这家跨国酒店的多云架构为数以千计的特许经营商及其客人提供创新的数字服务，着眼于改善客户体验和底线。
对于洲际酒店集团酒店及度假村来说，云为业务成功提供了合适的住宿条件。“首先，我们将云之旅视为我们技术和商业战略中最重要的部分，”这家英国跨国公司的首席商业和技术官乔治·特纳（George Turner）说，该公司严重依赖其先进的云基础设施、聊天机器人和人工智能来推动其19个酒店品牌的更多数字业务 – 在边缘更是如此。 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
洲际酒店集团超过70%的酒店（包括洲际酒店、金普顿酒店和假日酒店）是特许经营权，这使得母公司洲际酒店集团实质上成为一家技术产品开发公司，为特许经营商拥有的6,100家酒店提高入住率和收入。
Turner 为公司身兼两职，帮助推动了这一成功：他负责监督一个以产品为导向的组织，该组织必须不断为酒店业主和客人开发和提供创新服务，即使他的团队继续构建 IHG 的内部技术堆栈和服务。
正是该连锁店庞大的多云架构，以 Aviatrix 的云网络和 Equinix 的互连技术为基础，使 Turner 能够使酒店帝国更接近其主要客户——商务和休闲客人以及酒店业主。
Turner说，云计算还帮助洲际酒店集团“为我们的企业带来商业价值”，并指出IT专业人员可以在几个月内在云中进行创新，而过去需要数年才能实现。“在六个月的时间里，我们利用云中的功能创建了一个全新的需求预测模型，”他举例说。 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
此外，洲际酒店集团的云骨干网使其能够利用新兴的 SaaS 产品，例如 Speakeasy AI 对话式聊天机器人，并提供自己的 IHG 语音云 AI 服务，以帮助数百家酒店的客人和前台文员。
IDC 分析师 Dorothy Creamer 表示，洲际酒店集团的云转型象征着酒店业的更大趋势，她观察到酒店“赶上或开始向云过渡”的活动增加。
“其中一个驱动因素是能够更快地进行大规模创新，”她说，并指出 60% 的酒店主要转向云优先方法，即使他们继续将本地 IT 堆栈用于某些应用程序。“这正在推动一种混合云方法。”
多方合作战略，实现多云成功
五年前开始在云上起步的洲际酒店集团也在采取混合方法，继续在亚马逊网络服务和谷歌云平台上迁移和开发新的工作负载，同时维护美国东海岸和西海岸的数据中心。
该公司拥有数千名 IT 专业人员，还与许多 SaaS 合作伙伴和咨询公司合作提供其产品。
例如，利用谷歌机器学习功能的需求预测模型是与波士顿咨询集团合作开发的，洲际酒店集团公司的一位IT高管说。 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
IHG的另一个合作伙伴Aviatrix为该公司的多云架构提供云网络，其中包括AWS和GCP，以及Microsoft Azure，因为IHG的中央预订合作伙伴Amadeus正在迁移到那里。
“基础架构团队希望所有这些看起来都一样。他们想要相同的网络、相同的自动化、相同的可见性、相同的安全性，所有这些东西都保持一致，而不必在每个不同的云中都拥有技能组合，并在每个云中以不同的方式进行，“Aviatrix 营销主管 Rod Stuhlmuller 说，他一直与 Turner 在 IHG 的云上合作。
洲际酒店集团还与 Equinix 合作，后者提供跨多个地区的互连，以敏捷和高速的方式将数据和工作负载移入和移出全球 IHG 多云架构的各个地区。
特纳说，洲际酒店集团还正在为酒店业主开发预订管理模型，并为客人和酒店业主提供大量聊天机器人和数字服务，包括占新预订量50%以上的高级移动应用程序。
由于这些创新，洲际酒店集团的数字接触点迅速增加。2022 年，与这家酒店巨头的 20,6 家酒店的所有客户联系中有 100% 是通过数字渠道进行的，而前一年这一比例为 4%。据洲际酒店集团的一位代表称，该公司的语音人工智能在第一年就管理了超过 3 万次预订对话，其创新的数字礼宾服务迄今已为数百万位客人提供了服务。 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
这些创新还改善了客户体验，例如，使他们能够选择有风景的房间或靠近电梯的房间，并预付停车费。
洲际酒店集团还通过其他渠道与客户沟通，包括 Apple Messages for Business、Google Business Messages 和 24 小时短信。
洲际酒店集团并不是唯一一个酒店业加速为客人和运营商提供数字服务的举措。
“云和人工智能绝对是酒店和旅游组织数字优先计划的两大驱动力，”IDC 的 Creamer 说，他指的是流程自动化和高接触客户体验。
“酒店高管在 IDC 研究中确定的首要业务目标之一是大规模创新的能力，”Creamer 说。“几乎一半 （46%） 的酒店表示，这是推动收入机会后的首要任务。”
下一波酒店业创新很可能由生成式人工智能驱动。
Turner指出，洲际酒店集团对生成式人工智能非常感兴趣，但才刚刚开始研究机会。为此，这家连锁酒店成立了一个指导委员会，意识到它必须对这种新技术持谨慎态度，同时认识到 ChatGPT 的商业可用性意味着任何企业都不能坐太久。 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
“它已经在那里了。因此，我们一直在努力为世界各地的所有员工提供正确的指导、工具和技术，以便他们明智地使用它，尤其是在做与他们在我们组织中的角色相关的事情时，“特纳说。“他们非常敏感，特别是对于不将机密信息放入其中一些模型中，这些信息可能会永久存在。
英文原文：
IHG maximizes hospitality with multicloud
The hotel multinational’s multicloud architecture delivers innovative digital services to thousands of franchises and their guests, with an eye toward improving both customer experience and the bottom line.
