• Tanausú Riera, New Projects Executive at AMResorts.
• Josep Garriga, Purchasing Director at H10 Hotels.
• Javier Marí, IT & Online Marketing at Insotel Group.
• Xavier Pampín, Administration Director at Quantum.
• Álvaro Garrido, Purchasing Manager at Hotusa.

In these pandemic times, some of the sectors that are suffering most from the consequences of social distancing measures and restrictions are the hospitality and restaurants industry, along with the distribution of food and beverages. In this situation, some companies have decided to hibernate, while others have decided to overhaul their internal processes from top to bottom in order to emerge stronger from this crisis. 

Efficiency and optimisation are now priorities for many businesses. In this scenario, we have talked to 5 experts in these fields to get their views on what to expect over the coming months in relation to digitisation in the HORECA channel. 

Accelerating the digitalisation of business 

Renew or die. In March 2020, many businesses had to pull down the shutters and took advantage of the moment to do a long-overdue task: digitise their businesses. “The crises resulting from the pandemic have boosted business creativity to look for new ways of doing business, and in many sectors one of the keys has been the promotion of digitalisation in their businesses”, explains Agustín Bosch, Purchasing Director at Satocan, a business group that manages the most sought-after complexes in the Canary Islands.

In the same vein, Héctor Martín, VP Global Sales at Voxel, says “most companies, especially large ones, have long been aware of the importance of digitalisation and the pandemic has only accelerated these processes. On the other hand, those companies that had not yet drawn up a digitalisation plan have been forced to do so in fits and starts. We note that the pandemic has helped to raise awareness of the importance of digitisation and has accelerated the adoption of technological tools.” 

In the same direction, Andreu Martínez, Director of Procurement at the Viena chain of restaurants, says: “The pandemic has pushed us towards digitalisation; it has accelerated the pace in terms of project implementation”. 

Alberto Ferreira, Hospitality Director at Campofrío Spain, adds “technology has gone from being considered an accessory to one more element of the ‘new normal’ in all hospitality businesses, large and small”.

More categorical is Enric Almiñana, Corporate Procurement Director at ABBA Hotels. “Digitalisation has advanced more in a few months than in recent years. So much so that those who have not kept up to date in this area have lost money or have had to close their business”. 

Automation of all kinds of processes 

The direct consequence of the acceleration of digitalisation is the automation of all kinds of processes. 

In this sense, Enric Almiñana of ABBA Hotels highlights the impulse of takeaway and delivery and the new ways of contracting hotel services in the direction of co-working. Also the advance towards big data, artificial intelligence and RPA policies. 

Something similar is predicted by Alberto Ferreira of Campofrío Spain: “The development of take-away services is important, as they have become the main alternative to in-store consumption”.

For his part, Héctor Martín emphasises business models: “those companies that based their business model on the physical point of sale have had to open or promote new sales channels and digital interaction with the customer”. And he reflects on the business culture of companies: “Organisations will accelerate their change management processes to become more agile, connected, collaborative, flexible, innovative and open to be able to digitise all links in the value chain”.

At this point, it is important to note that many new technological tools are currently emerging in the market to cover all business needs. Now, large, medium and small companies have a wide range of possibilities to digitise and automate their processes. It is therefore important that they choose tools that are modular, flexible and easy to integrate with other systems. The aim should be to be able to “implement tools that cover specific needs but that are scalable, i.e. that allow for increased functionality and that are easily integrated with other solutions, adapting to the life cycle of each company,” explains Héctor Martín. 

The importance of the back office in the post-Covid-19 era 

The five experts agree that the digitisation and automation of back office processes will be key to the sector’s recovery. 

Voxel’s VP of Global Sales explains it very clearly: “Traditionally, companies have favoured the digitisation of all those tools that will help improve customer relations or increase sales, to the detriment of the back office, where administrative tasks continue to have a high percentage of manual work. Companies are now starting to focus on the digitisation of these administrative processes, as maximising the efficiency of back office processes has become a key element for the sustainability and scalability of the business”. Furthermore, he adds that “process automation must be transversal: the digitisation of the front must go hand in hand with the digitisation of the back”.

Something similar is explained by the Corporate Purchasing Director of ABBA Hotels: “the application of technology to the outside is proportional to the need for internal electronic management, they go hand in hand, it is inconsistent to work with external electronic processes and continue with less advanced internal processes.  The digital organisation always goes in-out”. 

