“Update! We upgraded our POS, so it plays better with our ERP,” blared no offseason press release ever. But perhaps they should. Resort operators in 2025 invest heavily in digital technology that’s essential to both running their operations and improving the guest experience. Technology solutions from point of sale systems to human resource and onboarding tools have become fundamental to ski areas big and small, and modern customers (and employees) expect well-designed and easy-to-use technology platforms that work. Implementing these tools isn’t a finger-snap process, though. 

The problem and the promise. “There were a lot of friction points for people to get here,” says Rhett McNulty, owner of Kissing Bridge in western New York. He’s speaking about his own ski area, but he could be speaking about any number of others. “I’m looking for ways to remove friction, to make the customer experience smooth, and to make this product more enticing.”

To understand how resorts are achieving this goal, I spoke with McNulty and other resort leaders who have upgraded their technology in recent years. I asked them when, why, and how they decided they needed to upgrade, and how they chose a vendor. I wondered what their implementation experiences were like, and how they got staff buy-in. I asked how they measured the return on their investments, as well as what worked and what didn’t.

There are common threads even among the most unique operations, and, of course, every operation’s needs vary somewhat. Erik Kerr, director of sales and marketing at Red Mountain in British Columbia, puts the most common thread simply: “Data is king,” he says. “Any decision made without it is uninformed.” 

The Resistance

McNulty, who purchased Kissing Bridge last year, is new to the ski business. However, he has a background in e-commerce platforms, AI processing, and other technology-related fields (he also owns a surfboard manufacturer). A quick study, his initial impressions of the ski industry are familiar. “It’s unlike any I’ve ever been in,” he says. “There is a lot of support, even among competitors. 

“I’ve also seen resistance to change.”

“The resistance” is us. Other operators acknowledge this affinity for nostalgia in themselves, the industry, employees, and customers. “It’s certainly a part of our sports, and it’s part of our company,” says Brian Barth, executive director of finance and accounting at Sun Valley, Idaho, where Union Pacific Railroad built the world’s first single chairlift in 1936. “We’ve been around a long time, there’s a lot of tenure, and lots of history.” 

When Sun Valley’s parent company, which also owns six hotels and Snowbasin in Utah, underwent a merger, many of the resort’s business software systems changed. Barth and his teams saw an opportunity to overhaul other systems, too. “There are very few systems that we haven’t touched or upgraded in the past three to four years,” he says. 

In so doing, he understood that there could be some aversion to change. “A big area of focus for us was to work on how we effectively laid out and managed this change,” says Barth. 

The resistance is melting. Despite the industry’s inertia, it has played some quick catch-up. Kerr notes that it wasn’t long ago when most things were done on paper. “You do get the sense that we’ve emerged from the dark ages,” he says. 

Also, part of the equation is that businesses across every industry have adopted tech components—whether you are ordering a pizza on a Friday night, enrolling in a quilting class, or getting the daily news. “Now, e-commerce is no different than any other commerce,” says McNulty. “Brick and mortar has adopted e-commerce, and vice versa.” 

Preparing for an Upgrade

Every resort operation I spoke with convened a work group to identify needs and problem areas before investing in technology systems. That’s an important first step for any ski area.

Five years ago, every revenue center at Lake Louise Ski Resort in Alberta was operating on separate, outdated, custom-built software. “There was no integration,” says Lake Louise CFO Norbert Mazenod, which caused a variety of issues, including overtaxing an I.T. team that seemed to often be involved in fixing problems that arose with the older, customized systems.

Planning is imperative. Lake Louise gathered people from every department to identify needs, problems, and solutions. “It was important that every stakeholder be involved,” Mazenod says. “We wanted to make an assessment of our needs and then explore every system available in the industry.”

The process took his team a few years. Mazenod says the group’s goals included improving operational efficiency, making the job easier and more intuitive for staff, and improving the customer experience.

