March 2021

Food for Thought? How Technology Can Help The Hospitality Industry Serve Up A Better Guest Experience It’s  been a ridiculously tough time for the hospitality industry over the last 12 months, but finally there may be some light at the end of the tunnel. With venues due to reopen (depending on facilities) within the next few weeks, analysts are predicting a busy 2 or 3 years ahead. BUT!!  Are venues ready for the predicted influx of footfall?  Industry experts suggest possibly not.     Whilst the industry is keen to open up as quickly as possible (as we speak Sacha Lord is questioning the government on the reopening schedule) there will of course be ongoing restrictions and standards to be met. Capacity limits,  extra security, contactless payments, table service only, continuing takeaway services, the list goes on.  Technology could  help. No matter the size or type of venue, from small intimate restaurants to  multi-site  chains, from cocktail bars to music halls the single most important piece of the puzzle is the guest experience.    Whether it’s CCTV to keep guests safe and secure, enhanced Wi-Fi connectivity, data analytics that underpin menu selections, special offers or entertainment preferences, excellent AV or simplifying online ordering and booking, technology can help the industry streamline and improve.    Having technology at the core of your hospitality business may seem an unnecessary expense in the current climate but it really is key to operational success. How often might you lose a customer because the telephone goes unanswered during a busy service or when you are closed? Might your licence be affected by  non-operational  or non-existent CCTV? What happens if your online booking system goes offline? Or your tills stop working? Working with a technology partner can erase all these issues and worries as well as ensure your team on the ground are concentrating on what really counts, your guests.    But the  use of technology in hospitality doesn’t stop there. During the  pandemic Cirrus Technology have been not only continuing to support our current clients  but discussing ideas on how to further utilise technology in their venues. These conversations have ranged from  the frustrations of guest wi-fi services  that are unreliable in outside spaces to  how the CCTV cameras already on site could be used to assist the chefs and kitchen staff to expedite orders more quickly and efficiently.    Increasingly we are seeing hospitality venues realising that whilst they have been hit hard by the pandemic, the future is looking bright and that needs to be capitalised on. Whether that is through enhancing the guest experience, inspiring customer loyalty, focusing on efficiencies (both time and cost) or  utilising the reams of data captured during the guests visit, there are many and various ideas to explore.      However, the bottom line  is:- if you haven’t thought about how technology can help your business you should. And if it’s not your thing, then  we suggest you find a specialist partner who will bring your ideas to life.       To find out how technology can be used to enhance the guest experience,  please join our online seminar on Tuesday, 6th April, 9.30am. Click the link below to book. Food for Thought? How Technology Serves Mowgli Street Food And Their Guests         

This week has seen significant press for the Exchange Server Vulnerability #HAFNIUM. Indeed #Microsoft have been forced into rapidly preparing patches from not only this but other threats that are exploiting the same shortcoming in the software. The exploits are require the use of soft passwords to be successful The respected global tech publishers ZDNET released a long article about this Microsoft: These Exchange Server zero-day flaws are being used by hackers, so update now | ZDNet covering the scale of the issue and what is being done to help users. The visibility and attention being drawn to the Exchange Server Vulnerability also provides some insight into the scale and concern for this threat So what does all this mean? Zero day attacks render (in this case) Exchange servers useless and allows hackers to steal data. For any business this is a problem on many fronts. This isn’t quite ransomware where you lose complete access to the system and forced to pay for them to be released but once you know the issue is happening it’s almost certainly too late to stop the loss of data and render the system unusable for a while. The hacks do however affect all on premise versions of exchange server including 2019 so the potential damage to be caused is significant What’s being done to address this? On 2nd March Microsoft released patches for the vulnerabilities. The challenge however is two fold. The first: people have been largely unaware of this situation and Secondly: businesses are typically very slow to patch operating systems meaning that although preventions have been released relatively few businesses will have applied them. #PaloAlto estimate over 120,000 systems worldwide remain unpatched and therefore vulnerable to this Exchange Server Vulnerability Good Practice As with any technology the race to encroach or be protected is perpetual and for this reason all vendors worldwide release updates for you to apply. These updates can happen hourly or maybe only once a year but they are critical components all the same in maintaining your perimeters and safeguarding business. Systems as a minimum should be checked daily and depending on the type of update being released you should never be more than 7 days adrift of the very latest updates. More critical updates like this should be applied immediately with less critical updates allowed to be bathed into a weekly cycle. If you are not pathing systems on a regular basis we suggest you review this immediately. It would be prudent to conduct an audit of systems and policies to see where else you may have risks It’s worth pointing out that even the most publicised of attacks in recent years have all been preventable with active management of systems, specifically patching. The current threats also suggest poor passwords have also been compromised in order to (in some way) facilitate access. Passwords are a perineal topic for basic security and the most likely route for exposure. A simply policy that’s enforced is often all that is needed Cirrus Technology Solutions If you have concerns about any of these we’d be happy to help and discuss our credentials for making your business #CyberSecure T: 03303 130966 E: hello@thinkcirrus.co.uk W: www.thinkcirrus.co.uk