Managing Information Systems in Hospitality: A Comparative Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of information systems and their implementation within the global hospitality industry. It examines four major companies: Burj Khalifa, Marriott International, Taj Group of Hotels, and Hyatt Regency, focusing on their use of innovative technologies such as customer relationship management systems (CRM) and human resource information systems (HRIS). The report explores the success factors, lessons learned, and recommendations for each company, covering aspects like security systems, customer service, and employee management. Internal and external analyses are conducted to assess the impact of market trends, industry factors, and technological advancements on these organizations. The report highlights the importance of information systems in improving efficiency, customer satisfaction, and overall business performance within the dynamic hospitality sector. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and emphasizes the critical role of continuous innovation and adaptation in maintaining a competitive edge.

Running head: MANAGING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
MANAGING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
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1MANAGING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Executive summary:
Information systems have played a vital role in the efficient functioning of the organizations all
across the world. The different kinds of information systems such as knowledge management
systems, customer relationship management systems, transaction processing systems etc., have
helped the companies immensely in the recent times. Much of the organizational tasks have been
automated using these information systems. This has in turn improved the productivity of the
employees as well as the customer satisfaction since most of the work operations are now being
easily and efficient accomplished using these innovative information systems as well as the
advancements in the field of information technology. The following report will highlight four
major companies, which are Burj Khalifa, Marriott international, Taj group of hotels as well as
Hyatt regency and explain the different aspects of implementation of the innovations of
information systems as well as information technology.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................4
Discussion:.......................................................................................................................................4
Application of innovations in Information system and information technology:........................4
Example 1 – Burj Khalifa........................................................................................................4
Success factors:............................................................................................................................5
Lessons learnt:.........................................................................................................................5
Recommendations for Burj Khalifa:........................................................................................6
Example 2 – Marriott international:........................................................................................6
Marriott international success factors:.....................................................................................7
Lessons learnt:.........................................................................................................................7
Recommendations for Marriott international:.........................................................................8
Example 3 – Taj Group of hotels:............................................................................................8
Taj hotels success factors:.......................................................................................................9
Lessons learnt:.........................................................................................................................9
Recommendations for Taj group of hotels:...........................................................................10
Example 4 – Information systems innovation in Hyatt regency:..........................................10
Success factors for Hyatt international:.................................................................................11
Lessons learnt:.......................................................................................................................11

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Recommendations for Hyatt regency:.......................................................................................11
Internal analysis for the innovations:.........................................................................................12
Internal factors:......................................................................................................................12
Individual factors:..................................................................................................................12
Management factors:.............................................................................................................12
External analysis of innovations:...............................................................................................12
Market:...................................................................................................................................12
Industry factors:.....................................................................................................................12
Factors affecting economy and society:................................................................................13
Technological factors:...........................................................................................................13
Political/policy factors:..........................................................................................................13
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................13
References:....................................................................................................................................14

4MANAGING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Introduction:
One of the most widely used technologies used in today’s world are the innovations in
information technology and information systems. This report will highlight the usage of
information systems for four organizations in the hospitality industry, which have branches and
operations all across the world in order to make their business processes even more efficient. The
selected companies to be studied in this report are Burj Khalifa, Marriott international, Taj group
of hotels and Hyatt regency. The different aspects of the implementation of the innovative
systems such as the external factors, markets analysis customer feedbacks etc., will be carefully
studied in the following paragraphs.
Discussion:
Application of innovations in Information system and information technology:
Example 1 – Burj Khalifa
The security that Burj Khalifa offers for all its guests is unparalleled. For instance, if an
unauthorized person tries to get inside a secure area the subsystems located in the building
including the alarm systems and the CCTV cameras are immediately activated. If a fire is
detected anywhere inside the building, the airflow system will automatically be deactivated to
stop the fire from further spreading. This are all due to the different sensor based information
systems installed in all floors within the building (Park and Allen 2013). There are other
information systems including audio video systems including projector screen that use automatic
technologies as well as conference rooms including the state of the art technologies to have all
information consolidated at one single place (Berezina et al. 2016). A two-way radio system is

5MANAGING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
also an example of an innovation in the hotel premises, which connects the different departments
such as facilities, security as well as maintenance.
Innovations in technology is also seen in the hotel premises where in hi-tech Otis
elevators are installed in every corner of the hotel. Information regarding each floor are
displayed on the screen within the elevators for the benefit of the guests (Wang et al. 2016). Low
voltage consuming Johnson control systems are installed which consume less power. The
different forms and innovations of technology innovation are exhibited by the Burj E-home
which is a smart technology installed by Johnson controls (Bhatt and Wallgrün 2014). A single
control system helps the control curtains, lighting, security devices as well as home theaters
Success factors:
- The excellent security features in the information systems helped the company gain the
trust of the customer all across the world.
- The innovations in construction as well as hotel design architectures were so applied
form time to time to ensure provisions of future implementation of innovations to ensure
continuous growth and improvement of the hotel.
- The spiral Y shape of the building designed by advanced technologies and innovations in
the information systems in construction architecture not only helped the engineers at the
time of constructing the building but helps the building even today in many ways.
Lessons learnt:
From past researches and articles it has been found that often the behavior of the staff
within the hotel is not good and the guests have turned out to be dissatisfied with the service
provided (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta 2016). This may be result of the excessive demand of
services that the hotel caters on a daily basis. Handling thousands of customers on a daily basis is

