Features

On The Outside - John Rawcliffe

John Rawcliffe | Wednesday April 02, 2008



John Rawclifffe is IT Directorof Macdonald Hotels. John has over twenty years experience in the hospitality industry, starting his career with Ladbroke Hotels in 1981. In October 1989 he joined Macdonald Hotels, where he has worked in a variety of positions, laterally as a General Manager in Scotland, before moving into central services roles and IT in 1995. As IT Director, John now heads a team of 15 and is responsible for all operational IT services across the Group from the company’s new ground-breaking web-based booking system which provides real-time last room availability representation for over 40 hotels across the UK and four resorts, to the integrated point-of-sale and stock control systems across the company.   
First established in 1990 by Donald Macdonald and colleagues, Macdonald Hotels & Resorts Limited currently operates over 48 hotels and resorts throughout the UK and Spain, and controls a business with an annual turnover in the region of £250 million. The Group was recently named as the AA Hotel Group of the Year 2007-2008.

 
Hi-Tech Scotland (HTS): Describe your current role.

John Rawcliffe (JR): As the head of the IT function, I provide a central link between the operations of Macdonalds Hotels & Resorts, covering over 40 hotels the UK. We also have a number of timeshare resorts in Spain that I provide consultancy on. I’m generally based at the company HQ in Bathgate, where I am responsible for a team of 15 people, providing strategic direction system development and day-to-day operational support. That remit includes property management systems, point of sale systems, leisure and duty management systems, back-office systems for things like payroll and HR, not to mention meeting the IT requirements of our guest users.

HTS: What major technology projects do you expect to tackle over the next twelve months?

JR: Over the next twelve month and beyond, one of the major projects we’ll be working on is the consolidation of our group-wide Point of Sale systems. As it stands, we are excellent at selling rooms and organizing those bookings in a centralized and sophisticated manner, but when it comes to capitalizing on our retail operations – our shops, bars and restaurants – I feel that we have a lot to learn from the retail sector in how we best employ ICT, particularly in terms of making our inventory and supply chain as efficient as possible.
 
HTS: When did you first become interested in technology as a career?

JR: I’m trained as a hotel manager and I was operational in the Macdonald business up until the early 90s. At that time, I independently started looking at things like business forecasting and budgeting using IT applications, rather than sitting with a pencil and paper trying to work out my budget for the next five years. Back then, the group had no centralized IT function as such. My activity soon came to the attention of the Macdonald senior management team at that time and they asked me to take the lead in developing an IT strategy for the entire group. I was unsure at first as I didn’t feel I knew enough about IT, but I soon came to realise that it was my knowledge of the hotel industry that would prove to be the most important requirement for the role.

HTS: In your opinion, what are the worst mistakes an ICT salesperson can make?

JR: The worst offenders are those who breeze in with a perceived view of your company, without having bothered to do any real research of your true business needs. Often, as a result, they are wasting their time – and, worse still, my time - by pitching a product that has little relevance to our operations. I often find it more fruitful to deal with a technician, who understands what a product can and can’t do and will be honest about it, than a salesperson who has simply memorized the sales brochure!

HTS: In general terms, how well is the Scottish hospitality industry utilising ICT in 2008?

JR: I think we are doing well in the adoption of web technology on site (both for staff and guests) and in the effective use of the internet for our marketing activities, however, as I mentioned before, in terms of our back-office retail systems, I think the leisure industry generally still has a lot to learn from the way the commercial and retail sectors have employed ICT applications.
Those who work in the hospitality industry tend to have a real passion for dealing with people, and as such, tend to have a slightly cold view about the benefits IT can bring to the party. In a restaurant for example, if budget is tight, a new carpet may be judged to be more important than a new reservation system. Having said that, I believe the industry is growing up a lot at the moment in terms of its relationship with new technology.
 
HTS: What technologies do you believe will prove most important over the next decade (either in business or in society at large)?
 
JR: I think wi-fi internet connectivity will continue to grow in importance. We seem to have become an ‘always on’ society, whether that’s the businessman who needs access to his files remotely or the child who wants to play a computer game with his overseas pal. Anytime, any place, any device: those seem to be the demands coming from our customers.
Obviously, the services we provide to rooms, such as on demand TV services and reservation management, will continue to be supplied via cable, but we will definitely be investing in more wi-fi provision at our sites over the next couple of years.

www.macdonaldhotels.co.uk

Digg this feature

Technorati tags:

More Features