TR Mandigo & Company

The June 2009 edition of Lodging Magazine has an excellent article regarding technology investment during the current tough economy. I was fairly impressed with the article, as it's one of the first articles I've seen that have clearly mirrored my sentiments: technology is never a place to cut back.

Not to sound presumptuous, but it is my opinion that all well run technology departments should always have leaders in place that make the business process their number one concern. If technology isn't supporting the business process, it isn't worth investing in. In hotels, this comes two fold. You have back of the house operations such as property management and yield management systems, reservations systems, energy management, security, and other such systems as well as guest experience to worry about - wireless and wired Internet, a business center, TVs, iPod and iPhone compatible in-room devices, and so forth.

The Lodging Magazine article makes many good cases and presents several scenarios where current Chief Information Officers are spending their IT budget to streamline costs and boost revenue, all while considering the economic forecast and guest experience. It's well worth the read for any hotelier or technology professional, as this mentality should be something many businesses need to consider adopting in these times.