Latest / The Modern Hotelier / #297: The Importance of Connecting & Security Your Hotel's Technology Systems | with Rodd Herron
Transcript
- The Modern Hotelier #297: The Importance of Connecting & Security Your Hotel's Technology Systems | with Rodd Herron === David Millili: Welcome to a special HITEC episode of The Modern Hotelier, the most engaged podcast in hospitality. Please make sure to subscribe, like, follow, and let us know in the comments what you think about today's episode. Steve, who do we have on the program? Steve Carran: Yeah, David, excited for today. We have on Rodd Herron, the Regional Sales Director from Sirma. Thanks for joining us, Rod. How we doing this morning? Rodd Herron: We're doing great. Thank you for allowing me to join you. Steve Carran: Absolutely. So first question, Sirma has been around for years, but for those that are first finding out about Sirma, how would you describe Sirma's role in helping hotels navigate digital transformation? Rodd Herron: Let me back up one second, make sure that people understand what Sirma does. We are a development firm for hire, so we can help companies with their tech stack, designing their new future, integrating their different disparate systems, et cetera, so that we're available for hire short-term, long-term, et cetera. So that's what we can do. So that's where we really come in. We've got a number of years of experience in the industry, and our expertise allows us to understand the industry, whether that be the hotel side or the technology side, thus delivering better solutions for the hotels and/or the tech vendors. Connections and integrations are really good at it. David Millili: That's great. Hospitality's invested in technology over the years, but many operators still struggle with disconnected systems, fragmented workflows. Why is this challenge proving to be so difficult to solve? Rodd Herron: It's interesting. That's been an issue for more years than I care to admit to. It's because the technology solutions were really designed to solve a specific problem or area in a hotel. So your PMS is designed to help around the front desk. Your POS is designed to help around the restaurant or the sales venue. Golf and spa software is designed to help in a golf area or a spa. But there isn't really any connectivity across all of that, and that's where Sirma can really come in and help you connect it all and bring these disparate products that you've purchased over the years together into one place. Not only is the system disparate, but more importantly, the data is disparate, and it's hard to get that single view or multiple views of a guest from that amazing amount of data that you probably have hidden throughout your hotel or hotels. Steve Carran: So everybody's talking about AI. Yeah, it's the hottest topic here at HITEC and for the past year or so. But a lot of hotels are unsure where to start. What would you recommend to hotels that are a little concerned about cost, complexity, or disruption? Rodd Herron: Well, let me... It's funny. It brings me to an interesting conversation I was in with a GM the other day. They come into their office in the morning, and there are all sorts of different channels coming at them. Their email, guests have posted some comments online, there are guest requests that came in overnight that may or may not have been fixed. One of the things that I think is that they need to make sure they are thinking about a solution that could go across all of these systems and all of the channels that they're getting fed from on a daily basis. So that's where at least Sirma's offering is at. The products themselves will come up with AI within their products, but Sirma's offering is really going to be an umbrella across all these systems. Your question about where to start: start small and spend some time planning, because if you just shoot from the hip and start over here, it's going to be an issue for you. As I said, Sirma's really focused on a couple of things nobody's thinking about. One, security. People really aren't thinking about security when they're using AI. And the second thing is making sure that it really is a solid product and gives you the ability to use multiple AIs. David Millili: Sirma's showcasing a connected AI ecosystem here at HITEC. What makes your approach different from the many AI solutions that are currently in the marketplace? Rodd Herron: Well, I just touched on it earlier, but as I said, it's across multiple systems. It's across multiple sets of information and the data and the communication that you're getting in a day. We're sort of, as I said, that umbrella that crosses all of that. That's really the difference. But as I also said, security. Because of our other verticals, we're in the financial, hospital, medical, et cetera, so our focus is really around security, and it has to be. Most people and most companies, especially the newer startups, aren't really focused on that level of security, and people don't realize it. The other thing is, look what just happened to us this week. Claude released a new AI, and within a week it was basically shut down. What if that had been the AI that you were using within your product? Where would you be? Literally overnight, you wouldn't have a product. Sirma's offering allows multiple different AIs, allows you to abide by all the data processing rules such as GDPR, California data rules, whatever that may be, along with multiple languages. So we really can give you that potential information and feed from all of the different places within hospitality or your hotel. Steve Carran: The final question here: what is really going to separate hospitality organizations in the AI world from those that learn it well and those that are just experimenting with it? Rodd Herron: Planning. It's really going to be around taking some time in advance to really work through it. Sirma has a team of people, our engineering team, that can really come in and spend some time helping you do that, and that's part of what we will do with you in the beginning. That planning is so important. I was talking to a friend of mine who's a GM whose beverage manager quit, and he went out on ChatGPT, and he was real proud of himself. Over a day or two, he designed some beverage AI software that allowed him to understand the inventory and ordering and so forth. It's like, great. Then I'm like, "Okay, so how does that connect within the rest of your food and beverage or the rest of your hotel?" Well, it doesn't. So that's where it is. The other thing I would point out is make sure you start somewhere small, get it right, and then expand. That would be my suggestions. David Millili: Smart advice. Great advice. So that does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier. Let people know how they can get in touch with you and how they can find out more about Sirma. Rodd Herron: Well, my email address, if that's able to be plugged, is rodd.herron@sirma.com we're available. You can also go to sirma.com and fill out the information that's there, and we'd be more than happy to get involved and talk to you, help you, show you our offering, and guide you. Whether that's AI or these disparate systems that we've been fighting for way too many years, we're here to help you. David Millili: That's great. So that does it for a special HITEC Modern Hotelier, the most engaged podcast in hospitality. Whether you're watching or listening, we appreciate you. Hope to be with you again soon, and thank you.