Expedia

Information and Knowledge Management

Information and Knowledge Management

Introduction

The organization that has been chosen for this academic report is Expedia. It is an online travel company offering products and services of travel. The aim of the report is to cover issues of Expedia. It would provide the critical assessment of the company's strategic information needs. It would also include the company's planning activities regarding eBusiness and strategic information systems. It would assist readers to understand the customer relationship management and knowledge management activities of the company. The reason for choosing Expedia for this report is because it is highly dependent on information management, eBusiness, knowledge management and customer relationship management systems.

Discussion

Expedia Inc. came into being as an online travel booking website by Microsoft as the brand name of Epedia.com in 1996. However, it revolved of Microsoft and was listed as the symbol “EXPE” on NASDAQ in 1999. Later, the company was acquired by InterActiveCorp (IAC) in 2002. The company has now become one of the world's leading companies in the industry of online travel. It offers a wide range of corporate and leisure travel, travel service, and offline retail travel agents. The products and services offered by the company include discounted travelling, complex travelling and luxury travelling. The primary offers include package travel, cruises, car rentals, airline flights, hotel stays and destination services (Market Line, 2013, pp.1-3).

It becomes extremely important for online companies like Expedia to give important consideration on the area of strategic information, eBusiness, customer relationship management and knowledge management in order to operate effectively and efficiently. Organizations can achieve competitive advantages by focusing on these areas. They can also play vital role in providing quality services to the customers.

Strategic information needs of Expedia

The strategic management of information is one of the most critical and integrated part of the framework of general management. Strategic information management primarily involves the development of a mission regarding market segments and needs and establishment of core processes to ensure the completion of the mission. It supports the management in decision making by providing them with right information on the right time (U.S Government Accountability Office, 1994, pp.11).

It is extremely important for online travelling companies to use strategic tools to ensure generation of accurate, reliable and useful information. It is not easily for manages and organizations around the globe to develop and maintain an effective strategic information management system. Expedia is one of the leading online travel services providing organization in the world. It is operating in a market place with high level of competition from companies that provide similar kinds of products and services. The company also has to face competition with competitors that provides large amount of discounts to the customers. Therefore, the strategic information need for the company is very high. The company is very successful in generating diverse and up to the second information at any point of time and at any place. The company provides real time and dynamic personalized information to its customers, such as ...