OBJECTIVES
As a person with knowledge of hotel innovation technologies, the author has always brought up to his superiors the viability of strategy formation regarding the analysis of this topic and at times fail to understand the reasons or logic behind certain strategic implementations imposed on it.
By delving into this project paper, the author intends to have better insights into how hotel innovation technologies are thought up, formulated and then imparted down into the hotel. The author hopes to have an in-depth understanding as to how the hotel innovation technologies enable hotel establishments to compete effectively and profitably in this era of internationalization where competition is extremely intense.
In order to reinforce the learning objectives, two key focal issues were focused upon i.e. innovation and diversity. Innovation was discussed with regard to hotel innovation technologies where it was renowned for its developmental capabilities to constantly innovate. Diversity came under strategic thinking and formation as the author considered the diverse culture, political climate, economic surroundings, social environment, technological settings, government policies and legal systems in order to better understand the issues being discussed.
SUMMARY
This essay utilized the Hilton London Paddington in London, England and its hotel innovation technologies as the model to review its present features and functions and how they dealt with critical situations. From the analysis, key trends in the hotel information technologies were then identified, how they worked and their effectiveness in dealing with critical situations was ascertained. The paper then moved on to assess these hotel innovation technologies with regard to their suitability to critical situations, during which the internal capabilities of these hotel innovation technologies in relation to the strategy being followed by the Hilton London Paddington was determined also. An overall analysis of the performance and effectiveness of hotel innovation technologies of Hilton London Paddington was also conducted to assess and compare the capabilities of these hotel innovation technologies with those of others. Gaps in the capabilities and features of hotel innovation technologies were then identified.
Finally, several choices of strategies to improve the hotel innovation technologies of Hilton London Paddington as effective means in critical situations were recommended and evaluated in terms of appropriateness to the issues reviewed, feasibility in carrying out the options and acceptability within the key stakeholders and decision makers. Several key implementation issues related to managing strategic change were also addressed as well.
INTRODUCTION
In the advent of modernization in the realm of Information Technology, it is important for hotel establishments, whether small-scale or large-scale, to keep themselves updated to the latest trends so as to keep their competitive value of their products and services in the global market. One obvious trend involves the use of various Information Systems and Innovation Technologies in order to improve the business operations of most companies.
Hotel innovation technologies pertain to gadgets or systems that lead to the efficient and effective implementation of the hotel’s policies and tasks necessary to satisfy their customers, employees, and management. Hotel innovation technologies focus on the careful management of the processes involved in the production and distribution of the hotel’s products and services. More often than not, small hotel establishments don’t really have the capabilities to implement hotel innovation technologies. Instead, these hotels engage in activities that various schools of hotel and restaurant management typically associate with upgrading and improving their services (Wood, 1994).
This report focuses on various Information Systems and Innovation Technologies that have significantly improved the efficiency of the business operations of Hilton London Paddington upon successful implementation. There are also tips suggested on how Hilton London Paddington manages its Information Systems upon their implementation.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
The domestic and foreign hotel business is among the fastest growing economic sectors in UK. In fact, the domestic and foreign hotel business by itself is recognized as multi-million dollar and still a progressing business in UK. The domestic and foreign hotel business is among the major economic forces in the country as its enables growth and creation of job opportunities. The domestic and foreign hotel business has employed over a million workers who were distributed within various hotel establishments, totaling to revenue generation of billions of dollars. From these records, the domestic and foreign hotel business has indeed become one of the most competitive businesses in the world (Smith, 1994).
Important changes in the understanding and management of innovation technologies of most domestic and foreign hotels have been developed in the past 10 to 15 years. Various researchers, practitioners and policymakers now acknowledge that innovation technologies can be conceptualized from a functional perspective and that appropriate interventions involve the development of alternative measures to cope up. It was also noted that the establishment of a conducive hotel environment for tourists to enjoy and relax have served effectively in lowering the prevalence of un-satisfaction among tourists. At present, this philosophical shift has extended to various settings, including UK. Domestic and foreign hotel owners and entrepreneurs here have recognized that some tourists do not appreciate so much the quality of service that their hotels and restaurants offer. Hence, these tourists may have the tendency to shy away from visiting UK and its other great cities because of this bad impression they have.
