Imagine the situation: you have just bought a new apartment. No doubt, this fantasy can make you feel happy immediately. But once you elaborate on this idea, you meet a little fly in the ointment: relocation. Specifically, you need to take all the furniture, interior decorations, and vibe of your apartment and shift them to another space, fast and unchanged. For that, you can hire an entire moving company, an individual removal porter, or decide to do everything by yourself. No matter what you choose, you’ll inevitably need to do that somehow.
If to simplify the idea of application migration to maximum, that’s the process of relocation.
What Is Application Migration?
In essence, applications migration means transferring the existing software from one computing environment to another. Under the computing environment, you can mean different things:
Laptop,
Data center,
Server,
Cloud,
Scanners and printers,
... or the smart home network, if to get back to the relocation example.
Even though the notion of “software transferring” sounds lighter than the physical relocation of furniture and large-scale paintings, it still possesses some difficulties. You’ll need the strategic vision, action plan, project thinking, and accurate testing to make things right.
Application Migration Strategy
To implement application migration wisely, think of several things in advance. Your starting environment and target environment are different, especially in terms of safety and compliance requirements. If you neglect these problems from the get-go, you'll get extra problems and expenses as a result.
In our relocation analogy, your new living room may have different positions of windows and doors, another floor covering, or smaller area. And you need to adjust the old composition to these new rules. If you paid attention to superficial problems only, the new complexities would surprise you every day. For example, it can be an outdated signalizing or neighbors with small children who will surely hate your hip-hop music at 11 PM. You need to consider all these complications to protect yourself from thieves or project slowdown. A good action plan of application migration strategy includes 2 spheres:
Fitting the specifics and technological requirements of each application to a new system,
Managing the concerns of the new computing system, including corporate security, compliance constraints, and budget limitations.
Application migration steps: Strategic milestones
Determine the application’s portfolio
Define security and compliance requirements
Outline the cloud resources already used
Explain the state of the current computing system, including the existing on-premises storage and network infrastructures
Think of mitigating the risks, meaning unforeseen technological challenges, unanticipated costs, unexpected downtime, and cross-cultural issues.
3 Stages of an Application Migration Plan
Identify and assess all your applicationsAt this stage, the initial discovery and application portfolio creation happens. You need to categorize each feature in your starting computing system based on their business and strategic value. In particular, aim at identifying overall business impact, capacity to meet the business needs, data importance, complexity and ability to control an application, its maintenance cost, and potential after migration. This will help to understand how complex your application migration will be.
Evaluate the total cost of ownershipAfter you collected all the possible scenarios of application migration, determine your budget. Take account of purchasing, operation, and maintenance costs for each scenario to create the most comprehensive picture possible. Don’t forget to include the spending on testing and training to use the new software if needed.
Create a project planProvide the sustainable ground to create an application migration project plan based on the research and calculation you’ve made. In particular, evaluate the overall risk and timeline.
Application migration checklist: How to evaluate each application?
Level of complexity: who developed, where are the documents, what’s the application’s age, how important it is for the network,
Criticality: how important is the application for users, where is it used (production, development, testing), who manages, is it synchronized with other applications,
Compliance requirements,
Is it a subject to a service level agreement (SLA)?
Application Migration Project Plan
The best way to exercise application migration is to plan it as a project. In this case, you’ll set the measurable aims, including the exact schedule and budget limits. Don’t neglect the importance of comprehensive planning and attention to detail here.
From the get-go, identify the age of your software. The older technologies you use, the more costly and prolonged your project will be. Moreover, age affects the legacy application migration.
What Are the Common Types of Application Migrations?
Depending on the nature of computing environments, application migrations have 4 types:
Between cloud environments,
Between data centers,
From a public cloud to a private/hybrid cloud,
From an on-premises data center to a cloud.
Particular attention deserves application migrations to cloud. Although there are numerous subcategories for this type, they’re easy to remember: all the strategies start with the letter “R.” That’s why they have got an alternative “The 6R’s” title.
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Rehosting (or “lift-and-shift”)This case is relevant for a large legacy shift. In this case, you can do the exact migration quickly and save time for optimizing and architectural adjustments. The process happens between an on-premises server and a cloud-based virtual machine.
