Perception of ICT

This major category relates to issues resulting from organizations’ understanding and ICT expertise. More specifically, it describes the Perception of ICT based on the technology experience, technology dependency, and technology knowledge of sector organizations. These low level categories emerged from open codes during the comparative analysis process. The open codes were created from data relating to these categories and are listed in Table 24. (The open codes are italicised in the text for easy reference in subsequent discussions).

167 Table 24: Components of category Perception of ICT

Major

Within the major category, Perception of ICT, organizations’ level of experience with technology influenced how they perceived the usefulness of ICT. As noted earlier, there seemed to be a varying degree of reluctance within the sector to deploy ICT. Although the sector organizations were largely dependent on ICT, they seemed to be struggling with it.

As indicated earlier, all the organizations had implemented some sort of Property Management System (PMS). The purchase of such a system was often decided by the organization’s owner. One of the application service providers described the situation:

We deal with the owner; it’s the owner who sees our Demo.

Often the information or product was not shared with the end users (meeting user requirement). As a result the service providers were unable to satisfy end user needs adequately, even with some basic training. As an application service provider expressed:

When we reach the implementation stage, they would say we want our system to be like this…sometimes we don’t get some of the outputs that they require…at times we have to redesign the system.

168 The staff working in resorts, or the end users, noted the management or head office (owner’s office) make most of the decisions (top-down decision making). For instance, when questioned about the decision to use a particular application, one response was:

This was decided by the management itself

This hierarchy seemed to limit what a person, especially an operational staff member, can do within an administrative framework. Moreover, the owners had little knowledge about the intricacies of the practical environment. Thus, even though ICT solutions were available and capable of overcoming difficulties, organizations often lacked a person equipped with the knowledge and leadership to take such initiative. As one of the application providers commented:

Generally in Maldives what often happens is, they don’t realise the benefits that they get in investing in technology. It is important to educate them with the outputs that it would have.

Accordingly, most of the interviewees admitted that most of the functions available in their software applications were unused. When questioned about why, they often had no answer. One of the IT managers from an organization with a single resort stated:

I don’t know why we are not using it.

It appears there was not an encouraging or innovative culture within the organizations (management enthusiasm). A lack of enthusiasm to explore the potential of existing systems was further compounded among those staff working in resort islands lacking the internationally well-known software Fidelio. Not only the executive management but most of these staff, had limited knowledge about the software but perceived it as a possible solution for their existing problems. When questioned about Fidelio, an IT manager for an organization with chain resorts admitted:

When we go for Fidelio I don’t think this much error is there. It will not be there…Fidelio is so great, I heard.

The existing ICT services available appeared to be unorganised and less structured. For instance, one of the forms of communication organizations were dependent on was email. The increasing reliance on email resulted in high volumes of email sent and received (email overloading). Some organizations experienced major problems

169 managing emails. A manager from a travel agency reported difficulties attending to the emails:

That’s a major problem, the mail getting blocked with junk mail and you can’t send any mails. We depend so much on the emails for all the bookings and all the things.

An IT manager from an organization with local resorts pointed out:

When it comes to final confirmation, roughly about seven emails are exchanged between back and forth. So, imagine on a daily basis we have 20 arrivals, so 20 arrivals means 20 times 7 emails, so 140 emails for one day’s booking, So it’s a waste of time, the storage, you know, staff, all these things.

As highlighted above, the approach to managing the customer data was inefficient and resulted in wastage of resources (poor data management). One of the application service providers illustrated this:

When a resort operates for three years, or four years down the line, when we look at it, quite large garbage is in the system… In most places this is a problem, there are very few places where they authenticate and check the data.

4.6.1.2 Technology dependency

Closely associated with technology experience is organizations’ technology dependency. Despite high costs involved in deploying ICT services, ICT appeared to be contributing to the payoff in investments. ICT seemed to be a useful tool to fulfil tourism service providers’ promises to deliver richer, exceptional services.

All the organizations were becoming increasingly dependent on email (email dependency) as a method of communicating among themselves (especially with their international counterparts) as well as providing customer service. Answering emails was a crucial marketing function, especially for the travel agencies. Thus one of the marketing managers from a travel agency asserted:

About 150 emails per day,...sometimes in order to confirm a booking we might have to pass 15 to 20 emails back and forth…let’s say minimum five to seven emails…The biggest role in a travel agency is their email. More than phone, or faxes, now email. As they say email has “revolutionised” all the businesses.

170 In addition to use of this basic Internet tool, some organizations were using the Internet to overcome geographical isolation. For example, one of the IT managers from an organization with local chain resorts articulated how ICT was used to maintain their PMS:

Our contract takes into consideration the fact that we are quite far from Male’. Daily physical transfer will incur a high cost on transfer...What happens now is that physical presence is no longer required…Now we use Internet...They look after the system maintenance through the network.

