Today, travellers’ top holiday companions are mobile phones, according to a new study. It’s evident that technology is evolving at a relentless pace. So are the guests’ demands. It can be difficult for hotels and leisure providers to keep up with recent changes, let alone look to the future. But the fact of the matter is that technology is the only way out when it comes to enhanced customer experience. It allows continuous communication and streamlines the guest experience, from reservation to checkout.
HRAWI Magazine (Hotel and Restaurant Association of West India, Mumbai), met up with Vijay Choudhary, General Manager - Information Technology, HRH Group of Hotels and captured his views in their latest issue. According to Vijay, “Since IT is now considered one of the growth engine for hotels, in-room technology plays a vital role and gives competitive advantage with a measurable ROI.” For more from Vijay, please click here.
So, if we’re convinced that digitising the reservation functions does it all for us, think again! It’s time that hotels add power features to the basic functions to offer the ‘smart-hotel’ feel to the guest. Our guests are so used to technology that they want it all around them in the hotel to make themselves ‘at home’.
- Let's start with always on, free Wi-Fi web access. There is no excuse for any hotel to charge for broadband - even McDonalds restaurants and Costa coffee houses now provide free Wi-Fi.
- Research reveals that 73 percent of Asian holiday-makers chose to check-in online when travelling internationally. While it's nice to be able to chat to the front desk, sometimes guests want to just breeze past the front desk and head straight to their rooms. So, why not pop up a mobile page on the guest's phone using NFC or send the guest a remote check-in?
- Consider the up-sell opportunity from a tablet placed in-room showing the delights of the room service menu and tempting the guest with side orders and beverages. Or give him an option to pre-book dinner! And why not show reviews of each course, and better still show him any peer reviews as well. Fast forward three years and iPads in hotel rooms are almost ubiquitous these days. Well, in luxury and full-service hotels anyways.
- How about enabling the guest with many enhanced features such as the ability to set the room temperature, open the door, close the curtains and set mood lighting?
- Real-time offers and discounts can also be pushed to the guest without disturbing his privacy. Plus, guests can be educated about the hotel facts like the history, hotel map, recent media updates and much more in the most innovative and interactive way through e-brochures. Saves the hotel revenue too!
- Last and the most important, personalised experience that lasts long. Guests love it when their preferences are remembered for each visit, making the customer's life as easy as possible. What’s in it for us? A loyal customer who knows we care!
Food for thought, right? Well if these haven’t become staple diet yet!
It was an ambitious dream to get enlisted in ‘CIO-Asia’s top 100 index’ and it’s no more just a dream, it is real!
It is a moment of pride for all at HRH and specially team at the IT department. I must say that all team members have worked with utmost sincerity towards a single goal of achieving excellence through sustainable solutions in the field of IT.
I may not be able to name all however mentioning few of them is must who are just like solid pillars holding and supporting the IT department- Shailendra, Hemant, Nitin, Rajendra, Mukesh, Mihir, Sumit, Amit, Ritesh, Shekhar, Pranav, Mukesh & Avinash . Being a part of such a loyal and talented team always brings a sense of pride where few of them have worked with the organization for more than 12 years and most of them for 5years at least!
I remember, this journey towards the success had started with an understanding of the vision shared by respected CMD, Shriji Arvind Singh ji Mewar who has always guided us towards innovative and self sustainable IT solutions. These should not only be cost effective but also support business operations across all verticals.
With micro level knowledge of processes especially of hospitality industry and competent and tested-solutions, we wish to explore new avenues & provide I.T. services to the world because I.T is one of our (HRH) core competencies & ‘CIO-Asia’s top 100 index’ proves the same now!
Jai Mewar.
Vijay Choudhary, General Manager - Information Technology, HRH Hotels shares his Success Mantra with magazine, IT Next
You can also read the text in the article below:
A Soldier in IT
“An MBA (Finance) gives me a bird's-eye view of an organization, which will help in the role of a CIO,” says Vijay Choudhary, General Manager-IT, HRH Group of Hotels
“I found my dream job in IT and consider myself a soldier to serve my country, users and organizations”
BY MANU SHARMA
“Hailing from Rajasthan, I always dreamed of serving in the Indian defense services from my early school days. In fact ,I got through my CDSE written exams and group discussion. However, due to unfavorable family conditions, I had to give up, “says Choudhary.
“But by God's grace, I joined IT since I had a B.Sc. in Computer Science; and there have been no regrets so far,” he adds..He later completed his M.Sc. in Computer Science from Udaipur University, “I found my dream job in IT and consider myself a soldier equipped to serve my country, users and organizations.”
