in hardware, and no fee to terminate the relationship. “This gave me confidence,” McNulty says. IMPLEMENTING THE CHANGE When vetting vendors, it’s critical to discuss next steps: What will the imple- mentation process be like? Vendors offer different levels of support. Sun Valley’s Barth, who has been through several implementations, wants to know who answers the phone on Saturdays. Tough times are inevitable, he says, so how will a vendor parnter work with you to get through them? At the end of the day, the customer does much of the lifting. And regardless of how custom a system is, there will always be some operational adjustments to fit the package. For the implementa- tion process to succeed, says Mazenod, you need a strong vendor partner and a great internal team. Assign a leader. Having a project manager that owns the process as part of your internal team can be very help- ful. Lake Louise initially wanted to hire someone for this role who was perhaps
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you swap out a system. However, “If you really took the time to listen to people, to communicate what’s happening, and they understand why you’re doing it, how to do it, and what the impacts are, you’ll be successful,” he says. People who use the systems want to be involved in choosing and imple- menting them. If you want staff to support the changes and the (hope- fully temporary) hard times that will inevitably come with change, commu- nicate well ahead of time and involve as many people as possible, Barth says. Most problems stem from miscom- munication, misunderstandings, or last-minute changes, deadlines, or time constraints.
across the resort,” says Kerr, noting that it’s not just the numbers but understand- ing the numbers. Why, for example, was there a 10 percent increase in revenue in a certain area year-over-year? Systems that closely track sales and customer behav- iors may be able answer those questions more clearly. Qualitatively, ski area personnel can learn a lot through the process of mul- tiple system upgrades. Kerr has been impressed with how the new technology allows his resort to engage with guests. “It used to be you’d only hear from them when they were upset,” he says. Now, his resort’s interaction with guests happens from the initial confirmation email and guest engagement continues without bombarding them with unwant- ed communications. Mazenod says the technology allows the resort to reach a multitude of guests. Some people want to buy lift tickets online, pick them up at a kiosk, and go directly to the lift. Others want to talk to a live person and ask about the best tick- et option, the perfect instructor, and the ideal rental equipment. “We want both of those customers to have the best expe- rience,” he says. The human element. “We learned so many things,” says Barth. “We learned about planning and spending the time up front. You really want to understand your needs.” When it all comes down to it, says Barth, software is just software. “It’s the people involved that make all this work,” he emphasizes. “These are big projects, and they’re always harder than you think they’re going to be.” Successfully managing such under- takings—and setting up your resort for long-term success once everything is in place—takes good planning, with the right resources and people at the right time and place.
“BEFORE YOU EVER START TALKING ABOUT VENDORS OR SOLUTIONS, THINK ABOUT WHY YOU’RE DOING IT.”
ASSESSING THE ROI One can, of course, look at technolo- gy systems and make a general assess- ment of whether it works. But how do you quantitatively measure whether the investment was worthwhile? How do you assess whether you’re better off than you were before you upgraded? Across the board, the managers I spoke with referred to the goals their teams drew up before upgrading. “It goes back to the question, ‘Why did we do this?’” says Kerr. It is important to look back after the dust settles to assess whether the original goals were met. “We very formally set our expecta- tions,” says Mazenod. “Throughout the cycle of the project implementation, we measured this.” The Lake Louise team met 90 percent of their expectations and are still working on the areas where they underachieved. Revenue, intel, and connection. “A lot of it goes back to analyzing revenue
familiar with these processes and the new software itself, but instead chose to appoint someone internally who under- stood Lake Louise and its business. “When you have the right team, the right project manager, and the right path, you are set up for success,” says Mazenod. Every operation I spoke with had desig- nated a point person to lead the imple- mentation process. Gain staff buy-in. Of course, a big part of implementation is training staff, which raises the critical need of getting staff to buy in. The buy-in was easy for McNulty: the old stuff didn’t work. “It’s night and day,” he says, noting that employees could see the problems with the old systems. “We had trouble under- standing our users,” he says. “Everything was based on our assumptions about them and not on data.” Not anymore. Barth acknowledges that some imple- mentations are smoother or easier than others, and challenges will arise when
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