MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS MGMT8620 Individual Assignment – Case Study & Case AnalysisOUTRIGGERHOTELS ANDRESORTS (CASE STUDY) HUSSAIN ALAIDAROUS 20404431 ...........................................................4 2 .................................CONTENTS 1 1 INTRODUCTIOn:.................................... 3 2 THE RELEVENT ISSUES:............................4 3 INFORMATION SYSTEM CONCEPT IN OUTRIGGER HOTELS:............................................................................. Fiji. Embassy Suites. 3 . It applies distinct services of hotels.1 INTRODUCTION: Overview and background of case study: Outrigger Hotels and Resorts is a private family firm which was owned by Roy Kelly located in Hawaii since 1963. Best Western and Wyndham Vacation Ownership. Outrigger Condominium Collection. By that time the firm was still centralized in Hawaiian Islands with more than 30 locations. adding new brands in some nations such as OHANA Hotels of Hawaii which meet some consumer needs in terms of the value and price. and using different strategic marketing methods and so on. and it has grown fast and successfully to form series of hotels and resorts including Outrigger Hotels and Resorts OHANA Hotels & Resorts. mainland USA and Asia. Guam. Pacific. Tahiti and New eland with total of 47 locations and 12 thousand rooms in all Outrigger firm’s properties. For example. condominiums and vacation resorts properties. Throughout the next 60 years of experience Outrigger’s firm has become one of the largest companies in the hospitality segment in Asia Pacific and Oceania regions. During the time of expanding geographically the organization was adaptable with the marketing improvement by adding good new values such as new brands with diversity services . new accommodation types in terms of customer’s needs. in 1996 the first international foray was opened in Marshall Islands then new international properties were added in Australia. after a while. Outrigger Enterprises Group relies on outsourcing strategy. Outrigger Enterprises Group also operated and developed hotel properties and hospitality-related retail and real estate opportunities for partners in Hawaii. I would like to clarify the concept of information systems in the firm and how that has affected its performance.2 THE RELEVENT ISSUES: In this case there are some issues that we would to discuss and interpret. when we look to the work system of Outrigger’s organization we find that the technical and social subsystems were applied in the firm fairly clear. when the firm has to make important decision about selecting the locations and expand the regions they had to analyse and plan the strategy. In next sections we will indicate each issue with some interpretations and analysis. Competitors in the hotel and resorts industry is another issue that the firm should indicated by adding new values to make a barrier for competitors. The strategic Information system planning process is the first issue. Also Outrigger’s firm had clear processing systems such as the centralized data center which facilitate transforming information between various branches within the organization. 4 . In general. Outrigger’s firm faced some challenges through its way to the success. and it contained experts in different fields. IT component played an important role to achieve the firm’s strategy whether in internal or external environment. It was depending on the centralization strategy from the point of view of process perspective in many departments. But before that. In terms of technical subsystem Outrigger’s firm had strong IT basis which can be developed periodically and integrated with new hardware and software technologies any time depending on the IT and IS strategy. The last issue is IT infrastructure and how the firm transacting with the integration between IS and IT. In terms of social subsystem the structure of the firm in terms of hierarchical perspective was “a highly centralized organizational structure”. (Piccoli 2008). Outrigger’s firm used IT as a competitive advantage through developing the IT infrastructure and using electronic commerce strategy through third party owners or through its website. 3 INFORMATION SYSTEM CONCEPT IN OUTRIGGER HOTELS: Outrigger Hotels and Resorts had clearly implemented information systems’ roles in its strategy and planning and it is considered as a positive example of implementing information system. piphany and JD Edward.Moreover. Out of respect. and “…original mission was to bring the opportunity for a vacation in paradise within the reach of middle-class families. From these four components we came up with that Outrigger’s organization had worked interdependently on the work system putting on its eye the IS as an entire concept not a part concept which is called systemic system. 4 THE STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLANNING: The strategy of Outrigger was very clear. IT strategy had been taken the largest part of thought and the development in Outrigger’s firm for some reasons. because of contract restrictions or because that’s how they look at it: “this is I have to do” structure” (Piccoli 2008). it “…was a drive to position its properties in places where people could enjoy a vacation experience leveraging Outrigger’s own core competencies. IT plays a crucial role to applying them. although the hospitality industry is depending on the quality and the service.” (Piccoli 2008) To implement and achieve this strategy and the mission. IT have capability to do it. Kimberly Ages explained the condition “every one has a narrow job [description] and outside of that they will refer you to a colleague.”