Almost every touchpoint with our guests now involves technology in some way. As the CEO, it is ultimately your responsibility to ensure that technology is given the priority, resources, and budget required. Very often though, the CIO reports to other C-level executives and does not have the same level of influence in the company.

Do you consider the IT department to be as important as operations, finance, and marketing? And how involved are you personally in the company's overall technology architecture and strategy?

Viewpoint authored by 
Lyle Worthington, HFTP Past President

IDeaS - A SAS Company

This viewpoint is co-created with IDeaS a SAS company
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Federico J. González
Federico J. González
President & CEO, Radisson Hospitality AB

IT is one of the most critical departments of our company as information technology is where the business, innovation and technology come together to create a competitive advantage. Our entire business is customer-centric. And our IT structure and architecture are there to bring meaningful value to all our customers, be it either families who are on holiday and want to enjoy the experience of staying in a hotel, business travelers, the owners of our hotels, travel agencies or even our employees.

In order to make sure every moment matters for all the involved stakeholders, it is important to have a very close connection with them. And part of that connection lies in data management. So our service, the experience we can offer our customers and our competitive advantage lies in the information we have about them: what are their needs and expectations, how can we fulfill and exceed them? This helps our employees at the hotels to delight our customers before, during and after their stay.

As this is such a critical part of our entire organization, we are constantly on the look-out for new technologies. And the IT organization balances a deep knowledge on the technology and the business background to deliver game changing technologies that the RHG organization can leverage and exploit to release the value out of it. All of this is possible thanks to the great team we have in place. All of our employees have a “Yes I can” attitude and that's a crucial factor. Without that attitude it would be impossible for IT to work its magic and contribute to unforgettable experiences.

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