Recent Trends in Information Technology

Question 1: Choose an industry that you are familiar with. How have recent trends in Information Technology (IT) impacted competition and ways to work specifically for that industry?

Your response should be at least 200 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.

Answer:

Information technology (IT) is always changing and making many important impacts on other industries to which it has a strong relation. It is commonly known that there is a strong correlation between IT and the hotel industry. It cannot be denied that the rapid development of IT has a major influence on both the way hotels work and how they compete with each other.

One of the most noticeable trends in IT is that mobile devices will keep you in contact at all times (Adams, 2013, para. 1). Mobility has changed almost completely the way many hotels of all sizes operate. Nearly all hotels around the world have implemented this innovation to improve their important systems including reservation, guest accounting, and room management systems. More specifically, a customer, with just a mobile device such as smart phone or tablet, can stay at home and choose his or her favorite room. Moreover, the potential guests and the hotel nowadays just communicate with each other like telecommuters because the computer has become “faster, cheaper, and mobile” (Brown, DeHayes, Hoffer, Martin, & Perkins, 2012, p. 2). This means both parties will be able to reduce not only the cost of making phone calls but also their invaluable time. On the other hand, the development of smart mobile devices has made the competition become tougher than ever before. Several large hotels in the world have no choice but to try their best to constantly improve online information system. For instance, they should do whatever to create the most attractive and user-friendly website so that customers want book a room in their hotel. According to McIndoe (2013), hotel team members can “meet and greet” their guests at any location, improving the personalization of the check-in experience and reducing the costs associated with static reception desks and all their technology at each location” (para. 9). Differentiation is never an old choice for competition. Although the cost seems to be lowered, much money will be spent for training employees new way of working.

In addition, social media application is also an important trend for which Facebook must be the best example. In hospitality industry, this social network has become the ideal place for advertising the hotels. It is also where guests can easily contact the hotel for many different purposes including room booking and paying. Interestingly, Facebook has dramatically changed the method of marketing. Every single