Monet: Business Report Analyzing Hotel Merger and Web System

This business report analyzes the merger of five hotels into a single entity, Monet, focusing on the development of a web application to manage operations, bookings, and customer loyalty. The report delves into critical issues within Information Systems (IS) and Information Technology (IT), addressing challenges such as confidentiality, integrity, availability, and performance. It explores strategies for attracting new customers, including loyalty programs, interactive website features, and targeted marketing campaigns. The report also identifies new business opportunities through partnerships, integrated services, and customer-centric approaches. The analysis includes considerations for online payments, pre-booking options, and the integration of ancillary services to enhance customer experience and maintain competitiveness in the hospitality market. The report emphasizes the importance of market analysis and customer feedback in adapting to evolving trends and demands, providing valuable insights for Monet's strategic development.

Monet
Business Report
SEPTEMBER 27, 2017
Grizli777
[Company address]

Monet
Executive Summary
A group of 5 different hotels have decided to collaborate and merge into one large single entity.
This would allow Monet to command large market share, enjoy economies of scale as well as
become a strong force that is easier to market and brand. The company wishes to develop a web
application system that allow them merge all the operations of the group under one website and
manage all of their operations as well ticket bookings etc. within this web-system itself.
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Monet
Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................3
Decisions Taken up by the Management................................................................................3
Set of Assumptions.................................................................................................................3
Information System (IS) v/s Information Technology (IT)....................................................3
Issues under IS.........................................................................................................................4
Issues under IT........................................................................................................................5
New Customers – Strategies and Decision Making................................................................6
New Business Opportunities..................................................................................................7
Conclusion..............................................................................................................................9
References............................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
In business world, collaborating with other entities is a common concept. Partnerships, joint
ventures, mergers and collaboration enhances the foothold of businesses in the market they
command and thereby letting them achieve their strategic goals. Keeping this in mind, 5 different
holiday resorts are going to be merged to form a single entity called Monet. Monet would thus be
able to provide a variety of options to its end customers including Hotel rooms, Hostels,
Homestays, and Villas etc. Monet would be operational via one single website and would also
have mobile version of the site as well as a mobile app. The report would cover the key issues in
this merger as well as strategies and opportunities for collaboration.
Decisions Taken up by the Management
 A monetloyalty card would be announced with which regular customers would be able
earn points with each bookings and would then be able to redeem those points against
several options.
 The website and mobile app would be made interactive so as to provide a high level of
engagement for the users.
 The same website would be used to book properties from all 5 resort brands.
 A core ERP solution would be developed that would not just integrate and assimilate
operations from one restaurant but all of the 5 chains.
Set of Assumptions
 Terms and conditions have been pre-decided and had been mutually agreed upon.
 The various different functionalities and end user features as well as capabilities for the
backend system has already been determined. (Popp, 2017).
 The needed costs for collaboration as well as estimation has already been arranged.
 The schedule has already been pre-determined.
Information System (IS) v/s Information Technology (IT)
The domain of technology is a huge area and there are many jargons and technical terms that are
used. Some of these terms are used only by technology enthusiasts or experts or other established
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people in the industry. However, there are a few terms that are synonymous with the word
technology. Two of these terms are IS or Information systems or IT information technology.
These two are entirely different concept and have different meaning, purpose and utility. IS
stands for the domain that covers information management, information quality as well as
information availability and associated activities. Information sets that are included with
different operations such as addition, storage, deletion, updating or backup etc. are considered as
issues under IS. (El-Awad, 2017)
On the other hand Information Technology (IT) is an area which comprises of the entire
technological infrastructure including hardware, software and services. IT used in the context of
enterprise operations are different than IT used in the context of personal and entertainment
options. The enterprise use of IT consists of both telephony as well as use of computer
technology. Within these two sub-domains there are lot of tools being used to carry out day-to-
day tasks of a business. IT issues includes technical, operational as well as infrastructural issues.
(Bruni, 2014)
Issues under IS
The issues that impact on information stored in the database or information flowing via networks
include the following :
 Confidentiality Attacks
The confidentiality of information may be impacted because of several attacks via
information breach, leakage, insider threat or motivated hacker attacks as well as virus
and malware.
 Integrity based attacks
Deliberate, incidental or accidental attacks may make permanent or temporary change in
the information ultimately causing the information loose integrity.
 Availability attacks
A large enterprise or an organization having dependency on information stored may
suffer heavily with attacks such as denial of service attacks or other web based attacks.