. Outrigger put IT infrastructure as corner stone of its strategy by initiation new systems that lead to centralize and integrate all systems together such as Stellex. Second reason. to meeting customer’s needs and IT competitive advantages. First. However. Geographic locations: 5 . employees had a good workplace environment. they were trusted to do the tasks and they are respectful toward each others. Outrigger’s firm made some important decisions. E. It leveraged both markets where the customers know us because they had experienced our hotels before and…”. so Outrigger’s hotels and resorts centralized only on the prosperities which are on beaches in Hawaii. at this point the company should understand the dimensions of the adoption of this resolution from technical resources perspective. In contrast of local hotels which had an efficient high centralize system integrate all the departments of the firm. This is decision indicates a part of the strategic information systems planning process which is the strategic business planning. They initiated this strategy depending on the given analysis and information that is people tends to spend their holiday on the beach with reasonable price and acceptable services. how they achieve their goals and what are their opportunities currently and in the future. The decision was founded on customer’s vision as the CEO of Outrigger Enterprises stated “Given our key competencies. The international branches were working individually with their own information system and IT infrastructure which make some difficulties to integrate the organization’s system and collect the data from each branch.Selecting the geographic property was crucial decision. Does IT have the ability to solve the problem of distance between the branches and what is the solution? 6 . Therefore. (Piccoli 2008). External expansion: Another important decision was the expansion to international hotels. and Australia was a source. Outrigger’s firm did not expand internationally during 25 years tell it rooted its business in Hawaii. The firm understood deeply who they are what their ability is.customer or distribution – driven growth strategy. in terms of information system implementation there was a problem with decentralization of the system. It had a priority to renovate the hotels in Waikiki which cost 315 million dollars rather than expansion their business globally even though they have a strategy to growth. the pacific. expanding to Guam. The decision was successful for the firm in term of marketing strategy and good reputation. However. Moreover. the company has diversified in the way of services depending on customer’s demand. In fact. and it has already done so. This strong competition the firm should pay attention to it. it has a number of competitors such as ASTON Hotels and Marc Resorts which have a number of prosperities and high level of services. Outrigger’s organization attempted to create new marketing and technological value which make an IT dependent competitive advantage and a barrier against its competitors. Online travel agents: Outrigger’s firm in its marketing strategy attempted to add value by outsourcing partnership. adding value is a requirement to be in the competitive advantages. This value was creating an online channel through Third Party Companies applying dynamic packages service which means more fixable and multiple choices in prices and services. It is easier for the customer to realize which hotel is cheaper and which one has good services.Is there an impact on the company's performance in the case of a decentralized system? Answering these questions will diminish the negative impact of the decision. this method makes it easier for the customer to 7 . 5 ADDING VALUE AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: Even though Outrigger’s firm is one of the successful operator companies in Hawaii. The questions are does Outrigger’s firm need this type of service? Why Outrigger’s applied this value through the outsourcing although it has its own IT team that could be able to initiate this value? In response. classes. Even though the firm has strong added value and competitive advantage. Thus.communicate with all companies instead of using the telephone or email with each. (Piccoli 2008) regardless their competitor’s circumstances. the strategic information system planning prefers to delegate outsourcing in the competitive external environment in order to executing IT team to work on the internal information technology which is more important from the IS vision. for example. the website is considered the main gate of the company from which the customer can identify the company and the services from near. what is the benefit for Outrigger’s firm to have its own website since it has a contract with Third Party Company? And the debate here is whether the firm should spend money to build website or not. It will not be fully productive when they concentrate on “service delivery”. In fact. and it could be provided by some images. They could lose money on applying service that customers can find it 8 . and the firm will gain a good profitability with less effort and cost. locations and contact numbers and so on. Nevertheless. activities. Add this value does not have any investment and it is not the core business but it could cost more. in Expedia website. the customer can read the reviews through the hotel’s guests. The decision of initiate website is information system decision not information technology. so the reviews may reflect on the hotel’s services and its candor. so the IS strategy could set this value as a competitive advantage to frame a barrier for competitors. Even though the firm has its own IT team which can apply this initiative. Website: However. Outsourcing Third Party Company’s contract needs to expend money and applies package of advantages to the