Technology could widen the gender employment gap, the IMF warns

Technology is often espoused as a great leveler, enabling sudden and sweeping economic progress for huge swathes of society.

But it could also play a role in perpetuating a major societal divide: The gender employment gap.

That’s according to a new report from the International Monetary Fund, which found that women face a greater threat of losing their jobs to technology than their male counterparts.

Up to 26 million women in major economies could see their jobs displaced within the next two decades, if technology continues at its current rate, the IMF found.

That puts 11% at high risk (a 70% likelihood) of job disruption compared to 9% of men, which the report said could lead to a further widening of the pay gap between men and women.

The disparity noted by the report is led primarily by occupational divides, which see women disproportionately represented in low-skilled, clerical and sales roles that are routine-heavy and therefore prone to automation. That’s a result of both “self-selection” — women choosing certain professions — as well as exposure, the report said.

“We find that women, on average, perform more routine or codifiable tasks than men across all sectors and occupations ― tasks that are more prone to automation,” the report’s authors wrote.

“Moreover, women perform fewer tasks requiring analytical input or abstract thinking (e.g., information-processing skills), where technological change can be complementary to human skills and improve labor productivity,” it added.Measuring ‘routineness’

The IMF researchers developed a “routine task intensity” (RTI) index to measure the so-called routineness of various occupations and then broke that down by the gender make-up of each role.

On average, the RTI index was 13 percent higher for women workers than men, due to “women typically performing fewer tasks requiring analytical and interpersonal skills or physical labor,” the report said.

The index’ results were not uniform, however, the report said.

The gender routineness gap was far lower in Central Europe and Scandanavia, while it was among its highest in Japan, the Slovak Republic, Singapore and Estonia. The IMF said that was likely “indicative of countries’ positions along the automation path” as well as long-standing gender biases.

Meanwhile, the report also found oldest, less well-educated women to be at the greatest risk of job automation, adding that recent decades have seen more young women shift away from clerical and low-skilled occupations toward service and professional jobs.

“Women are increasingly selecting into jobs that are more insulated from displacement by technology,” the report said.

“Gender automation gaps between men and women are smaller for younger cohorts even among workers facing the highest risk of automation (e.g., less-well educated, in clerical and sales positions).”

Source:https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/07/technology-could-widen-the-gender-employment-gap-imf-warns.html

5 email marketing tools for startups

Traffic generation techniques and driving branding through digital marketing has been talked about so extensively already that we do not need to review them any more. 

Almost any startup can learn to use Google Ads, Facebook Ads, content and organic search engine optimisation (SEO) to get traffic at the top of their funnel. These are great ways to get the word out and making the brand visible. 

However, in order to nurture your leads and keep your customers engaged, you need to master email marketing. 

Email marketing remains the most powerful channel to communicate directly with the people who want to hear from you. This includes your blog’s content audience, your customers, people who want to work with you in the future, and your leads for the products and services you plan to sell.

When people sign up for a service, the most important initial communication, like login details, receipt of purchase, etc, is expected to be communicated over email. This also includes sending out relevant and personalised content so that you have your subscribers’ undivided attention. 

Relevance in the times of instant communication

Many digital marketing experts claim that email marketing is dead because of the rise of Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms and, most importantly, instant communication apps such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. But email still continues to drive revenues at our startup and for thousands of other startups in the world.

Email marketing works when email subscribers expect to receive an email from you. Else, unsolicited emails are just spam.

Many startups have tried to use email marketing to drive brand awareness and instant sales, but it doesn’t work. That’s when people claim email marketing is dead. But the problem lies in the fact that people have little to no idea about how to do it correctly.

The permission to reach the inbox of the subscriber should be used judicially and nurtured over time with relevant content.

Email marketing is personal because the email inbox is a personal space. And people like to hear from people, rather than brand names, because people want to connect with people. (Read Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing, if you haven’t read it yet). 

When people give you permission to communicate with them, and you carefully nurture that permission without abusing it with promotional messages, email marketing can work wonders. 

In this article, I want to talk about the top five email marketing tools that startups can use. These tools are pocket-friendly, have an easy on-boarding procedure, and come with the basic set of features that startups can use without the need to have a tech team.

Awhile back, email marketing software was not cheap and one had to pay heavy upfront costs to get things up and running. Most of the email marketing tools in the market nowadays will charge you based on the total amount of email subscribers you have hosted with them. That way you are not going to incur heavy upfront costs like setup fee. You will pay more only when your business grows along with it. 

Most of these email marketing tools come with a free trial or a money-back guarantee. You can experiment with multiple tools without risking money and find the best fit for you. 

So here goes my list:

ConvertKit

ConvertKit is one of my favourite email marketing tools. Their interface is simple and easy to use. Nathan Barry, Founder of ConvertKit, is a designer himself, and he has taken a personal interest in designing the user interface.

The ConvertKit plan starts with $29 a month for up to 1,000 subscribers. If you have 10,000 subscribers, you would pay $119 a month. The cost goes up based on the number of subscribers you have.

