Improving Local Reservation System For Whale Submarine Essay In Maldives.

In a general term, methodology here is referring to, not just simple methods you intend to use to collect data. It is also necessary to include a consideration of the concepts and theories that underlie the methods.

Questionnaires and other supplementary supporting documents are expected to be attached in the A sub headings of :

- Research Design : What sort of research design is to be conducted?

- Population and Sampling with sampling techniques : What is the total population and base on what you are to take the sampling?

- Research Instrument – What are instruments that you are to use in order to conduct the research?

- Data Collection Procedure – what is the chosen collection process?

- Data Analysis Procedure – how are you going to do an analysis on the data? Excel? SPSS?

Maldives is a developing country with a lot of natural resources, natural beauty, and scope for development in business, trade, and tourism. Travel and tourism is a major contributor to the economy of Maldives. In 2014, the total contribution of Travel & Tourism to employment, including jobs indirectly supported by the industry, was 62.0% of total employment (92,000 jobs). Several tourist activities take place in Maldives. Whale submarine is one such activity wherein a Submarine drives people to deep in the ocean and gives them a whimsical view of marine life and other sea creatures. Whale submarine is a local company who brought the concept of the submarine to Maldives in the year 2000. It has been successfully operating and growing in terms of revenue as well as number of people showing interest in Submarine dive activities. This creates a strong level of interest among tourists and attracts a lot of people every year. Whale Submarine, Maldives is one of the biggest deep sea diving largest passenger submarine operating in Maldives (Valiris, G., & Glykas, M, 2004).

There are several business processes that the organization adopts and implements on a day to day basis. Reservations, marketing, actual submarine operations, safety management and financial management from some of the important business processes that are carried out on a daily basis. The USP of the organization include the resources in terms of manpower and trained personnel along with owning of submarine vessels which enable them to carry out the process. It is important for the organization to be able to achieve efficiency and improvement in each of its processes so as to ensure business efficiency and growth. It is essential for them to improve their business competencies to be able to improve the levels of business and scale of operations. As the business improves the scale of operations, it is essential for them to maintain the same quality and ensure the creation of better service experience for the tourists. Only then Whale Submarine can remain a market leader in the domain of deep diving passenger submarine in Maldives. The importance of proper management for underdeveloped and developing countries cannot be undermined. It firms an important aspect of ensuring economic growth and strategic benefit to the organization.

The business process chosen is reservation system in Tourist Submarines Maldives whale Submarine. The reservations of the whale submarine along with tie-ups with tour operators from major sources of people coming for submarine tours in Maldives. They form important sources of marketing for the business of Whale submarine. It is essential for Whale submarine to have a strong local reservation system so as to help them carry out their operations with higher efficiency. As the firm has a strong product development and business idea, it is important for them to be able to use appropriate management concepts and theories to improve their local reservation system and ensure higher efficiency in the reservation process. This includes online reservations as well as offline reservations, all of which bring in traffic to the whale submarine operations at small scales and large scales (Valiris, G., & Glykas, M, 2004).

Population and Sampling with Sampling Techniques

The key objectives of the project is to study the local reservation system of Whale submarine and be able to provide recommendations, management concepts and theories which can enable them to strategically improve the local reservation system (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M, 2009).

The scope of this project is to create a better reservation system for Whale submarine. The objective is to ensure integration of technology to bring an efficient reservation system through online and offline modes. The objective of revamping the reservation system is to improve efficiency in the process by helping customers making reservations without middlemen and travel agents.

The main stakeholders include customers as well as the employees and managers of the company. It involves the reformation and transformation of the reservation system which can help build better levels of efficiency in business processes. It aims at focusing on creating better levels of efficiency in reservation and customer management. It also aims at driving in more traffic by making the system easy along with driving away the need for customers to take help of middlemen or agents to make reservations who have high markups involved. This can help maintain appropriate pricing for customers and give them higher value for money (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M, 2009).

The present system includes a manual system wherein a call is to be made to the company’s reception and a booking is taken by a phone operator. This is a very basic system but could lead to several errors including the date or time in bookings made and communicating appropriate information to the customers. Many times, agents make bookings and sell them to customers at exorbitant prices. It is important to avoid this and ensure higher value to customers. The booking system operates only during working hours of the organization and not otherwise. The other method is walk in office to make a booking, booking confirms upon requests by the client on a selective date and time of the dive schedule, record passengers detail, emit invoice and issued Ticket.

