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11 Sep Top 6 IT Challenges in the Hospitality Sector
Just like every other industry in the world, the hospitality industry has a multitude of challenges against it. This includes IT challenges — of which there are many that any hospitality business faces regularly.
Taking these challenges head-on is vital for the success of any hospitality business, but it’s hard to know what to do without knowing the challenges that you’ll face. After all, the challenges that the hospitality industry faces are unique to the specific circumstances of the industry.
In this article, we’re going to go over the top six challenges that hospitality businesses often face, so you can prepare your business to face these challenges and come out of the other end successfully.
Challenge 1: Legacy Systems and Infrastructure
Legacy systems and infrastructure are simply outdated. As technology continues to move forward, older technologies will fall out of favour and become obsolete — making them ‘legacy technologies’.
Generally, 31% of a given organisation will be made up of legacy systems — meaning that it’s not unusual for legacy systems to exist for businesses in any industry. However, when considering the fast-paced nature of the hospitality industry, legacy systems can cause far more trouble than they’re worth.
By failing to invest in new technologies and systems, you risk vital systems being slow or even fatally crashing — which could be catastrophic for your business and your employees.
Challenge 2: Data Security and Privacy
Data security has become a vital part of the modern world. With many data breaches and privacy concerns moving to the forefront of public interest, a massive focus has been placed on data security and privacy — meaning that it’s vital for every business to take this into account.
For the hospitality industry, this poses new challenges — systems such as reservation systems and other vital hospitality systems that require any data need to meet the modern standards of data security — as does your business’s most critical data. Failing to do so could not only result in legal troubles but also cause catastrophic problems for your business.
Challenge 3: Seamless Integration of Systems
In the hospitality industry, several different systems are used daily within any given organisation that all complete a unique role. This can cause multiple challenges to arise — as not all systems work well together.
Because of this, there needs to be great attention given to the systems within an organisation and how they work within a wider organisation’s infrastructure — older systems tend to mesh worse with other systems, as legacy systems were usually only designed to work in the specific context of when they were made.
Ultimately, this means that you’ll need to look at your systems and consider how they work together — which could mean you have to invest in newer programs and technologies that work better within a wider system.
Challenge 4: Mobile Technology and Guest Expectations
In the modern world, customers expect that they’ll be able to get what they want with ease. In a world of online shopping and food delivery, convenience is paramount — meaning that your experience needs to feel convenient to match expectations to create a good experience.
This means that looking towards modern conveniences — such as mobile technology — is vital. The infrastructure required to enable modern mobile conveniences such as ordering online (with a QR code or ordering ahead) or reserving online needs to be there, and needs to feel good to use — which means implementing systems that are responsive, intuitive, and work for the majority of mobile users no matter their device.
Challenge 5: Staff Training and Technology Adoption
Your organisation is run in its day-to-day by your staff, meaning that they need to be trained on the modern technology within your organisation.
As you improve your systems, you need to train your staff on how to use them — which means lots of consideration needs to go into training and onboarding. Failing to do so could result in confusion and chaos on the ground, and could result in a bad experience for customers and staff all around.
By teaching your staff how to use the technology around them in the day-to-day operation of your business, you’ll get more results out of the technology implemented. This requires planning and taking time out to train staff — which means a robust technology training process needs to be put in place.
Challenge 6: Scalability and Future-Proofing
As your organisation grows, the ability to scale your business’ resources and prepare for future growth and advancement is vital. This is because as your business grows — and the world moves forward — you need to be ready to stay ahead of the curve and act quickly to meet the needs of a modern organisation.
By failing to do so, you leave the door open for guests and staff to move on to other businesses that are putting the future at the top of their priority list — and could risk your business declining or even falling into catastrophe.
Futureproofing your systems and ensuring that your organisation’s infrastructure is sufficiently scalable will let you grow and upgrade your organisation as you need to — which will help you remain successful and grow your business even further, creating a better experience for those who interact with your business.
How We Can Help
As with any industry, the hospitality industry has its own unique challenges and difficulties that need to be addressed and dealt with to ensure long-term success.
By knowing these challenges — and preparing to take them on — your organisation will remain ahead of the competition and be able to find success where unpreparedness could result in declining success or even cause trouble for your organisation. This is why it’s vital to ensure that these challenges are addressed and considered going forward.
If you’re looking to take the next step in ensuring that your organisation can face these challenges with ease, reach out to our experts today. We’ll be able to help you work out what you need, and provide you with support along the way.
Contact us now and see how we can help you.
