(Chicago, IL) July 26, 2010

Evention LLC Showcase Two New Products at HITEC 2010 to Complement its Hotel Software Suite Built With the Latest Microsoft Technologies ORLANDO, Fla. – June 21, 2010 – Evention LLC is thrilled to formally announce the release of its two latest hotel soft

InterContinental New York at Times Square selects Evention to automate gratuity distributions

Evention is thrilled to partner with the InterContinental New York at Times Square as they open their doors in July 2010.  Accuracy and robust reporting of server payroll is critical for both the hotel and its employees.  Evention provides this platform and is proud to be working with another marquee hotel in New York City.



Posted: 2010-07-26

(Chicago, IL) July 14, 2010

Evention LLC Showcase Two New Products at HITEC 2010 to Complement its Hotel Software Suite Built With the Latest Microsoft Technologies ORLANDO, Fla. – June 21, 2010 – Evention LLC is thrilled to formally announce the release of its two latest hotel soft

Evention LLC Expands its Hotel Software Suite with Two New Products for Cash Management and Banquet Scheduling

Evention LLC is excited to announce the release of its two latest hotel software products, Evention Secure Drop and Evention Shuffler. Both products greatly expand the Evention suite by adding capabilities for cash and dueback management as well as banquet labor forecasting and scheduling.

 

Evention Secure Drop tracks employee drops, duebacks, banks, and the audit of the cash clearing against POS systems. Gone are the days of paper deposit logs, hand-written cash drop envelopes, and manually managing the audits, over/shorts, and duebacks. Hotels can view cash drops and duebacks instantaneously from the point of the drop through the posting to the general ledger. Evention Secure Drop takes brings cash management, a time-consuming, paper-intensive process, into an electronically automated web application.

Evention Shuffler expands the time and cost saving abilities of Evention’s gratuity and wage application by allowing for events and employees to be scheduled automatically even in complex scheduling environments such as rotations or seniority based schedules. Evention’s easy to use interface allows for employee swaps, creation of weekly/daily schedules, and accurate forecasts. Best of all, once the schedule has been set, no additional work is necessary to process the wages and gratuities since the employees are already in the Evention system./p>

To enable these offerings, Evention worked closely with its clients to deliver top quality solutions that build upon the Evention suite that has already been adopted by the industry. “Evention clients have come to expect game changing solutions that transform the way hospitality companies manage their business,” states Mike Baldinger, Managing Partner with Evention. “Evention prides itself on listening to our customers to leverage our ability to automate processes that have always been managed manually.” All Evention products eliminate the need to manage complex activities in spreadsheets or through extensive labor.

Evention, a leading provider of hospitality management solutions, has automated complex hospitality tasks in marquee hotels across North America. The scalability of the Evention web application suite enables the software to support properties ranging in size from small boutique hotels to one of the largest casinos in the world located on the Las Vegas strip. Additionally, the Evention solution has been built with the flexibility to allow integration with existing hospitality systems including Delphi, Daylight, Micros, InfoGenesis, ADP, Kronos, SAP, UltiPro, Infinium, and others.

Evention has a reputation in the hospitality industry for solving the automation of complex back office processes. The Evention GratMaster product is utilized to automate distributions of gratuities, tips, and commissions in virtually every leading hotel brand in North America. The solution ensures accuracy and security, increases productivity, and drastically reduces direct labor, management, and adjustment costs. Originally, the solution was built to manage complex banquet gratuities but has now been expanded to include numerous areas, such as spas, in-room dining, butlers, limousines, concierges, nightclubs, restaurants, and casinos.

Evention is the hospitality management system that changes everything – replacing outdated and inefficient methods with robust automation. Evention is the hotel software that enables you to reduce your scheduling, labor forecasting, gratuity management, and drop/dueback tracking to minutes each week so you can focus on your core duties. Best of all, it easily fits into existing processes and applications. To learn more, please visit www.eventionllc.com.