Barth’s team at Sun Valley established an I.T. steering committee comprised of various stakeholders. They built a formal process to evaluate the resort’s technology, whereby a department would observe a problem area or need, and the committee would assess and rate the need—is this a non-negotiable must-have? A wish list item? Then the committee would set goals and make a list of outcomes to describe what success would look like.

Find out what matters. Gathering feedback and doing a proper assessment of needs are critical aspects. “You have to listen to the people the change is going to impact,” says Barth. 

“I can’t stress enough the importance of this up-front work,” he adds. “Before you ever start talking about vendors or solutions, think about why you’re doing it and what you’re trying to achieve.” 

“You have to ask, ‘Why?’” agrees Kerr, who managed the rollout of a new POS, e-commerce platform, and RFID access gates at Red Mountain. “Closely followed by, ‘How?’ and ‘Can we use it?’” 

If you don’t do the work to identify your business’s specific needs, says Kerr, even a system with all the bells and whistles won’t fix your problems. Red Mountain, he says, scrutinized whether the upgrades were truly going to improve the experience for both guests and staff. 

Weighing the Options

Once needs and wants have been identified, requests for proposals are submitted and the process of identifying potential vendors begins. 

Unlike other resort functions that only have a couple suppliers to choose from, software vendor options abound, and competition is real. Most industry veterans have relationships with vendors, or know someone who does, so it’s easy to ask around. “It’s a small industry,” says Barth. 

Still, different ski areas have different needs, the menu of vendor options and what they offer is varied, and decisions need to be made. 

Data: stored on-site or in the cloud? Is it best to choose a cloud-based system or manage your own on-premises servers? Lake Louise, for example, with its remote location and unreliable internet service, invested in on-site servers. 

What type of system? Should you retain a vendor willing to customize systems, or opt instead for a one-size-(mostly)-fits-all package? Is an “all-in-one” package best, or is your operation sophisticated enough to warrant separate best-of-breed applications? If the latter, how well do the various systems interface? 

What type of vendor? Meanwhile, vendors come in all shapes and sizes. Should you choose an established vendor with lots of customers, or try a newer, up-and-coming vendor that might offer more personalized attention?

These characteristics matter and can affect potential fit. Where are they located? In your state or across the continent? Will they be available when you need support? How supportive will they be? Will they adapt to your changing needs or changes in the industry? Do you trust that they have your best interests in mind?

Are hardware upgrades needed? Also, what sort of hardware upgrades is your resort willing to make? For example, if you are buying a lift access system that uses scanners, is the new system compatible with the old scanners? Is a new ticketing system compatible with the old ticket and season pass printers? Will you be printing tickets and passes?

Red’s experience. Red Mountain found a good fit with Paradocs Mountain Software, which was a relative startup at the time (prior to its acquisition by Accesso Technology Group), but growing. The Paradocs team shared their plans for growth, and Kerr and his team liked what they had to say. He also appreciated their candor and honesty when Red expressed interest in Paradocs’ food and beverage package. “They told us to wait on the F and B stuff because it wasn’t ready yet,” says Kerr, so the resort stuck with implementing the software for tickets, passes, and ski school, with rentals and retail to follow in the future. 

Impulsive Kissing. Contrary to the more deliberate processes of other ski areas, McNulty opted to rip out the existing technology stack at Kissing Bridge in the middle of his first winter as owner and replace it with the SnowCloud platform. The system—which includes e-commerce, ticketing, rentals, RFID access, and more—went live in January. 

It was a hasty transition, but McNulty chose to move forward with it for the same reasons other ski areas would: He and his team liked SnowCloud’s products and the support that was offered, recognized that the system could improve the employee and guest experience, and got the impression SnowCloud was investing in their products. 

About the cost ... Finally, price will affect any decision. The more sophisticated and bigger the operation, the more systems will cost. For a smaller operation like Kissing Bridge, for example, McNulty appreciates the subscription style of SnowCloud’s cloud-based system, no required investment in hardware, and no fee to terminate the relationship. “This gave me confidence,” McNulty says.

