Case Study- Hotwire.com Gains Hotwire.com Gains Control of Hotel Partner Information Hotwire.com advertises four-star hotels at two-star prices throughout North America and Europe. By building businesses partnerships with more than 7,000 hotels across North America, Hotwire assists its hotel partners in filling otherwise empty rooms and helps its customers by finding them rates discounted by as much as 60 percent. Hotwire maintains a wealth of information about each of its 7,000 hotel partners. Besides basics such as location, amenities, customer reviews, and prices, it also maintains information about the number of available rooms. Much of the information Hotwire tracks changes frequently. Maintaining accurate Page | 3 Asia Pacific International College Pty Ltd. Trading as Asia Pacific International College 55 Regent Street, Chippendale, Sydney 2008: 02-9318 8111 PRV12007; CRICOS 03048D Approved: 15/02/2019, Version 1.1 and up-to-date information is a key to success in this highly competitive business. Until recently, Hotwire maintained its hotel information on shared Excel spreadsheets. Hotwire employees kept the information up to date by accessing the shared spreadsheets over the corporate network. Various applications drew information from the spreadsheets to provide Hotwire the information it needed to provide its customers with deals. Unfortunately, the system was prone to errors and extremely difficult to maintain. Hotwire systems analysts considered the problem and possible solutions. The data that the system manipulated was well defined, as were the processes that were applied to the data. The problem lay in the manner in which the data was stored and accessed. It was clear to Hotwire analysts that a centralized database-driven system would allow Hotwire to gain better control over its data. Hotwire analysts considered costs and benefits of designing its own database and DBMS compared to outsourcing the service to a provider. Upon evaluation of the requirements for the system, they discovered that the data Hotwire was managing could be easily managed by a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, even though its partner hotels were not exactly customers. Hotwire systems analysts evaluated a variety of CRM solutions and found the one from Salesforce to be most effective and feasible in terms of cost and technology. The Salesforce CRM allows Hotwire employees to access hotel data through a user-friendly Web-based interface from any Internetconnected computer. Hotwire data is securely stored and maintained on Salesforce servers, relieving Hotwire of that costly responsibility. Hotwire system engineers customize the CRM to deliver the information and reports needed by Hotwire managers and systems. The new system has improved data reliability and accuracy, allowing better management of the information, happier customers, and improved relationships with Hotwire partners.
Exercise: Imagine you run a hotel business similar to Hotwire.com. You are in need to introduce a CRM system to suit your growing demand of customer and business needs. In deciding whether the CRM suit your needs, you are required to investigate the following through considerable amount of literature review.
- Summarize the case study objectives.
- What is the problem presented in the case study?
- What is Customer Relationship Management? Identify different types of CRM software and select the best one (s) that meet your business needs. Explain your decision.
- Why do you think it would be beneficial for your business to introduce CRM systems into the business?
- What benefits do you think Salesforce provide to your business?
- Penalty for Late submission: a deduction of 5% of the total mark shall be imposed on each of the next subsequent days