Posted: 2010-07-14

ORLANDO, Fla. – June 21, 2010

Evention LLC Showcase Two New Products at HITEC 2010 to Complement its Hotel Software Suite Built With the Latest Microsoft Technologies ORLANDO, Fla. – June 21, 2010 – Evention LLC is thrilled to formally announce the release of its two latest hotel software products at HITEC 2010. Evention Secure Drop and Evention Shufffler have greatly expanded the Evention suite adding capabilities for cash and dueback management as well as banquet labor forecasting and scheduling.

Evention LLC Showcase Two New Products at HITEC 2010 to Complement its Hotel Software Suite Built With the Latest Microsoft Technologies

Evention LLC is thrilled to formally announce the release of its two latest hotel software products at HITEC 2010. Evention Secure Drop and Evention Shufffler have greatly expanded the Evention suite adding capabilities for cash and dueback management as well as banquet labor forecasting and scheduling.

Using Microsoft technologies, Evention has created a scalable web application that has automated complex hospitality tasks in marquee hotels across North America. The scalability of the solutions enables the software to support properties ranging from a small boutique hotel to one of the largest casinos in the world located on the Las Vegas strip.

The Evention suite takes advantage of the latest Microsoft technologies including the .NET Framework 4.0, Microsoft’s platform for building applications, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services. With this strong platform, Evention is able to offer the application in the cloud as software as a service, eliminating the need for its customers to manage additional IT infrastructure. Additionally, the technologies utilized have enabled Evention to provide integration with systems including Delphi, Daylight, Micros, InfoGenesis, ADP, Kronos, and a host of others.

“Evention shares a similar viewpoint, understanding the value of technology that is scalable and familiar from day one for the hospitality industry and its employees,” said Fred Bentfeld, General Manager, U.S. Distribution & Services, Microsoft Corp. “Using Microsoft’s familiar and easy-to-use software interface, Evention provides reliable, high-performing solutions that enable hoteliers to streamline and automate the gratuity and event management process - helping save time and money, improve accuracy, and enhance employee productivity.”

Evention has a reputation for solving the automation of complex back office processes. The Evention GratMaster product is now utilized to automate distributions of gratuities, tips, and commissions in virtually every leading hotel brand in North America. The solution ensures accuracy, increases productivity, and drastically reduces labor and other costs.

At HITEC 2010, Evention will officially introduce Evention Secure Drop and Evention Shuffler to the hospitality market. Evention Secure Drop tracks employee drops, duebacks, banks, and the audit of the cash clearing against POS systems. Gone are the days of paper deposit logs, hand-written envelopes, and manually managing the audits, over/shorts, and duebacks.

Evention Shuffler extends the time and cost saving abilities of Evention’s gratuity and wage application by allowing for events and employees to be scheduled automatically even in complex scheduling environments such as rotations or seniority based schedules. The same easy to use interface allows for employee swaps, creation of weekly/daily schedules, and accurate forecasts. Best of all, once the schedule has been set, no additional work is necessary to process the wages and gratuities since the employees are already in the Evention system.

As a Microsoft Certified Partner, Evention has demonstrated a superior level of expertise with Microsoft technologies as well as a focus on delivering customer value. The company continues to build upon this relationship to stay on the forefront of technology enabling solutions that were not possible even a few years prior. Evention is the hospitality management system that changes everything – replacing outdated and inefficient methods with the robust automation. Evention is the hotel software that enables you to reduce your scheduling, labor forecasting, gratuity management, and drop/dueback tracking to minutes each week so you can focus on your core duties. Best of all, it easily fits into existing processes and applications. To learn more, please visit www.eventionllc.com.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners

Posted: 2010-06-22

(Chicago, IL) May 1, 2010

Same Company, New Name!

We are pleased to announce that on March 23, 2010, Evention, LLC was formed to compliment the parent company Vitruvian Solutions. As the company has grown and Evention has become a recognized name in the hospitality industry, we felt that aligning the product brand and company name would be best for our customers. We expect this to be a positive change and we thank you for working with us as our name recognition and product awareness spreads.

