Wyndham Exchange & Rentals has witnessed a sea change in its business in recent times and IT is playing a central role.

Keeping tabs on technology trends and making this work for evolving guest and business requirements is central to the chief technology officer’s (CTO) mandate. This is something that Stan Kreydin, senior vice president and chief technology officer for Wyndham Exchange & Rentals, knows only too well. As in many hotel businesses, the main objectives of his technology department are to focus on establishing a solid technology network infrastructure, to improve on business processes, optimise information technology spend and, of course, generate revenue.

However, the industry is also changing fast and firms have to move with the times. Wyndham Exchange & Rentals is no exception and has evolved from being a call centre-focused vacation company to a global, multi-channel web-centered technology company. “We drive more customers to the web and rely less on contact centre channels for large growth,” explains Kreydin, who understands that as a highly differentiated business that ranges from a timeshare exchange-based closed model to an open market rental model – there is no one size fits all. This is especially true given the cultural diversity of the workforce.

Against this backdrop EyeforTravel.com’s Ritesh Gupta speaks to Kreydin who names five technology trends that Wyndham Exchange and Rentals cannot ignore.  

1.    The cloud

Cloud computing has been in existence for some time and has gone by numerous names since its inception. Its maturity with integration, security and governance has created an inflection point, whereby these services now underpin core business applications. This is especially true for emerging companies without traditional bricks and mortar business footings. This is a natural progression of core virtualisation technologies that have altered the notions of servers and storage, into dynamic compute-based resource allocation models driven by software. Wyndham is careful to select partners that provide an innovative service with operational maturity and balance that understand information security and business risk. Areas of focus currently are in the realm of content acceleration/syndication, perimeter security (part of the group’s overall defence-in-depth approach), ‘master data management’ as well as data centre consolidation related activities for traditional as well as mobile web sites.

2.    Big data and actionable analytics

As Wyndham endeavours to learn more about customers’ preferences, experiences and desires this generates a massive amount of data. This is in line with almost every company currently in operation – there is a deep desire to know, understand and make an impact on the customer. Actionable analytics is at the core of this trend. Attaining the data is relatively simple; however, understanding and taking appropriate action at the appropriate time requires tools and organisational maturity that requires time to build and grow. For Wyndham, being able to understand where customers vacation, how they vacation and their overall experience is critical in ensuring that it progresses its service offerings so that these are above and beyond expectations. The same holds true for internal customers: knowing which key performance metrics to provide to which stakeholder is crucial in ensuring that the correct decisions are made to improve market share.

3.    Mobile continues to grow and expand

As predicted, this channel is continuing to grow and evolve globally. The expectation is that a customer’s interaction with a business is seamless – whether via traditional web browsers, tablets or phones. Additional growth is being seen with penetration on peripheral devices as well given the proliferation of Apple’s ‘AppStore’ type service offerings, driving additional products.

We now see smart TVs, gaming consoles and other portable devices gravitating towards a multi-modal experience, says Kreydin. “Our business continues to evolve our service offerings and take advantage of market developments in hybrid, native and dynamic-based delivery methods in order to strive for a consistent branded experience,” he explains.

4.    Experience-based computing

Integration with social networks, personal cloud services as well as the convergence of devices used to access services, is transforming how companies interact with customers. The notion of migration from user experience-based designs to customer experience-based designs is emerging as its own discipline and taking hold given the tools, data and delivery methods available. Wyndham works with internal and external partners to ensure that it delivers services and an experience that is in line with its marketing or branding strategy, social media practices and IT elements and capabilities – by channel, globally. Having a multi-cultural and multi-lingual website presents an interesting challenge in ensuring that there is a balance of content, security and mobility to the end user. The underpinning technology elements are deeply rooted in providing dynamic capabilities to the business and reducing cycle times to create, present and retire content and other related customer engagement elements. That, coupled with innovative content delivery network optimisation, creates a delightful experience.

5.    The Internet of things

Interconnected ecosystems are a growing trend whereby devices are becoming more and more Internet-enabled. This trend, coupled with the increase in IPv6 address space usage, shows that there is a desire from end users to interact with their surroundings and with increased frequency.

“We are rapidly heading towards a nexus of nebulous computing intertwined with normal day-to-day activities carried out in a fluid fashion,” says Kreydin. “Emerging trends are quickly becoming mainstream and businesses should understand how they can leverage the benefits that come with these types of technologies.”