C.A.R.E. Launches Inventory Matching System At Conference
June 27, 2009 by Perspective Magazine | Timeshare & Fractional Reviews
For as long as I can recall, C.A.R.E. members have expressed a desire for a bulletin board to communicate availability among its member companies. Now that C.A.R.E. is made up of over 160 member companies the concept of a having a bulletin board is finally becoming a reality.
Mike Pnematicatos,Merlin Software
After a year of research and development, followed by intensive Beta testing, the Cooperative Association of Resort Exchangers (C.A.R.E.) finally released the exclusive, C.A.R.E.-supported, online Inventory Matching System (IMS) to their members at their recent conference held in Wisconsin Dells. Known as the C.A.R.E. IMS this automated system was developed for C.A.R.E. by the team at Merlin Software.
While C.A.R.E. companies have definitely grown accustomed to completing exchanges and wholesale purchases by email, the volume of inventory being solicited and orders being sought to be filled today has made email more burdensome. Additionally, as email is an “open highway” for communication, it is perhaps not the best means to channel business communication from company to company with a trade association. Conversely, the IMS would channel requests to only would be suppliers while giving only CARE members in good standing a secure forum to conduct their business.
As more and more CARE Member companies use the IMS to exchange and purchase inventory from each other, business will be done faster and more efficiently while actually improving fulfillment opportunities. The IMS even allows for searches for inventory to remain pending for as long as a member company needs the search to continue without ever having to resubmit the inquiry. The only way only to accomplish this presently is to hope that your fellow CARE members are browsing through your old email blasts.
If one takes the time to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of emailing against the advantages and disadvantages of using the IMS that Merlin has customized for CARE, it is a no brainer.
There are currently approximately 25 C.A.R.E. members signed in the IMS with numbers growing daily. The objective is to have all members using the IMS by the end of the year.
“We are all very excited about this new IMS,” states Alain Carr, C.A.R.E.’s newly elected president, “and we could not have chosen a better company to work with either. Merlin has been terrific.” Alain added: “Our goal is to bring unique value added benefits to our members and with the IMS we believe we have made a huge leap in the right direction. The IMS does not belong to C.A.R.E. We simply facilitated its development and deployment for the benefit of all of our Members.”
The IMS that the Merlin team (lead by Mike Pnematicatos) brought to C.A.R.E. has been the product of years of dedication to the vacation ownership industry. Mike’s dream has always been to be able to use technology to allow participants in the industry to trade with each other. When the opportunity to develop the IMS for C.A.R.E. came along Mike jumped at it and he used his knowledge gained over many years to design and build the IMS.
Mike is an internationally known and respected authority on vacation ownership including timeshare, fractionals and points clubs. He commenced property development in 1983 and in 1987 pioneered the development of one of South Africa’s very first points clubs. Not that well known is that he also undertook fractional ownership developments in the early 1980’s, well before this product became the buzzword it is today.
Together with his partners, he built one of South Africa’s largest timeshare and points club development and management companies with over 40000 members in four different points clubs and 16 managed resorts.
he business was vertically integrated and covered every aspect from property development through marketing and sales to after sales management. Integral to the success of this business was the fact that the software on which the business operated was developed in house. He partnered with Roy Peres and Club La Costa, one of Europe’s largest and most successful timeshare developers to form the CRI Points System, the forerunner of RCI Points.
He sold his various timeshare businesses to RCI in 2000 and assisted them for close to three years in designing and launching the RCI Points program in Europe and the USA. He has spoken at international conferences in Europe, USA and Australia on the future of timeshare and points clubs. He has also served on the boards of a number of timeshare resorts and owners’ associations and has occupied the position of chairman on many of these boards.
His main business interest today is the ongoing development of software for the Vacation Ownership Industry. His extensive knowledge and firsthand experience of how to manage these developments and clubs means that the software he designs supports the best practices in vacation ownership business processes.
The IMS runs over the internet on a single database that is segmented into secure sites for each Member and is available exclusively for C.A.R.E. Members to use. In short, all Members can now for the first time trade reciprocally with each other for rentals and exchanges using a secure online system. This system has replaced emails, telephone calls and faxes. While this “old” technology served them well, the time had come for a new technology to replace emails jamming up inboxes and telephone calls too numerous to handle.
Accessing the IMS over the web using secure encryption technology is safe with no data being compromised. The IMS saves time and increases efficiency immeasurably. Balance of trade tracking is automatic as is tracking of who owes who for rentals. Access to the IMS is free for all Members to display inventory. And there is a small transaction fee paid by the Member who receives Inventory from the System.
Mike and his team, together with a dedicated group of C.A.R.E. Beta testers all worked tirelessly in order to deliver an easy to use System. The IMS allows members to display their inventory to each other in a variety of ways to suit their business strategies. All Members run their operations differently and the IMS caters for all these operational nuances. In fact, it even allows members to choose who they do and don’t want to trade with.
Based on the feedback from Beta testers the Merlin team was able to develop and deliver three ways to trade in the IMS:
1. Those members who have inventory available can display this for rental or exchange by depositing it directly into the IMS. Other members can then search or browse for what they need in the deposited inventory and then request a booking for rental or exchange
2. Those members who manage or operate large resorts and who don’t have the time or resources to keep depositing or updating their availability in the IMS are able to perform a onetime set up that allows them to display their full inventory potential. Those looking for inventory in these resorts can simply click to make an enquiry. If there is availability then the inventory is deposited to the IMS for the enquirer to book a rental or exchange.
3. And then finally the IMS allows those with inventory to set up the regions in which they have availability and those who are looking for inventory can make a general enquiry for a region and the IMS matches the enquiry with those who may just have inventory to deposit.
The IMS also acts as a business tool for those who use it and tells them when they have something to do. It does this by sending emails and also displaying all actions that need to be attended to in a Heads Up Display (HUD). As the Beta testers found, those using the IMS don’t really have to think about what to do next. The HUD actually tells them when there are tasks to be performed and a simple click though from the HUD gets them to where they have to be, to do what it is they have to do.
The left side shows you the units you have deposited and the requests against them. While the right side shows the status of request that you have made.
Drop downs open automatically when action needs to taken.
Merlin will show you how easy it is to set up your property.
They will teach you how to load or deposit inventory that you wish to move,and show you how to make a request for your members.
The IMS is unique in that something like this has never been done before in this industry. Mike often tells the story of how he has been to so many conferences and heard so many speakers urging the industry to have a central system for inventory sharing. Now C.A.R.E is leading the way and proud to be pioneering a paradigm shift that will forever change the way business is done.
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