 Performance
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Performance of operation would not be adequate owing to change made in standard set of
practices.
 There could be issues with communication among the different parties that are involved
leading to challenges in understanding as well as wrong execution of operations.
The issues mentioned earlier would ultimately lead to severe complications with the IS being
used for the Monet. The customers demands are usually for an uninterrupted service with no
lags, downtime or data corruption. These expectations become a challenge owing to the nature of
operation of the business and the issues mentioned above. Additionally, the customers may tend
to turn towards the alternatives and competition that are present in the market. This would result
into bad reputation in the marke as well as decreased revenues. Additionally, brand recognition
will suffer leading to competitors cannibalizing into the brand's market share.
Issues under IT
 Various tools should be used in order to make monet successful. These includes
development of website, creating mobile application, database administration and
maintenance. There could be a technical error or some issues that could disrupt the
integration or proper functioning. (Antunes, 2014).
 With presence of different tools as well as applications there could be integration and
compatibility issues which could arise. (Secundo, 2017). This would give a way to
breakdown of the system as well as the sub-components as the underlying systems may
not work without a proper integration.
 The issues and their frequency of occurrence would ultimately lead to a significant
implication for the system that could indirectly harm monet. As costumers always expect
and demand uninterrupted service without any downtime or lags, this expectation would
not be met due to such issues. This would result into bad reputation in the marke as well
as decreased revenues. Additionally, brand recognition will suffer leading to competitors
eating into the brand's market share. (Fengel, 2014)
 The underlying hardware and software and the services being used by Monet needs
to be robust. Typically during a peak load which could happen in the case of Monet
during travel season or holidays, web-applications tend to get extremely slow or
crash altogether. These issues are not only faced by small companies but also by
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large corporations such as Dropbox, Microsoft and Google. Such downtimes or
performance issues does not go well with the customers when they are trying to
book properties or accessing their bookings. This is because, at this point of time,
they would be quick to switch to their competitors or spread the word out via social
platform resulting into serious negative
New Customers – Strategies and Decision Making
 Success of any business could be determined by several key performance indicators.
However, among these, the easiest is via customer base and the customer satisfaction. As
costumer’s base widens and more customers join the bandwagon, it's a sign that says the
company is providing good service. Gaining customer base and thereby increasing
market share is a important part of any business. Below some of these techniques to
enhance and grow the customer base are enumerated:
 There are large number of customers already on board with the five hotels. However,
assimilating under single brand roof would prove to beneficial for everyone. At the same
time costumers would be rewarded with introductory offers in order to join the
bandwagon at Monet. Customers who visit frequently or are the oldest ones would be
introduced to privilege membership with exclusive rewards.
 Marketing is an important medium to allow customers be informed with latest
developments about the business, as well as for awareness and brand development.
Customers would buy services only when they're completely aware about the product and
it's terms and conditions and have developed confidence and faith with the brand. Monet
should also make use of all kinds of marketing channels at disposal with special focus to
channels that are cost-effective such as the social media. As such social platforms would
be used to create a highly targeted advertisements that reach to end customers of the
brand as well as new customers.
 Since market is changing due to new entrants in all kinds of segments as well as the
business itself is going through a transformation, it is important to keep an eye out on the
market. This is to ensure that the services being offered are as per the market and suits the
needs and preferences of customers. The monet team should use advanced analytical and
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costumer listening tools to study and keep abreast with the latest happenings in the
market.(Wamba, 2017).
 The different types of services including types of rooms, time of stay, duration of stay etc
along with the associated services shall help fulfill the needs of all kinds of customers.
The strategies that are to be used for marketing and brand positioning must also factor in
the categories of customers such as solo traveler, family and business travelers.
 In today's world a business entity looking to engage customers from the web cannot
survive without online payments. Therefore, the site should make use of online payments
including major card companies, banks, mobile payment getaways as well as e-wallets.
The payment should passthrough a secured gateway and there should be end-to-end
encryption.
 With important time of the seasons such as summer vacation or Christmas holidays etc a
tailored marketing campaign should be executed that provides customers with specific
offers and benefits so that they're encouraged to visit monet. (Brocke, 2014)
 Allowing customers to pre-book different services would also be a game changer for
Monet. Business travelers especially may put in a request to have their Laundry
done every day or request to have a desk and office chair available or even booking
a small meeting room within the property. At the same time, family travelers may
pre-book a nanny for their young ones or have yoga instructors or tour-guides pre-
booked. This would enable such travelers to save time as well as the stress of
searching and booking them once they are already at the hotel.
