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• Podcasting – refers to user’s ability at any time to download audio and video files for viewing and
listening using portable devices and computers
Physiological Interaction with Technology
Physiological interfaces capture and utilize one’s body characteristics, such as breath, voice, height, weight,
and even the iris of your eye. Physiological innovations include the following:
o Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)
ASR system not only captures spoken words but also distinguishes word groupings to form sentences.
Steps in an ASR System
1. Feature analysis – The system captures your words as you speak into a microphone, eliminate any
background noise, and converts the digital signals of your speech into phonemes (syllables).
2. Pattern classification – The system matches your spoken phonemes to a phoneme sequence stored in
an acoustic model database.
3. Language processing – The system attempts to make sense of what you’re saying by comparing the
word phonemes generated in step 2 with a language model database.
American Airlines (US Airways) reached new heights in customer service with a fast, personalized self-service
IVR (interactive voice responses) system powered by Nuance. 2VoiceXML, a technology that powers speech
recognition for phone and web applications are used by travelers to have access even if they don’t have typical
devices such as a laptop or tablet. Customers can now access hotel booking services even in their car as
Chevrolet partners with Priceline making use of VoiceXML and ASR system
o Virtual Reality (VR)
It is a three-dimensional computer simulation in which users can actively and physically participate. In a virtual
reality system, one makes use of special input and output devices that capture your physiological movements
and send physiological responses back to you.
VR devices
• Glove – an input device that captures and records the shape and movement of your hand and fingers
and the strength of your hand and finger movements
• Headset (head-mounted display) – a combined input and output device that (1) captures and records
the movement of your head and (2) contains a screen that covers your entire field of vision and
displays various views of an environment based on your movements
• Walker – an input device that captures and records the movement of your feet as you walk or turn in
different directions
4Marriott is experimenting with VR by test-driving in select locations what the hotel chain calls “VRoom
Service,” where guests can order headsets to watch “VR Postcards” with preloaded VR experiences made to
inspire travel, according to eHotelier. Marriott has also marketed this technology by setting up ‘Teleporters’,
science-fiction-inspired phone booths, which take consumers to a Marriott Greatroom lobby and then to
amazing locales, as part of its ‘Travel Brilliantly’ campaign.
o Cave Automatic Virtual Environments (CAVE)
It is a special 3-D virtual reality room that can display images of other people and objects located in other
CAVEs all over the world. CAVEs are holographic devices that create, capture, and/or display images in true
three-dimensional form.
o Haptic Interfaces
Haptic interface uses technology to add the sense of touch to an environment that previously only had visual
and textual elements. Applications that incorporate the use of gloves and walkers use implementations of
haptic interfaces. Arcade games also use haptic interfaces.
o Biometrics
It refers to the use of physiological characteristics – such as one’s fingerprints, the blood vessels in the iris of
the eye, the sound of one’s voice – to provide identification. Real-world applications in place today includes
custom shoes, custom wedding gowns, and custom bathrobes making use of biometrics.
3Many airports now are using iris recognitions systems instead of magnetic card swipes to control staff access
to airport grounds. Fingerprint recognition can also be used as a replacement for magnetic cards in controlling
access to guest rooms. Similarly, some hospitality system vendors have incorporated similar technology into
the back-of-house time attendance systems to help prevent buddy punching and other time fraud.
Other Biometric Devices
Biochip – a technology chip that can perform a variety of physiological functions when inserted
into the human body. Biochips have been proven in some cases to block pain for people who suffer
severe spinal injuries, help paralyzed people regain some portion of their motor skills, and help
partially blind people see well.
Implant chip – a technology-enabled microchip implanted into the human body that stores
important information about yourself (such as identification and medical history) and that may be
GPS (Global Positioning System)-enabled to offer a method of tracking
Facial recognition software – software that provides identification by evaluating facial
characteristics.
The above examples are some of the technological advancements currently being introduced and utilized to
revolutionize the betterment of businesses and society as a whole. Technology is a necessity today as it also
close the great digital divide (means the world is becoming marked by have’s and have not’s with respect to
technology). Such innovations give way also to personalization on the part of the service provider.
Personalization is important to improve customer service which then creates long-term and loyal guests.
Physiological innovations enhances interaction with customers and increases the efficiency of self-service
applications we used in tourism and hospitality industry.
