Use of Network Input and Output Devices - Assignment Example

? Information and Communication Technologies Supervisor] Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Answer 3 Introduction: 3 Business objectives and strategies: 4 Business processes: 6 Answer 3 9 Purpose of each entity in ERD: 9 Answer 4 10 Database queries: 10 Answer 5 11 Business constraints due to database structure: 11 Input devices used: 11 Output devices used: 12 Answer 7 and 8 12 Network structure: 12 Use of network input and output devices: 13 Reference List 14 Answer 1 Introduction: Over the past few years the hotel industry has invested a huge sum into the development of restaurants and fine dining (Boone, 2008). One of the main reasons for the increase in investment is because hoteliers see bars and restaurants as a tool to increase the overall productivity of their hotels (Boone, 2008). Moreover bars and restaurants tend to increase the overall property value of the hotel within the market (Boone, 2008). Over time customers have become more and more demanding when it comes to quality of food and of fine dining (Gundersen, Heide, & Olsson, 1996). Hoteliers have admitted that there is an increase in competition when it comes to restaurants and the quality of food being provided to the customer. One of the reasons of the increase in competition is the creation of new concepts. Moreover exposure given to chefs and cooking experts by media has significantly raised the expectations of customers (Boone, 2008). Furthermore food served at restaurants in a hotel tends to act as a factor in determining a hotel’s position in the market (Boone, 2008). A guest at a hotel tends to judge the hotel based on the dining experience that he or she has (Gundersen, Heide, & Olsson, 1996). Business objectives and strategies: The business objectives of the restaurant can be divided into two main categories increase revenue generated and cut down unnecessary expenditures of the restaurant. Certain strategies have been formulated to help the restaurant meet its objectives within the planned period of time. To help increase the revenue generated the restaurant plans to Acquire more customers Get more margins Work on obtaining customer loyalty The strategy to attract more customers is based on three approaches. The first approach involves forming partnerships with different corporations and providing special discounts to employees of these corporations. The second approach is based on arranging a celebrity night at the restaurant that would help attract a number of customers to the restaurants (Fine, 2010). Contacting celebrities would depend upon the restaurant owner’s PR and his or her network (Fine, 2010). The third approach would be marketing about the restaurant via the internet (Bailey, 2011). Online advertising would be the main tool used for promoting the restaurant over the internet (Janoschka, 2003). Through online marketing the management of the restaurant would be able to get its message across to a large number of potential customers (Janoschka, 2003). Online advertising makes use of social media websites, mobile advertising and display advertising (Janoschka, 2003). To help increase the profit margin a price vibration model would be implemented at the restaurant. The model is based on two basic activities. The first activity is to increase the prices on the menu when the traffic within the restaurant is at its highest peak, which is during lunch and dinner time (Schmidgall, Hayes, & Ninemeier, 2002). The second activity is regarding the improvement of the menu. The menu can be improved by removing all those items that are least favorites of the customers. By removing such items from the menu the restaurant would be able to reduce the cost of production and hence helping it increase its overall profit margin. Removing an item from the menu must only be done after a careful analysis (Schmidgall, Hayes, & Ninemeier, 2002). To achieve the third objective of the restaurant, that is to gain customer loyalty, various promotions and rewards would be offered to customers that regularly eat at Kinky Palace (Reicheld, 1996). Rewards can be monetary in nature or can be various gifts that would increase customer loyalty (Reicheld, 1996). By obtaining customer loyalty the management of the restaurant could ensure that the customer always returns to the restaurant and brings other potential customers to dine at the restaurant as well (Reicheld, 1996). To help reduce the expenditures of the restaurant the following strategies have been drawn up: Reduction in staff of the restaurant Reduction in waste The restaurant would implement a self-ordering system that would enable the customers to view the menu on the tablet PC on their table and order from that menu directly (Reicheld, 1996). This would eliminate the need for hiring a large number of waiters to take orders from the customers. This in turn would help the restaurant reduce their expenses significantly (Reicheld, 1996). Reduction of waste would be a direct result of reducing items from the menu that are not being frequently ordered by the customers (Schmidgall, Hayes, & Ninemeier, 2002). Since these items would no longer exist on the menu the restaurant’s investment in these items would be eliminated. This again in turn would help reduce the expenditure of the restaurant (Schmidgall, Hayes, & Ninemeier, 2002). Answer 2 Business processes: The business processes of Kinky Palace are divided into five main categories: Telephone booking process Internet booking process Table allocation process Order process Billing process The telephone booking process would be initiated by the customer. The customer would call the Restaurant where the receptionist would receive the call. The receptionist would ask particulars about the customers mainly his name, telephone number and the number of guests that would be he would be accompanied with. The receptionist would record all this information and check for availability for a table