Nowadays, internet is not new to people and they found as the easiest way to find their hotel in the other continent of the world.
Working with an internation hotel chain as accor, they have been developed their own system to provide their technology to complete with their thousand rooms to sell each night.
How about the small stand alone hotel? IT solution can help them to manage this problem and providing them with 5 star service to let them in the global business
Friday, December 11, 2009
Strategic comment
As a word leading hotel chain, Starwood also have to work hard on their strategic to complete their mission and ICT also their priority to create their reputation on the cyberspace.
Their strategic plan is to use the information technology, especially website to provide their services and informations to customers and try to secure their customer throughout the security provided.
And according to Ritz Carlton, they used CRM : Customer Relation Management Programme to illuminate their outstanding reputation within the industry.
For AMADEUS, they are trying to make a world different from the previous GDS: Global Distribution System, such as Galileo, Worldspan, Sabre and Pegasus from Accor. With their outstanding in airline business, AMADEUS is succeed with their strategic in information technology.
For Jet Airways, the low cost airline from downunder, they are working on their information technology to let everyone can access and understand all informations in their website and they are succeed to grow in this business.
Their strategic plan is to use the information technology, especially website to provide their services and informations to customers and try to secure their customer throughout the security provided.
And according to Ritz Carlton, they used CRM : Customer Relation Management Programme to illuminate their outstanding reputation within the industry.
For AMADEUS, they are trying to make a world different from the previous GDS: Global Distribution System, such as Galileo, Worldspan, Sabre and Pegasus from Accor. With their outstanding in airline business, AMADEUS is succeed with their strategic in information technology.
For Jet Airways, the low cost airline from downunder, they are working on their information technology to let everyone can access and understand all informations in their website and they are succeed to grow in this business.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
A sketch out of strategic plan
In the next five years, I have a plan to open the small and boutique resort in the north of Thailand. To have the potential partnerships with IT leaders by using their capability to design simple, but effective solutions for travel booking and travel management will be the part of technology to apply in the strategic plan. We could improve customer services and serve customer satisfaction in the initial stage of booking and providing the information during the growth of cyber era. It could help my organization in term of creating productivity, reducing costs and growing in the global market.
Comment on Strategy
ICT has an impact on business in the boom of cyber era as it can contribute to the competitiveness of organization. Buhalis (2003) explained the strategic management processes and tools which comprise of four stages: where are we now?, where do we want to go? , how do we get there? And how do we know we got there?. Those stages are in a competitive analysis for organization to explore.
As the post of starwood hotels, it shows that they use the on-line technology to customer to use new experience of Starwood cookies which is invisible pixels to obtain customers information when visiting web sites. This technology helps Starwood provide customers with a personalized on-line experience like remembering customers’ user name and password for future visits so log-in is easier and faster, customers will be provided with the appropriate frames and content etc.
As Amadeus technology strategy posted, there are the informations and facts that can be considered as the first stage of a competitive analysis as mentioned above. It shows the internal analysis of organization such as “Amadeus processed 499.5 million bookings in 2006. Online air bookings grew by 25.5% and now represent 16.2% of total air bookings. Amadeus reported revenues of €2.683 million for the year ended 2006, up by 10.9% as compared to the previous year.”
Moreover, the stage two of where do company want to go can be seen in its mission which is “To be the leading provider of IT solutions that enable success in the travel and tourism industry” which shows where the organization want to go. Then, stage three of competitive analysis is how do company get there? which is demonstrated in its three principles: partnership, Technology and global presence, and local expertise. Amadeus partners with technology, solutions and brand leaders include SAP, IBM, Microsoft, British Telecom (BT), Cisco, Unisys, Siemens, HP, AT&T and SITA and software experts such as Travelfusion, Hitch Hiker, InteRes, Trisept.
Those evidences show the effectiveness of technology strategy of Amadeus which brings the success to the organization. At country level, Amadeus maintains sales and marketing offices around the world that provide local sales, customer service and support. Today, there are 65 local Amadeus Commercial Organisations covering frontline activities in more than 215 markets.
As the post of starwood hotels, it shows that they use the on-line technology to customer to use new experience of Starwood cookies which is invisible pixels to obtain customers information when visiting web sites. This technology helps Starwood provide customers with a personalized on-line experience like remembering customers’ user name and password for future visits so log-in is easier and faster, customers will be provided with the appropriate frames and content etc.
As Amadeus technology strategy posted, there are the informations and facts that can be considered as the first stage of a competitive analysis as mentioned above. It shows the internal analysis of organization such as “Amadeus processed 499.5 million bookings in 2006. Online air bookings grew by 25.5% and now represent 16.2% of total air bookings. Amadeus reported revenues of €2.683 million for the year ended 2006, up by 10.9% as compared to the previous year.”