An Internet booking engine (IBE) is a website that allows consumers and travel agents to book flights, hotels, holiday packages, insurance and other services online. A business begins with building up an item or administration to its objective market. Toward the beginning, each business is confronted with complexities of overseeing itself and its condition. Generation or Services must be arranged and overseen. Inside elements, for example, hardware, assets, and HR must be all around considered (Valiris, G., & Glykas, M, 2004).

Research Instrument

In the event that any traveler needed to book a seat or to experience a calendar, they would need to contact the travel specialists. So the aircraft required an online booking framework which will enable the travelers to specifically recover data about the air plans, make a booking and so on. That is the point at which the Internet Booking Engines (IBEs) were presented. IBEs are utilized by almost every carrier at present to slice off additional costs and to bolster moment booking and installment.

A web booking motor enables a client to indicate their travel prerequisites, for example, the city of flight, goal, takeoff date, return date and class of travel. When this data is gotten, the IBE will offer a rundown of accessible air tickets, lodgings, and journeys which the client can then book. The genuine estimation of an IBE is in the business decides and forms that bundle the substance and give the ability to shop and buy. This incorporates bundling and estimating rules, modified presentations for various clients and channels, business standards, and look at and installment forms (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M, 2009).

It is important that the reservation system is an automated one. The current reservation system operates on a manual basis. Moreover, it is required that the reservation system operates on 24X7 basis. Currently, it operates only as per the working hours of the organization. There are no direct booking options on the website of the firm. It is important that this be included using a IBE. A transformation in the business process can help ensure long-term or strategic betterment for the business. It enables the organization to build better efficiency and competencies which are crucial for competitiveness.

The most successful Tourist Submarine operating today has gross revenues of US$ 1 million per month derived from 48 passenger submarine and associated souvenir sale. Annual net pre-tax revenue from this operation is in excess of 7 million dollars. The profits are based on 10-12 dives per day schedule, 330 operating days per year, a 90% passenger load factor and a ticket price of US$ 95, while this operation indeed quite suffices to illustrate the tourist Submarine operating a business (Jones 2008). In order to help whale submarine, achieve such numbers, it is important that technology be used to help them operate with higher efficiency and capacity.

An IBE is introduced on the home page of a business website to empower simple access for clients. At the point when customers enter their inclinations for whale submarine packages, the IBE contacts the GDS or CRS/HRS(Computer Reservations System) to get the significant data which is then appeared to the client in a proper interface. The passages may vary as per sort of client getting to the IBE. For instance, corporate individuals or long standing customers may have entry to marked down tools or will appreciate benefits, for example, reclamation of faithfulness focuses on the fare. Schools, corporate and government agencies may avail group discounts.

Data Collection Procedure

With the Super Passenger Name Record (Super PNR) work an IBE offers the ability of booking non-air components, for example, inns, autos, occasions and protection. After the client has wrapped up their packages they should pick a payment strategy. There are a few choices to look over; Mastercard installment, reclaiming regular customer program (FFP) focuses or miles in return for a flight ticket, markdown vouchers and in addition elective installment strategies, for example, PayPal or direct exchanges from a client's ledger - the quantity of choices for the most part contingent upon the Point of Sale (Country). In the event that a client likes to pay in real money, they should visit the office to finish the buy. Once the client has finished the payment procedure, a Passenger Name Record (PNR) is made in the carrier's reservation frameworks and an E-ticket will be issued. As the IBE is an internet booking framework the interface is frequently in HTML. With the development of broadband, innovations, for example, Ajax or Flash are presently used to bolster the change of the client's intuitiveness (Valiris, G., & Glykas, M, 2004).

An IBE has an ongoing network to a charge card leeway organization as most installments are made through Mastercard. Some IBEs offer multi-lingual and multi-cash bolster for client accommodation. A decent security framework which underpins verification and approval is an unquestionable requirement for an IBE (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M, 2009).

