Information Management Strategy of Hants Hotel - Essay Example

Business Research Case study Insert Insert Grade Insert 07 April Introduction; This paper proposes a business strategy that will help to solve the challenges facing Hants hotel at management level. The problem facing Hants hotel group is lack of information dissemination across the business itself and to customers. Thus, an information management strategy has to be developed to resolve the challenge (Mckeen and Smith, 2008). Information management means taking all the systems and processes in an organization to create and make use of information. The strategy proposed will take into account an information system channel and information and technology strategy that will be followed in the running of the hotels (Floyd and Wolf, 2010). (i) Business strategy; The strategy to be used in Hants hotels should address information quality, effectiveness of management systems and relevance of management system to decision making by management. The business should adopt an information processing centre that will gather, disseminate and coordinate information at all levels (Floyd and Wolf, 2010). The unit will be tasked to research and process on affront data arising and affecting the industry as a whole, location operations and size of the market. Once the data is processed, the information should be communicated in the most efficient channel possible to the relevant destination (Mckeen and Smith, 2008). This will help the management and other workers in the business react efficiently and effectively to current situations. (ii) Information system strategy; To make the strategy effective, management has to organize and avail procedures on training workforce of the Hants hotel group on the use and usefulness of the information centre. This will make sure they are not left out but they are at the centre of the control (Floyd and Wolf, 2010). For the information management to be of optimal benefit to the hotel, information assembling and decoding should be done by all stake holders agreeing on key information decisions (Mckeen and Smith, 2008). This ensures that tools used in information management are used for realizable results and pay off expected is realized. Allowing consensus building in the information creation will help the business eliminate the following problems in information management (Peppard, 1993). 1. High information system disparate number. 2. Lack of coordination within information systems. 3. Competition among the information system. 4. Technology environment Lacking clear strategic direction. 5. Instances of duplication, inconsistency and outdated information. 6. Senior management lacking knowledge and support for the information system. 7. Unclear strategies and directions related to the business. Hants hotel group is under difficulty of delivering solution, thus, the information management center should recognize presence of complexity and manage it. To manage the complexities the information management should take clear direction and avoid use of simple approaches to solve the problem. Parallel activities should be planned to face the issues and needs. For the business to deliver effective solution, therefore, risks should be identified in information creation and mitigation is done through out. For the information system to succeed staff members must be involved and be active in the information management. This can be done by the hotel staff workers saving key files in the management records system (Peppard, 1993). Managers located in the different hotel locations should update regularly the managing director by using the content management system. Also, customer calls and request details can be captured by the hotel reception staffs in the management customer relation system. All this is meant to make sure that information required in the business is stored in the system. To achieve this, the information manager needs to communicate to all staff members and show the purpose and benefits of the initiative to everyone. Also, systems deployed should be useful and staffs can be able to use them. The information center should be designed in a way they deliver tangible and visible benefits. The staff members should be able to experience the tangible and visible benefits of the initiative. This can be achieved by initiatives involving issues and needs that can be easily noted by the staff upon their delivery. Hants hotel should improve on information to the staff members at the call centre to realize a tangible and visible impact as they communicate with customers. Information creation should not be done using simple technology available (Ward and Peppard 2002). Instead, creation should be done in a process that is able to deliver business needs. This will make it possible to target information creation to most urgent needs or issues of the business. These will help move the business strategy as well the whole organization. Hants hotel has a challenge of overbooking and employees dismissal. A new system to manage information better should be introduced together with others (Floyd and Wolf, 2010). This will ensure information on the number of booking is readily available to the management. In liaison with other hotel branches management content system, it will be possible to assign excess booking to hotels under booked. Also, it will be easy to share information on the number of employees in the relevant hotels. That will help the senior manager to be able to source employees from within to another hotel. This is when one hotel needs more employees when the other is intending laying off some. Information strategy may at a time fail to resolve the entire organization information problem (Ward and Peppard 2002). An organization may get trapped in an inability to escape from planning if it attempts to design a solution for complete information problem. The approach is to come up with parallel small changes information creation practices across the firm (Ward and Peppard 2002). This approach is challenging to coordinate and manage but it ensures quick wins. For instance, Hants hotel has hotels located at different localities. This means the prices of taking a vacation differs according to locality. Depending on the number of booking level at one side of the market, the information management may create information that will ensure the business does not lose customers. This can be done by relying information to the customers of lowering prices in a more expensive hotel. This will be a small and parallel change to allow quick gain and also mitigate the risk of losing customers to competitors. Communicating extensively is crucial to success of the information created. Staff members will understand the purpose project if communicated clearly. It is hard to enforce strict command and control strategy management in a complex environment. Thus, the management should come up with a clear vision and widely communicated (Brown, 1992). Hants hotel should establish a web portal for managers in the branch hotels to release news and other updates. (iii) IT strategy; The strategy that should be adopted in IT strategy should ensure there is flexibility in IT management style (Brown, 1992). Hants hotel information management should employ a policy where in deciding key IT decisions negotiation and consensus is accommodated. Priority should be put on the aim the business wants to gain from the IT system and its affordability. Information management should not divert from the original purpose of the IT system (Peppard, 1993). Hants hotel’s reason for introduction a new information centre is to effectively and efficiently deliver solution. Thus, the IT system Hants hotel should adopt is one that has management systems software capable to address such problem (Brown, 1992). The needs of the end users should be considered deciding to acquire the IT system. In the case of Hants hotel, presentation of reports to managing director lacks standardization. The IT system to be used by the general managers should be installed with software that will capture information professionally (Strassmann, 1990). This will enable the managing director distinguish the entries in making financial analysis (Peppard, 1993). Once the IT system is introduced in to the organization, technology should be used to come up with a design of organization component. This is to come up a design flexibility to allow production increase in the organization. Hants hotel should come up with new organization structure that will accommodate the IT system (Brown, 1992). This can be in term of introducing an ICT structure in the organization. This will be implemented in every level of the organization chart (Peppard, 1993). The management of the organization should be involved extensively in implementation of the IT system in order to plant a culture of IT usage (Strassmann, 1990). Hants hotel general managers should support staff members in the use of the IT system for them to get courage and adopt the use of it. References Brown, A., 1992. Creating a business based IT strategy. Oxford: Oxford University press. Floyd, S. and Wolf, C., 2010. Technology Strategy In: Narayanan, V.K. & OConnor, G.C. (eds.) Encyclopedia of technology and innovation management. West Sussex: Wiley. Peppard, J., 1993. IT strategy for business. London: Academic press. Mckeen, J. and Smith, H., 2008. IT strategy in action. Academic press, London. Strassmann, A. 1990. The Business Value of Computers: An Executives Guide. London: The Infomation Economic Press. Ward, J. and Peppard, J., 2002. Strategic planning for information systems. London: Academic press. Read More