intehl no 6 int web

8/2/2019 Intehl No 6 Int Web

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Business Intelligence Report published by Ecole htelire de Lausanne Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship

REPORT #6

HOSPITALITY MARKETHOSPITALITY MARKETINTELLIGENCE REPORTINTELLIGENCE REPORTHOSPITALITY CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT :HOSPITALITY CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT :A NEW BUSINESS MODEL ?A NEW BUSINESS MODEL ?

Hospitality concept

development : a newbusiness model ?

The impact of the todaysdecision matrix in the

context of the planningprocess for green field

hotels

Implementing IP networkconvergence

Interview withRen de Picciotto


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INTEHL REPORT HOSPITALITY CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

EDITO

ABOUT INTEHL

Entrepreneurship and innovation

Student Business Projects (SBP) Insight

By Jean Cura

EXPERTS

Les nouveaux modles daffaires

Par Xavier Comtesse

GET TOGETHER

Hospitality Concept Development : a new business model ?

Best moments of the Round Table at EHL

BUSINESS REPORTS

The impact of the todays decision matrix in the context of the planning process for green fi eld hotels

By Michael W. Har tmann

Epicure aux sources de lhospitality

Le dveloppement des concepts dhospitality : un nouveau business model ?

Par Xavier Pavie

Implementing IP network convergence

By Stefan Fraenkel and Arndt Mielisch

MEETING WITH

Ren de Picciotto, un banquier aux multiples talents

Par Ray Iunius

Table of Contents

2

3

4

5

6

10

14

18

26


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HOSPITALITY CONCEPT DEVELOPMENTINTEHL REPORT

The Ecole htelire de Lausanne is proud to recruit and develop talent for the

hospitality industry. But how do we prepare our students to deal successfully

with the growing challenges of our times? We believe that one key lies in nurtu-

ring their sense of innovation and entrepreneurship. Only then can we hope to

educate the future leaders who will have the creativity and courage to reinvent

our industry.

The Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (INTEHL) aims to encourage

and support the creation and development of new business opportunities in

the hospitality and service industry. To deliver on this mission, INTEHL offers a

portfolio of activities which, together, constitute the foundation of a complete

business support platform. In particular, our entrepreneur program provides

the key support in every phase of a new business creation. From concept

development, to market validation, to the delivery of a professional business

plan ready to be presented to potential investors, INTEHL is there to coach

and provide guidance every step of the way: from ideas to implementation.

Your INTEHL Team

ABOUT INNOVATION ANDENTREPRENEURSHIP

EHLITE Media

INTEHL Report

Directeur INTEHL

Ray F. IUNIUSEcole htelire de Lausanne

Le Chalet Gobet

1000 Lausanne 25

Switzerland

Tel. : +41 21 785 15 08

Fax : +41 21 785 15 15

Internet : www.ehl.ch

Editorial Manager

Vronique BANYOLS

INTEHL Team

Vronique BANYOLSJean CURA

Frdric DELLEY

Stfan FRAENKEL

Jamil HEBALI

Ray F. IUNIUS

Jeremy PACKHAM

Production

PCL Presses Centrales SA

Publisher

EHL

Pictures Credits1st cover: Fotolia

2nd cover: Vismedia

Page 1 : Fotolia

Page 3 : Fotolia

Page 9 : Vismedia

Pages 15-16 : Club Med

Page 17 : Vismedia

3rd cover : Falconara

Charming House

and Resort Sicily,

Italy is a member

of Design

Hotels Design Hotels

Ecole htelire de Lausanne


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Vous avez une ide,nous vous aidons la raliser !

ABOUT US ENTREPRENEURSHIP & INNOVATION

Vous tes entrepreneur, vous avez une ide et vous voulez lancer votre propre entreprise ?Vous tes la recherche daide pour dvelopper un business plan pour vos produits ou services ?Vous voulez lancer une socit mais vous avez besoin de plus de comptences et dexprience

dans le business ?

INTEHL | Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship est spcialis dans laccompagnement

des entrepreneurs, de la ralisation du concept au dmarrage de lentreprise.

Pour vous inscrire et participer au processus de slection :

Envoyez-nous ladresse ci-dessous votre curriculum vitae accompagn dune page expliquant le contex-te et le concept de votre projet.Ainsi, il sera soumis notre Comit de slection qui dterminera si votre ide a du potentiel sur le march.Le meilleur projet slectionn profi tera dun rabais de 50% sur le prix forfaitaire dun projet (CHF 10000).

Intress ? Nhsitez pas nous contacter pour tout complment dinformation.

intehl@ehl.ch www.intehl.com


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SBP HIGHLIGHTSABOUT US

4

Student Business Projects (SBP) Insight

Like every semester, the EHLITE Institute will launch

its Student Business Projects (SBP) in October. Du-ring the proceeding eight and a half weeks, the fi-nal-semester students of the Bachelor of Science inInternational Hospitality Management Programme,work in groups of fi ve in order to accomplish a mis-sion assigned by an external company. This projectrepresents the last step before graduation.

The academic programmes of EHL develop theoperational, analytical and managerial compe-

tencies of our students. Accordingly, during theirstudies, the students acquire theoretical and prac-tical knowledge which allows them to respond tovarious demands originating from the market. Thegroups are coached and supervised by professors,who are specialists in the mission submitted by theclient. This further assures the student group willfulfi ll the mission received.

The innovative ideas and the recommendationsproposed by our students often allow the compa-

nies to create, develop and test the solutions sub-mitted. The SBPs also allow students to better un-derstand the current challenges and mechanismsof the hospitality industry. The SBPs thus act as aplatform of exchange of knowledge between the in-dustry and academics.

Would you like to receive further information regar-

ding our Student Business Projects (SBP) ? Contactus now !

Ecole htelire de LausanneInstitute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship | INTEHLStudent Business Projects | SBPLe Chalet--GobetCase Postale 371000 Lausanne 25Switzerland

T : +41 (0) 21 785 17 83F : +41 (0) 21 785 15 15M : intehl@ehl.chwww.intehl.com


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EXPERT NEW BUSINESS MODELS

Les nouveaux modlesdaffaires

En effet, souvent vu comme un instrument de com-munication direct avec les clients, on a quelque peuoubli que les entreprises ont largement cherches exploiter cette innovation technologique et socia-le pour changer compltement leur manire de se

faire rtribuer.

Ainsi, Swissquote, qui est une banque en ligne ins-talle Gland (Suisse), ne prend pas de rnumra-tion en fonction du montant du dpt de la clientle(modle des banquiers privs) mais seulement unecommission sur les transactions (achat/vente) rel-lement effectues. Il en est de mme pour les sitesde vente en ligne (de particulier particulier) commeRicardo.ch ou eBay, qui touchent une commissionsur les seules ventes effectives.

Dautres modles ont t tests. Les plus connussont ceux de Google, de Yahoo mais galement deLargeur.com en Suisse qui offre des services tota-lement gratuits mais pays par la publicit en ligne.Plus curieux, ce sont des modles daffaires comme

celui de OpenInnovation (atizo.ch) o linnovationest en quelque sorte outsource chez les gensordinaires et lentreprise Internet va tre rtribue siet seulement si une entreprise achte linnovation.

Mais il existe encore dautres formes de modlesdaffaires plus inimaginables, il y a seulement quel-ques dcennies, et qui sont entirement bass surle paiement volontaire. Ainsi, Wikipedia, OhMyNewsmais aussi le groupe de rock anglais RadioHead nereoivent que des contributions volontaires.

Ce rapide tour dhorizon montre quel point lin-novation dans les modles daffaires fait partie in-tgrante de lavenir des entreprises. Dsormais,innover grce son modle daffaires devient une

ncessit. Car acqurir de nouvelles parts de mar-ch passe frquemment par linvention des nou-veaux modles daffaires.

Xavier Comtesse, mathmaticien,

Directeur romand dAvenir Suisse

Pour les entreprises, Internet a pro-

voqu un changement profond non

seulement dans leurs rapports

la clientle mais galement dansle choix des nouveaux modles

daffaires.