Refactoring (or “lift, tinker, and shirt”)In the situation of refactoring, the severe changes to an application are already needed. It can take a form of recoding major parts or making some slight adjustments. For example, you can re-architect the monolithic software into the set of several microservers. All this transformation is used to adapt the application to the cloud native computing environment.
Replatforming (or revision)In essence, this type of cloud computing means slightly changing non-critical applications. Restructuring is needed when rehosting is too little and refactoring is too much. Nevertheless, such changes to the application code require expert knowledge in how your application works and how it should be optimized for the cloud.
Retire (or rebuild)When the application migration task is too hard, the application needs fundamental decomposition. In this case, retire can increase the software's value by eliminating duplicated features and creating an entirely new offering of the SaaS platform. In this case, the developers should rethink the application's key process: its workflows, integration, and main components.
RetainThis measure is like redecorating a house. Some options are not the subject of applications migration, and you simply leave them as they are. At a certain point in the future, you can take them to your new computing environment. Technically, it’s not a migration application but a demonstration of its successful strategizing and planning. With a comprehensive approach, you will inevitably see that not everything you had before is needed in the new computing system.
Repurchasing (or replace)In this case, you ask a third party to move your computing environment to a SaaS platform. It saves your in-house team from managing infrastructure and covering maintenance problems. This third-party application should have the functions and capabilities relevant for your application but with necessary compliance to cloud requirements.
Application migration testing
In the case of application migration, testing ensures that no information or critical features are lost during the transfer. This stage also validates the integrity of your computing system in the target environment and the correct location of each element.
What is application migration process?
Determined as a process, application migration means moving software applications to the new environment. Mostly, it refers to taking business advantages of switching to cloud platforms, including better control over corporate finances, higher responsiveness, and faster updates.
How long does application migration schedule
The exact timeline of your application migration depends on your software's age and complexity and the specifics of the target environment. Approximately, it takes around 4 months, but this number is very generalized.
Application migration best practices
Here’s the list of the most successful cases of application migration.
Assess the application and environment
The precise calculation and description of all the available assets is what an ideal assessment is. At this stage, the most important task is not to overlook the important details that may cause severe problems in the future. Given the equal value of the application and environment specifics for application migration strategy, it’s crucial to develop both these elements' detailed assessment.
The comprehensive assessment of an application includes IT infrastructure analysis, legacy limitations, and problematic internal dependencies for data migration. The environment analysis should mention compliance standards, scalability issues, and business practices.
Create a deployment document
Another great way to present the assessment of application and environment is to create a deployment document. A well-done report includes these parts:
An inventory list of all the servers, applications, and supporting technologies available,
The catalogue of network specifications, including connections and dependency bonds between applications,
Statistical data on the application performance (especially about the demand it serves),
The presentation of all the possible problems that need to be addressed during application migration.
While developing a deployment document, pay attention to particular server settings and dependencies. This will save your team's time and effort in the latter stages of software testing and maintenance.
Also, create measurable KPIs. They are important for the successful application migration project performance. Moreover, KPIs assist in monitoring day-to-day activities and taking needed measures to eliminate possible issues in advance.
Prepare for data migration
The best preparation is creating a backup of the complete file you’re about to transfer in simple terms. To facilitate your work with this Masterfile in the future, make the folder paths, document titles, and usernames similar.
The more complex preparation for data migration includes application performance monitoring. In this case, you should configure necessary analytical tools to track and ensure your application migration project's success. In the case of migrating data to the cloud environment, we recommend paying attention to these application migration services:
Google Cloud,
Pivotal,
Salesforce,
Amazon Web,
Microsoft Azure.
By choosing any of them, you can combine the application performance monitoring with better control over your system resources.
Another important aspect of preparation is ensuring compliance monitoring and validation. This means getting extra control over data migration for the business serving highly strict and regulated industries (governmental, for example). The compliance regulations here are stricter and can be unpredictable. And so, the stage of data migration is to check whether the applications are ready for the changes and challenges the target computing environment will bring. Here are 3 most common compliance challenges:
PCI DDS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) — appears when your users need to mention their credit card details,
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) — appears when your patients need to mention their sensitive health data,
GDPR (European General Data Protection Regulation) — appears when your visitors need to mention the details of their EU citizenship.
