The ‘Outrigger Hotels and Resorts’ was founded in 1967 with an idea of making the middleman’s dream to paradise a reality. By 2004, this firm had grown to 3600 employees, a wide portfolio of properties in various international locations, and revenues of approximately US 45 million dollars. Some of its key assets which the firm leveraged on were: Premier locations in the markets, strong name and recognition, relationship with the travel distribution network, focus on vacation destinations, local knowledge and community ties and good employee relations.
IT had provided Outrigger a very big edge over its competitors. The highly developed nature of its IT department, their understanding of the business needs and the market made Outrigger ahead of the game with its competitors. The centralized ERP system, integrated PMS/CRS, electronic interfaces with distribution partners, data mining and business intelligence support was serving them well.
With its aggressively growing size, a key challenge Outrigger was facing was to keep its IT centralized. They had employed several options but were still looking for a resolution to this issue.
The hospitality distribution network was also changing and Outrigger had to gear up to the challenge it was posing in terms of more and more information being available on the internet. People were now going to the internet for information about their travel instead of the travel consultants.
Outrigger’s IS hand had to set up a vision and strategy to make use of the changing environment and convert it into an advantage.
I. Contents Current Situation of the Outrigger Business 2 Strengths 2 Weaknesses 3 Opportunities 3 Threats and Challenges 3 IT SWOT 3 IT Strengths 3 IT weaknesses 3 It Threats 4 Critical Success Factors 4
Current Situation of the Outrigger Business
Strengths
Niche/strategic positioning of brand – leisure travel segment
Community ties
Hospitality
Wide portfolio