The answer: Interfacing. Pretty much all sites these days have a Property Management System (PMS) to handle their reservations and guest accounts. So why not interface their revenue generating guest services with their PMS?

If a guest is checking out and their staff has to print out their accommodation bill from the PMS, then a phone bill from the telephone system, then an Internet bill, and so on, it can get pretty confusing – not to mention all the time and paper wasted. With every additional task the reception staff have to perform, the potential for lost revenue increases when one of the bills is overlooked (especially at 10am when the reception desk is ten deep with guests in a hurry to check-out).

Irrespective of the size of the property, it is now possible to interface all your guest services with your PMS to consolidate all revenue streams into one simple bill. Easy for your staff; easy for the guest; and easy for the manager! No more wasted time or paper and more importantly: no more lost revenue through human errors.

One of the other benefits to interfacing their guest services with the PMS is greater control and automation of tedious and time consuming tasks. For example, when a guest checks in or out, many PMS can trigger events in the guest service systems: enabling/disabling phones (with the guest names displayed); creating/deleting HSIA accounts; enabling/disabling certain VoD channels; etc.

Many people are surprised at what guest services can now be interfaced with a PMS. As technology advances, engineers are finding all kinds of ways to make our lives easier. Take the humble mini-bar for example. For a long time, hospitality sites have seen the mini-bar as a constant source of lost revenue: staff fail to ask and guests fail to declare… Yet paying staff to spend a few hours interrupting guests to check and restock their mini-bar is seldom cost effective and does not do any favors for the sites’ goodwill with the guests. Unfortunately, it is usually not until the housekeeper gets there to find a few empty bottles and candy bar wrappers that the site realize and have to try and recoup the costs from a guest that’s long gone.

So, what’s the solution to this ongoing problem? Interface the mini-bar to the PMS! Some engineers (probably sitting around a hotel room emptying the contents of a mini-bar one night), have come up with a clever mini-bar that is full of sensors to detect the removal or replacement of any items. It can then send that information to the PMS to charge the guest and also communicate with an inventory control program that can order replacement stock when they reach a predetermined level.

There are many ways that interfacing guest services makes running a hospitality site easier and can increase their return on investment – contact us to investigate your options today!

Gold Coast Business News | July 2009

Sascha Voevodin has tried and tested the entrepreneurial process. Second time around, he believes he’s got it right. His company Votech Industries has created the Net Retriever software which provides instant compatibility between hardware and software platforms in the hospitality industry. The 28-year-old advises fellow entrepreneurs to sacrifice their free time in pursuit of success.

What inspired you to start up your company?
This is actually my second company. The first one I started when I was 18 to help out another small company that needed someone to install and maintain their specialised hospitality software. That kept me very busy for nearly two years until I discovered how much tax I should have been paying.

It put me off running a business for a while and after working for another company for a few years and learning where I went wrong I got the confidence to try again. Once you have worked for yourself it is very hard to work for anyone else.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in your business? What has been the biggest reward?
Trying to focus on one project that will pay the bills has been a challenge. Ideally it would be our software projects but in reality our hardware projects have been a better investment so far. We hope to change that this year. There were so many opportunities and temptations to try other revenue sources but in the end it was the ones we created ourselves that make us the most money. Seeing our software go from conception to release has been very rewarding.

What advice can you give other young entrepreneurs looking to start up a business?
Be ready to sacrifice — a lot. Being your own boss sounds like the ultimate freedom to those employed by a boss that works them hard, but in reality you will be your own worst boss. You must be prepared to work seven-day weeks until all hours of the night for several years because if you don’t turn a profit (and often you won’t), you have no one else to blame but yourself. No sick days, no holidays, no excuses. Then, hopefully, when the business starts becoming profitable you can learn to delegate your workload. Only then will you find that freedom, well, a taste of it anyway.

Can you please explain your product/services?
Our main product that we have been developing since 2004 is our software called Net Retriever. It came about from the need for a communications platform between various hardware and software systems; primarily in the hospitality industry but we hope to expand to the health and education sectors soon.

Before we started, there was nothing in the market that adequately provided the level of communications that these systems required. So Net Retriever was created to take the output of any hardware or software system and translate that into the format required by any other hardware or software system. Thus, providing instant compatibility.

What effect has the downturn had on your business and what have you done to overcome this?
In a way, it has actually been great for us. The beauty of the business model we developed for our Net Retriever software is that we don’t charge the vendors a cent to become compatible. Once we add their system, they become instantly compatible with every system that we have, or may add to, our library.

