The domestic, privately held hotel ownership and management company has consciously cultivated its senior level managers, most of whom started with the company many years ago and worked their way up.  It is this team that has grown American Property Management Corp. to currently 3,500 employees at 28 properties, including nearly every full-service flag possible.

On the way to phenomenal annual growth, Gallegos and Long were looking for a financial Holy Grail that could relieve the burden on the firm�s accounting staff who routinely came in on Saturdays and stayed until seven or eight o�clock every night.  The ideal system would also eliminate a $36,000 annual courier bill and customize reports for their core group of investors.

They found the right system ten months ago.  The company installed a Web-enabled, centralized accounting system from Aptech Computer Systems, Inc. to manage its 28 properties, 25 of which it owns. 

�We are saving $3,000 per month in courier costs, doing all of our consolidated data entry in under seven days, and I haven�t worked a Saturday or overtime in months,� said Kim Dailey, American�s vice president of hotel accounting.  Dailey began with the company seven years ago as Controller of the Hilton Las Cruces.  �The fundamental problem with sending hardcopy property financials to headquarters for corporate reporting is that every important number has to be keyed in at least twice -- once at the property and again at corporate.  Property controllers were maintaining their own books, running daily audit reports, then sending the information back to headquarters in massive envelopes for consolidation.� 

Aptech�s Webvue® Internet delivery system allows American to design its own on-screen data template that permits properties to enter daily numbers quickly and easily.  Hotel financials are then automatically sent to headquarters for consolidation.  Ms. Dailey continued, �We could have a complete �no-hands� interface to our property systems, but the manual piece serves the purpose of verifying numbers before they are sent back to headquarters.  Webvue® communicates with our Profitvue® central back office and posts property data to appropriate ledgers for daily updates.  On our old system we had one journal entry for the entire month.  Now I can build financials any way I want, with or without a variance column. The new system provides statistical info we didn�t have before.  With the system, properties are entering ledger totals every day so we can track Sundays this month versus Sundays last month.  It frees up our time because properties are entering data on their own.�

Dailey also noted the new consolidated financial statement for American�s properties permits instant past-period general ledger and revenue comparison.  This is what American Property Management was seeking when it began its system search.  �The ultimate destination for our accounting system upgrade was a true business intelligence system with drill-down capability,� said Michael Gallegos, the firm�s president and CEO.  �We started our Aptech project with their business intelligence system in mind.  The back office and web enabled system were steps toward our ultimate goal.  When we are fully automated by year�s end, generating owners� packets and operations will be much easier on a daily basis.�

Gallegos said his biggest challenge in dealing with a core group of partners and investors is that �everybody wants to see something different.  We will be able to build any kind of report instantly and know the information is correct.�

Gallegos targeted a business intelligence product that collapses the time and cost of rapid decision making by operational managers.  The application quickly attaches to, and on demand, organizes any desired combination of operational, accounting, quality control, and industry data, such a Smith Travel Research, with drag and drop Windows simplicity.  The ability to customize owner packets, which American will realize, is generally reserved for companies with hundreds of properties.  Managers may also create �What if?� analyses with a drill down capability through report views. 

What attracted American Property Management to Aptech was the multi-property financial reporting capability and extensive client list of prominent hospitality companies.  Dailey explained, �Aptech specializes in hotel company accounting and business intelligence; we selected them because they know the hotel industry.  We began our upgrade project in 1Q�01 by first standardizing our corporate accounting on Aptech�s central accounting system, then we set up their Internet data delivery module to enable our properties to send in their numbers daily.�

Gallegos concluded, �An important part of our corporate creed is that American Property Management strives to create an environment to optimize the skills and creativity of our employees.  Installing a stronger accounting system that uses technology to take some of the load off our team boosts morale and productivity, and lets the company to be more profitable.  It is an �Excellence� way to do business.