ConvertKit is the only tool that allows unlimited email sending for any given number of subscribers you have. Most of the email marketing tools have a sending limit of seven to 12 emails per subscriber per month, and if you send more emails, you will be billed separately.

For example, if you have 1,00,000 subscribers, you will be able to send a total of 5,00,000 emails a month and if you send another 5,00,000 emails to the same subscriber base, you will be charged the equivalent of having 2,00,000 subscribers. Such pricing is unpredictable and gives early-stage startups surprise bills.

ConvertKit is made for bloggers and info-product marketers, but it works for anyone who has a focus on personal branding.

Many email marketing tools come with a lot of bells and whistles, which include fancy HTML email templates. ConvertKit keeps the focus on the conversation and doesn’t encourage you to add fancy designs. The email editor is plain and simple, and your HTML emails look more like plain text emails. 

If you are looking to send heavy branded HTML emails, then ConvertKit might not be the right option for you. However, if you are trying to leverage 1:1 communication with your subscribers with written content, ConvertKit is the best fit for you.

ConvertKit also has the best delivery rate in the industry and has a high conversion ratio for emails sends to opens. They have maintained the reputation of their email servers very well by carefully monitoring all the users and preventing spam complaints.

One downside of ConvertKit is that they do not support highly customisable automation. If you are looking to build custom marketing automation funnels, then ActiveCampaign might be a better fit for you.

ActiveCampaign

There are three reasons why ActiveCampaign is better than ConvertKit. The pricing of ActiveCampaign is slightly lower than ConvertKit at higher subscriber slabs.

For 1,000 subscribers the monthly pricing plan starts at $29 a month – which is almost the same as ConvertKit. If you have 10,000 subscribers, the pricing is $129 a month.

At higher subscriber slabs, there are significant differences in pricing. If you have 100,000 subscribers, you will be paying $459 a month for the Lite Plan on ActiveCampaign, and $679 a month for ConvertKit.

While ConvertKit doesn’t have multiple plans, ActiveCampaign comes with four different plans.

The Lite plan of ConvertKit is good enough for most of the bloggers, information product marketers, and startups. If you also want sales automation with features like Lead Scoring, then the Plus plan will be the right fit for you.

The professional plan comes with predictive sending and site messaging. And there is also an enterprise plan for people who want to customise the entire offering. 

ActiveCampaign allows you to add webhooks in the automation, which helps you pass data to other tools. You can also set up an SMS drip campaign with ActiveCampaign – which is not available with tools like ConvertKit.

If you have a lot of subscribers, are very price conscious, and if you want to have the possibility of upgrading to a CRM automation suite in the future with the same subscriber database, I would recommend ActiveCampaign over ConvertKit.

The only downside of ActiveCampaign is that the tool is much more complex to use than ConvertKit. You might find it difficult to create a simple drip marketing automation and finding an email template that looks like plain text emails (if plain text emails are your preference). 

Aweber

Aweber is one of the oldest email marketing companies in the world. Aweber has a very simple interface and allows users to send plain text emails. Plain text emails have a higher chance of landing in the primary tab of Gmail (and 90 percent of internet users who use email are on Gmail). 

Aweber has high-reputation email servers that have built trust with the email ISPs over the years. This helps to get very high delivery rates and open rates for your email campaigns.

The pricing of Aweber is very simple. The basic plan for 500 subscribers comes at $19 a month. If you have 10,000 subscribers, it would cost $69 a month. It’s $149 a month for up to 25,000 subscribers. And beyond that, it’s $8 additional for every 1,000 new subscribers that are added to the database. 

Aweber supports the creation of a simple drip marketing campaign but is not the best tool to build complex automation.

Drip.com

Drip is one of the most sophistical email marketing and CRM tools out there in the market. 

Initially Drip was competing against ActiveCampaign and ConvertKit with the same set of features and pricing. Later Drip has rebranded itself into a communication tool for e-commerce companies.

If you are an ecommerce startup, Drip.com might be the right option for you as they have custom built the features keeping in mind the needs of an ecommerce startup.

The pricing starts at $49 a month for 2,500 subscribers and goes up to $1,300 per month for 100,000 subscribers. Drip.com is the highest priced tool on my list.

Drip allows advanced rules and liquid templating, which helps you dynamically change the content on the email based on Subscriber tags. Unless you are an ecommerce startup, I wouldn’t recommend using Drip.com. 

MailChimp

Any mention of email marketing tools for startups brings MailChimp into the conversation. MailChimp is the largest provider of email marketing services for the internet, and one of the oldest and most profitable companies in this field.

MailChimp is the only tool that comes with a free plan. For up to 2,000 subscribers, there is no cost. You can upload your subscribers and send emails for free. Just make sure that the subscriber list you have is an option subscriber list. If your email campaigns have a high spam complaint rate and bounce rate, MailChimp will immediately ban your account. 

If you want all the features of MailChimp that include marketing automation, I recommend the Pro plan. It costs $199 a month, and then additional pricing based on the number of subscribers you have. For 1,00,000 subscribers, you will pay $475 per month plus $199 a month, which puts you at a cost of $674 per month.

