Summary of Troubleshooting Information Systems at the Royal Hotel

Summary of TROUBLESHOOTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT THE ROYAL HOTEL

Blake is a Master’s program student at VFU. In May 2006, he attended a summer internship with FC. FC is a local IT consulting firm and it serves from midsized hotels to large multinational grocery chains. Blake was allocated to a hotel named The Royal Hotel. In the Blake’s views, The Royal Hotel is an excellent hotel, but the general manager doesn’t think so. He wants to make a best hotel rather than just very good by most hotels’ standard.

The Royal Hotel primarily serving business clientele, so the general manager doesn’t allow any issues occurred when the client check in. Blake suggested The Royal Hotel uses M-Tech’s Espresso! Rapid Response Solution. The Espresso! information system has more advantages such as rapid response, quality control, preventive maintenance and reporting. When the suggestion was adopted, Blake contacted with vendor and then a week of onsite training. But FC allocated him to another project so Blake couldn’t see his first project effect.

The Royal Hotel project was taken over by Blake’s classmate Jack. After a month and a half, Blake got the response from The Royal Hotel’s general manager, it is a bad condition because the hotel invest much of money to Espresso! system but nobody use it. IT director told Blake that employees had been eager to learn about it but lose the interest rapidly afterward. The employees felt the old manual system is better, and it is more suitable for their needs.

Blake prepared to devise a more suitable solution for The Royal Hotel. Because he remembered the words: “Focus on the information system design, not the technology investment.”

The Espresso! system is a rapid response solution. Its goal is reducing time cost, solving issues quickly and maintaining timely. These functions were developed for majority firms. But it is not suitable for some single firm such as The Royal Hotel. When a new information system unable satisfy employees’ requirements even not as good as old system, it is failed.

In fact, employees transfer using habit from old system to new system needs a process. Training employees use new system more is an important link. Also good for new system’s deploy further.

In the real-world, we often go shopping in a big shopping center. But sometimes it is hard to find a certain store. The shopping center map is not easy help us to direct a correct direction. So if center sets some 3D navigation in a display in gate or middle of it, maybe more useful. I think it will improve the satisfaction for customers.

For failed to The Royal Hotel, I think the main reason is the employees has no habit to use new information system. Force and training employees use new system, change the old system as a backup system will fix the problems.