Trends and Technologies
o Bluetooth – a standard for transmitting information in the form of short-range radio waves over distances
of up to 30 feet
o Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) – a standard for transmitting information in the form of radio waves over distances
up to about several miles
o RFID (radio frequency identification) – uses a microchip in a tag or label to store information, and
information is transmitted from, or written to, the tag or label when the microchip is exposed to the
correct frequency of radio waves
It helps intelligent business applications across CRM (customer relationship management) and ERP (enterprise
resource planning) to improve operations. Applications within Microsoft Dynamics 365 work together
seamlessly in the cloud. The following are some of its characteristics:
Purpose-built – Dynamics 365 get individual apps that work together on their own or together,
allowing users tailor a solution to their needs
Productive – helps employees work more efficiently. Employees can do CRM tasks in Microsoft
Outlook and ERP tasks in Excel.
Intelligent – improve your decisions with data using Microsoft Power BI, Cortana Intelligence, and
Azure Machine Learning
Adaptable – gives users easy-to-use applications that provide a single view of their data and a single
platform for business growth. They all work with Microsoft PowerApps and Microsoft Flow.
• Microsoft Power BI – It is a suite of business analytics tools used to analyze data and share
insights. It monitors business operations and users get answers quickly with rich dashboards
available on every device. It also creates interactive visual reports and provides analysis across
the organization.
• Cortana Intelligence – It is a fully-managed big data and advance analytics suite that transform
data into intelligent action. It harnesses machine learning, intelligence, and the cloud for
predictive healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and financial services.
• Azure Machine Learning – It is a powerful cloud-based analytics that is also a part of Cortana
Intelligence Suite. It is a growing collection of integrated cloud services such as analytics,
computing, database, mobile, networking, storage, and web. Moreover, it protects users’ data
and runs apps anywhere.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers solutions for sales, customer service, operations, financials, field service,
project service automation, and marketing. The following are specific ERP solutions for business operations:
Microsoft Dynamics AX (2012 R3) – is the on-premises ERP solution that provides comprehensive and
core functionality the business needs in terms of financials, human resources, and operations
management. It covers the following tasks:
Warehouse management – automate warehouse processes to reduce operational costs
Transportation management – get global transportation planning and freight reconciliation
Budget planning – create easy-to-use budget plan worksheet templates for Microsoft Excel
Modern point-of-sale (POS) – engage with rich clienteling, real-time inventory lookup, and back-
office capabilities
Demand forecasting – improve forecasting accuracy to boost product availability and minimize
inventory costs
Human resources – get complete functionality with payroll analytics, position forecast, reporting,
and benefits updates
Master data management – increase the consistency of data across the organization and
deployments
E-commerce and social media – build campaigns and engage the customers through Facebook,
Twitter, and Pinterest.
Microsoft Dynamics GP – is a complete ERP solution for small and medium-sized businesses. It helps gain
control over the business’ financials, inventory, and operations. It includes the following capabilities:
Financial management – manage organization’s cash, assets, budgets, and banking with built-in
analytics and account-level security
Inventory management and operations – track and manage production, inventory, orders,
returns, and vendors
Sales and service – manage sales, service contracts, and field resources
Microsoft Dynamics NAV – is an easily adaptable ERP solution that helps small and medium-sized
businesses to automate and connect their sales, purchasing, operations, accounting, and inventory
management. Its system capabilities covers:
Financial management and accounting – manages organization’s cash, assets, and banking
Supply chain, manufacturing, and operations – track and manage production, inventory, orders,
and vendors
Sales and service – manages contacts, sales opportunities, and service contract
Project management – creates estimates, track projects, and manage capacity
Business intelligence – gets a holistic view of the business and help make informed decisions
Support for international currencies – competes globally using multiple currencies and languages
Flexible development – deploys on-premises or in the cloud, whichever model best fits the
business
Microsoft Solutions for Tourism and Hospitality Industry
1
Hospitality and travel organizations are embracing digital transformation to thrive in today’s competitive
environment. Microsoft solutions and its intelligent platform enable hospitality and travel organizations to
combine the best of digital and in-store to deliver personal, seamless, and differentiated guest experiences by
empowering people and capturing insights to drive growth.
