| | September 2017ENTERPRISE SECURITY8After 20-plusyears at InterContinental Hotel Group, where I finished as vice president of global service management, I have been fortunate to transition from the hotel brand side of the hospitality industry to the hotel ownership and management side as senior vice president and CIO of White Lodging. With more than165 hotels representing 30 different brands, including Marriott and Hyatt, we have 17 new hotel projects under development, 30 independent restaurants in our portfolio, and employ over 12,000 associates. As you can imagine, leading the information technology team that supports this large and fast-moving organization is quite intense, with new challenges daily.From a strategic perspective, my focus is the implementation and design of technological solutions that fiscally protect the assets of White Lodging and the owners that contract us to manage their hotels. The hotel guestroom is one case study of just how difficult this can be:· The guestroom phone is sometimes used, but personal assistants like Siri and Alexa are hot. In fact, hotels are already deploying these tools in guestrooms, replacing the phone entirely. · Linear TV watching is dying, but streaming video is rampant. Many hotels have enabled the streaming of content from guest devices to the guestroom TV; and, Marriott currently has the only license with Netflix to stream its content. · With today's guests carrying multiple devices, a family of four could have upwards of 15-20 devices that all demand connectivity. Many hotels are placing wireless access points in every room to accommodate. · Guests expect on-demand information about the hotel, local amenities and attractions. As such, hotel companies now curate this information and provide access via tablets in the guestrooms.As a CIO, I must determine which trends will provide our owners with returns in revenue and guest satisfaction that makes implementation costs easier to bear.Technology professionals are faced with the constant challenge of optimizing around these multi-faceted scenarios. We must think about the latest available tech applications and hardware that can be installed, as well as whether our proposed solutions will help improve operations and revenues in the businesses we support. Understanding the state of your industry is a key strategic advantage as you build out your organizational technology capabilities.My industry, hospitality, is currently in a state of opposites. One trend is the consolidation of bigger companies, such as the Starwood and Marriott merger. An opposite trend is these same mega-companies creating and building more new brands, boutiques, niche hotels and places that offer guests new experiences. As these parent brands build many competing sub-brands, each with their own standards, continued adaptation is the key to success.Three drivers I consistently consider in my efforts to deploy technology to help balance market share while increasing guest satisfaction and profitability for my employer and our owners can be described as:1. Speed and agility2. Commodity versus Secret Sauce3. Security and complianceIn My OpinionUnderstanding the state of your industry is a key strategic advantage as you build out your organizational technology capabilitiesTechnology Challenges in the Days of Hyper Competition, Personalization, and Super HackingBy Gustaaf Schrils, Sr VP & CIO, White Lodging Services
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