There’s a lot to be said for the digital age and how it affects our personal and professional lives. But how well we leverage digital capability varies greatly with advances in domestic facing technology (agile and flexible) competing with commercial capability (big and cumbersome) for the first time. Where does your capability sit?
The reason why we evolved from an analogue society into a digital society is not dissimilar to how and why we evolved from the Stone Age to the Iron Age – humanity has an innate curiosity of finding better and faster ways of doing things. Some cosmologists claim this unique quality aims to make our life’s more meaningful, we can cram more into our lives, and uniquely, we link evolution to achievement and time well spent.Faced with challenging new applications for computing, as a technological race we must pursue radical new paradigms. Through quantum computing, biologically inspired computing, and nano computing, we can explore novel ways to transform life for the benefit of society. How does this affect you?Today, the digital world totally surrounds most of us and infiltrates almost every aspect of our lives. The digital age will actually be remembered as the shortest ‘age’ in our evolution, as AI and cognitive based computing begin the take over.
So where do you sit within the digital sphere if at all? The digital evolution has affected different people in different ways and will continue to do so in ways we can’t even imagine.
The list below speaks to the key hooks that influence your digital world and where you might sit.
1. The non digital domestic end user. You live in a log cabin in the woods, off the grid, whilst being self sufficient for food, clothing and fuel. In this case the only digital influence in your life will be watching jet liners soaring high above in the sky leaving contrails.
2. The wise digital domestic end user. You might be of an age that digital doesn’t mean much to you and you’re assisted by friends and family to muddle through the digital claptrap. At some point we’ll become wiser domestic users.
3. The standard digital domestic end user. This might include you as you follow social cues and trends that assist how you interface with transportation, communication, retail, automotive, social media, aviation, banking, insurance, property, entertainment and travel. You reactively use the core features within the digital space to manage your daily life and are generally thankful for living in the modern age.
4. The advanced digital domestic end user. This user is incredibly frustrated by the limits of current technology. You were an early adopter of key tech and raced out of the blocks to master every shiny new gadget and service. Today you feel digital tech is clunky and still in the throws of its youth, waiting to rise from crawling to walking. We like these users!
5. The standard digital professional end user. When you get to work, you simply turn on your computer and use it in the manner in which you were trained and nothing else. These users rely on supplier guidance and advice to get through as there isn’t anyone in the business with any higher expectations of digital capability. In hotels this user changes their PMS every 10 years in which time they may have changed their car twice.
6. The advanced digital professional end user. As a worker you resent bosses who sit squarely in point 5. You see so much more potential in the tech you use and frequently write a wish list of what you hoped it could do, and how improvements could make the business so much more efficient for both workers and clients.
7. The super advanced digital professional end user. You’re happy using the current tech because you know there’s something bigger and better coming along. These users ride the tech wave, are the early adopters of change, and transition core systems frequently. Even though costs are higher these are always offset by cost, labour and efficiency savings despite ongoing training costs. This user drives a team of inquisitive go-getters. These users are often seen as industry leaders that want to live forever! We like this professional user best.
Wherever you sit within these descriptions you can be assured that your aspirational expectations of success are intrinsically linked to how your business masters digital systems and services, and how you subsequently link into a similar thinking client base. There’s a real argument that if a business doesn’t position itself to demonstrate some level of ongoing digital development, your customers may decide to find a business that does.
If you’re looking to develop your hospitality digital infrastructure along with your team and client fulfilment, don’t hesitate, get in touch today.