IBE suppliers continue adding new components to web booking motors, for example, Multiple Search Options so that a client can book the packages in a way that suits his/her necessities. On the off chance that the client is "timetable touchy" or necessities to cling to particular travel dates, the IBE offers ticket admissions offering need to the travel date-book. Some IBEs additionally bolster customers who are requiring to have different stops on their way to their destination. The same number of travelers are exceptionally worried about the ticket value, the IBE of a trip in a submarine demonstrates an examination between the low and high ticket charges, with the administrations incorporated into each.

A client might have the capacity to get to a seat guide and hold a favored seat which is accessible. The determination of a front line, walkway seat, or seat by the window is conceivable. This component, which is known as pick up required helps the client ensure that his specific requirements are known. There are additionally IBE suppliers who now concentrate exclusively on the Vacation packages and avail complete information for customers to be able to book without any hindrance.

Data Analysis Procedure

There is a valid opportunity for change and improvement in the reservation process of whale submarine by bringing in technology and making the process automated. This would benefit the organization to a great extent. It would also ensure that the bookings are managed with better efficiency. There is a significant difference in the management effectiveness between the developed and developing nations, due to the lack of availability of resources, including human resources wise. This disparity can be overcome by using technologies which enable better efficiency and competency in business processes. In this case, it would be possible to build a robust reservation system which enables long-term growth and development in the organization. It would help the organization be efficient and operate with better levels of connectivity with customers. Moreover, it offers the firm an opportunity to directly deal with customers and not having to bear middlemen. It would help the firm ensure higher value to customers as middlemen commissions can be driven out. It also makes the service affordable and competitive due to direct dealings (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M, 2009).

There are several resource implications and constraints involved in this project of implementing an automated reservation system in the organization. It is important to help the organization build better levels of growth and efficiency. As the firm has its own resources, in terms of submarine and provision for docking, it needs to focus on expanding the business and obtaining more submarines as well as more customers (Klinkert, Friedrich, 2012). 

Whale Submarine is currently the most profound deep diving passenger Submarine on the planet. The Submarine operation started 16 years back and draws in non-divers and additionally divers who are keen in taking a submerged visit without going out on a limb and bothers required in scuba plunging. The submarine has so far performed more than 8000 dives extending 1 million passengers to the perfectly clear waters of Maldives. The seaward operation is chiefly worried about the day to day operations of the Submarine and support. Seaward operations are included with every one of the Operations from the time the passenger arrival and until they complete the dive and ready for the next dive. The submarine is positioned on a dry-dock found from 10 minutes (speedboat) from Male'.

 Essentially, a drydock is a vessel that can be overwhelmed to enable a heap to be coasted in, then depleted to enable that heap to stop on a dry stage. Whale Submarine is furnished with its own particular custom assembled a drydock to suit the requirement for daily operation and maintaining the submarine tip top condition, for example, its own particular workshop. There is a considerable measure of difficult work that requires keeping up the dry-dock and the submarine.

Business Processes Adopted by Whale Submarine

TSM confronted a considerable measure of difficulties toward the begin of its operation, as this was an absolutely new idea to the Maldives. A standout amongst the most difficult undertakings for the administration of TSM was to offer their product to the market. Their item was a visit to the submerged world in a submarine. The administration began working and offering submarine visits to travel clients in Male' who had room schedule-wise to visit. Likewise, the administration began speaking with the close-by resorts for conceivable odds of engaging their visitors.

It is quite evident that the theories of IT in business management is applicable to the situation with a need to implement the IT system for reservation. It is required that there be the focused development of a well-organized plan to implement an automated reservation system. It is required that there be a long-term assessment of the different elements of this system and how it can be updated. A cost-benefit analysis is crucial (Chickering & Ehrmann,, 2006).

Marketing forms an essential aspect of managing a business and maintaining its competitiveness. It is essential that there be a focus on delivering what the customer needs along with forming competitive strategies and obtaining better levels of growth. Understanding the factors of marketing can help build better marketing strategies for a business. It is important that a marketing manager is able to understand as well as evaluate the different aspects of competition and pull in different components of marketing together to help the business grow. Market research and tapping demand are also important responsibilities of a market. Present day consumers are extremely tech savvy. The speedy approach of online selling and buying is the main aspect due to which present day firms have a whole new set of customers that it has today. Marketers can tap this change by including complete details and research support on their websites or in the content they market online.  It is crucial that these strategies be appropriately utilized for creating a better market presence for the business (Klinkert, Friedrich, 2012). 

