Chris Ormiston, Sales Engineer, APAC, Agilysys
TDM has started a series of interviews under the theme ‘Going Beyond’ that bring to the forefront 'a behind-the-scenes look' at the expertise of Agilysys APAC team members across product engineering, services, HR, and sales, highlighting how each function plays a strategic role in delivering value to hospitality clients.
This series of interviews explores how these teams contribute to key business outcomes — enhancing the guest experience, driving RevPAG, enabling seamless, interoperable solutions, etc. — while providing a deeper understanding of the people, processes, and innovation that power Agilysys’ impact across the hospitality sector.
In Part 2 of the ‘Going Beyond’ series TDM interviews Chris Ormiston, Sales Engineer, APAC, Agilysys. Chris Ormiston offers insight into how product engineering at Agilysys is about imagining what’s next by helping hoteliers embrace the digital era with interoperable solutions that connect systems and experiences. From re-engineering functionality at the code level to anticipating future needs, he shares how his team delivers tailored innovations that often exceed expectations before customers know how to ask for them.
Travel Daily Media (TDM): What does a typical day look like in product engineering at Agilysys, and how does your work contribute to delivering seamless and personalised experiences for clients across APAC?
Chris Ormiston (CO): Every customer is different in how they market their rooms, outlets, and services to stand out in a competitive marketplace. That means every new client operates differently. My role is to understand each customer’s business model, what makes them unique, what challenges they face, and what outcomes they’re aiming to achieve. From there, I help design and present a tailored ecosystem of integrated technologies that meets those needs.
Success in this role means constantly thinking outside the box. I need to understand how features and functionality work right down to the code level, but more importantly, how we can re-engineer or repurpose them to meet new outcomes.
When it’s clear that a completely new feature or function needs to be developed, I work closely with our development teams to scope requirements. It’s not just about what the enhancement should achieve, but how it impacts users, existing workflows, and features already used by other customers.
TDM: From your perspective as a sales engineer, how important is interoperability in creating frictionless tech ecosystems for hoteliers, and how does Agilysys approach this challenge through its product suite?
CO: Creating a frictionless ecosystem is at the heart of what we do. I’ve been in this industry long enough to see several waves of transformation. In the early days, most hotels ran a single tech stack with additional modules or connected systems feeding data directly into the same physical database.
Then came the 2000s and the mainstream adoption of the internet, which brought an explosion of specialised systems that could be “interfaced” with the core property management system. This era introduced best-in-class tools that allowed hotels to reduce risk by not placing all their eggs in one basket - a real concern at the time due to high server failure rates and frequent outages. At the same time, we saw the rise of big data and early personalisation, but interface architecture was limited. That meant valuable data often remained siloed, and even when integrations existed, they rarely delivered meaningful value beyond reporting and BI.
Today, in 2025, the industry has shifted again - and in some ways, returned to its roots. We’re back to the idea of a singular, fully connected ecosystem, only now it’s hosted in the cloud, with traditional hardware risks mostly eliminated. Today, the real risk is in maintaining fragmented systems that prevent them from leveraging data for AI and hyper-personalisation.
Agilysys is uniquely positioned to lead hoteliers into this next digital era. Our full suite of applications is developed in-house, on a unified cloud-based codebase. This means every Agilysys system has access to the same underlying data - enabling true interoperability.
For guests, it means experiences like notifying housekeeping about a food allergy that’s automatically updated for restaurant staff and minibar stocking or being able to book a complete hotel package - spa, dining, golf, activities - in one seamless, guided experience without calls or manual coordination.
That’s the power of interoperability, not just connecting systems, but connecting experiences.
TDM: With the growing focus on RevPAG (Revenue Per Available Guest), how does sales engineering support the shift toward guest-centric revenue models, and what role does innovation play in enabling this transformation?
CO: While our incredible product management and software engineering teams possess exceptional skill in conceptualising, developing and implementing next-generation applications, a substantial portion of our strategic roadmap is collaboratively shaped by the invaluable insights and contributions of our customers.
