Corporate Manager of Business Intelligence and Analytics at Royal Holiday

Yahveh Davila is the corporate manager of business intelligence and analytics at Royal Holiday based in Mexico City, with more than 23 years of experience in complex data and process analysis and focused on maximizing business results. In the interview, he discusses his views on the upcoming BI tools.

As the corporate manager of business intelligence and analytics at Royal Holiday, what, according to you, are some of the latest BI tools and techniques that are necessary for effective revenue management strategies?

The company is very aware of the value that data can provide, not only to understand better its customers and their needs but also to develop and adjust products to remain competitive in the market. With this, there has been a great effort to develop ways to standardize, automate reports, and democratize data, which has helped us to advance within the data maturity model. Our company currently resides within the data proficient level of the model. However, there is a common interest in all departments to continue basing decisions on data, which is allowing us to gain internal momentum for reaching the next level.

Today many of the decisions are made based on the traditional descriptive analytic techniques, but considering the radical changes that especially the hospitality industry suffered from the pandemic, and the competitiveness in the ever-changing markets and customer needs, we are now focused on developing predictive and prescriptive analytic techniques that will allow us not only to understand what and why happened but also to develop different scenarios to better support the decision-making process aiming to maximize our market share and to increase and retain the most precious active which are our members.

The tools that we are currently using for this data journey include basic ones for a business intelligence department which are SQL server as our Relational Database Management System (RDMS), which is leveraged with our visualization tool Qlik Sense, allowing us to access data easily and find more business insights. However, the evolution of our analytical processes have required us to add additional tools like Promethium which is an AI-powered tool that allow us to by-pass the need to build a data warehouse while getting its benefits in a faster and easier manner, and data science techniques that combined with tools like Python are changing the way we look and use data.

What, in your opinion, are some of the present challenges employers face in managing data governance and security while implementing robust security measures and data accessibility?

I would say that this depends on the type, size, and economic capacity of a company. Although data security must be part of the strategic objectives of every company, this translates into increasing investments that companies need to make in order to comply with evolving security requirements, and not all have the economic power to acquire state-of-the-art solutions. However, cloud solutions could now be the option for many as they have been evolving, offering higher security at lesser costs. Many companies that are not yet aware of the benefits data could bring to their business could benefit from adopting basic data governance processes, which will help them access their data easier, increase its quality, and even find additional insights that could represent new market opportunities for them.

 As technology advances, there are more and more opportunities for companies to adopt new strategies, techniques, and tools that support and develop their analytical process 

In terms of data security, the main challenge is that many do not have a robust data life cycle management, or there is not even one at all properly developed, so the process of creation, storage, usage, sharing, archiving, and destruction of data is not well defined, and therefore impacting to its main goals which are to ensure data integrity, availability, and confidentiality.

What cutting-edge strategies or initiatives do you think can help organizations gain valuable insights into future customer behavior, demand patterns, and revenue opportunities?

As technology advances, there are more and more opportunities for companies to adopt new strategies, techniques, and tools that support and develop their analytical process. In my opinion, one of the greatest opportunities is to integrate the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence models, which are revolutionizing the way in which they use and analyze data, to find insights that are complicated to get to with the use of traditional analytics techniques, and in a simpler and more agile way, as speed to market has become one of the main competitive advantages in an increasingly complex and competitive world.

Before your stint at Royal Holiday, what were some of your previous experiences and specific education that empowered you to gain deep expertise in strategic decision-making and the transformation of revenue management practices to enhance business performance?

For more than 20 years, I specialized in the analysis of supply, demand, and development of pricing strategies; where my educational background as an industrial engineer helped me to get the foundations for my analytical career, and later on, a Master of International Management helped me to gain commercial knowledge that helped me to put in better context what data represents and its usage. Besides this, what helped me the most to gain deeper expertise was to be business curious, which allowed me to learn and understand processes and activities in addition to my daily responsibilities, which helped me build an integral business vision that is always aiming to business maximization.

On an ending note, what is your advice for other senior leaders and CXOs working in the business intelligence space?

At a corporate level, and especially for companies that are still in an early level of the data maturity model, to keep finding ways to support as many decisions as possible on data and promoting this from top to bottom will create the foundation and commitment of the importance and relevance of data at all levels of the company, thus being able to evolve in the model in a faster way and with lesser obstacles.

And at a work team level, first, ensure that business intelligence teams have adequate business acumen and allow them to be business-curious, and then keep them up to date on new technologies and methodologies that are evolving business analytics. But above all, keep them informed and involved in the projects and strategic objectives of the company and communicate how their work translates into improvements and opportunities for all, as this is what will create the ownership and alignment that business intelligence teams need to succeed.