Description
The hospitality industry is one that has been driven by customer loyalty.
Abstract—The hospitality industry is one that has been
driven by customer loyalty. Many customers pick their hotel of
choice and will stay with that same hotel because of the
experiences, service, and even the price. Customers have
recently been rewarded through hotel, credit card, and airline
points that help drive and maintain this loyalty. Utilizing data
to their advantage, the hotel industry has been actively
exploring and implementing business intelligence. While many
see IT systems as a foundation utility that can be easily
imitated, business intelligence can act as a driver to maintain
sustained competitive advantage over competitors in the
hospitality industry. It can serve means of preserving existing
customer loyalty while facing competitive pressures. This
paper discusses the importance of BI to the hospitality industry,
indicates how BI can serve as a barrier to competitive
pressures and discusses future capabilities harnessed through
BI that are not yet main stream but are expected to transform
I. INTRODUCTION
The most critical component for success of the modern
enterprise is its ability to take advantage of all available
information [1]. This quote represents a lot of the thought
behind the increasing emphasize on business intelligence
(BI) in all organizations, across the globe, today. Various
statistics further prove the importance and growth in
business intelligence and its importance to organizations.
For instance, the worldwide business intelligence software
compound annual growth rate of the business intelligence
market is forecast to hit 27.4 percent
between 2012 and 2016 [3]. A main reason for the
heightened interest in business intelligence stems from
massive growth in data created and collected in
organizations.
According to Holmes, Smolan and Erwitt, “From the
beginning of recorded time until 2003, we created 5
exabytes of data (5 billion gigabytes) [4]. In 2011 the same
amount of data was created every two days. By 2013, it?s
expected that time will shrink to 10 minutes.” This trend is
not likely to decrease as Gartner technology research is
predicting data growth will exceed 650% through the next
five years [5]. The speed of the growth is highlighted by the
fact that 90 percent of the world?s data was created in the
last two years [6]. The growth in social media applications
along with the expansion of the use of mobile devices have
increased the Big Data captured by organizations.
Organizations are realizing the importance of capturing and
storing Big Data to gain rich insights for decision making.
The massive data explosion and the consequent growth in
BI has affected every industry. Hospitality, while not among
the leading edge industries to embrace business intelligence,
has begun to see its value and important to identifying
trends and effective decision making.
II. HISTORY OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE IN THE
HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
The history of business intelligence in hospitality industry
goes back to the 1980s where revenue management systems
were adopted, after being successful in the airline industry.
The main purpose of the revenue management system was
to help understand length of stays, and discount programs.
While these programs worked nicely, the internet becoming
a mainstream tool truly launched business intelligence (BI)
in the hospitality industry; as key companies began to drive
customer data. These companies included Expedia and
Travelocity. In the early 1990s the entire hospitality industry
became very fragmented with various programs such as
Marriott?s? One Yield, InterContinental Hotels? HIRO,
Hilton?s OnQ, and Hyatt?s e-Flex. Today, many of these
hotels are still on these systems. There were a few players
ahead of the game launching BI before the systems were
mainstream. However these implementations failed due to
common reasons like lack of strategy, technical system, lack
of executive support, and finally lack of wide use adoption.
In addition, at the time, BI systems were expensive and their
success was not as well-known [7].
III. CURRENT BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TRENDS IN THE
HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
Business intelligence involves the people, processes, and
technologies that transform data into insights that drive
business decisions and actions [8]. Leaders in the hospitality
industry use various components within the business
intelligence infrastructure arsenal to increase their
effectiveness. For instance, integrated data stores such as
data warehouses provide access to massive amounts of real
time and historic data for analysis. Online analytical
processing (OLAP) cubes provide ease of reporting while
advanced analytical tools from forecasting to data mining
enable sophisticated data analysis. Fig. 1 presents Rus and
Toader?s illustration of the basic components of a BI system
for the hospitality industry [9].
One of the main ways business intelligence is assisting
the industry is through booking optimization. Often, the
lifeblood of hotels is the corporate traveler, and being able
to consistently book that traveler is key. Rate optimization is
a way the industry is doing this. Because certain days are
Business Intelligence in the Hospitality Industry
Diane Korte, Thilini Ariyachandra, and Mark Frolick
International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 4, August 2013
429 DOI: 10.7763/IJIMT.2013.V4.435
Manuscript received April 6, 2013; revised May 28, 2013.
Thilini Ariyachandra is with Xavier University, USA (e-mail:
[email protected]).
I ndex Terms—Business intelligence, hotel industry,
sustained competitive advantage, business analytics
the industry.
.
revenue is forecast to reach $17.1 billion by 2016 [2]. The
busier than others, business intelligence can help to
configure the optimal price that will drive a high occupancy
rate [10]. One of the ways that hotels help rate optimize is
through data mining. They can put historical booking trends
into a formula and model to help understand what will
happen if they raise or lower prices. This technique helps
the hotels use their past data to make better, more efficient
decisions for the future. This can be particularly helpful
around the holiday season [11].
Fig. 1. The components of a hospitality business intelligence system.
Before they can rate optimize, hotels must understand
who their customer base is. They must understand if this is a
heavy period for corporate or leisure travelers. Hotels have
been using a master data management program to determine
the correct market. A master data management program
results from strong customer data integration [11]. The key
to a successful customer data integration is that it is the sole
database for all customer data. This helps make loyalty
programs for hotels extremely effective; as there is limited
conflicting or dirty data. Loyalty programs can be extremely
expensive because of the offered rewards, but if hotels
utilize their BI effectively, the return on data knowledge is
much more valuable than the rewards. For example, hotels
can use this data to understand if they gain a return on value
form websites such as Priceline.com and Expedia.com.
When building a master data management program, there
are many ways to organize and capture the data. For
example, larger chains can organize data by geography, or
sales. Hotels could also organize the data by travel agents,
or booking company. It is up to the individual hotel and
company to decide the most optimal way to organize the
data [11].
Hotels are also using business intelligence to help
understand their guests, and how and where they spend their
money and time. For example, The Peabody Hotel uses
business intelligence to figure out which guests indicate
they will never stay again, and dig even further to
understand the why. This data mining can link back to a
specific issue or employee, and allow management to take
corrective actions. The company estimates this use of BI
saves them about $120,000 a year in potential lost revenue
[12].
Konover Hotel Group uses the system Aptech to help
understand their labor and other expenses. They can break
this out by region, but also down to the specific hotel. A
quote from their executive vice president states, “We?re
assessing performance on a nearly real-time basis and […]
can quickly make and implement informed decisions –
whether it?s adjusting staffing or implementing a program to
recoup lost revenue.” This means making adjustments on
rates depending on what the weather is going to be [13]!
One of the true benefits of business intelligence in the
hospitality industry comes from being an end to end user.
One of the major issues with business intelligence is having
too much data and not being able properly analyzes it. Some
hotels have now been able to avoid this by truly using the
data to find cause and effect on information they are
analyzing. Ritz Carlton has been able to put in what they
call „internal failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA)?
which promotes analyzing data together to understand the
cohesion rather than looking at them as individual issues.
