INTRODUCTION
The traditional method used in our industry operations involved pens, paper, and files. The focus has change towards technology although they are still used. Managers discover themselves using technology daily. All departments used department-specific software and systems which an organization is managed. For example, e-commerce has enabled hospitality organizations used the Internet to purchase needed item from a vendor supplier. As we can see, no longer is a stand-alone cash register or paper seating chart. Besides, properties are now managed by entire systems that track the status and charges of specific space and also allocate cost and supplies accordingly on the lodging site, all the while interfacing with the outside world.
Whether it is with a customer, supplier, or co-worker, our industry is expected to operate to digitally process like all others. In an industry where presentation is everything, this must be accomplished seamlessly, even though many boundaries and parties are involved. If the technology works properly, well that was expected in the first place but it will became such problem if break down. Today, Information technology (IT) or information systems’ (IS) role is an important and challenging for manager. It is hard to find a process where some form of technology is not involved from daily operations to future planning.
Hospitality is a fast moving and growth industry, where serving the customer straight away often takes precedence over all other considerations. For this and other reasons, oftentimes the uses and advantages of technology are not employed to their fullest potential. Given the competitive nature of our industry and the fact that technology will not go away, today’s managers need to understand on how to handle and works with technology. Simply put, technology is part of doing business in the new millennium. Managers are also evaluated on revenue and expenses. Although IS and IT are used, their purpose is still to lead the reader in understanding technology within a management context.
As an example of technology that we need and used in our industry during daily operations is information and communication technology. Ever since the 1980s, ICTs have been changing the way business is conducted in the hospitality and tourism industries (Buhalis and Law, 2008). As ICTs have become more important, they have had a great impact on hospitality and tourism organizations and destinations, as well as the entire set of industries as a whole. ICTs not only help customers to search for and purchase customized hospitality and tourism products, but also benefit suppliers by developing, managing, and distributing their products any time and geographical constraints to support the globalization of the industries by providing effective tools (Buhalis and Law, 2008). The uses of ICTs is expected to improve service quality, enhance operational efficiency and reduce costs (Law et al., 2009), as well as to provide a platform for accessing the global market (Sahadev and Islam, 2005).According to Leung and Law (2005), it is beneficial for hospitality and tourism operators to understand and use ICTs to support their daily operations and managerial decision-making.
TRADITIONAL VERSUS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AGE
Human Resources and Training
Many hospitality businesses have started to use web-based training since it is convenient to use the internet and the cost of using it is relatively inexpensive. A computer-based multimedia training program which includes text, graphic, animation, pictures, video and sound usually used to present information on-the-job training nowadays. The successful development of the program required high human involvement. However, the internet is also a source of distraction to employees at the same time. As compared with the traditional system that only having talk without multimedia attachment which can make trainee feeling bored during the training session. It will affect the trainee output at the last session as well as their performance.
By using an internet and technology, it still have a problem occurs. One the problem that might be occurs is “Cyberslacking”. According to Mills et al. (2001) “Cyberslacking” referred to describe the activities involved in wasting time on the internet while people are supposedly at work. Misusing the internet not only abuses company resources but also leads to productivity and financial loss, as well as legal liability. Another potential problem faced by a company is to find telecommuters. Although there are numerous benefits of home offices, telecommuting between employers in offices and employees in their homes may encounter legal liabilities. It have different criteria to identify suitable employees and recommended areas to employers for minimizing the liability of telecommuting employees in various areas, such as assisting employees to set up a home working environment, to secure data, and keep records on their work schedule.
In hospitality education, ICTs have the greatest potential impact to bring about changes. According to Cox (2003), since the hospitality and tourism industries are knowledge-based businesses, organizations require employees to know how to take advantage of ICTs in order to build leadership competency. Effective strategies have been used to teach hospitality students how to generalize technological concepts into practical. Hospitality graduates need to acquire knowledge of e-commerce competencies as hoteliers are going to manage revenues online.
Security
In the hotel industry, security refers to guarding and loss prevention. However, additional security responsibilities of the present hotel industry which only used manual filing system with soft security have been extended to IT security, health and safety, disciplinary action, fire safety, and insurance. ICTs give a platform for hospitality workers to collect detailed information about their customers. Customers can use websites to register and state their details. Hotel managers can then make use of these details and tailor personalized services and products to their customers in order to increase customer satisfaction (O’Connor, 2007). A set of frameworks have been provided in terms of information systems, strategy and marketing to evaluate the opportunities for value creation using customer data in the hospitality industry.
Reservation
An online computerized reservation system (CRS) enables customers to complete hotel reservations on the internet at anytime, anywhere. The technology acceptance model (TAM) can be used to examine users’ intentions to use CRS. Although using online reservation is convenient, there exists a “terms and conditions” trap for customers.