For decades, researchers have tried to discover the elements of innovation technologies among tourist establishments such as foreign and domestic hotels. And while they might have been able to identify certain essential elements of innovation technologies, they have yet to determine the elements that common tourists pay particular attention to. However, it has been shown that negligence of innovation technologies produces consequences that foster bad impressions from tourists. Strong evidence suggests that innovation technologies and its negligence engage in a reciprocal relationship that has a short and long term effect on the tourist’s future opinion regarding the service quality of hotel establishments. One of the criteria for identifying if a tourist establishment such as hotels is of high in innovation technologies is whether it has an impressive environment with fully operational facilities meant for the relaxation and enjoyment of the tourists and visitors. A deficit in basic services, as well as skills related to making the tourists and guests fully accommodated, significantly impairs a hotel’s ability to encourage more and more tourists to come over to their place. When compared to high quality serviced foreign and domestic hotels, low quality serviced foreign and domestic hotels have lower performance rates, lower income and are less likely to be known all over the place. As a consequence, low quality serviced hotels often experience a lifetime of problems in employment and publicity, and they are likely to become bankrupted even at a developmental stage (Rub-off, 1988).
Overview of Hilton London Paddington
Hilton London Paddington aims for sustainable growth as a broad market leader in the hotel industry of UK as well as for segment leadership. In both cases, the hotel services of Hilton London Paddington will play a crucial part. Hilton London Paddington is able to establish its broad leadership usually by acquiring other strong hotel establishments and their services, which are then combined into a new, larger hotel. Offering training to its employees, improving the company operations, and the introduction of new innovation technologies then reinforces the positions of the various hotel services of Hilton London Paddington. This practically results in economies of scale that is able to create a distribution network for the hotel services of Hilton London Paddington. If a market is already in the control of other hotel establishments, Hilton London Paddington devotes its attention towards the development of a premium segment with its various hotel services and innovative technologies (Price, 1995).
The mission of Hilton London Paddington is to secure the growth of the business in a sustainable manner, while at the same time constantly improving the company’s profitability. The strategy to achieve this involves four elements:
Hilton London Paddington’s Customers
Gone are the days when tourists have to find a place to temporarily stay for hours. Today’s tourists want to become as productive as possible while in their favorite tourist destinations and interact with different individuals and groups from various parts of the world. The technological advancement in hotel technologies has allowed tourists and guests at Hilton London Paddington to access communication tools in new settings. Because of this rigorous and hectic schedule of tourists and guests, it became imperative for them to indulge in relaxing hotel services to help them ease the tiredness after a day of visiting great tourist attractions.
Operatives
A. Materials Management
Workers in this group have responsibilities in communications, recordkeeping as well as operations scheduling. The materials management team of the winery is subdivided into key personnel.
Cargo and freight agents. These people track cargo and freight shipments of tourist lodging in at Hilton London Paddington. They may come from airlines, terminals or from shipping docks. They are in charge of keeping the records of missing and destroyed items from tourists. These people are able to sort the numerous cargos of baggage from tourists based on their destinations. They also establish payment scheduling with tourists and arrange the pickup schedule and delivery of freight.
Couriers and messengers. These people are assigned to deliver important business documents and packages of tourists lodging at Hilton London Paddington to other people. They keep records of deliveries and get the recipient’s signature. These people travel by car or just by foot when making nearby deliveries.
Production and planning clerks. These people do the coordination of the flow of information, work as well as the materials. These are done usually on a production or work schedule basis. They also the gathering of critical information for reports.
B. Purchasing and Buying
Buyers and purchasing agents of Hilton London Paddington are tasked to evaluate technology suppliers on the basis of price, quality and service support. They review catalogs as well as industry and company publications in order to help them in their search for the right technology suppliers. Fortunately for them, a majority of this information can be easily accessed in the Internet. They also do some researching about the reputation and background of the technology suppliers and may also do some advertisements regarding the foreseen purchase actions in the hope of soliciting bids. At meetings and conferences, they perform the examination of hotel technology products and services, the evaluation of the productive and distributive capabilities of technology suppliers, and the discussion of business considerations that have the possibility of influencing the purchasing decision. As soon as all valuable information about the technology suppliers is gathered, the placement of orders and contracts are started to be awarded to those technology suppliers who are able to meet the needs of the purchasers. The typical contracts range for several years and may even have the stipulations of the range of prices, which would allow the purchasers to reorder whenever necessary.