MailChimp, being a leader in the email marketing field, has the best email servers that help you get the best delivery and open rates for your email marketing campaigns. Advanced automation is still difficult with MailChimp and the learning curve is steep.

The pricing is very similar to ConvertKit. And ActiveCampaign is much cheaper with a better set of features. 

Final thoughts

My personal recommendation for the best email marketing tools will be ConvertKit, and ActiveCampaign. Both have a compelling set of features, come with flexible pricing, and have great customer support. 

I wouldn’t recommend setting up your own email server for sending emails. Setting up your own server is complex and there are too many chances of failure. Signing up for an email marketing service provider is always easy and gives you peace of mind as you scale up your business. 

Source:https://yourstory.com/2019/05/email-marketing-tools-digital-solutions-startups

Technology As The Great Enabler For Female Entrepreneurs

Often, we think of technology relative to a career as an asset, a tool or skill to be leveraged for gain. But during a recent dinner, Professor Vanessa Chan reminded me that the changing nature of work means technology can be so much more: it can be the key with which entrepreneurs unlock the global economy or the secret to a successful work-life integration and balance for others.

Chan is currently a Professor of Practice in Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Undergraduate Chair for the Materials & Engineering Department at the University of Pennsylvania. She also is an inventor, runs her own startup, and invests and advises dozens of other startups. We met so she could discuss a business idea, but the conversation quickly grew into a wide-ranging discussion of entrepreneurial thinking, useful technologies, and best practices in their everyday applications.

Professor Chan followed a traditional path early in her career. After receiving a Bachelor’s in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and then a PhD in Engineering from MIT, she climbed the corporate ladder to become the first female partner in the North America Chemicals practice at McKinsey. She also co-led the firm’s innovation practice.

She credits McKinsey with helping her to build out a bench of soft skills to go along with the technical skills she learned earning her PhD. She is quick to share research from Harvard University that says: “85% of job success comes from well-developed soft skills and only 15% comes from technical skills & knowledge.”

Interestingly, she feels this combination is lacking for newly minted engineers and the explicit teaching of soft skills is notoriously absent in most university programs. To counter it, she is committed to teaching many of those skills in her own classes, hoping to help Penn Engineering students  become known both for their technical acumen and their ability to work effectively within large and complex teams and ecosystems. She does this as part of a class for engineering students that teaches them how to build their own companies, and in her Senior Design course, where Engineering seniors pursue  their capstone project.

Her mission is to produce more well-rounded engineers that can attain even greater success when they graduate. Professor Chan mentions a recent departmental review that felt validating because it recognized her curriculum teaching as one of the strengths of the department and is considering rolling it out to graduate students as well.

Professor Chan is passionate about this because she believes people in the real world thrive not because they had the highest GPA but because of soft skills that allow them to work effectively in complex ecosystems, whether it be academia, industry or startups.  She says that startups are critical to the growth of the economy, and points to the Small Business Administration statistics that say over 627,000 new small businesses open each year and that small businesses (defined as 500 or less employees) contribute to almost 50% of the United States GDP as evidence.

One of the reasons Professor Chan feels so strongly about this is  because she also runs her own startup called re.design studio. As part of the studio and company, she invented a tangle-free headphones product called loopit. The experience of designing, funding and launching that product opened her eyes to the democratizing power of technology for business.

She explains that through a Kickstarter campaign for loopit, she was able to connect with more than 500 complete strangers who backed her campaign. It brought her into contact with people as far away as Europe and Asia — people she never would have been able to meet, interact or (more importantly) transact with as little as ten years ago.

When it came time to actually manufacture loopit, Professor Chan turned to online tools and platforms like Alibaba and Maker’s Row. They helped her construct prototypes and source manufacturers that could build early versions of loopit then scale to meet demand. She says she never would have been able to have the same level of success as a one-woman company struggling to bring her ideas to life without these powerful platforms.

Outside of her role at Penn and with her company, Professor Chan is involved with more than a dozen other startups as an angel investor and advisor. She is also testing the waters with keynote speaking to help inspire others to adopt a growth mindset and be confident in failure as a catalyst for that growth. Technology plays a role in all of these endeavors, helping her spread the word on her message.

But Professor Chan also makes the point that we should embrace technology as a key platform for our personal lives. Powerful, yet common tech tools today give us the freedom to work remotely or from home while also enabling families to keep in touch while apart.

Ultimately, Professor Chan sees technology as a critical enabler that makes it possible for each of us to tap into the global economy in some way. It can also function as a great leveler, helping advance work-life balance and opening new opportunities for distributed careers.

One way that Professor Chan hopes technology is used better is to recruit more women into related fields. She notes that across all of her roles – professor, startup founder, investor, and angel investor – she sees less than 15% of positions held by women. The power of technology today should make it more accommodating for women to enter and succeed in these same roles.

For Professor Chan, that means it’s more than just the availability of technology. She says we need more female role models to inspire the next generation of female tech leaders and grow those numbers.

