Insights
Thick server, thin client: nothing to install, nothing to update
Ask how long it takes to add a front-desk PC, and the honest answer at most properties is "when IT can get to it". Ask what happens when the vendor releases an update, and the answer is a site visit, a weekend, and a week of one desk behaving differently from the next. None of that is the software's job. It is the cost of putting the software on every workstation instead of on one server.
The pain: every workstation is a small project
Adding a desk is a ticket. The PC needs the client installed, the right version, the right database driver, the right printer mapping, sometimes a per-seat licence. A new outlet, a seasonal desk, a manager who wants to work from the villa office: each one waits for someone with the installer and the rights to run it.
Updating is a campaign. The server is patched, then every workstation has to follow, one by one, usually after hours. Miss one and that desk runs last month's version: a report that looks different, a button that is not there, a bug already fixed everywhere else. Support calls come in from the desks that were missed, and nobody is sure which ones those are.
A broken PC is an outage. When the machine at reception dies, so does reception until a replacement is built to the same recipe. The recipe lives in one person's head.
Why it happens: the client-server habit
Most hotel systems were designed when the workstation did the work: a fat client with the business logic inside it, talking to a database. That design made sense on a 2005 network. It also means every workstation is a copy of the application that has to be kept in step with every other copy, and the vendor's "upgrade" is really a distribution problem the property pays for in site visits and downtime.
The cost is easy to miss because it never appears on the licence quote. It appears as IT hours, as the spare PC kept "just in case", as the weekend the upgrade took, and as the support call from the one desk that was skipped. The multi-vendor stack multiplies it: four products, four clients, four upgrade campaigns.
How WinX does it: the server is the product
WinX is built the other way round. The application, the business logic and the database live on the server, whether that server is cloud-hosted, on-premise or hybrid: it is the same codebase in every case. Every screen a member of staff uses is a page in a standard browser.
- A new desk is a login. Any device with a current browser is a workstation: the PC already at reception, an inexpensive laptop, a tablet at the outlet, the F&B manager's phone. There is no client to install, no version to match, no per-seat client licence.
- An update lands everywhere at once. It is applied on the server; every browser picks it up on its next page load. Two desks cannot be on different versions, because there is only one place the version exists. A screen improvement can reach every live WinX property in under an hour, and no workstation is touched to do it.
- A dead PC is a swap, not an outage. Any other device, the same login, and reception is back. There is no recipe to rebuild because there was nothing built.
- The workstation can be cheap. The server does the processing, so the desk does not need to. Existing hardware carries on; replacements are chosen on price and a screen size, not on a vendor's specification sheet.
- Work is wherever the browser is. The owner reads the P&L on the day from anywhere with an internet connection; the group controller reaches every property on one installation from one login.
Proven where the desks are many
Petronas Pengerang runs more than 1,000 rooms on a single WinX deployment, and Manila Ocean Park + Hotel H2O run an integrated park, hotel and around 40 outlets on one installation: hundreds of screens across reception, ticketing, retail and F&B, none of them carrying a copy of the application. Multi-property groups such as The Signature Suites add a property without adding a rollout. EHORS has run central-plus-local server synchronisation for multi-location customers since 2005, before "cloud" was a common word; the thin-client model is what that experience turned into.
Common questions
- Does WinX need to be installed on front-desk or back-office PCs?
- No. WinX runs on the server and every screen opens in a standard browser. A new workstation is a device with a browser and a login. The optional mobile apps for staff, waiters and guests are the one thing that is installed, and they are companions to the browser, not a requirement.
- What happens on a workstation when WinX is updated?
- Nothing. The update is applied on the server once and every browser gets the new version on its next page load. There is no client to redistribute and no way for two desks to be on different releases. A screen improvement can reach every live property in under an hour without anyone touching a workstation.
- What does a WinX workstation need to be?
- Anything that runs a current browser: an existing desktop, an inexpensive laptop, a tablet at the outlet, the F&B manager's phone. The server does the work, so the workstation is not where processing power or a client licence is spent. When a device fails, it is swapped for any other device and the user logs in again.
- Is this only for cloud hosting, or for on-premise too?
- Both. WinX is the same codebase cloud-hosted, on-premise or hybrid, and the thin-client model holds in every case: the server is the one place that is installed and updated, wherever it sits. Kiosks, cash machines, receipt printers, biometric clocks and door locks keep their own drivers or firmware, and they talk to that same server.
Count your workstations. Then count how many of them you would like to never touch again.
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