Before we came along, every hardware and software vendor had to sign non disclosure agreements (NDA); negotiate over the interface details; spend several weeks or even months to implement and test the interface.
Now they just sign one NDA with us and provide their data in any format they want.

If they already output a format we have in our library they may already be compatible otherwise we have a great system for universal translation and can add their format in a matter of hours. This saves them tens of thousands of dollars and allows them to enter a market quicker knowing they will be able to communicate with any system simply by selling Net Retriever as part of their solution.

Who are some of your major clients? What are some of the bigger deals you’ve worked on?
Even though we have been developing Net Retriever for five years now, most of that time has been spent perfecting the translation engine. It took nearly two years before we made our first sale to a site in Victoria.
Since then we have installed our middleware in many of the major hotel, motel and resort groups around Australia and New Zealand but until now have not been actively marketing.

Everything was word of mouth and our sales came mainly from our compatible vendors selling the product for us. To supplement the income required to support this extremely long software development cycle we have installed guest broadband solutions in many hotels from Cairns to Melbourne.

Do you export?
Now that Net Retriever is finally ready for a commercial release we have plans to start exporting very soon. Starting with a trip to the USA for the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC). We hope to make many new strategic alliances at this conference to help kick off our global marketing plans.

How do you strike a work life balance?
This has been one of the most difficult things for me to do – and I still have trouble with it. To keep overheads low, my programmer and I worked from our respective homes for many years. This was great for keeping my costs down but not for my home life. With your home as your primary place of work you end up always working.

Combined with the pressure to succeed before our capital ran out I was working myself into the ground. Luckily I was able to start getting a return on our investment after a few years and with my wife’s help I have been able to take a day or two off each week since then. We even get a short holiday once a year.

What are the future plans for Votech Industries? What growth do you predict for 2009-10?
We plan to continue making deals with more and more hardware and software vendors around the world to grow our library of Net Retriever compatible systems. We also hope to make some deals with the major hotel chains to provide solutions for all their interfacing needs.

We will do this by attending as many meetings, conferences and trade shows as we can along with advertising with old and new media. We have already made many great business contacts through sites like LinkedIn and Twitter and recommend them to any business that wants to grow.

What is your business philosophy/mantra?
Work smart, not hard. Although, as any entrepreneur will tell you: it can be hard work, working smart.

Read the full article »

Sydney, Australia, August 24, 2007

NetComm, a leading Australian provider of communications products and solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with Votech Industries, a Queensland based support organisation, to compliment and strengthen their infrastructure offering.

The relationship offers NetComm the ability to bundle in room support services to infrastructure division, expanding the NetComm offering from the hardware element that provides ADSL and internet access into hotel rooms, through full integration with a sites PMS and now in room support for hotel guests between 7am and 11pm AEST.

“We welcome this partnership as we see that this now allows us to make a comprehensive offering to our reseller base of our infrastructure products. The momentum within the hospitality sector to now provide in-room internet access is finally growing, something that we have been forecasting for the last 18 months” said Rochelle White, Channel Manager Infrastructure.

“This service now allows our resellers to confidently offer a solution to a hotel that can be remotely managed, always on, fully integrated so that the guests drives their own experience. Guests do not need to interact with hotel staff, which for the hotel is a great cost saver. This product extension, now also decreases the requirement for the hotel staff to know anything about their internet service, they will just be involved in collecting the revenue. The NetComm solution allows the reseller to provide services to the hotel and to outsource the in room guest support to a business that is dedicated to ensuring that the guests connection experience is a good one” she said.

Votech industries managing Director Alex Voevodin sees that this match is an opportunity to grow his organisation. “Our NetComm partnership expands the possible market opportunities that we have as a support business” he said. “Votech is a well established support business and with this new reseller channel available to us we see that our business can cater to supporting these new hotel sites, an extension of our current business model, whilst leveraging our infrastructure to increase our revenues” said Alex.

NetComm have launched this new product range from Votech called “Broadband Available” effective immediately and will commence a rollout thorughout Australia and New Zealand.

About NetComm

NetComm is Australia’s leading provider of broadband hardware solutions. It holds a commanding position in the key markets of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), high-speed networking, wireless, hotspots, VoIP and DSLAMs. NetComm products are researched, developed and engineered in Australia to meet local requirements and conditions. The company has a history of sustained growth and innovation, and is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX:NTC). For more information visit www.netcomm.com.au

About Votech

Votech Industries is a private Queensland business operating out of the Gold Coast. With support contract with major hotels such as Oaks Group and Dreamtime Resorts, the company focuses on outsourced technical support for hotel guests. For more information please visit www.votech.com.au

Read the full Media Release »

Gold Coast Bulletin | October 2006

People need dedication and perseverance to start a business, says Alex Voevodin from IT company Votech.

