| | 8 TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY TECH OUTLOOKSEPTEMBER 2024IN MYOPINIONINNOVATING THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY THROUGH DIGITALISATIONBy David Mendes, Director of Technology and Digital Transformation, Pestana Hotel GroupDavid Mendes was born in 1972 in Portugal, is married and is the proud father of two daughters and one son.I went to a military school at the age of ten and graduated with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering in 1993 and a Master of Science (MSc) in Information Systems Management in 2013. Holds Scrum Master, Scrum Product Owner, and Project Management Professional certifications.Experienced Manager with over 25 years of professional experience enabling business transformation through Information Technologies. Has played several leadership roles in software development, project management, risk management, business development, product management, demand management and business analysis teams. Throughout his career, he has led digital transformation initiatives across diverse industries, leveraging technology as a powerful means to bridge the gap between business objectives and innovative solutions, ensuring agility and competitiveness.Now, the digital transformation director at Pestana Hotel Group is responsible for Technology alignment, business partnership, and project leadership.Fostering a Culture of Innovation and Agility in Your Technology Team and OrganisationPestana Hotel Group's values are the guiding principles of everything we do, and agility is one of our values. Oriented towards transformation, this value reflects the eagerness to face the challenges of the hospitality sector, being agile in everyday life, valuing mobility, flexibility and seeking to continuously innovate, valuing different ways of working and being. Encouraging a culture where failure is seen as an opportunity to learn and improve, teams should be empowered to experiment and pivot when necessary.Pestana Hotel Group collaborates with external partners, start-ups, and industry experts to tap into external sources of innovation and stay up to date with emerging technologies and trends. And organises internal innovation challenges to encourage creative thinking and problem-solving among team members.We embrace agile methodologies empowering iterative development, collaboration, and responsiveness to change, enabling IT teams to adapt quickly to evolving requirements, and we implement DevOps principles to bridge the gap between development and operations teams, encouraging collaboration, automation, and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) for faster and more reliable software delivery. Our IT teams are cross-functional groups that include business analysts, developers, testers, and operations, promoting collaboration and a holistic approach to problem-solving.In terms of technology, we leverage cloud infrastructure and services to increase flexibility, scalability, and speed of development. Decomposing applications into microservices and using API platforms to promote modularity, scalability, speed, and efficiency in the software development process.David Mendes
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