Critical Investigation of the topic
The advancement in technology has been largely responsible for the development of the improved processes for the projects (da Cruz Albuquerque et al. 2014). The alignment of the specific project operations would help in forming the development of the functions. The traditional brick and mortar process of business operations had been in vague in since the beginning. However, the deployment of the online services would be formed for the development and increased reach to the customers (Gavalas et al. 2014). The analysis of the technology and appropriate application of the online operations would be helpful for integrating the alignment of the operations.
The following assignment would be helpful for ensuring that the application of the processes of online service deliverance for the Travel and Tourism Industry. The implementation of the online services would help in increasing the market of the Travel and Tourism Industry and align the possibility of the improved operations. The following assignment consists of the critical evaluation of the use of online operations, its comparison with the traditional brick and mortar operations, analysis of the beneficiary with the technology, evaluation of the benefits of using mobile application, and the specific issues of using web services.
According to Law, Buhalis and Cobanoglu (2014), the travel and tourism industry has seen a major development with the advent of the technology and the number of visitors of the place would be largely induced. The traditional brick and mortar process lacks the automation of the operations and it becomes critically impossible for the organization to extend their market. The introduction of the online services has been helpful for the travel and tourism industry as it provides the ease of the accessing the information 24X7. The use of the information and communication with the help of smart technology has been helpful for carrying out the alignment of the activities of the project. The growth of the technology and its perception for the development of the activities of the organization would help in carrying out the analysis of the project operations. As opined by Koo et al. (2015), the local business of the tourism has become comprehensive and it utilizes the power of the Internet for developing effective operations of the organization. The sufficient application of the technology would involve the deployment of the system integration for carrying out the analysis of the project integration and alignment. The system integration and information system development would be implied for ensuring that the company gets the benefit of forming the operations of the travel and tourism industry.
Comparison with brick and mortar
The sufficient growth of the technology has been able to imply the technology of web services for the travel and tourism industry. According to Jones (2014), before the advent of the technology, the agents would have to do all the hard works and they would advise the clients for selecting the holiday destination. The clients would get all the information from the travel agents about the route, expenses, site to see, and other hotel stay related information. The integration of the information has been largely induced for forming the profound development of the processes. However, Gavalas et al. (2014) have pointed that the deployment of the improved services would be helpful for carrying out the development activities of the industry. The alignment of the facilities would allow the implication of the effective and improved operations for the development of the organization. The supplementary deployment of the profound activities would help in aligning the development of the operations of the travel and tourism industry (Xiang, Magnini and Fesenmaier 2015). The alignment of the activities would form the maximizing the processes of the travel and tourism industry.
The brick and mortar business processes and the online retail processes for the Travel and Tourism Industry can be differentiated on the basis of market extent, cost, and duration of activities (Borras, Moreno and Valls 2014). The alignment of the activities with the help of internet as the source would help in increasing the proficiency of the operations. The comparison has been shown in the table below,
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Brick and Mortar |
Online Web Services |
|
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Functions of the process |
The brick and mortar process includes the use of the agent for providing the information to its clients. The trading agent would have to explain the various places and their offers for the clients so that they can visit the places (Gretzel et al. 2015). However, the processes of the brick and mortar are limited and it exhausts the agents while reaching various clients. |
The online web services would provide the options of accessing the information whenever they want. The clients could access the required information including places to visit, conveyance information, rates, and various hotels availability through the website access. It would remove the requirement of the agents for going to various clients of providing them with the required information. |
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Overall Cost |
The cost of implementing the system is less in compare to the cost of implementing the online web services. The system would require the recruitment of some agents and the agents would go (or call) to the clients for imparting the information to the clients. The maintenance cost of the brick and mortar would include the salaries of the agents and the cost incurred for the travelling of the agents to the respective locations of the clients. |
The overall cost of the implementation includes the system components, equipments, and the salaries of the engineer. The maintenance price is higher than the cost of the implementation of the traditional brick and mortar process (Gretzel et al. 2015). However, the information storage and transfer cost in online web services are negligible in compare to the cost of the information management in brick and mortar. |
|
Duration and Market Extent |
The duration of the activities of brick and mortar process is very long and the market reach is limited (Raymond et al. 2016). The agents have limited reach in the market and the manual information sharing would comprise of taking much time for the Trade and Tourism Industry. |
The duration of the activities of online web services is really short and the market reach is on a global level. The Internet platform has global reach in the market and the automatic information sharing would comprise of taking minimal time for the Trade and Tourism Industry. |
Table 1: Comparison of Brick and Mortar with Online Web Services Business Process
(Source: Gretzel et al. 2015, pp-186)
The implementation of the improved technology of the online web services would help the travel and tourism industry for implying the effective and improved operations of the organization (Schegg and Stangl 2017). The analysis of the system development would entail the classification of the involved persons into two sections, one where the persons get benefit of the new implemented system and second where the person does not get the benefit of the new implemented system. The study has helped in sorting them on the basis of the priority and role played in the implementation of the new system. The use of the online web services for travel and tourism industry would help the customers to get the ease of access. The online services include the development of a user interface and a cloud storage that can be accessed whenever required (Esparza-Aguilar, Garcia-Perez-de-Lema and Durendez 2016). The customer would have to register in the interface login page by entering their contact details. The customers would then be able to get the information from the website whenever they want and would not have to rely on the agent for the information. The agents would not be benefited by the system as they would not be needed in the travel and tourism industry. The development of the operations into online web services would reduce the scope of the agents at travel and tourism industry. The agents were responsible for providing the information to its clients. The trading agent would have to explain the various places and their offers for the clients so that they can visit the places (Chung, Lin and Tian 2016). However, with the deployment of the online web services, the clients could access the required information including places to visit, conveyance information, rates, and various hotels availability through the website access. It would remove the requirement of the agents for going to various clients of providing them with the required information. The company would also be benefited by the use of the new online web services as it would help in gaining market and extending the reach among general people. The company would also get exempted from the expense of giving the agents their salary (Jovanovic 2016). However, the company would have to bear the expense of deploying and maintaining the system. The analysis had shown that the overall expense of the online web services is comparatively nothing in compare to the benefits of the implementation system.
