it

• PULL AND PUSH TECHNOLOGIES

• APPLICATION SERVICE PROVIDERS

Trends in software and service distribution

Pull technology

• entering a URL in a web browser to go to a certain Web site

• User states a need before getting an information

JABIL CIRCUIT

One of the top 5 electronic manufacturing service providers worldwide

Enterprise Resource Planning

Integrated system

Collects and process data

Manages and coordinates resources, information and functions

They are available as modules

Organization can purchase only components that it needs

• Hardware

• Software

• Procedures

• Input from all functional areas

Components including Enterprise Resource Planning

• Improves availability and timeliness of information

• Increases data accuracy and improved response time

• Improves customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction

• Improves planning, scheduling and supplier relationships

• Improves the reliability of information

• Reduces inventory costs

• Reduces labor costs

• Reduces order fulfillment time

Well designed Enterprise Resource Planning system Benefits

Using ERP for managers

They are able to view financial data, keep track of inventory status and analyze its customers purchasing activities in real time

• Unified database

• Inventory management

• Supply chain

• Manufacturing

• Human resources

• CRM

• Purchasing

• Accounting

• Vendor integration

• E-commerce

• Sales

ERP COMPONENTS

Supply chain

Consisting of an organization, transportation companies and brokers.

Used to deliver goods and services to customers

Exist in both service and manufacturing organization

Supply chain configuration

Raw materials → Supplier → Manufacturing → Distribution → Customer → Consumer

Supply Chain Management (SCM)

Process of working with suppliers and other partners in the supply chain to improve procedures for delivering products and services

Coordinates:

Procuring of materials

Transforming materials to intermediate and finished products of services

Distributing finished products or services to customers

• Product flow

• Information flow

• Finances flow

SCM system flows between the following areas:

• Location

• Inventory

• Production

• Transportation

4 key decisions in supply chain management

• SAP

• ORACLE

• JDA SOFTWARE

• MANHATTAN ASSOCIATES

Vendors offer comprehensive solutions (scm)

Dell computer supply chain

They modified their supply chain from a “push” to a “pull” manufacturing process. Also known as a built to order BTO

They were able to reduce costs by eliminating intermediaries and shortening delivery time

Supply Chain Management Technologies

Information technologies and the internet play a major role in implementing an SCM system

Electronic Data Interchange

Enables business partners to send and receive information on business transactions

Expedites delivering accurate information

Lowers the cost of transmitting documents

Drawbacks of using Electronic Data Interchange

Uses the X.25 standard

Only beneficial when more companies are in the EDI network

Not affordable for small suppliers and distributors

Open EDI

Based on XML

traditional EDI has declined in popularity

Internet Enabled SCM

Improves information sharing throughout the supply chain

Improves the SCM activities

E-Marketplaces

Provides a platform for buyers and sellers to interact with each other and trade more efficiently online

Third party exchange

Provides opportunities for both sellers and buyers to establish new trading partnerships

E-Distributor

Marketplace owned and operated by a third party that provides an electronic catalog of product

Maintenance, repair and operations (MROs) services:

Includes services from different vendors

They coordinate them into one package for customers

EXAMPLE OF A HORIZONTAL MARKET

Online auctions

Makes it possible to sell far more goods and services than at a traditional auction

Brokerage business model

Reverse auctions

Brings traditional auctions to customers around the globe

(CPFR) Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment

Coordinates supply chain members through Point of Sale (POS) data sharing and joint planning.

Ensures that inventory and sales data are shared across the supply chain. So that everyone knows the exact sales and inventory levels.

All data that is collected is shared with all the members of the supply chain.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Consists of the processes a company uses to track and organize its contacts with customers

Main goal is to improve services offered to customers and use contact info of customers for targeted marketing

Pays external agencies for additional data about you that might be public or semi private

This increases cross selling and up selling

• Sales automation

• Order processing

• Marketing automation

• Customer support

• Knowledge management

• Personalization technology

CRM SYSTEM

CRM Applications

On premise CRM or Web based CRM (SaaS)

Software packages that are available for setting up a CRM system:

AMDOCS CRM, Optima technologies ExSellence

Features of Customer Relationship Management

Salesforce automation

eCRM or Web based CRM

Survey Management

Automated customer service

Personalization Technology

Designs good and services that meet customer preferences better

Customization

Allows customers to modify the standard offering

Amazon

Known for using personalization to recommend products to customers

Collaborative filtering (CF)

searches for specific information or patterns, using input from multiple business partners and data sources

Knowledge Management

Improves CRM system by identifying, storing and disseminating “knowhow” facts about how to perform tasks

Knowledge is an asset

It should be shared throughout an organization to generate business intelligence and maintain a competitive advantage in the marketplace

Knowledge Repository

Stores knowledge of experts

Help of knowledge management system to an organization

Promote innovation by encouraging free exchange of ideas

Improve customer service by reducing response time

Increase revenue by reducing the delivery time for products and services

• Missed deadlines

• Users need that weren’t met

• Dissatisfied customers

• Lack of support from top management

• Going over budget

Several reasons system failures can happen

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Also known as the “waterfall model”

It is a series of well defined phases performed in a sequence that serve as a framework for developing a system or project

Each output of phases is used for the input on the next phase.

Systems Planning

Preliminary analysis of requirements

This evaluates all potential systems that need to be implemented

Feasibility study

This is conducted for each system

Organization decides which one is a priority

Information system projects

Often an extension of existing systems or involve replacing an old technology with a new one

Planning

One of the most crucial phase of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Problem can be identified both internally or externally

Questions:

Why is this information system being developed?

Who are the system’s current and future users?