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HOSPITALITY CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT : A NEW BUSINESS MODEL ?GET TOGETHER

Hospitality Concept Develop-ment : a new business model ?Best moments of the Round Table at EHL

New major paradigm shifts are impacting the

hospitality industry. Corporate power is still

somewhat divided between investors, opera-

tors and management. The hospitality indus-try is driven by hotels chains and investors

awareness of the real estate potential of their

investment is stimulating new developments in

their business model even in a very conser-

vative environment. However, some barriers to

communication exist and future business rela-

tionships may be hindered if this situation does

not change. Stakeholders are seeking a new

hospitality business model either together or

separately.

The following Guestspeakers Experts from the Hos-pitality Industry have participated in the Round Table :

Michael W. Hartmann | Senior Vice-President |Siemens MDB Hospitality | Munich | Germany

Ray F. Iunius | INTEHL Director | Ecole htelirede Lausanne | Switzerland

Ren de Picciotto | President | SG PrivateBanking SA | Switzerland

Gerlinde Stenghele | CFO | Group Manotel SA |Geneva | Switzerland

Moderated by Richard Barnes,Editor-in-Chief, Hotel TechnologySMARTReports, Cleverdis

Michael W. Hartmann : From the vendor perspec-tive, I would say that what we call blue chips arelooking for a kind of economy of scale. They thinkthey can easily replicate certain solutions.

Ray F. Iunius : It is a big paradigm when you lookat a hotel chain and you think it is fantastic for asupplier to be referenced there but a supplier mayrealize that it is not so easy. In fact, a hotel chain is

not similar to multinational companies like Nestl forexample, where you can take a decision applied toworldwide businesses. But in Hospitality businessthis is completely different and much more complexand above all regarding the technology changes.Thirty years ago, a fi ve-star hotel was a model forthe technology devices, but today the luxury tech-nology becomes more affordable and what couldbe found before only in hotels is now at home.

Gerlinde Stenghele : The question can be raised dif-

ferently : do small hotels really need to have accessto blue-chip suppliers offer, because small struc-tures have different needs from the bigger hotelsand these suppliers have not necessarily offersadapted to small hotels.

At the end of the day who takes the decision and why?

Question 1:

How can small operations have access to the big

blue-chip suppliers?


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Question 2:

Is this incompatible with their business model?

Ray F. Iunius : The business models are more andmore structured. If you consider the people who areexecutive managers of the different hotel chains,CEOs or Business Development directors theyactually come from the fi nancial fi eld. They do notneed to know what kind of technology to purchasefor their hotels but the problem is that they need toensure that they will have the best level of quality forproduct and devices.

Who are these persons who make the decisions ?We are still in a model of Take&Touch and manyhoteliers still pretend that technology is not so im-portant and the human resources are more crucial.Of course it is true but you cannot manage the HRuntil your infrastructure is properly set up.

Gerlinde Stenghele : The persons involved in therepositioning for the development, we have fi rst ofall the GM and the President of the company who

has a lot of experience and he would work with verydifferent professions. We have an architect who isbasically working for our Group and is responsiblefor most of our projects of renovation and refur-bishment. We have an interior architect and thenall the technical professions like the engineers andall these professions have their own suppliers likefor instance Siemens, it is our main engineer whowill decide who is going to apply for our technologyinstallations.

Ren de Picciotto : I would be very interested innew operations and know what we can do with afi rm like Siemens but I have not encountered thoseneeds up to now because we have to individualizea lot of our priorities concerning the purchasing,the refi nancing, reservation system, the products

and the pricing and so on A lot of other optionscome fi rst before you get to this. I perfectly un-derstand that a chain like Accor which has de-cided to implement 100 hotels a year in a countryfor instance, needs a model. We unfortunatelyneed a model not to miss our investment which isour priority.

Michael W. Hartmann : the purpose is not to havealways the latest technology in place. What we aretalking now is if you see the landscape of vendor-sin this market there is no other industry which hassuch a fragmentation of vendors like hospitality.

Even for Fidelio it has only a 5% market share. Allthe hotel chains are always complaining that thisdoes not work. You have such a fragmentation andcompetition in the market that at the end of the dayyou have all this kind of interfaces to maintain a lotof workfl ow. We fi gured out that this kind of lands-cape we are in right now is horrible and is killingalmost the vendors and we try to consolidate themarket.

Michael W. Hartmann : We decided now to harmo-nize all the stakeholders along the value chain andthe planning process. How to do this ? Siemens willcreate now the so called Hotel Classifi cation Boo-klet, it is a kind of Hotel Bible and this is the fi rst timethat we start from the workfl ows from a guest pers-

pective and an operator perspective. These work-fl ows will be translated into a solution concept andthen we describe it as a kind of system description.

Gerlinde Stenghele : In the case of Manotel, the sup-plier is not between the operator and the investor.


Question 3:

How can suppliers contribute to the success

of their clients business?


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The supplier definitely presents his solution to theoperator which is us. In our case we can present aconvincing solution and then this supplier is addingvalue to our operations and we can get the agree-ment we will then do not need additional help fromthe supplier. We would present the whole project indetails and we would have our models calculatingthe return on investment, how would it impact on ouraverage price, what would it bring to our business.

Ray F. Iunius : Everything is starting with education. Allthe partners are responsible for bringing all kind of in-formation and explaining the importance of technlogy.

Coming back to the way you calculate the ROI : theimportant thing is to be aware of the fact that you can-not improve your level of service for the hotel clients ifyou do not have the adequate and best technology.

But now we have to consider the technology as ameans of reducing energy consumption, now it isquite obvious for hotels and for the owners to getthe best technology to save energy.

Everything is changing ; we are in a changing world !

Ren de Picciotto : Historically, Hotel business wasnot a business, it was two different things :- One was a family business, a small hotel run by

a husband and his wife with a lot of technical

drawbacks such as no system of reservation, notelephone in some rooms, no air conditioning, nointernet access, Forget it !

- On the other hand you had big hotels, normallyTrophy Hotels or this kind of hotels run by chainsand usually owned by chains


Question 4:

How far upstream should investors/operators be

partners?

Now we have a totally different type of landscapefor four or fi ve reasons :

1. The quality of construction has changed ; thespeed of construction has changed, so now forinstance, in Thailand where we have extendedfrom 300 to 500 rooms the Crown Plaza at theairport, it took us sixteen months included per-missions. Because the new technical approachof construction enable to build not cheaply butmore quickly, more effi ciently and with a lot oftechnical advantages.

2. The globalization.

3. It was a tough job and people were badly paid.4. Big operators used to own their hotels when they

saw it was capital consuming, they got rid of ho-tels and found owners.

We have more and more players in hospitality sec-tor because this is one of the rare sector where youstill have potential.

Ray F. Iunius : The biggest problem that peopledoes not understand is the different business mo-

dels in hospitality.

Gerlinde Stenghele : We are not under pressure. Wetry to be close to our customers and listen to themin terms of what they need. For instance, we found

that most of them wanted securised lines ratherthan just having wi-fi access and thats the reasonwhy we will instaure ADSL. But I dont think this canbe considered as pressure !


Question 5:

Are hotel owners under pressure for lead-

time by technology suppliers?


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Question 6:

Investors/operators/suppliers: is this only a

virtual triangle?

Ray F. Iunius : It is very tangible, it is a chain thatworks perfectly to reach the end-user (hotel guest)satisfaction. If the collaboration between thesethree is good, it can be very successful.

Gerlinde Steghele : I think that investors, operatorsand suppliers should be much more in a virtualtriangle and the cooperation should be closer.

Video available upon request to :veronique.banyols@ehl.ch


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BUSINESS REPORT IMPACT OF DECISION MATRIX

The impact of the todays decision

matrix in the context of the planningprocess for green field hotels

INTRODUCTION

This article discusses the advantages and disad-vantages of the current decision matrix accom-modating various stake holders along the planningprocess for new hotel projects in the context of its

effi ciency and effectiveness.

