Outrigger Case
Outrigger Hotels and Resorts: Flagship brand with upscale on beach properties.
Ohana Hotels : Budget oriented. Focus on value seeking repeat customers.
Outrigger Properties: Manage third party transactions and supervise owned assets.
The case talks about the evolution and standing of the IT infrastructure of Outrigger Enterprises which primarily comprise of a Central Reservation Systems coupled with Property Management Systems that is housed with an ERP suite that also aids in corporate administration. On the customer facing side there is an online portal.
Key Challenges and Major Issues:
Legacy PMS (COBOL based Stellex) and proprietary databases (Enscribe).
Decentralized IT System and loosely coupled IT enabled services.
High reliance on wholesale operators to drive volumes.
Property locations spread across geographies with reservations
sans a marketing focus driven by branding and core competencies.
Point of Sales systems not interfacing with CRS/PMS applications.
Limited online sales from enterprise portal inspite of a significant online presence
Lessons Learnt:
Technology is only an enabler of business; It cannot function on it’s own.
This is apparent, as despite pioneering ERP implementation, owing to lacunae in business function decisions the full potential if the ERP suite was not leveraged.
ERP needs to be coupled with CRM package to organize and synchronize various functions within the business enterprise