C. Production Planning
Production planning is a necessary function within Hilton London Paddington. In most hotels in UK this process is often very difficult because of the fast rate of change and the occurrences of unplanned events. Hilton London Paddington uses several methodologies depending on the rate of demand of the customer and the price of the technology. Nevertheless, the objectives of Hilton London Paddington for every transaction do not change: efficiency and effectiveness.
Production planning is being implemented by Hilton London Paddington in order for its activities and resources to be coordinated over time. This enables the hotel to achieve its goals with minimal resource utilization. Production planning also enables Hilton London Paddington to monitor the progress of their plans at regular intervals and maintain their control over operations. Production planning within Hilton London Paddington involves four elements: scheduling, labor planning, equipment planning, and cost planning.
- Scheduling involves the specification of the beginning, the length or the duration, and end of the planned activities.
- Labor planning involves allocating the necessary personnel and delegation of responsibilities and resources
- Technology planning involves identifying the types and needs in terms of equipments.
- Cost planning involves determining the costs and the possibility of their occurrence.
Management
The Hilton London Paddington Board of Directors and management believe that sound principles of corporate governance are critical to obtaining and retaining the trust and respect of stockholders, employees, other stakeholders and the public. The Hilton London Paddington board serves at the discretion of stockholders and works to represent their interests by enhancing business strategies and practices for the creation of long term stockholder value.
Governance Summary
- The board consists of three standing committees: Audit Committee, Compensation Committee and the Nominating and Governance Committee;
- A majority of board members are independent of the company and its management;
- The Audit Committee of the board has established policies consistent with the newly enacted corporate reform laws for auditor independence;
- The independent members of the board meet regularly without the presence of management;
- The charters of our board committees clearly establish their respective roles and responsibilities;
- The company has a clear code of ethics and all employees must affirm their acceptance of this code. The code of ethics includes a conflict of interest policy to ensure that key corporate decisions are made by individuals who do not have a financial interest in the outcome separate from their interest as company officials;
- The company actively monitors compliance with the law and the global financial policies and practices over critical areas. These areas include internal controls, financial accounting and reporting, fiduciary accountability and safeguarding of our corporate assets.
INFORMATION SYSTEMS and INNOVATION TECHNOLOGIES
Hilton London Paddington implements these specific information systems and innovation technologies in order to improve their business operations.
A. Transaction Processing System
This information system is tasked to collect and organize operational data of Hilton London Paddington’s activities (Child, 1990). For example, a typical banking operation by the hotel involves transferring 0 from the account of their client to the hotel’s checking account. This would seem like a single operation to the hotel, but in reality this transaction consists of two steps: debiting the clients account by 0, and crediting the hotel’s checking account by 0. If the debit operation succeeded and the credit did not, then the 0 would disappear.
The Transaction processing system combines these two operations and groups them into a single transaction. This is done through the production of copies of the data in question, and these copies are then made to run the operations on the copied data. When both commands have successfully completed, the changed data is written back to the system in a single operation. If one of the operations fails, the copied data is simply discarded, and an error is reported.
For many years transaction processing was the domain of information systems, especially since they these information systems were able to guarantee that any changes to the database would be completed. This worked well for most companies, and they could all even run on top of a database with a single client-server.
However, in recent years this model has also become more difficult to maintain. As the number of transactions grew in response to various online services, a single database proved to be very inefficient. Also, most online systems consist of a whole suite of programs operating together, as opposed to a strict client-server model where the single server could handle the transaction processing. Nevertheless, this type of information system will significantly bolster the business operations of hotel establishments when successfully implemented.