To get a better understanding of the planning proc-ess, the analysis is based on the core portfoliocomponents Siemens AG typically provides todayfor turnkey hotel projects.

The following illustration highlights a typical stake-holder matrix along the value chain. We believe thesystematic is also representative for other vendors,who have more specialized offerings.

It is common within hotel designs, to separate ITand Telecommunication equipment from buildinginfrastructure solutions. It can therefore be stated,that the hotel operators are primarily responsibleto decide on IT, applications and Telecommunica-tion (TC) equipment as long as the budgets allow

it. The reason is, specialized hotel systems nowa-days touch the core competence and brand criticalworkfl ows of hotel operators. Hence the operatorsoften employ consultants to carry out pre-selectionand designs for hotel chain specifi cations. Suchspecifi cations determine the design, functionality,performance, service-line agreements and con-tractual business conditions.Developers, investors and contractors have lowerstakes in the decision process for IT/TC equipment,

Fig. 1 : Stakeholder planning matrix

Designedby

Estimatedby

4)

General

contractor

Operator 1)/franchiser

PlanerElectr. Equ.

Planer

Mech. Equ.

Operations equipment(Hotel specific)

WaterEnergy

TIP

BuildingMgmt.

System

FireDedectionEvacuat.

IT &

Telecom

Appli-

ances

Appli-

cationsOther

Building EquipmentBuilding Equipment

HVACLightingcontrol

Room

Controls

Mechanical, electrical. Life-safety, and security systems

Construction project New Hotels

SEN BSH SFSi-SEC

SecurityCCTV/

Access

IA BT Osram IA/BT BT BT BTIS

Investor

Consultants

ContractDocs by

Purchasedby

Decision takers along construction phase (new hotels) for solution clusters provided by Siemens

Investor/Developer: Investors are not directly involved in the decision making process, but act against the budgetary plan provided by the general contractorGeneral Contractor (GC): GCs have the budgetary sovereignty and acts with sub-contractors; GCs are not directly involved in Special hotel systems (IT/TC, PMS)Planers (M&E): Sovereignty for Design and Contract documents (except IT/TC); could also be involved in purchasing agreements as sub-contractorsConsultants: Sovereignty for all Pre-work and estimations throughout all disciplines; no involvement in dedicated design, contract documents nor purchasing agreementsOperator/Franchiser: Strongly involved in Special hotel systems (IT/TC, PMS), especially purchasing contracts, not involved in Building Equipment (only feature recommend.)

so hotel operators will often short-list IT/TC ven-dors based on a regional presence ; if a vendor is notshortlisted, the likeliness to get an order is quite low.

Unlike IT/TC solutions, building infrastructure com-ponents are planned and contracted in a muchmore complex way.


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Basically the contractual air space sovereignty forthe main types of building infrastructure equipmentlies with the general contractor (GC). It is typicallythe GC who is responsible for subcontracting themechanical and electrical (M&E) planners to pre-pare designs, create contract documents and fi nal-ize purchase agreements. Specialized cost consult-ants are mostly involved in the initial design phaseto make estimations (also against the specifi cationsof the future hotel operator) in the context of func-tional and performance needs.

Normally the GC makes a holistic offering to the

developer/investor, which allows only x% variance.Therefore the GC is quite keen to keep total projectcosts within budgetary targets.

It can be assumed therefore, that the infl uence ofhotel operators upon vendor selection for M&Eequipment and design specifi cations is quite low,often resulting in a confl ict of interests betweenM&E planners and hotel operators. Planners workbasically against the budgets determined by theGC, whereas hotel operators are keen to accom-

plish their brand-related operational performancestandards throughout the planning process.

In addition, planners of different disciplines do notalways align activities. This approach, while appear-ing to offer good value, actually neglects many im-portant relationships between the building, its serv-ices and its operation. This autonomous planningconcept is outdated and can hinder system inte-gration, reducing operational workfl ow and limiting

total cost of ownership for the developer/investor.

VENDORS/SUPPLIERS VIEW

Considering the decision process described above, anefficient positioning of vendors along the various stake-holder responsibilities and time frames is quite difficult.

IT/CT portfolio components need the short-listingapproval of hotel chain HQs and regional HQs. Be-ing shortlisted is no guarantee of an order but short-

listing always means a vendor will be in a pool of[three] approved vendors the local hotel operatorcan choose from requiring local sales activity.

Building infrastructure components will normally beselected project-by-project. Despite the relatively

low infl uence of the hotel operators on the vendorselection process, chains also require a suppliershort-listing at HQ and at regional level.

As a result, even if building infrastructure compo-nent providers are short-listed by the chain HQs,they have to go through the mill of contractualstakeholders when applying for projects. This addssales costs to the vendors with no guarantee ofsuccess and no opportunity to standardize or rep-licate solutions.

Due to these diverse business mechanics in the

hospitality sector, almost all large multi-nationalvendors of infrastructure equipment and servicesregard the hospitality market pre-dominantly as anopportunistic business approach.

The landscape of vendors and suppliers is very frag-mented even large PMS providers such as Fideliohave only a global market share of less than 5%. Asa result, most large international companies do notinvest their R&D budgets in the hospitality indus-try, innovations are primarily derived from building

technology related innovations or generic technol-ogy changes (e.g. analog ISDN IP/SIP Phones),which are not driven by or for the hotel industry.

In addition, the hospitality industry is very competi-tive and of course price sensitive, which preventsthe early adoption of new technologies, life-cyclecosts are rarely considered and no differentiationthrough technology. From an innovation perspec-tive, the hotel industry is 3-5 years behind other

industries.

KEY FINDINGS, VENDOR PERSPECTIVE

For

The hotel industry is the worlds largest employer Huge business opportunities for green fi eld

projects on a global scale New business opportunities for hospitality

(casino & resorts, congress market) 75% of the hotel market is permanently renovating

Against

Complex business mechanics Local sales activities necessary Very customized and service intensive Short-listing of vendors on HQ level is necessary


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Highly competitive and fragmented environment Less innovative and more price sensitive industry Relationships often drive business decisions

THE CURRENT DECISION MATRIX CAUSESDISADVANTAGES FOR HOTEL OPERATORS

Hotel operators are consequently releasing realestate ownership to free-up capital for expansion,leaving the brand value as the hotel chains mainasset. It is this brand which has to be extended anddefended against competition and mega-trends.Hotel operators need to defi ne their brand-related

key values, such as desired guest experience anddesired service levels through technology.

If we analyze the stakeholder and decision matrixfor the planning of new hotels, the following disad-vantages for hotel operators can be described:

Disruptions within the planning process will leadto fragmented, non-standard and non-integratedsolutions

Autonomous planning of disciplines does not

support operational workfl ow needs and will in-crease productivity costs

Non-integrated systems entail much higher total cost of ownership for the operator anddeveloper/investor

Uncertifi ed interfaces between systems is costly,time consuming and can make the completesystem vulnerable for failures

Brand-related service levels can not be stand-ardized throughout the value chain, causing a

disruption of the complete Hotel Eco System

Fig. 2 : Hotel Eco System

Fig. 3 : Total cost of ownership (TCO)

Source : IHG, expert discussions

Web

Call Centers

HOLIDEX Plus

HIRO/Perform

Global Distribution Systems

Partnerships

Loyalty

Sales

CRM

Financial

Human Resources

Intranet

Messaging/Collaboration

Decision Support

Development

Procurement

Legal

Property Mgmt System

Sales and Catering

Point of Sale

Guest Management

Hotel Management

Door Lock Systems

In Room Entertainment

Distribution Hotel Eco

System

Financial

Human Resources

Intranet

Messaging/Collaboration

Decision Support

Development

Procurement

Legal

Property Mgmt System

Sales and Catering

Point of Sale

Guest Management

Hotel Management

Door Lock Systems

In Room Entertainment

Distribution Hotel Eco

System

Corporate

The best opportunity

to personalize

We

D

DISADVANTAGES FOR T HE DEVELOPERS/IN-VESTORS

Developers and owners typically have two maininterests: Complying with forecasted budgets andincreasing assets and values. The current decisionmatrix does not allow the potential to leverage anintegrated planning model to cope with these inter-ests.