In Professor Chan, we have just such a role model.

Source:https://www.forbes.com/sites/traceywelsonrossman/2019/04/29/technology-as-the-great-enabler-for-female-entrepreneurs/#608f0c3d53cd

Digitisation will shape travel and hospitality sectors

A growing wave of digitalisation is helping to drive growth across the travel, tourism, and hospitality sectors in the UAE, experts said ahead of the Arabian Travel Market (ATM 2019) exhibition.

Opening its doors on Sunday, April 28, 2019, the 26th edition of the show will welcome over 2,500 exhibiting companies and an expected 40,000 industry professionals, with over 150 countries represented, 65 national pavilions, and more than 100 new exhibitors set to make their ATM debut.

Issam Kazim, CEO of the Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM), noted that there are lots of changes that are happening in the industry right now.

“Everything is on the digital front now, and we have seen this transition over the past few years,” he said. “There has been a tremendous advancement, not just in the way that we use technology to communicate with end users, but also how people are using it to travel. We are doing a lot more targeted messaging where people are interacting with content that is based on what is relevant to them. Based on this, we are trying to provide them with more options, in real time, on what it is that they can do in Dubai when they visit.”

Kazim also highlighted the importance of leveraging technology to help the industry and sell Dubai as a destination across multiple channels. “Our focus remains on working with our partners and getting more people to visit Dubai, whether it be for business or for leisure. We have to ensure that they are aware of the breath of options that they have when they come to Dubai so that they can extend the length of their stay,” he said.

Chris Newman, chief operating officer at Emaar Hospitality Group, also described the impact of digitisation on the industry as a transformation.  

“Digital technology is something that is really shaping the way that we live, work, and play in the world today,” he said. “From the point of planning your stay, to the stay itself, and then, even more importantly, after your stay, the whole guest journey and experience is becoming more digitalised. Having said that, while digital technology will shape the hospitality sector, it is power of genuine personalised service that will drive the success of the hospitality business.”

Technology, he said, is going to be responsible for helping to reduce the focus on the transactional part of the business, and allowing players to focus more on the engagement and experience that guests enjoy during their stay.  

Similarly, Kathryn Wallington, country manager for the UAE at Travelport, also agreed that digitisation has supported professionals in the travel sector by minimising more administrative tasks and creating a smoother work stream.

“The travel and hospitality industry is evolving rapidly in today’s era of digitisation, driven by emerging technologies that are opening up new possibilities and escalating demand for real-time services and solutions from travelers,” she said.

Travellers in the UAE, she revealed, are tech-savvy and comfortable with the digitisation of services. “However, today we are seeing a growing demand from them for agent advice, digital solutions and hybrid support delivered throughout their travel experience. Travellers in the UAE today don’t see digital and physical solutions as separate elements. Their expectation is that solutions should be delivered seamlessly across multiple channels 24/7.”

Source:https://www.khaleejtimes.com/digitalisation-will-shape-travel-and-hospitality-sectors

How Technology is Simplifying & Personalizing Travel

Technology and travel go hand in hand. Millions of people who love travel use technology in their quest to explore exotic locales or visit well-travelled tourist destinations. The technology that makes travel easier and more enjoyable isn’t a new plane, train, ship, or car, rather its well-crafted apps that run on smartphones. Using such apps, tourists or visitors get the best deals at hotels and find the most affordable air or train tickets; however even these relatively new apps pale in comparison to others that promise a more enriching travel experience.

Get Off the Beaten Path

Thousands of Indians travel overseas every year to cities like Paris, New York, London, Bangkok, Dubai, Sydney, Amsterdam, and countless others. Increasingly many travellers are growing weary of visiting tried and tested destinations where they, and everyone else, do the same things. This is where new some innovative companies add value to tourists. A number of apps are less concerned with how travellers arrive at a destination or where they stay once they reach; rather these apps add value by making a travel experience totally unique and personalised.

Consider someone who enjoys birding. Such a person will likely have thousands of photos of birds carefully taken while on birding expeditions. On his next expedition, he wants to add to his growing collection photos of pintails and herons. Even though he knows these birds are most likely to be seen at Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary in Gujarat and Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary in Karnataka, he’s not certain he’ll be able to add photos of these birds even if he travels there. There are apps available today that greatly increase the success rates of birding expeditions. Such apps give travellers updated information about the most recent sightings of birds and other wildlife. This means a traveller to Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, or to any other sanctuary, using the app, can see where a particular species of bird was spotted. This greatly increases their likelihood of seeing and successfully clicking a photograph of the particular species of bird.

Apps such as these aren’t restricted to providing information about birds, rather they’re updated with information about where all kinds of wildlife have been spotted. This increases the likelihood of seeing the Asian Golden Cat while travelling to Manas National Park or seeing any other shy animal in dozens of wildlife reserves across India or overseas.    

The Magic behind Technology

The world is moving to a sharing based economy whose backbone is technology and people. Whether it is apps that let users live in stranger’s homes in an unfamiliar city or apps that allow users to let others know where they’re likely to spot an exotic species of bird; technology that allows people to share information and resources is making life more enjoyable and richer.

