NEW FRONTIERS HOTEL CASE DESCRIPTION Note: The following case describes a fictional company that has hired you as a consulting team to analyze their business needs and design a technology-based solution. This case will be used for the first HW assignment. For those student teams choosing not to use a real-world company for the project, this case will be used for all homework and project assignments. The essence of this case project involves the planning, analysis, and design of a software solution for booking and events planning of conference rooms at the New Frontiers Hotel. The New Frontiers Hotel is a local hotel that has recently expanded by adding a set of conference rooms, which will function in addition to its already-existing hotel rooms and suites. The New Frontiers Hotel currently generates revenue of about $400,000 annually on its existing hotel rooms and suites. It was able to pay for the construction of the conference rooms through a generous donation from a local philanthropist. However, as part of this project, the hotel is currently spending $5,000 per year to repay its long-term construction loan, and this loan payment must be considered in the project budget moving forward. Your group is charged with designing a system that handles the booking and events planning for the new conference rooms. The New Frontiers Hotel had contracted with a different IT consultant to design the booking and events planning software, but after extensive negotiations, the contract fell through and that consultant was not able to deliver. The construction of the conference rooms was completed just weeks ago, and the rooms are already available for booking. Because no booking software has been acquired yet, the conference rooms are not being advertised so as not to overwhelm the conference booking staff. However, a few rooms have been booked. Currently, when an individual or company calls to make a reservation for the conference rooms, the entire process is handled manually. Until software is acquired, it would be nearly impossible for the current scheduling office to handle all of the booking paperwork required to fill up the conference rooms on a regular basis.

The booking software that the hotel uses for their current bedrooms and suites was not designed to handle booking of conferences and events and does not meet their needs, so using the software that handles other parts of the hotels business is not currently an option, unless it is determined to overhaul the entire system. Otherwise, hotel management is fine with using separate booking software for the conference rooms as they use for bedrooms and suites.

Nathan Bradley (Hotel Manager) and Heidi Camp (Customer Service Agent) are the only individuals working on conference and event booking at this time. Everything is quite disorganized, with constant mistakes being made (e.g., double-booking of a conference room recently occurred). Such errors are unnecessary, time-consuming, and costly. It is, therefore, imperative to implement a solution as soon as possible.

While it is necessary to ensure that the fundamental aspects of the scheduling process are reflected in the solution, the inclusion of features that aid in a user-friendly interface and quality-enhanced reporting, for example, would be welcomed. The immediate concern is to make certain that efficiencies are improved with regard to the storage of data pertaining to event scheduling (e.g., customers, venues, etc.). The handling of this data manually would be too slow and cumbersome, and Nathan is becoming increasingly frustrated. He is hoping that this solution will not only resolve the problems they are currently experiencing, but will help to provide additional features and functionality that will enhance and streamline this business process.

The new conference room scheduling office currently has only one computer with a Microsoft Windows 10 operating system. Microsoft Office Professional 2016 is installed on this machine. The computer is currently being utilized for word processing tasks only, and Heidi is the primary user of the computer. Nathan is interested in providing two additional machines to the conference scheduling office so that additional staff can use the space for conference and event needs. Nathan would also like access to the conference room booking system on his own computer, which is in a separate office, as well as remote access on his personal devices. It is of the utmost importance to Nathan and Heidi to have this work process automated, with a particular focus on ease-of-use, accuracy, and efficiency.

The hotel can afford to budget only up to a certain amount, due to going over budget on the construction project and the lost contract with the previous IT consultant. Specifically, $50,000 is available upfront (during 2018) to fund this project. Nathan also anticipates that when the software is in place, sales on conference room bookings will increase as a result. A marketing consultant who has worked with other hotels in this region told Nathan that, generally speaking, sales from conference room bookings are usually around 20% of the revenue earned from booking suites and bedrooms by the end of the first year, with that number reaching up to 25% by the end of three years, along with a 5% increase of hotel room revenues due to people staying in the hotel when they arrive for the conferences and events held there. Some of the increased revenues in future years can help pay for the ongoing maintenance of the new booking system and process, along with paying the salary of new employees that will be hired in the future to work in the conference scheduling office.

In addition to the information presented in the preceding project specifications, Nathan wants your team to focus on making data-entry as easy and efficient as possible for his staff, while simultaneously ensuring accuracy of the entries. The user interface should be simple and user-friendly

Part 1: E-R Diagram Instructions: Based on information you have received throughout the semester, you know that the system your client wants will need to store data about various things. Create an E-R diagram depicting how the database underlying the system could store the required information. Start by considering what are the things (or people or places) that you need to store information about and create entities representing them. Generic examples (NOT specific to your class project, though you may or may not have one or more of the following) of entities could be inventory items, vendors, invoices, reservations, etc. Then think about what characteristics or attributes you want to store about each of these things. Then put the appropriate relationships between them. For this assignment, you do not have to create intersection entities you can leave M:N relationships if you have any.