Thought Leaders in Big Data: Ulf Mattsson, CTO of Protegrity (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s take maybe three customers from three different segments. Let’s double-click down on understanding how they’re using your technology.

Ulf Mattsson: I would like to mention that we do provide services in the architecture and data flow, which is very important to be able to find the right solution in. Let’s take a large retailer. This is a company that needed to be compliant to the payment card industry standard. It’s a $4 billion retail company operating in more than 30 States. They need to secure sensitive data in several large databases restricting access from administrators and power users. >>>

Building a Cloud-Based Property Management Platform, Ric Leutwyler, President of SkyTouch (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: What is an average deal size for you?

Ric Leutwyler: For independent hotels, which average 80 rooms per hotel, the deal size is $5,000 a year or more. If you’re talking about a Choice hotel as a group, it is around $25 million. It depends on whether we’re selling to independent hotels, small group, or giant companies.

Sramana Mitra: So there’s no bias in there. It’s all over the place.

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Building a Cloud-Based Property Management Platform, Ric Leutwyler, President of SkyTouch (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: In a 30-second elevator pitch, what would be the target audience where you really shine?

Ric Leutwyler: Our target audience is the hotels that are in the limited to full-service range. They are looking for an economical approach, which they get from cloud solutions. They’re looking for the functionality that they need today but are also looking for the commitment that the functionality will evolve and keep up with the industry. That’s our sweet spot. If somebody is looking for an old and basic solution, then we’re not a good fit, because we’re very focused  on evolving that platform. >>>

Building a Cloud-Based Property Management Platform, Ric Leutwyler, President of SkyTouch (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Your number one competitor is Oracle, based on what I just heard, because Oracle is moving all their stuff to the cloud. It’s reasonable to expect that you’re going to have Oracle as a major competitor because Oracle has a big emphasis over on-cloud technology.

Ric Leutwyler: Of course. There are a number of others as well that are playing in this area in trying to achieve what we’ve already achieved. I think it’s been very interesting to watch the space because you’ve people making inroads in very different ways. >>>

Building a Cloud-Based Property Management Platform, Ric Leutwyler, President of SkyTouch (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Does the team at SkyTouch have ownership? Are there options?

Ric Leutwyler: The compensation is a mixed bag. There is some level of ownership but there isn’t anything to own yet of SkyTouch because there isn’t a separate entity to have valuation in. Our plans to create that kind of equity opportunity for team members is still not something we focus on.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s get into the business. What is the business of SkyTouch? What do you do?

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Building a Cloud-Based Property Management Platform, Ric Leutwyler, President of SkyTouch (Part 2)

Ric Leutwyler: That was about the time when Choice Hotels contacted me and said they wanted someone to come in who has experience in hospitality and technology and also has entrepreneurial interest. They thought I may be a fit for that and I remember walking out and texting my wife that this was a dream job. This is a startup that’s not a startup because what Choice Hotels was saying is, “We want to give you a platform we built over the last 10 years or so and rolled it out to 5,600 hotels. We want to give you the people that built it, implemented, and supported it. We want to give you ourselves as a customer at around $30 million a year and we want you to take this into the marketplace and sell it to everyone else in the industry so you create greater shareholder value for Choice’s shareholders.” >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Jeff Lawson, CEO of Twilio (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: So there is a lot going on in the virtual currency payment space. That whole area right now is very active innovation-wise.

Jeff Lawson: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: It’s probably the most active it has been in a long time.

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Building a Cloud-Based Property Management Platform, Ric Leutwyler, President of SkyTouch (Part 1)

Everything is moving to the cloud and hotels are no exception. Read on!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised?

Ric Leutwyler: I was born in Austin, Texas. I have moved 18 times in my life and career in the US. I have a double degree in both Marketing and Human Resources as I had interest in both areas. I started my career with AT&T before the divestiture. It was one of the largest companies in the world. I was involved with different parts of the organization during my time there. I think I was in eight different roles in eight and a half years. >>>