• Organization’s strategic goals

• How the proposed system can support these goals

• Which factors are critical to the system success

Make sure users understand the 4 W’s

• Why

• Who

• When

• What

This is what analysts must examine

External users

Include customers, contractors, suppliers and business partners

Internal users

Employees who will use the system regularly

Feasibility study

Measure of how beneficial or practical an information system will be to an organization

Should be measured continuously throughout the SDLC process

5 major dimensions of Feasibility Study

Economic

Technical

Operational

Schedule

Legal

Economic Feasibility

Assesses a system’s costs and benefits

Team tallies tangible development and operating costs for the system and compares them with expected financial benefits for the system

Tangible benefits

Quantified in terms of monthly or annual savings

Intangible benefits

Difficult to quantify in terms of dollar amounts

If they are not at least identified, many information system projects can’t be justified

Cost effectiveness analysis

Based on the concept that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar one year from now

• Payback, net present value (NPV)

• Return on Investment (ROI)

• Internal rate of return (IRR)

Common analysis methods

Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) report

used to sell the system to top management

Lack of technical feasibility

Can stem from an organization lacking the expertise, time or personnel to implement the new system

Operational feasibility

Measures how internal and external customers will react to it

Measures how well the proposed solution will work in the organization

“Is the information system worth implementing?”

Schedule feasibility

Whether the new system can be completed on time

Requirements-gathering and analysis phase

Analysts define the problem and generate alternatives for solving

Team uses the information to determine process analysis and data analysis

Design phase

Analysts choose the solution that’s the most realistic and offers the highest payoff for the organization

Outputs of design phase

Document with exact specifications for implementing the system

Include files and databases, forms and reports, documentation, procedures.

Prototyping

Small scale version of the system is developed

• gathering system requirements

• Helping to determine system requirements

• Determining a system’s technical feasibility

• Selling the proposed system to users and management

prototypes are used for?

• Define initial requirements

• Develop the prototype

• Review and evaluate the prototype

• Revise the prototype

Steps in prototyping

Option for conversion for Implementation phase

Parallel conversion

Phased in phased out conversion, plunge (direct cutover) version

Pilot conversion

• Insourcing

• Outsourcing

• Self sourcing

Implementation alternatives

Insourcing

organization’s team develops the system internally

Self sourcing

End users develop information systems with little or no formal assistance from the information system team

Outsourcing

Organization hires an external vendor or consultation who specializes in providing development services

• Onshore

• Nearshore

• Offshore

Outsourcing options

• Loss of control

• Dependency

• Vulnerability of strategic information

Disadvantages of outsourcing

New trends in systems analysis and design

Lack of specifications

Input-output process can’t be identified completely

Problem is “ad hoc”

Users need change constantly

Agility, for a software development organization

is the ability to adopt and react expeditiously and appropriately to changes in its environment and to demands imposed by this environment.

Push technology

also known as webcasting

Web servers deliver information to users who have signed up for this service

Available from vendors

Supported by many web browsers

Delivers content to users automatically at set intervals

• Synchronous conferencinh

• Email

• Instant messaging

Examples of push service

Application Service Providers (ASPs)

Provides access to software or services for a fee

Software as a service (SaaS)

Or on demand software

Model for ASPs to deliver software to users for a fee

Software might be temporary or long term use

Users dont need to be concerned with new software versions compatibility problems

software services for general use

Offering a specific service

Offering a service in a vertical market

Several forms of software as a service (SaaS) model

Vertical market

Is a market in which vendors offer goods and services specific. To an industry, trade, profession or other group of customers with specialized needs.

VR Technology

Uses computer generated, three dimensional images to create the illusion of interaction in a real world environment

Simulation

Giving objects in a VR environment texture and shading for a 3D appearance

Interaction

Enabling users to act on objects in a VR environment as by using data glove to pick up and move objects

Immersion

Giving users the feeling of being part of an environment by using special hardware and software such as CAVE.

Telepresence

Giving users the sense that they are in another location even one geographically away.

Can manipulate objects as though they’re actually in that location

Uses a variety of sophisticated hardware

Full body immersion

Allowing users to move around freely by combining interactive environments with cameras, monitors and other devices

Networked communication

Allowing users in different locations to interact and manipulate the same world at the same time by connecting two or more virtual worlds

Egocentric environment

User is totally immersed in the VR world

Most common technology used in this is Head Mounted Display (HMD)

Exocentric environment

Data is still rendered in 3-D

users can only view it onscreen

Main technology used in this is 3D graphics

Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE)

Virtual environment consisting of a cube shaped room in which the walls are rear projection screens

Holographic devices that create, capture and display images in true 3D form

Virtual reality applications

Military flight simulations

Medicine for bloodless surgery

Entertainment industry

• Not enough fiber optic cables are currently available for a VR environment capable of recreating a conference

Obstacles in using VR systems

Virtual worlds

Simulated environment designed for users to interact via avatars

Avatar

2D or 3D graphical representation of a person in the virtual world

• Front office applications

• Back office application

• Guest related interface applications

• Restaurant and banquet management systems

COMMON IT APPLICATIONS IN HOSPITALITY

Property Management System (PMS)

Handles the core functions of information processing for an accommodation property and is the hub for all interconnectivity with other systems in the hotel

• Private branch exchanges (PBX)

• Call accounting systems (CAS)

Hotel communications

Private branch exchanges

Controls the connections of hotel telephone calls to the outside world for guests and employees

Call accounting system

Allows the hotel to route and track calls without using the local telephone company

Energy management system

Monitor, control and optimize energy consumption in a hotel

Travel management system

Travel houses typically have always related airline booking and accounts with technology

emai

Fax

Walk in

Telephonic

Enquiry to a travel house originates from these various sources

Booker person

Checks for the availability and the tariff and the no. of rooms and room type

Accounts module

A module to automatically reconcile with the payment gateways and update this data