Information System Technology in Hotel Business - Coursework Example

Information Technology and Information System I – Introduction II –What is Information Technology and what can it do to the Hants Hotel? III – Business Strategy – Internet Marketing IV –The IT System in connection to resolving the problem of Hants Hotels V – Information Technology Management VI – Conclusion Information Technology and Information System Introduction: Before hospitality industries were heavily dependent on cards and paper works at the front desk to be able to keep in touch with their clientele. There was no way to be able to communicate with the customers but through regular mails which takes ages (exaggerated remark) to arrive at its destination. Customers would have to take chances of being housed when they arrive at the locations since communication was difficult. Responding to the need of every customer and handling paper works at the front desk at the same time was definitely a hard work. Fortunately, advances in technology made that a thing of the past, and such inconveniences are no longer an issue today. Information technology is now a major player in hospitality industry. It opens the door for easy communication; it makes booking a lot easier, and billing becomes easy (Nikolis 2008). Hotels were used to booking customers through telephones but even that is now obsolete. Information technology has made it possible to book customers online and through the help of the same, payment can be done online. Advertisements are now largely dependent on Information Technology particularly in the ‘internet’. The customers can now exercise their judgment on which is best suitable hotel base on their needs. The availability also of internet in the hotels can make it easier for the customers to communicate with their business partners or just keep in touch with their family back home (Nikolis 2008). Today as industries are becoming more and more dependent on Information Technology, the need for a dependable Information System becomes even stronger. If there be any business that is completely dependent on communication it is the hospitality industry. It thrives on keeping in touch with the world. Globalization is one factor that has led the hospitality industry to depend on effective or effectual and dependable Information System (WJaegel 2008). Business Strategy – Internet Marketing Globalization led the whole world to rely on fast and efficient communication. Internet Marketing is the best business strategy Hants Hotels can apply to reach the business class clientele. Web presence is indispensable in declaring to the whole world and the targeted clients about what Hants Hotels can offer; about its facilities, and how arrangements and reservations can be made online. Hants Hotels should have its own website in order to facilitate all these actions. The website can post pictures of the rooms, function hall, and the interior and exterior of the hotels should be visible to give the prospective clients the feel of the place. It will give them what IT vocabulary calls “virtual tour”. Nick Nikolis on his article “Internet Marketing in Hospitality Industry” made a list of the essential components of a good business site: 1. Web campaigns should be specific. Focus on seasons and events, supporting the seasonal offers and promote best available rates. 2. Make the rates flexible in the booking engine and travel agents because there is a time in a year that is slow. 3. Invest in your website – your website must reflect the product. 4. Optimize the website, making it appear first when someone type the hotel name in search engine. Focus on brand and location. 5. Use email marketing. 6. Protect your brand, always check your reviews online and make managerial responses if needed. 7. Channel Management products: these are systems that can manage your hotel rates through OTAs (Over-The-Airs). This kind of system will help the hotel management evaluate and manage rates. 8. Evaluate through good analytics package. This will help to monitor how the site is helping the business (Nikolis 2010). What is Information Technology and what can it do to the Hants Hotel? Information technology is a technology that allows actual time communication with the entire world. The problems in Hants hotels like the manual handling of billing, and customer reservations are being process through telephone, fax or e-mail; and even though each hotel of Hants have computers to use, it is not maximized to its full potential capacity. Hants hotels are not taking advantage of the Information Technology that is readily available today, resulting to poor business performance. The managers report in quarterly basis; cost and revenues reports are being handled manually. In short, everything is paper based. This method is not only time consuming but also prone to a lot of mistake. The hotels suffered from overbooking of customers which resulted to friction between hotel front desk personnel and customers. Obviously this is bad to the general goal of the management which is to expand its clientele. In this very same scenario Information Technology could play its part very well. The first area on which IT can become useful is the front desk area. Manually doing the bills is time consuming and ineffective. IT could help tremendously on monitoring what the hotels have on hand, and how much of it they have and do not have. In other words, keeping track of the resources is easier and because of that preparing things are lighter (NIkolis 2008). Eliminating problems that are being encountered in Hants Hotels would require the Hotel Management to do the following (written in random manner): Strengthen the front desk area Apply efficiency on billing Keep good track of the booking Advertize well Synchronize operations of all Hants hotels The IT System in connection to resolving the problem of Hants Hotels As Information Technology has become indispensable in hospitality industry, a need for a dependable Information System is equally important. There was a time in the industry that a great deal of time was usually spent on front office paper works instead on attending to the needs of the guests. Today with the help of good computer system, attending to the guests can become a pleasing experience for both the guests and the front desk personnel without sacrificing Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). From the time of the customer’s reservation to the time that the guest is leaving the hotel, a complete data is available. If ever a surprise guess arrives, it is also easy to communicate with other Hants hotels to check for room availabilities. A quality on time monitoring is now available and can aid in solving problems on hand. According to Chandra Shekhar, a senior consultant of hospitality consulting firm in Dubai – there are three things to achieve good results from computer system: 1. There is a need to understand the requirement in terms of fastness of information. 