StayTogether Hotel Chain Business Report

Discuss about the StayTogether Hotel Chain Business Report.

 

 

Introduction

The number of business organizations and firms present globally is very high. The firms that maintain the pace with the technological changes can only win the race of the huge competition that is prevailing in the present times. Hotel industry has also been affected by these changes and as a result there has been a decision taken by ten hotels. They have decided to work and function as a single unit and have launched their initiative by the name of StayTogether. Market demands that were being expected by the individual hotels were not being met because of the increase in competition. The decision to act and function as one unit was therefore taken to lower down the market pressures. The document has been written in the form of a business report for StayTogether to highlight some of the issues and suggestions related with the business.

Management Decisions

• Customer relationship and customer engagement will be given the topmost priority and therefore a programme will be designed and created so that the customers that are regular are provided with added benefits and schemes (Orlitzky, 2015).
• The charges that will be applied on the customers on the rooms that they book will be inclusive of the breakfast and dinner facilities. The hotel chain will also benefit as a result (McBurney, 2015).

Assumptions

• There are no pending contractual terms and agreements that are required to be discussed and designed and all the decisions on the services that will be covered have been taken already.
• A single web site which will be used for the purpose of hotel booking has been tested and there are no bugs present in the site.
• Ten hotels will be sharing the profits related with StayTogether and the final decision on the percentage has been made and circulated to all (Popp, 2017).
• The management has designed and circulated the budget that will be used and followed during the activities of the project.
• The management has designed and circulated the schedule that will be used and followed during the activities of the project.
• Project team members have been provided with the roles and responsibilities that they will fulfill and they have the adequate skills to carry out these responsibilities.

Difference between IT and IS Issues

Information Technology (IT) is an important concept that is used and is present in the current times. Another important term that is equally important and is in use is the Information System (IS). The components and meaning of IT and IS is different from each other but these terms are believed to have the same meaning.  

Information System (IS) is defined as the term that deals with the attributes and properties of the information as its quality and the availability for the users and customers. Information is the asset that is used, exchanged and modified in the organizations. As a result, there are many processes and operations that are executed on the information, for example, information storage in the database, information processing and management of the information. The issues that come up and are observed in these operations and tasks are termed as the issues that are related with IS. Problems and loopholes in the information architecture in terms of the communication is also included in this category (El-Awad, 2017).

Information Technology (IT) revolves and associates with the technical details and infrastructure that is developed. Presence of technologies in the business organizations and industries such as StayTogether hotel chain is no less. Technologies also keep on evolving and changing that leads to the creation of some other technical background and there are specific issues that emerge with each one of them. There are issues around compatibility that are seen between one technical component and the other (Bruni, 2014).

IS Issues and their Impact on Customers

• The web site for StayTogether will lead to the emergence of many of the IS related issues.
  • Confidentiality Attacks

StayTogether will be comprised of the customers, staff members, management resources, suppliers etc. The access to the site will be given to many users from any of these groups and categories. It may bring in the attack related with the breaching of information. The information may be handled incorrectly and inadequately which may affect confidentiality of the same.

• Integrity Attacks

Because of providing the access to so many users and entities, the malicious users may modify the contents in one of the information copies. Because of this the overall integrity of the information may be violated. There may be alterations made that are not required or asked for (Chasserio, 2014).

• Availability Attacks

The web site may suffer longer period of downtime because of the attacks that are targeted on its availability.

• The occurrence of many security attacks in a frequent manner will impact the performance of the site and the users will be dissatisfied as a result.
• Also, it will be required that the entities that are involved are integrated and there is an exchange of information that is present between these entities. It will make sure that none of the conflicts and problems come up. In absence of the same, there will be many issues.

The various issues related with IS have been listed and explained above. These issues may have low impact, medium impact or may also have extremely severe impact as well. The customers will feel cheated as they will not understand the reason for the attack or the owner of the attack. They will soon get disengaged with the hotel chain and will join hands with some other chain in the area or the region. This will lead to many losses and it will become very difficult to rise and maintain the same position in the market all over again as the competition will only increase in the times to come.

IT Issues and their Impacts on Customers

• StayTogether will have many tools and technical components that will be used in the functioning of the hotel chain. There will be a lot of technical equipment that will be used and many of the automated packages will also be installed. Failure in the functioning of any of the tools or package will cause a lot of trouble as there may or may not be alternatives available for the same (Antunes, 2014).
• These tools and technical components that have been listed and described above will have to be closely in contact with each other. Technical integration will be necessary so that there are no performance issues and the components work together as a single unit. Absence of such ability will also cause many risks and threats (Secundo, 2017).

These IT issues may have low impact, medium impact or may also have extremely severe impact as well. The customers will feel cheated as they will not understand the reason for the attack or the owner of the attack. They will soon get disengaged with the hotel chain and will join hands with some other chain in the area or the region. This will lead to many losses and it will become very difficult to rise and maintain the same position in the market all over again as the competition will only increase in the times to come (Fengel, 2014).

