Overview of the Methodology
Introduction
The hospitality industry has experienced a drastic change n the recent past, and information systems are partly to thank. Through IS/IT, the hospitality industry has the capacity to improve its competitive positioning. According to Shields (2004), it is important to employ technology in order to re-invent the external and internal processes and, in the long run, ensure productivity and customer satisfaction. Knowing the relationship between the external operators through distribution channels is an example of a critical success factor that brings out the most out of IS/IT use. Another CSF is diversifying service offers. This project analysis aims to identify the CFS and some of the limitations when implementing the ERP systems covering all groups of an international hotel chain.
In the project, there was an interpretivist approach, which was mostly qualitative. An approach was adopted for knowing the facts by putting the investigators into the organizational context using some of the hotels that belong to the group. This approach made it easy for the professionals, managers, users, and directors of IT/IS to express and conceptualize the investigation’s objectives. The technique involved a number of techniques like interviews with the CEO of the group, the IT/IS directors, as well as the people who deal with human resources, finance systems, and logistics. The approach did emphasize the inconsistencies in the information that was used in the process.
The interviews with some of the organization’s major people were a way of making sure that there was a good vision of the organization’s people. It also helped in a glance at the materials that were being collected and analyzed. There was a questionnaire that was constructed for the users. The respondents of the questionnaires were majorly the IS users and had different responsibilities in different departments within the hotel. This particular profile was aimed at undertaking the level of satisfaction by the users towards the implementation. Simply put, the process was either implemented through analysis of the data collected on the hotels or through direct observation of the applications.
The solution that the ERP vendors offered were assessed to validate their effectiveness and functional coverage in the hotel chain. An expert was then invited to give their suggestions on the analysis of the case. According to the interviews, the strategies of the group stands, among other various aspects. This finding backed arguments from authors such as Piazolo and Felderer (2016) about offering service diversification as a differentiation strategy. The top management was questioned about the strategy through interviews about the competitive advantage associated with the IS/IT and its potential impact on the hotel chains’ business performance. According to the opinions, the IS/IT had no competitive advantage. It was just a secondary factor after others like quality and location or brand recognition of the constituent hotel units. In addition, the respondents did not notice any risk associated with losing their market share since they found out IS/It as being a support system to the business operation. According to Touir (2016), the perception that inventing on IS/It is not a good strategy weighs down the benefits of using it. Others like Qiao (2015) posit that investment in IS/IT is paramount and, to some extent, inevitable as a means of reacting to the global demands of the business.
Limitations
The objective of this investigation was also to assess some of the limitations in the hotel industry. Investigating the limitations was done by conducting an analysis of the hotel group and possibly understand how the industry solve the problems they encounter in the process associated with ERP systems.
According to the analysis findings, lack of data integration with complementary businesses like SPA, health centers, and golf had an adverse effect on the quality of service given to the customers. Since there was no integration among the data used during the customers’ stay in the units, there was no online update of the accounts; hence, the invoice was not ready during the checkout. This particular situation affected some of the CSF, which was the quality of service offered to the customers.
It was also found that lack of integration between the front office system and the leading tourism operates such as Booking and Expedia affected another CSF, which improved the process performance. Because these processes were not integrated, their effectiveness was assessed manually through tools like email and fax. Therefore, one can conclude that besides despite the high amount of time taken to finish some of the tasks, the hotel group does not fully take advantage of the IS/IT innovation in the industry, which was to incorporate the process of the value chain into an information system, according to authors such as (Pazolo and Felder, 2013)
Insufficient or lack of integration at all caused a loss in the competitive advantage. The alternative, which is manual intervention, can lead to redundancy, inaccuracy, and inconsistencies. Furthermore, constraints like these cause inaccuracies and difficulty retrieving the information on a company’s performance and management (Pelpherey, 2105). Other authors, like Ray (2019), had the same conclusions in their researches. Poor integration of data makes it hard for the business to relate with their business partners since there will also be a barrier to inter-organizational integration. Therefore, the capacities induced by these innovations are not well-made use of.
Recommendations
4.3.1 Top Management Support
Identified as one of the most critical success factors in ERP system was support from the top management. According to Patterson (2020), top management was made up of two major aspects; providing the necessary business operation resources and providing effective leadership. In addition, the main responsibilities of the top management an origination include making clearer the capacities and weaknesses of an organization, coming up with objectives of the ERP system that is reasonable, making known the corporate strategy of the organization to all staff members as well as enhancing commitment (Yadisar, 2011). Morris (2013) posits that management from top support does not just end with facilitating an initiating. Instead, it extends to the overall complete implementation of an ERP system. Besides, the top management is obligated to guiding the project implementation team towards the right direction as well as overseeing the progress
4.3.2 Business Plan and Vision
Having a vivid business plan and vision is critical in guiding the project throughout the ERP system’s whole life cycle. According to Rutherford (2019), it is the work of project management to identify the organizational goal, which is categorized into three, namely cost, scope, and time (Olson, 2004). The first stage of a project, whatever kind it is of, is to start with coming up with the goals and then following the possible ways of achieving those goals. In addition, goals have to be explained to the stakeholders in an organization so that they become a clear indication of the directions of the project in general. Wallace (2002) propounds that one of the biggest challenges faced by the project implementation leaders, ERP in particular, does not originate from the process of implementation. Instead, it is as a result of the pressure as a result of expectations from stakeholders like the staff members, senior management, and members of the board. Therefore, it is paramount to come up with the projects’ goals even before going for support from the top management. Many implementation processes of the ERP have failed because of not having vivid plans and visions.