In 1996, Choudhary joined the Choksi Group of Companies, Udaipur as EDP in charge and was responsible for process automation for HR. manufacturing and finance .Later, in 1999, he joined the HRH Group “I joined as a programmer during the K2K scenario and had to handle a lot of bugs in the existing software. But I handled them and have since grown in the same company over the last 13 years. Today, I am the GM-IT and responsible for the entire IT implementation –not only within the hotels but also the group's other companies like education etc.”
IT learning and recognition go parallel, feel Choudhary. “Every day is new day and opens doors to lot of new opportunities for learning –facing new, unexpected problems and designing strategies to solve them. You need to continuously increase your efficiency and stamina like in the Army,” he remarks.
He developed the Central Reservation System (CRS) and Central Management Management (CRM) from scratch. The systems work on the Window Sequel server and all the applications are hosted in the company's own data center which Choudhary and team setup in Udaipur.
He aims to join the excursive club of CIOs over the next few years and says he has been continuously upgrading his skills. In fact, he finished an MBA (Finance) recently and now understands the financial skills required for a CIO. “The MBA gives me a bird view of the organization .while I am already equipped with B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Computer Science; these will help in the role of a CIO. I would like to pursue my future in the hospitality industry itself." he says.
He believes that these are the future technologies to look forward to and master: everything As a Service, Cloud, Virtualization, App on demand, Business Intelligence on App, BI with predictive analysis leveraging Big Data advantage, Ipv6 and social network. To overcome stress, he gets up at 4.45am on all week days to practice pranayams/yoga for one and-a-half hours. “But my kids do not allow me to get up early on Sunday.” he jokes.
“Besides, in the middle of my working day. I practice deep breathing at times when I feel overburdened with challenges... it gives me immediate energy."
Choudhary admires his CMD, Maharana Shriji Arvind Singhji Mewar."It has been a huge privilege to work with him closely. Also I admire Steve Job’s life history; the great man came from the toughest situation and left us with so much." he concludes.
FACT FILE
NAME
VIJAY CHOUDHARY
CURRENT DESIGATION
GM IT HEAD IT
CURRENT ROLE
HEAD IT
EXPERTISE
BUSINESS AND TECHOLONGY ALIGNMENT IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
WORK EXPERINCE
16+ YEARS
FAVOURTE QUOTE:
A PERSON CAN AND WILL BE SUCCESFUL WITH OR WITHOUT FORMAL EDUCATION IF HE HAS THE 5CS CHARACTER, COMMITMNET, CONVICTION, COURTESY, AND COURAGE.
FAVOURITE DESTINATION
INDIA
FAVOURITE BOOK
VIKARAM SHARMA SERIES
FAVOURITE GADGET:
BLACK BERRY AND iPAD
Vijay Choudhary, DGM-IT, HRH Hotels shares views in magazine IT NEXT
Extraordinary IT innovations at the HRH Group of Hotels recognized by APAC CXO Forum at Bangkok, Thailand
HRH Group of Hotels participated in a prestigious Asia Pacific level “Business – Technology - Leadership Event” - The CIO Leadership Retreat and CISO Forum 2012 at Bangkok, Thailand, from Oct 25th – 27th, 2012. The event was organized by the ‘APAC CXO forum’, an international forum, which invited the top 100 IT leaders and eminent I.T. service providers in the Asia Pacific region. The theme of the conference was “Innovate, Secure & Transform”.
The event had Workshops ‘by CIOs - for CIOs’, lessons on Leadership, Technology Sessions by eminent speakers from India as well as Thailand. It was followed by a grand ceremony of the prestigious Awards for CIOs, CISOs and Data Center Experts, hosted at the ‘Menam Seminar and Convention Center, Ramada Plaza Menam Riverside, Bangkok’.
Mr. Vijay Choudhary, Head IT, HRH Group of Hotels was honored with the award ‘CIO-Leader’, presented by Mr. Ajay K. Dhir, Chairman and Founder of the APAC CXO Forum. The award recognizes a trusted guide, influential mentor and a strategic executive. It recognizes someone who is instrumental in the successful turnaround of his company & is an exceptional leader who has played an important role in his specific sector development on various levels, implemented innovative strategies in order to improve performance, and contributed to the growth of the community, environment & region as well.
To maintain transparency, proper governance and a structured process of selection, the awards were judged by an independent panel of prominent society and industry leaders.
It’s another landmark in the journey of technological achievements for HRH Group of Hotels, EternalMewar, Udaipur.
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