FMEA works by using data from guest comment cards,
feedback surveys, and secret shoppers. The data is then
analyzed by the business intelligence group, UniFocus to
understand the trends. Each trend has a specific rating that
helps the hotel understand the seriousness of the issue as
well as the frequency of it. Ritz Carlton has seen the
benefits of business intelligence, where their customer
service scores rose seven points since 2004. Corporate
Director, of Quality Assurances, Sarah Santaella states,
“Determining what defects are occurring most frequently,
what their impact is on guest loyalty, and how effective our
problem detection systems are makes it easy to prioritize our
efforts in eliminating the defects that put our hotels at the
most risk” [13].
Another example of how business intelligence is crucial
for success comes from Marriott. With over 3,500 locations
and $12 billion in revenue it is one of the largest hotel
chains in the world. In a recent interview, Marriott revealed
a key strategy as being able to increase the number of
distribution channels for their hotels. This strategy is being
driven by internet availability. Marriott also revealed that
they strive to improve customer service; and plant to do this
through the well-respected Marriott Reward program. When
Marriott runs a transaction, the business intelligence system
is able look up the member status, inventory availability,
and possible pricing models. Pricing can be based on length
of stay, as well member loyalty status; this analysis takes
just seconds. When looking at their IT implementation
Marriott considered several factors: (1) its mainframe
system would have to continue to meet growing demand
and maximize yields on inventory, (2) be consumer friendly
International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 4, August 2013
430
and reward for loyalty, (3) work with internet based
business partners to sell Marriott products and their own
offerings, (4) real time operations, 24 hours a day, (5)
system must be cost efficient.
Marriott has a number of data centers to help support
their transactions, and they are supported by the Microsoft
Exchange System, UNIX and Linux servers. Marriott
recently converted to a service oriented architecture of their
software. This helps them deliver on customer value
because they can have smarter transactions. For example,
the system can recognize a Marriott rewards member and
provide better value as they look for room to book [14].
Another example of a successful hotel business
intelligence implementation is with La Quinta Inn & Suites.
They wanted to know the most up to date information on
their 400 owned hotels without using email or a paper-based
system. La Quinta used Aptech to implement this system to
show real time data on what was happening at the hotels.
The system provided specific reports that show key trends,
key performance indicators, forecasts and how they relate
with the overall strategy. Some of the key performance
metrics included revenue across all owned properties,
budget variances, occupancy and demand forecasts and,
regional booking horizons. These reports were consolidated
at night and ready for La Quinta executives in the morning.
One of the key things that made this system incredibly
effective is that the reports could be customized to meet the
needs for each executive. The implementation involved
active participation from La Quinta team and Aptech.
Aptech developed the reports and then trained the La Quinta
team, and then went back and refined further the reports so
they met the needs of the business. The key result, as seen in
many business intelligence implementations was that La
Quinta could continue to develop the system, rather than
have to continue to maintain the system [15].
Some of the key metrics stemming from the hotel
industry include revenue per available customer, and
revenue per available room. These are key drivers to show
how well a company, or specific hotel is doing. Before
business intelligence was used in the hospitality industry,
many data points would be captured via excel to help figure
out revenue per available room. Statistics such as
maximums and minimums for business for certain days,
sales for last year, average cancellations, all would be used
to figure out how well the hotel is doing. This process,
prone to errors and dirty data, is improved today through the
use of business intelligence. With an accurate, complete and
integrated data store, the business intelligence solution can
use this information to provide snapshots of the data on
given time frames whether that is 30 days, 7days, or 1 day.
By using a proper business intelligence system, the hotel
industry can capture these trends in a more accurate manner.
A common analysis in the hotel industry is known as Pace.
This is where managers look at a certain historical period
and can analyze the same business for this year. Below is an
example: Pace analysis for the next 15 days, showing
business on the books, along with difference between
business on the books and actual sales for the same period
last year. The combined totals provide a demand forecast
for this time period [7].
Another example of success business intelligence
implementation is when Choice Hotels decided to move
forward with Business Objects as a main component of their
BI infrastructure. Executives desired real time data relating
to revenues and occupancy rates. While Business Objects
owns the Business Intelligence portion, IBM provided
Choice Hotels with the database, which allowed Choice
Hotels flexibility in integrating their data. Choice Hotels
followed one of the best practices in business intelligence by
rolling their program out in phases. They first gave their
users reporting information on basics like operations,
marketing and locational trends. One of the examples
featured in the study said, “Choice Hotels will pull in
information from its many hotels via satellite nightly, and
then use Business Objects to build and deliver reports the
next morning to company executives with the most up-to-
date revenue and operational information. The marketing
department will rely on Business Objects solution to
monitor guests who belong to the hotel?s loyalty program,
and gear specific promotional and discount campaigns to
benefit them.” Also, per usual business intelligence
implantations, executives had access to dashboards with key
information. Another factor that allowed for the roll out to
be so successful is Choice Hotels had key executive support
with their implantation. Vice President of Marketing, Chris
Caren stated, “Business intelligence allows our customers to
make their enterprise performance management initiatives
truly company-wide initiatives, so that every employee and
every department in an organization can work together to
reach and exceed corporate goals. Choice Hotels is an
excellent example of a company that gets the idea of
empowering its employees to improve the overall bottom
line of the business. Business Objects EPM solutions help
customers like Choice set goals, monitor metrics, analyze
their business, decide a course of action, and then act in a
timely manner.” [16]
IV. CHALLENGES TO BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE IN THE
HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
Organizations in hospitality have greatly benefitted from
BI and have much more to gain. BI and IT in general can
provide firms in the hospitality industry with competitive
advantage. However, most organizations strive to gain and
maintain a sustained competitive advantage from IT [17].
There are several drivers to response lag, or in other terms
key barriers that enable organizations maintain a
competitive advantage resulting from IT based strategic
initiatives [18]. They are IT resources such as existing IT
infrastructure and data repositories, complementary
resources such as physical and tangible assets, the nature of
IT projects implemented and preemption that increases
competitor switching costs [19]. Many past information
technology innovations have failed to meet expectations of
sustained competitive advantage.
BI, a key IT priority among executives in recent years [5],
and a major complex IT system has enabled major
organizations gain competitive advantage when faced with
business failure as well as bankruptcy. Case studies
highlighting organizations in the banking industry [20] and
the airlines industry [21] attest to how BI implementations
enable organizations to go from dire straits to marked
International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 4, August 2013
431
success. Numerous organizations across industries have
obtained varying levels of payoff from BI, from new
insights in standard reports and process to complete
organizational transformation [22]. Business intelligence is
among the few complex IT initiatives that can provide firms
in the hospitality industry the opportunity to erect barriers to
the erosion of sustained competitive advantage. In other
words, the IT drivers to response lag in the hospitality
industry [17], that were introduced previously, can be
accomplished through BI implementations. The manner in
which BI can bring about IT dependent sustained
competitive advantage and act as a response lag driver that
contributes to sustained competitive advantage is presented
below in Table I using the framework described by Piccoli
[17].