“The digitalisation of back office processes will evolve exponentially, we are already working on it in many areas of our company and different sectors, automating processes such as purchasing management, pricing, supplier catalogues, marketplace…”, explains Bosch, from Satocan. 

In a more practical sense, speals Ferreira of Campofrío Spain, the digitisation of back office processes “not only allows resources and efforts to be redirected towards employees or other activities that generate value, but also helps to reduce the costs derived from this management, and contributes to improving the sustainability of the business”.

In this sense, the Viena Procurement Director is clear, we are heading towards the “automation of processes that do not add value to companies”. 

The digitisation of administrative processes will undoubtedly mark a turning point in the competitiveness of companies. Those who have understood the importance of digitalisation and automation have taken advantage of these months to renew all their processes. Those who, on the other hand, continue to rely on continuing to operate as before, are losing speed in a world that will either be digital or it will not be.

• Enric Almiñana, Corporate Sales Director at Abba Hotels.
• Agustín Bosch, Sales Director at en Satocan.
• Andreu Martínez, Procurement Director at Viena.
• Alberto Ferreira, Hospitality Director at Campofrío España.
• Héctor Martín, VP Global Sales at Voxel.

The economic activity of the travel sector has been one of the most affected by the COVID-19 crisis. The rentability of the travel transactions has decreased, payment guarantees have declined and, consequently, credit availability has been reduced to practically zero levels. 

In this context, the last session of the baVel Digital Summit was held last October 14th,  where key actors of the sector analysed the current situation of the travel sector with data from the last 6 months.

Participants agreed on the industry having to redefine the contracting policies and analyse the businesses’ costs structure, where the financial department will have a key role. In the same way, digitalization and processes optimization will be essential to help mitigate the losses. 

New scenarios for the travel sector 

“Covid recovery will vary across sub-verticals, markets and sectors”, assured Ana Arjones, Manager Enterprise Partnerships at Mastercard. According to Mastercard, and based on data of expense recovery in small independent hotels in 2020, the booking volumes in travel agencies has decreased by 75% compared to last year, domestic tourism is recovering its activity, especially in North America, China and Europe. Travellers prefer independent hotels, where security measures and social distancing is easier to maintain. 

Source: Mastercard. Agreggated volumes: including debit, credit, national and cross-border.

On the other hand, international travel shows slow signs of recovery and is expected than in 6 months recovery will still be under 50%. According to the data of the hotel distributor FastPayHotels, last-minute bookings, millennials and domestic travel has prevailed over long haul and long-distance trips. 

Source: World Bank, UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Skift Research estimates. August 2020.

On this line, Pancho Pérez Salazar, Business Development Manager at Comercia Global Payments, outlined the dramatic reduction of the international tourism expense, wherein Spain losses could raise up to 70,000 million euros. 

Source: Caixabank, INE.

According to data from FastPayHotels, one of the main challenges the industry will face is lack of credit: “there is less credit in the market. If insurance companies do not provide credit, the travel industry will have to rethink the payment system”, assured Àlex Gisbert, CEO at FastPayHotels. 

Digitalization of the financial department 

During the talk, participants agreed on the need to optimize the financial department as a key element for the recovery. According to the Fintech Kantox, and looking into last 6 months data, 56% of financial departments that use manual processes expect an increase in the workload in the next 6 months. Furthermore, 81% expect to handle the upcoming workload with the same resources. 

Source: Kantox, October 2020.

According to Antonio Rami, Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Kantox, it is time to use the paralysis time to optimize operations and internal processes to become more efficient. “Ironically, now is the time to invest and opt for technology and employee empowerment”, outlined Rami. 

The event had more than 100 live-viewers. You can watch it again here: 

And, remember that tomorrow, October 21st at 4.30 pm, we will present a new session of the baVel Digital Summit: “Exploring payment risk mitigating strategies in the hospitality space”. You can still register here: 

Once more, Voxel celebrates World Tourism Day. This year, and more than ever, we would like to share a positive message to the sector and, as always, contribute to pushing forward the recovery together. 

The world has changed and the new normality has redefined our lives. But also, we have shown our best side: cooperation, solidarity, empathy, resilience and teamwork, especially at the workplace. 

