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Hospitality Leadership Through Learning
Faculty & Research

Cornell Report: Finding the "Best IT" for your Business -- IT Success Starts with Careful Planning

Contact: Joe Strodel, Jr., 607-255-4646, js343@cornell.edu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Cornell Report: Finding the "Best IT" for your Business -- IT Success Starts with Careful Planning

Ithaca, NY, April 6, 2005 -- A report published by The Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell urges hospitality leaders to analyze their organization's structure and processes before designing and implementing a new information system infrastructure.

The report, IS Design: A Systematic Way to Analyze IT in Your Business, co-written by Cornell Professors Erica L. Wagner, Ph.D., and Gabriele Piccoli, Ph.D., with Sharon Louthen, a Cornell Hotel School BA candidate, offers tools for managers to use in making IT investments. They examined IT installations-both failed and successful - to explain a model that will help managers determine what IT will work best for them.

"The findings will help leaders in hospitality avoid what might be called the "best-practices trap" when it comes to installing information technology," Wagner said. "Senior executives in hospitality can use these insights to design, build, and manage information systems that effectively support their external and internal processes."

The report focuses on four key factors which directly influence whether IT objectives will be achieved:

  1. the technology itself;
  2. the organization's structure, including reporting relationships;
  3. the organization's processes, which are the steps needed to complete a business activity; and
  4. the people using the technology.

The study also reports on key lessons learned from:

  • the case of Nestlé USA's implementation of an enterprise resource planning system.
  • the use of a business intelligence program by Harrah's Entertainment to determine who were its best customers.

"The report illustrates how a well conceived and implemented IT strategy can strengthen relationships with customers, improve internal processes, and thereby improve the bottom line," says Craig Lambert, Senior Vice President of Portfolio Management, CNL Hospitality Corporation.

The report is available free of charge from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research via the CHR website. To access the report, please click on: http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/chr/pubs/reports/.

About the Center for Hospitality Research
A unit of the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, The Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) sponsors groundbreaking research designed to improve practices in the hospitality industry. The CHR also publishes the award-winning hospitality journal, the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly. Under the lead of CHR's 37 corporate supporters, experienced scholars work closely with business executives to discover new insights into strategic, managerial and operational issues. To learn more about CHR and its projects, visit http://www.chr.cornell.edu/.

The Center's supporters are leading organizations in the hospitality industry. Partners & Sponsors - AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp., Bartech Systems International, Cendant Corporation, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, HVS International, JohnsonDiversey, Kohinoor Group, Marsh's Hospitality Practice, Nestlé, Thayer Group of Companies, Willowbend Golf Management, and Wyndham International; Friends - ARAMARK Corporation, D.K. Shifflet and Associates, Ltd., ehotelier.com, Gerencia De Hoteles & Restaurantes, Global Hospitality Resources, Inc., hospitalitynet.org, Hospitality World, Hotel Asia Pacific, Hotel China, Hotel Interactive, Inc., Hotel Resource, Hsyndicate, International CHRIE, Lodging Magazine, Lodging Hospitality, Mobile MoneySaver, National Hotel Executive Magazine, Resort+Recreation, RestaurantEdge.com, Shibata Publishing Co. Ltd., Smith Travel Research, The Hospitality Research Group of PKF Consulting, The Lodging Conference, TravelCLICK, and UniFocus.