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Purchase Strategy
Understanding IT dynamics
To use IT as an effective tool for guest services, one has
to achieve the right balance between technology and the human touch. Ajai
Kumar, head (Technology) at The Lemon Tree Hotel Company, says it is all
about identifying one's need before any purchase. By Sanjeev Bhar
 Hotels
are supposed to provide a comfort zone for guests. This comfort is drawn from
services and the service element is increasingly drawing its inspiration from
technology. Ajai Kumar, head (Technology) at The Lemon Tree Hotel Company, says,
"Hotels are becoming technology savvy in order to provide the best of services
to guests but the human element can't be ignored in this industry. The Lemon
Tree model addresses a good balance of both, which is also the ideal way to
go about." According to him, in such a scenario where an amalgam of human
element and technology is always a priority, it becomes even more important
to understand the need for technology and its implementation in hotels.
The implementation
 In
order to achieve the right balance of technology and the human element, hotels
must identify the optimum need of technology required that may differ from location
to location. The Lemon Tree Hotel in this regard goes by a clear methodology.
Kumar informs, "Once a solution or product is selected to be used for any
particular department, a detailed implementation schedule is prepared outlining
the resource allocations and targets." He says that due diligence is given
to the user requirements, ease of use and integration with associated sub-systems.
As a practice, he adds, the solution goes through a Proof of Concept (PoC) process.
"Only after incorporating the clear feedback from all stakeholders, a decision
on its implementation plan is taken," he says.
Before making a purchase decision, a lot of time is spent on understanding the
various dynamics of the product or service to be implemented. Kumar says, "Before
any purchase decision, considerable time goes in to identify the scope of the
product, its feasibility and the objectives to be derived out of that particular
system in line with our business model. Factors like TCO, RoI and ease of scalability/deployment
are considered. Vendor/supplier selection is also vital in this case. This is
done on the basis of their past record, product knowledge and support infrastructure."
The relationship with the vendors is maintained on the fair practices and explicit
terms and conditions attached with the deliverables.
| The Lemon Tree brand will open a 175-room hotel in
Bengaluru this October. Later in November and December, Red Fox Hotels is
slated to open in Jaipur (185 rooms) and Delhi (132 rooms), respectively.
By the end of 2009, the company will have 949 rooms under Lemon Tree brand
and 317 rooms under Red Fox brand. Earlier this year, Lemon Tree Hotel opened
up in Chennai in January having 108 rooms.
In 2010, two Lemon Tree Hotels are expected to open in
October in Hyderabad (275 rooms) and Bengaluru (194 rooms) in addition
to another one in Jaipur (94 rooms) in November. Apart from that 121-room
Red Fox will open in October in Hyderabad. Thus, by the end of 2010, Lemon
Tree will have 1512 rooms and Red Fox will have 438 rooms.
During December 2011, only one hotel is slated
to open so far in Pune which will be a Lemon Tree brand with 204 rooms.
In February 2012, 315 rooms Lemon Tree hotel will open in Mumbai. By the
end of 2012, Lemon Tree will have an inventory of 2031 rooms and Red Fox
brand will have 438 rooms.
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Internal role
The decision on whether to select a particular system or a vendor lies with
the hotel's CIOs and CTOs. Kumar says, "A CIO/CTO plays a significant role
in purchase decisions. They are to be satisfied with any new product that needs
to be incorporated into the hotel system. This incorporation only happens once
a proper analysis is carried out." For this, he adds, product or service
feasibility analysis is done for the intended users or service improvement.
"Feedback is obtained from all concerned, which provides a sense of viability
of product or service being evaluated. Secondly, it also helps with suggestions
for how the idea can be strengthened or tweaked for better outcome. The feasibility
study includes bothorganisational and financial feasibility," explains
Kumar.
While not all systems to be incorporated can be 100 per cent right, they need
to be evaluated on the requirement of organisation's need. Lemon Tree Hotels
prefer a mix of onsite and offsite services. "Selecting onsite or offsite
service depends on the type of service required. Onsite services normally attract
more premium and user involvement contrary to the offsite services that are
typically deployed in managed service environment," says Kumar. Also, total
reliance on offsite data banks or other services may not be a good idea without
proper contingency, he suggests.
For remote storage one can derive the following advantages:
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Future outlook
Looking ahead, the company is carrying on with its aggressive
momentum. Kumar informs, "Lemon Tree Hotels has implemented a multi-tier
property system in a centrally hosted environment for all its properties. Currently
we are exploring CRM solutions and have plans for a captive a call center/CRS."
For vendor/supplier selection, the company largely selects them on the basis
of past record, product knowledge and support infrastructure capabilities. "There
is a predefined process for 'RFP' and vendor selection," he adds. The hotel
group has also increased its IT spend. "There has been a substantial surge
in our IT spending year-on-year to offer a class of service that our esteemed
guests deserve and will continue to look out for even better avenues to achieve
this consistently," he sums up.
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