Implementing the Change

When vetting vendors, it’s critical to discuss next steps: What will the implementation process be like? Vendors offer different levels of support. Sun Valley’s Barth, who has been through several implementations, wants to know who answers the phone on Saturdays. Tough times are inevitable, he says, so how will a vendor parnter work with you to get through them?

At the end of the day, the customer does much of the lifting. And regardless of how custom a system is, there will always be some operational adjustments to fit the package. For the implementation process to succeed, says Mazenod, you need a strong vendor partner and a great internal team. 

Assign a leader. Having a project manager that owns the process as part of your internal team can be very helpful. Lake Louise initially wanted to hire someone for this role who was perhaps familiar with these processes and the new software itself, but instead chose to appoint someone internally who understood Lake Louise and its business. 

“When you have the right team, the right project manager, and the right path, you are set up for success,” says Mazenod. Every operation I spoke with had designated a point person to lead the implementation process.

Gain staff buy-in. Of course, a big part of implementation is training staff, which raises the critical need of getting staff to buy in. The buy-in was easy for McNulty: the old stuff didn’t work. “It’s night and day,” he says, noting that employees could see the problems with the old systems. “We had trouble understanding our users,” he says. “Everything was based on our assumptions about them and not on data.” Not anymore. 

Barth acknowledges that some implementations are smoother or easier than others, and challenges will arise when you swap out a system. However, “If you really took the time to listen to people, to communicate what’s happening, and they understand why you’re doing it, how to do it, and what the impacts are, you’ll be successful,” he says. 

People who use the systems want to be involved in choosing and implementing them. If you want staff to support the changes and the (hopefully temporary) hard times that will inevitably come with change, communicate well ahead of time and involve as many people as possible, Barth says. Most problems stem from miscommunication, misunderstandings, or last-minute changes, deadlines, or time constraints. 

Assessing the ROI

One can, of course, look at technology systems and make a general assessment of whether it works. But how do you quantitatively measure whether the investment was worthwhile? How do you assess whether you’re better off than you were before you upgraded? Across the board, the managers I spoke with referred to the goals their teams drew up before upgrading. “It goes back to the question, ‘Why did we do this?’” says Kerr. It is important to look back after the dust settles to assess whether the original goals were met.

“We very formally set our expectations,” says Mazenod. “Throughout the cycle of the project implementation, we measured this.” The Lake Louise team met 90 percent of their expectations and are still working on the areas where they underachieved.

Revenue, intel, and connection. “A lot of it goes back to analyzing revenue across the resort,” says Kerr, noting that it’s not just the numbers but understanding the numbers. Why, for example, was there a 10 percent increase in revenue in a certain area year-over-year? Systems that closely track sales and customer behaviors may be able answer those questions more clearly. 

Qualitatively, ski area personnel can learn a lot through the process of multiple system upgrades. Kerr has been impressed with how the new technology allows his resort to engage with guests. 

“It used to be you’d only hear from them when they were upset,” he says. Now, his resort’s interaction with guests happens from the initial confirmation email and guest engagement continues without bombarding them with unwanted communications.

Mazenod says the technology allows the resort to reach a multitude of guests. Some people want to buy lift tickets online, pick them up at a kiosk, and go directly to the lift. Others want to talk to a live person and ask about the best ticket option, the perfect instructor, and the ideal rental equipment. “We want both of those customers to have the best experience,” he says.

The human element. “We learned so many things,” says Barth. “We learned about planning and spending the time up front. You really want to understand your needs.” 

When it all comes down to it, says Barth, software is just software. “It’s the people involved that make all this work,” he emphasizes. “These are big projects, and they’re always harder than you think they’re going to be.” 

Successfully managing such undertakings—and setting up your resort for long-term success once everything is in place—takes good planning, with the right resources and people at the right time and place.