Sponsor and Stakeholders
| The mandate | Bani Haddad, whose words on 4 August set this module's bar: the objective is the factory, not just the car, and whatever is built for Michlifen and Marchica must serve the entire company. This charter is the answer to his standing question: what does that look like, concretely, portfolio-wide |
| Sponsor | [Expected Jad Shamseddin, Chief Operating Officer; to be confirmed on his return] |
| Guides | Fiona Stewart, Senior Director Special Projects, and Abdellah Essonni, Regional Vice President (RVP) North Africa: the subject-matter guides who shape the taxonomy with us, so the architecture is Aleph's, not ours |
| Users | The corporate team, the property leadership teams, and the cluster training manager who operates the engine from 1 September. The owners see progress, never the library: a list at most, by standing agreement |
| Delivery | Nitin Thariyan and Caroline Hardman, Deep Hospitality; Nitin leads the architecture conversation |
Goal Statement
The factory makes; this home holds. One architecture, designed once and designed properly, where everything the programme produces lives, is found in seconds, reaches every property whatever systems it runs, and stays current without anyone chasing it.
Creation is not this module's business; that is the engine, and its charter governs it. This module owns the big picture Bani asked to see: the taxonomy of the body of knowledge, the platform it sits on, the doors and keys, the rhythm that keeps it alive, and the route from two hotels to the whole portfolio. Company-wide implementation is the part of any AI programme that is hardest to picture; this module's job is to make that picture concrete enough to walk. It is designed for everything that follows, not just the standards that exist today, so each new output of the factory, and each future module of this programme, lands in the same home instead of finding its own. We are calling it the intranet; it may equally be a document management system or something built on what Aleph already owns. The name matters less than the architecture.
The Shape of the Work
Four pieces, decided in this order, because each one constrains the next. Platform talk before taxonomy is how intranets fail.
- The taxonomy. How the body of knowledge is organised: by division, by geography, by document type, local standards against main standards, and how cross-referenced material such as checklists stays attached to its procedure. Shaped options come to one working session with Fiona and Abdellah, drawn from operators of every size, and the room decides.
- The platform and the doors. Where it sits and who holds which key: a recommendation that honours the estate as it actually is, some properties on Google, some on Microsoft 365, some teams barred from shared drives entirely, on desktop and mobile, with access scoped so each property sees and touches only its own. Security is a first requirement here, not a finish: this home will hold client-confidential operating knowledge, and the way in is designed with the same care as what is inside.
- The living layer. The rhythm that keeps the library current without letting it dissolve: who may request a change, who approves it, what triggers a review and on what schedule, and what happens when the next round of guest feedback or the next quality assessment arrives. Corporate holds the pen; nothing changes silently.
- The rollout path. The company-wide picture on one page: the order in which properties join, what each needs on day one given the systems it runs and the rules it lives under, who does what at each step, and what it takes to run at fifty hotels rather than two. Michlifen and Marchica prove the home the way they are proving the factory; the path from there is written down, not assumed.
In Scope
- The taxonomy of the body of knowledge, agreed with Fiona and Abdellah before any platform is discussed [settled at the taxonomy workshop]
- A platform recommendation that honours the split estate and works on the systems each property already runs, with PDF as the format that reaches everyone regardless
- The access and change architecture: named doors, scoped keys, requested and approved changes with a record, corporate oversight throughout
- The living layer: review triggers, schedules, and the audit trail that keeps the library trusted
- A home for the engine itself once handed over, so the factory and everything it produces live under one roof
- Designed to receive what comes next: the engine's future output, the training material built from it, and the later modules of this programme, without rearchitecting
- The rollout path from the two Morocco hotels to the portfolio, written as a plan Bani and Jad can read in one sitting
- Built with what Aleph already owns wherever possible, and handed over so Aleph runs it without us
Out of Scope
- Creating, adapting or approving standards; that is the factory, Module 2, and its agreed charter governs it
- The group-wide generic engine; raised on 4 August and being shaped as its own proposal, on its own terms
- Owner-facing access of any kind; owners receive a list of what exists, at most
- Replacing Aleph's platforms or buying anything Aleph does not already own, beyond what is expressly agreed
- The data-warehouse migration and anything that depends on it
Measure of Success
A team member at either hotel finds the current version of any standard in seconds, on the system their property actually uses. A change requested at a property is approved, recorded, and visible only where it belongs. The engine and every one of its outputs live in one place, and the next module's output lands there without redesign. And the test Bani set, passed: the route from two hotels to the whole company is written down, needs no leap of faith, and Aleph runs it without us.
Risks and How We Hold Them
- point solutions are quick and tempting, and fifty properties left to find their own answers would produce fifty different ones; this module exists precisely so the company-wide picture is designed once, before the body of work grows further
- an intranet has been tried here before and did not take; this one starts from documents people already need daily, not from a portal looking for content
- the estate is genuinely split between Google and Microsoft 365, with hard IT restrictions at some properties; the design treats that as a fact, not an obstacle
- taxonomy debates can run forever; we bring shaped options and decide in one working session, not by correspondence
- governance is the difference between a living library and chaos; the change model is designed before anyone gets a pen
- everything stays in the box: paid accounts, training off, controlled access under Aleph's rules, nothing owner-confidential on any public address
- the November season deadline belongs to Module 2; this module supports it and must never sit in its critical path