B. Management Support Systems
1) Decision Support System
This information system goes beyond one-way presentations and sharing of applications to enable a focused exchange of ideas over the Internet or an Intranet. Researches have proved that electronic brainstorming is able to generate more and better ideas (Peacock, 1995). This is brought about by the combination of parallel idea generation and the utilization of focus group discussions and tools for the organization of ideas. Therefore, decision-making is done with a higher degree of consensus and a higher likelihood of implementation success. Meetings within Hilton London Paddington would only take less than a fraction of time as expected. But more importantly, everyone walks away with the minutes of the meeting in hand, regardless of where they are.
Also, because the tools are web-based, the hotel’s management can choose the proper setting for the meetings, whether to place the clients in a conference room, set up a distributed meeting or a mixture of both. The management can decide whether the meeting should be done in real-time or whether the clients can participate and contribute their ideas only when their schedule allows them to. Either way, Hilton London Paddington is assured of getting the same focus and productivity while at the same time having a significantly greater flexibility in terms of scheduling.
2) Executive Information System (ELIS)
The Executive Information System begins with the identification of problems. These include the gaps between the desired and actual states that cannot be easily closed easily because of the new knowledge that needs to be produced to support the decisions and actions needed to close them (Karsavina, 1992). There are generally three (3) classes of such problems:
· problems occurring in hotel business processes;
· problems occurring in hotel knowledge processes; and
· problems occurring in hotel Knowledge management processes.
Problems occurring in the hotel business processes cannot be resolved through the use of Knowledge management solutions, but through knowledge processing solutions. The other two classes of problems, however, can be solved through the use of Executive Information System services. This Information System will identify, formulate, and evaluate the knowledge processing and knowledge management problems
This is the most important service that the ELIS provides for Hilton London Paddington. Failure to solve a business process problem within the hotel, for instance, may not be caused by a problem in the organization and structure of the hotel’s organizational knowledge processes. Instead, it may be possibly caused by a failure in solving an extremely difficult business process problem, even though available knowledge processes are working just fine.
There are certain instances, however, that it is not always very clear what the nature of the problem is, even if a knowledge processing problem exists. For example, the fact that the knowledge needed to support a particular decision is not there may be possibly caused by the fact that the knowledge exists, but is currently unavailable because of a poorly operating knowledge sharing process. Another possible explanation is that it could be caused by the fact that the process of the development of new knowledge claims is not open to most organizational participants.
The bottom line is the process on how the problem is formulated and diagnosed. Because of its experience in the development of the underlying conceptual foundations of Knowledge Management, the Executive Information System is able to identify, formulate and evaluate knowledge processing and knowledge management problems within Hilton London Paddington.
3) Expert System
The Expert System is meant to solve real problems of Hilton London Paddington which normally would require hiring a human expert to solve them (Harvey, 1990). Building the Expert system therefore first involves the extraction of the crucial information from a human expert. Such knowledge is often characterized as heuristic in nature. However, the extraction of relevant information from an expert in a way that can be used by a computer is generally a difficult task. Therefore, a knowledge engineer is needed to do the job of extracting this knowledge and building the expert system knowledge base.
The first attempt in the construction of the Expert System would unlikely be very successful. This is partly because the human expert generally would find it very difficult to express the necessary knowledge and rules needed to solve the problem. Much of it is almost subconscious, or appears so obvious that most human experts don’t even bother mentioning it. Knowledge acquisition for the Expert System would involve a big area of research, with a wide variety of techniques that also need to be developed. However, the Hilton London Paddington first developed an initial prototype based on the relevant information extracted in the interview of the human expert, then made some refinements on it based this time on the feedbacks coming from both the human expert and from the potential users of the Expert System.
In order to do such refinements from the prototype it is important that the Expert System must be written in such a way that it can easily be inspected and modified. The system should be able to explain its reasoning and also be able to answer questions regarding the solution process. The system updating must not involve rewriting a whole lot of codes. It must include simply the addition or deleting localized chunks of knowledge.
The most widely used knowledge representation scheme for expert systems is rules. Typically, the rules do not have certain conclusions, but there is some degree of certainty that the conclusion will hold if the conditions hold also. Statistical techniques are often used to determine these certainties. Rule-based systems, with or without certainties, can be easily modified, thus making it easy to provide helpful traces of the system’s reasoning. These traces can be further used in providing explanations of what it is doing.
