Detailed Report on IT Management Issues for 5 Holiday Hotels Merger

This report examines IT management issues faced by a merger of five holiday hotels. It critiques four key decisions: implementing a customer loyalty program, developing interactive tools, integrating an ERP solution, and creating a self-managed web portal. The report analyzes the benefits and drawbacks of each decision, considering factors such as customer retention, cost-effectiveness, data sharing, and technological advancements. It emphasizes the importance of strategic planning and integration to enhance service delivery, increase profitability, and improve customer satisfaction. The analysis highlights the need for careful consideration of IT infrastructure, data management, and customer experience to ensure long-term success in the competitive hotel industry. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities associated with IT management in a business merger scenario.

Running head: IT MANAGEMENT ISSUES 1
IT Management Issues
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Introduction
Every profit-making entity I faced with challenges in decision-making, especially around
the best business system which is to be used to expand operations in the entity. The best way is
to embrace proper planning mechanisms, especially in an integrated business management
software system. This is what in most cases, takes a back seat to short-term revenue goal for the
entity. As a result, management ends up installing the disparate application at different times, to
cover a different functional area that results in inefficiencies in business processes and software
integration challenges. These problems are bound to come up and have to be avoided at all costs.
General assumptions made
This report regards a merger between 5-holiday hotels, which have decided to integrate
their operations to enhance service delivery to their consumers, as well as for the sake of
increasing their profits. The group, as one, operate a range of living quarters, in the Australian
market. Consumers are also provided with popular holiday booking websites, and bookings are
now managed through a single website (Bell et al. 2015).
Prices vary based on demand and the season in question, which affects profit levels as
well. One assumption is that all firms are operating in an Australian market, which is very
diverse and characterized by high demand. Secondly, the management decisions made by the
team affect all the five organizations, which need to be considered before implementation. The
third assumption is that the long-term goal for all organizations is consumer retention,
profitability, and increased market share.
Decision 1 critique
A customer loyalty scheme called Monet Loyalty will reward customers with airport transfers,
free tours, and free meals.

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Organizations have to come to terms with the fact that only 3& of new visitors who make
their first purchase is likely to return and make a purchase in the same organization. This statistic
is very alarming, especially because consumer loyalty is highly desired in an organization. The
consumer loyalty program is a very strategic decision, which should be implemented without
hesitation from management in the organization. There are numerous financial and non-financial
benefits which are attached to a loyalty program.
a) The program will help stop competing on price with other competitors in the market
The modern business environment has made it very easy for shoppers to be able to make
comparisons of hundreds of pieces in a concise time. Adding this loyalty program will help top
competing on prices with other organizations, which will give the entity another way to
differentiate its services in this industry. The main aim of this decision I to offer an enhanced
consumer experience, through connecting with their emotions, and knowing what they love
most. As this emotional connection develops, consumers will be able to see the organization as
the best in the industry hence strengthen their loyalty.
b) The program will help retain the existing consumers
Loyal consumers, according to statistics, spend 67% more than new consumers. This statistic
cannot be ignored, considering the consumer retention costs, which range from 4 to 30 times less
than the consumer acquisition costs (Hill et al. 2015). It is surprising that a mere 5% retention in
consumers can lead to an increase in organization profits by more than 80%. This decision will
help the organization retain existing consumers, who will be attached to its services as compared
to the competitors.
c) The program will help increase the consumer lifetime value