In most organizations the PMS was also used to enhance scheduling and manage day-to-day activities among staff. One of the managers from an organization with local chain resorts illustrated this:

You can manage also all the rooms. How many quantities of towels you can edit [on the system], how many soap, which kind of bed sheet you need…

In tandem with scheduling, sharing of customer information through PMS was at the heart of daily operations. Nearly all organizations depend on the system to keep track of customer information/activities, starting from the first point of booking confirmation or entry into the system. For instance, one of the safari vessel operators described how his saved customer information helped identify prospective customers:

That is 14 or 15 times repeated customer requests, we need to seek ways for him, so that information, we get only because we have gathered such information and kept it as a soft copy.

Furthermore, a number of interviewees confirmed the advancements of ICT applications offered low-cost solutions promising for their businesses (cost saving). As one the safari vessel operator explained:

The things that we used to do by phone now we can do it by Internet, or through email. That is one of our expenses that have reduced drastically.

Many of the interviewees noted the ability to upload information in real time was an imperative for the sector. A safari vessel operator described the convenience of the technology to provide information (information sharing):

This cannot be done without giving information ..Now today in a matter of seconds that is transferred…for example, diving status, these things are updated day to day, right after a dive in 30 minutes time.

171 Another safari vessel operator described how time critical information sharing was:

When there are good waves coming they want to send email to their friends who are interested in that, “Now the waves are like this and it’s such big and come soon”. We want them to talk as such. Then they will come from the next flight, to surf. So, it is very important.

4.6.1.3 Technology knowledge

The technology knowledge was largely based on the sector’s technology experience and dependency. It was found that all organizations included in this study were largely dependent on ICT, although struggling with it. The struggle can be attributed to inadequate knowledge and inexperience of people engaged in the tourism sector - both the general staff and those engaged in deploying ICT.

Often the case was that operational staff performed their daily operations using the system and IT personnel took care of system maintenance. For instance, managers in charge of information technology in a resort held total responsibility for any activity relating to ICT within their resort. The role was very diverse and included everything from software to hardware, including network maintenance.

As discussed earlier (under theme two, work culture/environment), because of lack of ICT awareness among top management, the few technical personnel available were struggling to seek opportunities to fulfil their potential. The majority of ICT managers in tourism organizations were foreigners. This could be because some tourism sector organizations try to follow other similar organizations that tend to bring in foreign management. In this regard, one of the application service providers noted:

We have very much noticed that most of the resorts operating companies are bringing in foreign management

However, most ICT managers employed in the sector organizations not only had limited knowledge in meeting the requirements of ICT capabilities to manage a resort/hotel, but also lacked business knowledge. For instance, an interviewee who had worked in a hotel as an IT manager (IT personnel) for two years admitted their lack of business knowledge:

172 Marketing, yet that area is not something that I know

Most of the operational staff had basic technology literacy and only some had undergone limited formal training. In most of organizations staff were trained informally, ‘on the job’ to perform daily operations. Whenever there was a problem relating to ICT, such as glitches in the system, IT staff would normally troubleshoot.

Often a single person was assigned for the task and had short job tenure. A frequent issue raised by the IT staff was being solo, as one of the IT managers from an organization with local chain resort reported:

Sometime there are problems that there is a need for two person, like, for example, you need to connect, I cannot connect so, instead of going back and forth one should be staying to check on the server, or software.

Another issue was that there was no system of sharing technical knowledge/difficulties among and within the organization (lack of knowledge sharing).In most cases the staff engaged in performing daily operations were fairly new to the job and lacked the fundamental knowledge to understand the system and improve their operations. The lack of experience and expertise in the organization (experience/expertise) resulted in unnecessary problems, as a technical service provider described:

A common problem is that the IT person in the resort is leaving and the new IT person coming and doing something to the network which causes some problem. Normally there are foreign IT managers in the resorts…Actually no one will have this capability;

they will have to come and learn.

The lack of knowledge retention or sustainability in the organizations indicated in the above quote is compounded by the geography of the Maldives. The majority of foreign IT managers did not seem familiar with local geographical environments (local requirements). One of the telecommunication service providers pointed out:

Their mind set is more based on the city hotels. In Maldives we are not having actually city hotels; this is resort islands, so it doesn’t fit this environment.

International chain resorts, however, generally had a strategic approach to geographical challenges. They employed either a local person or a person with experience in managing ICT in a “small island” context to manage these activities.

173 Another issue stemming from the Maldives’ vulnerability was the lack of merchants providing commodities and services of modern technologies.

The prospects of acquiring new capabilities (capability development) or opportunities to deploy these technologies were limited. One of the technical service providers explained their approach to installing such equipment:

If we bring something like IP TV, if we are bringing them, we bring people from the manufacturers to install them…They will come here and do the first installation, and then onwards our staff can perform the job.