The company won the Emerging Business category of the September Gold Coast Business Excellence Awards.

Based in Surfers Paradise, it was formed in 2004 by Alex Voevodin to provide hardware, software and technical support to the hospitality industry.

Mr Voevodin said he started the business with the encouragement of his wife and business advisers.

“Everyone has ideas about what would make a great product or service, but most people let that idea slip away or file it in the back of their minds, only to see it come from another company some time down the track,” he said.

“After a lot of late hours and working too many weekends I turned my idea into a successful software package used by hospitality sites all around Australia and New Zealand.

A lot of dedication and perseverance is needed, especially when starting a business from scratch with a product that is new to the market.

“More than once I considered going back to regular employment, but when I looked back at all the hard work and the potential the product had, I refused to let it go to waste.”

The company’s core is Net Retriever, a piece of software that sits in the middle of two or more hardware and software systems and handles the communications.

This type of software is often referred to as middleware.

“The main benefit of Net Retriever is that it is very flexible.

“We can write an interface to receive or extract data from just about any hardware or software system and translate it into any other format for insertion into another system.”

Mr Voevodin said there were many obstacles to overcome when building the business.

“Overworking was a big hurdle,” he said.

“Because we worked so long without any discernible success or income of any kind, it was hard for my wife and me to take a break.

“We funded everything ourselves so we had to keep our overheads as low as possible.

“Thankfully we were encouraged to continue when our first product caught on as a useful tool to help hospitality sites run their business more smoothly.”

Mr Voevodin has some advice for people planning to set up their own business.

“Running a business is not for everyone, but if you are thinking about starting a business the best advice I can give is you must believe in your product or service.

“Much of the success I am experiencing now has come because I have a product I believe in and know the market well.

“That comes through when I am talking to others – my enthusiasm engages them and consequently they become excited too.”

FAST FACTS:

• Votech is a hardware and software development and distribution company that provides guest, patient and student service solutions to the hospitality, health and education industries.
• A website has been set up by Votech for offsite and resident unit managers as a social and educational resource. Go to www.oarums.net.
• For more information on Votech visit www.votech.com.au
• Details on the Gold Coast Business Excellence Awards can be obtained from 1300 887 206 or at www.goldcoastbusinessawards.com.au

Read the full article »

Gold Coast Business News | May / June 2005

Net Retriever is setting the standard in connectivity.

Gold Coast based Votech has developed Net Retriever – a communications package that sits between hardware devices and property management systems (PMS) software. Tech wizard Alex Voevodin says Net Retriever is a universal translator.

“It’s a kind of Switzerland to the software world. It collects data from the hardware and software and converting it into useable formats for any system – regardless of what formats they are using. It is quite a simple concept that has excited a lot of developers and enabled a lot of hardware and software systems to become instantly compatible. The list of hardware devices and PMs that are Net Retriever compatible is growing at a phenomenal rate,” he says.

“Net Retriever is a middleware package that facilitates communications between a multitude of hardware devices used to provide the guest services (such as high speed internet access, voice-over internet protocol and digital video-gaming on demand) and the PMS. This may sound simple but until now, every device had to stand alone or output a format that the PMS would accept. Then every PMS had to develop an interface to transfer data to and from the device using the correct format. A very time consuming (and expensive) way to communicate that has many weak points and an overall resistance to compatibility,” Mr Voevodin says.

Now every device and every PMS exists as separate entities developed by unrelated companies. No industry standard specification has ever been created and no proprietary format has been widely accepted. Generally, devices and PMS send or receive their own proprietary formats to thwart competitors and are bound by non-disclosure agreements – making the widespread adoption of any common format a near impossibility,” he says.

Hotel and resort operators, business people who run operations involving a large number of people will find this system provides a communication asset that was formerly out of reach. Visit www.votech.com.au to find out more.

Security Oz | May / June 2005

Just 13 short years since a Vodafone engineer sent the very first Short Message Service (SMS) of “Merry Christmas” to his colleagues, more than a billion SMS’s are now traveling around the globe daily. They have evolved from their original function as a tool for Telecommunications Companies (Telco’s) to send service status messages to their subscribers, into a communications phenomenon.