Due to the strict measures and lockdowns that has entailed the coronavirus crisis, tourism has been one of the most affected top economic sectors. Travelling and bookings have decreased enormously and uncertainty hasn’t allowed us to set an exact date for the recovery of the normal, which will undoubtedly be different. 

The World Tourism Organization (WTO) has decided to commemorate the day focusing on international cooperation as the key to the recovery of the sector. Furthermore, the WTO has also emphasized the importance of the rural communities and its role to preserve the cultural and natural heritage of each country. This way, the theme of this year is: “Tourism and rural development”, where tourism is an important leading employer and a major economic pillar. 

At Voxel, we believe that the recovery of the sector is linked to the digitalization and automation of processes; and the cooperation between industry players so that companies can win competitivity and trust will be recovered inside and outside of the industry. This is why we have worked for more than 20 years to boost digital transformation and help companies be more efficient with electronic invoicing and B2B payments processes and in VAT recovery technology. Today, more than ever, we firmly believe that we are facing an opportunity to keep reinventing the travel sector and build a sustainable and more robust industry. 

Find out the solutions we bring to the travel industry and discover how we helped leading companies be more competitive through digitalization in our case studies. 

Happy World Tourism Day!

Find out how baVel help to digitize the supply chain process of H10

In 2013, H10, one of the largest hotel chains in Spain at present, started its national expansion and consequently, its invoicing volume increased rapidly. 

The hotel chain started to notice some inefficiencies in the supply chain, mainly caused by manual management, storage and reconciliation of invoices and making business-growth unsustainable. 

At this point, H10 decides to work together with baVel, the invoicing platform of Voxel Group. Its main objective is to digitize the whole procurement process of its hotels and, especially, the invoice reception. 

Thanks to baVel, H10 has streamlined all the procedures of its supply chain, obtaining extra benefits such as automation reconciliation, traceability, accessibility and mitigation of manual and repetitive tasks, which lead to reducing the average payment time with its providers. 

Would you like to know how much could H10 save and how its processes improved? Download the full case study here: 

Find all case studies here.

Introducing technology to the processes of the Hospitality sector will be essential to streamline internal management and recover business activity. The challenges for the sector will imply digitization, automation and process standardization, especially for the back-office departments. 

This is what RIU Hotels&Resorts, DINO and Barceló Hotel Group agreed on during the last session of the baVel Digital Summit, held last Tuesday, June 30. Experts agreed on the digitization of internal processes being key to raise competitivity and increase resources optimization. Two key aspects that will play an important role during the sector’s crisis. 

Benefits of the digitization

According to Inés Fernández, Responsible for Financial Processes and Digital Transformation at Barceló Hotel Group, the main challenge the company is facing is adding value to the employee’s side: “We want to minimise manual tasks so that employees can focus on more valuable work and design innovative and efficient solutions”. At the moment, thanks to the baVel platform, the group is issuing electronic invoices to their providers and their final objective is to “have 0 paper invoicing” in the near future. 

On this line, Javier de los Santos, Administrative Development Corporate Director at RIU Hotels&Resorts, reassured the importance of digitization of back-office processes to eliminate manual intervention and redirect employees effort. According to De los Santos, “at the moment baVel is our corporate technology partner”. RIU has digitized its supply chain (issuing orders, reception and reconciliation of invoices) and connect automatically with its purchasing suppliers through baVel. 

DINO’s Key Accounts Supervisor, David Vilà, offered the distributor point of view on this matter. He highlighted the importance of efficient billing procedures that allow invoicing the customer, but also improve communication between partners and the purchase centre. “Thanks to the automatic reconciliation and faster invoice reception of the electronic invoicing platform baVel, we have shortened the average payment term between 6 and 12 days”, assured Vilà. 

Future expectations: adaptability 

Lastly, panellists emphasised the adoption of the electronic delivery note as a solution that will allow making processes more efficient, but also minimise the physical contact among employees. “It helps us to eliminate duplicate work”, said DINO. 

To Barceló Hotel Group, the priority now is “to apply technology where is needed”. At the same time, RIU Hotels&Resorts is working on introducing BI tools to optimise the administration of supplies purchases. 

Companies of the Hospitality sector will have to make an effort to digitize and adopt new technologies that will help streamline internal processes. At the same time, adaptability and change management will play a key role in facing the current situation and challenges. 