Restore and reconfigure
At this stage, your task is to reconfigure your application in the new computing system. In practice, this is like unpacking your baggage in a hotel room. You will determine the related files and rediscover paths and connection strings to accommodate your new environment's applications.
Automate when possible
The proper optimization of automation migration is also one of the best practices. In this case, your task is to limit disruption, save time, and boost your migration effectiveness. Usually, you can find space for automation in repetitive patterns. Look for opportunities in your experience on the previous stage to facilitate your work during the next steps.
Create a test plan
Creating a testing strategy is important for application migration. For an effective test, use your local environment as the needed playground: modify the hosts files on your computer before appearing with the change at the destination server. Your ability to have fresh eyes is important here: seeing your application as a user and/or server administrator guarantees the best testing practice.
How to manage an IT application migration project
If you need comprehensive application migration, we recommend hiring a professional team who can perform this task as an IT project. We in Intellectsoft offer this service to our clients, and we’ll be glad to assist you in this too. If you’re ready to let us manage your IT application migration project, please contact us.
The hospitality industry depends a lot on keeping customers happy, but it’s getting harder to attract and keep them. The pandemic hit this industry hard, and now market competition is tougher than ever, with competitive offerings swaying customers. Hospitality businesses are willing to spend big to win customers back. The main questions for many are: how can we stay ahead of the competition, keep our customers, and increase revenue? Keep reading—we’ve got some answers.
Customers today have so many options that getting their attention is a real challenge. It’s not easy to make them choose your business over others. What worked 10 years ago doesn’t work the same way now. Back then, people often chose businesses based on reputation. But with new types of businesses (boutique hotels, craft cafes) popping up or big enterprises getting a new strategy, expectations have changed. The good news is these businesses have shown what works: great customer service. They focus on personalizing the experience, making things easy for customers, offering loyalty programs, and using smart technology.
In this article, we’ll explore these tech strategies and show you how they can help your business grow, and double the revenue. Keep reading to learn more!
The Importance of Customer Satisfaction in the Hospitality Industry
Customer satisfaction, which equals exceptional customer experience, is the backbone of the hospitality industry. It plays a central role in driving revenue and loyalty, as satisfied customers are more likely to return and recommend a hotel, restaurant, or other hospitality business to others. In fact, a study by the Harvard Business Review found that a 1% increase in customer satisfaction can lead to a 0.5% increase in revenue. Moreover, loyal customers are more likely to forgive mistakes and continue doing business with a company, even if they experience a negative encounter.
Let's quickly review the challenges the hospitality industry is facing right now so we can move on to the solutions and our case studies.
Challenges in Hospitality
As businesses navigate the changes in the hospitality industry, there are some key areas where a little improvement can go a long way. From improving customer service to embracing digital transformation and tackling labor shortages, we’ll take a closer look at today’s biggest challenges—and, more importantly, how technology can step in to help. Let’s get started!
Poor Customer Service
Even with strong and high-quality business offerings, poor customer service can drive potential customers and existing customers away. Common issues include:
Long wait times in customer service queues (it is worth remembering that our attention spans 8 seconds, and we live in a very busy world, so quick and efficient responses are more important than ever.)
Poorly trained customer service representatives
Lack of follow-up
Services not being done properly or quickly
Recall issues that require multiple service calls
These problems can frustrate customers. But, at Intellectsoft, we believe that the right approach, combined with technology, can address them effectively.
Digital Transformation Gaps
Approximately 50% of hotels are adopting new technologies, with 43% automating repetitive tasks and 39% upgrading existing systems. Source: workstaff.app
While many businesses are adopting digital solutions, some still struggle with outdated systems and fragmented data. Legacy companies often face chaos when trying to manage their data and create new systems or add features.
Some of the recent examples include clients coming to us to create AI solutions for their services while their data simply was not ready for the advanced tasks. We advise stepping back, communicating with a company objective, and working on keeping the data clean (centralized, structured, and segmented).
When we’re asked to create advanced systems using AI, we always emphasize the importance of organized data. To train AI and build such complicated systems that truly work, you need to start from the very beginning—collecting, storing, centralizing, and organizing it. We encourage our clients to align all departments to work internally on the data so we can create a unified digital system that delivers personalized experiences.
