Hospitality digital transformation – how to stay on the same page as an organization

When industries are disrupted for one reason or another, as a hospitality industry decision-maker it can be the perfect time to take control of a certain amount of disruption yourself – digitalization or digital transformation. What does this mean in context? Overall, it means considering key business goals and some of the most effective ways to achieve them in an out of the box way using scalable technology.

It’s important to understand that new hospitality cloud technology is just the vehicle and not the destination. Beyond that though, staying aligned as an organization during the process of transforming your business can be a challenge. How do decision-makers and stakeholders stay on the same page? Consider the following as a practical framework to unpacking that question.

What are you really trying to achieve?

With a flurry of new technologies that get talked about in industry publications, the road toward digital transformation can get muddy. Between IoT, AI, mobility, and even robot room service technology, digitalization can sometimes feel like diving into a world of science fiction rather than a practical pursuit to make your business more scalable.

As much as a lot of technology solutions trade on the cool factor, what remains is this: what is it that you’re trying to accomplish in the next year, three years, five years? What’s within your grasp to achieve, and what are the barriers? In whatever way you address those questions, your process should involve clear discussions about what your destination will be and not immediately about the coolest vehicle to get you there.

A continuing conversation between business strategy and tech fulfilment

In recent years, cloud technology has played a vital role in advancing how hospitality businesses communicate and create platforms to better engage with consumers. Even with that in mind, a sea change in the way your organization proceeds into a new era has to start by defining what digitalization in your hospitality organization means. Business leaders need to decide on what the specifics are. Then, they’ll need to communicate that with clarity to IT teams who are not passive in that process.

If you have a healthy culture, tech leaders are going to push back, question, and reframe those discussions. Sometimes, they will send business strategists back to the drawing board. Disruption isn’t easy. It involves friction and risk. But when your business leaders and IT experts collaborate on a regular basis and do so with candor and respect, the path toward the goals you will define become much clearer for everyone.

The importance of so-called “soft skills”

A successful digital transformation journey means getting teams out of silos and working within a common environment to address practical concerns. Once again, hospitality cloud systems make this a lot easier than on-prem solutions on a technology level. But before considering all that, true disruption and transformation is about an approach and attitude. It means exercising the soft skills – active listening, proactive team building, delegating, mentoring, creative problem-solving. The list goes on.

Everything we’ve talked about so far in getting your organization on the same page relies on empathy, clear communications, and open dialogue to finding common ground between people of different mindsets. Acknowledge those differences. Lean into them. Hone those soft skills. You’ll find that it’s much easier to plot a route to where you want to go when you do.

A journey in the right direction

The hospitality industry has been especially aware of the need to adapt in the era of digital transformation. The best approach is to make changes that support the steps toward where you want to be. Often, this means investing in hospitality cloud technology and partnering with the right people who are dedicated to good communications and a willingness to collaborate.

How do you make sure that every technology partnership helps you to be successful? What are some of the ways that you can create meaningful, long-term partnerships with hospitality technology leaders?

We’ve authored a useful resource to help you address that question.

You can get your copy of that resource right here.