SMS has become such an integral part of our society, just like email, it is hard to imagine a world without them. From the teenagers who have adopted SMS as their preferred way of communicating, to voting for your favourite contestant on the latest reality TV show – SMS are here to stay. Even the education system is getting on the SMS band wagon with students now receiving their academic results via SMS.

We humans are not the only ones using the once humble SMS. Innovative companies are now releasing devices that employ SMS to function, like auto alarms that send the owner/police/security company thte GPS co-ordinates of their vehicle when it detects movement; or the soft drink machines that can receive SMS’s and dispense a can of soda charged back to the sender’s mobile account.

All things considered just how secure is the SMS?

There was a recent scandal in the Czech Republic where the leader of the opposition received an SMS invitation for a meeting with the Prime Minister – from the PM’s mobile number – but the PM claims to have never sent the SMS. Someone was able to “spoof” the Prime Minister’s mobile number through an insecure Short Message Service Centre (SMSC) and the Telco’s were unable to deny or confirm its authenticity. Needless to say, this caused quite a panic – not only amongst the political parties, but every mobile user who relied on the assumed security of SMS.

Some insignificant situations where SMS has become the communications medium of choice in many countries include daily petrol prices sent to the petrol stations, people trading shares who send details to stock brokers, and major voting decision in parliament. Can you imagine what would happen if any of these were spoofed? A sense of paranoia has gripped those who are aware of the problem and they are thinking twice before believing anything sent via SMS. If it happened there, it can happen here too – and who’s to say it isn’t already happening?

This scandal has highlighted a major security flaw in the SMS system and has left many mobile users distrusting the SMS as a credible form of communication. Until now, no one had really doubted the authenticity of the SMS. You could see the mobile number of the sender and it did not occur to most people that it might be fake. Still, for most users who only send an SMS to say they are “Running late” and other non critical messages, it has not changed the way they use SMS.

A woman received an SMS in the middle of the night stating that it was her husband and that he was in trouble “Bring cash now!”. She checked the number and it was definitely her husband’s. She grabbed their “emergency” money and ran out the door to his rescue right into the arms of some attackers waiting outside. The husband was fine and no one had touched his phone, but the fraudulent SMS was sent and the mobile service providers could not determine its origin.

 
This scenario demonstrates a very real danger in the future of clever crime, and something that the public should be aware of. The days of blindly trusting the SMS are over. As with every new technology, there are always those who will try and manipulate it to their advantage, including law enforcement agencies. There are an increasing number of cases where SMS spoofing has been used to trap criminals, i.e. setting up meetings where the criminals arrive holding their incriminating evidence.

Rohas Nagpal, President of the Asian School of Cyber Law, has been monitoring the influence of this cyber crime.

“After a detailed study of the concept of SMS spoofing, we have reached the conclusion that at present there is no method for detection and protection from SMS spoofing,” he said. “The reason for this is that the technology used by telecom service providers does not detect spoofed SMSs.”

One way that SMS’s are spoofed on the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network is known as a “Man in the Middle” attack. This works by using a device that pretends to be a mobile phone base station to nearby mobile phones, and appears a mobile phone(s) to the operator network. On the GSM networks only the operator checks whether the phone (SIM card) is authentic – the mobile phone doesn’t verify the authenticity of the network, so “Man in the Middle” can pretend they’re the operator. This attack can be used on both voice and SMS for mobile eavesdropping and possible spoofing/modification.

The Telco’s have made it much easier than that with the introduction of web based interfaces, or SMS gateways. These SMS gateways can be setup legitimately by companies entering into deals with Telco’s where they purchase millions of wholesale SMS messages to on-sell to their customers. They are then given access to an SMS gateway where they can usually specify the destination mobile number, message text and several other variables depending on the application, including the originating mobile number.

So why don’t they just stop allowing them to specify the originating number? Often this is needed to allow for international roaming of mobile users and many website/software SMS gateway providers rely on the fact that the end user can specify their mobile number. These SMS gateways are popping up all over the internet and it is only a matter of time before we see the headline: “Man loses $20,000 on Stock Market Due to SMS Spoofing.”

Unfortunately, with the current setup of the worldwide mobile communications system there are very few options for the average users to protect themselves against this fraudulent behaviour.

A few companies are trying to solve the problem that the Telco’s cannot by introducing various software and hardware solutions. These companies are proposing encrypted SMS’s or using a proxy SMSC with a challenge-response system to prevent fraudulent SMS messages.

