Exclusive Feature: Microsoft Germany's Marco Richardson said that companies holding back from going digital will be become obsolete; 

Richardson, whose job title is Technical Evangelist, said that while customer service representatives now instant message and customers pay using smartphones, any company that clings to its old systems will find it a major disruption to their day-to-day businesses when they attempt to upgrade.

And those companies not only have to keep up with their competitors; they have to be ready to compete with start-ups.

“Companies who don’t change until they are forced to are the ones that end up suffering most from digital disruption,” he said at the ITB Conference in Berlin. “In the hospitality industry, or any industry for that matter, you can’t just be reactionary. You have to always be on the lookout for the next big thing.”

One of the ways to stay ahead of the trends is to look outside the industry for inspiration: Richardson recommends that hotels take a cue from laptop, mobile, and gaming technology.

“Why couldn’t the same biometric technology used to unlock phones be used to replace room keys?” Richardson said. “Cameras for iris scans are already in Xboxes. If you look at what is actually possible, more things can be done in order to innovate instead of react.”

He also suggested that digital signature software could cut down on time spent at the front desk at checkin and checkout.

While these changes are an investment of time, money, and resources, Richardson says that innovative services could lead to an increase in customer engagement.

“Any reduction in time or money will be an incentive to the engagement and adoption of a technology. People will want to download apps before they get to the hotel.”

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