supplier and customers. this is an opportunity for the firm to appear the advantages and to be sustained in the competition. it should be aware about its competitors to save their money. Also. From the analysis of strategic impact grid we find that Outrigger’s organization is guided by IS and it has used all quadrants effectively as shown in the figure below. For Reliable IS Low TO High For News IS Low TO High 9 . In this section we will analyze the IT infrastructure by using the strategic impact grid and it was working in the strategy. .easier and cheaper in other hotels.piphany for analysis and forecasting. or they could applying technology that their competitors have already upgrade it or substituted by new technology 6 THE STRATEGVIC IMPACT GRID: Information Technology played a major role in decision-making in the firm. Unlike small hotels who don’t need to use all these quadrants. It is clear from the case study that IT infrastructure was evolved gradually to contribute to fulfill the goal of IS strategy. The date is collected by Stellex then it is transferred to JD Edward system for accounting then to E. payroll and human resources whether for end users or information manager layouts.Support Quadrant: The firm needed to build its IT infrastructure and that decision was from high level managers. In this quadrant the firm attempted to 10 . Therefore. - Factory Quadrant: As an example of this quadrant Outrigger’s firm implement JD Edwards to perform some important functions such as accounting. Thus Durocher was the VP of IT who brought Stellex system as the first IS system at the firm. revenue and block management.. This was an important decision which supports the role of IS functionality. these tools such as room. Stellex is used as tools to support the administrative operations. reservations for end users tools and the reservations. Outrigger’s firms applied the purpose of support quadrant which is using “IS a tool to support enables operations” (Piccoli 2008). Outrigger’s considered this system and upgraded it several times to integrate it with other applications and to centralize the system with international hotels in order to cutting price. availability and pricing for In Information System layers. E.piphany system for several intelligent strategic purposes. However. E. the training of employee which is necessarily to inform how can they deal with new technologies.use electronic interface instead of fax machine to organize and improve those functions to be more effective and efficient. The method of training was old employees train new employees in the framework area. unlike small hotels who could use IT infrastructure as a support component. (Piccoli 2008). it can be used for communicating with customers to acknowledge the special customers. so this will be duplicated. - Turnaround Quadrant: The organization had to upgrade and initiate IT infrastructure when it found that is necessarily. Then IS team has developed the systems by planning to be implemented effectively. 11 .piphany functions we can say that “information systems are part of the firm’s DNA”. For example. This strategy could be appropriate for the firm because they upgrade and develop the system periodically. also. From E. this system able to “do forecasts and generate business indolence both at the source of business and at guest levels” (Piccoli 2008). it could affect the performance of the firm because employees are engaged in this program while they do their job.piphany was a power for the IS strategy. It has hired Durocher to establish the IS which was an important decision for the organization.piphany can be accessed by a web interface for marketing and operational analysis. Outrigger’s firm uses E. giving the visiting history of the guests which is really important to realize the return guests rate. - Strategic Quadrant: Outrigger’s Organization applies IT infrastructure as a strategic component to fulfill its operations. Thus. They should be aware how much they spend on IT and should realize if the new technology will add value for the firm or not. informate and transform orders and it was 12 . A last recommendation is using the website more effective. make smooth changes by using automate. They can shift the site to point of communication between staff and clients as well by using applications such as E-mail for staff. It has high implementation for IS strategy and high quality to integrate and active the systems between people and IT strategy and structure. Outrigger’s organization can be applied as a positive example for the companies in the hospitality segment. I believe the methodology of the training was not accurate. so a big firm like Outrigger Hotels should set a training part in the human resource department to be a center for many useful courses not only for IT sector but for improving staff’s skills in general or for any other purposes.7 RECMMENDATIONS: After I analyzed the case I would to set some recommendations for Outrigger’s organizations. Second. it could be a disadvantage if the firm did not control this expansion. 8 CONCLUSION: In conclusion. since IT strategy has received much money in the organizations. First. and opening a window to connect with customers in writing or audio way. A further idea can be done is a special application of computers and mobile phones such as Apple and where it can be IT investment of the company. 1st edn. also. John Wiley & Sons.evaluating the. it exploited its IT infrastructure to create a sustainable competitive advantages and added values. it used strategic information system planning to evaluate and implement its information system. P 2008. INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR MANAGERS TEXTS & CASES. In addition. INC. 9 REFERENCE: - Gabriele. 13 .