Strategic development and effective project management are crucial for a business. It is important for the management of a business to focus on establishing effective management of a project so that effective implementation is possible. Using project management tools and quality management tools is crucial to enable effective completion of the project with better balance and enhanced quality. This should be ensured while forming the project plan to implement an automated reservation system in the organization. It is important that an evaluation of the shortcomings be made and corrective actions are possible. It becomes essential to consider quality as well as the time and budget compliance while implementing a project. If these elements are not adhered to, it is quite likely that the project would not succeed or remain profitable and competitive.

The Business Process Chosen for this Project

There is a lack of risk assessment and risk management in several aspects of the project planning. At the same time, there are no appropriate risk management tools in place that could help reduce the risks involved in the project. The project management plan is extremely optimistic resulting in a lack of appropriate risk controls in place. It becomes essential to focus on delivering high quality and accuracy in managing the implementation process of the project which cannot be done without project management tools.

The critical analysis of this project is based on four main elements which include the project management tools used, its appropriateness, efficiency achieved in implementation and goals achieved. It becomes essential that there be effective understanding of the project management techniques used and their usefulness for the project. Based on these aspects the project could have been better conceived based on the usage of project management tools and techniques.

Marketing metrics is a strategic tool that can be used for the purpose of conducting a strategic audit and forming the basis for decisions on strategy in an organization. It is important to use strategic marketing tools to be able to form appropriate analysis. A marketing metric indicates that it is essential that the business be appropriately taken towards growth. It is recommended that the marketing strategy be used effectively in order to deliver results and form a strong network to create collaboration at different levels. It is important that there be a focus on understanding the needs of the customers and the target segment which can enable better delivery of quality and collaboration in order to be able to provide better levels of service and value to customers. It is essential for them to focus on creating a niche for itself by communicating well with all of its network vendors and suppliers (Chickering & Ehrmann,, 2006).

It is important to ensure that the complex information systems used by the organization or even their simple computer systems are well protected and do not face the dangers of being hacked. Security is a matter of great concern (Elbaum, Dan, 2011). As technology advances, there are several IT devices used for communicating within an organization as well as across the world. Authorization should be done with diligence to ensure that information is protected from adversaries wherein the information can be misused by third parties. It is important that there be the usage of encryption and firewalls for creating a system with high levels of integrity and reliability. Only then the confidential information and internal transactions of the company can be protected and safeguarded against the risk of being hacked (Winston, Clifford, 1995).

Key Objectives of the Project

It is recommended that the firm uses integrated marketing practices so that it can continue to benefit from the economies of scale that are required in a global business. It is extremely important that the firm continues to differentiate and distinguish the product and the brand so as to remain competitive. It is extremely important for them to focus on improving upon its strengths and overcoming its weaknesses so as to sustain in the dynamic markets for a longer period of time. They should use the same concepts on social media as they are currently using in their advertising campaigns as this can help them improve their market presence and expand their target markets all over the world. It is crucial that there be effective levels of evaluation of the benefits that business. This can help revolutionize the operations and make the firm a market leader. It can also benefit the organization in terms of growth orientation and strategy planning (Mendling, J, 2008).

Measuring the value of IS and IT departments is extremely essential. There are differences between the effectiveness and the efficiency and that is the impact of the aspect would be effectiveness and the capacity to complete the task would be the efficiency of the IT structure used in a particular process. There has to be complete concentration on the same so that the process is not affected in any of the ways. This indicates that there should be the implementation of an automated local reservation system in the organization so that there can be better organization of the reservation and allocation system. It enables better focus on creating efficiency and expansion of capacity (Winston, Clifford, 1995). 

There are various aspects that act as the metrics for the measurement of the effectiveness of the usage of the IT and the IS in the organization. These are the major that are looked into:

1) The satisfaction that the customer provides for the quickness of the service through the communication that is based on the IT structure

2) Reasons for the non-contact list also can be reported as per this requirement.

3) Due to the enhancement of the process, the revenues are increased.

 4) Things that have been not looked into is brought to light for adherence.

