Editorial Board   Guest Author

Mr. Dean

Wes Dean

Vice President of Information Technology, M3 Accounting Services

Wes Dean is Vice President of Information Technology for M3 Accounting Services, the national leader in hotel-specific accounting software, processing more than $8 billion in financial transactions for more than 3,000 properties. With more than 20 years of network operations, software development and business operations management experience, Mr. Dean formulates long-term visions for the company's technology and service offerings. By directing M3's research and development (R&D) activities, he helps make the vision become a reality. Mr. Dean leads development of new software solutions and oversees improvement of existing products. His responsibilities include conducting research among the user community to ensure M3 products deliver the desired features and functionality, along with usability testing to make certain that M3 products perform across a number of platforms. Mr. Dean also serves as the company's executive security officer. He directs M3's hosting operations and directs the design, budget and capacity planning for its distributed data center operations. He guided M3 through their first Type II SAS70 Audit, ensuring compliance with publicly traded companies' regulations and industry standards. Prior to joining M3, Mr. Dean held a variety of leadership roles for technology companies based in Canada and the United States. He served as chief operating officer for Cyence International, a leading provider of Web-based financial software solutions for banking, manufacturing, and equipment leasing markets. Previously he served as CEO & chief technology officer of Signature Technology Solutions, an Atlanta-based company that helped financial organizations integrate online components into their processing systems. He is a former U.S. Army Infantry Officer serving as a Platoon Leader in the 82nd Airborne Division. Mr. Dean holds both a Bachelor's in Management Information Systems and a Master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Georgia.

Mr. Dean can be contacted at 770-297-3341 or wes@m3as.com

Coming up in February 2020...

Social Media: Social Listening Tools

The reach and influence of social media is staggering. Nearly 3 billion people use social media daily, posting a range of messages, selfies, images, and everything in-between. According to HubSpot, almost 4 million posts are uploaded to the major social networks every single minute! That's an astounding amount of content and it is crucial for hotels to skillfully use social media in order to effectively compete. From establishing a suitable brand identity and voice to creating content across all the major networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.), the goal is to actively engage consumers and to eventually convert them to customers. Some hotels are initiating online contests as a way to attract new customers, while others are rewarding customers with discounts who subscribe to the their email lists or follow their social media pages. Another recent strategy is to employ social media listening tools that track what people are posting online about their businesses. These tools allow hotels to monitor - or listen to - what's being said about a brand across the entire social web, and this can prove to be very valuable, unfiltered information. Social listening permits hotels to be aware of people's opinions about their business, industry or competitors, and some of these tools even listen beyond social media platforms. They also monitor publicly available information on blogs, forums, news outlets and websites. Some listening tools are more focused on gathering and analyzing data, while others offer more engagement-oriented features, which allow hotels to interact with people right from the platform. Often the information that is gleaned from these listening tools ends up being the most authentic, unbiased insights a business can get. The February Hotel Business Review will document what some hotels are doing to successfully integrate social media strategies into their operations.


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