If you’re unsure where to start with your data, we can help. Collecting feedback at various touchpoints along the customer journey is crucial for gaining insights into customer satisfaction and loyalty. Book an IT consultation with us, and our experts will guide you in mapping out a path to get more from your data and build a system that works for your business and team.
Reskilling Staff
The pandemic hit hard in early 2020, especially for the hospitality and travel industries. Even five years later, many businesses are still feeling the impact. Recruiting and retaining skilled staff has become a major challenge post-pandemic.
Reskilling to address technology’s impact is of utmost importance, as about 40% of hotel General Managers place it among their top three workforce challenges.
We strongly believe that adopting the right technology can help. For example, creating an app to train your staff not only saves time but also ensures consistency in learning. AI assistants can also work alongside your team, helping with tasks like recruitment (providing industry insights, crafting emails) and staff training. Imagine having an app dedicated to making your team’s work easier and more efficient!
How Technology Tackles These Challenges and Supports a Customer-Centric Hospitality Culture
Automation, AI, and similar technologies may threaten many. However, the debate about replacing humans isn’t about that—it’s about cooperation and working hand in hand with technology to achieve the highest standards and establish brand-new “golden standards.” Technology is here to assist staff in listening to and collecting customer insights from data.
Let’s review some of our cases to see examples of how technology helps improve customer experience and supports customer service.
Examples of Intellectsoft projects
Property management systems (PMS)
We created a web platform and mobile app that makes managing daily tasks easier and offers extra services to improve residents’ experience. It gives a clear overview of daily activities and helps with managing units and users. Residents can easily book amenities, submit service requests, and report incidents. The platform also includes features for equipment management, key instructions, workflows, and custom permissions. This makes it easier for staff to stay on top of equipment and ensure residents have all the information they need. Plus, tools like announcements, quick votes, a forum, and a community calendar help build a connected and engaged community.
Guest Experience Management App
Our next app helped our client improve their guest experience by replacing printed marketing materials and the need for phone calls with a smart solution. Now, guests can easily order in-room dining, make reservations, and interact with staff— through a simple tablet in their room. The solution includes three parts: a custom in-room tablet with a variety of services, an admin panel for hotel staff and service providers, and a backend system that connects everything together. This approach makes things easier for guests and staff, improving both convenience and efficiency.
Existing Customers First: Building Loyalty with Personalized Touchpoints
Keeping existing customers is not just a strategy; it’s well-known that retaining existing customers is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. In fact, research shows that it costs five times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. KPMG named customer retention as the number one revenue driver for the company.
Moreover, a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to a 25% to 95% increase in profits, showing the significant impact loyal customers can have on a business’s bottom line. Retention strategies, like personalized experiences and loyalty programs, can foster long-term relationships and generate recurring revenue, ultimately making them an invaluable part of any business model.
Personalization: How Technology Can Help?
Everyone loves to feel special—it’s part of being human. In hospitality, personalization has evolved from being a luxury to an essential standard. With the right technology to manage your data effectively, you can deliver those “wow” moments that guests won’t forget.
More than half of hotel chains are already using personalization features on their websites, booking platforms, and apps, and another 39% are planning to follow suit soon. They’re tailoring experiences to fit guest preferences perfectly.
Source: Deloitte
How does technology make it happen?
CRM Systems: They help you keep track of guest preferences, booking history, and special requests so you can offer services tailored just for them.
Loyalty Programs: Personalized rewards and offers show your guests that you value them, keeping them coming back for more.
AI Personalization: AI analyzes guest data to predict what they’ll love (from room upgrades to local recommendations) before they even ask.
IoT Gadgets: Smart room features like voice-activated assistants, or temperature controls adjust to your guests’ preferences, making their stay more comfortable.
With tech-powered personalization, you’re building loyalty and maximizing the lifetime value of every customer.
Our Case Study: Smart Hotel Management & Loyalty Program
For one of our clients, we created a smart room solution, complete with a custom IoT system. Guests can use a mobile app to control services, explore amenities, and find resort information-- with a special touch to their suite type. For the client’s entertainment business, we improved their legacy software by running a full IT and code check, fixing issues, and making the system better for customers.
Along with that, we developed a mobile app for the loyalty program, allowing businesses to effortlessly reward their customers and keep them engaged with exclusive benefits.
