Achieving Efficiency and Effectiveness through Systems

This chapter discusses the four components of information systems and the role information technology plays in business. Read it to gain a basic understanding of these two critical topics, then attempt the two case studies and answer the questions that accompany each case.

Case

Royal Hotel's Espresso! Rapid Response Solution

The Royal Hotel in New York City, NY was a luxury all-suite hotel primarily serving an executive clientèle visiting Manhattan on business. These guests were busy and demanding as they used their suite not only as a place to sleep but also as a temporary office. The general manager stressed the importance of the high quality of service due to the high percentage of repeat guests. "Our guests are extremely discerning, it is completely unacceptable to have a light bulb out in the bathroom when the guest checks in, particularly if she is a returning guest", the general manager said.

To ensure the extremely high quality of service, the general manager decided to purchase and install M-Tech's Espresso! Rapid Response Solution. With this new technology, the housekeepers could report deficiencies directly to the computer, instead of verbally communicated to the maintenance department after they ended of their shift. The housekeepers just needed to dial a special code from the phone in the guest room and an automated attendant would walk them through the reporting process step by step in the language of their choice. Espresso! Then automatically generated, prioritized, and dispatches a work order to a printer, fax, or alphanumeric pager. Therefore, the new system should be able to reduce the response time as the housekeepers did not have to wait until the end of the shift to tell the maintenance department, and sometimes they even forgot to tell the maintenance department. Also, Espresso! had a reporting function so that the management team could obtain information about most frequently occurring or recurring issues, top reporting and completing performers, and so on. With this kind of information, the maintenance department could identify recurrent problems and stop them before they even occurred.

Upon installation, a week of on site training was also offered. The installation and the training session seemed to run smoothly. Employees appeared eager to learn about the new system. However, soon after roll-out the general manager discovered that the employees had reverted to the old manual system and had rapidly lost interest in Espresso!