The software solutions have several different methods of performing this encryption/decryption of messages. Some rely on both sender and receiver downloading and installing a security application on their mobiles and paying per month, or per SMS, fees to use the service. This approach could become expensive and currently works on a very limited number of high-end mobile handsets.

Another solution, handset independent, is a kind of “central server” that receives SMS’s and alerts the intended recipient via another SMS that they must respond in order to verify their identity before the server will relay the message. Unfortunately, while providing sender verification to help in repudiation, this solution requires the receiver to also pay for an SMS and really takes the “instantaneous” benefit out of the SMS. When time is critical, you don’t want to be messing around with passwords and waiting for replies.

Bladox have invented a device for SIM toolkit implementation called a turbo SIM. It will work in any post-1998 GSM mobile handset and appears as an additional “Secure” menu selection in the phone. It is installed by cutting out an unused corner of the SIM card plastic and sharing the space in the SIM card slot. It is network operator independent and there are no ongoing fees. Once purchased and installed it can be used, unrestricted, to send and receive encrypted SMS’s and can also be transferred from phone to phone. Another benefit of this hardware solution over most others is that no one, not even the network operator, can read an intercepted SMS unless they are the intended recipient.

Anyone not prepared could become the next victim of this mobile masquerade. As more companies embrace SMS for their customer communications, this problem in only going to get worse. Just imagine having your financial details accessed by a cyber criminal because the bank’s new SMS system identified your mobile number.

While the current solutions won’t necessarily solve the SMS spoofing problem overnight, until a more secure mobile communications system is implemented, they are better than the alternative. Stay one step ahead of those who would misuse the technology and encrypt those critical messages.

Alex Voevodin is GM of Votech, a company specialising in providing solutions before you know you have a problem. If you would like to know more, visit www.votech.com.au.

Gold Coast Bulletin | March 2005

Alex Voevodin became a computer expert as a child, helping his friends with computer games. But he doesn’t concentrate on just games anymore.

Now at 25, Alex is inventing software to attack computer problems that emerge as technology evolves.

Rather than fighting current problems like viruses, Alex wants to concentrate on problems that haven’t begun yet.

He recently travelled to Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan to research new hardware systems.

And now he hopes to grow his fledgling IT business from a Surfers Paradise home office to a global player.

“I watch the market and technology trends and see what problems arise and try to pre-pre-empt them,” said Alex.

“I will be developing hardware and software solutions for anything that I foresee as a problem. I’ll try to provide a solution for that problem.”

His latest software, Net Retriever, is the key to his strategy.

“It translates data of high-speed internet access hardware into usable data for the hospitality and tourism industry,” said Alex.

For the computer illiterate, this means it is a gateway between hardware and the hospitality reservation (booking) software.

“It facilitates data communications and tracking throughout large corporate networks,” he said.

He is also marketing mobile phone software to stop ‘SMS spoofing’, which threatens to become a major problem.

SMS spoofing occurs when a hacker ghosts a mobile phone number and sends a text message without the users knowledge and even without possession of the phone.

Alex started his IT business, Votech, at 17 while doing an advance diploma in IT and working in the hospitality industry providing computer service.

He says it was a shaky start, not because of his lack of computer knowledge but because of his inexperience in business management.

“Originally it was very rough,” says Alex. “I didn’t have any idea on how to do the basic business side, especially tax.”

After taking time off to travel and mature, Alex believes he has fixed those problems.

“I have done business courses and adopted a mentor,” he says. “If I fix his computer he will help me with the business side.”

In July 2004, he started work on Net Retriever which he hopes will become as recognised in the computer world as even Google or Microsoft.

“I want to set it as the standard around the world. Even if you don’t understand English, if you see my logo then you know there is quality internet access in the hotel.

“The goal is to have everyone coming through my software.” He currently employs one programmer and is looking to take on at least three new employees.

A South Korea company has agreed to upgrade their hardware for all future sales to match Votech’s software, he says.

“When I am excited about something, I cannot stop talking about it,” says Alex.

Even the long hours are not dampening his spirit.

“Last night I was working until four and up at seven,” says Alex.

To combat the late hours, Alex works in a ‘virtual office’ so that he can do his work anywhere. “If I didn’t, I would never get to see my wife,” he says.

Alex is fortunate enough to be working with, not against, IT rivals.

“The goal is for them to provide the hardware and I’ll do the rest.”

Alex isn’t looking back to the old days when he was helping his friends.

“I’m no longer doing that,” he says, “I’m too busy with my own work.”

Read the full article »