6MANAGING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
a complex task and often the building administrators fail to meet the needs of every guests from
very rooms/suites. Another lesson learnt of for the building authorities is that it often causes a
risk for the airplanes flying in and around the building (Boella and Goss-Turner 2013). The
extreme height of the building can often be a reason of plane accidents.
Recommendations for Burj Khalifa:
- Advanced information systems should be installed especially on the top of the tower to
keep the hotel security personnel as well as airport staff informed about the vicinity of
planes flying in and around the building to ensure better safety of the building.
- More efficient and advanced human resource management software should be
incorporated within the system in order to ensure better training and development of the
staff as well as job satisfaction.
Example 2 – Marriott international:
One of the primary focus of Marriott international is to increase its sales. For this, it has
come up with an innovative customer relationship management software form Siebel Systems
Inc., and has plans to upgrade the central reservation system, revenue as well as property
management system. Through this feature customer will be able to choose their own rooms and
book them online in the future. Marriott international also has implemented innovations in
information systems in its department of home catering services, which is the ChefTec recipe
management system. It is a food costing as well as inventory system, and runs on the windows
platform. Another innovation used by the company is Intranet prototype known as Oasis, which
gives the Marriott managers instant access to the necessary information needed by them.
Accounting is again another segment where the company uses innovations in information
systems in order to generate automatic reports in the year-ends by using software’s. It is mainly

7MANAGING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
done by the Xcellenet system, which allows junior level executives to download information
from the corporate headquarters and transmit the accounting reports digitally via the phone lines
(Carter 2014). The company also has its own Alexus system in human resources which stores
and sorts resumes based on the requirements or the vacancies presently available.
Marriott international success factors:
- The company using its advanced customer relationship management software has created
international database of customers.
- Another success factor is its excellent resource management solution, which has enabled
the company to think in a way that states, “Think global, act local”. Through this
philosophy, it makes optimum use of the available resources as well as the innovations in
information systems in order to ensure that the customer in the local markets are
immensely benefitted (González and Gidumal 2016). The extreme competitive advantage
that it holds by making efficient use of its internal information systems is again a success
factor for the company.
Lessons learnt:
- Excessive focus on expansion: Marriott has always been putting excessive focus on
expanding its business operations and in the process, it has lost on service standards and
brand dilution in many countries.
- Overemphasis on service standardization: Marriott has always overemphasized on
standardization of service even at the cost of employee job satisfaction (Filieri and
McLeay 2014). This in turn has reduced the employee morale in many of its branches and
departments.

8MANAGING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Recommendations for Marriott international:
The company should start focusing more on its quality of service that it offers to the guest
as well as their satisfaction. Due to the degrade in quality of their service it has considerable
deteriorated on its sales as well as customer feedback form all across the world (McDaniel and
Gates 2013). The company should also implement better applications of information systems to
make optimum use of the available resource and improve employee job satisfaction by improved
human resource management solutions within the working operations.
Example 3 – Taj Group of hotels:
Taj group of hotels is one of the finest in the hospitality industry across the world. It has
portrayed excellent innovations in information systems. Two most important sectors within the
organization where it has extensively used the applications of the information systems are its
excellent customer relationship management system and its human resource information system
(HRIS). In the customer relationship management, software a preference sheet is mailed to the
guests at the they book a room online in order to provide them with a better staying experience.
This is done in order to understand if the guest is diabetic or has any other kinds of requirements
upon his arrival in the hotel. Complimentary pick up for the airport is also provided, which is
again being taken care by the centralized customer relationship management software. Fidelio is
the property management software used by Taj, which is incorporated with the customer
relationship management software, which is used to capture the profiles of each guests, which
have stayed in the Taj hotels. Feedbacks are gathers form the guests and processed and analyzed
by software for training and development processes (Chadha 2015). Other information such as
guest birthdays, anniversaries are also stored on the central database of the CRM software.

9MANAGING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Another important area of innovation in information systems is the advanced human
resource management within the company (Verma 2014). The different processes, which are
made more efficient within the Taj group of hotels using the information systems, are listed
below:
- Recruiting
- Selecting
- Evaluating employee performance
- Compensation and benefits
- Training and development of employees
- Handling internal job postings and career growth of employees.
- Employee job satisfaction and strategies of retention.
- Helping employees to maintain proper work-family balance
Taj hotels success factors:
- Excellent hierarchical structure that exists within the system to keep the employees as
well as the managers motivated. The excellent human resource management software
ensures that the excellent performance form the employees as well as their achievements
are recognized in order to keep them motivated all throughput to ensure their increased
productivity.
Lessons learnt:
- The Taj group incurs excessive high costs of maintenance every year across all its hotels
around the world. This is due to an inappropriate budget planning system in the present
system.

