I met His Highness Arvind Singh Mewar of Udaipur at Pebble Beach, when he showed his wonderful, bright blue 1924 Rolls-Royce GLK-21, 20 HP Barker Tourer who finally won the Lucius Beebe Trophy. This was the first ever Pebble Beach trophy for an Indian entry,” says Claus Mueller – collector, racer and Managing Director of the Munich Café Racers. …[Read More]

Udaipur (Rajasthan) and Strasbourg (France) are true legendary examples of a ‘Living Heritage’. The two cities may exhibit diverse cultures and people but the link between each city’s yesterday and today cannot be ignored – a striking similarity shared by cities that are seven seas apart! …[Read More]

It was an ambitious dream to get enlisted in ‘CIO-Asia’s top 100 index’ and it’s no more just a dream, it is real!

It is a moment of pride for all at HRH and specially team at the IT department. I must say that all team members have worked with utmost sincerity towards a single goal of achieving excellence through sustainable solutions in the field of IT.

I may not be able to name all however mentioning few of them is must who are just like solid pillars holding and supporting the IT department- Shailendra, Hemant, Nitin, Rajendra, Mukesh, Mihir, Sumit, Amit, Ritesh, Shekhar, Pranav, Mukesh & Avinash . Being a part of such a loyal and talented team always brings a sense of pride where few of them have worked with the organization for more than 12 years and most of them for 5years at least!

I remember, this journey towards the success had started with an understanding of the vision shared by respected CMD, Shriji Arvind Singh ji Mewar who has always guided us towards innovative and self sustainable IT solutions. These should not only be cost effective but also support business operations across all verticals.

With micro level knowledge of processes especially of hospitality industry and competent and tested-solutions, we wish to explore new avenues & provide I.T. services to the world because I.T is one of our (HRH) core competencies & ‘CIO-Asia’s top 100 index’ proves the same now!

Jai Mewar.

The I.T. projects of HRH Group of Hotels have been listed in top 100 Asian companies’ I.T. project index of 2013 and declared as ‘CIO 100 HONOUREE 2013’. It marked the presence in CIO-Asia’s annual index of Asia’s top performing enterprise users of IT. The index is maintained by ‘CIO-Asia’ magazine annually and published by ‘Fairfax Business Media, Singapore’.

This index highlights top 100 enterprises and organizations of Asia that have excelled through creative and innovative IT projects in the past year. Companies are listed as CIO 100 only if they have added extraordinary value to the stakeholders and customers through IT systems and innovative projects. This is the highest honour presented to any enterprise for IT implementation in the Asian region & panel of jury includes senior leaders of the industry and the University Professors of Information Technology from various Asian countries.

This year ‘Roll of Honors’ of CIO-Asia-100 index recognized representatives from more than 12 Asian countries. Few of them are from India, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Philippines, UAE, Macau etc…

Mr. T.C. Seow Editor of CIO Asia magazine, Fairfax Business Media presented this prestigious award to Mr. Vijay Choudhary, Head IT, HRH Group of Hotels in a grand ceremony at the Marina Mandarin Hotel, Singapore on March 13, 2013. In Mr. Seow words, the entries to this year’s CIO 100 list has set an extremely high standard in terms of breadth and depth of implementation. Focus on enhanced customer experience acts as a guiding principle behind IT initiatives.

Mr. Choudhary had accepted the award in Singapore while acknowledging team work of IT department at HRH Group of Hotels.

It’s another landmark in the journey of technological achievements for HRH Group of Hotels, EternalMewar, Udaipur.

Vijay Choudhary, General Manager – Information Technology, HRH Hotels shares his Success Mantra with magazine, IT Next

You can also read the text in the article below:

A Soldier in IT

“An MBA (Finance) gives me a bird’s-eye view of an organization, which will help in the role of a CIO,” says Vijay Choudhary, General Manager-IT, HRH Group of Hotels
“I found my dream job in IT and consider myself a soldier to serve my country, users and organizations”

BY MANU SHARMA

“Hailing from Rajasthan, I always dreamed of serving in the Indian defense services from my early school days. In fact ,I got through my CDSE written exams and group discussion. However, due to unfavorable family conditions, I had to give up, “says Choudhary.

“But by God’s grace, I joined IT since I had a B.Sc. in Computer Science; and there have been no regrets so far,” he adds..He later completed his M.Sc. in Computer Science from Udaipur University, “I found my dream job in IT and consider myself a soldier equipped to serve my country, users and organizations.”

In 1996, Choudhary joined the Choksi Group of Companies, Udaipur as EDP in charge and was responsible for process automation for HR. manufacturing and finance .Later, in 1999, he joined the HRH Group “I joined as a programmer during the K2K scenario and had to handle a lot of bugs in the existing software. But I handled them and have since grown in the same company over the last 13 years. Today, I am the GM-IT and responsible for the entire IT implementation –not only within the hotels but also the group’s other companies like education etc.”

