Accor Hotels Information Systems, Assessment Example

Section 1

Accor Hotels depicts the struggles of an enterprise attempting to remain competitive in a very aggressive market while ensuring long-term growth. One of the biggest challenges that any company would face is attempting to expand operations beyond the initial startup’s geographic location. I believe that in the process of expansion, the business exposes itself to a number of factors it hadn’t faced before. For Accor systems, its problems manifested in human resource.

Before the expansion, Accor was a closely knit group of hotels. It had its signature organizational culture that translated top class customer service. However, after expansion, new employees were introduced and this affected the organizational culture. As a result of the industry, customer service is a coefficient of financial performance in terms of sales. When customers aren’t satisfied, a hotel gradually experiences reduction in the number of bookings and revenue.

Performance is also hampered by the inefficient paging system. The use of outdated and inefficient technology always hampers the productivity of operations in any given business. The old paging system is not suited for the fast-paced modern hotel. This technology lacks the ability for integration with other technologies. Technology also plays an important factor in the financial success of hotels. Technology determines the efficiency of executing specific operations. Any technology should seek to mitigate lag time and enhance output. I believe the new paging system even has potential for further development. All important events regarding the operations of the hotel can be channeled through this medium to provide accessibility to operation units, i.e. waiters, cleaners and middle level management.

Section 2

In class we discussed the implications that technology has on the business environment. The 21^st century is full of examples of how technology has revolutionized certain aspects of business. The ability to apply modern day technology in any given industry leaves all industries, especially industry dealing with service, prone to random and rapid changes. In a bid to stay competitive most businesses, just like Accor Hotels, look to employ the best technology. This is determined by the prevailing trends within the area of technology as regards to specific aspects of operations.

In my opinion, technology is ever evolving; constantly changing as new technology is developed and improvements made on existing technology. It may be useful for a hotel to adopt new technology to improve performance in terms of operations and customer satisfaction, but it also has to take into consideration a number of issues associated with the new technology. One of the most important aspect of IT solutions is information. The 21^st century has been heralded as the information age, as such, information is a crucial aspect of businesses. Management has to weigh the challenge of the integrity of information, i.e. security. The security of information is critical for sustainable use of any given form of IT solution.

The costs associated with technology also has to be considered. While certain IT solutions may provide increased efficiency, the cost of efficiency may significantly influence profitability. Cloud computing provide a widely accepted solution as it reduces operation costs and transfers the risk to a third party. However, issues with server security have to analyze before employing any kind of cloud computing service. Furthermore, business may potentially come to a standstill should these servers suffer downtime for any reason, for example a malicious attack.