Devouring Data
Is software eating your world? Do you have a Big Data problem? If you’re unable to answer yes to either of these questions, it’s possible that you’re going to fall behind the technology enablement curve, fast.
This month’s cover story of Hospitality Technology features an exclusive interview with the CTO of Hyatt Hotels & Resorts Matt O’Keefe. Before our interview, I had a chance to review a recent blog post he wrote and was intrigued. “As software eats the world,” wrote O’Keefe, “all companies in all industries will eventually become technology companies, or they will perish.” My reading of his meaning: software is a necessary tool in competitaive differentiation, and it’s invaluable to creating a unique hotel experience; perhaps even more so than a welcoming staff and blissful bedding.
O’Keefe’s blog was inspired by Hyatt’s plans to strengthen its in-house technology resources and develop a proprietary hospitality platform in a move to create seamless integration between systems. In our interview, O’Keefe spoke about how data and intelligence will be impacted by the in-house technology effort. User interfaces and APIs will be simplified to enable easy access to data for both front-end associates, and software developers. At the same time, O’Keefe indicates that Hyatt has every intention of creating what he calls a “Big Data problem.” Not without a resolution, of course (and his plans for that are revealed in our interview), but the intention is to outfit every guest touch point with the ability to gather data. His point is that if you’re not setting out to create a Big Data problem, you’re not putting enough priority on the value of your data.
Perhaps it’s not software that will eat the world, but data. Or maybe data will be the consumable that software eats. In either case, if you don’t have both, you’ll be hungry.
This month’s cover story of Hospitality Technology features an exclusive interview with the CTO of Hyatt Hotels & Resorts Matt O’Keefe. Before our interview, I had a chance to review a recent blog post he wrote and was intrigued. “As software eats the world,” wrote O’Keefe, “all companies in all industries will eventually become technology companies, or they will perish.” My reading of his meaning: software is a necessary tool in competitaive differentiation, and it’s invaluable to creating a unique hotel experience; perhaps even more so than a welcoming staff and blissful bedding.
O’Keefe’s blog was inspired by Hyatt’s plans to strengthen its in-house technology resources and develop a proprietary hospitality platform in a move to create seamless integration between systems. In our interview, O’Keefe spoke about how data and intelligence will be impacted by the in-house technology effort. User interfaces and APIs will be simplified to enable easy access to data for both front-end associates, and software developers. At the same time, O’Keefe indicates that Hyatt has every intention of creating what he calls a “Big Data problem.” Not without a resolution, of course (and his plans for that are revealed in our interview), but the intention is to outfit every guest touch point with the ability to gather data. His point is that if you’re not setting out to create a Big Data problem, you’re not putting enough priority on the value of your data.
Perhaps it’s not software that will eat the world, but data. Or maybe data will be the consumable that software eats. In either case, if you don’t have both, you’ll be hungry.
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