4.3.3 Reengineering Business Process
According to Lau (2005), Business Process Reengineering is “the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, and speed.” Khosrow (2007) propounded that BPR is a critical strategy, especially during the early stages of project implementation. In addition, it is more critical in the early stages during the process of assimilation. Still, it becomes less gradually as the technology has been completely assimilated and has become a part of the organizational culture. Kapp et al. (2016) underline that reengineering should always be there with some new updates for the ERP to be fully taken advantage of. Organizations have to adjust their business operations in order to accommodate the technology if at all, they want to mitigate the cases of customization (Harwood, 2003). Many organizations have unnecessarily complicated the ERP system in their business since the people in charge of implementing the system are not well acquainted with their business operations.
4.3.4 Project Management and Project Champion
Implementing an ERP system is quite a tiresome and involving tasks. Therefore, better approaches should be put in place by the organization to ascertain that implementation is a success (Fores, 2019). The activities carried out by the project management usually range from the initial stages in regards to the ERP life cycle towards the end, which eventually closes it. Effective planning and management are major roles performed by the project’s characteristics, including sizes, level of technology, and the project’s structures (Ferran et al., 2008). Chorofas (2001) concluded that the most essential strategies to consider while implementing an ERP system is the project champion. The project champion dictates the transformation as it focuses on changing the duties played by the project’s life and comprehend the level of technology and the business organization. Moreover, the project champion is entitled to control any form of resistance geared transformation in the older system (Bradford, 2015).
4.3.5 Teamwork and Composition
It is always preferable for the ERP team to select and have competent personnel with better skills within the organization (Atkinson, 2103). According to Alturkistani (2018), the project’s success is directly proportional to the managers and other working personnel’s level of work experience, skills, abilities, and competency. Apart from the team being familiarized with the latest technological advancement, it should have a proper understanding of its needs. The ERP takes into consideration all the departments within the organization that are active together with their departmental heads. It also in demand for the efforts and proper coordination of the technical teams and the experts for a better operation. The technical panel, together with the competent skilled are essential for the project to fulfill its objectives ( Albadri, 2012). Another essential aspect to consider is the communication skills since there should be proper sharing of information to create trust among the partners at the implementation stage. In addition, the team members need to familiarize themselves with the business’s roles and the products that they do specialize in in order to understand which areas to improve in the system (Atkinson, 2013).
4.3.6 ERP System Selection
It is often a complex and lengthy process when it comes to the selection of an appropriate ERP system. Salim (2007) illustrated that there has never been a separate ERP package that can easily avail all the necessary functions that are needed for the business to thrive. On the other hand, numerous ERP packages are available in the market system and have got the same functionalities but different designing, which include; SAP, Oracle, JD Edwards, and Baan. Touir (2016) states that It is therefore recommended for the organizations to have a better selection and identify an ideal vendor who will be able to deliver an ERP system that is more flexible and adaptable. For instance, research by Qiao (2015) emphasized the necessity to select a suitable ERP system that can easily align with the latest trends in business procedures. Furthermore, when adopting the selected ERP systems, some additional factors should be put into consideration, including applicability, integration, and upgradeability. The system should, therefore should be flexible and easy to use for the implementation process to be easier.
4.3.7 User Involvement
One important factor to consider for the success of ERP implementation is user involvement. Adopting user involvement facilitates the achievements of the users’ desires and needs as it aims to develop reasonable expectations regarding the system’s capability in the implementation stage (Piazolo, 2016). It is important to consider user involvement as it champions for improving the perceived management via participation in the entire project proposal. There are a few key areas that apply user involvement, especially when the organization makes a decision in implementing an ERP system. These two key areas include; user involvement at the initial stage while defining the ERP system needs of the organization and the participation of the user while implementing the ERP system (Kapp et al., 2016).
4.3.8 Education and Training
It is always important to offer quality education and train the users on how best to manage ERP since ERP is more complex to use with the skills learned in information technology. Frequent training and tests can easily help meet the set objectives of the ERP system, and insufficient education and training can easily result in failure of the whole system (Ray, 2019). The core reason why education and training are important is to boost the technological knowledge of the experts as well as improving the users’ competency in the company