ConceptionConception Design Construction Operation

2%

Cost estimations along the value chain

23% 75%

Development period Operating period

25 30 years

DEVELOPMENT PERIOD

The greatest potential for the optimization of aproject is during the planning phase. At this stage,the course is set for additional costs and cost in-creases which may incur during the erection andsubsequent use of the building.

Compared to conventional planning, integratedplanning continually improves the cost-benefi t ratio.When tackling complex tasks, integrated planning

takes the synergies of coordinated, intelligent, inte-grated systems into account and implements themin cost-effective solutions. Interfacing and elaborateharmonization of different systems and productsbecomes obsolete.

OPERATING PERIOD

Taking into the account that the operating period ofa building takes on average 75% of the total cost ofownership (TCO), an integrated planning approach

could cut operating costs between 15-20% cal-culated over the entire life cycle of the facility. Anintegrated planning process would save additionalcosts during the development and planning phasesof a project.


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SOLUTION PROPOSAL TO OVERCOME THEDISADVANTAGES OF THE CURRENT STAKE-HOLDERS DECISION MATRIX

This integrated project planning approach is called Total Building Solutions (TBS) and is today pro-viding signifi cant advantages for developers, inves-tors, operators and vendors alike.

Benefits for developers/investors and operators :

Budget transparency and compliance Total cost of ownership (TCO) reduction Workfl ow integration (productivity, service levels,

operability) Serviceability and reliability (data, remote service

centers, less interfaces) Energy effi ciency (supply, demand, monitoring,

control, adaptations) Asset value (LEED certifi cation, latest technol-ogy, perceived value)

Revive interest and support of large multinationalvendors to offer innovations

Opportunities for vendors :

Pre-bundling and pre-integration of productsand solutions together with turnkey providers aspart of a strategic partner concept

Replication of integrated solutions for a highereconomy of scale

Sharing of key account management structureswith turnkey providers

Sharing of remote service platforms

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

It can be summarized that the conventional stake-holder matrix for the planning process of greenfi eld projects no longer meets the needs of devel-opers, investors and operators.

Pre-tested and certifi ed products and solutionssuch as Total Building Solutions (TBS) can lever-age the synergies of coordinated planning, systemintegration and total cost of ownership (TCO).

The current disruptive planning process betweenconsultants, planners and contractors is hinderingsuch an integrated planning process to take advan-tage of such synergies especially from a long-termoperational standpoint.

A paradigm shift in the planning process is neces-sary, to overcome the barriers that exist today tolaunching an integrated design concept.

We strongly believe that the trigger for an integratedplanning model has to come from a close partner-ship between developers/investors and turnkeyproviders. Operators should help the vendors andvice-versa to convince the investors about the ad-vantages of totally integrated solutions. Operators

in turn, could also re-think their current position tore-enforce an operator-vendor alliance model to thebenefi t of all major stakeholders.

Michael W. Hartmann, Senior Vice-President

for Siemens MDB Hospitality

Operators

Planers/

Consultants/

Engineers

Vendors

Owner/

Investor/

Developers

Architects/

Interial

Designers

Contractors

(Main/sub)

Integrated

project

planning

Operators

Planers/

Consultants/

Engineers

Planers/

Consultants/

Engineers

Vendors

Owner/

Investor/

Developers

Architects/

Interial

Designers

Contractors

(Main/sub)

Contractors

(Main/sub)

Integratedproject

planning


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BUSINESS REPORT EPICURE AND HOSPITALITY

Epicure aux sources de lhospitalityLe dveloppement des concepts

dhospitality : un nouveau business model ?

Se demander si le dveloppement des conceptsdhospitality est source dun nouveau business mo-del est relativement singulier. En effet, si aujourdhui

un nom prcis est donn pour ce qui est de lac-cueil des clients, des visiteurs mais aussi des pa-tients dans les hpitaux ou dans les prisons, cettefonction semble exister depuis au moins deux mil-lnaires. En effet, le parangon de lhospitality nest-ilpas le clbre Jardin dEpicure ?

Pour Epicure, ce philosophe, n au troisime sicleavant notre re, il ny a quune vie qui soit accepta-ble, cest la vie philosophique et le fait de pratiquercelle-ci. Cette position Epicure la dmontre defaon trs concrte et trs pragmatique dans sonquotidien au travers son clbre Jardin .

Le Jardin semble avoir t cr en 305 av J.-C, nonpas Athnes comme toutes les grandes coles

philosophiques linstar du Lyce dAristote oulAcadmie de Platon mais singulirement en de-hors de la cit, en pleine campagne. En cela Epi-cure montre une certaine originalit de lhospitalitypuisquil ne simplante pas en centre ville commecest alors lhabitude cette poque mais dlib-

rment lcart de la ville. Ce choix nest pas sansrisque puisque comme dans tout nouvel espace,il sagira dattirer, de recruter et de fi dliser. Or se

dplacer dans la banlieue dAthnes o se situe lefameux Jardin ncessite de faire plusieurs dizainesde kilomtres essentiellement pied.

Sil nous reste aujourdhui peu dinformations surce Jardin en termes de taille et de densit de lacommunaut, on sait toutefois que cette derniretait compose aussi bien de femmes que den-fants, desclaves, dhommes de toutes les catgo-ries sociales, de philosophes, de politiques, etc. Cemlange est tout fait singulier notamment dans la

prsence des femmes et des esclaves qui gnra-lement taient exclus cette poque de tout typede rassemblement. Si ces cohabitations fonction-naient convenablement cest quEpicure imposaitentre les diffrents acteurs du Jardin une dmarchequasi systmatique dactivits communautairesdans un souci du bien commun, dchanges, dediscussions et dgalit. Sil ne semble pas quil y aiteu des rgles, des lois ou un des rglements dansle Jardin ce ntait toutefois pas lanarchie et Epicu-

re parle de contrat pass entre les individus. Cettethorie du contrat picurien stablit en trois axes :le premier est quil y a un droit naturel montrant cequon est en droit de se faireou de ne pas se faire mu-tuellement, entre individus.Le second est quil ny a pasde dommage ni dinjustice siaucun contrat na t concluentre les deux parties. En-fi n, il nexiste pas une justice

souveraine ou une moralesouveraine qui pourrait te-nir lieu de justice mais uni-quement un contrat que lonpasse envers quelquun, etcest cela la justice.


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15

Ce dtour par la philosophie antique nest pas sansintrts pour notre propos. En effet, si dans lh-tellerie, lhospitality recouvre prioritairement des

accents de confort, de bien-tre, de bonne alimen-tation, il sagit de ne pas ngliger les notions parti-culirement saillantes de convivialit et dchangeentre les acteurs du lieu. Aujourdhui les enjeuxpermettant un avantage concurrentiel ne sont plusdans lapparat de beaux mobiliers, ni dans le re-crutement dun designer particulirement innovant,encore moins dans le nombre de piscines ou decourts de tennis disponibles ; tout ceci peut se r-soudre fi nancirement. Par contre la convivialit,laccueil, le partage et lchange, critres de plus en

plus discriminants aussi bien pour les vacanciersque pour les hommes daffaires arrivant lhtelsont bien complexes mettre en uvre quelquesoit les moyens. Epicure a particulirement russi mettre laccent sur la vie dun lieu non pas en fonc-tion des attributs classiques : beaut du site, abon-dance de nourriture par exemple, mais en fonctionde caractristiques qui tenaient intrinsquement la personnalit des individus qui venaient au Jardin.Autrement dit, lenvie daller au Jardin tenait plus

aux participants quau Jardin lui-mme.