Moreover, the stage two of where do company want to go can be seen in its mission which is “To be the leading provider of IT solutions that enable success in the travel and tourism industry” which shows where the organization want to go. Then, stage three of competitive analysis is how do company get there? which is demonstrated in its three principles: partnership, Technology and global presence, and local expertise. Amadeus partners with technology, solutions and brand leaders include SAP, IBM, Microsoft, British Telecom (BT), Cisco, Unisys, Siemens, HP, AT&T and SITA and software experts such as Travelfusion, Hitch Hiker, InteRes, Trisept.
Those evidences show the effectiveness of technology strategy of Amadeus which brings the success to the organization. At country level, Amadeus maintains sales and marketing offices around the world that provide local sales, customer service and support. Today, there are 65 local Amadeus Commercial Organisations covering frontline activities in more than 215 markets.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Strategic Information systems Management plan for Tsenden Travel Service
About the Company:
The name of the company is Tsenden Travel Service with its head office in Thimphu, Bhutan. It is into the tourism business with its specialization in tours, treks and air ticketing. It is in the business for the past 8 years.
The company is a sole proprietorship kind of business with the owner as the manager. There are six permanent employees and more than 100 part time employees depending upon the inflow of tourist. The company faces the following challenges in tours and treks division:
1. Effective marketing
2. Promote travel services to customer
3. Up-to-date information to customer
Due to the above challenges in the business, Travel Service has decided to use information technology, especially the website for advertisement, to confront the challenges faced by them.
Therefore, following strategic information systems management plan for the company is drawn based on the tools as mentioned by Buhalis (2003):
Stage one: Evaluation of existing situation
Tsenden Travel Service has generated sales volume of US Dollar 80000 last year. The company is doing marketing through people to people and advertisement through local papers and television for the ticketing services; and it is using the website for the global marketing for tours and treks. The ticketing business is doing fine as the return on investment is high. But the tours and treks business is not generating profit as compared to the market trend. The company has so many competitors to compete with in terms of service and cost.
Therefore, they have decided to restructure its business plan to promote only one segment of clients to have a clear reference group to use as a benchmark for marketing decisions (Powers 1997). After the proper analysis, it is found that the maximum tourist visiting Bhutan is above the age of 60 years. Hence, the business is positioned to provide travel services to senior adult only for tours and treks.
Stage two: Define strategy and their objectives
After studying the strategic options, the company has opted for market development through website (Buhalis 2003). Hence, the development of effective website (Cao, Zhang, Seydel 2005) that is accessible and compatible to the senior adult keeping in mind the limited resources of the company is deemed necessary for the company.
Stage three: Implementation of the strategy
The company recruits the web designer, who could design the effective website for Senior Adults (the National Institute of Aging and the National Library of Medicine: Online). Moreover, they look for an effective search engine to have the website marketed for accessibility to the ultimate client. However, the websites need to be updated every day, for which a permanent staff has to be trained to update the site.
Stage four: Control and improvement
This stage aims at addressing the changes in the external environment and at improving the implementation process to combat the unpredictable situation (Buhalis 2003). During the implementation process the control is required until the time the goal is achieved. And simultaneously the continuous improvement in the strategy is required due to the trend in the global market (Pearce and Robinson 2000).
References:
Buhalis, D. 2003, eTourism: Information Technology for Strategic Tourism Management, Pearson Education Limited, UK
Cao, M.,Zhang,q. and Seydel, J. (2005) ‘ B2C e-commerce web site quality: an empirical examination.’ Industrial Management & Data System, Volumn 105, Number 5, pp. 645-661.
Making your Website Senior Friendly. the National Institute of Aging and the National Library of Medicine. (Online), Available:http://www.nih.gov/icd/od/ocpl/resources/wag/documents/checklist.pdf (Accessed 21 October 2009)
Pearce, John A. & Robinson, Richard B. 2000, Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation and Control, 5th Edition, pp 3, McGram Hill, USA,
Powers, Tom 1997, Marketing Hospitality, 2nd edition, pp 51, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, USA
About the Company:
The name of the company is Tsenden Travel Service with its head office in Thimphu, Bhutan. It is into the tourism business with its specialization in tours, treks and air ticketing. It is in the business for the past 8 years.
The company is a sole proprietorship kind of business with the owner as the manager. There are six permanent employees and more than 100 part time employees depending upon the inflow of tourist. The company faces the following challenges in tours and treks division:
1. Effective marketing
2. Promote travel services to customer
3. Up-to-date information to customer
Due to the above challenges in the business, Travel Service has decided to use information technology, especially the website for advertisement, to confront the challenges faced by them.