New Name, New Products!

In addition to the name change, we are excited to announce two new products to compliment the Evention suite. Evention has expanded well beyond gratuity and wage management for banquets and other outlets. Evention Shuffler, our new food and beverage employee scheduling and forecasting product, and Evention Secure Drop, our employee drop, dueback, and employee bank management system, have now been released to the public! • Evention Shuffler extends the time and cost saving abilities of our gratuity and wage application by allowing for events and employees to be scheduled automatically even in complex scheduling environment such as rotations or seniority based schedules. The same easy to use interface allows for employee swaps, creation of weekly/daily schedules, accurate forecasts. Best of all, once the schedule has been set, no additional work is necessary to process the wages and gratuities since they are already in Evention! • Evention Secure Drop extends Evention beyond gratuity management into the tracking of employee drops, duebacks, banks, and the audit of the cash clearing against the POS systems. Gone are the days of paper deposit logs, hand-written envelopes, and manually managing the audits, over/shorts, and duebacks.

We are thankful for all the feedback provided by our clients and our proud to offer solutions that addresses those needs. We look forward to our continued partnership together!



Posted: 2010-05-01

(Chicago, IL) March 1, 2009

Vitruvian Solutions partners with McCormick Place convention center to provide Evention™ to automate scheduling, wage calculations, and gratuity distributions

Chicago – January 6, 2009 - Vitruvian Solutions, the leading provider of gratuity management software for the hospitality industry, has signed an agreement with Chicago Restaurant Partners to implement Evention at McCormick Place. Evention will automate scheduling, wage calculations, and gratuity distributions for all events managed at McCormick Place, North America’s largest exhibition and meeting facility. 

Evention has earned a reputation for eliminating cumbersome Excel spreadsheets, reducing errors, and minimizing time consuming manual data entry. Originating as a software application to automate banquet payroll for unionized hotels, Evention is now used to automate gratuity distributions in a wide range of union and non-union properties for departments ranging from in-room dining and restaurants to banquet and convention services.  Evention creates one integrated point of entry for gratuity data that is shared between department mangers (banquets, in-room dining, restaurants, etc), payroll and accounting.  This elimination of data re-entry improves accuracy, eliminates errors, and also minimizes time being spent to audit. 

With hundreds of events occurring weekly, McCormick Place has seen the value that Evention will add to manage the facility. With the recent completion of McCormick Place West, more events can be booked to the space, all of which will be easily managed through Evention.  With so many events, conferences and tradeshows occurring weekly, eliminating manual data entry provides managers more time to focus their attention on customer and employee needs and provides employees with the confidence they will be paid accurately and timely.

At McCormick Place, Evention will streamline and automate methods that are commonly used in handling gratuity and service charges across convention centers and the hospitality industry. By providing a more efficient and reliable payroll process, time spent on manual entry is minimized and all calculations become automated. McCormick Place, along with Chicago Restaurant Partners, sets high standards in customer satisfaction, and these best practices carry over to employee compensation practices as well. Implementing Evention will result in an integrated flow between the sales system, Evention’s suite of scheduling, wage, and gratuity distribution modules and the payroll system.  This automation and integration will virtually eliminate payroll adjustments and provide detailed reports that ensure employees completely understand their gratuity distributions.

McCormick Place is the first convention center in the United States to streamline their gratuity payroll process by implementing Evention gratuity software.  Evention has been utilized by hotel properties throughout North America and is now expanding to include convention centers.    “We are excited to be working with Chicago Restaurant Partners to streamline scheduling, gratuity distributions and wage calculations at McCormick Place.  Drawing on our experience with hotels with large meeting spaces, moving into the convention center space is a natural fit for Evention,” states Mike Baldinger, a founding partner of Vitruvian Solutions.  “As with our hospitality customers, we look forward to automating the entire gratuity management process, saving McCormick place both time and money.  The conventions services industry requires the need for dynamic and quick changes to reflect customer needs – Evention allows for this flexibly while ensuring that employees are paid accurately amid constantly changing schedules and revenues.”