for the time specified by the customer. Once confirmation process is completed the receptionist would register the reservation into the system. The process of booking via the restaurant’s website would start by the customer logging onto the restaurant’s website. The customer would be asked to sign-in by entering his username and password. If the customer isn’t already registered at the website he would be asked to fill out a registration form after which he or she would be given a username and password. Once the customers’ login to the website they would be asked to input the information regarding reservations which they would want to make. Once the reservations are made the customer is informed of his or her reservation. In addition if the customer is eligible for a discount the system would generate a code that would be given to the customer. The customer could then enter the code while paying the bill to obtain a discount. Once the customers arrive at the restaurant they are greeted by the receptionist and once the receptionist confirms their reservation the receptionist checks the system to check the tables that are free. Once the receptionist checks a table the customers are shown to their seats. At the table customers are provided with a tablet PC. The tablet shows the customer menu from the bar and from the kitchen. Customers select the items that they would like to order. Once the kitchen confirms the completion of the order the waiters are assigned to deliver the dish immediately to the customers’ table. After the customers have had their meal the customers would be provided the option of checkout on their tablets. Once the customer taps checkout the tablet would ask the customer about the payment method. In addition the tablet would also provide an option of splitting the cheque. A receipt is printed at the receptionist which the receptionist hands to the customer once the payment is confirmed and the record is stored on the database. Answer 3 Purpose of each entity in ERD: The table tHotel comprises of a list of hotels that houses various restaurants. Through this table the hotel management would be able to understand which restaurants are popular and which restaurant is generating the most revenue. Furthermore the restaurant would be able to determine through this table that in which hotel is the restaurant most popular and in which hotel is it least popular. This would in turn help understand the factors that appeal to the customers. The second entity is of tRestaurant in the ERD. tRestaurant contains the name of the restaurant, ID of the restaurant and ID of the hotel in which the restaurant is established. This table basically works with the table tHotel to help determine the popularity of restaurants in a particular hotel. The tTable entity helps provide information about the total number of tables that are available in the restaurant. This table would help understand the capacity at a particular restaurant. This could help provide a rough idea of the maximum number of customers that the restaurant can serve at any given time. Through this table we can have a general idea of how many individuals can be accommodated during the peak rush time which in turn could help understand how many people would need to be accommodated in the restaurant’s waiting room. The fourth table of the ERD is regarding the reservation of tables. The table provides the receptionist an easy and quick access to information on which tables are reserved and which are available. The same is for customers booking a table online. The table records time during which the table would be reserved and during the time it would be available. Moreover it also records the method that was used to reserve a table at the restaurant. The entity tCustomer records all the data regarding the customer. The table records the customer’s name, e-mail, address, security code, credit card number and if he is a guest at the hotel then his room number as well. This table helps recognize a customer when he or she walks into the restaurant during the time he or she reserved a table at the restaurant. The table tPayment records all the details of the payment that the customer makes. With the help of this table keeping track of the revenue generated becomes easy. Moreover the table can also be used in the process of auditing and managing accounts of the restaurant. The entities tDish, tOption and tDishOrder are tables carrying information pertaining to dishes that the restaurant has to offer. The table tDish provides information on what are the ingredients required for the dish and how the dish is prepared. This in turn would help inform the management when supplies for a particular dish are low or are not available. The tOption table provides a list of options that are associated with a particular dish. For example a person can order a steak in three different forms rare, medium and well done. The option table would show these three options to individuals that order stake. Through the option table the restaurant could learn about the preferences of a particular customer. The table of tDishOrder records details of the dish that are financial in nature, i.e. the price of the dish. This table would help in generating the final bill of the customer that the customer would receive when he or she checks out. Answer 4 Database queries: Direct queries cannot be answered using the database structure mentioned above. However negative queries would easily be comprehended. For example direct queries such as “which tables are empty?” would not be answered instead queries such as “which tables are not free between the time 19:00 and 20:00?” would provide the required result. Through these queries the receptionist at the counter would immediately filter the results by removing records that the receptionist or the customer does not want to see (Noviello, 2011). This would significantly reduce the time searching for the correct record (Noviello, 2011). Answer 5 Business constraints due