Enhancing Business Foothold: Strategies And Opportunities For Collaboration

Decisions Taken up by the Management

Discuss about the Enhances Foothold Of Businesses.

In business world, collaborating with other entities is a common concept. Partnerships, joint ventures, mergers and collaboration enhances the foothold of businesses in the market they command and thereby letting them achieve their strategic goals. Keeping this in mind, 5 different holiday resorts are going to be merged to form a single entity called Monet. Monet would thus be able to provide a variety of options to its end customers including Hotel rooms, Hostels, Homestays, and Villas etc. Monet would be operational via one single website and would also have mobile version of the site as well as a mobile app. The report would cover the key issues in this merger as well as strategies and opportunities for collaboration.

• A monetloyalty card would be announced with which regular customers would be able earn points with each bookings and would then be able to redeem those points against several options.
• The website and mobile app would be made interactive so as to provide a high level of engagement for the users.
• The same website would be used to book properties from all 5 resort brands.
• A core ERP solution would be developed that would not just integrate and assimilate operations from one restaurant but all of the 5 chains.

• Terms and conditions have been pre-decided and had been mutually agreed upon.
• The various different functionalities and end user features as well as capabilities for the backend system has already been determined. (Popp, 2017).
• The needed costs for collaboration as well as estimation has already been arranged.
• The schedule has already been pre-determined.

The domain of technology is a huge area and there are many jargons and technical terms that are used. Some of these terms are used only by technology enthusiasts or experts or other established people in the industry. However, there are a few terms that are synonymous with the word technology. Two of these terms are IS or Information systems or IT information technology. These two are entirely different concept and have different meaning, purpose and utility. IS stands for the domain that covers information management, information quality as well as information availability and associated activities. Information sets that are included with different operations such as addition, storage, deletion, updating or backup etc. are considered as issues under IS. (El-Awad, 2017)

On the other hand Information Technology (IT) is an area which comprises of the entire technological infrastructure including hardware, software and services. IT used in the context of enterprise operations are different than IT used in the context of personal and entertainment options. The enterprise use of IT consists of both telephony as well as use of computer technology. Within these two sub-domains there are lot of tools being used to carry out day-to-day tasks of a business. IT issues includes technical, operational as well as infrastructural issues. (Bruni, 2014)

The issues that impact on information stored in the database or information flowing via networks include the following :

• Confidentiality Attacks

The confidentiality of information may be impacted because of several attacks via information breach, leakage, insider threat or motivated hacker attacks as well as virus and malware.

• Integrity based attacks

Deliberate, incidental or accidental attacks may make permanent or temporary change in the information ultimately causing the information loose integrity.

• Availability attacks

Set of Assumptions

A large enterprise or an organization having dependency on information stored may suffer heavily with attacks such as denial of service attacks or other web based attacks.

• Performance

Performance of operation would not be adequate owing to change made in standard set of practices.

• There could be issues with communication among the different parties that are involved leading to challenges in understanding as well as wrong execution of operations.

The issues mentioned earlier would ultimately lead to severe complications with the IS being used for the Monet. The customers demands are usually for an uninterrupted service with no lags, downtime or data corruption. These expectations become a challenge owing to the nature of operation of the business and the issues mentioned above. Additionally, the customers may tend to turn towards the alternatives and competition that are present in the market. This would result into bad reputation in the marke as well as decreased revenues. Additionally, brand recognition will suffer leading to competitors cannibalizing into the brand’s market share.

• Various tools should be used in order to make monet successful. These includes development of website, creating mobile application, database administration and maintenance. There could be a technical error or some issues that could disrupt the integration or proper functioning. (Antunes, 2014).
• With presence of different tools as well as applications there could be integration and compatibility issues which could arise. (Secundo, 2017). This would give a way to breakdown of the system as well as the sub-components as the underlying systems may not work without a proper integration.
• The issues and their frequency of occurrence would ultimately lead to a significant implication for the system that could indirectly harm monet. As costumers always expect and demand uninterrupted service without any downtime or lags, this expectation would not be met due to such issues. This would result into bad reputation in the marke as well as decreased revenues. Additionally, brand recognition will suffer leading to competitors eating into the brand’s market share. (Fengel, 2014)
• The underlying hardware and software and the services being used by Monet needs to be robust. Typically during a peak load which could happen in the case of Monet during travel season or holidays, web-applications tend to get extremely slow or crash altogether. These issues are not only faced by small companies but also by large corporations such as Dropbox, Microsoft and Google. Such downtimes or performance issues does not go well with the customers when they are trying to book properties or accessing their bookings. This is because, at this point of time, they would be quick to switch to their competitors or spread the word out via social platform resulting into serious negative