McCormick Place is the premiere and largest convention center in North America. Located minutes from downtown, it attracts close to 3 million visitors each year. Compromised of four state of the art buildings it offers over 2.6 million square feet of exhibit space and 173 meeting rooms.

Evention is the event gratuities management system that revolutionizes everything – replacing outdated and inefficient methods with the automated management of wages, gratuities distributions, and adjustments. Evention enables hotels, clubs and convention centers to reduce employee compensation efforts to minutes each week and easily fits into existing payroll processes. To learn more, please visit www.vitruvianllc.com/evention.

For more information about McCormick Place visit www.mccormickplace.com.

For more information about Vitruvian Solutions visit www.vitruvianllc.com

 



Posted: 2009-03-01

(Chicago, IL) December 23, 2008

Recent news article regarding lawsuits over inaccurate gratuities

Please review the recent article describing lawsuits based on service charge distributions in Hawaii. The news highlights the importance of managing gratuities in a structured and systematic way. Additionally, the need to generate reports to accurately define and monitor how service charges are being distributed becomes very apparent.


Posted: 2008-12-23

(Chicago, IL) December 11, 2008

Vitruvian Solutions discusses cost savings benefits of Evention in interview with Hospitality Tech Advisor magazine

Please check out the interview with Eddie Francisco, Sales Manager, and Erik Nejman, Managing Partner, in the Special Issue of Hospitality Tech Advisor - Technology in Troubled Times. The issue focuses on some of the key technologies that are being deployed during these tough economic times by properties looking to save money through improving their processes and reducing the time necessary to distribute their service charges across all of the tipped outlets in their facility.


Posted: 2008-12-11

(Chicago, IL) June 6, 2008

Vitruvian Solutions, the leading provider of gratuity management software for the hospitality industry, today announced it has entered into a master services agreement with Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

Pursuant to this agreement, Vitruvian Solutions will be rolling out Evention, its event gratuity distribution software, to additional Starwood hotels that manage complex gratuities to compensate banquet and other employees. Starwood properties, including the W Chicago Lakeshore and the Westin Boston Waterfront, have been leveraging Evention to manage the banquet payroll for their properties and improve the performance and accuracy of their gratuity calculations.

“We are thrilled to be selected by Starwood to help automate their gratuity distribution process”, stated Mike Baldinger, partner at Vitruvian Solutions. “Evention is being used to simplify and add process to distributing gratuities at hotels across North America including locations in New York, Boston, Florida, Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco, and Hawaii. Each region has its own unique process and labor contracts which can be setup and automated with Evention. We are excited to help Starwood streamline this process.”
Evention is the event gratuities management system that changes everything – replacing outdated and inefficient methods with the automated management of wages, gratuities distributions, and adjustments. Evention enables hotels, clubs and convention centers to reduce employee compensation efforts to minutes each week and easily fits into existing payroll processes. To learn more, please visit www.vitruvianllc.com/evention.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with approximately 900 properties in more than 100 countries and 155,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, W®, Westin®, Le Méridien®, Sheraton®, Four Points® by Sheraton, and the recently launched AloftSM, and Element SM. Starwood Hotels also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit www.starwoodhotels.com.


Posted: 2008-06-06

(Chicago, IL) April 22, 2008

Evention, Gratuity Distribution software, will be showcased at HITEC 2008 hospitality show

Hotels, clubs, convention centers, and cruise ships manage millions of dollars of payroll manually in Excel spreadsheets as they process banquet payroll, room service, porterage, valet, and other areas that involve complex gratuity distributions and wage calculations. Vitruvian Solutions LLC will be presenting their latest release of Evention, a software solution that automates this process, at the upcoming HITEC 2008 hospitality tradeshow to be held June 16-19, 2008 in Austin, Texas. After launching Evention to the hospitality market at the 2007 HITEC show, the software solution is now being used to manage shift pay and service charge distributions across the country in cities including Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco.

