ISSUE 316 | MAY 2018 WWW.TAHAWULTECH.COM

AT YOUR SERVICE ROTANA HOTELS TAKES GUEST EXPERIENCE TO NEW LEVELS WITH SLICK BI

PUBLICATION LICENSED BY PRODUCTION CITY, DCCA FEATURE Rotana Hotels

In hospitality, we’re up against the biggest accommodation provider globally – and they own no hotels, so digital transformation is no longer an HOW option for us. ROTANA'S BI Samir Abi Frem, corporate VP of IT, IS REDEFINING Rotana Hotels HOSPITALITY Samir Abi Frem, corporate vice president of IT at Rotana Hotels, opted to implement a business intelligence solution to gain further insights into guest behaviour and put Rotana at the forefront of hospitality innovation.

rom the arrival of on- first organisations that meet the demand, online services expectations of customers today. such as Booking.com, to Rotana Hotels has properties in Fthe rise of accommodation 20 countries and 38 cities across providers that rely solely on the globe, and welcomes over six technology to secure bookings – but million guests through its doors every own no physical assets, the legacy year. In a bid to stay apace with the hospitality sector has been turned burgeoning competition for customers on its head, and long-standing hotel here in the UAE – one of the world’s chains are now facing the need to most desirable tourist destinations, transform themselves into digital- corporate vice president of IT Samir

2 MAY 2018 www.tahawultech.com FEATURE Rotana Hotels

Abi Frem sought to make a number of engine that could provide us with taken us a long time to collect this changes to the company’s operations. a customisable and user-friendly data and make real use of it – which, “Regardless of your business’ size, interface,” explains Abi Frem. “We in this case, reflects directly onto industry or location, we’re all facing scanned the market and opted to the customer.” external and internal pressures to work with MDS ap and SAP, and Phase one of the implementation, compete, and innovation now needs went on to jointly host a number of which began in August last year, is to be the top priority for CIOs across support workshops with MDS ap due to go live in the coming weeks, the board. In hospitality, we’re up to ensure that we were all working says Abi Frem. “We’ve been carrying against the biggest accommodation towards the same goal.” out a number of tests before releasing provider globally with the rise of Air Abi Frem prioritised the it as a full launch,” he says. “But once BnB – and they own no hotels, so company’s customer relationship the project has gone live, we expect to digital transformation is no longer an management (CRM) systems as be able to quickly access a complete option for us,” says Abi Frem. the first data source to be loaded view of our reality, while also being For Rotana Hotels, a major able to generate different levels of part of this transformation has reporting, therefore enabling us to centred around enhancing its easily provide the right information to data management systems with the right people to permit them to do business intelligence tools to ensure their job to the best of their ability.” a single-view of the information that Abi Frem is a firm believer of really matters. We were spending initiating IT projects based on “We were previously spending a their value to the business, not lot of time consolidating and validating a lot of time simply for the fact that they may our data, rather than analysing it and consolidating and be “nice to have” or follow the extracting real value from it at both a “latest tech trends.” hotel and corporate level,” he says. validating our “We’re just not that kind of The absence of a single-view company,” he says. “We invest in platform to consolidate the numerous data, rather than areas where we can get immediate data sources was leading to a delay and measurable returns. Our board in the analysis process, resulting analysing it and believes we can utilise technology in inefficient reporting processes. extracting real to better ourselves and differentiate “There was no option for us to provide ourselves from the competition, the top management with a real-time value from it at meaning company executives are report, and this was a major challenge often very open and supportive for for us,” says Abi Frem. both a hotel and new projects.” Reliance on Excel spreadsheets With the onset of emerging and manual processes to produce corporate level. technologies such as artificial these reports were also major intelligence and robotics now putting hindrances to the efficiency of Abi their stamp on the , Frem’s IT department in delivering the Abi Frem believes it won’t be long necessary information to the board. before they make an impact on the “Spreadsheets only enable you with a onto the new business intelligence hospitality sector. static view, meaning we weren’t able platform. “We have started working on to drill down or figure out how we’d “We then switched our focus enhancing our guest service and come to reach these results,” he says. onto having a solution dedicated to booking processes through the Rotana set out to change this by collecting guest feedback, before installation of AI-driven chatbots,” he seeking a solution that could provide implementing an integrated loyalty says. “But this is a technology we plan them with this intelligence wherever, programme which enables us to to investigate on a larger scale in the and whenever it became necessary. provide a loyalty performance coming years, and I absolutely see it “We sought to find an efficient dashboard for our top spenders,” having a major impact on the industry database integration and sync he says. “Previously, it would have in the future.”

3 MAY 2018 www.tahawultech.com About MDS ap

MDS ap is the successor of Sybase Products with 25 years of history serving enterprise customers in MENA, and Central Europe. As a SAP Gold Partner, we are dedicated to helping you run businesses better using technologies from SAP and from complementary solution providers. Our technology expertise spans across Enterprise Architecture, Data Management and Processing, Analytics, Enterprise Performance Management, Omnichannel Banking, Human Capital Management as well as Customer Engagement and Commerce.

MDS ap is part of the Midis Group and is a member of EPM International. We currently operate twelve offices across the Middle East and North , Turkey as well as Central Europe.

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