Strategically Re-allocate IT Budgets for the Post-Pandemic “Bleisure” Travelers
By Therese Williams, Top Gun
Whether we welcome it or not, technology continues to blur the boundaries between work and play. Today’s “Bleisure” guests expect to be able to tap out a blog, write code or simply share photos in the moment. While business travel and entertainment revenues are experiencing a post-pandemic rebound, your “Bleisure” guests have compounded expectations of your digital experience.
A survey conducted by Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) late last year found that 82% of their respondents believe their workers were equally or more interested in “blended travel” than in pre-pandemic times. Consequently, IT organizations are faced with ramping up technology investments to meet the connectivity and performance demands of “Bleisure” travelers. This is especially true within the travel, entertainment and hospitality industry.
Guests expect a seamless, omni-channel user experience that is highly secure and always accessible. Building the omni-channel reality requires new investments in technology, analytics, wireless mobility and agile processes that focus on guest value. Striking a balance between funding existing legacy operations in parallel with next generation developments is a common challenge for IT departments. When faced with funding reallocations, there are options that are worth consideration and can prove to be least disruptive to your operation, allowing you to retain focus on digital innovation.
At Top Gun, we routinely advise our clients on best practices for optimizing their asset lifecycle plan as a means to redirect funding to highly critical transformation projects.
Five proven strategies for re-directing IT budget to accelerate digital innovation required to meet the evolved demands of “Bleisure” Guests:
- Prevent or delay disruptive hardware refreshes by extending the useful life of existing servers, storage and network hardware. Refreshing for the sake of adopting the latest technology is no longer “in vogue.” Three-year refresh cycles forced by OEM obsolescence dates can be easily avoided by extending warranties with alternative support providers.
- Shift your human capital to new gen development work by engaging a trusted partner’s talent pool to handle your day-to-day tasks within the data center such as rack/stack, smart hands, device staging and deployments, and on-demand projects. Seeking agile hardware maintenance providers that employ their own certified engineers are best-suited to provide these services as an integral component of your maintenance agreement.
- Avoid last minute renewals that prevent time for proper price comparison and vetting exercises. By staying ahead of your renewal dates, you will have the opportunity to evaluate alternative (independent) hardware and software support providers that offer same or better services than the OEM.
- Analyze existing hardware and software maintenance contracts to identify unnecessary expenditures based on each asset’s age and usage. If you’re unsure how to untangle the complexities of your maintenance contracts, then engage an independent technology expert that can help interpret and match your requirements with OEM specific coverage codes.
- When more capacity or speed is required to support your new applications, consider former generations of technology that offers a better price and performance ratio. As part of any hardware upgrade, be sure to seek the best trade-up or trade-in value from your supplier(s). The value of pre-owned equipment is based on today’s supply and demand. With today’s shortages in supply, you may even be pleasantly surprised at the value of your existing equipment. Seeking suppliers that specialize in your specific technology brands – and also stocks your equipment in-house – will help reduce costs by eliminating the middle layers in the supply chain that add margin (costs) to their transactions.
With in-house technical and industry experts, Top Gun is trusted by enterprise companies, such as major airlines, hospitality, and entertainment companies that seek non-disruptive IT support solutions that create additional value across the service chain.
We believe that by challenging the status-quo, we can deliver game-changing solutions that directly accelerate business critical digital transformations. Follow our company profile at LinkedIn or Contact Us for a helpful dialogue, ideally well before your Q4 objectives are due for successful completion.
Resources:
https://www.gbta.org/research-tools/covid-19-member-polls
Blog Author Details
Therese Williams
EVP, Global Alliances & Strategic Initiatives
