Having discussed the importance of comprehensive Reservation Manager solutions in Property Management Software in our previous blog, today we unlock the secret ingredient behind software excellence: Integrated Architecture.
First, be prepared for a groundbreaking revelation: the majority of PMS providers fail to harness the full potential of vacation rental software due to the absence of a high-performance Integrated Architecture design in their platforms. Join us as we uncover the secrets behind developing property management software that takes eliminating errors, automating tasks, liberating your time, and maximizing productivity to levels unmatched by other systems. Integrated Architecture is the secret ingredient behind any truly high-performance PMS solution.
Why Integrated Architecture Matters
Quality features and comprehensive solutions are paramount and should not be compromised, but this is just the starting point for a best-in-class PMS solution in today’s market. In actual fact, it is the degree to which all the solutions across a comprehensive system interoperate and how the hundreds of discrete features perform together in conjunction with one another that defines how far a PMS can truly go in delivering productivity gains. For the secret here, look no further than Integrated Architecture (IA).
IA ensures seamless interoperability among different PMS features, in ways which shift the paradigm completely. It’s no longer just a question of whether a platform can eliminate errors and increase productivity, but the degree to which it can deliver on these and other promises. In essence, the paradigm of purpose-built software versus manual tools is outdated. So too is the paradigm of simply counting features and solutions in prospective PMS systems. Today’s property managers need to look at performance, and specifically at the overall performance of one platform versus another vis a vis their total needs. For this, Integrated Architecture is your guide. You want to look for a clear demonstration of Integrated Architecture at work in a prospective provider’s platform.
A good way to do this is to ask the prospective provider to show you features in action and to explain, with examples, how many tasks typically get done by the system automatically for every task you do yourself. If that ratio is from 3 or 4 or even 6 to 8 to one, you may not be getting a good return. A PMS platform that embraces a solid Integrated Architecture methodology in its design should be able to do 6 to 8 tasks as standard for every action you initiate, and that ratio should frequently go as high as 15 or 20 to one. It’s this kind of interoperability that makes all the difference in the world, not just in productivity gains, but also in terms of making software much more agile, such that it can be used in many different ways, rather than having to adhere to one rigid method of doing things. Such flexibility will often enable users to even find use cases for feature-functionality that the provider themselves did not fully envisage at the time. This is another hidden gem of IA.
Below is a high-level illustration of a comprehensive Reservation Manager within a bigger PMS environment. Notice how all the different infrastructure and solutions areas are interconnected. This is meant to indicate that they are working in harmony with one another. When any action or development occurs in one area, all other relevant actions or updates are facilitated by the system at the same time elsewhere, through automation or semi-automated workflows. In this way, you become the conductor, not just of a small ensemble, but a symphony orchestra. Meanwhile, errors and the need for multi-tasking are not just reduced, they are practically eliminated, thereby ensuring productivity and time savings are both truly optimized:
Understanding Integrated Architecture
IA is about maximizing interoperability within a system, i.e., making all the different features in a system work well, not just in isolation, but seamlessly in conjunction with each other across a platform; especially one with many different solutions and features.
A common trap system designers and developers fall into when building a complex web application is to take workflows from the real world that are based on a manual tools way of working and simply replicate them in a dedicated software environment, without first taking full stock of all the advantages and new ways of working, which purpose-built software that’s well coded can provide. In essence, they make the mistake of forklifting real-world manual workflows into a software environment largely as-is, without first reimagining and fully optimizing them. This can easily happen when technologists, including even very good ones, lack the requisite industry skills or experience for the market they are courting, such as property managers in the STR industry.
What commonly results when this happens is that while the different workflows have been brought into the software, they are still largely handled independently from one another, such that extensive multi-tasking persists. This kills time, is conducive to errors, and really shouldn’t be necessary with good software. While users of such systems may have moved from paper to pixels or from different tools to one master tool, they haven’t achieved nearly the productivity gains that they potentially could have done.
Conversely, a proper IA strategy always proactively looks for synergistic opportunities between different features and workflows and exploits them to the fullest by interconnecting and multi-purposing feature-functionality wherever possible, while still ensuring the system remains user-friendly. This is why IA, when done well, is ultimately one of the biggest determining factors regarding how much time and effort a PMS can save, relative to manual tools or other platforms. Ditto for the percentage of errors it can prevent or eliminate.
Another hidden gem behind a sound IA methodology is that it can make it relatively easy for the platform provider to respond to custom-development requests that will generally be much harder for providers with more rigid platforms where the existing code may be far less exploitable.
Integrated Architecture is the driving force behind software excellence, making it essential for maximizing the potential of vacation rental businesses. Adopting Property Management Software built on powerful IA ensures seamless interoperability among different solutions and features, and this is what takes the elimination of multitasking, the reduction of errors, and optimization of productivity and time management to new heights.
Ready to experience the transformative power of Integrated Architecture? Take the first step towards unlocking vacation rental software excellence by booking a demo at 365Villas today. Witness firsthand the true essence of IA and discover how it can transform your vacation rental operations.
