Well since len has been posting lately.. maybe @
lentesta can tell us where the 180 day reference in that show came from.. as it's introduced as common knowledge rather than as from taken from the ToS under discussion.
If I recall correctly, it was in a fairly lengthy document which described the financials, features, implementation plan, operations and guest impact of FASTPASS+. That doc is now something like 18 months old, so the 180-day number may have changed. But the overall approach that Disney has followed since I've seen that, has been almost 100% consistent with the document. Jim has more information beyond that - his sources on this are better than mine. My guess is he'll do a FP+ column or two soon, not that he's said anything specific to me about it.
I hope you're right but if TDO goes the way Len and Jim Hill suggest, it makes complete business sense. What a great way to increase onsite occupancy while simultaneously reducing cost.
Yeah, I think this is a lot of it. As I said in the podcast, if you're asking a business to spend $X on technology, the business partners putting up the money generally want to see a well-defined plan for recouping that $X in quantifiable ways within a specific timeframe. Your business plan is probably going to be very specific in describing which parts of the business are contributing what percentage of $X to the bottom line, and a timeframe for doing that. And tech development teams are usually focused on one of three things:
1) Reducing operating expenses ("OpEx") - mostly labor costs and the cost to maintain the parks, run reservation systems, etc.
2) Increased revenue.
3) Lowering the cost of developing future technology
If you're management, reducing OpEx is very attractive because it's an immediate payback that can be easily measured. You say your new gizmo will reduce overstaffing by 15% each month? You'll get your money, but only after you agree to actually cut staff costs by 15% in return.
Quantifying the impact of increased revenue is a little harder, because external events can impact sales. Tech might claim that FASTPASS+ will increase bookings by 10%, but how do separate out FASTPASS+ from, say, the opening of New Fantasyland or even the general economic trends that have a lot more impact? Sure, you could do a guest survey at the end, but every step you take away from direct measurement, leads to more uncertainty.
Senior leaders don't like uncertainty, especially when talking about tens of millions of dollars in investment. For one thing, assigning credit is difficult. If bookings *do* go up, everyone and their brother will point to their contribution to one of a dozen projects as to why it happened. Year-end bonuses and career opportunities hinge on those things.