Strategies to Attract New Customers

StayTogether is a hotel chain that is present and has been set up in the times when the competition between the organizations is very high. There cannot be activities that may be followed wherein one strategy or policy is created and the same is followed for the entire lifetime. It will be necessary to explore new vistas so that more customers join in and get engaged with the hotel chain.

• There may be certain users that may have already experienced the services of the hotel group. However, there may be many who may be new to the hotel group. To attract this category of the customers, offers shall be announced in terms of deals and discounts.
• Best way present in the current times to reach the customers is the social media networks and accounts. StayTogether shall make use of the same and there shall be a specialized team that shall be deployed that will have the responsibility to create strategies around social media marketing and shall also handled the various accounts created for the organization on these platforms. It will allow the users to be aware about the offers made by the hotel chain.
• Market and the trends that exist in the market are changing at an extremely rapid pace. It is not advisable that there are specific intervals wherein the market analysis is carried out. However, it shall be done frequently and at a non-stop basis. The use of BI tools shall be done so that the real-time information is always available (Wamba, 2017).
• Gone are the times when the customers used to visit the booking counters to book their tickets and pay for the same. The present era is the era of digitalization in which e-cash and e-payments are used. StayTogether shall also allow its customers to make use of electronic payments and there shall be security information that shall also be posted on the site so that the customers are assured that their payment is going in the safe hands. Variety of payment options shall be integrated in to the web site for the hotel chain.
• Use of technology shall not be restricted only in the development and deployment of the web site for StayTogether. However, it shall be used in maintaining the customer relationship as well. There shall be automated emails that shall be sent to the customers as soon as the new offer is launched and the alerts shall also be circulated on the registered mobile numbers (Brocke, 2014). The customers shall also be provided with benefits if they refer the site and its services to other customer.

New Business Opportunities

Market in the present times is an endless platform that is filled with a lot many opportunities and abilities. It is required that the opportunities that are available are explored and analyzed so that the strategies may be created to gain advantages out of them. Some of the opportunities that StayTogether may explore and work in to are listed below.

• The users and the customers that will be making use of StayTogether and its website and the services for booking the hotel will also be interested in the other offering of the city that they are going to visit. StayTogether shall therefore partner with the tour agencies so that the required and demanded guidance may be provided to the customers.
• Also, there will be many customers that will want a mode of transport ready as soon as they visit the city. The same shall be arranged by the hotel group and there shall be charges that shall be applied on the mode of transport that is selected by the customer (Giudice, 2016).
• There are various technologies that have been created which may be used for exploring the business opportunities. The technologies that come under the umbrella of BI shall be used to understand the basic user patterns and choices so that the required and desired preferences are understood and the efforts are directed in that area only.
• Customers will feel engaged and connected with StayTogether when they are frequently provided with the latest updates and alerts (Ferretti, 2016). These updates shall not be so frequent that the customers may start to feel irritated because of the same but however the important information along with the offers shall be made aware to the customers.

There are many changes and transformations that are happening and are taking place at each step. These changes and transformations have led to the change in the process through which the business is carried out. StayTogether will be required to make a dynamic and regular pace with these changes so that the organization is always a front runner in the race of competition between the similar agencies and organizations.

Conclusion

Ten hotels have decided to work and function as a single unit and have launched their initiative by the name of StayTogether. Market demands that were being expected by the individual hotels were not being met because of the increase in competition. The decision to act and function as one unit was therefore taken to lower down the market pressures. There are many of the information technology and information system issues that are related with the organization. These issues may have low impact, medium impact or may also have extremely severe impact as well. The customers will feel cheated as they will not understand the reason for the attack or the owner of the attack. They will soon get disengaged with the hotel chain and will join hands with some other chain in the area or the region. This will lead to many losses and it will become very difficult to rise and maintain the same position in the market all over again as the competition will only increase in the times to come. These issues shall be tactfully handled and there shall be strategies that may be developed to make sure that the new customers and existing customers connect and engage with the hotel chain. It shall also look for the new opportunities that are present in the business area.

References

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Bruni, A. (2014). Entrepreneuring together: his and her stories. International Journal Of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 20(2), 108-127. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-12-2011-0187

Chasserio, S. (2014). When entrepreneurial identity meets multiple social identities: Interplays and identity work of women entrepreneurs, 20(2), 128-154. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-11-2011-0157

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Ferretti, M. (2016). Internet of Things and business processes redesign in seaports: The case of Hamburg, 22(2). https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-05-2015-0079

Giudice, M. (2016). Discovering the Internet of Things (IoT) within the business process management: A literature review on technological revitalization, 22(2), 263-270. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-12-2015-0173

McBurney, P. (2015). The Knowledge Engineering Review. Retrieved from https://www-cambridge-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/core/journals/knowledge-engineering-review

Orlitzky, M. (2015). The politics of corporate social responsibility or: why Milton Friedman has been right all along, 1(1), 5-29. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ASR-06-2015-0004

Popp, A. (2017). Enterprise & Society. Retrieved from https://www-cambridge-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/core/journals/enterprise-and-society

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