Information Technology for Business: A TripAdvisor Case Study

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Information Technology for
Business
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Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 3
Does your chosen business need IT?...........................................................................4
Why is IT important for business survival?...................................................................5
What is required to apply IT into your chosen business?..............................................6
How does your chosen business use IT?.....................................................................7
What benefits and advantages does IT bring to your chosen business?......................8
What type of risks does IT bring to your chosen business?..........................................9
How can your chosen business maintain and monitor IT?..........................................10
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 11
References.....................................................................................................................12
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Introduction
Information technology covers a large spectrum of hardware and software solution to
enable company gathering, organising and analysing data that helps to achieve goals.
Implementation of Information Technology drives the innovation and thus, innovation is
defined as the key path to attain business success (Xiang, et. al., 2015). In addition to
this, IT also enables the managers and employees to make quick and accurate
decisions so that they can easily manage the operations effectively and react towards
accomplishing the opportunities. For the present report, the selected organization is
TripAdvisor the leading travel website that showcases the content associated with hotel
and restaurant reviews along with the accommodation bookings. The report mainly
highlights the importance of IT system with respect to the selected firm.
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Does your chosen business need IT?
Information technology is a critical tool of business. IT plays a vital role in every aspect
in business such as production, management, manufacturing, marketing and many
more (Zurawski, 2018). Information technology means the use of computers and
software for the management of information in the organization. It includes anything
related to computer technology such as hardware, software, networking, internet, etc.
The company like Tripadvisor needs an IT system for managing its data and serving its
customers in a proper manner. Tripadvisor is a US tourism company that they serve all
over the world. In the present scenario usage of IT is essential for the selected
organization as it ensures proper communication, and the IT department serves the
best way to communicate through e-mail, social networking site, customer care support,
etc.
Through reviewing the services and activities of TripAdvisor it has been assessed that
IT services results in gaining the 390 million monthly unique visitors with providing
around 435 million reviews and opinions regarding the accommodations, restaurants
and attractions (Baller, et. al., 2016). With the IT services growth and engagement of
travellers continue to accelerate. Therefore, it positively helps in generating revenue of
around $478 billion USD in the travel industry that is often influenced by TripAdvisor in
the year 2014.
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Why is IT important for business survival?
Over the time period with the advancement in technology, TripAdvisor has engaged in
managing sustainable growth through underpinning by IT usage and engagement. It
supports the customers in providing the hotel reviews site where travellers can plan and
book nearly every aspect of their trip (Galer, et. al., 2016).
In addition to this, it has been assessed that the company is availing variety of services
to the market; also it is highly involved in seeking information and do market research
so that the needs of the end users can be able to get done in the needed manner. In
this process the role of IT is very high and with the assistance of this the company is
able to practice many innovative activities (Gelenbe and Caseau, 2015). Therefore,
implementation of IT has supported the cited travel services in delivering effective
services to distant people and travellers regarding the destination, hospitality
organization etc.
In the contemporary scenario, it is necessary for the staffs to communicate and interact
with their clients quickly and clearly, in this case Information Technology allows the
TripAdvisor to online and virtually communicate with the customers to find out the
answer for their requests and queries (Laudon and Laudon, 2015). Thus, it supports in
building loyalty among the customers and they would prefer to book travel services
while reviewing the reviews posted by travellers.
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What is required to apply IT into your chosen business?
The main crucial aspect area is IT infrastructure that is required to apply IT within
TripAdvisor. It has been to be ensured whether a new form of networks and physical
structure is present for proper implementation (Sittig, & Singh, 2015).
Financial plan- It is also necessary to create a budget plan to implement the IT
department in the organization, what resources will be needed, the cost of the
resources, how the fund will raise — detailing how financial and non-financial sources
will be managed to implement the plan. It is often said the right cost can be estimated
but it is not recognized, successful planning helps in reducing unnecessary cost (Lloyd,
2017).
Skilled employees- Every task need human force to work, the professional employee
will be required to work in the new project within TripAdvisor. Training and development
are necessary to succeed in software and hardware. Human capital is the key tool in
successful implementation; need to plan a mix of skill and expertise people for
implementation planning.
Contingency plan- Precaution is better than cure, for successful implementation of IT,
it is necessary to plan future event and circumstance or any possible threat.
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How does your chosen business use IT?
In order to get succeed in the online travel sector, TripAdvisor engages in choosing IT
services so that they can easily support the travellers by delivering required services.
With the help of using Information Technology TripAdvisor has turned to Big Data by
recommending and offering a range of content for its users so that they may get
adequate information regarding the place (Passey and Samways, 2016). Currently the
website allows 280 million unique monthly visitors with covering reviews around 170
million of which 4 million reviews are for the accommodations while other reviews are
for the attractions and restaurants. With the IT services it is significant for the chosen
company to share a mass of information to the different users.
In addition to this, the chosen organization also uses IT in the form of developing
Augmented Reality (AR) feature (TripAdvisor, 2019). This feature is possible for the
company as there are massive amounts of information and data that has been gathered
through reviews therefore, with AR feature TripAdvisor can easily make factual points
with referencing the city, as well as community data. Therefore, to showcase the
graphical images of the acquired data and review will assist the users in gaining
effective information.
Information technology is externally used by customers, stakeholder, bookings, agent,
ratings and so on. Today’s world everyone is conscious about security; customer uses
IT to know the reviews and rating before booking. Customer and agents are now able to
check boarding details of their online bookings (Gelenbe & Caseau, 2015). They also
give feedback to the firm for making better performance. Stakeholders of the
TripAdvisor can use information technology for knowing details of their investment
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What benefits and advantages does IT bring to your chosen business?
Several benefits of IT are present to TripAdvisor such as-
 It provides a fast response to the customer on time. Promotion can be done all
around the world by using internet marketing. The customers can get information
through the company website and they can contact the company manager or
employees for further information (Avgerou & Walsham, 2017).
 A strong relationship with the target market is also the key advantage where
through the IT system proper information is shared with the customers by
TripAdvisor that helps a lot in enhancing the tourism experience in the market.
Hence, this is also the main benefit of IT to the firm.
 The IT also provides information about the business to the customers and this is
also the key advantage (Laudon and Laudon, 2015). The IT field is the biggest
advantage for the company to grow the business firm.
Figure 1: Advantages of IT to the business
There is a flexible business hour, because now the internet is available always for the
company and the customers. In the business lots of people use online business for
marketing so they should have security regarding the business. TripAdvisor Company
provides better services to the customer with quality and at the same time better
assistance is provided to the customers (Passey and Samways, 2016). As now there is
incredible online marketing which is the biggest advantage for the company. The
internet has been extremely used by consumers for reaching markets anywhere in the
world.
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Informati
on to
customers
Strong
relationshi
p with
target
market
Fast
response
to the
customers
High
qualitty
service