• Success of any business could be determined by several key performance indicators. However, among these, the easiest is via customer base and the customer satisfaction. As costumer’s base widens and more customers join the bandwagon, it’s a sign that says the company is providing good service. Gaining customer base and thereby increasing market share is a important part of any business. Below some of these techniques to enhance and grow the customer base are enumerated:
• There are large number of customers already on board with the five hotels. However, assimilating under single brand roof would prove to beneficial for everyone. At the same time costumers would be rewarded with introductory offers in order to join the bandwagon at Monet. Customers who visit frequently or are the oldest ones would be introduced to privilege membership with exclusive rewards.
• Marketing is an important medium to allow customers be informed with latest developments about the business, as well as for awareness and brand development. Customers would buy services only when they’re completely aware about the product and it’s terms and conditions and have developed confidence and faith with the brand. Monet should also make use of all kinds of marketing channels at disposal with special focus to channels that are cost-effective such as the social media. As such social platforms would be used to create a highly targeted advertisements that reach to end customers of the brand as well as new customers.
• Since market is changing due to new entrants in all kinds of segments as well as the business itself is going through a transformation, it is important to keep an eye out on the market. This is to ensure that the services being offered are as per the market and suits the needs and preferences of customers. The monet team should use advanced analytical and costumer listening tools to study and keep abreast with the latest happenings in the market.(Wamba, 2017).
• The different types of services including types of rooms, time of stay, duration of stay etc along with the associated services shall help fulfill the needs of all kinds of customers. The strategies that are to be used for marketing and brand positioning must also factor in the categories of customers such as solo traveler, family and business travelers.
• In today’s world a business entity looking to engage customers from the web cannot survive without online payments. Therefore, the site should make use of online payments including major card companies, banks, mobile payment getaways as well as e-wallets. The payment should passthrough a secured gateway and there should be end-to-end encryption.
• With important time of the seasons such as summer vacation or Christmas holidays etc a tailored marketing campaign should be executed that provides customers with specific offers and benefits so that they’re encouraged to visit monet. (Brocke, 2014)
• Allowing customers to pre-book different services would also be a game changer for Monet. Business travelers especially may put in a request to have their Laundry done every day or request to have a desk and office chair available or even booking a small meeting room within the property. At the same time, family travelers may pre-book a nanny for their young ones or have yoga instructors or tour-guides pre-booked. This would enable such travelers to save time as well as the stress of searching and booking them once they are already at the hotel.

Costumers in the present day are looking for solutions which offers an integrated service for their needs. This trend has been observed in different lifestyle and hospitality segments. Customers prefer an all-in-one integrated solution that allows them to book flight, hotel, plan a trip and have cab and other services included within the package. Monet should actively seek such business opportunities that allows them to integrate well with other ancillary business and thereby remain competitive in the business:

• As soon as a customer books a package with the service, they should be allowed with tailored itinerary with best of the destinations and ‘things to dos’ thereby creating an automated itinerary for them.
• Monet must also partner with different transportation agencies and cab aggregator services for systems cities so as to provide them with comfortable trip. (Giudice, 2016).
• A rapid and irreversible changes are happening in these segments and thus the demand for services are evolving continuously. It is therefore imperative for monet team to use advanced analytical and costumer listening tools to study and keep abreast with the latest happenings in the market.
• Monet can tie up with independent travel guides as well as recruit freelance local guides from platforms such as Withlocals.com, Toursbylocals.com among others. A mutual agreement between these two platforms would result into long-term mutual benefit between the two ushering into increased sales, better brand recognition as well as free-marketing.
• Monet team must continuously be studying customer patterns as well as frequency of travelers, services preferred along with choices of offers and deals that the customers like more. They can use this learning to improvise Monet eventually. (Ferretti, 2016).
• Monet should also partner with independent and local freelancing service professionals that provide services in the lifestyle and hospitality segment. These includes services such as Yoga professionals, chiropractors, massage therapists, gym instructors among others. People traveling for business purposes or even leisure purposes solo or in groups with family and friends may use such services. Also, people going on ‘stay-cations’ and longer vacations are the perfect choice for such services as they would be recipient of such services at their hometown’s and may seek such services when they are on a trip as well.
• Monet may also partner with Gyms, Saunas, Spas and other lifestyle service providers across the town in which they are present. Under this mutual-beneficial agreement, they can provide them access to such places at a discounted rate or even entirely free. The end result is brand exposure for both the parties involved as well as development of long-term loyalty and trust. As such, those lifestyle service providers may get a chance to expose their brands to a certain segment of travelers within the hotel with hoardings, banners and pamphlets while at the same time the hotel gets to promote this as an add-on service leading to increased revenue and a greater chance of visibility among the competition.
• At the same time, Monet may also be able to tap into the ever-growing food industry. This can be done by partnering with specific restaurants present in the vicinity of the property and allowing customers to place orders from these restaurants via the centralized helpdesk present at their property. So travelers would not just be able to enjoy cuisines provided by Monet but also the numerous different restaurants and food joints that are present in the vicinity.
• Travel and tourism industry has seen tremendous growth with advancement in transportation and with lowering costs of transportation. However, there’s another trend that has come up in recent years. People now are also booking for destinations that offer off-beat locations and lesser known locations. However there’s a challenge with these locations as they don’t offer good places to stay. Monet can use advanced analytical tools and observe such trends and come up with properties at such locations ultimately grabbing the market share of that area.
• With the current lifestyle, people are also looking for weekend stays as well as longer stay-cations. Such trends are quite new and there are limited business operating in these areas. Monet may capitalize such market with the sheer strength of their enlarged operations owing to the merger. Monet must use advanced marketing tools to craft a highly targeted campaigns that would attract such crowds.

Conclusion

As the hospitality sector continues to expand, it is attracting a large number of players too. These players come in all shapes and sizes including hotels and resorts owned by the largest companies in the world as well as newly funded startups. Monet thus tread on this path carefully and must adapt to the evolving trends in the business. As such, they must make use of modern marketing tools at their disposal. At the same time, they must evolve their marketing strategies because such new marketing platforms require modern marketing campaigns and would not work with marketing campaigns that were once suited in the pre-internet era. Since, 5 different chains are merging together to create one large entity, the knowledge and learnings must be shared in between them so and together they could end up becoming a strong force in the market. There are few issues with IT and IS as mentioned earlier in the report, however, those issues can be managed with effective planning and also by incorporating a sound risk management plan. Ultimately, how well Monet executes the overall plan would determine the success of their operation in the long run as a single entity irrespective of the fact that they were already successful earlier.

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