New Business Opportunities
Costumers in the present day are looking for solutions which offers an integrated service for their
needs. This trend has been observed in different lifestyle and hospitality segments. Customers
prefer an all-in-one integrated solution that allows them to book flight, hotel, plan a trip and have
cab and other services included within the package. Monet should actively seek such business
opportunities that allows them to integrate well with other ancillary business and thereby remain
competitive in the business:
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 As soon as a customer books a package with the service, they should be allowed with
tailored itinerary with best of the destinations and 'things to dos' thereby creating an
automated itinerary for them.
 Monet must also partner with different transportation agencies and cab aggregator
services for systems cities so as to provide them with comfortable trip. (Giudice, 2016).
 A rapid and irreversible changes are happening in these segments and thus the demand
for services are evolving continuously. It is therefore imperative for monet team to use
advanced analytical and costumer listening tools to study and keep abreast with the latest
happenings in the market.
 Monet can tie up with independent travel guides as well as recruit freelance local guides
from platforms such as Withlocals.com, Toursbylocals.com among others. A mutual
agreement between these two platforms would result into long-term mutual benefit
between the two ushering into increased sales, better brand recognition as well as free-
marketing.
 Monet team must continuously be studying customer patterns as well as frequency
of travelers, services preferred along with choices of offers and deals that the
customers like more. They can use this learning to improvise Monet eventually.
(Ferretti, 2016).
 Monet should also partner with independent and local freelancing service
professionals that provide services in the lifestyle and hospitality segment. These
includes services such as Yoga professionals, chiropractors, massage therapists, gym
instructors among others. People traveling for business purposes or even leisure
purposes solo or in groups with family and friends may use such services. Also,
people going on ‘stay-cations’ and longer vacations are the perfect choice for such
services as they would be recipient of such services at their hometown’s and may
seek such services when they are on a trip as well.
 Monet may also partner with Gyms, Saunas, Spas and other lifestyle service
providers across the town in which they are present. Under this mutual-beneficial
agreement, they can provide them access to such places at a discounted rate or even
entirely free. The end result is brand exposure for both the parties involved as well
as development of long-term loyalty and trust. As such, those lifestyle service
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providers may get a chance to expose their brands to a certain segment of travelers
within the hotel with hoardings, banners and pamphlets while at the same time the
hotel gets to promote this as an add-on service leading to increased revenue and a
greater chance of visibility among the competition.
 At the same time, Monet may also be able to tap into the ever-growing food
industry. This can be done by partnering with specific restaurants present in the
vicinity of the property and allowing customers to place orders from these
restaurants via the centralized helpdesk present at their property. So travelers
would not just be able to enjoy cuisines provided by Monet but also the numerous
different restaurants and food joints that are present in the vicinity.
 Travel and tourism industry has seen tremendous growth with advancement in
transportation and with lowering costs of transportation. However, there's another trend
that has come up in recent years. People now are also booking for destinations that offer
off-beat locations and lesser known locations. However there's a challenge with these
locations as they don't offer good places to stay. Monet can use advanced analytical tools
and observe such trends and come up with properties at such locations ultimately
grabbing the market share of that area.
 With the current lifestyle, people are also looking for weekend stays as well as longer
stay-cations. Such trends are quite new and there are limited business operating in these
areas. Monet may capitalize such market with the sheer strength of their enlarged
operations owing to the merger. Monet must use advanced marketing tools to craft a
highly targeted campaigns that would attract such crowds.
Conclusion
As the hospitality sector continues to expand, it is attracting a large number of players too. These
players come in all shapes and sizes including hotels and resorts owned by the largest companies
in the world as well as newly funded startups. Monet thus tread on this path carefully and must
adapt to the evolving trends in the business. As such, they must make use of modern marketing
tools at their disposal. At the same time, they must evolve their marketing strategies because
such new marketing platforms require modern marketing campaigns and would not work with
marketing campaigns that were once suited in the pre-internet era. Since, 5 different chains are
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merging together to create one large entity, the knowledge and learnings must be shared in
between them so and together they could end up becoming a strong force in the market. There
are few issues with IT and IS as mentioned earlier in the report, however, those issues can be
managed with effective planning and also by incorporating a sound risk management plan.
Ultimately, how well Monet executes the overall plan would determine the success of their
operation in the long run as a single entity irrespective of the fact that they were already
successful earlier.
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