Due to the Covid crisis, the Egyptian Government has implemented legal measures to stop the spreading of the pandemic. This way, the Egyptian Finance Ministry introduced an electronic invoicing system compulsory for VAT-registered businesses in the country. 

Electronic invoicing in Egypt 

Egypt is one of the first countries in the Middle East to implement electronic invoicing. The purpose of the Government is to have more control over taxes and reduce the fiscal evasion at the same time. 

This new measure is expected to control the Covid pandemic, as it will help minimize physical contact and respect security measures. 

This way, the registered taxpayers will have to issue electronic invoices containing a digital signature of the invoice issuer and the unified code for products and services offered. All of which will have to be pre-approved by the Egyptian Tax Authority (ETA).

  At the moment, the Government has not announced the details and specifications to issue electronic invoices. However, the local Tax Authority is working on the last details and the order will be enforced as soon as they publish it in the official Egyptian Gazette.  

Advantages of electronic invoicing 

Companies are putting an effort to automate and digitize processes during this crisis. Now more than ever, it is important to cut costs and reduce non-valuable manual and repetitive tasks through technology. 

On this line, electronic invoicing provides multiple benefits, specifically to the Administration Departments, such as mitigation of errors and increase on productivity thanks to the automation of processes. 

On the other hand, it also contributes to cut costs by reducing the paper and having more documentation visibility and control. In the Touristic sector, these competitive advantages are key to free the back-office departments and provide more efficiency. 

In this line of work, baVel, the electronic transactions platform of Voxel Group, is specifically designed for the industry’s workflows and Hospitality sector. It provides extra benefits such as traceability, automatic reconciliation, universal compatibility with management systems and the possibility of closing the billing cycle with B2B payments. 

Digitization has become a key aspect for retail companies in The Dominican Republic. The current security and social distancing measures are promoting that companies explore new technologies to change the daily processes that required physical contact, such as cashing checks and invoices. 

However, not all companies have the same needs of digital transformation. Especially, small and medium-sized companies that do not have many resources. 

On this matter, and after the success of the last session of the baVel Digital Summit, baVel’s team in Voxel Caribe wanted to prove to small and medium-sized providers that the digital transformation is accessible. Companies will only need a computer and Internet connection to start the digitization transformation. Companies that started this process and are currently using the baVel’s platform explained their experience during a Workshop held last May 12. 

Digitization, from the purchase order to the electronic invoice

The transactions platform baVel allows digitizing the supply chain from purchase orders to invoices, supply reception, claims and credit notes. 

“baVel allows us to receive purchase orders, and digitize and process them into our ERP; saving time and reducing errors to almost 0”, assured Julio Adames, IT Director at Álvarez & Sánchez. A&S was one of the first companies to start the digital transformation with baVel, “the fact of having baVel’s tool made our lives easier”. 

On this matter, they highlighted the adaptability and agility as some of the multiple benefits of having the transactional information on one point. “We eliminate the duplicate work and focus on added-value tasks”, pointed out the CEO at Ditex, Joan Juliá Calac. 

baVelPay, the elimination of checks 

On the other hand, companies also agreed on the importance of having a solution that allows them to pay while keeping social distancing and maintaining the company’s cashflow. 

On this line of work, baVelPay offers electronic payment services and let companies simplify their verification and issuance process and eliminate checks. This allows companies to rapidly adapt during the crisis and follow the security measures of the Dominican Government. “baVelPay eliminates the need to cash checks physically, which allowed us to work remotely and keep the social distancing measures”, highlighted Julio García, Controller at United Brands. 

Furthermore, baVelPay also contributes to cut costs in the administrative department and reduce the average collection period thanks to the automatic reconciliation of invoices. In Paola Hernández’s words, Operations Director at Le Buffet, “With electronic payments we could cut our costs and eliminate processes while saving time”. 

The e-Commerce 

Lastly, e-Commerce is a solution for companies with less technological capacity. In this case, the supplier can digitize the product’s catalogue to make clients order electronically. 

A simple solution to adapt daily processes into the digital world. It also adds some competitive advantages, such as reducing manual errors and increasing visibility and traceability of products. 

The digital transformation of the retail sector 

Once again, we could analyse first-hand how the retail industry is facing the current exceptional situation. Applying technology to the processes of the retail sector will be key to keep moving forward. A transformation that is becoming more accessible to all company sizes. 

