Summary

In this conversation, Shaytoya Marie interviews Federico from Sonesta Resorts and Hotels, exploring his extensive journey in IT program management within the hospitality industry. They discuss the alignment of IT goals with business objectives, the importance of communication and collaboration across diverse project teams, and the challenges faced in managing IT projects in a high-occupancy environment. Federico shares insights on leveraging AI tools like Microsoft Copilot to enhance productivity and the significance of risk management in IT initiatives. The conversation also touches on future trends in IT and the hospitality sector, emphasizing a return to fundamental customer service principles.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the guest speakers on this podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of K&B Communications

Welcome to the Las Vegas IT Management Podcast.

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And today I do have the pleasure to speak to Federico with the Semesta Resorts and Hotels.

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How are you doing today?

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Good, good.

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Thank you so much for having me here.

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Of course.

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I'm very excited to learn a little bit more about you.

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Can you walk us through your journey in IT program management?

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So I think that this is the what I call the

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You know, when everybody lived the planes in the desert, this is like the last role that

you do as an IT manager.

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So I started my journey as a Telecom Manager for Coca-Cola Company.

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Then I was IT Manager for Starwood Hotels and Resorts.

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Then I was IT Director for a private equity firm.

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And I moved to the United States and I started my journey as a project manager with MGM

Resorts.

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Then of course the pandemic hit, as everybody else knows, and I ended up in Sonesta

Resorts three years ago now.

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wow.

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So you've been there for about three years and it sounds like you've had a lot of

different experience.

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Yeah.

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So that's pretty amazing.

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And then I guess what brought you to the States?

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You don't mind me asking.

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Opportunities pretty much.

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My wife is, she's a student at UNLV.

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So when we met back in Costa Rica where I'm from, we decided to move to the States and

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keep going our journey here.

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Got it.

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And I hear Costa Rica is beautiful.

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So that's awesome.

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And how do you ensure that IT goals aligns with the overall business objectives of Sonesta

Hotels?

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Can you share an example of a project where the alignment was particularly successful?

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I think that we're running it as we speak right now.

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Sonesta, it started as a small company four years ago with only 50-something properties.

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During pandemic, they acquire 200 and something properties from different flags.

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And they also merge with, so they acquire another brand called Red Lion Hotels.

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So we end up with around 1700 properties in less than three months.

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So everything is a project in here.

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Right now we're running a wifi modernization across all the brands, which is almost an $80

million project that is running.

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It's pretty much replaced wifi in every single property that we have.

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across the states.

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This includes low voltage, includes HSIA, in some of the cases replace the carriers.

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And most of these properties are focused services.

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What we call this is it's just like extended stays, regular hotels, not programs.

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So it's kind of complicated.

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That is one of the key projects that Sonest is running right now.

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Got it.

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Now that's pretty amazing.

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That sounds like an exciting project.

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Are you currently just located here in Las Vegas?

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or are you working with all the different locations?

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So our headquarters is in Boston and my teams are located in Atlanta.

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There's people also in Boston.

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There's people in Orlando.

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So we are a complete multitasking company.

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Everybody is pretty much just remote and they're not having any plans to send us back to

the office.

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So even our CIO is located in Denver.

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Got it.

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and that's awesome.

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It's a beautiful thing to be able to work remotely.

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And then what is your approach to managing a diverse portfolio of IT projects?

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So it will depend, right?

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We have to deal a lot with operations, hospitality.

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It's pretty much everything by operations.

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The next level that in the orchard will be engineering.

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So it's a lot of coordination.

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Usually it depends on the type of project we need to work very close with operations,

renovations, just to make sure that we are there to their timelines and do not crash with

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them.

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And we are still not getting to the property with all the full occupancy as expected.

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And so we have to be able to.

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pretty much on a daily day to case the forecast of the properties.

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Got it.

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Understood.

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And then I guess, do you prioritize those projects to ensure that all resources are used

efficiently?

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So pretty much we try to work again with operations based on the number of incidents per

property, the tickets that they have open based on any particular reason, and the age of

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the equipment.

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We work very closely with our network team just to make sure that we

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accomplish all these three tasks before the next property to go and if everything aligns,

we start moving forward.

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Got it.

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And that totally makes sense.

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And so how do you calculate communication and collaborations across different project

teams and departments with Sonesta?

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So every company is different.

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Sonesta is not new for anyone in the industry.

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So it's pretty much constant communication.

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The people understands that when they assign a project to the ITPMO, we are the leads, so

they try to follow our lead.

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So pretty much we centralize the communication with our PMs to make sure that there is

only one single point of, I call it a single point of failure.

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call it a single point of contact, but yeah, usually it's the ITPMO that wanna coordinate

across the teams, across the board.

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Sometimes it's very easy, sometimes it's impossible based on forecasting.

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dependencies.

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Got it.

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So with it sometimes being difficult, what are some of the challenges, if you don't mind

to share with us, that you have faced in this area?

