Holiday resort management firm Club Med is analysing the economic validity of IT systems against demands created by the seasonal nature of the business.

Based on an “innovation monitoring” scheme, a function similar to change management, the firm has discovered unnecessary technology use, said Club Med’s information systems director Loïc Le Guillou.

“We tried to set up mobile systems to boost sales and productivity in the bars and excursions businesses, but we concluded that orders taken manually were processed faster than via handhelds,” said Le Guillou.

“So we moved the handhelds to other areas such as stock management, which was much more appropriate.”

Club Med plans to use radio-frequency identification (RFID) to back its supply chain strategy. The group already uses the technology for point-of-sale as well as room access, and is evaluating it for stock management.

With multiple IT projects ­ including the rollout of an IP network across its point-of-sale network - which currently uses systems supplied by vendor VCS Timeless - and streamlining of accountancy platforms ­ Club Med will look at consolidating its supplier network to maximise value and reduce costs during the economic downturn.

“We are looking for resourceful, multifunctional vendors. We have already downsized our supplier base and will tend to engage in shorter contracts,” said Le Guillou.
Simply consolidating the supplier base does not necessarily lead to generate benefits, said Duncan Jones, senior analyst at Forrester Research.

“Even in large firms IT managers are surprisingly naïve when it comes to buying decisions. That is often the case when leaders focused on the operations side do not know what they are doing when negotiating purchase agreements,” he said.

“One of the consequences is the creation of specialist IT purchasing departments, something that we have seen in large corporations.

“If you are about to embark on consolidation, you need people to combine the expertise of purchasing disciplines with knowledge of what exactly they are buying and the implications of getting it wrong.”