What type of risks does IT bring to your chosen business?
Everything comes with boon and bane. If information technology brings benefit to the
chosen organization then it also comes with difficulties and threats, it can be said that
this is a whole package (Dutta, et. al., 2015).
Figure 2: Risk of IT to the business
The main risk and difficulties in the elected organization bring IT- has been discussed
below-
Software attacks- It refers to the software infected by a virus, worms, Trojan horses
etc. This is the major risk of information technology is getting infected. Once the data
taint by the virus will rapidly go one another system in case of TripAdvisor.
Security- The security factor is a crucial part of the selected firm.IT specialists monitor
data from time to time to prevent the information, data loss and many more.
Highly Confidential- Data is a relevant source of an organization that needs to be kept
confidential. Lack of security will make the risk of misuse of information. This leads to
heavy loss in the selected organization.
Avoid proper configuration- The selected organization has to understand the
importance of properly configuring security settings. Ignoring the security configuration
will risk the information being stolen (Cui, et. al., 2015).
Bound the access – If confidential data is bound to be used with limited staff, it will
easily cause excessive risk by using data and sharing it with the whole firm. The
company knows the value of data losing.
Third party or Hackers- Another major risk of the information technology brings in the
selected firm is hacker and third party. Hackers are taking social media as a path to
distribute a complex attack. Sometimes the third party hack the date for their personal
interest, in other case competitors appoint hackers to hack the data for their use.
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Software attacks
Highly Confidential
Third party or
Hackers
Bound the access
Security

How can your chosen business maintain and monitor IT?
The selected organization focuses on proper maintenance of IT through proper
planning. Different plans are developed and they provide proper direction in maintaining
IT (Schwalbe, 2015). Along with this, proper training is provided to the IT experts and
the professionals for the maintenance and this provides a wide range of benefits to the
organization.
 In order to maintain and monitor the IT system of TripAdvisor, the company has
engaged in forming the team with professionals so that they can maintain the
system on a timely basis.
 For maintaining IT in a proper manner the best part is to focus on resource
management. The company can plan well in advance like the resources required
for IT maintenance and at the same time it can support the firm in gaining a
competitive advantage over the rivalry.
 Assigning clear role and responsibility to every individual can also support in
monitoring of the IT system properly (Cui, et. al., 2015). In the case if the role of
the individual in the workplace is unclear then in such case it will be difficult to
work on the proper utilization of the system.
 On the continuous basis by providing proper training to the IT team members it
can be possible for TripAdvisor to maintain and monitor its IT system in a proper
manner and at the same time it can lead to the accomplishment of desired goals
and objectives also (Galer, et. al., 2016). Time to time the experts of the firm can
easily carry out analysis of the systems and through this they will be able to
whether the level of the system is up to the mark or not.
Through reviewing the above IT system of TripAdvisor it has been recommended that
they can engage in implementing Big Data Application to combat and beat the
fraudulent reviews that are made by travellers on their sites. Fake reviews are useless
to the visitors and in the long-run it will negatively impact the TripAdvisor in lowering
their performance level.
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Conclusion
The research report is based on the use of IT in business. The selected company is all
about social travel site. The company can make proper utilization of the IT in terms of
taking better decision, conducting marketing practices and at the same time dealing with
the complex issues also. It has been identified that in order to make better performance
and development information technology is useful in the selected organization which
gives it many benefits. It requires implementing new technology for the growth of the
selected organization. The pros and cons of IT have been identified in the study which
led to understanding the possible situation that can be managed by the company.
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References
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Studies from the perspective of developing countries: Studies from the
perspective of developing countries. Routledge.
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innovation: A strategic alignment perspective. Information & Management, 52(3),
348-358.
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energy consumption and carbon emissions. Ubiquity, 2015(June), 1.
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12. TripAdvisor, 2019. About Us. [Online]. Accessed through
< https://www.tripadvisor.in/?fid=b87e7694-ae88-46d4-9cf0-9b5070331d7a>.
[Accessed on 22nd May 2019].
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and consumer behaviour in travel and tourism: Insights from travel planning
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