2. There should be a clear flow of work in each activity. 3. Then, the effective implementation. Once it’s determined, the next thing is to make or customize a program that would fit to the need of the hotels. This is done through the software. One should bear in mind that a good IT System is made of three components: systems, software and hardware. There are several systems available. Therefore, Hants hotels should pick the appropriate system that would work best according to their needs. Property Management System (PMS) is one generally used among hotel owners. It caters to both front end and back end solutions. In general all systems incorporated the following in the program: room division, front office system, housekeeping module, food & beverage division; point of sale and back end system – accounting, inventory and human resources (Shekhar 2008). According still to Shekhar , when it comes to picking the right software for the hotel, it is important to bear in mind the front end needs which is directly linked with the customer needs, and the back ends which is linked with the management and the owner. Computers make life easier in terms of providing updated reports, and through this, important decisions can be made. “Computer system can quickly warn if there is a mistake made, it can highlight opportunities and it can timely offer remedial action in a practical manner. Examples of these are the Menu Engineering in food and beverage division, and Yield Management in rooms division. The computer system can aid in planning things ahead and in control function to be able to reach the goal of the management” (Shekhar 2008). Information Technology System Management Since the importance of IT System has been discussed; it is important to take note also that a good Information System needs a good system management. The hotel management can opt to hiring IT personnel that would maintain the IT operation in a daily basis thus avoiding down system chaos that could result to tremendous loss. Information Technology management simply means people who make sure that the peripherals, required software and hardware are all running in effective and reliable manner (WJaegel 2008). If however this is not an option, training people is a must in order to take full advantage of the system and to be able to manage trouble shooting. Again according to Shekhar, good IT personnel should have good knowledge about the system – the flow of each activity, software – applications, and hardware – media on which all can see these activities. All hotel IT staff should undergo training for at least a minimum of two months. This would enable staff to familiarize themselves to the applications in the system they are going to use. One will know that the system is running accordingly if there is an obvious customer satisfaction, hotel personnel satisfaction and lastly, hotel owners’ satisfaction (Shekhar 2008). Conclusion: Information Technology has become an indispensable tool in the hospitality industry. It has become a weapon of strategy that displays its power in the area of promotion, distribution, unification of organizations and delivery of tourism products. IT provides important advantages in operational, tactical and strategic management. It is becoming more and more important part of building strategy in terms of making alliances. It is number one tool for effective communication with consumers and partners. In fact, according to D. Buhalis and H. Main, consumers and partners are more inclined to do business with organizations that are using IT technology (Buhalis and Main 1988). This demand for IT practice in hospitality industry is reasonable and practical. It contributes pleasantness of experience for guests and ease for hotel staff. Hants Hotels can reach its goal to attract business clientele by making Information Technology and Information System fully working in the property. References Buhalis D. & Main H. (1998) “Information technology in peripheral small and medium hospitality enterprises: strategic analysis and critical factors”. Accessed March 13, 2010 at http://bournemouth.academia.edu/documents/0008/7317/BuhalisMainITinSMTEs.pdf Nikolis N. (November 2008) “Information Technology in Hospitality Industry”. Accessed March 13, 2010 at http://www.content4reprint.com/computers/information-technology/information-technology-in-hospitality-industry.htm Nikolis N. (March 2010) “Marketing Technology in Hospitality Industry”. Accessed March 15, 2010 at http://www.pr-interactive.com/web-design-resources/2010/03/internet-marketing-in-hospitality-industry/ Shekhar Chandra (2008) “Information Technology: A Boom in Hospitality Industry” Accessed March 13, 2010 at http://www.4hoteliers.com/4hots_fshw.php?mwi=3336 WJaegel (March 2008) Datacraft is the leading independent IT services and solutions company in Asia Pacific. “Importance of IT System Management Service”. Accessed March 13, 2010 at http://www.content4reprint.com/computers/information-technology/importance-of-it-systems-management-service.htm Other Internet Readings: Innovative Technology Benefits the Hospitality Industry (Date Unknown) “First View” Accessed March 13, 2010 at http://www.firstviewsecurity.com/Innovative%20Technology%20Benefits%20the%20Hospitality%20Industry.pdf Short Kevin (2007) “IT in the Travel & Hospitality Industry A Technology Driven Future”. Accessed March 13, 2010 at http://www.opentravel.org/resources/uploads/pdf/ota07_eds.pdf Technology and Distribution Channel Efficiency in Hospitality (June 2009) Accessed March 15, 2010 at http://scienceray.com/technology/information/technology-and-distribution-channel-efficiency-in-hospitality/ The Importance of Web Presence in Hospitality Industry (2009) Accessed March 15, 2010 at http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+Importance+of+Web+Presence+in+Hospitality+Industry-a01073926859 The CIO Summit (2009) “Hospitality Upgrade Magazine Surveyed Hospitality Industrys Top Technology Leaders at Annual CIO Summit With Intriguing Results” Accessed March 13,2009 at http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2009_4th/Oct09_CIOSummit.html Read More