TABLE
I:
FRAMEWORK FOR BI
BARRIERS THAT HELP MAINTAIN SUSTAINED COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
V. FUTURE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE INNOVATION IN THE
HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
The future of business intelligence innovation in the
hospitality industry is bright. New business intelligence
systems have generated a lot of buzz in the industry. They
have features that promise to help hotels look at both the
future and past data to better understand trends and
maximize profit. Some of the trends includes a customized
dashboard, reservation system, and offers alerts sent to users?
mobile devices. Newer systems offer solutions that help
hotels reach new markets, and quickly identify positive or
negative trends. The new systems also promise highly visual
data with maps, charges, as well as alerts, filters and
analytics [24].
Mobile devices will also begin to be highly used as a part
of BI data gathering. As guests expect more customized
service, hotels must meet these expectations. Many hotels
see mobile phones as a way to deliver on this. There is still
some deep investigation on what the return on investment
will be [25]. MiscroStrategy [26] recently launched an
iPhone app that is aimed at the hotel industry for business
intelligence. This app serves to hotel managers and
executives so they can see current P&L, budget information
and recent guests reviews. The goal is to allow management
to make decisions regardless of where they are located.
CTO of Alloso Technologies states, “Our new iPhone app is
the first of its kind for the hospitality industry, and we are
delighted to offer our clients advanced tools to help them
enhance their business performance. Our clients see real
value in having the ability to access their business data
anywhere in the world, and at any time.” The company is
now working on the creation of an iPad app (Fig. 2) [27].
Business intelligence is considered a survival tool more
than a nice to have, especially with the recent economic
downturn. Hotels are finding that business intelligence
serves as a differentiation for their customers. A recent
Gartner study concluded that 65% of large hotel companies
are leveraging customer data in business intelligence tools
to help improve decision making. Many hotels believe
business intelligence to be a tool that can identify new
revenue streams, and test strategies [28]. Also, with the
proliferation of social media, hotels are expected to be on
top of any reviews (positive or negative) that involve their
particular location. By being able to monitor their brand
online using business intelligence, hotels are better able to
own their own brand [29]. newBrandAnalytics is a company
that uses social business intelligence. It has provided
services for many industries including, restaurants, hotels,
and retail. The company?s strategic differentiator is its
ability to mine user reviews from sites such as Yelp, and
Facebook, and then provide detailed analysis on these
reviews. newBrandAnalytics uses algorithms to decide the
importance and impact each social media review has on the
company?s brand [30]. newBrandAnayltics partner, Harry
Weller states, “nBA has transcended the listening platform
category and is pioneering a new arena of social business
intelligence. Their technology goes beyond simple social
metrics and generates industry specific customer insight
through operational categories that really matter to business,
like service performance, employee feedback, and product
quality. This type of insight is million-critical for any
business, especially service providers” [31].
Another future trend of business intelligence in the
International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 4, August 2013
432
hospitality industry includes outsourcing the work to experts.
Orbitz has recently adopted a cloud warehousing system for
Kognitio. They stated that Kognitio fit with their strategy
because maintaining the infrastructure is Kognitio?s
competitive advantage. This let Orbitz do analysis and not
has to worry about maintaining their infrastructure. When
Orbitz was managing the data, it would take hours, even
days to run queries. Now with the help of Kognito, Orbitz
can run queries in minutes; which allows for faster decisions.
A recent article stated, “By using Kognitio WX2, Orbitz can
now take information from web channels, demographic and
psychographic data, customer segmentation and modeling
scores and turn it into actionable intelligence, allowing them
to think of new ways of offering the right products and
services to its current and prospective client base.” [32]
Fig. 2. the iPad app created by Alloso.
Another future innovation coming to fruition is from a
startup of Exepdia employees called Hopper. The core belief
of this startup is that the core data that the hospitality
industry uses is not accurate and it needs to be repaired.
Hopper is using a number of databases to help web pages
more accurately capture guest information; and allow the
customers to search better. Hopper prides itself on not
having rigid data, their data is built on NoSQL technology;
this allows them to better deliver search results to its
customers. This allows Hopper to make better links to the
keywords [29].
A final trend is coming from SaS in customer analytics.
SaS states their system of customer analytics can help hotels
have successful revenue models. This program tracks guest
information and uses them so management can make
thoughtful and choice decision per customer, rather than
target market. SaS claims to help increase retention rates,
get a 360 degree view of the guest experiences, as well as
increase loyalty and profitability among guests [32]. SaS
claims they can do all of this and more through their
superior analytics system as well as their ability to properly
manage the data input. This allows for hotels to plan on
what their next strategic move is, rather than how they are
going maintaining the current system. Among their
customers include intercontinental Hotels, Venetian, and
RCI Global Vacation Network.
The hospitality industry is quickly becoming a leader
when it comes to business intelligence. Optimizing
customer data has led to higher profits, and occupancy rate.
Business intelligence has also helped improve the customer
experience by being able to quickly react to negative
experiences. In the future, mobile phones, and social media
will quickly become key parts of business intelligence
systems. Overall business intelligence serves as a
differentiator for those in the hospitality industry.
REFERENCES
[1] W. F. Cody, J. T. Kreulen, V. Krishna, and W. S. Spangler, “The
integration of business intelligence and knowledge management,”
IBM Systems Journal, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 697-714, Sep. 2002.
[2] Gartner.com. (February, 2013). Gartner Says Worldwide Business
Intelligence Software Revenue to Grow 7 Percent in 2013.
Gartner.com. [Online]. Available:
http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2340216
[3] Capturecode. (March, 2013). Leveraging business intelligence to
improve marketing, customer engagement operations.
Capturecode.com. [Online]. Available:
http://www.capturecode.com/leveraging-business-intelligence-to-
improve-marketing-customer-engagement-operations/
[4] R. Smolan and J. Erwitt, The Human Face of Big Data. 1st ed.
Against All Odds Productions, 2012, ch. 1.
[6] Gartner.com. (2009). Operations & Management Summit.
Garnter.com, [Online]. Available:
http://www.gartner.com/technology/summits/na/it-operations/
[7] IBM. (2011). What is Big Data? Bringing Big Data to the Enterprise.
IBM. [Online]. Available: http://www-
01.ibm.com/software/data/bigdata/
[8] A. Shende. (2010). Hotel Revenue Mangers Forecast Demand with
Improved. IQUBZ.Com. [Online]. Available:
http://www.iqubz.com/downloads/Article0003.html
[9] V. Rus and V. Toader, “Business intelligence for hotels' management
performance,” International Journal Of Business Research, vol. 8, no.
4. pp. 150-154. July, 2008.
[11] W. McKnight. (January 2008). Hospitality Industry Business
Intelligence: Checking In. Information-Management. [Online].
Available: http://www.information-
management.com/issues/2007_43/10000606-1.html
[12] J. Troutman. (October 2006). Hospitality Business Intelligence:
Almost Mainstream. Hospitality Upgrade. [Online]. Available:
http://www.hospitalityupgrade.com/_files/File_Articles/HUFall06Tro
utman_BusinessIntelligence_Fall06.pdf
[13] J. Ritz-Ross. (March 2008). Work Smarter. Intelligent Biz. [Online].
