Club_It_Part_1

CLUB IT Part 1. Club IT opens its doors to a new fast pace group of club goers and is on the cutting edge of technologies by offering the Club IT membership, a variety of music venues to suit any taste, extraordinary food, cocktails, and dancing. Club IT is the “it” place to be. As the newly hired IT intern commissioned by the owners to study and present an analysis of the club’s information needs, I begin my analysis by choosing the correct strategy needed to make the best choices. A review of the latest profit statement reveals that the club does not have a large amount of reserves to pay for a full IT system and so I am suggesting a customer – orientation strategy that follows along the lines of the owner’s mission statement, “We, Ruben and Lisa, offer you live music, DJ's, dance space and refreshments that suit your lifestyle. You are our friends, and we seek to build a community that meets regularly at Club IT." “During this new decade of service-oriented industry, a mastery of Customer Service can mean the difference between success and failure. The corporate trend of raising Customer Service is an art form, treating service as a product that needs to be learned inside and out, and marketing service to customers as vigorously as if it were a direct revenue producer.” (Strategic Planning Success – Sorrell Associates) Because the club is geared more toward the entertainment, food and beverage industry making the club more customer friendly will be the goal. Located in the heart of the revitalized Fox Plaza district, the club has the makings of becoming a first class entertainment center paralleled by the speakeasy and jazz clubs of the roaring twenties and thirties. To better track customer behavior and music tastes Club IT’s new VIP membership program is sure to be a hit because the program features reward points for every dollar spent. These reward points are tracked through the cash registers with every sale, the night of the sale, and what type of music was playing. This information can be used to determine which venues are most popular and which generate the most sales. Members can use their reward points to purchase Club IT merchandise from the virtual gift shop on the club’s Internet website. The member will have exclusive reservation privileges and can make that reservation on the website as well as updating membership details, checking to see what specials are scheduled, and what type of music will be featured on any given night. The member may want to sign up for the club’s blog to keep up on the latest gossip or happenings in the Club. The intranet proposed will track every sale and inventory of the club and with the link to the suppliers, all beverage choices will be on the shelf for the thirsty member. Not only does this track the sales but it also stores the inventory on hand and reorders a particular spirit when reaching the near end of the bottle. Club IT members are very trendy and very selective in their choice of beverage choosing the most popular cocktails or spirit du jour. The tracking system guarantees that the club will not be without that bottle of chilled Dom Perignon or that the bottle of Courvoisier Erte No. 7 goes dry. This inventory tracking and ordering system plays a key role in the kitchen linking the chef and the suppliers together ensuring that the finest and freshest ingredients are on hand to prepare the daily menu offered in the restaurant. An improvement on the website is the section for the employees in which the employee can log in with a password and update any personal information needed by the club for income tax purposes, changing the beneficiaries on insurance policies, and check work schedules. Connected to the intranet the club’s cash registers process very valuable information and work together to generate accurate sales reports, employee turnover, guest turner over, and time keeping. Any register in the club works as a time clock that allows all employees to clock in and begin their shift. The registers monitor the table assignment, reservations, food and beverage orders. Table assignments are essential in a club this size so that each wait person knows what area he or she is serving and to keep the wait staff close to all of his customers. To keep it fair all table assignments or stations are stored in the system and rotate daily so that each employee has an opportunity to serve the prime higher tipping tables by the dance floor. Another timesaver for the owners is the implementation of the “apply on line” feature of the company’s website. Wading through dozens of work applications to fill an open position is very time demanding especially if several applications have to be reviewed. Now candidates can go to the website, post a resume, fill out an application for work, and submit for consideration for any open positions. Interviews with potential employees can be easily scheduled with the new online process. This eliminates those drop in applicants that take up precious time when the club is not open. The Equal Opportunity laws requires that all employment applications be accepted and review for possible employment. Many strategic options in preparing a proposal for the new information systems were available to put in to practice but with Club IT the most efficient and productive system is implementing a system that best suits the customers with an emphasis on customer service as well as operations to make sure that everything in the background runs smoothly from payroll to ordering supplies. Following a customer orientation strategy will give Club IT the competitive edge over other clubs by providing outstanding customer service to its members maximizing profits. Reference Customer Service. Retrieved 05/10/2010 from www.strategicplanningsuccess.com