The global sharing based economy is backed by innovative companies, the unparalleled processing power of smartphones, advanced software, and high speed yet affordable internet. Those behind such technologies understand peoples need to make their vacations one of kind. By bringing together people and technology, creative individuals understood how to get the best out of both. The ultimate beneficiary is the tourist who wants to post pictures of him and his family in exotic locations doing things few others in his circle can imagine.   

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/332721

Use AI to Improve Customer Experience in the Hospitality Business

The cost of cloud computing and smart software solutions have drastically come down since the turn of the present decade. Today, for a few dollars a month, small businesses can sign up for intelligent software services and optimize their business operations and revenue in the first year itself. This is a remarkable achievement.

Because of the ubiquity of accessible solutions – which are smart and affordable– a lot many of your competitors in the hospitality industry are changing the way their businesses are conducted. I am sure that you might have heard or read about Artificial Intelligence solutions created for the hotel industry.

Are you skeptical about it? Do not worry. Let us help to understand the real value of smart solutions and how it can a) change the way you spend money to run your business;b) and how you can increase your RevPAR within a matter of a year.

Operational Optimization via Artificial Intelligence for the Hotel Industry

As a hotel owner, three aspects drive your profits:

Using your inventory and resources optimally; ensuring that you deliver the best experience; and developing long term communication with guests to be retargeted

Artificial Intelligence based channel managers, revenue managers, and booking engines help you control and achieve the aforementioned factors.

A Channel Manager’s (CM) used case is to help you manage and distribute all inventories on one dashboard. A CM will also help you monitor channel performance. So, at the end of each month, you can see which channels are bringing you the best business at the best rates.

You can easily eliminate the channels which do not generate a lot of bookings. This insight is just the tip of the iceberg. You can also set a base price, and let the channel manager set all rate plans for all room types.

A Revenue Management System (RMS) will help you analyze your past performance based on your historical data. Then, you begin with forecasting demand for an entire year. Revenue managers consider factors such as market forces, which determine tourist traffic to your city and to add to that certain well-equipped RMS allows you to monitor your competitor prices on many online channels. This way, you make informed pricing decisions. An AI based RMS will change prices dynamically to match demand.This way, you won’t miss out on charging more when there’s great demand.

A booking engine however allows travelers to book rooms on your website directly.

Online channels demand a high percentage of commission to sell your rooms on their websites and mobile apps. By integrating a booking engine onto your website, you can generate direct bookings – thereby saving commission costs. Or, better yet, entice travelers with discounts for booking rooms directly on your website.

Why do you need direct booking on your website?

When guests visit your website, a booking engine can collect valuable guest data, such as service preferences, family size, food preferences etc. These factors help you serve your guests better and lower your cost of operations.

Artificial Intelligence-based Booking Experience shows Travelers that Hotels Care

Travelers don’t mind sharing information, such as preferences, likes and dislikes, if they are convinced that the information will help them get top class hospitality/ services.

Customers know what they want, but they rarely tell that to businessestablishments. It is up to each hotel to invest in their guests’ interests and show that you care.

Imagine if you motivate a guest to fill a service preference form while booking their room on your website. And you learn that the guest is allergic to artificial room fresheners. You get a chance to put a natural room freshener in the room and put a welcome note in the room wishing them a safe stay and good health.Your guest won’t hesitate for a moment to write a glowing review about your service on Facebook or Instagram with the photo of your welcome message card. This is the power of customer data.

The moment travelers experience personalized services, they would expect the same everywhere and want to go back to such hotel brands in the future.

Travelers generate a lot of data. Analyzing large data sets and allows meaningful insights and producing quality services is what will determine if you will survive in this dynamic, innovative industry.

By: Anil Kumar Prasanna – Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/332646

How Teachers Use Technology in the Classroom

While more educators are using technology in the classroom every day, there is no monolithic way that teachers are implementing new forms of learning, according to a study from Columbia University researchers published in the journal Teachers College Record. The study finds most teachers fall into four buckets: dexterous (24.2 percent), evaders (22.2 percent), assessors (28.4 percent) and presenters (24.8 percent). The study is using information from the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics Fast Response Survey System from 2009 in a report entitled Teacher’s Use of Educational Technology in U.S. Public Schools.

“There is a tendency to say that there are good users of the technology and bad users, but I found the opposite,” said Kenneth Graves, lead author of the study. “We need to stop pushing the ideal technology and start thinking about what teachers need and how context influences what teachers are using as opposed to seeing technology as a neutral act that doesn’t have any outside influence.”

Dexterous teachers report that they are comfortable with any type of technology and are ready to learn more through professional development. This is in contrast to evaders who are resistant to technology in any way. Presenters are teachers who use technology to aid with lectures and also guide students on how to use presentation software to produce written texts and presentations. Assessors are the most comfortable using technology for drill and practice software for use in areas such as math or reading.

