Changing Role of Hospitality It

Running Head: CHANGING ROLE OF HOSPITALITY IT 1

Changing Role of Hospitality IT

Gerardo Maya

08/27/2012

BIS/303

University of Phoenix

Ray Dahmer

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Changing Role of Hospitality IT

The hospitality industry has seen many transformations since the early days of manual operations. Information technology has served as the biggest reason as to why hospitality organizations have become so successful. IT is used in hotels now for virtually every aspect of the business including: checking in/out, billing functions, human resources, and accounting. Online services have enabled guests to conveniently book rooms at lower prices and allow them to view high quality pictures of desired hotels. Information technology has also introduced numerous software applications that have given managers the opportunity to efficiently manage and operate a hospitality organization. These software applications maximize the ability to convert data into meaningful information that can lead to competitive advantage. One of those applications is Microsoft Excel.

Excel is spreadsheet application software that is constructed to manage numbers electronically. It has helped managers in the hospitality industry with services such as financing and inventory control. "The value of this design is that the user can easily input-view-replace numeric information in the spreadsheet to create hypothetical outcomes" (Tesone, 2006). That process is called what-if-analysis and it leads to great decision making. What-if-analysis can involve financial budgeting by placing formulas into the cells of the spreadsheet. Revenues and expenses can be compared which will determine profits and losses. Additionally, Excel spreadsheets can interface with databases to store substantial amounts of information.

Spreadsheets can answer financial questions that can improve cost control. What was the organization's profit in the last quarter? Where budget expectations met? What was the payroll for the week? Excel has the ability to recalculate numbers automatically and make future

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projections with what-if-analysis as mentioned earlier. Excel has many financial functions such as the future value of an investment, the number of periods for an investment, periodic payment for an annuity, and interest rate per period of annuity.

The data gathered by Excel can assist in decision-making for managers