If you would like to find out more about baVel and how it can help your company in the digital transformation, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. 

The actual change of paradigm is bringing new opportunities that could become the new norm for the travel industry. In the context of one of the major unprecedented crisis, the travel industry is working on the projects that before came second. These new initiatives could redefine the market as to how we knew it.  

Thereby, new realities like online check-ins and check-outs, a better sanitization and becoming cash-free could become the norm and put aside the practices we did before. Most of which are unsafe in the new context. 

“The major we had before it is not valid anymore. We have to think out of the box”, assured Marco Torrente, Chief Financial Officer at Europe WebBeds during the baVel Digital Summit, held last May 7th in an online session. 

Therefore, during what some have called a maintenance shutdown, experts agreed on that the industry has to bet for new technologies that would help them streamline their processes to adapt the strategy according to the demand and direction of the market. “The crisis brings new opportunities. We have to be flexible and digitize the customer journey”, added Valerio Duchini, Chief Executive Officer at B&B Hotels Italia SpA.

Flexibility, innovation and transparency

On these lines, Mike Carlo, Board Member at HEDNA (Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association), shared his vision as an industry representative and highlighted that the sector should bet on new initiatives such as the Open Payment Alliance. The OPA is a new standard of B2B payments that aims to create a unique payment channel for the touristic industry that will replace the current distribution channel: “We will experience a significant human change and we will have to renegotiate the trust in the industry”. 

In a highly uncertain context for the sector and with a lack of trust, flexibility, innovation and transparency will be key for the recovery. Even though it is mostly said that it will be a slow and difficult process, as it was one of the first affected industry and probably one of the last ones to recover, this crisis will bring new challenges that could define again the travel sector. 

Yesterday, May 4, Àngel Garrido, CEO at Voxel Group, participated in Plan de choque para turismo, an initiative of Inturea and Growtur that want to share knowledge of professionals of the travel industry about the current situation and what actions can be taken to face the crisis. 

During the interview, Àngel Garrido talked about automation and digitalisation of the back-office processes of the touristic companies. An aspect that according to Laura Rampérez, Co-Founder and CEO at Inturea, will be key to face the current context for most touristic companies. 

Opportunities for the new context 

When asked about the reactivation of the sector, Àngel Garrido highlighted the situation of uncertainty shared with most professionals of the sector. However, they all agreed in the progress of secondary projects during this time: “This crisis will open new opportunities”. 

Some examples of it are new projects that some hotels are working on at the moment to adapt and advance in the new context, such as online check-in and check-out, mobile apps or the implementation of new technologies. 

On this line, baVel, the leading electronic transactions platform of Voxel Group for the travel industry at a global scale and in the HORECA channel in Spain, helps automate the invoicing process for the touristic companies. This way, companies are more efficient when reconciling and tracing invoices, as well as dematerialising the administrative department. “We help companies eliminate or automate non-valuable processes”. 

On this matter, Garrido added that when companies are in a crisis situation, they usually analyse the costs structure and it is when automation and digitalisation of processes become more important. 

OPA, the B2B payments standard 

In line with the automation and digitalisation of processes, another key aspect of the interview was the management of B2B payments in the touristic sector. 

Currently, Voxel and HEDNA (Hospitality Electronic Distribution Network Association) are propelling the Open Payment Alliance next to other players of the sector. The OPA is a new standard that offers a unique channel for B2B payments for the touristic industry that wants to suit the needs of the sector and eliminate the inefficiencies of the current distribution channels. 

The aim of the OPA is to connect the technology players and boost new payment methods, as well as streamline the associated processes. 

baVel Digital Summit

Finally, Laura Rampérez pointed out that Voxel is currently making a series of online conferences, framed in the baVel Digital Summit, that want to share the vision and experience with some of the top-notch professionals about the challenges and opportunities to face the current situation. 

This week, there are three sessions that will analyse the Retail sector in the Dominican Republic, the HORECA channel in Spain and the travel industry in the context of a global crisis. 

Furthermore, Xavier Ginesta, President at Voxel Group, will also participate in “Plan de choque para turismo” about the payments standard of the OPA, next Friday, May 8 at 6pm. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky_VjopUF5I&feature=emb_logo