Project Charter - Web Site Enhancement Project

Case Study Overview

Company Background

Early in 1999, hotel managers Simon Andrews and Sybil Jones decided to leave one of the Europe"s largest hotel chains and create their own new chain. With funding from personal investments and venture capitalists, they opened 3-R Hotels (Rest, Relax, & Recreate) in the spring of 2000. They currently operate 14 hotels in 5 countries, each with 100 rooms and approximately 300 staff. The mission of the chain is to differentiate themselves from other lodgings that simply offer a bed: they want to provide an experience to their guests, including elegant meals, relaxing living quarters, and extensive recreational options such as golf, tennis, spas, gyms, night clubs, and excursions to local towns and areas of interest.

At the present time, each of the 14 hotels employs separate management staff, including positions of Hotel Manager, Assistant Manager, and four Directors: Operations & Finance, Guest Services, Restaurants, and Reservations. Centralized positions providing direction and support to all 3-R Hotels include a 5-person Marketing Team led by Vice President Fred Stafford, a 12-person Technology Team led by Vice President Sarah Hawking, and a 3-person Travel & Tourism Team led by Vice President Monica Duval.

All 3-R Hotels use two centralized systems: a Reservation System and a Guest-Services System. The Reservation System: tracks guest reservations accepted up to two years in advance; interfaces with the Guest-Services System to determine non-lodging costs; produces guest bills; processes guest payments. The Guest-Services System: tracks current rates for services within the hotels; manages the schedules for the services including availability; interfaces with the Reservations System to validate guests and to provide billing totals due to Services. Note that for tracking and billing purposes, restaurant and bar charges are tracked within the Guest-Services System.

The centralized Technology team's responsibilities include maintaining the Reservation System, the Guest-Services System, and the 3-R web site. The web site currently displays the names and locations of the hotels. Graphics depicting photographs of sample rooms and restaurants are available, along with brief descriptions of the locales surrounding the hotels. Reservations are not accepted on-line, however, nor can prospective guests query dates and room rates for availability.

Preliminary Findings

You conduct a set of preliminary discussions with Andrews and Jones to discuss the various systems and the company's strategic vision. You also meet with the heads of Marketing, Travel & Tourism, and Technology to gather their initial thoughts for the site improvements. In an informal report of preliminary findings, you recommend the launch of a project, beginning of course with the Requirements phase, to enhance the web site to:

1. accept on-line queries for room and service availability
2. accept on-line reservations of rooms and services
3. provide extensive information including virtual tours of the surrounding locales
4. investigate co-marketing opportunities with other travel & tourism vendors in the area.
Although each of these aspects could be developed independently, you recommend analyzing them together because of the significant interaction among them.

Attachment:- Assignment.doc