Credit Card won’t let you go beyond your limits. It’s a digital thing with an E-ink display that allows you to check your payment history on it. It even tracks your bank account’s transaction through RFID. A cumulative amount shows up on the screen every time you swipe the card; giving you your account balance on your finger tips.”

Sounds nice, and looks cool - check out the clip on YouTube.

But would it work? lees verder…

Hello All!

Yesterday evening the 1st ever Accenture Corporate Citizenship Award 2010 ceremony was held in the Amsterdam office. There were 3 nominees:

• Patrick Jansen van Doorn took a Leave of Absence to participate in the VSO program. He volunteered for 12 months in Ranchi -India, and participated in the VSO challenge climbing the Mount Everest.
• Willemijn Noppen raised €50.000 together with her T&OP team for the building of a health centre in Mukuru, Cameroon
• me, myself and I

The ceremony started off with an inspiring presentation of the external guest Stella Ronner - Grubacic  ambassador for the  Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She gave us insight on the MDG’s  and specifically focussed on the role of businesses in the development sector. Following Stella’s broader perspective Accenture looked at what they have contributed and their plans for the future. Finally it was time! The Award nominees presented their respective experiences and the winner would be chosen by the jury consisting of Mrs. Ronner-Grubacic, the Accenture Foundation and the audience. And the winner of the EUR 5000 to donate to a charity of their choice (and be recognized as the corporate citizen of the year) is…… lees verder…

Accenture and Avanade, two global providers of business technology services and consulting, showcase in this video business solutions using the latest touch technology, simplifying the way you interact with information and offering exciting, new opportunities to engage and empower customers.