The researchers found that teachers in low-income schools are more likely to be assessors and less to be presenters than dexterous. The study determined that low-income schools are more likely to have teachers who use technology in less meaningful ways.

Graves said he hopes that his study will help school administrators determine what is best for professional development.

“If you are principal and you know that you have a school of assessors and low-income students, it’s difficult to justify purchasing smartboards for every classroom,” said Graves. “You need to use context for the way that you purchase technology not based on trends. This perspective hasn’t been talked about in schools much where there is a data informed way of doing technology leadership in schools.”

Graves’s work is funded through grant from the American Educational Research Association. He said that he has plans to publish more research related to how school principals are using technology and looking at how to solve the digital divide through a “social justice lens.”

Source:https://thejournal.com/articles/2019/04/15/how-teachers-use-technology-in-the-classroom.aspx

The Hotel Yearbook publishes two special editions on trends in the hospitality sector: Technology and Digital Marketing 2 min

On 10 April, The Hotel Yearbook is launching two specially focused publications. For the sixth year in a row, The Hotel Yearbook is publishing its annual look at key trends in technology in the hotel sector, and for the third time, it is also publishing an in-depth review of developments in digital marketing. Both of these e-publications feature editorial contributions from a wide range of experienced and internationally respected senior executives, consultants and academics.

Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 10 April 2019 – Technology is affecting every aspect of managing a hotel successfully, from security and reservations systems to revenue management and brand building. The Hotel Yearbook, a Swiss-based family of annuals addressing topical issues in the global hotel business, recognized this fact several years ago when it launched its first special editions: Technology and Digital Marketing. These two dynamic areas are the subject of the company’s latest publications, premiering today at HITEC Europe in Mallorca.

The Hotel Yearbook 2020 – Technology gathers ideas and insights from two dozen senior executives, opinion leaders and academics from all over the world to ask, “What lies ahead in this fast-evolving part of the hotel business?” Among its highly respected authors are Floor Bleeker from Accor and Chris Anderson and Chekitan Dev, both from Cornell. Taking the role of Guest Editor in Chief of this edition was Prof. Ian Millar, Senior Lecturer IT at Switzerland’s Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne.

“This sixth edition of The Hotel Yearbook – Technology is an indispensible compilation of observations and insights concerning the tech trends impacting the way hotels are being managed today – and will be tomorrow,” said Prof. Millar. “It’s an excellent source of valuable ideas that hoteliers can put into action and benefit from.”

The Hotel Yearbook 2020 – Digital Marketing is the second publication coming out on the same day. Guest Edited by consultant Martin Soler, co-founder of Paris-based Soler & Associates, it presents articles contributed by more than twenty experts and practitioners in this field, including citizenM’s Robin Chadha, ESSEC’s Peter O’Connor, NYU’s Max Starkov, and other leading academics from Cornell and Lausanne.

“Hotels have a rapidly growing array of digital tools and platforms they can work with when it comes to online marketing,” said Editor Martin Soler. “The Hotel Yearbook 2020 – Digital Marketing aims to give practitioners an overview of the changes, challenges and advances in the market, as well as show how digital marketing is being focused on the basics such as brand building and the customer journey.”

“These two new publications provide an excellent portfolio of ideas and insights into one of the most complex parts of the hotel business, i.e. using technology effectively and efficiently,” said Henri Roelings, founder & CEO of Hsyndicate, and publisher of The Hotel Yearbook. “Ian and Martin have successfully brought their experience and networks to bear on this task, assembling a stellar list of contributors from all over the world, each with valuable ideas to share. I’d like to thank them both, and I’d also like to express my thanks once again this year to HFTP (Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals), our long-standing publication partner, for their fantastic support of our Yearbook initiatives.”

Source:https://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4092787.html

10 ways smart technology is reshaping the hotel industry

Smart technology is changing everything from the homes we live in to how our cities are managed. The hospitality industry is no exception. In many ways, the hospitality industry is leading the charge in the adoption of smart business technology. 

From operations to guest experience to marketing, smart hotel technology offers a variety of cost savings and revenue opportunities, and it is enabling hotel owners to reach new levels of profitability. Here are 10 ways in which smart technology will be reshaping the hotel industry in the very near future.

1. Smart Energy Management

Smart thermostats and occupancy sensors can monitor and respond to fluctuations in occupancy. Likewise, smart energy-management systems use sophisticated machine-learning algorithms to continuously analyze historical thermodynamics, local weather patterns and peak demand loads to optimize energy consumption in real-time, all year round. Smart energy savings aren’t just wild speculation. Smart energy-management systems can reduce hotel energy costs by up to 20 percent and generate some of the fastest payback periods in the industry (between 12-24 months). They can also significantly increase the resale value of a hotel.

The energy savings from Internet of Things technology is not limited only to heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. Smart lighting technology also enables hoteliers to better understand their energy needs, automate consumption and adapt to real-time changes in occupancy. Just as smart HVAC systems use occupancy sensors and machine-learning algorithms to continuously analyze demand load patterns and optimize HVAC energy consumption, smart lighting systems similarly allow hotels to set preferred lighting times, track occupancy patterns and improve overall lighting energy consumption throughout the year.

