Information System Management For Travel And Tourism

Question: Discuss about the Case Study for Information System Management For Travel And Tourism? Answer: Introduction Relax Ltd is one of the very well known hotel and resort chains of the United Sates. Over the past few years, the organization has grown considerably through acquisition and merging programs and now conducts business across several destinations of the European Union and South East Asia. The acquisition process has resulted in the co-existence of several legacy information management systems throughout the organization and at present, the Information Systems Manager of the organization had been provided with a budget of around 5-8m for the development of an integrated IT system for the group. This report is aimed at providing the Board of the company of Relax Ltd an insight into the existing IT infrastructure and the risks that are associated with the said ICT systems. Besides, the reports also contain detailed information regarding the ICT systems that are currently being utilized in large scale in the tourism industry. The AS-IS Scenario As stated in the section above, the US-based tourism organization has grown over the last few years through several acquisition and merging processes: Relax Ltd started taking over resorts and hotels in Europe from 2005 onwards and had spread out their operations over various parts of South East Asia by 2010. In spite of the steady growth, the management of the organization had not emphasized on the implementation of an efficient information system and had continued with the utilization of the legacy systems that were used by the organizations that the Relax Ltd has taken over. As matter of fact, the following information systems co-exist within the IT infrastructure of Relax Ltd: 3 distinct information management systems that are used for maintaining the flow of information between the various departments of the organization: however, there exists no common shared database which can be used for the storage of data (Warren 2012). A custom designed customer relationship management system that is concerned solely with retaining old customers: however, it is worth mentioning that the system developer no longer conducts business with Relax Ltd (Amalfitano et al. 2014). The organization also utilizes 3reservation systems: one for supporting telesales operations, another for supporting the website that has been solely created for the conducting marketing and sales operations, and the third one for supporting the cloud based intermediaries like that of ebookers.com, expedia.com and Trivago (Srinivas et al. 2016) The following sections of the report are aimed at providing a detailed description of the risks that are associated with the existing system and the issues that are bound to arise in case such systems are added on without any proper integration. Risks associated with the current system At present, Relax Ltd has continued the use of the legacy systems that were inherited by the acquisition and merging process. Now, legacy systems are defined as the old and outdated technologies, computer systems or networks that are in dire need for up-gradation or replacement (Victor 2013). Thus, the primary risk associated with the utilization of legacy systems is that in case such systems might face is that since all legacy systems are essentially custom built, the vendor would stop updating the product after a specific period (Khadka et al. 2014). Needless to say, any changes that are to be incorporated in this system after the said period of time would require lump-sum investment on the part of Relax Ltd. Thus, in case the organization is unable to invest high amounts periodically, new vulnerabilities to the system would neither be detected nor be patched (Laguna and Crespo 2013). It is a well known concept that most legacy systems were developed at times when the techniques of identifying security threats were much less sophisticated that that used at present (Warren 2012). Thus, thus security systems of most legacy networks would be it able to function when targeted with the modern and sophisticated attacks that present day hackers or intruders are capable of launching (Amalfitano et al. 2014). Under such circumstances, the legacy systems being used by Relax Ltd indeed lack security. Last but not least, legacy systems are, as a matter of fact, dependent on old and backdated operating platforms. It is a well known fact that most OS vendors have stopped updating the legacy platforms, thus making them vulnerable to a wide range of security attacks (Laguna and Crespo 2013). The computer systems currently deployed at Relax Ltd are thus vulnerable to the attacks launched on the OS platform as well. Thus, the security issues associated with current computer system of Relax Ltd can be summarized as: Vulnerabilities arising from lack of vendor support. Vulnerabilities arising from old threatscape (Khadka et al. 2014). Vulnerabilities arising from insecure platforms. Evaluation of issues that could arise if the systems are increased Relax Ltd has been utilizing several legacy systems concurrently, for quite some time. Thu, it might appear to the board of directors that integrating the old systems with custom devised new ICT systems would be much easier than replacing the legacy systems