Therefore, following strategic information systems management plan for the company is drawn based on the tools as mentioned by Buhalis (2003):
Stage one: Evaluation of existing situation
Tsenden Travel Service has generated sales volume of US Dollar 80000 last year. The company is doing marketing through people to people and advertisement through local papers and television for the ticketing services; and it is using the website for the global marketing for tours and treks. The ticketing business is doing fine as the return on investment is high. But the tours and treks business is not generating profit as compared to the market trend. The company has so many competitors to compete with in terms of service and cost.
Therefore, they have decided to restructure its business plan to promote only one segment of clients to have a clear reference group to use as a benchmark for marketing decisions (Powers 1997). After the proper analysis, it is found that the maximum tourist visiting Bhutan is above the age of 60 years. Hence, the business is positioned to provide travel services to senior adult only for tours and treks.
Stage two: Define strategy and their objectives
After studying the strategic options, the company has opted for market development through website (Buhalis 2003). Hence, the development of effective website (Cao, Zhang, Seydel 2005) that is accessible and compatible to the senior adult keeping in mind the limited resources of the company is deemed necessary for the company.
Stage three: Implementation of the strategy
The company recruits the web designer, who could design the effective website for Senior Adults (the National Institute of Aging and the National Library of Medicine: Online). Moreover, they look for an effective search engine to have the website marketed for accessibility to the ultimate client. However, the websites need to be updated every day, for which a permanent staff has to be trained to update the site.
Stage four: Control and improvement
This stage aims at addressing the changes in the external environment and at improving the implementation process to combat the unpredictable situation (Buhalis 2003). During the implementation process the control is required until the time the goal is achieved. And simultaneously the continuous improvement in the strategy is required due to the trend in the global market (Pearce and Robinson 2000).
References:
Buhalis, D. 2003, eTourism: Information Technology for Strategic Tourism Management, Pearson Education Limited, UK
Cao, M.,Zhang,q. and Seydel, J. (2005) ‘ B2C e-commerce web site quality: an empirical examination.’ Industrial Management & Data System, Volumn 105, Number 5, pp. 645-661.
Making your Website Senior Friendly. the National Institute of Aging and the National Library of Medicine. (Online), Available:http://www.nih.gov/icd/od/ocpl/resources/wag/documents/checklist.pdf (Accessed 21 October 2009)
Pearce, John A. & Robinson, Richard B. 2000, Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation and Control, 5th Edition, pp 3, McGram Hill, USA,
Powers, Tom 1997, Marketing Hospitality, 2nd edition, pp 51, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, USA
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Strategic Management is the set of decisions and actions that result in the formulation and implementation of plans designed to achieve the goal of the organization (Pearce and Robinson 2000).According to Pearce and Robinson 2000, the components of strategic management for a successful plan are as follows: Mission of the company: It describes about the product, market, and technological areas of emphasis in a way that reflects the values and priorities of the strategic decision makers. The mission statement expresses how the organization is going to contribute to the society. Internal Analysis: This is the analysis of the internal environment of the organization, such as financial, human and other resources. Furthermore, the strength and weakness of the company and organizational structure are also assessed to come up with the better future plan. External Environment: This contains the remote environment, such as economic, social, political, technological and ecological; the industry environment, such as Entry barriers, supplier power, buyer power, substitute availability and competitive rivalry; and the operating environment, such as competitors, creditors, customers, Labor and Suppliers.
Strategic Analysis & Choice: The assessment of external environment and the company profile enables the organization to identify an attractive opportunities for investment. These opportunities are screened and the best opportunity is selected. Long-Term Objectives: Profitability, Return on Investment, competitive position, technological leadership, productivity, employee relations, public responsibility, and employee development are evaluated for a successful plan. Generic and Grand Strategies: Low cost and Differentiation are generic strategies applied by the manager. Grand strategies are applied for long term; and some of the approaches are concentration, market development, product development and innovation.
Action Plans and Short-Term Objectives: The generic and grand strategies are translated into action. Functional Tactics: The business identifies and undertakes the unique activities to its function to help build a sustainable competitive advantage. Policies That Empower Action: The policy allowing decisions to be made whenever possible at the lowest level of the organization. Restructuring, Reengineering, and Refocusing the organization: The structure, leadership, culture and reward systems are designed to suit the requirements of the strategies. Strategic Control and Continuous Improvement: During the implementation process the control is required until the time the goal is achieved. And simultaneously the continuous improvement in the strategy is required due to the trend in the global market.