Cette singularit du Jardin dEpicure est celle quia t duplique au Club Mditerrane pendantles vingt premires annes de son existence. Lespremires publicits de la marque communiquentdailleurs sur un vivre ensemble , sur latmosph-re qui se dgage des premiers villages vacances.Paradoxalement, en effet, laccent nest pas missur les sites exceptionnels ou sur labondance desbuffets ; mme si cela est voqu, cest laspect

communautaire qui est mis prioritairement en exer-gue. Au Club Med cette poque, les activits, lesrepas, les arrives et les dparts se font systmati-quement en collectivit. Quelque soit leurs originessociales tous les clients sont traits de faon ga-litaire, les chambres par exemple sont distribues

au hasard sans distinction de taille ou demplace-ment dans le village. Lintgration communautaireest alors pousse son extrme avec le port pour

tous les clients des mmes pagnes pendant lesjournes et des clbres tenues blanches pour lessoires.

A lvidence le Jardin dEpicure nest pas le ClubMed ! Laustrit des repas du premier, son ascsephysique, sa puissance intellectuelle et ses exer-cices spirituels ne sont en rien comparables ladbauche du second. Nanmoins, lesprit commu-nautaire, ltre ensemble et la convivialit permet-tent de montrer deux succs dintgration de clients

au cur de la stratgie dune organisation ddie lhospitality. Dailleurs aprs des annes de diffi cul-ts le Club Mditerrane a dcid dans sa nouvellestratgie lance en 2003 de se recentrer sur cesbasiques en repositionnant le Club Med comme Haut de gamme, convivial et multiculturel .

Il ne semble pas possible de dcrter quun conceptdhospitality soit un nouveau business model. Cha-que innovation, chaque dveloppement dans lhos-

pitality est une prise de risque dont il est diffi cilede mesurer lavance la porte et le succs. Epi-cure avec trs peu de moyens a russi recruterconsidrablement dans son Jardin alors que ce-lui-ci tait lcart de la ville, que lon y mangeaitpeu, et quil tait peupl de personnages soit disantpeu frquentables. Le Club Med a russi marquerle monde des vacances avec comme principe de vivre en communaut aussi bien table que pen-dant les activits. Peu de monde pariait sur la rus-site du Jardin comme sur la russite des villages-

vacances. Nanmoins, en pensant les conditionsde lhospitality sous des auspices de convivialit,dchanges, de partages ils ont russi le tour deforce dtre non seulement innovants mais porteurdespoir pour le philosophe et de plaisir pour le va-cancier.


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Aucun business model aujourdhui nintgre cettenotion de convivialit pourtant dterminante dans

lhospitality notamment dans lindustrie htelire.Certes un rendement au lit, la table, au mtrecarr va tre valu ; un cot la journe va tre es-tim ; un compte dexploitation par site est calcul ;un investissement immobilier, mobilier, est fi nementjaug ; une prestation nouvelle sera mesure pourpouvoir lire son rendement ; mais comment intgrerau business model ce qui fait lessence de lhospi-tality : la convivialit ? Comment mesurer ce qui faitla singularit de chaque entreprise de ce secteur ?Comment montrer des fi nanciers un business

plan o lessence de ce qui gnrera le profi t tientprincipalement la notion de convivialit ?

Cela parait impossible. Il pourra tre fait un grandnombre dtudes marketing qualitatives et quantita-tives, un grand nombre dtudes de potentiels, ce

qui fera la qualit de lhospitality ne pourra jamaistre jaug scientifi quement en test. Cest en cela

que lhospitality repose notamment mais pas ex-clusivement, sur le risque, le courage, la passiondentreprendre et dinnover, sur sa relation autrui ;mais aussi sur sa capacit surprendre lautre, sonclient, le porter dans une atmosphre si singu-lire. Tout comme la philosophie, lhospitality se vitavec passion, et si comme nous dit Epicure, il nefaut pas faire de la philosophie pour lapparence,mais sincrement il semble bien que lhospitalityne peut se faire galement que sous ces mmesors.

Xavier Pavie

Enseignant-Chercheur ESSECDirecteur Excutif ESSEC-ISISpavie@essec.fr


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IP NETWORKBUSINESS REPORT

18

Implementing IP networkconvergenceIntroduction

Do hotel operators see the long-term, strategic im-portance of investing in a new network infrastruc-ture? If so, what are the main motivators and expec-tations towards IP convergence ? How amenable

are they to working with outside providers to makeIP convergence happen?

Swisscom Hospitality Services and INTEHL wentafter these questions in a joint research project con-ducted in May/June 2008. The intention was to bet-ter understand the hoteliers increasing information& communication technology requirements and toidentify critical success factors for external networkservices providers in the hospitality industry. Luxuryhotels were the main object of this research, as they

can be seen as leaders and trendsetters in the hos-pitality industry, also relating to IT.

The project set out with a literature review whichwas followed by hotel interviews with hotel manage-ment staff in 30 European properties. This articleroughly follows the path of the research project tohighlight the main fi ndings.

The case for IP convergencein Hospitality

SUSTAINABILITY

Converged networks focus on using the infrastruc-ture of the Internet, which will make them future-proof as the Internet will not disappear. The con-verged IP network allows one single wired andwireless infrastructure. IP is robust and fl exible,and therefore has commoditized new applications

driving productivity increase, for example improvedcommunications, better collaboration, virtualizationof the workplace and mobility. The fact that every-thing is IP gives converged networks the ability to

scale existing services and to layer on additionalservices over time. Installation prices for such a sys-tem are said to be lower and also lower to maintain(Baudrez & Murphy, 2007). Not only are its owncosts lower ; the IP technologies will leverage thescale of the Internet which will drive down the price

of other technologies and services within the hoteland service industry (HTNG, 2007).

Flexibility, scalability and performance mean that IPnetwork technology has long-term value for the ho-tel. While previous technology innovation seems tohave taken place intermittently and often in isolatedenvironments (replacement or upgrade of singleapplications), IP convergence offers a different sce-nario, characterized by systematic innovation andapplication integration.

THE GUEST EXPERIENCE

According to Nick Price, CIO/CTO at MandarinOriental Hotels, technology allows the hotelier tospeak to the individuality and the life experience of

each single guest by offering a personalized wel-

come and displaying those service options that

the guest truly deems relevant (INTEHL, 2007).With the advent of IP technology, huge amounts of

data are being generated : What programs are be-ing watched most frequently ? What is the guestspreferred room temperature ? Which mini-bar itemsdoes he consume ? etc. Compiling, analyzing andprocessing such guest data will allow the hotelmanager to improve service quality and reward re-turn clients by responding with increasing precisionto their needs and expectations.

Concrete service improvements most notably in-clude the digital delivery of audiovisual data all the

way to the guest room : Leveraging new TV hard-ware and a new generation of IPTV services onthe market, hotels can propose television in highdefi nition, a greater and personalized choice of TV


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programs responding to language preferences, in-terests, the guests duration and purpose of stay.Considering that some 88% of guests turn on, orare exposed to, the TV set during their hotel stay(Mielisch & Rottet, 2007), digital entertainment islikely to contribute signifi cantly to the guest experi-

ence.

OPERATIONAL INNOVATION

IP convergence can also improve the hotels opera-tions and bring about signifi cant cost savings, asthe following application examples illustrate:

IP building & energy management

Energy costs eat up between 2% and 5% of overallhotel revenue ; any reduction will have a signifi cant

impact on profi t and loss. IP energy managementallows to link room equipment and status to the ac-tual room occupancy and guest presence.

IP enabled door locks

Key cards, more and more commonplace even inmid-fi eld hotels, provide increased security andcontrol to both guests and hotel managers. Front-desk staff can track room access in real time andreceive immediate notifi cation in case of attempted,

unauthorised access. In terms of housekeeping,key cards allow management to track staff wherea-bouts and monitor their productivity.

IP enabled mini-bars

Mini-bar automation enables hotel managers tokeep track of guest preferences and avoid unpaidconsumption ; the mini-bar can be locked uponcheck-out while electronic data capturing of itemsconsumed enables the customization of the stockfor return customers.

