The Caribbean Club is one of the Virgin Island's hottest night spots. It's a great place for locals to meet after work and relax with friends, it's a popular destination for tourists who stay on the island, and it's always on the list of fun entertainment choices for the crowds from the cruise ships that dock in the harbor.

The reason why the Club is so popular with such a variety of customers is because the founder of the club, Ross Stewart, always has such innovative and visionary ideas that delight the patrons. For example, every night of the week, the Club features different activities or shows, including beach volleyball, Caribbean shows with calypso singers, world-class musicians who play steel drums, and other island entertainment.

Since Ross was a former accountant and auditor with one of the largest public accounting firms in New Zealand, he is very accustomed to brainstorming sessions to generate ideas and surface concerns. He brought this practice with him to the Caribbean and holds brainstorming sessions with his "club associates" (which is what he calls all of the employees at the club) once every month to identify new and novel ideas to increase the popularity and profitability of the club.

As you might imagine, the patrons of a night club are there to relax and enjoy themselves. So, the associates thought it would be a great idea to somehow be able to recognize their regular patrons so that they wouldn't have to trouble them with a bill every time a server came to their table with another round of drinks. After all, if the Club wanted these people to "feel like they were at home with friends," the patrons shouldn't have to bother with trying to decide who owed what to pay the bill. What a nuisance!

So, Ross and his associates came up with the idea to implant their regular customers with an implantable microchip. The idea was to make the chip "fun" -to give it an elite status so their regular patrons would want to be implanted. To dramatize the elite status of the chip, Ross decided that the Club would have a special area where only those with chips, the "VIPs," would be admitted. And, of course this area would have various exclusive services for these members. The chip would ID-they would simply pass by a reader and the Club would know who they are and their credit balance. Ross also wanted the information system supporting the chip to be a customer relationship management (CRM) tool.

1. What do you think of this idea? That is, what are the advantages and disadvantages of this idea for the Caribbean Club?
2. If you were Ross, what information would you want the CRM to collect? Search the Internet to see if you can find a CRM software package that seems appropriate for the Club. Why did you select this particular software?
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages for the patrons?
4. If you were a passenger on a cruise ship, or staying at a resort on the island, would you get the chip implanted? Why or why not?