10MANAGING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
- Often due to its excessive demand the level of service from the employees goes down for
the guests. This also has to be efficiently handled by the company.
Recommendations for Taj group of hotels:
- The company should make more efficient use of the innovations in information systems
to tap the geographical locations of smaller towns and cities where they are still not
present, in order to expand their business to other parts of the world.
- It should also come up with better resource planning as well as property management
software’s in order to counterattack competition from its major market competitors such
as Hilton, Oberoi etc.
- Better customer satisfaction should be ensured using a better customer relationship
management software within the working operations.
Example 4 – Information systems innovation in Hyatt regency:
Hyatt regency has also shown innovations in information systems in the recent past due
to which the company has exhibited uninterrupted service even in unforeseen conditions or
disasters. The security information systems is extremely efficient within the Hyatt hotels and
the data is stored in a secure and encrypted (Russo et al. 2013). Daily backup cycles for all the
servers are also done by the use of information systems without much interference from the
human work force. Efficient computer backup systems can also help in recovering the data in
case of natural disasters as well as server breakdowns. There is a centralized reservation system
used by the Hyatt international group of hotels through which, the customers will just not be able
to book the rooms online but prior to booking, they will be able to check the videos of the
interior of each rooms (FitzPatrick et al. 2013). This helps them better decide on the rooms/suites
they wish to book for their stay and helps the company win the trust of the guests right from the

11MANAGING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
time they pre book the rooms. At the same time attractive offers and discounted prices are also
been offered to the users and seasonal vouchers are visible on the online reservation portal portal.
Success factors for Hyatt international:
- A very strong performance management system in order to ensure its performance in the
markets is always being monitored and improved considered to the other competitors.
- Complimentary firms have been successfully integrated with Hyatt using successful
information systems in mergers as well as acquisition processes (Galliers and Leidner
2014). This has in turn improved the brand equity largely for the organization, which has
process to be one of its major success factor.
Lessons learnt:
- The organizational structure that exists in the present system in Hyatt has to be revised. It
often causes employee job dissatisfaction and other issues within the organization.
- The company presently lacks a proper information system that can effectively handle
market challenges as well as competition (Stair and Reynolds 2013). Due to its lack of
such an efficient decision making system it has lost much of its niche business sin the
market to other competitors and new entrants.
- It also needs to build an effective feedback system to help in directly passing of
feedbacks between the sales team to the ground executives on filed or even to the
customer at times.
Recommendations for Hyatt regency:
- Online portals should be introduced in order to attack new customers and online sales for
the company (Gretzel et al. 2015). This can be achieved using an advanced transaction
processing as well as customer relationship management system.

12MANAGING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
- It can make use of big data analytics for better technological upgrade in the operations of
the hotel operations.
Internal analysis for the innovations:
Internal factors:
The hotel management systems in the different hotels should ensure that there is optimum
job satisfaction as well as high level of customer satisfaction after their stays.
Individual factors:
The employees at the hotels should themselves be highly motivated to serve the guests
and address their concerns during their stays in the hotels.
Management factors:
The management should be cooperative with the employees as well as the guests in
different aspects to ensure repeat business form the same guests and enhanced satisfaction in the
tie of their stay.
External analysis of innovations:
Innovations in services and technologies form other hotels should always be carefully
studies and analyzed by the team of experts in all hotels in order to aid the management come up
with improved and better plans at each points of time.
Market:
The market economy and the competition form the different other hotels as well as the
fluctuating prices offered by the competitors should always be taken into consideration.
Industry factors:
Hospitality industry is an ever-changing industry. Every day the different hotels are
coming up with different technologies in their hotel premises as well as other innovations for the

13MANAGING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
better experience of its guests (Guo, Kwon and Kareem 2015). Different categories of hotels
have their different budgets and plans of innovations for the ever-changing market needs, which
is specific to the hospitality industry.
Factors affecting economy and society:
Economic and social factors are to be taken into consideration. Often cheap rooms are
available by different hotel, which are misused for different reasons all across the world (Laudon
and Laudon 2016). Hotels also provide a source of employment for thousands of people, which
in turn affect the economy, as well as the society in which a hotel is constructed.
Technological factors:
Technological innovations such as mobile applications for hotel booking, online-
centralized reservation systems etc., also play an important role in this industry.
Political/policy factors:
Political factors such as environmental guidelines and rules set by the government have
to be taken into consideration by the property manager at the time of running their business
(Leung et al. 2013). Environmental guidelines also have to be complied at the time of
constructing the hotels at any given site.
Conclusion:
Therefore, it can be concluded that even though hospitality industry is one of the largest
growing industry especially for the application of innovations in information system and
technology, there are multiple aspects that has to be taken into consideration in order to
successfully implement the information systems. Information systems can be implemented to
automate hotel booking processes as well as other related service online such as, booking side

14MANAGING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
seeing packages etc. This can help the guests as well as the employees in the hotel industries
immensely in order to ensure improved and better business in the future.

15MANAGING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
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