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Question: Discuss About The Information Technology Effective Operations? Answer: Introduction This report helps to make critical analysis of the managerial decisions in the field of systems and technology at StayTogether which is a group of ten hotel chains who have decided to combat the pressure of the market for low priced hotel accommodation and be competitive in the hotel industry. The hospitality industry primarily consists of three main areas. One of them is accommodation that includes hotels, bed and breakfasts and several other lodging businesses. The hotel industry is booming in spite of certain untoward situations like global recession and enhancing customer satisfaction and better customer service. Since the name of the hotel is new to the customers after the merging of the ten hotels, there has been a great challenge of the new hotel chain and the problem that the company may face is the establishment of the brand in the market. The most important issue that needs to be addressed is the complexity that may arise in the company after merging. The report makes a det ailed discussion about the various possible ways by which the hotel chain can gain competitive advantage. Discussion The hotel industry is much broader than any other industry (Riley, 2014). There are certain factors that the hotels must take into consideration. One of them is satisfaction of the customers. This factor is very common in every industry but the hospitality industry significantly focuses on this aspect since any lack of it may lead to loss of customers. This business is entirely based on providing luxury services to the customers with the lowest possible charge. Customers use the hotels for relaxing and removing any kind of troubles at the lowest possible fare. This industry has a very high competition as there is lot of hotels coming up with new types of services (McManus, 2013). Another aspect that defines the success of the hotels is their theme. This is not mandatorily used by all the hotels in the industry but this is used by many hotels to attract the customers as a part of their strategy. The management of StayTogether have taken certain management decisions in order to stay competitive in the market. They are loyalty programs, rebates to the customers, performing corporate social responsibility activities like charity donations to increase their brand image and also free buffet breakfast and dinner. The company should make use of the loyalty program that will help the guests to earn some points (Steinhoff Palmatier, 2016). These points will help them to make redemption and eligible for free stays and also discounts. People will be available to save a lot of money and these needs to be properly communicated to the customers. The choice of the loyalty programs rely on some significant factors that the customers should take into considerations. They are the number of hotel chains that the company is having in different parts which means that bigger the chain, more the options for the customers with respect to redemption, the benefits which are very important for the cu stomers, the range of the rooms in the hotel and lastly the countries the customers will be travelling. Since the high-end luxury hotel chains do not include the loyalty programs, StayTogether must make proper use of these programs. The features of the programs may be such that the customers will receive complimentary internet facilities with high speed. There can be spa treatments also. Sometimes the hotels make arrangements for free buffet breakfast and dinner. The hotels can unveil their new items in this buffet so that the customers are able to know their new dishes. Corporate social responsibility is another important tool through which StayTogether can increase its brand image among the customers by performing the philanthropic activities. Since the brand is a new one in the chain of hotels because of the mergers, the company should take care of the fact that the name of their hotel is known to most of the people in the market. Rebates allow a person to access the hotel servic e at a cheaper rate. Impact of technology in hotel industry Technology has a major impact on the hospitality industry for its expansion worldwide (Page, 2014). The preferences of the customers are changing every day and it is technology that helps the hotels to keep their information updated. The certain factors that technology takes into consideration are discussed below. Mobility It is an important aspect that helps a traveler during its course of traveling. Now smartphones are used by a larger section of the people as they can access a lot of applications. Apps have helped the travelers in making their journey easier (Dickinson, et al., 2014). The hotel has the opportunity to make proper utilization of apps of their company and it has practically become evident in the current business scenario. Business process integration This factor is also considered as a significant factor in the hospitality industry. The hotels are not only restricted to greeting the guests but help them in providing various facilities like flexible ticket booking system, hotel booking system, spa and gym facilities. Proper utilization of technology makes the hotel services more compliant and enhances flexibility (Tseng, 2015). Social The various social sites like Facebook and Twitter are used by a lot of people worldwide (Semaan, 2014). The hotel chain can use the sites to keep in touch with a large section of people of the society. Personalization Personalized service becomes an important essence of the hotel industry. It helps in welcoming the guests by shoeing greeting messages in the TV when they come in the hotel (Piccoli, Lui Grn, 2017). Wishing the customers on their birthdays, who have earlier visited the hotel, can be another way of enhancing the level of customer service. Property management system The property management system is hotels is an integrated system that creates a link between the the front desk processes and all other vital operations of the hotel that includes the in-room services, electricity usage, telephones etc (Skolling, 2015). Software as a Service/ cloud Cloud technology has become very fascinating in the technological world (Rittinghouse Ransome, 2016). This technology helps the hotels to solve the queries of the customers and also management of data regarding the visitors. Every hotel needs to deal with huge data about the customers. This data remains safe and secured over the cloud and it has been an encrypted platform. This platform is very huge and will be essential