Consulting for the Royal Hotel
Essay by Vertika Tiwari • June 9, 2016 • Case Study • 1,452 Words (6 Pages) • 3,378 Views
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
(COLLEGE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES)
ITC6020
INFORMATION SYSTEMS DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
Mini Case-study on
Consulting for The Royal Hotel
By: Vertika Tiwari
NUID: 0001645003
May 28, 2016
Table of Contents
Case Overview……………………………………………………………...……………….….3
Discussion question-answers………………………………………………………………….4
Alternative Analysis………………………………………………………………………….….6
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….7
References……………………………………………………………………………………….7
CASE OVERVIEW
In the New York city there is a luxurious hotel called Royal Hotel. During its early days, it served businessmen who come to Manhattan for their business. For these guests the hotel served as a temporary office. Therefore, apart from its comforts of living, the hotel provided other official facilities which included:
- In-suite plain paper fax, printer and copier
- Three two-line telephones with voice mail and remote message alert
- 24 hrs. business center
- In-suite dining, laundry service, complimentary shoe shine, complete stereo system with CD and cassette player, high speed elevators and more.
Evaluating these facilities with the perspective of Information Technology:
- Each room is equipped with in-room combo device (fax, printer and copier).
- Although incoming faxes are routed to respective combo device, these devices were mostly used for outgoing faxes.
- For incoming faxes, four “industrial strength” Canon fax machines were installed with rollover numbers.
- A fax operator is assigned, who performs for incoming faxes. This person’s duty includes a process with following phases:
retrieving the fax, logging its receipt in a specified log book, placing the fax in an envelope and let the bell staff delivery it to the guest’s room immediately.
- Each of these Canon machine costs $1000 and their operating cost $200 per year and life of these machines is five years.
Further, a California-based hi-tech firm WizTech has offered “driverless printing” solution to the hotel. This technique enables regular printers to be communicated by fax machines without the requirement of drivers to be installed. In this offer, WizTech also includes backup services during failure of primary printer. This backup enables rerouting of incoming faxes to any other printer in the hotel for the period of time, until the primary printer gets fixed.
These high tech end solutions from WizTech offers higher rate of printing (80 ppm) with each machine incurring $1,500 and operating cost of each, $500 per year. However, life span of these machine is similar as Canon’s “industrial strength”, i.e. five years.
Now, the IT department has to take a decision if they want to switch to this new fax machine from WizTech or the hotel will continue with its “industrial strength” fax machines of Canon. And for the purpose, there are many aspects to be considered, which I’ll discuss further.
DISCUSSION QUESTION ANSWERS
- What should the Royal Hotel’s IT department do?
Facility provided by Wiz Tech is highly technical, it will reduce risk of failure and loss of information. Printing rate of “driverless” machines is also much higher than that of Canon’s “industrial strength” machine. However, as both the machines can be compared in following table, apart from various utilities and benefits, WizTech’s machine will increase the capital investment of the Royal Hotel.
Table: Canon “industrial strength” vs. WizTech “driverless printing”
Canon “industrial strength” | WizTech “driverless printing” | |
Incoming fax rate | 20 ppm | 80ppm |
Cost per printer | $1000 | $1500 |
Operational cost | $200 | $500 |
Usable life | Five years | Five years |
In-suite | Rollover number | Router |
According to me, the decision of replacing current fax machines should be taken by hotel, after analyzing their customer needs and present scenario of business. Two cases can be framed for taking this decision. They are as follows:
Case I (High demand, less productivity)
As described in the article, the Royal Hotel is a luxurious hotel for executives. There customers are mostly people from corporate world, working continuously while constant exchange of information. Here, IT staff needs to analyze the requirement of customers. If customer’s need better facilities and are ready to pay for that, the hotel should switch to WizTech’s “driverless printing”. This will increase the efficiency of Information System and overall business of the hotel.
Case II (Less demand, high productivity)
On the other hand, if IT staff comes to the conclusion that current availability and performance is satisfactory and customers are fine with current facility, they should stick to Canon’s “industrial strength” fax. In this case switching to WizTech machine will incur additional cost. However, possibility of this case is less to get enacted.
- Does WizTech enjoy a competitive advantage (or disadvantage) in this market?
As far as requirement of Royal Hotel is considered, WizTech do enjoy a competitive advantage. From the previously mentioned two cases, the Royal Hotel will most probably fall into first case (High demand, less productivity). WizTech provides highly technical information system and hence it is more expensive. Still, driverless printers can add into efficiency, turnover and reputation of the hotel which is why they win the race of technology.
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