Infor sees Asia as new "fairytale" land of growth

Yeoh Siew Hoon catches up with Infor's Deborah Hawkins who spent a tropical Christmas in Asia and found herself dazzled not only by the lights but by the pace of change.

When Deborah Hawkins, vice president-global sales of Infor Hospitality Solutions Group, made her two-week trip round Asia last December, she didn't quite know what to expect.

What she didn't expect were all the Christmas lights she saw in Singapore. "It's like a fairytale land here," the Georgia-based executive said.

And if she has her way, not only Singapore but the whole of Asia will be Infor's new fairytale land of growth. Infor, which has revenues in excess of US$2 billion, bought Softbrands in August 2009 for US$80 million and is making a strong move into the hospitality space.

"This is where the markets of growth are and we will be putting more resources into the region," Hawkins told WIT. She said that Infor decided to move into the hospitality space because "most of the people who make software were doing it for every industry except ours and we saw an opportunity".

She only wishes the fairytale land would come with more diversity and originality. In Singapore after trips to Macau, Bangkok and various other Asian cities, she said, "They all look about the same - it's all a bit vanilla, very little originality. I suppose that's the price we pay for globalisation which has led to commoditisation of our cities."

Hawkins, who's been with Infor for over 10 years and prior to that, was CIO and CTO for major casino resort chains such as Harrahs, was most taken with her visit to Beijing, her first trip to China after 20 years.

"That was eye opening. Twenty years ago, people had no idea what email was; now Internet and mobiles are everywhere. I don't think there's a place where people have had to adapt so quickly. And the pace of change is going faster and faster."

Hawkins, who says Infor's purpose in life is to "make business software better", sees massive potential in China especially among the regional hotel companies and independent hotels. "Some of them aren't online yet and they need help. It obviously requires that we service them day in and day out and that's what we are committed to. There's nothing like physically being there for your customer."

Chris Gribble, vice president & GM Hospitality, Softbrands, said hotels in Asia were evolving the way they did business - from a relationship-based culture to one of using different business methods to maximise profitability. "They've been dependent on the use of wholesalers for distribution and have been pandering to them. Now they are pulling back and are trying to get back to where their rates ought to be."

Erik Munoz, vice president-sales, Asia Pacific & Middle East for Softbrands Hospitality, said OTAs played an important role as they get the traffic but the challenge for OTAs is to get customers booking with them. "Customers are booking direct more and more with hotels; they may search online but then they make a telephone call to the hotel to book. This is why OTAs are working on loyalty and redemption programmes - if there is no value add, customers will book direct with the hotel."

Added Hawkins, "What we do is facilitate the ability of hotels to do whatever they want to do, whether it's direct distribution or third party. It is not for us to say what they should do but to allow them to be as creative and flexible as possible."

Describing themselves as "guardians of data", Hawkins said, "We facilitate the ability to read the information in the system so that they can use the information to make their own decision."

Munoz said the biggest need for hotels in Asia was adapting to the new outbound markets of China and India. "China has exceeded Japan as Australia's biggest market. Ctrip, the number online travel agency in China, does 70% of its transactions offline. Hotels have to understand where the markets are shifting, and attract and engage the new customers."

Currently, 15-20% of Infor's revenues comes from Asia with Europe accounting for 20% and the US the rest. Hawkins sees the Asia share growing to 25% in a few years.

The future, she said, will belong to companies which are able to help customers exclude the noise and deliver personalised information in a timely, targeted and relevant manner. "The way Amazon does by knowing a buyer's history and making recommendations. If I've got you as a customer and I can figure out what you like so that I can make the recommendations and help you exclude the noise - that's where it's at. We have the software to make that happen."

Last year, Softbrands teamed up with Travelscream, Rate Tiger and Rainmaker to form the Hotel SMART Alliance which made its debut at WIT in October.