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Consumer lifetime value refers to the net profit which is attributed to the overall relationship that
is in the long run, maintained with the consumer. This aspect is meant to measure how valuable a
consumer is to you as well as the projected value of the consumer and their interactions over a
period. The loyalty program proposed by the management and decisions made will help in the
provision of behavioral data, which will help analyze the consumers ‘buying' habit in the entity.
Consumer steps will be monitored, preferences determined, and the organization will be able to
reward them at each set of their experience in the organization.
d) The program will help build personal relationship
Emotional connection is significant and helps consumers realize how true you are to them, as an
organization. Consumers are more complicated than just a segmented category. Therefore, the
program will help identify consumer changes, personal issues, and more so, provide unique
service according to preferences (Cohen & Winn, 2017).
e) The loyalty program will help in the creation of brand advocates
The consumer loyalty scheme, known as the Monet Loyalty is expected to reward consumer with
airport transfers, and free tours coupled with free meals. The above advantages are bound to be
realized, hence the need to embrace the decision by management, for the profitability, increased
customer share and positive public image for the organization. 73% of millennial take it upon
themselves to help friends and families to make smart purchase decisions. This is an effective
system that helps work towards consumer acquisition as well as increasing loyalty of the
consumers towards the organization services.
Decision 2 critique
Interactive tools will be developed to allow to customers to choose, which particular tours they
would like to undertake.

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Interactive marketing is a common type of advertising strategy used to enhance consumer
inclusion regarding service experience. Increased conversations and the use of interactive tools
will help the consumer make their personalized decision, without having to feel coerced to alight,
tour and gain specific experiences fixed by the company. The strategy converts consumers from
readers to buyers, which is commonly referred to as sales conversion. This decision will work
pretty well in inspiring potential consumers to proceed with their relationship to the organization.
Many interactive techniques allow the sellers to engage the consumers.
This, in turn, helps boost the experiences of the consumers. Hence they learn more about
the services and products issued. Instant feedback is gained through these tools, which makes it
even more effective. Consumers, in this case, will be left to choose to choose which particular
tours they want to undertake. This decision may have its share of advantage, but will also cost
the organization a significant amount of expenses (Miles & Covin, 2017). As a result, such
aspects should be scheduled either once or twice a year as loyalty bonuses or can be done on a
quarterly basis to capture newer markets. Management decisions ought to help the organization
grow, and not eat into the profits in the long term.
Decision 3 Critique
An integrated ERP Solution is to be developed to enable management of the operation through
a single IT system
Enterprise resource planning goes well together with the concept of consumer
relationship management in every organization. These two ensure that the true potential of an
organization is realized, but this only happens when the integration of the two I fully achieved. In
the modern business world, considering the large data that is created and its diversity, business
owners are lowly witnessing complex business environments as compared to ancient periods of

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time. First, they are subjected to the pressure of responding quickly to the changes, for the sake
of keeping their business and operations healthy in the long run.
At the same time, consumers are portraying high demand feature, and are adapting to
change, which drives competition to a new level altogether. A lot of companies are slowly
realizing the need for ERP integration, while most small organizations have resulted in the use of
integrated enterprise resource planning, to improve and automate the management of their
operation (Morris et al., 2010). While the ERP systems automate and help in back office
management activities, other aspects such as HR, purchase, and manufacturing have also been
streamlined.
This decision is bound to benefit the organization and needs to be advocated for. First,
this decision will enhance the ability to terminate data entry, as well as the presence of duplicates
in storage. The enterprise resource planning system contains all account information for different
uses in an organization. With the ERP in place, which I focused on billing and shipping, aspects
of sales and support services will also be easily handled. This way, any change in the database
will be noted, and the same principle applies in the case of editing customer fields, products, and
other databases.
Secondly, this decision is relevant as it enhances the ability to share data easily, in a
timelier manner. The productivity of the team is also boosted when this concept is embraced.
Sales representatives, for example, will have the ability to access, view and even order bills of
materials for the functional units. This, in turn, helps in saving time, which in turn makes the
sales team more responsive and productive. The third advantage associated with implementing
this decision is that the organization will convert proposal generation, which mostly created by
consumer relationship management into actually executed orders, tracked at the enterprise