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I think that one of the biggest challenges is that we cannot keep going projects 24-7.

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Our properties has a high level of occupancy and sometimes we have to just sit down and

wait.

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until the property has some slots for us to be able to work.

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If the property doesn't have it, it's solid, but we have to disrupt the guest, which is

the last thing that we want to do.

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So it's pretty much hand tight, or if it is taking so long and we are not gonna meet the

deadlines, we have to start disrupting the guests.

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And so that came with different kind of caveats on the side, Complaints for the guests,

comp nights for the guests, because of all the inconvenience that we're providing them,

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right?

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Right, I get that.

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And I guess, you know, the importance of managing stakeholders is a key part of your role.

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How do you ensure that stakeholders from both IT and non-IT backgrounds stay informed and

engaged throughout a project?

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So we believe strongly in that we are a communication, right?

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So we communicate to the stakeholders, IT or non-IT, and we take a philosophy that we have

to translate from IT to non-IT.

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Regular

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language that we use in a day-to-day basis in our conversations, we have to translate to

the C-suite.

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They are very knowledgeable people, they are not technical people.

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So we start to learn how to translate and give them the type of examples that they need.

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Last week we have an example with the renovation team and I was trying to explain about

the bandwidth and one of the games that we're installing and they said, yeah, I don't get

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it.

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So imagine this, you have a water pipe and you start connecting a lot of faucets.

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What's going to happen?

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So that's the type of things that we try to do.

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are very, it's a super professional company, but between internal teams, we are allowed to

be more friendly with the leadership so they can understand.

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So this is one of the good things to work here.

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Got it.

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Now that makes sense.

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And I know sometimes that can be difficult when you're dealing with other people who

possibly don't understand.

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So I get it.

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And when it comes to risk management, is crucial in IT projects

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How do you approach identifying and multi-migrating risk across different projects?

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So first of all, we need to have a risk management evaluation at the beginning of the

project just to understand what is going to be the impact of all the parts of the project

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that we need to affect.

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Even is that we're migrating servers, so what's going to be the risk on that one?

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Are they going to be able to do close of the POS systems at midnight?

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So how we're gonna mitigate the risks.

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the best thing to do that we create a Razor Log for each project.

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So we understand exactly who's gonna be accountable, who's gonna be responsible for it.

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And everything should be logged on our RedLogs just to make sure that the team as a whole

make the decision on what to do next before we move forward.

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Got it.

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And you said you guys create a log.

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Is that what I heard you say?

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We have Razor Logs for every project, which is a really responsible, accountable.

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consulted and informed.

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I almost forgot, my boss is going to kill me.

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And then also we have the Raylogs, which is the risk analysis and decisions logs that we

need to have for each project.

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For example, if we see that there's a risk, if we shoot down the servers at midnight, just

after the last bar close, that's a risk for us.

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So we have to go to the properties, the team and say, okay, what is the risk that we're

going to accept the risks, how we're going to mitigate this risk, or so on.

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So it's a, it's a

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day-to-day task-to-task analysis that we need to make before we make a decision.

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Got it.

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Understood.

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And what are some ways that you ensure that an IT infrastructure and Sonesta supports the

company's long-term strategy?

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Can you share any insights into strategic initiatives you have been a part of?

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I think that one of the biggest strategy initiatives that we are is this Wi-Fi

replacement.

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It's one of the biggest projects that the company has been running so far.

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So I think the, how do I ensure that the company supports the long-term strategy?

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It's pretty much like a salesperson deal, right?

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We have to go on and sell with the infrastructure teams and any other teams involved with

this, how to, this is gonna work for the long-term.

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Very happy for us, our CIO is an amazing person.

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He understands the business, so he's always understand exactly what we're looking for.

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So he's always helping me.

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a really good support for any initiative that we have to manage.

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Got it.

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Understood.

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Thank you for sharing that with me.

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And then what are some of the biggest challenges you have faced in your role as an IT

program manager, especially in the hospitality industry, and how have you overcome these

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challenges?

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Definitely the general managers.

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There's a vast variety of general managers with every type of personality that you can

imagine, right?

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Some of them are

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very flexible when it comes to work.

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Some of them are not.

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And it's understandable, right?

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They are managing their own properties.

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that is one of the biggest challenges that we have with them, right?

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Sometimes all of a sudden the properties get full booked.

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So they call us on a Friday, hey, you cannot be here on Monday.

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Yeah, well, that's kind of a challenge for us.

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So it's try to give or take a little bit, right?

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So I think that it has a lot of politic in the middle.

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that we have to start talking with them, dealing with them.

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But it's a challenge every single day in every single project.

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Got it.

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And I guess how do you overcome those challenges?

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Sometimes you can because those are the money makers.

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So you have just to accept it.

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Got it.

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there's someone, nothing you can do.

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They have very good reason, but usually they have a really good reason, right?

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Right.

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Understood.

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I get it.

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And then when how do you contribute?

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to the development of your team members in terms of skills, leadership and growth within

the organization?

