INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: TVU HOTEL
Introduction
Perhaps, the rapid growth of technological advancement in the society has brought people so much ease in all the things they do. Part of this technological advancement is the emergence of the Information Communication Technology. Information Communication Technology (IS) is often regarded as the unquestioned cornerstone towards competitiveness in the 21st century. These technological advancements have brought people especially those in the business world to utilise a strategy that would be helpful in enhancing the business value of any organisation (, 2000). The intricacies of achieving business achievement through increased efficiency, effectiveness and competitiveness, combined with innovative applications of IT, has heightened the awareness of both IT and business managers towards more strategically oriented approaches for planning and management ( 1993).
In particular the need to strategically align business and IT planning has been emphasised as both critically important but increasingly problematic ( 1991; 1993; 1996). Some companies have used IT to achieve strategic objectives. Taking advantage of technological advances in computing and communicating through the use of Information Communication Technology, they provide new ways of rendering work in a certain organisation. Some companies which have strategically used this Information Communication Technology are now known as leaders in the marketplace and those who have not give enough focus has faced their downturn.
Primarily, the main goal of this paper is to evaluate the external information communication technology of an industry and attempt to apply its concept of TVU Hotel.
Overview of the Company
THL is considered as one of the luxurious and unique hotel located. It is a 17-storey building which provides 422 comfortable rooms comprising 48 spacious and finest suites, all opening onto terraces overlooking the Atrium. All the VIP rooms of the hotel had been able to combine modern and fashionable elegance with state of the art facilities to be able to satisfy middle and upper class clients. The THL Hotel is essential to the business and shopping area of which is well served by the efficient public transport system of where it is located. This means that the location of the hotel enable it to gain competitive advantage among its rival competitors. In addition, THL has also been able to provide their customer different restaurant that offers different cuisines that suits the needs of their customers.
Primarily, the core mission of the company is to provide quality service for making their customers be delighted and satisfied each time that they would avail the services of THL. In addition, the objective of the company is to make the industry available for every purpose an individual desire such as for relaxation, business meetings, conferences and others.
In line with its mission and objective, the company has been able to utilize a unique strategy in order to provide better service for their customers for inquiry and booking purposes. The THL had been able to establish telephone room which includes one telephone service manager, one telephone service supervisor, a senior operator and three Junior Operators. The staff is responsible for internal and external communication from different departments and different customers of the hotel.
However, as their customer’s increases enormously, the hotel industry is thinking of having a new information communication technology system like call center so as to give emphasis to the customer’s inquiries and needs. In this manner, the management of the hotel has thought of restructuring or converting the telephone room into a more efficient center for their information communication technology system. This is to make sure that the hotel is in its way in adapting the technological advancement in the marketing environment.
The Concept of Call Center and Its Used to THL Hotel
The hallmark of modern industries and organization has always been change. Technological and organizational innovation is in turn the primary driver of change, shaping, reshaping, and sometimes completely overturning the existing order. In rapid environmental changes, there is obviously value in the ability to sense the need to reconfigure the firm’s asset structure, and to accomplish the necessary internal and external transformation ( 1992; 1994).
The use of the technology is altering high-tech marketing instantly while different industries have been trying to use it as part of their marketing strategy. It does not only reconfigured the way different firms do business and the way the consumers buy goods and services but it also become instrumental in transforming the value chain from manufacturers to retailers to consumers, creating a new retail distribution channel ( 1999). Part of this technological advancement is the emergence of Information Communication Technology including the concept of call centre.
The growth of the call centre in different companies or organisation is the result of the developed firm’s pursuit of lower cost of providing services while increasing the time period access (2001). The growth also shows that companies desire to improve access to their services, in a cost-effective manner, and retain satisfied customers. Call centres are now part of everyday life and become increasingly difficult to avoid. In this context, these service encounters are conducted by virtual organisations that could be located anywhere in the world, adding weight to the literature that considers organisations have no geographical boundaries in a global economy (, 2002).