entirely. However, such an integration process is found to generate the following issues: Migrating data from the legacy system to the newly developed ICT system becomes difficult as the system designers are made responsible for the herculean task of deciding the process using which data stored in the two systems would be linked to each other (Klammer and Pichler 2014). In general, system designers either use meta-data or integrate data at semantic levels: however the efficiency of each of the techniques is compromised with cost and complexity issues. Most legacy systems lack proper documentation; its becomes immensely difficult to decide on the strategies and protocols that would be utilized for connecting the system components of the legacy system with the newly developed ICT system and for routing messages between these components (Laguna and Crespo 2013). Making the legacy systems adapt to the business rules implemented in the newly developed ICT system requires high financial investment, besides being a time-consuming process (Amalfitano et al. 2014). Last but not the least, the integration with less secured legacy systems generates security vulnerabilities for the data stored and managed by the new ICT system (Alcaiz et al. 2014). Benefits of an Integrated Information System strategy to the business An integrated information system would provide Relax Ltd with the following benefits: Improving process efficiency throughout organization: It is a well known fact that each organization has to conduct certain key operation activities on a regular basis. The incorporation of an integrated information system has been found to help in the management of such key process, thus increasing their efficiency (Alkazemi, Nour and Meelud 2013). Thus, it is expected that the efficiency of the following key operational processes would be enhanced with the implementation of an integrated information system strategy at the Relax Ltd: Order management, Order fulfillment, iii. Invoicing and cash collection (Argyropoulos et al. 2015). Granting approvals. Financial consolidations and so on and so forth. Improved Visibility of information: Real time availability of data facilitates the process of efficient decision making among all other things. Since Relax Ld runs several hotels and holiday homes across several locations of the globe, a centralized and integrated information system would facilitate a drastic enhancement in the visibility of information (MihaliÄ , PraniÄ eviĆ¡ and ArneriĆ¡ 2015). This, in turn, would help the higher management of Relax Ltd developing organizational strategies. Implementing an integrated information system would also facilitate the development of intimate relations with the customers and the suppliers alike (Law, Buhalis and Cobanoglu 2014). While integrated ICT solutions would help in promoting the brand to the potential customers, customer relationship management and supply chain management systems would help in retaining customers and developing partnerships with other business organizations. Strategic alignment between travel and tourism goals and information systems: In the last few years, the tourism and hospitality sector has been immensely benefitted by the incorporation of various internet and communication systems. The following sections of the report would dwell on some such ITC systems that have facilitated the growth of the tourism industry since the last decade: E- reservation: The American Airlines was the undoubtedly the first organization to implement the first electronic reservation system way back in 1962 (Angore, Sawe and James 2014). The field of computer science and technology has gained much growth since then: however automated reservation systems still remain the most widely implemented ICT system that the tourism sector utilizes. Property Management Systems (PMSs) The last decade has witnessed the rapid incorporation of the Property Management Systems or the PMSs in the lodging and hotelier industry, the system being aimed at facilitating the sales, front office and other day-today operational functions of business like that of planning, sales, etc (eriĆ¡, Gil-Saura and Ruiz-Molina 2014). The hotelier industry has implemented PMSs aggressively with the aim of improving their inventory, for interacting with their customers in a better way and reducing operational costs. The operational functionalities that Property Management Systems are capable of managing to include the following: Reservations: PMSs are capable of managing reservation of property through emails, faxes, phone calls, online bookings through official websites, bookings from GDS and so on and so forth (Singh 2014). Check-in and Check-out facilities Guest check-in facilities are utilized for creating guest portfolios and calculating charges. On the other hand, check out facilities help in the process of providing billing information to the guests and collecting the same (Angore, Sawe and James 2014). iii. Room management Room management modules help in keeping a track on the availability of the room, thus facilitating the automated reservation system (Azevedo, Azevedo and Romo 2014). Besides the above mentioned modules, PMS s are also capable of offering services for maintaining guest records, for facilitating back office jobs and scheduling the function' rooms of a hotel facility (Singh 2014). On the other hand, the integration between automated reservation systems and PMSs have been found to be effective in reducing the response time for both customers and the management, improve the efficiency of the operational activities along with the reduction in cost and improved control over these activities (Jayawardena et al. 2013). Destination management systems: Destination Management Systems can be defined as ICT systems that are capable of consolidating and distributing tourism products utilizing a wide range of platforms and channels (Bethapudi 2013). As Destination Management Systems use customer-centric approaches in marketing and managing tourist destinations as holistic entities, organizations operating in the tourism industry utilize such systems to provide information related to tourist destinations, make reservations in real-time, devise tools for managing destinations and for supporting small, independent tourism partner organizations (Mihalic and Buhalis 2013). The systems that must be included in the organization In the light of the discussions made in the section above, the higher management of Relax Ltd is being recommended to implement the following information and communication systems within their organizational infrastructure: Integrated Enterprise Resource Planning System Enterprise resource planning systems can be defined as cross-functional software modules that facilitate organizational planning, tracking and management of the daily activities of business units (Angore, Sawe and James 2014). Driven by an integrated software-module core, ERP systems support the transportation of enterprise information (generated by the operational activities of the enterprise) throughout the organization (Azevedo, Azevedo and Romo 2014). Relax Ltd would be able to avail the following benefits through the implementation of an integrated ERP system within their organizational infrastructure: The requirement for procuring and managing multiple software systems would be reduced drastically, as integrated ERP systems support several operational activities, as conducted by the various departments of a hospitality facility, simultaneously (Mihalic and Buhalis 2013). An integrated ERP system would not only help in smooth access of enterprise data by all the departments but would also allow the management of Relax Ltd to take organizational decisions that are based on concrete information (Ruiz-Molina, Gil-Saura and eric 2013). The integration of a customized Customer Relationship Management or CRM system with the proposed ERP system would also facilitate the process of providing better services to the loyal customers of the organization (Jayawardena et al. 2013). Property Management Systems Section 3 of this report provides an insight into the various functionalities provided by the property management system or PMS. In the light of the discussions made in section 3, it can be said that the higher management of Relax Ltd should incorporate PMSs within their organizational structure to avail the following facilities: An integrated hotel property management system, besides being effective in enhancing the operational facilities, is available with surprisingly low investment (Singh 2014). Thus, the incorporation of such an ICT system would invariably act as a cost effective operational management tool. The property management system also facilitates the process of generating reports and efficient recording of enterprise information. With the incorporation of this ICT system, the employees of Relax Ltd would be able to register any malfunctioning operational element (with the PMS system) and report the higher authorities without any delay (Mihalic and Buhalis 2013). Along with the above mentioned factors, a PMS would also be beneficial to the housekeeping services of the hotel chain (Jayawardena et al. 2013). Conclusion and Recommendations This report contains detailed discussions on the ICT systems that are currently being utilized by Relax Ltd and changes that need to be incorporated into their organizational infrastructure. In the light of the discussions made in section 2 of the report, it can be concluded that the organization should immediately stop using their legacy systems and incorporate enhanced and customized ICT systems to support their organizational activities. The hospitality and tourism industry has been immensely benefitted by the growth achieved by the information and communication industry in the last few decades. This sector has been observed to be efficiently reaping the advantages of a bunch of specialized ICT systems, the said systems being aimed at increasing the efficiency of the operational activities of hotels and lodging facilities. Some such ICT systems have been discussed in section 3 and 4 of this report, so as to bring them in to the notice of higher management. In the light of the discussions made in this report, the following recommendations are being provided to the board of directors of Relax Ltd: The utilization of the existing legacy systems should be stopped at once as these systems are vulnerable to a wide range of security risks. New systems should not be randomly incorporated into the organization as such incorporations would only increase the risks of security breaches. 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