Energy management, door locks and mini-bars ex-emplify the potential productivity and cost improve-ments of IP-based applications, which should an

additional motivator for hotels to go convergent .Moreover, all three applications indicate a high cor-relation of operational and guest benefi ts. In thecase of energy management, for instance, remotecontrol of the lighting and HVAC enables furtherpersonalization of the room ambiance for the indi-

vidual guest.

Barriers to implementing IP network

convergence

It is generally recognized that IT is hardly a top pri-ority for hotels. The most obvious reason for thisseems to be the fact that IT does not directly gener-ate revenues. A literature review offers a more dif-ferentiated view:

THE PERCEIVED IMPORTANCE OF IT

In addition to the revenue perspective, technologyis commonly not perceived to ensure a competi-tive advantage (HTNG, 2007). Most of the time ho-tels do not see their IT as a unique selling propo-sition. Still, hotels run servers and networks andrely on them for their daily operations. Even thoughdown-times for any applications can cause reve-

nues losses, the actual impact is rarely recognized(Warner, 2007).

LACK OF BENCHMARKING

It is very hard to benchmark the IT budget in thehospitality industry. In comparison with other indus-tries and according to Peter OConner (2007), thecommon perception of technology use in the hotel

sector seems to be highly conservative, with ar-

chaic legacy systems running on ancient hardware,

with IT professionals having a hard time justifyingeach dollar of spending to owners or management

companies .


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Management is realizing that technology implemen-tations may bring benefi ts, but it is still unclear whatreturns on investment and real operational benefi tsaccrue through technology (Murphy & Millar, 2007).Kasavana (2007) reports an enormous informationgap in : For hotel managers it is very diffi cult to ana-

lyze the success of implemented technology due toan absence of standards against which to compareaccomplishments. According to research done in2008, hotel managers do not have any benchmarkat hand when it comes to technology spending(Kelly & Reynolds, 2008).

Such a benchmark would be an essential toolset forhospitality decision-makers, argue Sally Kelly andPaul Reynolds, chief research offi cers at Perform-ance Monitor. It could be used to include best

practices and improvement areas, internal supportfor budget items, preparing annual budget and

highlighting strong performance (Burnett, 2007).

In addition to missing benchmarks, labor hours aretied. Hotels struggle to gather information and im-plement a process that validates their investmentdecisions against todays and tomorrows require-ments. Not having such a process in place delaysIT investment decisions (Buzek, 2007).

LACK OF IT KNOWLEDGE AND TRAINING

The absence of management participation inproject planning, installation and/or implementationfor a new system or system upgrade is a frequentlycited consideration contributing to technology frus-tration (Kasavana, 2007). Often General ManagersIT competences are low. They are very skepticalabout the value of investing in IT as they do not seea need (Law & Jogaratnam, 2005).

Another barrier to fast technology adoption is in-suffi cient training. Even though vendors are of feringtraining material in a variety of media formats, most

hotels prefer live classroom instruction at the timeof installation. The hotel industry has a very highemployee turnover ; many of the new employeesdo not bring suffi cient IT or English knowledge withthem. Furthermore, the complexity of the applica-tions, meaning the lack of intuitive application de-

sign, the faulty hyperlinked programming and thediffi culty to navigate database fi les leads to a re-striction in the sense that hotel staff makes use ofa fraction of an installed systems capabilities only(Kasavana, 2007).

Primary research

Primary research was conducted to validate fi nd-ings from the literature review and potentially un-

cover additional aspects. The INTEHL researchgroup carried out 30 on-site interviews with hotelstaff in four different countries the United King-dom, Italy, Austria and Switzerland.

Most of the survey hotels are either owned individu-ally or by a chain [57%] ; another major propertiesrun under a management contract [35%]. The re-maining 8% are on a leasing agreement. The aver-age number of rooms is 181 and the average yearly

occupancy of all hotels 73%. All hotels offer meet-ing rooms with a capacity ranging from 12 to morethan 500 people and an average of 10 meetingrooms. Intentionally, the selection of hotels did notinclude any property serviced by Swisscom Hospi-tality Services.

The interviewees included IT managers, IT con-sultants, technicians and other job titles such asBanquet, HR or F&B managers. About half theinterviewees had a background in hospitality with

a focus on operations. The other half had a back-ground mainly in informatics or user support.


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HOTEL IT COMPETENCIES

The average number of employees at property levelis 1.32. The research demonstrates that the big in-ternational chains also have a centralized IT depart-ment. The number of head offi ce IT employees on

the central level ranges from fi ve to thirty.

One important insight produced by the primaryresearch concerns the allocation of IT competen-cies within the hotel. Even though in most surveyedhotels there is a manager specifi cally allocated toIT related matters, IT is hardly treated as a func-tional discipline in its own rights. More than halfof the interviewees have a hospitality/operationalbackground and were promoted into their currentposition for their above-average familiarity with IT

topics. Their knowledge is based on user experi-ence and research. Responsibilities are broadand typically include the management of the backoffi ce LAN and its PCs, the Property Manage-ment System, and Point of Sales stations. 43% ofIT managers also take care of the in-room environ-ment.

Another point of interest constitutes the IT budget inthe hotels survey. The research shows that in 56%

of the hotels, the IT budget fl uctuates from year toyear, depending on the needs for replacements andnew investments. The other 44% of the interview-ees indicated that the hotel management stipulateda fi xed budget for the IT department representinga percentage of the total hotel revenue. The aver-age IT budget is 2.72% of total revenue with a rangefrom 1% to 5.5%.

61% of the hotels examined outsource at least onepart of the hotels IT, while 39% dont outsource at

all. Independent hotels and small chain propertieshave a much higher tendency to outsource parts oftheir IT (83%) ; every other hotel belonging to a bigchain only makes use of outsourcing. Outsourcing

is not popular among the hotels surveyed : 67% ofthe hotels prefer an internal, onsite person over anexternal LAN Service Provider for IT related matters.All interviewees stated that the IT manager does nothave the right to take decisions by himself. Theremust always be a second person involved in the IT

decision process ; sometimes it is even a third personwho is included or a whole committee. Most of thetimes it is the General Manager which is implicatedin the IT decision process (84% of the cases).

Furthermore, IT investments above a certain cost lev-el need to be approved by the hotel owner in 26% ofthe hotels. Some IT managers have to back up deci-sions by the corporate offi ce (16%). The rule of hav-ing approved IT decisions by the management canhinder a hospitality company to move with the trend,

as several interviewees confi rmed. 56% believe thathotel managers do understand the IT needs for theirorganization, while 44% say they dont.

NETWORK CONVERGENCE

Of the 30 hotels who participated in the survey,seven (23%) claimed to have a converged network,while the other 23 (77%) are still having a conven-tional network infrastructure. With regard to the ho-

tels stating that they are converged, only two outof seven are fully converged in the sense that onecable is supplying the content to the guest room.The other fi ve hotels are simply running one type ofhotel network, such as a Cat 5/6 network ; howeverseveral cables lead to each room. The large major-ity of hotels still utilize disparate infrastructures :

Internet access services are mainly providedthrough Cat 5 cables. In one case, a glass fi berstrand is directly leading to the guest room. The

two respondents using a VDSL connection belongto hotels with older buildings. As regards TV andVOD, 78% of the hotels surveyed run these serv-ices over a coaxial cable. Only hotels that recently


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re-cabled their buildings use glass fi ber and Cat 5.The mixed option comprises conventional televisionover coax and Pay TV over a Cat 5 cable.

In the case of telephony, a large majority of re-spondents (68%) uses Cat 3, meaning a conven-

tional telephone line. Glass fi ber, Cat 5 and VDSLonly represent smaller percentages ranging fromfi ve to ten. The dominant network used in thebackoffices is Cat 5. Very few hotels only use VDSL,glass fi ber or a Cat 7 infrastructure. 45% of the ho-tels with a conventional network infrastructure areplanning to go for a converged solution in the nextthree to fi ve years. Another 45% do not have anyintention to go for a converged network in the nearfuture. The remaining 10% have not made up theirmind yet if they want to go converged or not.