The THL hotel has been able to establish their call centre because of many reasons: internally and externally. One of the reasons why the company would want to convert their telephone room to a more extensive call centre is to provide a one stop service to their respective guests.
It is well known that call centres was designed to serve as the primary point of entrance for any customers. Herein, the main purpose of the company is to ensure that their service is always available especially for those who would want an early reservation for any purposes they want. Through this, the THL hotel can help the customer to easily inquire with their reservation and lessen the anxiety and the workload of their clients. In addition, call centre as part of the ICT, adapted by the company will easily know the comments and feedback of their customers which served as the basis for the industry for improvement and development.
In addition, another purpose of the company is to maximise customer satisfaction while reducing their costs. The THL opted to use call centre in order to efficiently facilitate all customer need without having to spend much. There is other approach to get information from customers such as the online approach, however, this will cost much and sometimes it only cause internal trouble for the user, but with the use of a call centre, the company believes that they would easily maximize all their assets.
Benchmarking is another factor the pushes the company to adapt the call centre instead of continuously using a small telephone unit. Benchmarking is widely recognised in the private sector for the search for and incorporation of best practice into organisations to achieve competitive advantages ( 2000; 1997). According to (1989) benchmarking is a proactive process to change operations in a structured fashion to achieve superior performance.
The call centre does not exist for the customer to interact with apart from via the telephone, which allows the service to be delivered from anywhere in the world. The development of technology has forced companies to revisit the ways in which they manage relationships with their customer base. Many organisations have been innovative in the method of service delivery. Call centres provide companies with valuable information about the performance of their goods and services ( 2001). They allow the organisation to learn how the customer felt or how the employee thought the customer felt (, 2001).
In the external level, THL opted to convert their telephone service to a call centre, in order to equally level the organisation with other larger competitors. Because the management of the THL wants to improve the quality of their service, and to align their organisation with the leading competitors, they taught that the efficient and excellent used of a call centre will eventually bring competitive advantage among their rivals (2000).
Recommendation
Technology relates to knowledge, often new knowledge, and frequently new scientific knowledge. In essence, technology constitutes an inventory of potential value, but only if it is exploited on a timely basis. A good way to think about technology is as the intellectual headwaters of innovation, a raw material for creating change. Innovation, on the other hand, is the conversion of technology into conspicuous customer solutions, which can be either product, process, or service. Innovation is the process by which technological value is realized. High-value innovation is dependent upon the enlightened definition of a significant problem and, on a timely basis, the coupling to that problem of an adroit technological solution.
The most appropriate technique that THL can use to meet its ICT requirements is the ability to utilise a change management system that include project planning, project management and project evaluation. It can be said that the company is in need of an ICT system that will handle internal and external communication without having to worry of its depletion. In addition, the company is in need of real-time information so as to provide fast quality service.
Hence, using this new ICT infrastructure will enable the company to meet it needs of satisfying not only their customers but also the employees who will handle the task. However, if the company do not give emphasis on an in-depth planning and management of the project, the infrastructure may totally ruin the capability of the company as well as its business operations. It is also important that the company should give attention to the possible risks of ICT depreciation and inability of the employee to adapt to the implementation of the new Infrastructure so as to provide alternative solution for these risks.
Conclusion
Indeed, the use of ICT has permitted people to create a world that distinguishes no limits over time, geography, information processing, communications, and decision-making capacities even economic or political boundaries. The industries now and in the future, need information technology in order to become competent in the marketplace just what THL is imposing. One of the distinguishing characteristics of the information based industry is the speed with which IT and knowledge change almost instantly.
This raises an urgent task for human resource training policy, supplying both knowledge and technology for people’s application. To do this, investments to develop and modernise infrastructures and conditions for free access of all enterprises to the information technology database had become top concerns in the world. It shows that to be competitive in this modern world, ICT must also be modern. This is to ensure that the company is coping to the needs of its stakeholders. Hence, in order for THL to continually have competitive position in the hotel industry, they should always allow innovation and changes within the technical department of the company.
Reference
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