MARCH 2019CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM8Which Technology Best Suits the Hospitality Sector?JESSIE BURGESS, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CIO, G6 HOSPITALITY LLCIN MY ViewWhat do you see as a big challenge in technology to meet the challenges of your industry? If you were to write down a wish list, what solutions do you look forward to and your expectations from technology providers for the enterprise?A big challenge in technology within the hospitality industry right now is balancing the timing to deploy guest-facing technology versus back-of-the-house technology enhancements--which are often less visible to the guests. No one has unlimited budget or people resources, so opportunity costs must be weighed with every technology-focused decision. Often, the technological enhancements that are the least flashy deliver the largest ROI and long-term benefit to the organization. We know, however, that we have to balance this drive for efficiency with changes in technology that can enhance people's experiences.If I had a wish list for our technology providers, it would generally include easily accessible, highly-available, cloud-based services that scale in price and delivery based on our demand. This would all be delivered in a secure environment that seamlessly integrates real time data collection for analysis and robust monitoring capability. In addition, we need our technology providers to build and deploy their software within an architecture that allows modular flexibility to plug in or unplug specific components of their software suite as business needs change. In order to achieve this, these providers would need to ensure their contract terms are also structured in a fashion that allows this flexibility for the customer.Organizations have to integrate data across the enterprise to have a 360-degree view of the customer, but it's not an easy thing to do. What are your thoughts on getting this act right?Gaining a 360-degree view of your customer is complex and potentially very expensive, but the returns can be tremendous
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