Lodging Cos Shifting to Centralized Tech

The big brands have a tangle of technology they must constantly update in order to ensure their franchisees and company owned hotels are plugged in. Myriad systems such as PMS, reservations, training modules and a host of other programs must be constantly catered to in order to make sure they are relevant.

Additionally, lodging industry CIOs must decide which applications to buy off the shelf and which ones are worth investing in developing in-house. At times is can be enough to drive even the most organized and proficient tech masters crazy.

At last week’s Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC) some top level tech execs shared their strategies for maximizing their organization’s technological muscle. These days, lodging companies are working to move applications out of computers and servers at individual properties. Instead more programs are being centrally housed at the corporate office. This allows programs to be continually updated while eliminating many of the problems arising from having thousands of computers running similar software all over the world. With blazing fast high speed internet connections, individual users can now tap into a central system via the internet.

“We have a very dynamic business environment, which is good because things are changing all the time. All our applications need to be easy to use and available on the internet,” said Becky Brechbill – Carlson Hotels Worldwide’s Director/ Application Development.

At Carlson, the company is currently moving every hotel onto a common property management system and simplifying the way it handles rate management. Carlson also plans its upgrades stringently, implementing updated solutions only when there is actual demand. The company is not only cautious about change for the sake of change, but every change can be a costly endeavor. Additionally, Brechbill said the company maintains a small set of technologies and utilizes a lot of third party software for disciplines such as PMS, finance, accounting and sales and catering that can be utilized as soon as it’s brought in house.

David Schlesinger, Hilton Hotels Corporation’s Director Brand Support Technologies, said the company is continuing to move applications “above property.” Currently his department is experiencing a deluge of work as it tries to roll out its proprietary OnQ property management system to hotels worldwide that came into the system after the merger with Hilton International last year.

“We are taking a centralized technology strategy and applying it to all properties overseas,” said Schlesinger. “The goal of the Hilton International acquisition was not to acquire a couple hundred hotels, but to set the stage to grow these brands globally and we need to have our technology work everywhere.”

Schlesinger said each country comes with a need for its own set of unique solutions such as language, tax calculation and in Asian countries, new character sets. Going above property will enable the company to maintain its systems more easily.

Interestingly, the OnQ system is a derivative of the PMS systems utilized by the former PROMUS Corporation, which Hilton bought in 1999. Overall, the company owns and operates the lion’s share of its technology, unless Schlesinger said “there is a compelling reason otherwise.”

Marriott International’s VP of IT Strategy Neil Schubert said his company has been shifting to a centralized platform since it is the most effective way of managing the back end. He said Marriott moved the reservations and property management systems off the property “long ago,” which help them change how they look at technology.

“We used to think about specific applications and finding a way for them to fit in, now we know think about the process that occurs and [create or buy] solutions to streamline the specific process,” said Schubert of the company that has more than 2,900 hotels and 500,000 rooms in its system. “Getting to service oriented architecture is a challenge however and we need a positive mindset change among suppliers. We want component driven applications.”

Schubert said one of the biggest challenges was rolling out high speed internet access for guests. That’s because the network must accommodate all types of computers and seamlessly get access to seemingly limitless corporate servers. “These systems accommodate visitors and we can’t tell them what they can do online, so it has taught us a lot. We have a very different perspective of networks than other industries,” said Schubert.