Our solutions not only helped the client with special experiences for guests; it also improved operations, cutting costs by eliminating inefficiencies. Here's what our experts shared:
"We transitioned away from ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) systems, which previously cost millions, and replaced them with more efficient, self-managed solutions. Similarly, we’ve implemented Device Farms that improved operations and saved resources."
Leveraging Software to Increase Upsell Opportunities
Here are some examples of tech tactics that will help your team sell more and introduce new offerings to existing customers, improve overall efficiency leaving your team grateful:
Dynamic Pricing Algorithms
For finance and marketing teams, manually calculating pricing by segment to introduce your clients can be incredibly challenging. AI-powered tools can strongly optimize these strategies by analyzing your database in detail.
Upselling via Apps
Boosting revenue in the hospitality business often comes down to personalized experiences. Imagine this: a guest books a room, and then your app suggests a spa package or a room upgrade at just the right moment. Later, it nudges them to book a dinner reservation or a guided tour designed to their preferences. With apps offering these personalized recommendations during and after bookings, you’re not just increasing your revenue per guest but also skyrocketing their experience. And you do it in a sustainable way, not by speculating, but by offering what your customers desire based on their previous experiences. It’s a win-win: seamless, helpful, and far from pushy.
Inventory and Resource Management Software
Making every resource count in your hospitality business is key. Inventory and resource management software allows you to effortlessly track everything from linens to room availability, ensuring nothing goes to waste. Having real-time insights to reduce overstock, avoid shortages, and optimize operations assists sustainably keep everything under control and know what you need to focus more. It helps maximize room occupancy by aligning bookings with available resources, ensuring every room and item is used effectively. This approach leads to smarter management, better guest experiences, and a noticeable boost to your bottom line.
Adopting these strategies not only optimizes your operations but also drives business growth. Ready to discover how technology can elevate your goals? We’re here to create a tailored solution for you.
Steps For Implementing a Customer Service Technology Solution
Improving customer service in hospitality doesn’t have to be a daunting task. With the right technology, you can smooth the path of your operations, speed up response times, and elevate the overall guest experience. Here’s where you can make it happen:
1. Understand Your Needs
Start by identifying the challenges your business is facing. Are you struggling to manage high volumes of inquiries, track customer feedback, or personalize the guest experience? Pinpointing your needs will guide you to the best solutions.
2. Pick the Right Tools
Choose technology that aligns with your goals. Look for solutions that are scalable, easy to use, and integrate effortlessly with your current systems. Options like CRM software, live chat tools, or a guest experience app can make a difference.
3. Equip Your Team
Technology is only as effective as the people using it. Train your staff to make the most of the new tools, so they can deliver exceptional service and resolve issues quickly. Confident, well-equipped staff creates happy, loyal customers.
4. Keep Improving
Once implemented, monitor how well the solution works. Are response times improving? Are customers more satisfied? Regular evaluations will help you fine-tune your approach and keep things running harmoniously.
Some Tech Ideas for Hospitality Businesses
CRM Software: Manage customer interactions and preferences.
Guest Experience Apps: Delight guests with personalized experiences right at their fingertips.
Amenity Management Systems: Simplify operations for everything from room service to facility bookings.
Live Chat Tools: Offer instant support and answers.
Social Media Management Tools: Keep customer interactions engaging and organized.
Integrating these strategies will not only improve your customer service but also deliver unforgettable customer satisfaction, loyalty, and, ultimately, your bottom line. Ready to take the next step? Book a consultation with our experts.
Conclusion
To wrap up everything we've discussed, customer satisfaction and experience are at the heart of hospitality. Retaining customers is more than just keeping them around—building strong, long-lasting relationships and consistently meeting their evolving needs. By understanding their pain points and offering personalized solutions, you can inspire loyalty and drive progress. With the right technology and continuous improvement, your business can stay ahead, let go of what no longer serves you, and keep growing.
At Intellectsoft, with over 17 years of experience in software development, our expert team is ready to help. We create everything from mobile apps to full-fledged portals and systems, leveraging the latest technologies like AI, Cloud, and Machine Learning. With deep experience in the hospitality industry, we’re here to craft personalized solutions that bring your business unforgettable customer experience and retain your valuable clients.
Ready to double your revenue and level up your customer retention strategy with personalized technology? Contact our experts, and we look forward to working hand in hand with you to build or revitalize the perfect app or system for you.
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