Information Systems and Information Technology: Highfields Hotel - Case Study Example

 Information Systems and Information Technology I. Introduction As the long-term success of a company depends on the role of leadership in company management, nowadays, the Management Information System (MIS) has an important role in maintaining company’s existence over the long period. Management Information System is the linkage that allows valuable information to flow between entities within the company in order to favor management to make reasonable decision based on the gathered information. Similarly, a similar concept known as Accounting Information System (AIS) has also similar function to provide accurate financial information to help management produce more viable and appropriate decisions. Both systems mentioned above are some parts of company tools called Information Systems. If management is the head of a company, then the information systems can be considered as the veins connecting the brain to every other parts of the body. Information is therefore as valuable as the blood ensuring the brain to have sufficient resources to make important decision and send out orders to the body. In order to remain effective in every phase of its development, a certain amount of attention must be given to the advancement of information systems in this age of information. According to James Senn (1998, p 7), there are six characteristics of the information age: 1. Most of the society’s activities are based on information 2. Business rely on information technology to get the job done 3. Work process are being transformed to increase productivity 4. Information technology poses as means to reengineer conventional business process 5. Success or failure of a company is largely determined by the effectiveness of information technology it uses 6. Information technology is attached to many products and services As the role of information systems in a business has been a major force reshaping how business operates, information technology has also become a driving force in developing a society. In order to provide improvement in the information systems in the Highfields Hotels, this paper will elaborate appropriate strategy of information systems implementation for the company. Highfields Hotels provide various types of hospitality services that need integrated information systems for reservation to billing process. II. Highfields Hotels Business Strategy: Managing Information Systems As corporations grow to be larger and more complex, managerial activities could no longer rely on traditional organizational methods to produce high-quality services. In this situation, Highfields Hotels need a more integrated way of reservation methods, communications between managements and employees, and delegating plans and decisions in order to save time and increase productivity of the Hotels operations. The need for a sound information technology has been increasingly significant in the hospitality industry nowadays. Hotels that lack the sensitivity to realize the benefit of this development and being the last to take advantage of the technology are obvious to several steps behind its competitors in terms of managerial efficiency and effectiveness. Therefore, the appropriate business strategy for Highfields Hotels is to encourage the deployment of computer-based Management Information System (MIS) that has capability to provide managements with: Easier ways to records, stores and process data and corporate information Strategic decision making support system, which allows managements to ask the system the ‘what if’ questions, and then receiving the most accurate response. The system has now become an integral part of decision making activities. Performance monitoring system, which will immediately alert managements if actual conditions differ materially from, expected ones. (‘Management Information System’, 2005) Considering the potential benefits that corporations might have when implementing information system, it is found that such corporations spend millions of dollars to build the best information systems that employ the latest information technology equipments. Various service providers of installing specialist software and hardware appliances for establishing information system infrastructure had make millions in benefits because increasing importance of the technology. Almost every company is now using or requiring using this type of corporate resource. The need does not vary greatly by differences of corporate size, corporate stage of development, and the nature of the industry in which the firms are operating. Two companies operating in different industries, being in different stage of development and having a significantly different annual income might have similar needs of providing managements with a helpful and trustworthy information system. III. Information System (IS) Strategy of Highfields Hotels Over years, Highfields Hotels rely on traditional information system since the Hotels group does not have integrated billing statement when guests check out the hotels. In addition, the hotels also do not have reliable reservations systems that result in many cases of overbooking. Moreover, Hotels group does not possess reliable reporting system since each hotel sends their reports separately, each with different platform that causes the managements to extract the information. In these circumstances, managements of Highfields Hotels have a limited knowledge of the operations of each hotel and a serious deficiency of management information for all levels for the whole group. Another drawback of existing IS system of Highfields Hotels is the inability of the Hotels to avoid overbooking and to support quick process when guests check out since front desk officers need lots of time to make up bills and the queries arising from those bills, especially from the use of the telephone systems and the restaurant, which, at present, are manually consolidated in all the hotels. Considering three issues in the IS system of Highfields Hotels, herewith the suggested solutions of the IS strategy to eliminate the drawbacks while improving the decision making of the group management: Table 1 Problems and Solution of IS System in Highfields Hotels No. Problems Aspects of IT Solution Business Strategy 1 Overbooking Integrated Reservation Systems Increased customers satisfaction since there are no overbooking cases anymore 2 Multi platforms of Reporting Systems for Managements Single platform of reporting models Easier performance monitoring system for further managements actions 3 Late Check Out process Integrated billing systems (restaurant, use of telephone, rooms, mini bars etc.) Increased satisfaction as the results of quick check out processing IV. Business, Information System (IS), and Information Technology (IT) According to the three mentioned problems of Highfields Hotels, management of Hotels group can take benefits from the relationship between business strategy, information systems, and information technology as following: 1. Cost Reduction. Since the company employs integrated and centralized information systems, managements can reduce time needed to extract information, each has different format/platform. 2. Quality In this particular measurement, Highfields Hotels’s traditional Information System is as valid as electronic information system. The documents transferred via online system could be designed to have more detailed information than existing information system. 3. Reliability This measurement posed one of the greatest differences between traditional and electronic information system. Highfields Hotels’s information system could be concluded as improved system since there are no changed performances if front desk officers change. 4. Responsiveness Due to the improved information system at front desk, the officers can provide customers with quick process when guests check out the hotels. In addition, customers will be satisfied since there are no overbooking cases anymore. 5. Conformance to Customer Standards Highfields Hotels management as the user of the information system has stated their disappointment to the traditional information system. Beside the time consuming and risky reservation and billing process, the system is unnecessarily complicated, relating to the fact that each billing (hotels, rooms, mini bars etc) needed to be integrated upon the guests check out. V. Electronic Information System: Highfields Hotels and the use of EDI During the Industrial Age, achieving greater productivity was done by dividing workers into specialized teams focusing on different and specialized task; this is called the division of labor. However, in this information age, work is accomplished trough teamwork, interconnection and shared information (Senn, 1998, p 9). Technology has provided Highfields Hotels with advanced computer systems allowing interactive connections. For the solution of Highfields Hotels’s problem, it is suggested the application of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), a system which allows quick transfer of information and quick responses. In simple terms, EDI is computer to computer exchange of structured information. The deliverer and the receiver of information have agreed upon a single standard of message that enables them to be virtually connected with minimum human intervention. EDI is an international interchange method allowing the transfer of business transaction data with one typical application of purchasing goods and service. (“Electronic Data Interchange”, 2005) A common EDI forms a linkage between a company to its customers and suppliers. The connection to the suppliers is referred to as the supply side while the connections to customers are known as the customer side (Macleod, 1998). Companies who applied EDI usually have the experience of building a viable electronic security system. Therefore, the use of information technology at Highfields Hotels will improve the performance of the group in hospitality industry where the group competes (Macleod, 1998). Bibliography Alter, Steven. 2002, Information System, Prentice Hall, New York Laudon, Kenneth C. Laudon, Jane P. 2002, Management Information System-managing the Digital Firm, Prentice Hall International Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Macleod Jr, Raymond. 1998, Management Information System, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey ‘Management Information System’, (2005). Wikipedia, Retrieved May 7, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_information_systems Scott, George M.1986, Principles of Management Information Systems, McGraw-Hill Inc., New York Senn, James A. 1998, Information Technology in Business, Prentice Hall Inc.,Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Read More