Available: http://www.unifocus.com/pdfs/work_smarter.pdf
[14] M.E. Shacklett. (September, 2011).Marriott: Focusing on Customer
Experience and Expanding Business Channels. MainFrameZone.
[Online]. Available: http://www.mainframezone.com/it-
management/Interviews/marriott-focusing-on-customer-experience-
and-expanding-business-channe/P1
[15] HosptialityNet.Org. (March, 2010). La Quinta Inns & Suites
Leverages Business Intelligence to Analyze Operations, Increase
Profitability. HospitalityNet.org. [Online]. Available:
http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4045960.html
[16] DSSResources. (June, 2004). Choice Hotels uses IBM Software and
Business Objects to drive business intelligence deployment.
DSSResources. [Online]. Available:
http://dssresources.com/news/29.php
[17] G. Piccoli, “Information Technology in Hotel Management: A
Framework for Evaluating the Sustainability of IT-Dependent
Competitive Advantage,” Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, vol. 49, no.
3. pp. 282-296. Aug. 2008.
[18] G. Piccoli and B. Ives, “IT-dependent strategic initiatives and
sustained competitive advantage: A review and synthesis of the
literature,” MIS Quarterly . vol. 29 no. 5. pp. 747-776. Dec. 2005.
[19] D. F. Feeny and B. Ives., “In search of sustainability: Reaping long-
term advantage from investments in information technology,” Journal
of Management Information Systems. vol. 7 no. 1. pp. 27-46. April,
2005.
[20] H. J. Watson, B. H. Wixom, and D. L. Goodhue, "The effects of
technology-enabled business strategy at first American corporation,"
Organizational Dynamics. vol. 31, no. 3. pp. 313-324. 2002.
International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 4, August 2013
433
[5] H. J. Watson. (June 2009). Tutorial: Business Intelligence – Past,
Present, and Future. Communications of the Association for
Information Systems. [Online]. 25(1) pp. 487-510. Available:
http://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol25/iss1/39
[10] S. F. Dean. (March 2011). Hotel Business Intelligence seeking its
identity. HotelNewsNow.com. [Online]. Available:
http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles.aspx/5212/Hotel-business-
intelligence-seeking-its-identity
[21] H. J. Watson, B. H. Wixom, and J. A. Hoffer, “Continental Airlines
Flies High with Real-Time Business Intelligence,” MIS Quarterly
Executive, vol. 3, no. 4. pp. 163-176. Dec. 2004.
[22] H. J. Watson, D. L. Goodhue, and B. H. Wixom, "The benefits of data
warehousing: why some organizations realize exceptional payoffs,"
Information & Management. vol.39, no.6, pp. 491-502. May 2002.
[23] R. P. Rumelt, “Theory, strategy and entrepreneurship,” In The
competitive challenge: Strategies for industrial innovation and
renewal, D. J. Teece. Ed. Cambridge, MA: Bellinger.1987.
[24] PRNewswire. (2010). TRAVELCLICK(R) Launches Revolutionary
Business Intelligence Application. PRNewswire. Available:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/travelclickr-launches-
revolutionary-business-intelligence-application-82154737.html
[25] T. Stehle. (April 2010). Ensuring ROI with New Technologies. Hotel
Management Network. [Online]. Available:
http://www.hotelmanagement-network.com/features/feature81055
[26] MicroStrategy. (2010). Customer Success Story: Retail: Alloso
Technologies. MicroStrategy. [Online]. Available
http://www.microstrategy.com/Customers/Successes/Alloso_Technol
ogies_success_story_(Mobile).pdf
[27] W. Cover. (2011). Alloso Technologies Launches New Mobile
Business Intelligence iPhone App for hospitality Industry Using
MicroStrategy Mobile. MicroStrategy. [Online]. Available:
http://www.microstrategy.com/news/pr_system/press_release.asp?ctr
y=167&id=2091
[28] eHotelier. (May 2009). Hotels are using business intelligence to do
more than survive the recession. eHotelier. Available:
http://ehotelier.com/hospitality-nes/item.php?id=P16134
[29] R. Gupta. (August 2011). Relying on data management for hidden
insights and increasing competitive edge. M-Travel. [Online].
Available: http://www.m-travel.com/news/2011/08/relying-on-data-
management-for-hidden-insights-and-increasing-competitive-
edge.html
[30] L. Rao. (November 2011). NEA, Steve Case, Ted Leonsis Put $26 M
In Social Business Intelligence Startup NewBrandAnalytics.
TechCrunch. [Online]. Available:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/10/nea-steve-case-ted-leonsis-put-
26m-in-social-business-intelligence-startup-newbrandanalytics/
[31] PR Web. (November 2011). newBrandAnalytics Raises $26 Million
in Series B Funding. YahooNews. [Online]. Available:
http://news.yahoo.com/newbrandanalytics-raises-26-million-series-b-
funding-180056958.html
[32] PRWeb. (October, 2011). Orbitz Continues on path of Innovation
with Kognitio WX2 via Data Warehousing as a Service (DaaS) in the
Cloud. PRWeb. [Online]. Available: http://www.
Prweb.com/releases/2011/10/prweb8860748.htm
[33] SaS.com. (2011). Customer Analytics for Hotels. SaS. [Online].
Available: http://www.sas.com/industry/hospitality/hotels/customer-
analytics/index.html
Diane Korte is currently working on her Master?s in Business
Administration from the Williams College of Business at Xavier University
in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Her research interests include business
intelligence and hospitality industry.
Thilini Ariyachandra is a member of IACSIT and obtained her Ph. D.
from the Terry School of Business at the University of Georgia, USA. She
is an Associate Professor of Management Information Systems in the
Williams College of Business at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio,
USA.
Her main research area is business intelligence and data warehousing.
Specifically she focuses on BI infrastructure architecture and development
methodologies, BI agility and success and BI education. Her work has
been published in various academic outlets including Decision Support
Systems, Communications of the ACM, and Communications of the AIS.
Mark N. Frolick obtained his Ph.D. from the Terry School of Business at
the University of Georgia, USA. He is a Professor of MIS in the Williams
College of Business at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA and the
holder of the Western & Southern Chair in Management Information
Systems. Dr. Frolick was formerly Professor of MIS and Associate
Director of the FedEx Center for Cycle Time Research at The University of
Memphis. Dr. Frolick has over 20 years? experience in the information
systems field. In addition to working for The Southern Company and
Georgia Power, he has worked as a consultant for numerous Fortune 500
companies including FedEx, Ford, Hewlett Packard, Medtronic, and Texas
Instruments.
He is considered to be a leading authority on business intelligence. His
specialties include business performance management, business
intelligence, data warehousing, executive information systems, e-business,
cycle time reduction, and the diffusion of information technology in
organizations.
Dr. Frolick has authored over 130 articles. His research has appeared in
such prestigious journals as MIS Quarterly, Decision Sciences, Journal of
Management Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, and
Information & Management. He also worked with Dr. James Wetherbe on
the book Systems Analysis and Design: Best Practices (West Publishing,
1994). This book was ranked by Computing Newsletter as the top textbook
on the topic. Additionally, Dr. Frolick serves as a consulting editor for
several publishing companies.