Tesone (2006) also suggests that a good information plan should have the following components: 1. Examination of external and Internal Environment, 2. Analysis of Strengths and weaknesses, 3. Articulation of Mission Statement, 4. Development of Action Plans, 6. Setting Objectives and 7. Management of Objectives
Buhalis (2003:43) states that the strategy is the top management’s plan to attain outcomes consistent with the organization’s mission and goals. He believes that strategic planning and management requires the entire range of strategic issues of the organization. He has identified the stages of strategic management for appreciating how Information communication technology can contribute to the competitiveness of organizations. They are: Where are we now? Evaluate the existing situation: Buhalis (2003) suggests that this stage is the time when the existing situation is evaluated before developing plans for improvement. This stage includes the collection of competitive intelligence. The techniques used to know about the competitiveness in these stages are situation analysis, strategic business unit’s analysis, future analysis, demand and supply analysis, external and internal analysis, competition analysis, stakeholders mapping and SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis. Where do we want to go? Identify strategy and their strategic objectives: In this stage, he states that once the situation is analyzed and understood, organization then identifies the strategy and their strategic objectives. This stage starts with the mission statement, which describes the direction, vision, activities, competencies and business scope. The organizations scrutinize all the strategic option and opt for the best one keeping in mind the long term aspect of the business. The techniques used in this stage are the mission statement, strategic options, strategic choice and portfolio management and strategic business units’ review. How do we get there? Implementation of strategy:
Buhalis(2003) mentions that a set of tasks, programs and objectives are put in place to ensure the implementation of strategy. Furthermore, the resources are allocated, timetables are drawn and people are recruited to undertake the action plan. He suggests that the organization should be able to adapt to changes brought by the Information and communication technologies. Strategic direction, portfolio analysis and adjustment, implementation, strategic alliances, tactical planning and budgeting are few techniques which are carried out. How do we know we got there? Comment and control: The author describes this stage as the feedback and control stage. This stage aims at addressing the changes in the external environment and at improving the implementation process to combat the unpredictable situation. The techniques used in this stage are control and feedback, setting of indicators and incorporate feedback and reaction mechanisms.
Krizman, Sehanovic and Sehanovic (1998) in their article, management of Information systems in catering and tourism claim that the information technology in tourism sector is required for managing internal aspect of the business, for example staff issues and control, and external environment, like marketing, competition and customer.
Therefore, a good strategic management plan should contain the above factors. The analysis was done for four companies, who were into tourism and hospitality industry and following observations were made:
Jet Airways was found investing in the information technology to manage the internal and external aspects of the business, especially with regard to customer satisfaction, competition, technical, administration, accounting and control. Further, Ritz-Carltons hotel’s strategic plan for customer satisfaction was achieved through the use of information technology. Starwood hotel & Resorts was using the information technology like websites to provide the multiple access point for the services and products that they offered to satisfy the customer and to sustain in the competitive market. lastly, Amadeus, one of the largest computer reservation system providers was found using Information Technology to book air tickets, hotel rooms, train tickets, car service, and cruise ship tickets. Amadeus was into distribution of products and services to the ultimate customer through global networking. It was found that all the four companies were spending on information technology most importantly to satisfy the customer so as to achieve competitive advantage and strengthen their competitiveness.
Finally, as stated by Buhalis (2003: 31), it was found that the Information Communication Technologies is becoming very important strategic consideration in the business, as its strategies based on innovative and dynamic management can provide the business with competitive advantage.
References:
Buhalis, D. 2003, eTourism: Information Technology for Strategic Tourism Management, Pearson Education Limited, UK
Krizman D., Sehanivic, I. and Sehanovic J 1998, The Management of Information Systems in Catering and tourism (Online ), Available: http://www.efst.hr/management/Vol3No2-98/sehanovic.doc (Accessed 18 November 2009)
Pearce, John A. & Robinson, Richard B. 2000, Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation and Control, 5th Edition, pp 3, McGram Hill, USA
Tesone, D. V 2006, Hospitality Information Systems and E- Commerce, Wiley, USA
Strategic Analysis & Choice: The assessment of external environment and the company profile enables the organization to identify an attractive opportunities for investment. These opportunities are screened and the best opportunity is selected. Long-Term Objectives: Profitability, Return on Investment, competitive position, technological leadership, productivity, employee relations, public responsibility, and employee development are evaluated for a successful plan. Generic and Grand Strategies: Low cost and Differentiation are generic strategies applied by the manager. Grand strategies are applied for long term; and some of the approaches are concentration, market development, product development and innovation.
