property management systems also known as PMS or Hotel Operating System (Hotel OS), under business terms may be used in real estate, manufacturing, logistics, intellectual property, government or hospitality accommodation management. They are computerized systems that facilitate the management of properties, personal property, equipment, including maintenance, legalities and personnel all through a single piece of software. They replaced old-fashioned, paper-based methods that tended to be both cumbersome and inefficient. They are often deployed as client/server configurations. Today, most next generation property management systems favour web and cloud technology and offer their software to clients using a software-as-a-service model.