International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 4, August 2013
434
doc_711508148.pdf
The hospitality industry is one that has been driven by customer loyalty.
Abstract—The hospitality industry is one that has been
driven by customer loyalty. Many customers pick their hotel of
choice and will stay with that same hotel because of the
experiences, service, and even the price. Customers have
recently been rewarded through hotel, credit card, and airline
points that help drive and maintain this loyalty. Utilizing data
to their advantage, the hotel industry has been actively
exploring and implementing business intelligence. While many
see IT systems as a foundation utility that can be easily
imitated, business intelligence can act as a driver to maintain
sustained competitive advantage over competitors in the
hospitality industry. It can serve means of preserving existing
customer loyalty while facing competitive pressures. This
paper discusses the importance of BI to the hospitality industry,
indicates how BI can serve as a barrier to competitive
pressures and discusses future capabilities harnessed through
BI that are not yet main stream but are expected to transform
I. INTRODUCTION
The most critical component for success of the modern
enterprise is its ability to take advantage of all available
information [1]. This quote represents a lot of the thought
behind the increasing emphasize on business intelligence
(BI) in all organizations, across the globe, today. Various
statistics further prove the importance and growth in
business intelligence and its importance to organizations.
For instance, the worldwide business intelligence software
compound annual growth rate of the business intelligence
market is forecast to hit 27.4 percent
between 2012 and 2016 [3]. A main reason for the
heightened interest in business intelligence stems from
massive growth in data created and collected in
organizations.
According to Holmes, Smolan and Erwitt, “From the
beginning of recorded time until 2003, we created 5
exabytes of data (5 billion gigabytes) [4]. In 2011 the same
amount of data was created every two days. By 2013, it?s
expected that time will shrink to 10 minutes.” This trend is
not likely to decrease as Gartner technology research is
predicting data growth will exceed 650% through the next
five years [5]. The speed of the growth is highlighted by the
fact that 90 percent of the world?s data was created in the
last two years [6]. The growth in social media applications
along with the expansion of the use of mobile devices have
increased the Big Data captured by organizations.
Organizations are realizing the importance of capturing and
storing Big Data to gain rich insights for decision making.
The massive data explosion and the consequent growth in
BI has affected every industry. Hospitality, while not among
the leading edge industries to embrace business intelligence,
has begun to see its value and important to identifying
trends and effective decision making.
II. HISTORY OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE IN THE
HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
The history of business intelligence in hospitality industry
goes back to the 1980s where revenue management systems
were adopted, after being successful in the airline industry.
The main purpose of the revenue management system was
to help understand length of stays, and discount programs.
While these programs worked nicely, the internet becoming
a mainstream tool truly launched business intelligence (BI)
in the hospitality industry; as key companies began to drive
customer data. These companies included Expedia and
Travelocity. In the early 1990s the entire hospitality industry
became very fragmented with various programs such as
Marriott?s? One Yield, InterContinental Hotels? HIRO,
Hilton?s OnQ, and Hyatt?s e-Flex. Today, many of these
hotels are still on these systems. There were a few players
ahead of the game launching BI before the systems were
mainstream. However these implementations failed due to
common reasons like lack of strategy, technical system, lack
of executive support, and finally lack of wide use adoption.
In addition, at the time, BI systems were expensive and their
success was not as well-known [7].
III. CURRENT BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TRENDS IN THE
HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
Business intelligence involves the people, processes, and
technologies that transform data into insights that drive
business decisions and actions [8]. Leaders in the hospitality
industry use various components within the business
intelligence infrastructure arsenal to increase their
effectiveness. For instance, integrated data stores such as
data warehouses provide access to massive amounts of real
time and historic data for analysis. Online analytical
processing (OLAP) cubes provide ease of reporting while
advanced analytical tools from forecasting to data mining
enable sophisticated data analysis. Fig. 1 presents Rus and
Toader?s illustration of the basic components of a BI system
for the hospitality industry [9].
One of the main ways business intelligence is assisting
the industry is through booking optimization. Often, the
lifeblood of hotels is the corporate traveler, and being able
to consistently book that traveler is key. Rate optimization is
a way the industry is doing this. Because certain days are
Business Intelligence in the Hospitality Industry
Diane Korte, Thilini Ariyachandra, and Mark Frolick
International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 4, August 2013
429 DOI: 10.7763/IJIMT.2013.V4.435
Manuscript received April 6, 2013; revised May 28, 2013.
Thilini Ariyachandra is with Xavier University, USA (e-mail:
[email protected]).
I ndex Terms—Business intelligence, hotel industry,
sustained competitive advantage, business analytics
the industry.
.
revenue is forecast to reach $17.1 billion by 2016 [2]. The
busier than others, business intelligence can help to
configure the optimal price that will drive a high occupancy
rate [10]. One of the ways that hotels help rate optimize is
through data mining. They can put historical booking trends
into a formula and model to help understand what will
happen if they raise or lower prices. This technique helps
the hotels use their past data to make better, more efficient
decisions for the future. This can be particularly helpful
around the holiday season [11].
Fig. 1. The components of a hospitality business intelligence system.
Before they can rate optimize, hotels must understand
who their customer base is. They must understand if this is a
heavy period for corporate or leisure travelers. Hotels have
been using a master data management program to determine
the correct market. A master data management program
results from strong customer data integration [11]. The key
to a successful customer data integration is that it is the sole
database for all customer data. This helps make loyalty
programs for hotels extremely effective; as there is limited
conflicting or dirty data. Loyalty programs can be extremely
expensive because of the offered rewards, but if hotels
utilize their BI effectively, the return on data knowledge is
much more valuable than the rewards. For example, hotels
can use this data to understand if they gain a return on value
form websites such as Priceline.com and Expedia.com.
When building a master data management program, there
are many ways to organize and capture the data. For
example, larger chains can organize data by geography, or
sales. Hotels could also organize the data by travel agents,
or booking company. It is up to the individual hotel and
company to decide the most optimal way to organize the
data [11].
Hotels are also using business intelligence to help
understand their guests, and how and where they spend their
money and time. For example, The Peabody Hotel uses
business intelligence to figure out which guests indicate
they will never stay again, and dig even further to
understand the why. This data mining can link back to a
specific issue or employee, and allow management to take
corrective actions. The company estimates this use of BI
saves them about $120,000 a year in potential lost revenue
[12].
Konover Hotel Group uses the system Aptech to help
understand their labor and other expenses. They can break
this out by region, but also down to the specific hotel. A
quote from their executive vice president states, “We?re
assessing performance on a nearly real-time basis and […]
can quickly make and implement informed decisions –
whether it?s adjusting staffing or implementing a program to
recoup lost revenue.” This means making adjustments on
rates depending on what the weather is going to be [13]!
One of the true benefits of business intelligence in the
hospitality industry comes from being an end to end user.
One of the major issues with business intelligence is having
too much data and not being able properly analyzes it. Some
hotels have now been able to avoid this by truly using the
data to find cause and effect on information they are
analyzing. Ritz Carlton has been able to put in what they
call „internal failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA)?
which promotes analyzing data together to understand the
cohesion rather than looking at them as individual issues.