As compare to traditional system which use an manual reservation using pen and form, customers need to come to make any reservation. They cannot make a reservation if they do not go their self to get the service. Besides, they only can make the reservation during operation time.
Guest services
Another benefit of the adoption of ICTs is to improve guest service quality. The hoteliers could track customers’ stay patterns and preferences through information technology and provide personalized services as well as improving customer loyalty. The study concluded that the effective use of ICTs not only improves service quality, but also maximizes guest satisfaction that will increase profitability.It is important for managers to select and implement the most appropriate technologies in their hotel in order to enhance service quality.
Just imagine how customers can be satisfied when they need to queuing in such a long time during their reservation when the premise has no technology method. It will give bad affect to the customers’ satisfaction whereby it is the most important thing that we as a manager have to look seriously. Customer satisfaction will determine our service as well as company revenue.
Revenue management
The way that customers communicate, search for information as well as purchase products and services have dramatically changed because of development of ICTs. ICTs used by customers are how to locate the best room rates and availability through different distribution channels. Kasavana and Singh (2001) stated that the way customers book hotel rooms has transformed from traditional channels to online distribution channels and online auctions. A study conducted by O’Connor (2003) found that most large hotels have the same online pricing strategies for both hotel websites and online booking channels.
In the view of hoteliers, when compared to telephone reservations, electronic distribution systems are cost-effective and labor-efficient. Since it is easy for customers to identify the lowest hotel room rates among different online distribution channels, the rate has an impact on both the distribution channel and profitability in the hotel industry. Since the internet is the most powerful marketing force in the hospitality industry, hoteliers should also understand consumer behavior towards pricing strategies.
The hoteliers using online reservation system need to have a revenue increase compared to those using offline modes or traditional system. Also, hoteliers select appropriate electronic distribution channels based on the impact that the channel has on the hotel image and reputation (Gilbert et al., 2005). The results of the study further support the impact of electronic distribution channels towards the hospitality industry.
Marketing
The increasing popularity of the internet has changed the basis of marketing in the hospitality industry. A group of suppliers, consultants, analysts, academics, researchers and development specialists, government officials, and industry-association executives and leaders stated that training marketers to use ICTs and having ICT reports for marketing are the most urgent and important for the future of marketing in the hospitality industry. Hospitality organizations are thus strongly encouraged to make use of web-based marketing In order to improve the performance of hospitality firm. Moreover, the internet and word-of-mouth are the most powerful promotional methods used by hospitality-related firms. Although ICTs play a important role in the hotel industry for service delivery, product differentiation, and organizational economies, some luxury hotels are still unwilling to take advantage as they largely rely on human resources to deliver more customer-oriented and personalized services to their guests.
An effective website design can be the most powerful marketing tool in restaurant service. E-mail services can serve as another marketing tool can be applied to build relationship with customers. Permission e-mail marketing could record customer preferences and predict future purchasing intentions, thereby better segmenting the targeted customers.
Compare to traditional ways used on marketing before, it was hard to separate information to the customers as well as people around. Besides, without using the internet or technology, the information might be impossible to reach around the world. As a result, business only can be done for people around and it becomes fixing.
Strategic and operational management
ICTs can be used as a strategic and operational tool for hospitality managers. The impact of new technology was categorized as one of the key issues in the future of the hospitality industry but it is also a challenge to works with it. The managers of independent hotels are resistant to use ICTs, and would thus give difficulties in competitive advantages.
ICTs also help managers to increase their job performance. The performance of hotel managers is positively related to the interaction of their use of ICTs and budgetary participation. It is important to know that guests should be satisfied with the performance although the application of ICTs in hospitality is done.
The staffs from the food service industry are generally satisfied with the approaches, techniques, and information systems that are implemented in their companies. Additionally, the adoption of ICTs can be used in environmental scanning in hotels. Regarding the food industry, emphasized that business-to-business and e-commerce are the ways to improve logistics operations in a food supply chain process, but the lack of formal capital might explain the reason why restaurants lack ICT leadership (Oronsky and Chathoth, 2007).
When we use the traditional system, it might take a longer time to deal with it. For example, when we need to know about the previous thing in operation, we need to find the file in manually. It will make the process quite hard and not appropriate.
CONCLUSION
As a conclusion, there are so many differences between use the traditional method and system as compare to use technology. By using the traditional system, managers and organization still can run the business but it will be easier if they can transform their system to modern type which used technology. Yet, there are still have a disadvantage for those organizations that applied or used the technology during the operation time but it still can be covered if the management knows the problem. The managers should always refer to hoteliers in order to know their problem dealing with the information technology system and make a discussion on how to solve the problem right away.
The hospitality industry faces a lot of revolution when the information technology occurs in this line. It gives a revolution in the organization as well as departments. It’s also give an impact to the human resource and training, security, revenue management, marketing, guest service, and also to the strategic and operation management.
