State-of-the-art IT infrastructure for Bay Street
by David Kelleher
A state-of-the-art information technology infrastructure providing a unique concept solution is being developed for the Bay Street project in St George's Bay.
The IT set-up, which has been entrusted to Dhalia IT consultants, will integrate all the facilities and outlets at Bay Street and provide a high level of interactivity and benefits for both the operators and customers.
"The way Bay Street will be run depends on having a strong system that backs up all our operations," Deborah Webster, Bay Street marketing manager, told The Malta Business Weekly.
"The whole infrastructure will be of benefit to the development itself, the outlets and operators, as well as customers making use of the facilities," she added.
All facilities and services at Bay Street will be integrated via a one Gigabyte fibre-optic network that will guarantee reliability and numerous possibilities for the development to offer ancillary services.
"Each outlet will be integrated and given a range of facilities to improve its operations and at the same time be of service to clients," Jean Galea Souchet, Dhalia IT's consultant to Bay Street told The Malta Business Weekly.
The overall objectives of the state-of-the-art IT infrastructure include the centralised storage of data (real time and archived), easy management of application services and knowledge management (enabling management to help outlets focus on improving their services).
"The implementation of the technology using an integrated system will allow for optimum performance of Bay Street's present requirement," Ms Webster said.
"The integrated systems also satisfies the minimum requirements for Bay Street and the maximum performance allowed by today's technology," she added.
Mr Galea Souchet said that the system is being designed to reduce the amount of "wiring" throughout the complex, eradicate costs associated with internal communications and minimise operational costs.
However, the main focus will be on the Internal Bay Street Information System (BSIS) which will feature an extensive range of features of benefit first and foremost to the operators and also Bay Street's customers.
The information system will have a loyalty scheme, internal email, knowledge management, automated delivery bay scheduling (thus ensuring deliveries to outlets arrive punctually and at stipulated times).
"Some operators will also be available to have their own stock control system linked to the main server, apart from an integrated POS (Point-of-sale system)," Mr Galea Souchet said.
"We will also be introducing software that streamlines the use of card. This card management system recognises what card is being swiped, whether it is Bay Street' royalty card or else a bank card. This therefore reduces the needs for hardware for different cards," he added.
The IT infrastructure will allow customers to gain access to information on events being held in the complex at any time, the option to make reservations at any of the restaurants and also to make enquiries.
"The system is such that if a customer in a retail outlet enquires about something, the sales person will be able to provide that information without having to send the customer to an information kiosk or the management," Mr Galea Souchet said.
"The idea behind such an extensive and hefty investment in IT is to ensure that the operators benefit from the information system while at the same time being able to give excellent customer care," Ms Webster said.
"Bay Street is customer-oriented and the IT system being designed by Dhalia IT will ensure that this maxim is followed without any area of the development suffering," she added.
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