Wyndham International – Fostering High Touch with High TechEssay Preview: Wyndham International – Fostering High Touch with High TechReport this essayWyndham International – Fostering High Touch with High TechChallenges facing Wyndham InternationalThere are a number of challenges facing Wyndham International in 2001 as they move forward to capture market share of a distinct upscale segment of the business and leisure travelers. In 2001, Wyndham was not a well-known name in the industry. The company had been suffering financially and had sold considerable assets in an effort to promote the Wyndham brand. The challenge of building branch recognition in a market dominated by a few key players such as Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt compounded by the fact that the travel and tourism market was already suffering from the backlash of the September 11, 2001 tragedy make Wyndhams challenge somewhat overwhelming.
In addition to less than desirable branch recognition, Wyndham was just entering year three of a significant debt restructuring plan composed of a $1 billion equity investment, as well as a $2.45 billion restructuring of debt. Under such tight “purse strings” it is unlikely there will be any surplus funds available for any capital investment, excepting that which is deemed mandatory. Currently there is $30 million allocated for the ByRequest advertising campaign, however if this is consumed, where will additional funding be generated from? Current financials (Exhibit 1 of the case) are display a net loss to the business in 2001 of almost $139 million.
The leisure travel business is also changing evidenced by the following comment, “hotel products competing in the same segment are becoming indistinguishable in the customers eyes” (Wyndham International: Fostering High Touch with High Tech, p. 7). There has been a tendency towards increasing competitiveness in the industry focusing upon price which has been propagated by internet technology. Technology has effectively enabled consumers to access data to book their own deals creating a lower cost delivery structure. According to Porters Model, there are three strategies that can act as differentiators against competitors. They are cost leadership, differentiation and niche strategies (Turban, Leidner, McLean & Wetherbe, p.44). Clearly, in the face of financial restructuring Wyndham can neither afford to price out of the market nor afford to be the lowest cost provider. Establishing a differentiated experience or a niche strategy in the face of low brand recognition is a daunting task.
Wyndhams differentiation strategy to build brand recognition and share of wallet in the upscale business and leisure travel market, hinges to substantial degree upon the success of a guest recognition program named Wyndham ByRequest. The design of the program is focused upon offering personalized service to the members. CRM capability and investment in technology is pivotal to successful delivery. Interestingly enough, marketing research indicates that the primary elements driving selection decisions by business travelers were location and previous experience (Wyndham International: Fostering High Touch with High Tech, p. 8). Wyndham is obviously trying to capitalize upon the experience piece. While Wyndhams strategy plays well to this market research, one in three surveyed indicated that frequent-guest points and airline miles are important and this in itself presents a challenge to overcome.
Finally, while technology is an integral component of the strategy, Wyndhams personalized focus hinges on the client experience and consistent execution. The challenge here is the staffing component, standardized training and communication to ensure that the client experience is outstanding regardless of the location. The technology infrastructure allows delivery of an experience and ByRequest is not a technology, it is a culture (Wyndham International: Fostering High Touch with High Tech, p. 12). A culture that that needs to be diligently fostered.
How infrastructure strategy impacts overall IT goals and investmentsIn this business, the infrastructure was a critical factor in determining the technology strategy for Wyndhams successful implementation and speed to delivery. The majority of key competitors in the upscale business and leisure lodging market were franchisee based. Wyndham International presented an anomaly to this standard structure, as 85% of the distribution network was owned and operated. In a franchise based business, the IT expenditure typically fell upon the franchise owners and consequently budget decisions regarding technology were often given less focus. The result was a lack of standardization in IT. “Lack of a standardized computing infrastructure was due to the complex structure of the lodging industry, it high degree of fragmentation and the conflicting interests of the parties involved in making technology purchasing decisions” (Wyndham International: Fostering High Touch with High Tech, p. 4).
The competitive advantage that Wyndham strategically chose to focus upon was a differentiated, personalized client experience. Centralization of client relationship management (CRM) data and ease of accessibility to this data was an essential ingredient for success. The fact that Wyndham controlled 85% of the distribution infrastructure complemented the IT and overarching business strategy perfectly.
Centralization of the IT piece allowed Wyndham to not only integrate the property management system with the central reservation system and ByRequest, but also generate efficiencies and economies of scale. IT staffing numbers were reduced, centralized systems and applications were more nimble. The IT investment was in an application service provider (ASP) model which facilitated access to centralized applications via internet web browser.
It is very evident in this case that the future direction and strategy was determined by business and that technology acted as an enabler. There was an organizational commitment to deliver an outstanding client experience for ByRequest members and the IT augmented this strategy. As mentioned, the success of Wyndham ByRequest, a key strategy, hinged upon the ensuring that every employee embraced the program. In an industry known of high staff turnover, consistency of delivery and training for key staff presented quite an obstacle. Current research indicates that Wyndham International has leveraged centralization of technology to provide a competitive edge with respect to training. Instead of relying upon more costly traditional training methods, such as: face to face , conference calls, e-mail and fax distributions, Wyndham collaborated with
, conference calls, e-mail and fax distributions, Wyndham collaborated with, and the company chose a technology that made recruiting and recruiting software easy.
, and fax distributions, Wyndham partnered with to provide an unparalleled experience for ByRequest members.
A key role of Wyndham ByRequest members was to ensure that every employee embraced the program. As this enabled more employees than would normally consider a “successful” customer experience, it made them more highly competitive. These findings were the result of Wyndham’s extensive and valuable research on how technology affected customer success. When Wyndham ByRequest, an agency, conducted a design study, the industry was aware of the work being done on a software program to improve online customer service. During the design study, Wyndham learned that a large percentage of its employees found the technology “hard to use.” This was a major mistake. At the center of this study was a team of experts that came up with a comprehensive solution to this problem and to create a “perfect-and-not-perfect” employee service. For this purpose, Wyndham ByRequest staff used a fully functional and customizable program that made it more difficult for any employee to learn, learn, perform and integrate.
What Wyndham ByRequest employees learned The following study described the approach of Wyndham ByRequest employees to adopt a technical-enhanced employee experience. By the end of the training period, employees had a minimum of three practice days of training. This allowed Wyndham ByRequest staff to improve both staff satisfaction numbers and success rates within the organization. From this time forward, Wyndham ByRequest has worked with large companies to develop a product that helps employees meet their personal goals. By the end of the training period, Wyndham ByRequest staff received training in one of its various product categories such as software, product support, networking, engineering, software development, business design, financial and customer management, consumer security, product systems. Each such product category was customized to fit specific needs. On the client side, Wyndham ByRequest staff developed the most comprehensive tool available, the Wyndham ByRequest Toolkit, to help new and experienced associates better understand and integrate an experience-based program such as Wyndham ByRequest. The Wyndham ByRequest Toolkit was designed to incorporate into the design of an ideal IT application the ability to incorporate into a product design process. The toolkit includes training, analysis tools and the ability to build customized prototypes to ensure that product design meets any particular customer needs. The training section also included a series of new technologies that can be used to improve online communication and customer experience.
Although the Wyndham ByRequest toolkit is used extensively for IT solutions, it is also used for other services such as: IT automation. In addition, the Wyndham ByRequest toolkit can be used by any company to manage certain issues, such as: customer service, customer relationship management, compliance with customer service obligations, and security and compliance. The Wyndham ByRequest toolkit can also be used for software development, which is typically carried out using a cloud and uses built in customer service capabilities. The Wyndham ByRequest toolkit can also be used in the development of an online video platform with a focus on web content development.
In order for Wyndham ByRequest to