to database structure: The database lacks an additional function of calculating the sales for a particular time period. The sales feature would significantly help in assessing the popularity of a particular restaurant on a particular day. By assessing the restaurant’s popularity on a particular day the management could increase the prices on that day increasing the profit margin. The need to record daily sales however is not necessary if the database records the number of payments being made on a regular basis. By recording daily payments the management would be able to assess the sales being made on a daily basis. This would eliminate the need to record any need to record daily sales. Answer 6 Input devices used: By using tablet PCs to record orders and make reservations the staff is able o enter the records directly into the database of the restaurant. Moreover suing tablets provides the staff with the portability that is not found with desktop computers and light weight of tablets makes them ideal for the staff to carry around all day (Packer, 2013). Portability is an important perspective that needs to be taken into account. Portability allows the staff to access information regarding reservations, billings and order placed at almost any time from any place within the restaurant (Packer, 2013). Output devices used: Output devices comprise of tablet screens and the printer present at the reception. Through the tablet screen the output of all inputs provided by the customer would be displayed to the customer immediately allowing him or her to view the results of the input provided by them. Moreover once bill payment is confirmed a receipt is printed at the reception where the receptionist takes the receipt to the customer. By using tablet screens to provide output to the customer at run time, the customer is kept aware of all the processes that the restaurant management is executing. Printing the receipt immediately after customer checkout ensures that the customer does not have to wait for the receipt after he is done dining at the restaurant. Answer 7 and 8 Network structure: The network would connect different parts of the hotel using a main switch. The switch connects to a LAN network, camera network, Wi-Fi network, database server and all the tablets that are used in the restaurant. The restaurant LAN connects the PCs being used in the kitchen, reception and the bar. Wi-Fi network is available for the use of customers and the camera network is to monitor various places of the restaurant. This network allows communication within different parts of the hotel. The switch uses a firewall proxy that prevents any unauthorized personnel from gaining access to the restaurants network (Cheswick, Bellovin, & Rubin, 2003). The switch is also connected to the internet which provides access to users to the restaurant’s website and allows them to make reservations online. Moreover using the internet the hotel is able to make contact to the management of the branch office. One area of business that can be improved by using a web application is the reduction of burden on the single website that the restaurant owns. Mirror technology can be used for this purpose. Mirror websites can be used to help users access the website faster. By using mirror technology the restaurants website could be copied and used in other geographic locations to provide information about the restaurant and allow customers to book a table at the restaurant. The website created using mirror technology would help provide input on table reservations at a much faster pace than a single website can. Moreover a mirror image would help reduce the burden placed on a single website and server. Answer 9 Use of network input and output devices: By using the network input devices specified the restaurant would be able to efficiently monitor all the activities taking place within the restaurant. Moreover it would be easy to keep track of all the financial activities being carried out within the restaurant. The devices would also allow customers to reserve tables for themselves and use the menu to directly place the order with the kitchen. By allowing customers to order online the restaurant would be able to reach out to a number of potential customers. Moreover by using tablets to place orders customers would not have to wait for waiters to take their order which would in turn improve the service provided to the customers. Reference List Bailey, M. (2011). Internet Marketing: An Hour a Day. Indianapolis: John Wiley & Sons. Boone, J. M. (2008, November 15). Increasing Importance of Hotel Food and Beverage is Reflected in Food & Beverage Staffing Trends. Retrieved from http://www.hvs.com/article/3589/increasing-importance-of-hotel-food-and-beverage-is/ Cheswick, W. R., Bellovin, S. M., & Rubin, A. D. (2003). Firewalls And Internet Security: Repelling The Wily Hacker, 2/E. New Dehli: Pearson Education India. Fine, S. (2010). How to Promote Your Business with Little Or No Money. Bloomington: AuthorHouse. Gundersen, M. G., Heide, M., & Olsson, U. H. (1996). Hotel guest satisfaction among business travelers: What are the important factors? The Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly , 72-81. Janoschka, A. (2003). Web Advertising: New Forms of Communication on the Internet. Zurich: John Benjamins Publishing. Noviello, R. A. (2011, November 29). Benefits of negetive keywords in paid search and useful tips. Retrieved from http://www.digivate.com/blog/ppc/benefits-of-negative-keywords-in-paid-search-ppc-and-useful-tips/ Packer, C. (2013, January 23). Tablets vs. Laptops: The Pros and Cons. Retrieved from http://tablets-review.toptenreviews.com/tablets-vs-laptops-the-pros-and-cons.html Reicheld, F. (1996). The Loyalty Effect: The hidden force behind growth, profits and lasting value. Watertown: Business Harvard Review. Schmidgall, R. S., Hayes, D. K., & Ninemeier, J. D. (2002). Restaurant Financial Basics. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Read More