For instance, when the Chatwal Hotel in New York retrofitted approximately 1,300 lamps in the hallways, common areas, and 80 rooms, it saved more than 410,000 annual kilowatt-hours, equating to a 90 percent reduction in lighting energy consumption. Indeed, the Chatwal Hotel saved around $124,255 in the first year alone.

2. Predictive Maintenance

Just as smart EMSs enable hoteliers to monitor, track and optimize energy consumption, predictive maintenance allows them to use sensor data to identify wasteful or hazardous trends and alert maintenance staff before a given issue escalates into a much costlier one. So rather than waiting for a component to break down before being serviced or replaced, IoT technologies are enabling engineering staff to predict maintenance needs based on system usage, prevent system failures and reduce the costs of operating a faulty system.

A single leaky toilet can cost as much as $840 per year. Add to that the cost of water damage that occurs until the leak is detected. By monitoring water lines with smart, low-cost IoT-enabled water meters, hotels can see a return on their water consumption in about four years.

Similarly, some online management platforms continuously collect data related to HVAC runtimes for each unique room and assigns them efficiency ratings. This rating is an indicator of how quickly a room can be heated or cooled back down to the guest’s preferred temperature and provides engineering teams with critical alerts when HVAC equipment needs attention.

3. Smart Guest Experiences

No hotel can operate without guests, and for that reason, hoteliers can expect to see smart technology further shape guest experiences and expectations. Not only can guest data be used to help better accommodate guest needs, but in conjunction with occupancy sensors, it can also be used to automate guest interactions throughout their stay, reducing both friction points and labor costs. In this way, smart technology will continue to make it possible for hotels to predict and personalize several guest services based on previous visits and aggregated guest data.

4. Big Data and Big Data Protection

One of the main benefits of smart technology is how it aggregates data and makes it actionable. But with big data comes big responsibility. According to Cloudbeds, “Big data is great when you can use it to take action—whether that’s tackling a new market segment or adjusting your rate plans to compete against your competitors. However, the biggest concern around big data and the necessary data harboring is the safety around it. Every data harborer’s goal is to keep their customers’ data safe, but that’s easier said than done. In recent years, we’ve seen massive data breaches that have literally put hundreds of millions of consumers at risk—like Equifax and Target.”

As the price point of big-data solutions makes them more accessible to medium-sized segments of the hotel market, we can expect to see more hotel owners adopt and invest in them. More importantly, we can expect solution providers who can guarantee data protect to dominate their market segments.

5. Smart Reserved Parking

Hotels now can use smart sensors and hotel apps to allow guests to reserve parking spots in advance of their visit and to have their space assigned upon arrival. This will save hotels the labor cost of manually managing parking inventory and it will give guests a smoother experience from the moment they pull in.

6. Remote Check-In/Check-Out

By enabling guests to check in remotely through their mobile device, hotel owners can better predict/manage their staffing needs and save considerably on labor costs. This technology can also alert hotel staff when guests arrive (enabling them to spend less time on the welcoming process), offer appropriate upgrades/upsells, and provide them with a more personalized guest experience, even on their first visit.

At the end of the guest stay, travelers can enjoy a seamless self-check-out experience that also allows them to arrange for their preferred transportation to their next destination (whether it be taxi, airport shuttle or a ride-sharing service such as Uber or Lyft), further saving on labor costs.

7. Mobile Room Keys 

Today more and more hotels are offering guests room access via their smartphone app. This is saving costs from printing environmentally harmful plastic keycards and its eliminating the hassle of managing keycard inventory that is prone to loss and demagnetization.

8. Smart Roomservice

Smart occupancy sensors will also help hotels push menu notifications to smartphones at optimal times when the guests are in their rooms. These notifications can even include personalized suggestions based on past orders. Indeed, many home food-delivery apps already offer a similar experience, sending push notifications to frequent users at their preferred ordering times on their preferred days.

9. Smart Marketing Practices

Before hotels can deliver on a smart guest experience, they must bring guests through the door; that’s where smart marketing comes in. Data opportunities of smart technology offer hotels a more complete picture of their guests than ever before. Hotels that leverage data insight are the ones that will continue to succeed in the face of increased competition from Airbnb.

10. Online Reputation Management Technology

A hotel’s online ratings can not only help predict future bookings, but they offer owners valuable insight into how well a property delivered on guest expectations. Therefore, operators will continue to invest in platforms that help them monitor online reviews, manage their online reputation and use that feedback to improve both their operational and guest experience standards. Indeed, online reviews not only provide a source of direct feedback from guests, but they also impact a property’s bottom line.
 
These 10 trends are just the beginning. Other smart technologies such as customer surveys, smart loyalty-program management and smart hotel management will play a bigger role in how hotels operate in 2020 and beyond. The key to smarter hotel operations is implementing the right technologies that meet guests’ expectations and hoteliers’ needs to get to know these travelers better. 

