Changing Role of Hospitality IT
University of Phoenix
BIS_303
December 20, 2011

Changing Role of Hospitality IT
Introduction
The role of IT in the hospitality industry is of the utmost impact in the current business environment. Because of this, GDS are possible. The strength of the GDS is in the way in which the interwoven resources and complimentary services can connect on a real-time basis. This perspective of running businesses within the industry shifts the focus.
Efficiencies, Cost Control, Information Leveraging and the role of the GDS GDS allow players in the hospitality industry to be much more efficient and proactive by utilizing the capabilities that allow for simultaneous communications. This distinct shift in hospitality industry away from the reactionary and the real-estate focused business model to the channel and distribution focus facilitated by high technology, marks the modern hospitality industry. Although all of this focus is on streamlined channel distribution, the driver is still the customer. Or more precisely, providing all facets of the customer’s needs at the same moment This concept is better described in the text “The thrust of today’s distribution systems is about having the right product in the right place at the right time at the right price and under the right set of conditions or circumstances, as defined by the consumer” (Nyheim, 2005).
The way in which the GDS contributes to cost control is through allowing for strategic channel focus vs. the traditional transaction based emphasis. The GDS allows members of the hospitality industry to react to the customers desires in a swift and symbiotic way. The main competitive advantage of the GDS is that it allows businesses in the hospitality industry to connect and deliver the services and products to the customer in the most efficient and streamlined of ways. It speaks directly to the main business drivers of IT spending in the industry, which is to facilitate service. If a client needs to change a reservation, buy a ticket, rent a car or any other activity associated with services and products in the hospitality industry a strong GDS in place allows the business to achieve the goal. Information is gathered about the consumer from each access point within the GDS. This information can be spread across the system, allowing each component of the system to contribute to the consumer’s desires, and also allows the nodes in the GDS to assimilate the recorded feedback from that consumer. In this way, the GDS perpetuates the industry and complements the role of the consumer in the most advanced way ever experienced so far in history. The changes in the consumer’s desires are of paramount importance in the hospitality industry in particular. Therefore the GDS really addresses all the changes. From minor preferences noted in a consumers purchase, to large responses to a monitored event, such as a marketing campaign or reaction to a trend in economy, these types of changes and many others are recorded through-out the GDS. Each bit of information contributes to the strength of the overall system.
The competitive advantage of the GDS is relative to each company. The way in which those companies relate to the industry at large is a major element of their own GDS. When a company uses strategy to align themselves with the most sensible complimentary businesses to suit their mutual clients, a value has also been added to the GDS. The GDS, when used and maintained well, within the best interests of the consumer, both contributes to the success of each individual company, but also to the industry and to ultimately the consumer.

References
Peter D. Nyheim, Francis M. McFadden, Daniel J. Connolly, A. Joseph Paiva Technology Strategies for the Hospitality Industry Chapter Eight: Hotel Global Distribution Systems and Channels, 2005.