for the hotel chain which has been a merger of a number of hotels. Difference between IS and IT issues There are certain issues like technology compatibility issues, data conversion issues, legal issues regarding patented technologies, scalability issues and user interface issues. The hotel, for reducing the cost of the company, may have plans to replace the employees with machines. In that case the employees of the hotels who were working in the different hotels before merging, may lose their jobs. Since the brand is new after merging of all the ten hotels, at first it will be difficult to survive in the market where the competition is very fierce. The user interface issues may be the accessibility of the hotels by the customers (Ozturk, 2016). Though GIS is used to help many decision makers, special decision support system can be designed to address the geographically explicit problems. If the user interface is not friendly in the hotel industry, then the customers will shift to other hotels. Recommendations The company should first create a new website with its new name so that new customers are able to know about the new chain of hotels. The website should have a classic look and with all the necessary details about their products and services. It must also contain up-to-date information about any recent activities and offers. This will help the visitors to know the rates of the rooms and any other facilities like spa, internet facilities and access to gym. The visitors should be given the liberty to write reviews about the services of the hotel and critically analyze the negative ones. The hotel chain should make a specific target market for its business and not attract all types of customers. The employees of StayTogether can directly talk with the customers through e-mails or through their websites. They can make proper utilization of the popular social sites like Twitter and Facebook. The management should hire competent employees in the position of leaders so that a good culture is maintained in the hotel. The employees of the hotel should be empowered to make valuable decisions about solving any problems in different situations (Luoh, Tsaur Tang, 2014). The management of the hotel must also look into the customer relationship management. It can also make use of the self-service kiosks by which the hotel can be benefitted through increased customer service, reduction in the costs of staffing and better resource utilization. The company can take the advantage of the advanced technologies for the betterment of their services to the customers. StayTogether should train their staff properly so that the customers are greeted in a better way. The hotel can successfully use the CRM or the customer relationship management as it is having a lot of benefits. The CRM system enables systematic collection as well as fragmentation of the information with regards to the customers (Heinemann, 2016). This helps in the creation of a huge repository. The databases required for the potential customers are well handled with the effective usage of CRM systems (Peppers Rogers, 2016). For example, the staffs at the front desk will be able to look at the booking of a single visitor across all their locations. CRM also helps in the information scrutiny of the customers (Rodriguez, Ajjan Peterson, 2014). The employees in the hotel industry need to deal with a lot of information every day. Although it is done with the help of technology, but the CRM system plays a crucial part in maintaining a central repository. CRM also assists in the successful execution of elevating the conversion rates and also converting the first time guests into loyal ones. The proper distinctions between the transactional and potential customers can also being made with the help of this management system. Another criteria can be the right focus. The significant solutions regarding customer interactions are being put forward by the CRM functions. CRM also helps to combat the competition. This management tools can help the hotel management to maintain a consistency in their quality service and incorporating some innovations. CRM also raises the efficiencies of the employees through the automation systems (Wei, 2016). This, in turn, eliminates the non-core tasks. Automation systems make the sales and marketing, promotional activities and advertising much faster. CRM can also help the sales and marketing team of a hotel to leverage the CRM solutions in creation of mobile, social media and web campaigns (Turban,Strauss Lai, 2016). This tool assists the hotel management in paying close attention towards the customers. The CRM software even helps the management in formulating future strategies as to how they can enhance the quality of their service (Strauss, 2016). Importance of Supply chain management Supply chain management is as important as customer relationship management and assists a company in various ways. This management tool can help a hotel in managing the material costs of the company (Christopher, 2016). Material ordering costs and inventory holding costs are the two important factors that can be effectively reduced by proper supply chain management processes. The supply chain management activities have several advantages such as supporting the operating requirements, manage all the operations affectively, achieve the organizational goals, development of the supply strategies, proper selection of the supply and purchase of the products from the right place with right specification, right quality and on the right time. SCM further helps in the execution of the commodity analysis. Conclusion The report has described the ways through which a new chain of hotels after merging, has made several managerial decisions as to how to attract new customers and make them loyal in the market of high competition. It has also helped to gain an insight into the current scenario of the hotel industry. Many of the ways by which the hotel can create a good brand image and provide better service to the customers have been recommended here. It has been inferred that customer relationship management and supply chain management have enormous effects on the effective operational activities of a hotel. The managers of the hotels will be benefited by the application of information systems. The discussion about the management decisions shall give an idea as to how the aforementioned hotel can attract the customers in an effective way. The report has given importance to the information technology to create its brand image and brand loyalty. References Christopher, M. 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