This is where I come in as a sales engineer. I work with customers to understand their challenges, their goals, and their vision of what’s next. Many of our innovations are born from these conversations. By helping translate those ideas into technical requirements, I support the process of turning customer feedback into tangible solutions that drive RevPAG - both by optimising revenue opportunities and by making it easier for guests to engage with everything a property offers.
A big part of my discussions with clients is not only about what they need today, but what they’ll need tomorrow, next year, and beyond.
What makes me passionate about working at Agilysys is that no matter the size of the customer, they’re treated as partners. We see innovation as a collective effort, a community-driven mission to make our products smarter, faster, and easier to use so that every hotelier can succeed.
TDM: Agilysys solutions are used by hospitality providers to not only enhance operations but also drive tangible results. Can you share a recent project or product feature that your team worked on, which made a notable impact for clients in APAC?
CO: When I speak with customers, I often highlight the value of the Agilysys ecosystem. The real power lies not in a single feature, but in the synergy - a multiplier effect where the combined capabilities of the unified ecosystem deliver far more than the sum of individual systems.
A great example is our Itinerary Booking Engine, Agilysys Book. In isolation, you might have separate booking engines for rooms, spa treatments, activities, or tours - and that’s how many properties still operate today. Guests are left to piece their stay together manually, often across different systems or channels - assuming they have the patience to do so.
With Agilysys Book, all those components are unified within one guest-facing application, enabling powerful itinerary management that simply wouldn’t be possible without the broader ecosystem. Guests can book a complete experience - from accommodations to spa, dining, golf, or tours - in a single, streamlined session. It’s intuitive, seamless, and saves time for both guests and staff.
For our APAC customers specifically, we’ve had exciting enhancements come directly from their feedback. One example is adding group function events to itinerary pages - like sending the bride’s parents a complete itinerary upon check-in for a wedding, with room details, spa treatments, dining reservations, and a full rundown of rehearsal dinners, toasts, ceremonies, and receptions.
These features are impressive on their own - but when deployed across the full Agilysys ecosystem - the result is something greater. It’s that interconnectedness that creates truly transformative outcomes for our customers.
TDM: Looking ahead, what trends or emerging technologies are you most excited about in the hospitality tech space, and how is Agilysys positioned to support hoteliers in adapting to the evolving needs of tomorrow’s guests?
CO: For me, it’s still all about AI. While some people are experiencing AI fatigue - and yes, it may have been overhyped initially - I believe it remains the most transformative force yet to fully impact hospitality. We're already starting to see early applications: content and image generation, and in Agilysys’ case, tools that help manage spa therapist availability. But that’s just the beginning.
Next, we’ll see AI take on more complex roles, particularly in personalisation and revenue management. Pricing models will shift from market segments to individual intent - where room rates, upgrade offers, and service promotions are tailored in real time, based on a guest’s booking behaviour and historical data. Even post-booking, AI will help determine not only when to offer upgrades, but what to offer and at what price.
Another game-changing area is AI-powered guest interaction; think digital concierge or personalised AI agents that help guests build their own itinerary while on property. This will introduce a whole new dimension to tailored service delivery.
Beyond AI, robotics will eventually play a bigger role - especially behind the scenes. There’s massive opportunity in automating back-of-house tasks. For example, autonomous hotel shuttles or robotic delivery of amenities could free up staff to focus on higher-value guest interactions.
Agilysys is well-positioned for this future because we’re already focused on building flexible, interoperable systems that can plug into evolving technologies. That means when AI and automation continue to scale, our customers will be ready - with the digital foundation in place to take full advantage.
TDM: What does 'Going beyond' mean to you?
CO: To me, Going Beyond is about building for what comes next. It’s about meeting our customers where they are today and helping them prepare for where they want to be tomorrow.
Sometimes I feel like I live in “Tomorrowland,” because so much of my role is about imagining the future. Our customers often come to us with bold visions - and it's our job to help turn those into something real. That means pushing boundaries, challenging ourselves to deliver more than what’s expected, and designing solutions that aren’t just fit for today, but ready for what’s next.
Going Beyond means not just responding to a request but anticipating the need behind it. It’s about creating that moment where a customer says, “That’s exactly what we needed - even if we didn’t know how to ask for it.”