DRIVERS FOR NETWORK CONVERGENCE

Cost reductions are the main driver quoted for con-verged networks cited. However, among those hotelsclaiming to have made experiences with convergednetworks, the most positive impact observed is thequality of the guest service, which, according to thesurvey, has improved in all hotels concerned. Oneof the interlocutors pointed out that especially the

quality of the multimedia has improved due to theconverged network. Other interviewees mentionedexperiencing fewer inferences with a convergednetwork. Five of the seven interviewees claimingto have a converged network in place stated that ithad decreased their maintenance cost.

Another factor, although never expressed by theinterviewees, is the state of a hotel. Most of theproperties examined with a converged network areeither newly built or just went through a major re-

furbishment.

CONCERNS ABOUTNETWORK CONVERGENCE

Although there is a high proportion of interest innetwork convergence, the interviewees still havesubstantial reservations. 40% believe that the ex-

penses to install the network are too high, especial-ly for older buildings. 10% have security concerns:They are afraid of guests having the capabilities tohack from the guest layer into the hotel data layer ifall data and applications are collapsed into one net-work. Another obstacle for IP convergence quotedis that guests are not asking for it yet, as quoted by10% of the interviewees.

Furthermore, a converged network does not onlysolve problems, but also create new challenges :

Four of the participants with a converged networkasserted that the complexity of the IT infrastructurehad increased. One participant mentioned that theIT department would not be able to manage thenetwork without external help. The research groupfurther investigated issues with current hotel IT sys-tems, keeping in mind that system performance andscalability were identifi ed as the main motivators forIP convergence in the secondary research.

In fact, many hotels have experienced problemswith their technology : 48% of the interviews pointedto their Internet services when asked for systemscausing problems. The second most frequent citedproblem areas are Video-on-demand and propertymanagement systems (PMS), with an issue rate of21%. 50% of the complaints regarding TV serviceare related to one particular system in use. Likewise,the large majority of PMS failures reported concernone specifi c application provider.

PURCHASING TRENDS

The question What are the IT related purchasesyou consider within the next three years ? was


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asked to identify predominant investment trends.The interviews revealed that there are three mainareas where hotels invest in :(1) Hardware(2) Hotel operations technology(3) Convergence and in-room technology.

Mentioned thirteen times (43%) during the surveywerehardware investments. These include back-offi ce as well as guest-facing hardware, implemen-tation of a wireless network, replacing servers,increasing bandwidth, new PBX, new server andnew printers. Hardware substitution seems to be aroutine process which often concerns small opera-tions in the hotel, but every now and then it mayinclude larger investments like new TV screens ora new PBX.

Hotel operations technology investments werementioned by 30% of the interviewees. These in-clude PMS upgrades, new credit card systems andnew spa software, new tablet PCs for the front of-fi ce, new software for Food & Beverage and stockcontrol, new HR and payroll software. The resultsshow that the hotel software market is alwayschanging; updates and new software are added foradministration purposes. As the number of applica-

tions in hotels increases so will the complexity ofinterfacing systems and software.The area of convergence combines investmentsthat are directly linked to the integration of one orseveral systems into the IP network. Such invest-ments were quoted seven times (23%) and weremotivated by introducing new security systems, in-room entertainment, VoIP and going converged, ingeneral. The frequent mention of separate systemsleads to believe that convergence does mostly not

happen in one go but rather step-wise, system bysystem. Planned convergence investments show astrong leaning towards in-room technology. Five re-spondents highlighted the necessity to replace their

TV sets and migrate towards an interactive, digitalTV solution. Furthermore, the introduction of auto-mated mini-bars was mentioned twice.

Summary & conclusions

Within the given sample of 30 luxury and businesshotels, a large majority to date still relies on a multi-tude of separate systems and applications that ex-ist in isolated realms and run alongside one another.Hardware and software are frequently updated,without looking at the larger picture . Further-more, our research indicates that in many hotels,this situation is unlikely to change in the near future,given the variousmotivationalandstructural inhibi-tors diagnosed by our research.

Motivational inhibitors include apprehensions aboutthe reality of building and managing a fully digitalnetwork infrastructure ; main concerns are cost, se-curity and increasing network complexity. In view ofIT managers broad area of responsibility and theirlimited competencies, hotels would need to turn ex-ternal providers to design and manage their hotelnetwork. This circumstance raises another mentalbarrier with many hotel managers : the resistance

to giving away traditional in-house competencies toan external party.

Technology providers need to listen to such preoc-cupations, engage in an open dialogue and take aconsultative approach. They also need to take seri-ously the situation of the individual hotel which in-cludes a wide variety of variables from its ownershipto its market strategy to its location and buildingstructure. There is no one-size-fi ts-all solution tomigrate from the legacy to a converged IT network

infrastructure. Large technology corporations thatlump all hotels together to provide them with onestandardized solution may easily miss their target.


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At the same time, hoteliers will increasingly feel theinnovative technology pressure on their operationsand their guest services. IP convergence is goingto happen, in hospitality as much as in consumertechnology and other market sectors such as fi-nance, manufacturing or logistics. The only risk is

that it will be adopted incoherently, a tendency thatis further aggravated by the recent economic down-turn : To protect investments hotels will want to runexisting assets to full depreciation before investingin new ones.

A second set of inhibitors for IT innovation in thehotel industry is of structural /organizational nature.It includes the limited decision-making competencyof IT staff to which adds the hotel managers lim-ited IT understanding , the absence of clear proc-

esses and a budgeting practice that follows routinerather than long-term planning. The root causes forsuch practice may lie in the economic imperativesof a hotel business, often imposed by the ownerrather than the hotel operator which were, however,outside the scope of the INTEHL study.

Most strikingly, none of the hotels examined showsthe person responsible for IT actually occupyinga strategic leadership role. This contrasts sharply

with other industries, where the IT role has generallycome a long way over the past decade. The ChiefInformation Offi cer role, as institutionalized in mostof todays large corporations, is only slowly beingimplemented in international hotel chains, and hasno counterpart in most independent hotels. Thisstructural weakness will need to be eliminated fromwithin the industry. Technology providers, however,can facilitate the transition by providing genuine ad-vice, competence and proven value-add.

To conclude from a providers point of view, ho-tels should lower their structural barriers for IT in-novation ; develop a professional roadmap for theirnetwork renovation departing from their specifi csituation and needs; and they should start thinkingof network management as a key support task for

their guest services and internal operations, settingclear objectives and ensuring vendor compliance.Why should hotels get active ? Simply becauseany decision taken today, if not supported by pro-fessional analysis, will risk hindering their ability tocompete in the future.

Stefan Fraenkel, EHL and Arndt Mielisch,

Swisscom Hospitality Services


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Bibliography

This article is based on INTEHL research conducted in Spring 2008 by Angela Katharina Marti, AdrianFlck, Michael Schreiner, Daniel Stankiewicz und Daniel Staub. Sources quoted include:

Baudrez, D. & Murphy, H. (2007) : Strategic issues in Hospitality Technology. EHLITE Magazine issue 16.

Burnett, K. (2007) : 2007 CIO Summit Review. Hospitality Upgrade, fall 2007 edition, p. 47-52

Buzek, G. (2007) : Having the Right People in the Right Place at the Right Time. Hospitality Upgrade, fall2007 edition, p. 46

Gartner. In : Paunikar, A. (2008) : HSIA : W hats n ext ? Retrieved from www.hotelexecutive.com

HTNG (2007) : European Members Meeting. Thought Leadership Program : Deploying Converged Net-works in Hotels.

Kasavana (2007) : Technology in Hospitality : Fits, Frustrations and Failures. Hospitality Upgrade, summer2007 edition, p. 140-146

Law, R. & Jogaratnam, G. (2005) :A study of hotel information technology applications. International Jour-nal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol 17, Iss. 2, p. 170 180

Mielisch, A. & Rottet, D. (2007) : Internet, TV and telephony : a triple challenge for the hotelier. In : INTEHLReport Nr. 4, November 2007, p. 4 8.