FMEA works by using data from guest comment cards,
feedback surveys, and secret shoppers. The data is then
analyzed by the business intelligence group, UniFocus to
understand the trends. Each trend has a specific rating that
helps the hotel understand the seriousness of the issue as
well as the frequency of it. Ritz Carlton has seen the
benefits of business intelligence, where their customer
service scores rose seven points since 2004. Corporate
Director, of Quality Assurances, Sarah Santaella states,
“Determining what defects are occurring most frequently,
what their impact is on guest loyalty, and how effective our
problem detection systems are makes it easy to prioritize our
efforts in eliminating the defects that put our hotels at the
most risk” [13].
Another example of how business intelligence is crucial
for success comes from Marriott. With over 3,500 locations
and $12 billion in revenue it is one of the largest hotel
chains in the world. In a recent interview, Marriott revealed
a key strategy as being able to increase the number of
distribution channels for their hotels. This strategy is being
driven by internet availability. Marriott also revealed that
they strive to improve customer service; and plant to do this
through the well-respected Marriott Reward program. When
Marriott runs a transaction, the business intelligence system
is able look up the member status, inventory availability,
and possible pricing models. Pricing can be based on length
of stay, as well member loyalty status; this analysis takes
just seconds. When looking at their IT implementation
Marriott considered several factors: (1) its mainframe
system would have to continue to meet growing demand
and maximize yields on inventory, (2) be consumer friendly
International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 4, August 2013
430
and reward for loyalty, (3) work with internet based
business partners to sell Marriott products and their own
offerings, (4) real time operations, 24 hours a day, (5)
system must be cost efficient.
Marriott has a number of data centers to help support
their transactions, and they are supported by the Microsoft
Exchange System, UNIX and Linux servers. Marriott
recently converted to a service oriented architecture of their
software. This helps them deliver on customer value
because they can have smarter transactions. For example,
the system can recognize a Marriott rewards member and
provide better value as they look for room to book [14].
Another example of a successful hotel business
intelligence implementation is with La Quinta Inn & Suites.
They wanted to know the most up to date information on
their 400 owned hotels without using email or a paper-based
system. La Quinta used Aptech to implement this system to
show real time data on what was happening at the hotels.
The system provided specific reports that show key trends,
key performance indicators, forecasts and how they relate
with the overall strategy. Some of the key performance
metrics included revenue across all owned properties,
budget variances, occupancy and demand forecasts and,
regional booking horizons. These reports were consolidated
at night and ready for La Quinta executives in the morning.
One of the key things that made this system incredibly
effective is that the reports could be customized to meet the
needs for each executive. The implementation involved
active participation from La Quinta team and Aptech.
Aptech developed the reports and then trained the La Quinta
team, and then went back and refined further the reports so
they met the needs of the business. The key result, as seen in
many business intelligence implementations was that La
Quinta could continue to develop the system, rather than
have to continue to maintain the system [15].
Some of the key metrics stemming from the hotel
industry include revenue per available customer, and
revenue per available room. These are key drivers to show
how well a company, or specific hotel is doing. Before
business intelligence was used in the hospitality industry,
many data points would be captured via excel to help figure
out revenue per available room. Statistics such as
maximums and minimums for business for certain days,
sales for last year, average cancellations, all would be used
to figure out how well the hotel is doing. This process,
prone to errors and dirty data, is improved today through the
use of business intelligence. With an accurate, complete and
integrated data store, the business intelligence solution can
use this information to provide snapshots of the data on
given time frames whether that is 30 days, 7days, or 1 day.
By using a proper business intelligence system, the hotel
industry can capture these trends in a more accurate manner.
A common analysis in the hotel industry is known as Pace.
This is where managers look at a certain historical period
and can analyze the same business for this year. Below is an
example: Pace analysis for the next 15 days, showing
business on the books, along with difference between
business on the books and actual sales for the same period
last year. The combined totals provide a demand forecast
for this time period [7].
Another example of success business intelligence
implementation is when Choice Hotels decided to move
forward with Business Objects as a main component of their
BI infrastructure. Executives desired real time data relating
to revenues and occupancy rates. While Business Objects
owns the Business Intelligence portion, IBM provided
Choice Hotels with the database, which allowed Choice
Hotels flexibility in integrating their data. Choice Hotels
followed one of the best practices in business intelligence by
rolling their program out in phases. They first gave their
users reporting information on basics like operations,
marketing and locational trends. One of the examples
featured in the study said, “Choice Hotels will pull in
information from its many hotels via satellite nightly, and
then use Business Objects to build and deliver reports the
next morning to company executives with the most up-to-
date revenue and operational information. The marketing
department will rely on Business Objects solution to
monitor guests who belong to the hotel?s loyalty program,
and gear specific promotional and discount campaigns to
benefit them.” Also, per usual business intelligence
implantations, executives had access to dashboards with key
information. Another factor that allowed for the roll out to
be so successful is Choice Hotels had key executive support
with their implantation. Vice President of Marketing, Chris
Caren stated, “Business intelligence allows our customers to
make their enterprise performance management initiatives
truly company-wide initiatives, so that every employee and
every department in an organization can work together to
reach and exceed corporate goals. Choice Hotels is an
excellent example of a company that gets the idea of
empowering its employees to improve the overall bottom
line of the business. Business Objects EPM solutions help
customers like Choice set goals, monitor metrics, analyze
their business, decide a course of action, and then act in a
timely manner.” [16]
IV. CHALLENGES TO BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE IN THE
HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
Organizations in hospitality have greatly benefitted from
BI and have much more to gain. BI and IT in general can
provide firms in the hospitality industry with competitive
advantage. However, most organizations strive to gain and
maintain a sustained competitive advantage from IT [17].
There are several drivers to response lag, or in other terms
key barriers that enable organizations maintain a
competitive advantage resulting from IT based strategic
initiatives [18]. They are IT resources such as existing IT
infrastructure and data repositories, complementary
resources such as physical and tangible assets, the nature of
IT projects implemented and preemption that increases
competitor switching costs [19]. Many past information
technology innovations have failed to meet expectations of
sustained competitive advantage.
BI, a key IT priority among executives in recent years [5],
and a major complex IT system has enabled major
organizations gain competitive advantage when faced with
business failure as well as bankruptcy. Case studies
highlighting organizations in the banking industry [20] and
the airlines industry [21] attest to how BI implementations
enable organizations to go from dire straits to marked
International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 4, August 2013
431
success. Numerous organizations across industries have
obtained varying levels of payoff from BI, from new
insights in standard reports and process to complete
organizational transformation [22]. Business intelligence is
among the few complex IT initiatives that can provide firms
in the hospitality industry the opportunity to erect barriers to
the erosion of sustained competitive advantage. In other
words, the IT drivers to response lag in the hospitality
industry [17], that were introduced previously, can be
accomplished through BI implementations. The manner in
which BI can bring about IT dependent sustained
competitive advantage and act as a response lag driver that
contributes to sustained competitive advantage is presented
below in Table I using the framework described by Piccoli
[17].