Engaging customers. Microsoft offers solutions to collect and understand customer behaviors and respond
with offers and experiences that are personal, engaging, and relevant. Customers respond best to offers that
are personal and relevant, leading to increased promotional effectiveness, higher conversion, and larger
basket size. Personalization can be delivered through location-aware mobile devices, targeted email
marketing, and personalized online shopping.
Solutions
Modern point-of-sale and service - Bring “born in the web” technology, like click-stream data and
streaming analytics, onto properties to provide real-time, personalized offers that enable great
shopping experiences and drive quantifiable increases in traffic, conversion, basket size, promotional
effectiveness, customer satisfaction, and profitability
Personalization - Knowing what products and services the customer will buy enables you to optimize
the supply chain and inventories, and drive customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention.
Connected room - The Microsoft Connected Room solution allows the business to meet the specific
needs of guests—from entertainment to environmental preferences—in a streamlined manner. It also
enables insights into the room environment for proactive maintenance, increases revenue per room,
and delivers brand loyalty.
Multichannel content management - Use a mix of digital channels and methods to proactively listen,
learn, and engage in order to influence purchase behavior and grow customer satisfaction.
Empowering employees. Engage employees with role-optimized solutions that empower them to provide
outstanding service and to collaborate with ease. Providing the right information for all job functions helps
increase employee engagement and allows retailers to deliver differentiated and personalized customer
service.
Solutions
Employee productivity and collaboration - Empowers management and mobile employees with
anywhere access to operational information around products, customer insights, critical training
information, and schedules.
Integrated electronic flight bag - Provides collaboration and corporate communications over a highly
secure connection, whether swapping shifts with other pilots, consuming training, or checking and
responding to email.
Fuel optimization - Accelerates fuel efficiency through data-driven insights. With fuel optimization
solutions, you can quickly make informed decisions and adjust your flight operations as necessary.
Optimizing operations. Improve forecasting and optimize merchandizing and supply chains through an
aggregate understanding of guest and market insights combined with external data. Microsoft provides end-
to-end business processes that optimize cloud scale, industry-leading security, and manageability. These
intelligent solutions enable real-time connections across a wide range of innovative devices uniquely suited to
every need in the guest services environment.
Solutions
Predictive maintenance - Drives insights to best determine the condition of aircraft in order to predict
when maintenance should be performed or when failure is imminent. This approach promises cost
savings over routine or time-based preventive maintenance because the workforce is engaged only
when attention is required and unexpected service disruption are minimized.
Retail management system - Focuses on connecting with customers and empowering employees
across all channels. The Microsoft retail management system solution provides customer engagement
capabilities for property operations, channel management, order management, marketing and care,
and business intelligence, plus back-office capabilities like procurement and financials.
Intelligent operations - Improve operations by acting on data insights and evolving business practices
to keep pace with rapid change. Accurately predicting demand with machine learning models makes
it possible for you to optimize your airline and hospitality operations.
Transforming products. Manage a pipeline of ideas and align them with strategic priorities to bring new and
innovative products and services to market rapidly and effectively. To succeed in a competitive environment,
hospitality and travel organizations must continually deliver new products and services, improve processes,
and find new ways to deliver value to customers.
Solutions
Integrated electronic flight bag - Employs a single device for planning, filing, and flying. With modern
electronic flight bag (EFB) applications on a tablet, one can reduce the weight required for paper flight
books onboard.
Multichannel content management - Microsoft and partner solutions help companies maximize
consumer listening, learning, messaging, and interaction wherever they are—and get smarter based
on continual learnings to anticipate and meet needs.
References
Haag, S. C. (2010). Management information systems for the information age (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
1www.microsoft.com
2
Lulla, G. (2014). What is the next step for voice recognition technology in hotel bookings? Lifted and modified from
http://www.traveltripper.com/blog/what-is-the-next-step-for-voice-recognition-technology-in-hotel-bookings/ on 12
December 2016.
3
O’Connor, P. (2004). Using Computers in Hospitality (Third Edition). London: Cengage Learning EMEA.
4
Agadoni, L. (2016). Is virtual reality the future of hospitality sector? Lifted and modified from
http://www.jllrealviews.com/industries/virtual-reality-future-hospitality-industry/ on 12 December 2016