EPIC
Property
Management system
White Wolf Software
(707)987-4597
Info@EpicSoftware.net
Below is a sampling of some of Epic's features. Epic is so radically different from it's competitors that a checklist of features can't adequately be used to compare Epic to it's competitors.
SIMPLE TO USE.
While Epic is feature rich, it's simple to use. That's the crux of what Epic is all about. There are no complicated windows full of cryptic knobs and dials that intimidate the user. Instead the clerk interacts with a graphical depiction of your hotel. The result of this is that Epic has the shortest learning curve of any PMS product available. A lower training curve means that your clerks become proficient much quicker. And you save time and money, both at the time of installation and into the future with new employees.
INTERACTIVE FLOOR PLAN DISPLAY.
Epic provides the interactive floor plan which White Wolf Software pioneered in 1989. While many competitors have imitated this feature, none offer the interactive functionality that Epic does. The floor plan allows you to perform most room or guest functions with just a click.
Epic's tape chart gives you a view of room status and availability over a period days. This allows you to maximize your occupancy by spotting holes in your room assignments. Like the floor plan, the tape chart allows you to perform most room or guest functions with a click.
CUSTOMIZABLE.
Epic is fully customizable to do business the way you do business. The only predefined charges and credits are cash and room rent. From there you can define as many as you wish. You can add as many rate tables, source of business codes, rate types, and so forth as you wish. Each clerk has the ability to choose their own display settings such as wallpaper (within manager approved limits).
SECURE.
Epic allows you to specify exactly which functionality is available to which employee. There's no need to grant an employee access to one feature just because you need them to have access to another feature in the same "Access level". Each feature is individually controlled on a clerk-by-clerk basis. All transactions are recorded with the clerk's name attached. You can restrict any employee from closing Epic or in any other way switching to another program. This allows you to control what software is being used on your machine while you're away.
CUSTOM REPORT EDITOR.
Epic includes a report editor which allows you to completely redesign any printed output provided by Epic. Click and drag objects to drag them around the page with this WYSIWYG design. If you've ever used a Windows word processor, you'll find it very easy to create your own reports, confirmation letters, registration cards, etc. You can even add your own graphics or logos.
TOUCH SCREEN DESIGN.
Epic's design allows for the use of either touch screens or mice. While it could be said that any Windows program inherently supports touch screens, Epic has been specifically designed for touch screens. For example, no right mouse button clicks are required as touch screens do not support this. All controls in Epic have been enlarged to provide ease of use with the touch screen. Even the standard windows controls have been enlarged.
MULTI-DOCUMENT INTERFACE.
Epic conforms to Microsoft's multiple document interface standard. This means than you can pull up any feature at any time. If you're in the middle of doing something when a guest walks in, you can pull the registration form up on top of what your doing. After checking the guest in you can resume your other work right where you left off. You can switch between tasks at any time just as you can have several Windows programs running at the same time and switch between them at will. You can, for example, check guests in or out while you're running the night audit in a window in the background.
REAL TIME COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN WORKSTATIONS.
Each Epic workstation communicates with other stations in the network via TCP/IP to notify each other of changes. This means, for example, that as you check a guest into a room, the a suitcase will immediately appear in that room on all other workstations. While this may seem to be a small detail, other systems require that you press a "Refresh" button and will give you an outdated availability image if you fail to do so.
VERSATILE FOLIO LINKING AND SPLITTING
Epic allows you to split a guest bill any way you wish. Each guest can have up to three folios and a master folio. At the time the reservation is taken, or any time thereafter, you can assign which charges should go on each folio with a simple click-and-drag. Once the folio is split, all charges posted to that guest will automatically be routed to the correct folio. If charges are assigned to the master folio, then they'll automatically be routed to the master folio's bill. This allows you to flexibility to handle any situation like "The master folio is paying for phone calls but not room rent". A single screen allows you to spread or link charges from any folio to another.
MODULARIZED SERIAL INTERFACE.
Epic's serial interfaces run as stand-alone programs that do not requite Epic to be running. This means that you can still be posting phone charges even if you take the computer out of Epic. Epic's interfaces maintain a consistent look and feel to allow for easy installation. Because each program is designed for a specific task, a minimum amount of information is required to install the interface. This makes Epic interfaces far easier to install then the more common "One size fits all" interface design.
INTERNET AWARE.
Epic provides internet awareness in several ways. Epic's on-line newsletter allows you to get up-to-the-minute information from our web site, on-line, in Epic. Of course this does not grant your front desk clerk's access to "Surf the net" because it restricts them to our support information site. Epic also provides Email capability with it's DBMail product. This allows you to send form letter style confirmation letters, direct bill invoices, cancellation confirmations, and so forth. You can even configure Epic to automatically send a "Thank you" letter as soon as the guest checks out. If you have a remote office, you can create a list of authorized email addresses to which clerks can send messages just as they would send a message to another clerk in the hotel.
AUTOMATIC TAX HANDLING.
Epic automatically applies the correct taxes when ever a charge is posted. Taxes can be either flat dollar amounts or percentage taxes. Epic will automatically tale into account tax exemptions and will adjust off the correct amount of taxes when a charge is adjusted.
PACKAGE PLANS.
Epic supports package plans as a standard feature. You can include as many charges of any type as you wish and they will automatically be posted to the guest bill during the night audit, just like room rent. With each item added to a package plan you can specify whether it should be automatically summed into a single line item on the guest's bill.
SPECIAL INVENTORY.
Like room availability, Epic tracks the availability of special inventory items such as cots and cribs. This allows you to assure that a special inventory request can be honored.
VERSATILE RATE STRUCTURE.
Epic allows you to create as many rate tables as you wish and is flexible enough to handle almost any type of rate structure. Epic even includes a package plan capability so that you can summarize a guest bill instead of providing the usual detail. Both the package plan and special inventory features allow you to post charges other than room rent as part of the night audit.
AT A GLANCE AVAILABILITY
Epic's availability display allows you to see the availability for any room type on any day in an information packed spreadsheet format. With one click you can view the rates for each room type over the same period for any rate type. From this same window you can close out any combination of room types or date ranges to future reservations. Room type closures can be restricted to guaranteed reservations or minimum length of stay requirements. The window also allows you to preview the rates for all room types for any rate type over any range of days.
GUEST HISTORY.
Epic retains every bit of information about a guest's stay. You can easily append or reprint a guest's bill for as long after the departure date as you wish. All guest history information is available in the report editor so you can create custom reports detailing your guest history information.
GROUP RESERVATION.
Epic supports group reservations as a standard feature. The group editor is laid out just like the regular registration window so that you can easily create a group even if you do this infrequently. The group editor adds the ability to treat the whole group (or any subset of the group) in a single operation. For example, you can bulk check-in a group or make changes to all folios within the group.
MAINTENANCE.
Epic tracks maintenance notes attached to any room or "General" maintenance notes which apply to common areas such as the pool. These notes just denote a problem, they're just a menu detailing the problem. If a room needs to be removed from service you can mark it as out-of-service which restricts it from being used and also carries a memo detailing the problem. Any room can be removed from service for as long as you wish and as many times in the future as you wish.
INTEGRATED FAX CAPABILITY.
Epic's fax module provides the ability to fax items such as reports or confirmation letters. This capability is integrated into the fax module so that you don't need to buy a third party fax program. This allows you to fax items without reentering the phone number or having to train your clerks how to use a separate fax program. You can even include faxes in the night audit so that a corporate office is automatically faxed a copy of the final audit report when the audit is run.
CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY.
Epic is not an updated Windows 3.1 program. It was designed from the ground up to take full advantage of the latest technology such as DCOM.