The Modern Hotelier #256: Optimizing & Future-Proofing Hospitality Systems | with Darko Bosancic
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David Millili: Welcome to The Modern Hotelier. Coming to you from ITB Berlin. I'm here with Darko Bosancic, Senior Vice President of Travel and Hospitality at Sirma. Thanks for joining us. 
Darko Bosancic: Nice to having us. 
David Millili: Alright, so we're gonna jump in. We got a couple questions for you. So, hospitality technology stacks are increasingly fragmented. How does Sirma move beyond the traditional integrations to orchestrate a truly connected ecosystem for hotels? 
Darko Bosancic: Usually hoteliers, they possess their own ecosystems and they're very guarded on those systems. So what we usually do, we do the auditing and is it make sense to do integrations first, why the integrations are important for them, and then according to use cases and what different vendors are allowing.
This is how we advise them what kind of integrations will be, and how we can apply those integrations. So first of all, we start with an auditing, after that, we review the use cases and then on top of it then, then it's a question coming on the technology, because this is how the Sirma is built, particularly travel, hospitality, coding, you can always code, but if it's not done properly, the fact here is that you can miss the main point and as well also you can disturb the ecosystem. So we don't want to be disruptors, we want to be the ones who are enabling these integrations and to help as well also the end consumer. 
David Millili: So there's a lot of AI hype. Sure. Here at ITB, where is AI delivering real operational value today? And how are AI agents beginning to transform hotel operations and guest communications?
Darko Bosancic: So I will separate this question in two parts. So guest communication is already in place, and I think that this is where the hoteliers are already reached to the peak. But right now where I think that it'll be the huge, uh, disturbances will happen in an operational sites, right? Because actually you will have the armies of agents that will actually be separated as we have the operations in the hotel.
So front desk agents, revenue management agents, housekeeping agents, which will actually observe what is happening in the ecosystem, like on the PMS side, on the CRM side, on the sales side of the solution. They will actually observe the repetitive workflows and inform the organization what and how. And then as well also on another side, execute the things directly in the operational side.
So what I'm seeing that we will still be in the hospitality, but on the new operational side, this is where the agent will actually be the very big disruptors in that sense. And this is why we as a company, we started to go and to evaluate where and how we can help the hoteliers to bypass this step. And try to build predefined agents for easy usage of those in the real environment. 
David Millili: As hospitality, IT vendors and hotel brands expand globally. How do you design technology platforms that scale across brands, geographies without creating complexity for technical debt? 
Darko Bosancic: So this is a simple answer on, and I will say it's cloud. So everything should be in a cloud environment. First of all, the coding and everything should be very fast, deployable and you can use that with the cloud. And as well also, this is how we help customers, that they distribute the knowledge and the expertise from the coding point of view, from the software point of view faster and as well, also reliable. And as such, unfortunately this is the only way right now that we can do but to maintain the same level of the solutions, same level of the usage, this is how we are doing it. 
David Millili: Alright, so with centralized data platforms and AI driven systems, how do you help hospitality IT vendors? And hospitality brands maintain control over their data while ensuring security compliance and regional regulatory alignment?
Darko Bosancic: So the one thing here is with us as a Sirma is because we have 11 verticals and one of our vertical is also security vertical. So the fact that here is that they are helping us maintaining the security level for our customers and as well as particularly when it comes to the AI, we are all talking about prompting.
We are all talking about the AI agents, but right now, this is the sweet spot for the hackers in that sense to actually inject some prompts that you are not aware. So this is the one thing how we help our customers in that sense and we do the auditing. We as well also check all of the things that we think from the security point of view are mandatory, and then this is where we are helping them, educating and then applying these activities on the top of the platform.
When it comes to the data itself, I think that right now everybody are aware that this is their obligatory to maintain, to use it, and to be properly maintained. Because if you are not doing it, then actually you are missing a very big point. And as well also you are opening a lot of the holes for the misuse of those things.
David Millili: So you describe Sirma as an embedded technology partner. What does this mean in practice and how does this model accelerate innovation and time to market for hospitality clients? 
Darko Bosancic: So actually what we have in a travel and hospitality vertical is that we have what is called 360 connect. And this means that we can help you from the building up Bibo solutions for building up integrations for as well. Also maintaining the integration, helping your customer onboarding and as well also giving you the AI component. So what we want to achieve, we want to have the customer in the middle and as well also we would like to be your wingman or the customer wingman and unlock your potentials, but also not disrupt, disrupt your ecosystem.
So this is what is what we are aiming. And it also, we are very successful because right now our vertical is more than nine years old. And we are really serving 95% of different hospitality vendors. And as well also hotel groups, they value us because we are very flexible. And as well also we build according to use cases and as well also to their coding preferences and as well also it is customers, which at the end is the win-win situation for all. 
David Millili: So looking ahead three to five years, how do you see autonomous AI agents reshaping hospitality? And the role that CMA plays in that evolution. 
Darko Bosancic: So I think that for sure we'll see a huge shift. Now, we talked about how we help customers building agents. One, you will have a repository of the agents. I maybe this is dystopian, but at the end of the day, I think that we will as well also have the organizations who we will use agents to open the hotels, not physically, but as well also operationally with many things. And that we will see bigger expansion of the hotels than we are seeing right now because technology will be really fast developing, fast, applicable, and this is where, in my opinion, it'll be the learning curve for the AI agents. It'll be a learning curve for the workflows. And as well also, it'll go in a little bit of heavy customization for each customer because this is what differentiate different hospitality groups and the hotels. And then from that moment, I think that the first, who will start applying this in the pre-opening phase would actually win the race. 
David Millili: So tell me why was it important for Sirma to be here at ITB? 
Darko Bosancic: So actually, because I can say that proudly, we help more than 70% of the vendors here in the last nine years. Some of them use us as their secret weapon to help them scale some of them are using us to be their glued service development partner. And that's the reason why we want to nurture our relationship to as well. Also to see our partners and to thank them for the partnership that we are doing so far. And as well also, to gain some new customers and as well also to show our expertise and ITB it's must for us, you know? 
David Millili: So, syeah, I agree. 
Darko Bosancic: This is what it is. 
David Millili: So let people know how they can get in touch with you and how they can find out more about Sirma. 
Darko Bosancic: So of course, we are a Sirma, travel and hospitality, they can reach out through our website sirma.com, and as well also specifically for the ai, we have also sirma.ai so this is where they can see as well also some of the things that we are building on the AI platform for our customers. And of course, LinkedIn is the one thing that we are for sure there. And that's where they can find us. 
David Millili: Well, that does it for a special episode of The Modern Hotelier coming to you from ITB Berlin. Thank you for joining us.