Many hospitality industry executives instinctively feel that technology is both a blessing and a curse. Yes, technology increases productivity and enables new ways of communicating with customers, but it also creates new challenges as distribution channels emerge, and new headaches when the technology doesn't work the way it's supposed to-which seems to happen all too frequently. Urban legend has it that more than 70 percent of technology projects fail. That's likely an exaggeration (it all depends on how you define "failure," of course), but it is true that far too many implementations do not provide the expected benefits.

Part of the reason for this lack of success is that most technology initiatives are planned around the technology, not the customer. In today's competitive market, with constant pressure on profitability, hotel operators need a better strategy-one that focuses on the business from start to finish.

A recent survey by New York University and PhoCusWright Inc. (The Effects of Emerging Technologies on the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Marketplace, Jan. 2006) of 95 executives from various sectors of the travel industry confirmed that most executives recognize technology's potential to provide real business benefits. The key motivators cited for investing in new technologies were: improving competitive ...