5) Recommending the task for a different individual is based on the effectiveness of the usage of the operation accordingly (Haga,, 2003).

These aspects and elements can benefit the organization in several ways. It can help them expand the business as well as attract more customers which is good for the business. There are many values that the It can provide to the organization and the same would on the first feature include the implementation of the values to achieve the goal of reducing the cost. That would, in turn, lead to various sectors that would include the tasks performed based on the systematic time management basis. There has been a success in various countries due to the same and the world at large believes that the IT has done its best from the beginning to ease the work and complete the same with the effective execution (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M, 2009).

Scope of the Project

The authoritative administration is one of the capacities, offices or areas existing in any association. The point of the authoritative capacity is to deal with the data needs of the association so that convenient, applicable and exact data can be given to directors at all the distinctive levels, so empowering them to take significant choices. Without such data, it is impractical to deal with any association, capacity or process. Managerial administration likewise can be viewed as overseeing data through individuals. The authoritative capacity is that segment in an association that is in charge of the efficient accumulation, handling, putting away, and dispersing of data to chiefs and chiefs inside the association to empower them to execute their assignments and additionally other part players outside the association. Though the system can be easily automated it requires diligent supervision and management at different levels to ensure a fool proof and error free process (Cardoso, J, 2007).

Marketing, branding, and campaigning are all to be well planned based on long-term business goals. Using social media is of great help but cannot be the basis for selling in the long term. It is important that customer networking and corporate level networking be encouraged as a part of the marketing strategy based on the usage of an automated reservation technology. It is required that there be a focus on delivering long-term benefits to the organization out of the investments made in the local reservation system (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M, 2009).

Conclusion

To conclude, it is crucial that there be validated system used to create automated reservation system in the organization. For many years the GDSs had a dominant position in the travel industry. To bypass the GDS and avoid high GDS fees, airlines have started to distribute flights directly from their websites. Another possibility to bypass the GDS is direct connections to the Travel Agencies. American Airlines' direct connects are a prominent example of this development (Elbaum, Dan, 2011). There is a vital need for the company to have a situational analysis. This will give a clear picture of the current market conditions, the business strategies of the competitors, the financial performance of the company, the strength, and weakness of the company etc. In this scenario, the firm has to do the situational analysis so as to know the level of its business performance and what impact of the market conditions is its business is having. Only then an appropriate strategy can be formed which would enable the firm to achieve its objectives.

 It can benefit the organization to a large extent. The cost of the investment that needs to be asserted to analyze whether the same is cost-effective to enhance the cost planning measures of the process so that the same adheres for the future and the cost reduction is developed accordingly. The value of the investment over the IT is checked and decided as to whether the same is apt for it. The economic value wherein the analysis done is based on the economic aspect and in terms of the expenditure that is decided upon the income gained. These elements help evaluate the performance of the system and automation in an effective manner. It helps consider the impact of technologies like automated reservation system on the operations of the firm and building its competencies (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M, 2009).

References

Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2009a). Consumer use and business potential of virtual worlds: The case of Second Life. The International Journal on Media Management 11(3).

Winston, Clifford, "The Evolution of the Airline Industry", Brookings Institution Press, 1995. ISBN 0-8157-5843-X. Cf. p. 61-62, Computer Reservation Systems.

Cardoso, J. (2007). Business process quality metrics: Log-based complexity of workflow patterns. In On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2007: CoopIS, DOA, ODBASE, GADA, and IS (pp. 427-434). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Valiris, G., & Glykas, M. (2004). Business analysis metrics for business process redesign. Business Process Management Journal, 10(4), 445-480.

Mendling, J. (2008). Metrics for business process models. In Metrics for Process Models (pp. 103-133). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Chickering & Ehrmann, (2006), Making your move to e-learning, Principles of learning, USA, R&L

Haga, (2003), Information Security Management Handbook, Vol. 2, USA, CRC Press

Elbaum, Dan (2011). "Human factors in information-age trade secret protection". Cornell HR Review. Retrieved 2011-07-18

Klinkert, Friedrich (2012). The Misappropriation of Trade Secrets in Germany and U.S. Discovery Aid. MIPLC Lecture Series. p. 6. Retrieved May 6, 2012