TABLE
I:
FRAMEWORK FOR BI
BARRIERS THAT HELP MAINTAIN SUSTAINED COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
V. FUTURE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE INNOVATION IN THE
HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
The future of business intelligence innovation in the
hospitality industry is bright. New business intelligence
systems have generated a lot of buzz in the industry. They
have features that promise to help hotels look at both the
future and past data to better understand trends and
maximize profit. Some of the trends includes a customized
dashboard, reservation system, and offers alerts sent to users?
mobile devices. Newer systems offer solutions that help
hotels reach new markets, and quickly identify positive or
negative trends. The new systems also promise highly visual
data with maps, charges, as well as alerts, filters and
analytics [24].
Mobile devices will also begin to be highly used as a part
of BI data gathering. As guests expect more customized
service, hotels must meet these expectations. Many hotels
see mobile phones as a way to deliver on this. There is still
some deep investigation on what the return on investment
will be [25]. MiscroStrategy [26] recently launched an
iPhone app that is aimed at the hotel industry for business
intelligence. This app serves to hotel managers and
executives so they can see current P&L, budget information
and recent guests reviews. The goal is to allow management
to make decisions regardless of where they are located.
CTO of Alloso Technologies states, “Our new iPhone app is
the first of its kind for the hospitality industry, and we are
delighted to offer our clients advanced tools to help them
enhance their business performance. Our clients see real
value in having the ability to access their business data
anywhere in the world, and at any time.” The company is
now working on the creation of an iPad app (Fig. 2) [27].
Business intelligence is considered a survival tool more
than a nice to have, especially with the recent economic
downturn. Hotels are finding that business intelligence
serves as a differentiation for their customers. A recent
Gartner study concluded that 65% of large hotel companies
are leveraging customer data in business intelligence tools
to help improve decision making. Many hotels believe
business intelligence to be a tool that can identify new
revenue streams, and test strategies [28]. Also, with the
proliferation of social media, hotels are expected to be on
top of any reviews (positive or negative) that involve their
particular location. By being able to monitor their brand
online using business intelligence, hotels are better able to
own their own brand [29]. newBrandAnalytics is a company
that uses social business intelligence. It has provided
services for many industries including, restaurants, hotels,
and retail. The company?s strategic differentiator is its
ability to mine user reviews from sites such as Yelp, and
Facebook, and then provide detailed analysis on these
reviews. newBrandAnalytics uses algorithms to decide the
importance and impact each social media review has on the
company?s brand [30]. newBrandAnayltics partner, Harry
Weller states, “nBA has transcended the listening platform
category and is pioneering a new arena of social business
intelligence. Their technology goes beyond simple social
metrics and generates industry specific customer insight
through operational categories that really matter to business,
like service performance, employee feedback, and product
quality. This type of insight is million-critical for any
business, especially service providers” [31].
Another future trend of business intelligence in the
International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 4, August 2013
432
hospitality industry includes outsourcing the work to experts.
Orbitz has recently adopted a cloud warehousing system for
Kognitio. They stated that Kognitio fit with their strategy
because maintaining the infrastructure is Kognitio?s
competitive advantage. This let Orbitz do analysis and not
has to worry about maintaining their infrastructure. When
Orbitz was managing the data, it would take hours, even
days to run queries. Now with the help of Kognito, Orbitz
can run queries in minutes; which allows for faster decisions.
A recent article stated, “By using Kognitio WX2, Orbitz can
now take information from web channels, demographic and
psychographic data, customer segmentation and modeling
scores and turn it into actionable intelligence, allowing them
to think of new ways of offering the right products and
services to its current and prospective client base.” [32]
Fig. 2. the iPad app created by Alloso.
Another future innovation coming to fruition is from a
startup of Exepdia employees called Hopper. The core belief
of this startup is that the core data that the hospitality
industry uses is not accurate and it needs to be repaired.
Hopper is using a number of databases to help web pages
more accurately capture guest information; and allow the
customers to search better. Hopper prides itself on not
having rigid data, their data is built on NoSQL technology;
this allows them to better deliver search results to its
customers. This allows Hopper to make better links to the
keywords [29].
A final trend is coming from SaS in customer analytics.
SaS states their system of customer analytics can help hotels
have successful revenue models. This program tracks guest
information and uses them so management can make
thoughtful and choice decision per customer, rather than
target market. SaS claims to help increase retention rates,
get a 360 degree view of the guest experiences, as well as
increase loyalty and profitability among guests [32]. SaS
claims they can do all of this and more through their
superior analytics system as well as their ability to properly
manage the data input. This allows for hotels to plan on
what their next strategic move is, rather than how they are
going maintaining the current system. Among their
customers include intercontinental Hotels, Venetian, and
RCI Global Vacation Network.
The hospitality industry is quickly becoming a leader
when it comes to business intelligence. Optimizing
customer data has led to higher profits, and occupancy rate.
Business intelligence has also helped improve the customer
experience by being able to quickly react to negative
experiences. In the future, mobile phones, and social media
will quickly become key parts of business intelligence
systems. Overall business intelligence serves as a
differentiator for those in the hospitality industry.
REFERENCES
[1] W. F. Cody, J. T. Kreulen, V. Krishna, and W. S. Spangler, “The
integration of business intelligence and knowledge management,”
IBM Systems Journal, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 697-714, Sep. 2002.
[2] Gartner.com. (February, 2013). Gartner Says Worldwide Business
Intelligence Software Revenue to Grow 7 Percent in 2013.
Gartner.com. [Online]. Available:
http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2340216
[3] Capturecode. (March, 2013). Leveraging business intelligence to
improve marketing, customer engagement operations.
Capturecode.com. [Online]. Available:
http://www.capturecode.com/leveraging-business-intelligence-to-
improve-marketing-customer-engagement-operations/
[4] R. Smolan and J. Erwitt, The Human Face of Big Data. 1st ed.
Against All Odds Productions, 2012, ch. 1.
[6] Gartner.com. (2009). Operations & Management Summit.
Garnter.com, [Online]. Available:
http://www.gartner.com/technology/summits/na/it-operations/
[7] IBM. (2011). What is Big Data? Bringing Big Data to the Enterprise.
IBM. [Online]. Available: http://www-
01.ibm.com/software/data/bigdata/
[8] A. Shende. (2010). Hotel Revenue Mangers Forecast Demand with
Improved. IQUBZ.Com. [Online]. Available:
http://www.iqubz.com/downloads/Article0003.html
[9] V. Rus and V. Toader, “Business intelligence for hotels' management
performance,” International Journal Of Business Research, vol. 8, no.
4. pp. 150-154. July, 2008.
[11] W. McKnight. (January 2008). Hospitality Industry Business
Intelligence: Checking In. Information-Management. [Online].
Available: http://www.information-
management.com/issues/2007_43/10000606-1.html
[12] J. Troutman. (October 2006). Hospitality Business Intelligence:
Almost Mainstream. Hospitality Upgrade. [Online]. Available:
http://www.hospitalityupgrade.com/_files/File_Articles/HUFall06Tro
utman_BusinessIntelligence_Fall06.pdf
[13] J. Ritz-Ross. (March 2008). Work Smarter. Intelligent Biz. [Online].