Action Plans and Short-Term Objectives: The generic and grand strategies are translated into action. Functional Tactics: The business identifies and undertakes the unique activities to its function to help build a sustainable competitive advantage. Policies That Empower Action: The policy allowing decisions to be made whenever possible at the lowest level of the organization. Restructuring, Reengineering, and Refocusing the organization: The structure, leadership, culture and reward systems are designed to suit the requirements of the strategies. Strategic Control and Continuous Improvement: During the implementation process the control is required until the time the goal is achieved. And simultaneously the continuous improvement in the strategy is required due to the trend in the global market.
Tesone (2006) also suggests that a good information plan should have the following components: 1. Examination of external and Internal Environment, 2. Analysis of Strengths and weaknesses, 3. Articulation of Mission Statement, 4. Development of Action Plans, 6. Setting Objectives and 7. Management of Objectives
Buhalis (2003:43) states that the strategy is the top management’s plan to attain outcomes consistent with the organization’s mission and goals. He believes that strategic planning and management requires the entire range of strategic issues of the organization. He has identified the stages of strategic management for appreciating how Information communication technology can contribute to the competitiveness of organizations. They are: Where are we now? Evaluate the existing situation: Buhalis (2003) suggests that this stage is the time when the existing situation is evaluated before developing plans for improvement. This stage includes the collection of competitive intelligence. The techniques used to know about the competitiveness in these stages are situation analysis, strategic business unit’s analysis, future analysis, demand and supply analysis, external and internal analysis, competition analysis, stakeholders mapping and SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis. Where do we want to go? Identify strategy and their strategic objectives: In this stage, he states that once the situation is analyzed and understood, organization then identifies the strategy and their strategic objectives. This stage starts with the mission statement, which describes the direction, vision, activities, competencies and business scope. The organizations scrutinize all the strategic option and opt for the best one keeping in mind the long term aspect of the business. The techniques used in this stage are the mission statement, strategic options, strategic choice and portfolio management and strategic business units’ review. How do we get there? Implementation of strategy:
Buhalis(2003) mentions that a set of tasks, programs and objectives are put in place to ensure the implementation of strategy. Furthermore, the resources are allocated, timetables are drawn and people are recruited to undertake the action plan. He suggests that the organization should be able to adapt to changes brought by the Information and communication technologies. Strategic direction, portfolio analysis and adjustment, implementation, strategic alliances, tactical planning and budgeting are few techniques which are carried out. How do we know we got there? Comment and control: The author describes this stage as the feedback and control stage. This stage aims at addressing the changes in the external environment and at improving the implementation process to combat the unpredictable situation. The techniques used in this stage are control and feedback, setting of indicators and incorporate feedback and reaction mechanisms.
Krizman, Sehanovic and Sehanovic (1998) in their article, management of Information systems in catering and tourism claim that the information technology in tourism sector is required for managing internal aspect of the business, for example staff issues and control, and external environment, like marketing, competition and customer.
Therefore, a good strategic management plan should contain the above factors. The analysis was done for four companies, who were into tourism and hospitality industry and following observations were made:
Jet Airways was found investing in the information technology to manage the internal and external aspects of the business, especially with regard to customer satisfaction, competition, technical, administration, accounting and control. Further, Ritz-Carltons hotel’s strategic plan for customer satisfaction was achieved through the use of information technology. Starwood hotel & Resorts was using the information technology like websites to provide the multiple access point for the services and products that they offered to satisfy the customer and to sustain in the competitive market. lastly, Amadeus, one of the largest computer reservation system providers was found using Information Technology to book air tickets, hotel rooms, train tickets, car service, and cruise ship tickets. Amadeus was into distribution of products and services to the ultimate customer through global networking. It was found that all the four companies were spending on information technology most importantly to satisfy the customer so as to achieve competitive advantage and strengthen their competitiveness.
Finally, as stated by Buhalis (2003: 31), it was found that the Information Communication Technologies is becoming very important strategic consideration in the business, as its strategies based on innovative and dynamic management can provide the business with competitive advantage.
References:
Buhalis, D. 2003, eTourism: Information Technology for Strategic Tourism Management, Pearson Education Limited, UK
Krizman D., Sehanivic, I. and Sehanovic J 1998, The Management of Information Systems in Catering and tourism (Online ), Available: http://www.efst.hr/management/Vol3No2-98/sehanovic.doc (Accessed 18 November 2009)
Pearce, John A. & Robinson, Richard B. 2000, Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation and Control, 5th Edition, pp 3, McGram Hill, USA
Tesone, D. V 2006, Hospitality Information Systems and E- Commerce, Wiley, USA
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