ANSWER TO CASE STUDY 1- HOTEL HERITAGE MIS

Question 1: What are the benefits do the management will achieve by using IT setup?
Hotel Heritage investing heavily in information systems/technology will achieve six strategic
business objectives, namely: operational excellence; new products, services, and business
models; customer and supplier intimacy; improved decision making; competitive advantage; and
survival.
The more the management understands this strategic business objective and their relationship,
the more benefits they could derive from using IT setup.
Looking at these six strategic business objectives as related to Hotel Heritage in our case study:
Operational Excellence
One of the most important tools that can be used by a manager today to achieve higher levels of
efficiency and productivity in business operations is Information systems and technologies and
with the introduction of information technology by Heritage Hotel in 2007 there will be improve
on the efficiency of their operations with a corresponding increase in profitability. There will be
an increase in employee productivity because what is probably done manually will now be
automated, although this will depend more on the kinds and quality of information systems
infrastructures put in place by the organization, which mean what the organization would be able
to do would depend on what its systems will permit it to do.
New Products, Services, and Business Models
Another benefit the management of Hotel Heritage will achieve by using IT setup is the ability to
introduce new services and as well as creating entirely new business models different from the
way they use to operate.
Todays hospitality industry is totally different from what the industry used to be a decade ago.
The old way of entering data and booking for hotel rooms, etc. has changed to online methods,
hence, the Hotel Heritage idea to set up a website to provide customers Internet access for room
reservation, cancellation, conference booking and other services is part of the benefit of its new
information technology infrastructure installation.
Customer and Supplier Intimacy
The Hotel Heritage in Calicut will be able to use the information systems and technologies to
achieve customer intimacy, The installed computers will be able to keep track of guests
preferences, such as their preferred room temperature, check-in time, frequently dialed telephone
numbers, and television programs., and store these data in a large data repository by so doing the
management of the Hotel Heritage is able to know its customers interest, and therefore, will be
able to serve them well and there will always be a return sales, which will increase the revenue
and profit, the same thing with the supplier who will be willing to provide valuable input.
Improved Decision Making

With the help of information systems and technology management will have the right
information at the right time to make an informed decision instead to rely on forecasts, best
guesses, and the luck which often results in a misallocation of resources, and poor response times
that lead to a cost increase and loss of customers.
Competitive Advantage
Having achieved all the above mentioned benefits, and being able to respond to its customers and
suppliers in real time all add up to higher sales and higher profit margin that cannot be compared
with competitors.
Therefore, we can as well; said Hotel Heritage had already achieved a competitive advantage.
Survival
Another benefit is the ability to survive in the midst of competition because almost every
business operation is now digitized; therefore, information system and technology have become
a necessity for carrying out day-day business operation.
Question 2(a): What are the constraints for IT infrastructure?
The followings are some constraints or challenges organizations faced for the success of IT
infrastructure:
The existing or planned organizational structure for successful deployment of information
system or information technology infrastructure.
Lack of technology and information systems
Lack of quality data
Lack of internal leadership
Difficulty in finding appropriate functional talent or human resources required.
Inappropriate business processes to take advantages of opportunities created by the
information technology infrastructures.
Lack of senior management support
Difficulty in finding technical talent.
Question 2(b): What are the security measures can be suggested to improve the hotels data
security?
Security is a very critical issue for organizations and could cause serious damage in term of
finance to Hotel Heritage if not properly managed. Therefore, Hotel Heritage has to take them
seriously; otherwise they may face the consequence of going out of business.
The 15 Pentium III networked computer systems and the planned future expansions are highly
vulnerable to various threats and failures, ranging from natural failure of hardware and software
to misuse by the professional handling them and end users.
The following are some security measures and tools that can be adopted by Hotel Heritage to
improve their data security:

Biometrics
The use of biometrics such as fingerprints, face recognition, speech recognition, etc. can be
adopted to improve their security.
Security Codes/Password
A multilevel password system can be put in place for security management, In addition, swipe
card & other tools for physical access control which contain microprocessors that generate
random numbers to add to an end users password, are good combination for a secure system.
Backup Files
This involves keeping copies of files in case the current files are destroyed, the backup files can
be used to reconstruct new current files.
Security Monitors
This can be used to monitor networks of computer systems and protect them from unauthorized
use, fraud, and destruction.
Antivirus software/applications
Reliable antivirus software that can protect the installed computers against the spread of viruses
should be put in place. The IS departments can then be centralize to monitor the distribution and
updating of antivirus software.
In addition to what I have mentioned above, there are other varieties of security measures that
can still be used by Hotel Heritage to protect information systems or technologies and networks,
namely: Virtual private networks, Firewalls, Identity management and access control systems,
Encryption, Tokenization & Key Management, Intrusion detection systems, Online access
control, Computer Failure Controls, Fault-Tolerant Systems, Disaster Recovery, Information
system controls, and Auditing IT Security.

References:
1. Jun Xu, Mohammed Quaddus. (2010) Managing Information Systems: Ten Essential Topics,
(1st Edition), Atlantis Press.
2. James A. OBrien, George M. Marakas. (2011) Management Information Systems, (10th
Edition), McGraw-Hill/Irwin
3. Kenneth C. Laudon, Jane P. Laudon.(2012) Management Information Systems, (12th Edition),
Pearson Prentice Hall