Available: http://www.unifocus.com/pdfs/work_smarter.pdf
[14] M.E. Shacklett. (September, 2011).Marriott: Focusing on Customer
Experience and Expanding Business Channels. MainFrameZone.
[Online]. Available: http://www.mainframezone.com/it-
management/Interviews/marriott-focusing-on-customer-experience-
and-expanding-business-channe/P1
[15] HosptialityNet.Org. (March, 2010). La Quinta Inns & Suites
Leverages Business Intelligence to Analyze Operations, Increase
Profitability. HospitalityNet.org. [Online]. Available:
http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4045960.html
[16] DSSResources. (June, 2004). Choice Hotels uses IBM Software and
Business Objects to drive business intelligence deployment.
DSSResources. [Online]. Available:
http://dssresources.com/news/29.php
[17] G. Piccoli, “Information Technology in Hotel Management: A
Framework for Evaluating the Sustainability of IT-Dependent
Competitive Advantage,” Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, vol. 49, no.
3. pp. 282-296. Aug. 2008.
[18] G. Piccoli and B. Ives, “IT-dependent strategic initiatives and
sustained competitive advantage: A review and synthesis of the
literature,” MIS Quarterly . vol. 29 no. 5. pp. 747-776. Dec. 2005.
[19] D. F. Feeny and B. Ives., “In search of sustainability: Reaping long-
term advantage from investments in information technology,” Journal
of Management Information Systems. vol. 7 no. 1. pp. 27-46. April,
2005.
[20] H. J. Watson, B. H. Wixom, and D. L. Goodhue, "The effects of
technology-enabled business strategy at first American corporation,"
Organizational Dynamics. vol. 31, no. 3. pp. 313-324. 2002.
International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 4, August 2013
433
[5] H. J. Watson. (June 2009). Tutorial: Business Intelligence – Past,
Present, and Future. Communications of the Association for
Information Systems. [Online]. 25(1) pp. 487-510. Available:
http://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol25/iss1/39
[10] S. F. Dean. (March 2011). Hotel Business Intelligence seeking its
identity. HotelNewsNow.com. [Online]. Available:
http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles.aspx/5212/Hotel-business-
intelligence-seeking-its-identity
[21] H. J. Watson, B. H. Wixom, and J. A. Hoffer, “Continental Airlines
Flies High with Real-Time Business Intelligence,” MIS Quarterly
Executive, vol. 3, no. 4. pp. 163-176. Dec. 2004.
[22] H. J. Watson, D. L. Goodhue, and B. H. Wixom, "The benefits of data
warehousing: why some organizations realize exceptional payoffs,"
Information & Management. vol.39, no.6, pp. 491-502. May 2002.
[23] R. P. Rumelt, “Theory, strategy and entrepreneurship,” In The
competitive challenge: Strategies for industrial innovation and
renewal, D. J. Teece. Ed. Cambridge, MA: Bellinger.1987.
[24] PRNewswire. (2010). TRAVELCLICK(R) Launches Revolutionary
Business Intelligence Application. PRNewswire. Available:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/travelclickr-launches-
revolutionary-business-intelligence-application-82154737.html
[25] T. Stehle. (April 2010). Ensuring ROI with New Technologies. Hotel
Management Network. [Online]. Available:
http://www.hotelmanagement-network.com/features/feature81055
[26] MicroStrategy. (2010). Customer Success Story: Retail: Alloso
Technologies. MicroStrategy. [Online]. Available
http://www.microstrategy.com/Customers/Successes/Alloso_Technol
ogies_success_story_(Mobile).pdf
[27] W. Cover. (2011). Alloso Technologies Launches New Mobile
Business Intelligence iPhone App for hospitality Industry Using
MicroStrategy Mobile. MicroStrategy. [Online]. Available:
http://www.microstrategy.com/news/pr_system/press_release.asp?ctr
y=167&id=2091
[28] eHotelier. (May 2009). Hotels are using business intelligence to do
more than survive the recession. eHotelier. Available:
http://ehotelier.com/hospitality-nes/item.php?id=P16134
[29] R. Gupta. (August 2011). Relying on data management for hidden
insights and increasing competitive edge. M-Travel. [Online].
Available: http://www.m-travel.com/news/2011/08/relying-on-data-
management-for-hidden-insights-and-increasing-competitive-
edge.html
[30] L. Rao. (November 2011). NEA, Steve Case, Ted Leonsis Put $26 M
In Social Business Intelligence Startup NewBrandAnalytics.
TechCrunch. [Online]. Available:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/10/nea-steve-case-ted-leonsis-put-
26m-in-social-business-intelligence-startup-newbrandanalytics/
[31] PR Web. (November 2011). newBrandAnalytics Raises $26 Million
in Series B Funding. YahooNews. [Online]. Available:
http://news.yahoo.com/newbrandanalytics-raises-26-million-series-b-
funding-180056958.html
[32] PRWeb. (October, 2011). Orbitz Continues on path of Innovation
with Kognitio WX2 via Data Warehousing as a Service (DaaS) in the
Cloud. PRWeb. [Online]. Available: http://www.
Prweb.com/releases/2011/10/prweb8860748.htm
[33] SaS.com. (2011). Customer Analytics for Hotels. SaS. [Online].
Available: http://www.sas.com/industry/hospitality/hotels/customer-
analytics/index.html
Diane Korte is currently working on her Master?s in Business
Administration from the Williams College of Business at Xavier University
in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Her research interests include business
intelligence and hospitality industry.
Thilini Ariyachandra is a member of IACSIT and obtained her Ph. D.
from the Terry School of Business at the University of Georgia, USA. She
is an Associate Professor of Management Information Systems in the
Williams College of Business at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio,
USA.
Her main research area is business intelligence and data warehousing.
Specifically she focuses on BI infrastructure architecture and development
methodologies, BI agility and success and BI education. Her work has
been published in various academic outlets including Decision Support
Systems, Communications of the ACM, and Communications of the AIS.
Mark N. Frolick obtained his Ph.D. from the Terry School of Business at
the University of Georgia, USA. He is a Professor of MIS in the Williams
College of Business at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA and the
holder of the Western & Southern Chair in Management Information
Systems. Dr. Frolick was formerly Professor of MIS and Associate
Director of the FedEx Center for Cycle Time Research at The University of
Memphis. Dr. Frolick has over 20 years? experience in the information
systems field. In addition to working for The Southern Company and
Georgia Power, he has worked as a consultant for numerous Fortune 500
companies including FedEx, Ford, Hewlett Packard, Medtronic, and Texas
Instruments.
He is considered to be a leading authority on business intelligence. His
specialties include business performance management, business
intelligence, data warehousing, executive information systems, e-business,
cycle time reduction, and the diffusion of information technology in
organizations.
Dr. Frolick has authored over 130 articles. His research has appeared in
such prestigious journals as MIS Quarterly, Decision Sciences, Journal of
Management Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, and
Information & Management. He also worked with Dr. James Wetherbe on
the book Systems Analysis and Design: Best Practices (West Publishing,
1994). This book was ranked by Computing Newsletter as the top textbook
on the topic. Additionally, Dr. Frolick serves as a consulting editor for
several publishing companies.
International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 4, August 2013
434
doc_711508148.pdf