OConnor, P. & Murphy, J. (2004) : Research on information technology in the hospitality industry. Interna-tional Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Iss. 23, p. 473 484

Price, N. (2007) : Interview in INTEHL Report Nr. 4, November 2007, p. 26 28.

Warner, T. (2007).Just to Say No to VoIP. Hospitality Upgrade, Spring 2007 edition.


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MEETING WITH RENCONTRE AVEC REN DE PICCIOTTO

Ren de Picciotto, un banquieraux multiples talentsRen de Picciotto figure au nombre des 300

personnes les plus riches de Suisse. Son pa-

trimoine est financier, mais aussi htelier et im-

mobilier. Monsieur Ren de Picciotto est Pr-

sident de SG PRIVATE BANKING (SUISSE) SA.

Il est galement Prsident du Conseil dAdmi-nistration et Actionnaire de STRADER qui d-

tient lHtel Crowne Plaza Genve, Prsident

de KFL HOTEL S.A en phase de construire un

htel lEPFL (la pose de la 1re Pierre a eu lieu

le jeudi 8 octobre 2008), et Actionnaire de la

Socit APPOLONIA qui construit des htels en

France.

Il y a un sujet qui inquite aujourdhui tout un

chacun, celui de la crise financire. Quelle est

votre opinion sur cette crise et comment pen-sez-vous que le monde sen sortira ?

On sortira tout de mme de cette crise fi nancirepar lintervention des banques centrales par lmis-sion de monnaie mais avec diffi cult et beaucoupde cicatrices. En revanche, je pense que pour plu-sieurs annes il y aura un ralentissement qui serad entre autres, au fait que le systme bancairenaura plus les ressources, le courage et la possibi-

lit daccompagner les entrepreneurs et par cons-quent on aura un type de contraction, je ne sais passi ce sera une vraie rcession ou pas. Je pense quily a de fortes chances que ce soit le cas.

Si les banques nont plus le courage daller de

lavant, lconomie elle, continue de progresser,

il y aura un shift au niveau des investisseurs,

alors votre avis, qui pourra remplacer les

banques ?

Cest justement la question ! Cela peut tre les pri-vs mais cest assez limit, cela peut tre les tatsmais qui sont dj assez occups soit dans desgrands travaux dintrt public quils vont peut-tredevoir refaire soit dans le sauvetage des institu-tions fi nancires. Depuis longtemps dj, pas mal

dinstitutions fi nancires ninvestissaient pas direc-tement dans lindustrie ou avaient des limitationssur certaines catgories dactifs. Donc, je ne pensepas quun miracle ait lieu alors que peut-tre lespays mergents vont un peu mieux rsister mais jepense quils vont soccuper deux-mmes, la Chineen interne, lInde en interne, et que tout de mme

on aura beaucoup de diffi cults substituer ce ca-pital qui vient de svaporer.

Si on parle de modle daffaires, selon votre ex-

prience, quel est votre avis un bon modle

daffaires dans lindustrie htelire ?


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27

Ou bien on parle de market share et de grands insti-tutionnels de la profession ou bien on parle de pro-pritaires privs, je crois que dans le premier cas ilsont une logique qui est : autant dhtels par an etcouvrir la plante et puis avoir un market share plusimportant que par le pass , je crois que cela vacontinuer, ils ont leur modle et peuvent accepterde temps en temps de ne pas gagner beaucoupdargent sur certains htels parce quau fond cenest quune question de temps pour arriver aumarket share. En revanche, un priv na pas cettepossibilit et souvent dailleurs il ne connait pasexactement les contraintes de lhtellerie, cest un

mtier qui a normment besoin de capitaux, quiest trs consommateur de CAPEX et par cons-quent, on sous-estime bien souvent les frais fi nan-ciers et les amortissements. Ce qui fait quentreGOP mme valable et le bottom line complet, il nereste pas grand-chose en bas. Ce nest pas une in-dustrie facile, ctait une industrie dans laquelle lesgens travaillaient eux-mmes or aujourdhui ils nytravaillent pas directement et esprent obtenir desbnfi ces fi nanciers.

Ce nest pas aussi vident quil ny parait mme si lesecteur est toujours porteur.

Quelle est votre motivation pour avoir investit

vous-mme dans cette industrie et quel est le

lien entre la banque, les supermarchs et lin-

dustrie htelire et aussi les hpitaux privs ?

Lorsque lon est entrepreneur on a une espce devolont permanente de relever des challenges, de

plus jarrivais au terme de ma carrire bancaire etje ne voulais pas uniquement passer mon temps jouer au golf, jai donc regard ce quil y avait faire. Le hasard a fait que lon ma propos une oudeux opportunits que jai examines et le secteurme plaisait. Jai pens que javais suffi samment debons sens et un minimum de connaissances delhtellerie et le got du contact avec les gens pourmadapter et jusqu prsent cela na pas trop malmarch.

Pour un jeune entrepreneur qui veut vousconvaincre de la viabilit de son projet htelier,

quels sont les arguments quil devra mettre en

avant. Pourriez-vous nous dcrire en quelques

mots le portrait de cet entrepreneur ?

Pour commencer il faut un site parce que malheu-reusement on ne peut pas oublier que le site repr-sente 90% du problme, ensuite cest la formule.Il faut que je sache si lentrepreneur en question apens au client et au produit ou pense simplement

adapter la vie son ego et pas son ego la vie.Cest quelque chose que jai mis longtemps com-prendre mais lego ne remplit pas les chambres orle produit oui ! Donc, a peut tre un produit localou moderne ou technologique localis en Autricheou Paris mais il faut runir un certain nombre deconditions de base et que les chif fres soient ration-nels afi n que lon puisse fi nancer le projet.

La personne nest pas ncessairement celle qui

sera le gestionnaire, ou cest un associ ou cestquelquun qui travaillera dans lentreprise. Si cestun associ cest un peu comme un mariage, celademande beaucoup de qualits et cest rarementquelque chose que lon arrive faire bien. Si cestquelquun qui va manager lopration tout dpendde son background, quelquun qui na jamais faitdhtellerie ne peut quand mme pas entrer l-de-dans du jour au lendemain, il faut un certain appren-tissage. Si au contraire cest quelquun qui vient dumilieu htelier avec de lexprience, on peut alors le

mettre dans le circuit de la direction. Pour ma part,je me suis toujours entour de personnes ayant delexprience et une certaine personnalit qui jelaisse beaucoup de latitude, si cet entrepreneur ace type de profi l alors pourquoi pas !


30/32

28

Quelle serait alors la structure du modle daf-

faire dun tel projet htelier, une socit qui gre

la partie immobilire et une autre qui gre les

oprations et le management ?

Jusqu prsent, jai toujours eu sous le mme toitles deux mais je nexclus pas que lon peut sortirle management. Pour ma part, nous navons passuffi samment daffaires pour faire des modles trssophistiqus.

Etant donn que lInstitut INTEHL est un incu-

bateur dentreprises dont la mission est dac-

compagner des entrepreneurs pour monter leurprojet de cration dentreprise, pensez-vous

que cest le bon moment et quil y a une place

pour lEcole htelire de Lausanne ?

Tout dabord, il ny a pas de bons ou de mauvaismoments, les moments sont toujours diffi cilesdepuis la nuit des temps. Je pense que lEcolehtelire de Lausanne est la mieux place pourdvelopper un tel incubateur. Je suis persuad quecest une bonne ide et jaccepte dailleurs volon-

tiers votre demande de siger dans votre ConseilConsultatif.

Interview ralise par Ray F. Iunius

Rdaction : Vronique Banyols


31/32


32/32

intehl@ehl.ch

www.intehl.com

CONTACT FOR INTEHL

Ecole htelire de LausanneINTEHL Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Case Postale 37 Le Chalet--Gobet1000 Lausanne 25

Switzerland

T : +41 (0) 21 785 15 41F : +41 (0) 21 785 15 15

intehl no 6 int web

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