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resource planning levels. One system will be in place and use, which will help the entity in
saving a lot of time hence increased efficiency.
Forth, information technology support costs will be reduced for the organization.
Considering that there will only be one system used in maintenance, there will be no need for
interfaces. The costs involved in information technology support will highly drop. The fifth
benefit that comes along with this decision is the fact that training costs will be reduced. When
the full enterprise resource planning system is integrated into the operations of the organization,
less training and support will be needed for the employees. They will be trained only on the use
of one system, and updates and additional courses expenses will be minimized.
The organization I bound to have an increased visibility and improved forecasting in its
operations. The problem in most entities is that most sellers do not have adequate access to the
enterprise resource planning systems. Fully implemented enterprise resource planning will help
avail real-time data, that will, in turn, improve the forecasting efficiency in the organization. The
other aspect involves mobility. An enterprise resource planning system is accessible from any
device (Knight, 2012). This way, updated contents will always be available to personnel in an
organization at all times. This way, it will be easy to make better decisions based on product
availability, and historical purchase altogether. This decision should, therefore, be implemented
by the company considering the overwhelming benefits it is associated with.
Decision 4 critique
A new ‘’Web 4.0–level’’ ultra-intelligent electronic portal is to be created enable customers to
self-manage their accounts with the company and to customize their shopping/booking
experience.

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Consumers in most markets, desire to feel in control of their data and information, which
they sometimes consider private and confidential. The management decision to have an ultra-
intelligent electronic portal, which will enable the consumer to Self to manage their accounts and
customize their booking experience is a very fruitful and potential venture. Such a portal will
require that the organization hire an IT expert, for consistent monitoring and updating of the
system (Morris & Paul, 2017). At the same time, the organization will benefit from feedback and
instantaneous suggestion by consumers. Inconveniences and delays are also bound to be
eliminated.
The decision to have a self-managed portal for the consumers is highly beneficial. This is
all bound to reduce the number of personnel operating the organization website. A common
platform will be designed where consumer allegations, preferences, criticisms, and suggestions
will be aired. This decision is a way to save costs while enhancing consumer satisfaction for the
group of companies in the region. The decision should be implemented and adopted by the
different functional units in the entity.
Information Systems (IS) and Information Technology (IT) issues
Information systems issues and information technology issues go hand in hand, especially
considering the impact they have on organization success. First, information system issues are
bound to lead to reduced consumer trust in organization privacy promises and confidentiality
clause. This issue might be a source of interference with operations and the lack of proper
implementation of various organization requirements. Information technology issues, on the
other hand, will have a major impact on consumer choice and brand loyalty.
Brand loyalty will be affected considering the inefficiencies, and general inconveniences
caused to the consumers in the market. When such issues are affected, the profitability of an

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organization is highly compromised. Consumer loyalty is the driving force to profitability in an
organization. There is a need to ensure that this component is always boosted and that the major
inefficiencies, both in information systems and information technology are addressed in time in
the entity.
How to attract new customers from competitors
Consumer attraction is perceived as the most difficult challenge that organizations have to deal
with. However, this concept is not entirely stressful, provided the best strategies are put in place
to ensure that the general organization operations are not affected in any way. Attracting
consumers from competitors can be done through offering products which are differentiated and
unique, and those that offer high levels of satisfaction to the consumers, as compared to the
commodities offered by the competitors. Another means can be through price reductions or
offering premiums (Wilson et al., 2016). The ultimate goal of a consumer is to save money and
get quality products to achieve their utility. Therefore, coming up with commodities which can
fulfill the demands and at the same time, ensure that profitability of the organization is not
compromised is a good strategy.
New business opportunities that may arise with such a setup
The industry is filled with a lot of market gaps which can be exploited, to satisfy the demand and
needs of the market. Taking a step to acquire consumers from competitors will be an eye-opener
to the organization. First, the organization will be able to know what the consumers lacked from
the previous organization. This is an opportunity to help the entity improve its services, to ensure
that it retains its new lot of consumers. Having a personalized tour guide will also be of the
essence. The new consumers will require a personalized tour guide to meet their expectations
(Knight, 2012). This will lead to increased revenues for the organization, and increased

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profitability. Business decisions should not affect the profitability of an organization. Rather,
they should be of help in ensuring that the best measures are put in place to enhance
organizational success. Management teams need to be guided by market research and
competitive environments in decision-making in an organization.
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