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So I think that it's try to show everybody what you can do.

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Teach to your peers your tips and tricks.

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We came from different cultures.

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My culture maybe act different as their culture.

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So I think it's a lot of sharing.

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have twice a year we get together back in Boston with the whole team.

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Our leadership on the ITM is amazing.

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We are in constant training.

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constant feedback.

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it's like, that's the way that we develop, right?

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Different tools that we use.

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Someone may have more experience on some tools.

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Some of us, we use a lot of AI and it's dependent on the type of people.

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But I think that it's, usually we go once a week in our forums, in ITPMO forums, and we

share and we try to learn between each other.

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So it's more a lot of communication.

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That's gonna be the secret of every PM, right?

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Right, and that's very, very important.

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That's awesome.

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And you did mention AI.

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I know AI has been a huge topic within this podcast.

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How are you guys currently using AI?

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So we are using Microsoft Copilot.

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I don't know if the entire company is using it right now, but since the last six months,

the IT PMO has been piloted.

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And we think it's an amazing tool, right?

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Sometimes you're double, triple, even quadruple book it.

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So just record the meeting and run AI.

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and then go and get your action items and so on, right?

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So it's has been a very helpful tool that is helping us most of the times to remember

things that maybe you didn't cut, right?

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My case, maybe there's a language barrier in the middle that, hey, I didn't get it.

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Why don't I understand what you're saying?

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So you go back and check it out.

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It has been a really, a really very useful tool for us.

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Got it.

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And I can see that, especially as you said, the language barrier.

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So thank you for sharing that with me.

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And when it comes to the IT landscape, as you know, it is consistently evolving.

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How do you guys keep up ahead of technology trends, particularly in terms of guest

experiences and operational efficiency?

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So in our case, we are project and program managers.

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We are not the ones that look for the new technologies across the board.

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There is several teams that specialize in that.

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So when it comes to us, we evaluate,

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suggest some changes, we do try to review any solution that they present to us, but

there's different teams that are in charge of that to present.

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Let's say, for example, right now we're dealing with the Wi-Fi project, which includes a

very huge low voltage effort.

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Our IT director of infrastructure came up with a G.HN solution, which is a positive run

solution, which I never heard before, so we have to start learning about it.

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But usually it's another team that wants to bring that type of.

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of trying to be as much of a bit as we can in the industry, right?

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Got it.

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And I'm sure that's very helpful.

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So you don't get put into 100 directions.

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So that's awesome.

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So thank you for sharing that with me.

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And then can you share a success story of a recent IT initiative or program you managed

that had a significant impact on the organization?

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So right now we are pretty much in break-fix mode.

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as we acquire a bunch of properties.

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One of the biggest programs that we're doing is that we are replacing ESXi hardware

servers across the property, across the company.

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It's a very expensive project.

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It requires a lot of downtime and a lot of knowledge.

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So I think that since the conception of that project that I was talking with the manager

of the IT hosting solutions, we have so many weird things in here.

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Yeah, we developed this program that every year we're going to replace 10 to 17 properties

to the new hardware.

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That includes from the RFP of the hours to the purchasing to so on, so on.

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One of the biggest challenges that we have now is with the acquisition of Bingware that

acquired Broadcom, Broadcom acquired Bingware, sorry.

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So the licensing now is, it's kind of a hustle for us.

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So we're trying to figure it out what is going to be our next steps.

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It is.

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Challenging but I think that we have an amazing team and we have great professionals

around us that can help us to drive the decisions Got it, and that makes sense and you

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know, you did mention that there is another team that does you know deal with trends But

are you know, what are some of the trends you see shaping the future of IT and the

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hospitality?

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Industry and how are you guys preparing for them?

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So that's more a strategic vision.

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I'm

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I have no visibility on that.

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What I can tell you for sure is that we are implementing AI as much as we can.

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But at the same time, one of the visions that we have a couple of weeks ago in our IT

offsite is the going back to basics, right?

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We have so many tools, so many things, but the companies, I think it's going to try to

drive this going back to the basic stuff, provide the best customer service and guest

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support as they are used to it.

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So I think that's one of the things that they're focusing right now.

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As I mentioned, I'm not in the strategic area of the company, but I think that they are

driving the company in a really, really good way that we are going to go back, not go back

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on track.

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We are going to be on track to be one of the most successful one in the States.

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Got it.

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Which makes sense.

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Sometimes just going back to the basics is very important.

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Is there anything that you would like to share that you possibly have not?

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No, no, no.

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am.

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Very happy this is first time that they do this to me.

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Usually when I'm in conference like this, it's with the teams and everything with vendors.

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So it's different to be someone asking me the questions and not me asking the questions.

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It's different, but I'm more than happy and open to elaborate any answers that you want or

you guys need.

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Awesome.

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Well, Frederico, it was a pleasure to talk to you today.

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Thank you for hopping on.

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And I'm so excited for you guys, for the growth that you guys are having.

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you very much.

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it.

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Of course.