IT learning and recognition go parallel, feel Choudhary. “Every day is new day and opens doors to lot of new opportunities for learning –facing new, unexpected problems and designing strategies to solve them. You need to continuously increase your efficiency and stamina like in the Army,” he remarks.

He developed the Central Reservation System (CRS) and Central Management Management (CRM) from scratch. The systems work on the Window Sequel server and all the applications are hosted in the company’s own data center which Choudhary and team setup in Udaipur.
He aims to join the excursive club of CIOs over the next few years and says he has been continuously upgrading his skills. In fact, he finished an MBA (Finance) recently and now understands the financial skills required for a CIO. “The MBA gives me a bird view of the organization .while I am already equipped with B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Computer Science; these will help in the role of a CIO. I would like to pursue my future in the hospitality industry itself.” he says.
He believes that these are the future technologies to look forward to and master: everything As a Service, Cloud, Virtualization, App on demand, Business Intelligence on App, BI with predictive analysis leveraging Big Data advantage, Ipv6 and social network. To overcome stress, he gets up at 4.45am on all week days to practice pranayams/yoga for one and-a-half hours. “But my kids do not allow me to get up early on Sunday.” he jokes.

“Besides, in the middle of my working day. I practice deep breathing at times when I feel overburdened with challenges… it gives me immediate energy.”

Choudhary admires his CMD, Maharana Shriji Arvind Singhji Mewar.”It has been a huge privilege to work with him closely. Also I admire Steve Job’s life history; the great man came from the toughest situation and left us with so much.” he concludes.

FACT FILE
NAME
VIJAY CHOUDHARY

CURRENT DESIGATION
GM IT HEAD IT

CURRENT ROLE
HEAD IT

EXPERTISE
BUSINESS AND TECHOLONGY ALIGNMENT IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

WORK EXPERINCE
16+ YEARS

FAVOURTE QUOTE:
A PERSON CAN AND WILL BE SUCCESFUL WITH OR WITHOUT FORMAL EDUCATION IF HE HAS THE 5CS CHARACTER, COMMITMNET, CONVICTION, COURTESY, AND COURAGE.

FAVOURITE DESTINATION
INDIA

FAVOURITE BOOK
VIKARAM SHARMA SERIES

FAVOURITE GADGET:
BLACK BERRY AND iPAD

Vijay Choudhary, DGM-IT, HRH Hotels shares views in magazine IT NEXT

Extraordinary IT innovations at the HRH Group of Hotels recognized by APAC CXO Forum at Bangkok, Thailand

HRH Group of Hotels participated in a prestigious Asia Pacific level “Business – Technology – Leadership Event” – The CIO Leadership Retreat and CISO Forum 2012 at Bangkok, Thailand, from Oct 25th – 27th, 2012. The event was organized by the ‘APAC CXO forum’, an international forum, which invited the top 100 IT leaders and eminent I.T. service providers in the Asia Pacific region. The theme of the conference was “Innovate, Secure & Transform”.

The event had Workshops ‘by CIOs – for CIOs’, lessons on Leadership, Technology Sessions by eminent speakers from India as well as Thailand. It was followed by a grand ceremony of the prestigious Awards for CIOs, CISOs and Data Center Experts, hosted at the ‘Menam Seminar and Convention Center, Ramada Plaza Menam Riverside, Bangkok’.

Mr. Vijay Choudhary, Head IT, HRH Group of Hotels was honored with the award ‘CIO-Leader’, presented by Mr. Ajay K. Dhir, Chairman and Founder of the APAC CXO Forum. The award recognizes a trusted guide, influential mentor and a strategic executive. It recognizes someone who is instrumental in the successful turnaround of his company & is an exceptional leader who has played an important role in his specific sector development on various levels, implemented innovative strategies in order to improve performance, and contributed to the growth of the community, environment & region as well.

To maintain transparency, proper governance and a structured process of selection, the awards were judged by an independent panel of prominent society and industry leaders.

It’s another landmark in the journey of technological achievements for HRH Group of Hotels, EternalMewar, Udaipur.

World Travel Market, the leading global event for the travel industry – is a vibrant must attend four-day business-to-business event presenting a diverse range of destinations and industry sectors to UK and International travel professionals. It is a unique opportunity for the whole global travel trade to meet, network, negotiate and conduct business under one roof.

The event held annually, this year is happening on 5th-8th November 2012 in London where deals are negotiated that will ultimately decide which destinations appear in holiday brochures, travel agents and on travel websites. HRH Group of Hotels is being represented by Ms. Padmaja Kumari Parmar, Executive Director Marketing, USA along with Mr. Kunal Singh, GM Sales – Travel Trade, Udaipur, Ms. Sabina Bailey, Public Affairs and Marketing Consultant, London and Mr. Yashwant Singh Jadeja, General Manager, Sales USA at the exhibition this year.