Expert systems have long been used to solve a wide range of problems in domains which include medicine, mathematics, engineering, business, law and education. Within each domain, they have been used to solve problems of different types. Types of problem involve diagnosis (e.g., of a system fault or student error); design (of computer systems); and interpretation (of, for example, geological data). The necessary problem solving techniques tend to depend more on the type of the problems rather than on the domain.
C. Hotel Automation System
The Hotel Automation System of Hilton London Paddington provides the incorporation of important hotel documents of all types through the integration of images into the Automation System (Ellis, 1993). The System include applications such as word processing, database, and mail, all of which are able to access image documents. The storage of document images is made possible through the utilization of a variety of storage media such as microfilms and optical disks. An image access subsystem, on the other hand, provides to each of the Hotel Automation applications the uniform access to images stored on all of the media. The image access subsystem can then be used as a hardware controller to handle some of the complex events in the retrieval of images from the image storage devices. A relational database system must be used in order to organize the stored images so as to provide flexible access to the images and to isolate any effects of reconfiguration of the image storage system.
THE HILTON HOTEL MINDSET
Excellent hotel service quality is a must.
Hotel service quality generally pertains to a tourist’s perception over a hotel’s quality of services being offered. Hilton London Paddington believes that people or tourists tend to interpret the services in their surroundings without realizing it. This interpretation is based on the visitors’ needs and preferences that will allow them to function more efficiently. This makes up the visitor’s overall experience or perception. This is the reason why Hilton London Paddington puts a premium on excellent service quality because it suggests awareness but not conscious awareness. The service quality is naturally enhanced when tourists could identify with specific hotel characteristics that they need or are important to them. Thus, the perception or experience in terms of service quality of the visitor is significantly related to the environment they wanted to be in.
For Hilton London Paddington, excellent service quality equates to the degree of efficiency and effectiveness of the implementation of their policies and tasks necessary to satisfy their customers, employees, and management. Their hotel service quality focuses on the careful management of the processes involved in the production and distribution of products and services.
More often than not, small hotels in UK don’t really have the capabilities to directly determine the quality of their services to their clients or customers. Instead, they engage in activities that various schools of management typically associate with service quality management. These activities include the inspection of their products, service development, production and distribution.
However, in Hilton London Paddington service quality deals with all operations done within their premises. Activities such as the management of purchases, the control of inventories, logistics and evaluations are often related with their excellent service quality. A great deal of emphasis lies on the efficiency and effectiveness of processes. Therefore, service quality in Hilton London Paddington includes the analysis and management of internal processes.
Service quality in Hilton London Paddington can be subdivided into three main categories. These are:
A. Convenience
Hilton London Paddington’s dedication to service quality easily leads to the satisfaction of its customers. Making a particular foreign and domestic hotel convenient to its customers and visitors is not an easy task, and credit must be given to the Hilton London Paddington’s management who always pursue the best service quality and craftsmanship in the name of convenience.
B. Health / Safety / Sanitation
The raw materials and ingredients that are used in the production of beverages and other delicacies in Hilton London Paddington are able to meet the high quality standards and specifications. Even the packaging materials are also subjected to strict quality standards. In line to the hotel’s policies in food and product safety, appropriate measures are taken in the preparation of all food and drinks to prevent the possible contamination. Hilton London Paddington also implements the principles of the HACK (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) system in order to show their testament to their dedication to service quality. The food and beverages that their customers eat and drink are prepared using nothing but the original and unparalleled recipes. To achieve a sweet taste, fresh aroma, bright color and clarity, only the purest ingredients are used.
C. Affordability of Services
Normally, Hilton London Paddington bases its pricing strategies on several key trends that continuously shape the global marketplace of the foreign and domestic hotel industry. One particular trend is labeled as “premium-taxation”. This phenomenon causes the polarization of different markets. This would then trigger the consumers to demand and pay much higher prices for perceived service quality. However, discounting in prices is also simultaneously taking place, therefore squeezing out the middle range. More often than not, Hilton Hotels undergo internationalization which leads to a tighter squeeze for shelf space. This will in turn leave them as winners. It is for this reason why Hilton London Paddington values the “premise sector” so much because this would allow tourists to try their services at low risk and price.
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