As we move toward 2020, we can expect to see more hotel properties leveraging a variety of smart tech to reduce operational costs, improve guest experience and exploit new sources of revenue. The opportunity is in the data. The successful properties will be the ones that invest in collecting and analyzing it in an actionable fashion.

Source:https://www.hotelmanagement.net/tech/10-ways-smart-technology-reshaping-hotel-industry

How Can IoT Bring a Change in the Hospitality Sector?

For entrepreneurs, any technological progress is always welcome. Evolution is inevitable and certainly, very necessary. Every such progress is driven by our ambition of living a simpler life. Humans like to ease their world and this fondness has brought about extreme expansion in the world of devices, increasing their efficiency and utility.

Hospitality is not a job, it’s a service. Hospitality industry always looks beyond incentives and works on the sole principle of prioritizing others’ comfort above our needs. Technology helps us do our work better and hospitality is one such industry where labour cannot be completely replaced by machine but both can work together to complement each other.

Internet of Things (IoT) And its Utility

Internet of Things or IoT is a recent concept in India. As the name suggests, inter-connecting devices through the web or some application or software are the basic idea here. Precisely, aiming at making our machines smarter and self-dependent, IOT can be one of the biggest boons to the hospitality industry. You’ll be surprised to know that the number of internets connected “things” already exceeded our population back in 2008. By 2020 this number is expected to reach 50 billion. A whopping $19 trillion is anticipated as cost-savings and profits from this investment. With the latest Internet address standard (IPv6), there are enough Internet addresses for every atom on the Earth, according toCisco. This implies that management can actually organize their devices into as any smaller blocks they want to, increasing their efficiency. According to the sources, of all the businesses that chose to implement IoT, 94% have already seen a return on their IoT investments. Undoubtedly, if incorporated in the hospitality industry in the right way, IoT can prove itself to be a magician.

This industry is all about efficient organization. We deal in providing comfort to our clients; we participate in creating beautiful memories for them. Thus our work involves a firm sense of responsibility. If we, as hoteliers, seriously work towards implementing IoT in our respective businesses, we cannot imagine the kind of boom, the hospitality industry in India will undergo. IoT in hotels will bring about the following positive changes in our services:

• Complete Personalization: One of the most basic expectations of guests is personalization. It is obvious that anyone would prefer services customized according to their needs and ease and it is our duty to provide the same. The concept of limited and default services is outdated. IoT can help hoteliers achieve guest personalization, much more easily. Connecting all the amenities and services, associated with a particular booking, to one application or device, can help us achieve our goal of personalization. When implemented strategically, guests would be able to control minor things such as air-conditioning of their rooms to major things, including entry to their rooms, through smartphones or tablets. This interconnection would also help the hotel management to understand the preferences of the guest and provide better services. In the case of re-visits by the guest, the hotel can make sure that the requirements of the guest are well taken care of, much before the guest actually checks in.
• Better Monitoring:  Every hotelier will surely agree to the fact that at times, there are mess ups on our part. Not because we are inefficient, but because “to err is human”. A hotel houses several rooms and during the peak seasons, at times we do fall short of keeping up to our commitments. Basically, when the staff to guest ratio goes up, making us incapable of monitoring every service and amenity for every room and guest. We miss out on “up to the second information” of our appliances and thus things fail to go as planned. IoT can solve this problem forever. If all devices and appliances are connected to a single software or device, or to a designated software, even a minor fault can’t go undetected. We would have complete information about the condition of our appliances and their operating status. In case of any unusual performance by any appliance, IoT would alert the staff on time so that the appliance can be repaired or replaced, in time. Not only does this help the guests help avoid unwanted hassles but also helps the hotel to save expenditure on new appliances, regularly, due to lack of maintenance.
• Surveillance and Access Control: Previously, hotels handed out keys to the guests to access the rooms. With time, the key got replaced with key cards. But, it’s now time to make the procedure even easier for guests. If access to different rooms is connected to one designated device or software, things take a better shape.  During check-in, guests can be logged into the application on their smartphones so that they can control the access to their rooms on their phones itself. Also, any kind of intrusion and trespassing can be easily avoided. IoT will also help to provide a safer environment for the guests. If all the surveillance devices are connected to one master device, the staff will get an instant alert of any unusual activity so that appropriate actions can be taken. Hoteliers will also be saved from hiring too many staff members. The technology will do the work of multiple labours, singlehandedly.

How does the Future Look Like?

We can vouch that the introduction of IoT in the working of a hotel, can prove to be a landmark in the hospitality industry. All of us should come together and adapt to this concept and technology for our own good. Hotels such as JW Marriott has already started incorporating IoT in their hotels. The investment might seem high end initially, but it’s worth it and sure to earn huge returns. Better facilities mean more guest satisfaction. When the guests are happy, your business is sure to flourish.

Like every other technology, IoT has its own set of problems but they are easily manageable. Since IoT is a form of networking, it’s prone to hacking. As the management, all we need to take care that our system remains protected against all kinds of malware and hacking viruses. Rest assured, a little sowing will yield a lot for us to reap.

Source:https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/331792