For IHG Hotels and Resorts, the cloud provides just the right accommodation for business success. “First and foremost we see our journey to the cloud as the most extremely important part of both our technology and commercial strategies,” says George Turner, chief commercial and technology officer of the British multinational, which relies heavily on its sophisticated cloud infrastructure, chatbots, and AI to drive more digital business at its 19 hotel brands — more so at the edge.
More than 70% of IHG’s hotels — a portfolio that includes InterContinental, Kimpton Hotels, and Holiday Inn — are franchises, making parent company IHG in essence a technology product development company that bolsters the occupancy rates and revenues for the 6,100 hotels owned by franchisees.
Turner helps drive that success by wearing two hats for the company: He oversees a product-driven organization that must develop and deliver innovative services out to hotel owners and guests continuously even as his teams continue to build out IHG’s internal technology stack and services.
And it is the chain’s hefty multicloud architecture, anchored by Aviatrix’s cloud networking and Equinix’s interconnection technology, that enables Turner to bring the hotel empire much closer to its key customers — business and leisure guests, as well as hotel owners.
The cloud also helps IHG “drive commercial value for our enterprise,” Turner says, noting that IT pros can innovate in the cloud in months what used to take years. “Over a period of six months, we created an entirely new demand forecasting model, leveraging the capabilities in the cloud,” he says by way of example. 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
Moreover, IHG’s cloud backbone enables it to take advantage of emerging SaaS offerings, such as Speakeasy AI conversational chatbots, and deliver its own IHG Voice Cloud AI service to help guests and reception desk clerks at hundreds of hotels.
IHG’s cloud transformation is emblematic of a greater trend in the hotel industry, says IDC analyst Dorothy Creamer, who has observed heightened activity among hotels “catching up on or beginning transitions to the cloud.” 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
“A driver of this is the ability to innovate at scale faster,” she says, noting that 60% of hotels are primarily moving to a cloud-first approach even as they continue to utilize on-premises IT stacks for certain applications. “This is driving a hybrid approach to cloud.”
A multi-partnered strategy for multicloud success
IHG, which got its start on the cloud five years ago, is also taking a hybrid approach, continuing to migrate and develop new workloads on Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform as it maintains data centers on the east and west coasts of the US.
The company, which employs thousands of IT professionals, also works with many SaaS partners and consulting companies to deliver its offerings.
For example, the demand forecasting model, which leverages Google machine learning capabilities, was developed in concert with Boston Consulting Group, says an IHG company IT exec.
Aviatrix, another IHG partner, provides cloud networking for the company’s multicloud architecture, which includes both AWS and GCP, as well as Microsoft Azure now that IHG’s central booking partner, Amadeus, is migrating there. 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
“The infrastructure team wants all that to look the same. They want the same networking, the same automation, the same visibility, the same security, all those things remained consistent rather than having to have skill sets in each one of those different clouds and doing it differently in each one,” says Aviatrix marketing executive Rod Stuhlmuller, who has been working with Turner on IHG’s cloud.
IHG also partners with Equinix, which provides interconnects across multiple regions to move data and workloads to and from various regions across the global IHG multicloud architecture with agility and high speed.
Turner says IHG also has reservation management models under development for hotel owners as well as a plethora of chatbots and digital services for guests and hotel owners, including an advanced mobile application that accounts for more than 50% of new bookings.
Thanks to such innovations, digital touch points at IHG have increased at a fast rate. In 2022, 20% of all customer contact with the hotel giant’s 6,100 properties went through digital channels, compared to 4% the previous year. The company’s Speech AI managed more than 3.6 million reservation conversations in its first year and its innovative Digital Concierge has served millions of guest requests to date, according to an IHG representative. 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
The innovations are also improving customer experience by, for example, enabling them to choose a room with a view or one close to an elevator, and to prepay for parking.
IHG is also communicating with customers through other channels, including Apple Messages for Business, Google Business Messages, and 24-hour text messaging.
And IHG is not alone in the hospitality industry’s move to accelerate digital offerings for guests and operators.
“Cloud and AI are definitely two major drivers for digital-first initiatives for hospitality and travel organizations,” says IDC’s Creamer, referring to the automation of processes and high-touch guest experiences.
“One of the top business objectives identified by hotel executives in IDC research is the ability to innovate at scale,” Creamer says. “Almost half (46%) of hotels say this is the number one priority after driving revenue opportunities.” 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
The next wave of hospitality innovations may very well be driven by generative AI.
Turner notes that IHG is very interested in generative AI but has only just started investigating opportunities. To that end, the hotel chain has created a steering committee, aware that it must be cautious with such a new technology while recognizing that the commercial availability of ChatGPT means no business can sit on it for too long.
“It’s out there already. And therefore, we’ve been trying to provide the right guidance, tools, and techniques to all of our staff across the world so that they use it sensibly, particularly when it comes to doing things which are relevant to their roles within our organization,” Turner says. “They are quite sensitive particularly about not putting into some of those models confidential information, which could then be out there permanently.” 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
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