PMS and PBX not communicating - PBX Info :: Your Free PBX, PABX and Telephone Information Resource

***hhallett*** · 06-11-2008, 12:32 AM

I hope that I can word my inquiry well enough.

I have a hotel customer that has had the problems of displayed guest names not having changed in the past couple of weeks, guest mailboxes and phones having to manually have their COS changed and room housekeeping status changes not registering.

They had a new Property Management System (PMS) called OPERA installed a couple of months ago. For the 3 years prior to this the only issues suffered by their previous PMS were when the link between the PMS and the MerMail would drop. A quick reboot of the old PMS and they were back in business.

The company that installed the new PMS had a little trouble getting the system to accept the data stream from the PBX/MerMail but finally came up with a solution that worked.

Anyway, I've recommended to the customer that they initiate a database swap from the PMS to the PBX/MerMail to try to alleviate what I think is a loss of synchronization issue. The customer says that they aren't willing to do this until I have proved that the problem is not with the PBX/MerMail.

The PBX-VM link and the VM-PMS links both show as up, guest phone COS can be manually changed from the Operator's consoles, guest mailbox COS/password can be changed from the Guest Administration Console (GAC) and if I print the Room Status Report from the switchroom terminal it matches what the Housekeeping Supervisors have written in their log.

I know that the link between the PMS and the PBX/MerMail is mostly a one-way communication from the PMS to the PBX/MerMail. If I put my laptop on the VM-PMS interface cable I'm not certain if I'm seeing the correct data information as it all looks foreign to me.

My knowledge of this is limited. Is there anything else that I can do to prove whether the problem is or is not with the PBX/MerMail?

jack · 06-11-2008, 09:03 AM

Take the middle of the road approach and tell customer that you need a vendor meet.

It sure sounds like you have proven that the switch is A-OK.

After the vendor meet make sure that the customer is made aware of the outcome/resolution so that they will know that you were not blowing smoke up their skirts.

Just curious is all of the work on the PMS covered by their maintenance contract or is this supposed to be billable?

I run into this cr*p all of the time, the phone guy is always available and he does not charge me for his efforts so I call him rather than the 3rd party vendor who most of the time has no clue how the PBX works and is not even that familiar with his own product. Of course this same vendor will always blame the phone system without even looking at his gear.

***hhallett*** · 06-11-2008, 11:45 AM

I'm the part-time onsite for this customer and, since everything I've done so far with this has been on the PBX/MerMail end, it is covered by their maintenance contract. Were I to go beyond that then it becomes billable.

The PMS comes under the responsibility of the hotel's IT Department but, because of recent staff changes, it's a bunch of new folks having no experience with any PMS or any understanding of the current one. I presume that the PMS is still under warranty and a vendor meet would be preferable but it seems that the vendor is in Kansas City with no one local to service the silly thing. The hotel is worried that, should they have a OMS Tech flown out to California, if the problem turns out to be the PBX (which I'm pretty damned certain it's not) then they'll have to big bill to pay from the PMS vendor for a wasted trip.

tim_abney · 06-11-2008, 02:57 PM

Sounds like you've done what you can for free, they should be willing to move on with a vendor meet. If not, what else can you do but start billing for your time too. That may be the only motivation they understand.

**Chas2002** · 06-11-2008, 07:45 PM

I agree with the above.

We use opera with HMS 400.

My guess is you've lost sync to the switch. If you're at the site you can take a quick look at the short-haul modem (it's a small black box) that pushes the datastream. Each time I have a sync problem - it's usually the modem (someone placed in loopback, unplugged the power, etc).

Chas2002

***hhallett*** · 06-13-2008, 04:00 PM

I'd like to thank everyone for their aid and support.

It is now midday on a Friday. I've watched the front desk check guests out this morning and I'm still seeing only the

PT [STX]IS TEST[ETX] [BCC]
MT [ACK]

and the

MT [STX]ST <ROOM DN> PR MI 0[ETX]
PT [ACK]

messages. What I am still not seeing are either the

PT [STX]SE ST <room DN> CH OU (or IN) [ETX][BCC]
MT [ACK]

or the

PT [STX]SE CP <room DN> <Name> [ETX][BCC]
MT [ACK]

messages.

Housekeeping says that their still not seeing the room status changes in the PMS software.
The Hotel has finally accepted that it's a PMS problem.

I've been told that the vendor has been contacted and that they are "working on it".

**Chas2002** · 06-14-2008, 07:41 PM

Good luck. When they find the solution, be sure to post back.

ozzie · 06-15-2008, 10:26 PM

I am assuming here that you are using MerMail (and apologies if you have stated that above).

IF you are using mermail, why haven't you looked at the Link Monitor. This can be found in TOOLS and is invaluable in looking at link comms issues.

In part it will tell you what the messages are that are passing over the link, and it will also give you the direction of the data flow, ie: PBX to Mail, Mail to FOS, FOS to Mail (FOS = Front office System or PMS)

Only a suggestion, but it has proven many issues in the past.

Also you do not mention the PBX type. On an assumption that it is an Opt 11 varient, AND you have an RSM installed, they are known to fail. The link monitor is an aid again in proving this. Beware though that if you want to change an RSM, the Mail MUST be powered down.

Good Luck

Oz

***hhallett*** · 06-16-2008, 04:25 PM

Well folks, after all was said and done it turns out that the problem was in
...
...
...
Drum roll please.
...
...
...
The MerMail!!

Yep. This was a strange one to me. When I looked at the messaging stream on the maintenance terminal all that the PBX was receiving from the PMS for close to 2 weeks was PT [STX]IS TEST[ETX] [BCC]. Which, of course, the PBX acknowledged.

Today I put the RSM in bypass and immediately began seeing different messaging. I at first thought that the PBX was finally receiving the update data from the PMS.

I soon noted that there was only one message repeating over and over:

PT [STX]SE CP Z9315 "JODI PORTUGAL'S BABY SH" 23 LA 0 ETX][BCC]
MT [NACK]
MT [STX]MNEMONIC[ETX][BCC]
MT [STX]MNEMONIC[ETX][BCC]
MT [STX]INPUT ERROR[ETX][BCC]

I put the RSM back into normal mode and saw no change in the new errors.

The IT Manager told me that their PMS vendor said that they were only seeing a partial link with the PBX.

I rebooted the MerMail.

I now see the following messaging:
PT [STX]SE ST <room DN> CH OU (or IN) [ETX][BCC]
MT [ACK]

and

PT [STX]SE CP <room DN> <Name> [ETX][BCC]
MT [ACK]

as well as what I was seeing before:

PT [STX]IS TEST[ETX] [BCC]
MT [ACK]

and

MT [STX]ST <ROOM DN> PR MI 0[ETX]
PT [ACK]

All of which I would expect to see. I'll be monitoring the messaging over the next few days to see if the problem returns.

Thanks for all of the good suggestions and encouragement.

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