Since the original launch of the product, Vitruvian Solutions built upon its detailed industry research related to the current methodologies used for distributing gratuities and managing complex wages in areas ranging from banquet payroll to room service distribution. Trends vary greatly between cities as labor contracts are negotiated individually. However, even at the city level, great variations in compensation practices for gratuities, wages, covers, and other payroll details can be found in sister hotels just blocks apart.

The labor rules and contracts are constantly evolving. This presents numerous challenges for banquet managers, paymasters, and controllers. For example, in New York City, an upcoming contract negotiation may require hotels to distribute a percentage of room rental in addition to typical food and beverage distributions. Such a change requires process changes and increased labor across numerous departments.

During the 2008 HITEC show, in addition to demonstrating Evention’s capabilities, Vitruvian Solutions will be presenting a number of trends in banquet payroll that have been uncovered while working with hotels and clubs across the country.
Labor contracts for hospitality employees are always developing and management of the wage and gratuity rules grows more complex. Not only are gratuities split in a variety of methods, but additional requirements such as “guaranteed minimum amounts”, “fixed gratuities”, and management of multiple gratuity pools or pay periods must be tracked and paid with accuracy.

In many locations, this complexity is often managed by one or two key banquet or payroll managers that have an intimate knowledge of the employees and the local labor contracts. When these critical personnel are sick, on vacation, or transitioning from the hotel, payroll errors become common as the property struggles to train a new employees to manage this process.

Another issue with the manual process is security. Millions of dollars in banquet revenue are managed by the key employees and often this process relies on manual input and spreadsheets. In some locations fraud becomes an issue as any person that gains access to the spreadsheets can adjust numbers to favor himself or other personnel. In other cases, employees access the payroll data without authorization simply to evaluate their current weekly earnings or to compare compensation to that of their peers. Management of sensitive payroll data in such an unsecure format would not be tolerated in most industries but because of the complexities in banquet payroll, this practice is instead commonplace.

The hospitality industry of course has checks and balances in place to help minimize these issues. Employees and labor unions often require detailed reports on daily or weekly levels to provide comprehensive data behind the pay period’s compensation amounts. In many cases, these reports are manually compiled utilizing the same key personnel that understand the entire process. The time to build these reports can be time consuming and expensive. Audits are another area that require compilation of different time periods of payroll data. In many cases, the audit process can be extremely burdensome and time consuming as employees must examine old spreadsheets or paper trails to rebuild past payroll calculations.
The time involved with the entire gratuity management and payroll process can be significant. Normally, one department (banquets or payroll) shares the majority of the work, but employees may be dedicating a daily percentage of their time to manually recording or compiling this information. Instead of a banquet manager or captain being out on the floor working with clients or other employees, these personnel are often spending time behind a desk in a roll that is not related to their job description. In addition, communication issues between departments can further increase the management time and complexities of this process. When a change to event revenue or to employees’ hours is required, this often requires a manager to track down a person in another department to apply updates. This burden further complicates the entire process.

These general trends along with specific regional details and developments will be part of the information that Vitruvian Solutions will be presenting to attendees at HITEC 2008.

At Vitruvian Solutions, we specialize in helping businesses manage their operations more effectively. With an emphasis on expert design, Vitruvian Solutions creates easy-to-use, flexible, integrated business applications developed with the latest Microsoft technologies. Vitruvian Solutions is a Microsoft Certified Partner and proud recipient of the Microsoft Front Runner Award for Evention.
For more information, visit us at http://www.vitruvianllc.com/evention or view this press release at:


Posted: 2008-04-22

(Chicago, IL) January 2008

Please see our "Divvying up the Tip Jar" article in the December 2007/ January 2008 issue of the HFTP Bottomline Magazine. The article provides industry insight into gratuity distribution tools and trends across North America.


Posted: 2008-01-01

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