FACILITY TO PLAN Information Technology (IT) should always enable Organisations to reap maximum rewards from minimum investment. Today there are players of all sizes providing IT solutions to the industry and due to the complex nature of each industry, evaluating and implementing the best technological solution can often prove to be a difficult process for hoteliers.

Business houses should identify their core technological needs before assessing the software that they plan to buy. Many companies make the mistake of buying software before really evaluating their requirements. This methodology is not advisable since it doesn't allow enough time to prioritize any necessary changes to the application.

Properties should estimate and re-evaluate the following in planning the requirements of a Hospitality application.

	Standard operating procedures (Operations Vs Systems)
	Company strategy and plan
	Strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats (SWOT)
	Key management and data input requirements
	Organizational financial reporting
	Future budgets and growth

It is important not to confuse what you 'want' and what you 'need'. Many applications provide various options that hoteliers later realize to be more fancy than useful. Instead of providing all the basic required features, application providers use these fancy features to lure the customer into making a purchase decision.