Customer empowerment in tourism through Consumer Centric Marketing (CCM)

We explain Consumer Centric Marketing (CCM) and adopt this new technique to travel context. Benefits and disadvantages of the CCM are outlined together with warnings of typical caveats Value: CCM will be expected as the norm in the travel industry by customers of the future, yet it is only the innovators who gain real tangible benefits from this development. We outline current and future opportunities to truly place your customer at the centre and provide the organisation with some real savings/gains through the use of ICT Practical Implications: We offer tangible examples for travel industry on how to utilise this new technology. The technology is already available and the ICT companies are keen to establish ways how consumers can utilise it, i.e. by providing ‘content’ for these ICT products the travel industry can fully gain from these developments and also enhance consumers’ gains from it. This can result in more satisfied customers for the travel (as well as ICT) companies thus truly adopting the basic philosophy of marketin

A Process Framework for Semantics-aware Tourism Information Systems

The growing sophistication of user requirements in tourism due to the advent of new technologies such as the Semantic Web and mobile computing has imposed new possibilities for improved intelligence in Tourism Information Systems (TIS). Traditional software engineering and web engineering approaches cannot suffice, hence the need to find new product development approaches that would sufficiently enable the next generation of TIS. The next generation of TIS are expected among other things to: enable semantics-based information processing, exhibit natural language capabilities, facilitate inter-organization exchange of information in a seamless way, and evolve proactively in tandem with dynamic user requirements. In this paper, a product development approach called Product Line for Ontology-based Semantics-Aware Tourism Information Systems (PLOSATIS) which is a novel hybridization of software product line engineering, and Semantic Web engineering concepts is proposed. PLOSATIS is presented as potentially effective, predictable and amenable to software process improvement initiatives

Unleashing the power of talent: A critical assessment of Universums business opportunities in University Branding

CEMSThe primary purpose of this study is to investigate the company Universum and its opportunity to replicate its business model from Employer Branding to University Branding. In specific, the company requests a consulting advice whether Higher Education (HE) branding is a viable business opportunity and how Universum can generate sustainable competitive advantages in the US market. By performing an in-depth analysis of macro trends of the HE market and university branding, assessing competitors as well as analyzing the potential among customers, this report will discuss strategic options and highlight a final recommendation on the possible expansion into HE branding

Information Outlook, October 2006

Volume 10, Issue 10https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_io_2006/1009/thumbnail.jp

Analysing and improving a recruitment process: A teaching case for developing business process improvement capabilities

The demand for Business Process Management (BPM) is rapidly rising and with that, the need for capable BPM professionals is also rising. Yet, only a very few structured BPM training/ education programs are available, across universities and professional trainers globally. The ‘lack of appropriate teaching resources’ has been identified as a critical issue for BPM educators in prior studies. Case-based teaching can be an effective means of educating future BPM professionals. A main reason is that cases create an authentic learning environment where the complexities and challenges of the ‘real world’ can be presented in a narrative enabling the students to develop crucial skills such as problem solving, analysis and creativity-within-constraints, and to apply the tools and techniques within a richer and real (or proxy to real) context. However, so far well documented BPM teaching cases are scarce. This article aims to contribute to address this gap by providing a comprehensive teaching case and teaching notes that facilitates the education of selected process improvement phases, namely identification, modelling, analysis, and improvement. The article is divided into three main parts: (i) Introductory teaching notes, (ii) The case narrative, and (iii) Student activities from the case and teaching notes

Identifying Prospective Clients for Long-Term Bank Deposit

The numerous characteristics of customers are often kept in bank databases, which are utilized to understand who they are. But it has been found in recent years that utilizing different Data Mining and Feature Selection (PCA) methods, customer traits and other factors connected to bank services have a big influence on consumers\u27 decisions. Business analytics is an approach to conducting business that uses transactional data from an organization to acquire knowledge of how business operations can be enhanced by employing data mining methods to determine existing patterns that a firm can incorporate to generate significant data-driven choices to choose significant variables. In this project, we apply data mining techniques for the prediction of long- term bank deposits employing a well-known bank data collection. From PCA it is seen that customers’ income level, pout come, p days, and previous (first PC) in general, may seem to have a higher impact on prospective clients, but this is indeed not the real. Also, the Banks’ prior campaign and the social elements (Age, Marital Status, Education, Campaign, Duration) of the clients are primarily essential compared to other variables. Again k-means clustering is employed with reduced data by PCA to determine groups of potential customers which gives 87.76% accuracy scores

Target Output, Extended Output and Site Productivity: Tales of the Expected

Target output, extended output and moderate output are compared for selected construction projects in some selected sites in Nigeria. The objective of this study is to examine the attributes of extended and moderate output, setting of benchmarks for purpose of analysis of worker productivity, determination of derivable benefits, with a view to identifying if the effects are the same for both methods. The study procures the primary data used in this study through the use of questionnaires designed in Likert scale 1 to 5, which are sent to clients, builders and consultants. In all, 120 questionnaires were sent to these respondents who recently completed their housing projects based on the two methods. Results of the study indicate that there is significant difference between both methods in terms of risks of value for money, guaranteed sense of self accomplishment, while a significant difference exists between both methods in job burnt- out effect, timely completion of project, and exhaustion, Moderate target output method demonstrates less risk of timely completion of project than the extended target output. This study concludes that there are various types of risks inherent in use of both methods in housing projects. The study displays characteristics of early completion of project and prospects of getting good value for money. Recommendations of the study are that clients, contractors and consultants should use Moderate target output for execution of their future housing projects job allocations, and also they are at liberty to use any of the two methods as they best satisfy their requirements. Implications of this study to policy makers and other stakeholders in the construction industry is that Moderate labour output method should be explored for use in large and complex projects as considerable cost savings can be achieved, timely delivery of project and good value for money are equally derivable benefits of the method. The outcome of this study serves as a watershed to other peculiar issues inn site productivity and job beats’ allocations

Professional game artists:an investigation into the primary considerations that impact upon their work, and the effects upon their creative practice

This article represents the author’s preliminary research into an area of creative practice that he pursued for some 20 years, namely that of a full time professional computer game artist. Initially collaborating with academics as a part time lecturer and industrial consultant, for the past eight years his roles within academia have focused on developing pedagogical models of professional practice within games education. Through his interaction with students, employers and graduates, the author began to identify an area of keen personal interest – namely, the actual realities of being a professional game artist, and the potential consequences on creative practice. In identifying the constraints and influences that direct such an artist’s work, it is the intention that a broader discussion may then follow, exploring how such artists can protect their creative muse, when the evidence would suggest that many aspects of the games industry are an absolute anathema to individual expression. In addition to his own experiences and research, the author has drawn on interviews with other professionals from games development, as well as artists who work in other areas of professional artistic practice (such as Fine Art, Illustration, and Comics). In this way his intention is to identify the areas of practice common to other areas of art, while highlighting any of the more unique elements present specifically within games development itself. While there is a large body or research into game design principles and technologies, there is very little discussion that focuses on the very people that make them. It is the author’s hope that this article plays some small part in starting to redress this balance, and may help the reader to appreciate the challenges such artists face