At the end of the 1960s, Spanish businessman Abel Matutes had an ambitious dream to bring paradise closer to travelers by offering incredible experiences. The result was what is now the Palladium Hotel Group, a hotel chain with 10 different brands spread across Spain, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic.
But the company’s history and growth wouldn’t have been possible without a clear commitment to innovation. Since its inception, it has actively worked to adapt its internal and external processes to new business imperatives, always seeking the right balance to facilitate the most effective response to the needs of the company. And in recent times, digital transformation has been the cornerstone. “Over the last 10 years, we’ve made significant advances in technology, always in line with the group’s strategic objectives and, therefore, with a focus on efficiency, sustainability, and improving the customer experience, especially in the digital field,” explains Marcel Alet, Palladium Hotel Group’s CIO.
To do this, he and his team have worked based on a technological roadmap, which has led them to be industry leaders. So in the short term, the group has a project plan focused on scalability, customer knowledge, and a clear commitment to the cloud in hybrid mode, cybersecurity, and sustainability.
A journey full of challenges
Since Palladium began its digital transformation journey, the company has been repeatedly challenged, especially in how it managed the cultural impact, which demanded changes to work processes, and an evolution of how business partners adapted to new technologies.
Plus, they had to counter tech skills shortages, implement new policies and procedures, and integrate different systems and platforms. “But with strategic planning and effective communication, we managed to continue advancing in our digital transformation process,” says Alet.
To highlight a specific project, last year the company made a successful transition to RISE with SAP cloud solution. “It’s allowed greater flexibility, scalability, and efficiency in our business processes, maintaining all the innovation developed in the previous version,” he says. They’ve also significantly increased digital governance and implemented premium platforms in core areas like web, loyalty, and operations. “We’ve executed one of the most important data projects in the industry, being early adopters of the Snowflake platform, which has allowed better governance, control and analysis of our data, as well as an improvement in the decision-making process,” says Alet.