Who Benefits and Who Does Not?
The mobile application development is an improved technology that enables the use of the Smartphone for the activities of Travel and Tourism industry. The benefits of using mobile applications are mobile geo-targeting, scheduling and reminders, ease of payments, communication with customers, and CRM and sales support (Hunter et al. 2015). These points have been explained below,
Mobile Geo-Targeting: The mobile geo-targeting is implied for developing the targeting of the key users with specific location and development of the profound operations. The mobile application would be helpful for the development of the market targeting and implying the development of the profound model (Moreno, Sebastia and Vansteenwegen 2015). The increased market capture and the deployment of the operations would help in forming the activities of operations. The operations of the organization would allow the formation of the system integration. The alignment of the operations would form the development of the organization and the support of the improved market share.
Scheduling and Reminders: The scheduling and reminders of the mobile application would help in forming the development of the improved operations (Fang et al. 2016). The scheduling of the mobile application is formed for integrating the analysis of the system development. The formation of the operations would allow the users for the formation of the completed annihilation of the specific deliverance of the operations. The scheduling would help the customers for making the trip schedule and adding it to the reminder so that the users would get the notification of the plan schedule.
Ease of Payments: The ease of payments with the help of the system development would help in forming the system for the payments. The integrated payment platforms such as PayPal would help the travel and tourism industry for the development of the operations. The faster processing of the payments would allow the clients for getting faster services.
Communication with Customers: The use of mobile applications is helpful in developing the operations for carrying out the alignment of the functional development. The communication would be largely improved with the help of the mobile application (Neuhofer, Buhalis and Ladkin 2014). The mobile technology serves the most eligible method of communication and the implication of the Smartphone application would provide the users with accessing the required information from any place. The mobile application is a more specific technology that forms the development of the operations for communication with the help of built in chatting functions and forums.
Benefits Associated with Mobile-Apps
CRM and Sales Support: The CRM and sales support would be helpful for the management of the operations. The CRM would help in managing the database of the customers and it would also form the modification of the improved operations. The alignment of the operations with the help of the CRM system would enable the support to the sales process. The important information would not be required to be written down manually as the information can be stored automatically in the database of the mobile application.
The development of the online services also brings some security issues including the un-authentic access, virus and malware attacks, and DNS. The authentication is a primary function of the online web services (Benckendorff, Sheldon and Fesenmaier 2014). The deployment of the improved functions would allow the use of cloud network for the storage database. The cloud storage would form the ease of wireless access for the users. However, it is also vulnerable to the infiltration and un-authorized entry in the network system.
Infiltration: The network infiltration would form the issues by extracting the information from the database. The use of the cloud database would form the scope of cyber criminals attacking the network and extracting the information from the database. The users would have to overcome the network infiltration due to the misalignment of the cyber threats. The infiltration would allow the hackers for accessing the information for their benefit.
Virus and Malware Attack: The virus and malware attack is another major issue in the implication of the affective and improved operations. The users would have to form the development of the operations. The virus and malware attack would imply the formation of the issues for the users (Inversini and Schegg 2016). The system would cease to imply the modification of the operations and form the issues in developing the activities of the travel and tourism. The analysis would form the modification of the activities to implement the new system. The virus and malware attack would result in forming the issues of the operations.
Conclusion
The assignment was made on the use of online web services for the travel and tourism industry and it has critically evaluated it from the brick and mortar processes. The critical evaluation of the use of online operations, its comparison with the traditional brick and mortar operations, analysis of the beneficiary with the technology, evaluation of the benefits of using mobile application, and the specific issues of using web services had been done in the assignment. The traditional brick and mortar process of business operations had been in vague in since the beginning. However, the deployment of the online services was formed for the development and increased reach to the customers. The brick and mortar business processes and the online retail processes for the Travel and Tourism Industry were differentiated on the basis of market extent, cost, and duration of activities. The analysis of the system development had entailed the classification of the involved persons into two sections, one where the persons get benefit of the new implemented system and second where the person does not get the benefit of the new implemented system. The study had helped the customers for getting the benefit from the new online web services. However, the agents would not get the benefit from the system as it would snatch their scope of work. The benefits of using mobile applications were mobile geo-targeting, scheduling and reminders, ease of payments, communication with customers, and CRM and sales support. The development of the online services had brought some security issues including the un-authentic access, virus and malware attacks, and DNS, infiltration.
Security Issues Associated with the Web Presence
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