Category: Industry

Apparently Zimbabwe’s plan to sell off the conflict diamonds from their Marange diamond fields is simply not going to come through as long as the HRW (Human Rights Watch) has any say in the matter. The HRW specifically instructed the leading diamond jewelry providers in the world to keep their distance from any diamonds from Zimbabwe. Specifically, Arvind Ganesan, Director of the Business & Human Rights Division at HRW, released an official warning regarding a full on embargo of Zimbabwe diamonds due to their many violations of serious human rights conditions. According to Arvind Ganesan, Zimbabwean diamonds are conflict diamonds in every sense of the term, and as such the HRW is requesting that jewelry retailers and jewelry consumers boycott these diamonds until the human rights infringements reach their end. In fact, Arvind Ganesan wrote a letter asking as much from leaders in the diamond jewelry industry, such as Cartier, Tiffany’s, and Zale.

Arvind Ganesan has turned to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme as well as the World Diamond Council in an attempt to expand the current definition of blood diamonds to contain diamonds acquired by governments in conflict and not only diamonds by rebel groups. In his letter, the Director of the Human Rights Watch requested that major diamond jewelry retailers issue public statements regarding refusal to purchase Zimbabwean diamonds. Such acts on the parts of the major players in the diamond retail community will surely have some significant long-term effects on diamond production from the Murowa diamond mine, as well as the River Ranch diamond mine, which are thought to be channels for the sale of diamonds from the Marange fields in Zimbabwe.

In the letter, Arvind Ganesan also appeals to the powerful members of the diamond industry to use their influence on the Kimberley Process to ensure that Zimbabwe is fully suspended from the group up to the point when they actually meet basic human rights standards. As per reports from HRW, such human rights infringements as killing, smuggling, and child labor have been going on until just this October and there are no signs of any considerable changes since then. These diamonds have been smuggled to neighboring countries mixing with diamonds from other nations and basically causing a situation where conflict diamonds are traded worldwide.

Hence, it is up to the jewelry retailers to be responsible enough to make sure that they do not vend such conflict diamonds to their jewelry consumers. As diamond consumers are becoming increasingly knowledgeable about conflict diamonds and requesting certifications as to the origin of their diamonds, it was only a matter of time before Zimbabwean diamonds became too risky to be associated with.

The problem is that generally speaking, jewelry providers can’t just boycott their diamond jewelry items, but then again, nobody wants to be linked to conflict diamonds either. It looks like we’ll just have to wait and see how the major members of the diamond jewelry community intend to comply with the demands of the Human Rights Watch.

HOTEL LOYALTY
Hotels get nearly half of their revenues from the small segment of travelers who spend about a month each year on the road: frequent visitors make up only 10 percent of all hotel guests but account for 44 percent of
hotel nights . In the early 1980s, hotel chains began to recognize the value of such customers by introducing loyalty programs patterned on the airlines’ frequent-flier model. These programs have succeeded in maintaining the loyalty of people who travel moderately often but are not as effective as they might be with other segments, our research suggests.

The frequent-traveler segment represents $40 billion to $50 billion in revenues each year. These guests spend some of that money in their preferred hotel chains, but their wandering ways leave $22 billion to $27 billion in play. Persuading such people to narrow the field from three or more chains to their favorite two could add seven to ten nights at the chain they prefer. To capture this opportunity, hotel executives must ask, “What do you get the person who has everythingor at least more points than he or she can use?”
Part of the answer might involve changing the way points are redeemed. Even for elite-status members of a loyalty program, redeeming them for free hotel rooms can be cumbersome at popular times and destinations.

2.Loyalty Club Members Habitat
The percentage of all guests who indicated club membership is “very important” when selecting their most
recent hotel stay increased steadily throughout 2003 with a 25-percent annual increase.
Frequent travelers are four times more likely to consider club
membership very important when selecting a hotel.
Among frequent travelers, club members have considerably higher incomes, pay slightly more per room
night, stay more nights per year in hotels and are more tolerant of price increases compared with
nonmember hotel guests
The average profile of a frequent traveler who joins a loyalty program is a 47-year-old male traveling on
business. He stays 31 nights per year in hotels, is very brand loyal, pays an average of $103 per night and has an annual income of $104,000

E-CRM IN HOSPITALITY TODAY

Electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM), in the context of the exploding Internet distribution and marketing in hospitality, is a business strategy supported by Web technologies, allowing hoteliers to engage
customers in strong, personalized and mutually beneficial interactive relationships, increase conversions and sell more efficiently.

e-CRM cannot exist in isolation
Today’s multi-channel marketing model requires a single brand image to be communicated across all channels. In the same time it requires interactive customer relationships to be established and maintained across all
channels.

Anytime an Internet user lands on a hotel website, a branding interaction occurs. This branding interaction can
be positive or negative . Unfortunately for some hoteliers on many occasions a
visit to the hotel website turns out to be the last point of contact with this particular customer.
Two key questions are facing hoteliers today:
Who owns the customer in this new online environment? The online intermediary, which made the
booking, or the hotel where the guest stayed?
How can hoteliers establish mutually beneficial interactive relationships with the customers in order
to increase repeat business, boost revenues, and retain loyalty?
Here are the main aspects in e-CRM in hospitality:
1. Know Your Customer
2. Customer Service
3. Personalization
4. More Efficient Marketing
5.Building Customer Loyalty

1. KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER
Knowing your website visitors is an extremely important consideration when conceptualizing and designing your hotel website and your e-CRM strategy. After all, addressing your key audiences and providing them with relevant information is one of the key aspects of any hospitality site. Different customer segments should easily identify areas on the site that speak to them. Internet users visit a hotel website not as John Smith or Jane Smith, but as a Business Traveler, Meeting Planner, Special Event Planner, Family Traveler, Spa Services
Seeker, Golf Outing Seeker, Vacation Planner, Convention Attendee, Wedding Planner, etc.

Case Study: Who Are Your Online Customers?
The 2004 RUSH Report, a joint effort by Hospitality eBusiness Strategies and iPerceptions, based on nearly
40,000 customer survey respondents on 30 major brand hospitality websites, shows that 56 % of all visitors on
hotel branded websites are Leisure Travelers and 32% are Business Travelers. The benefits are obvious:
Identify your most valuable customers with best lifetime value perspective
Allows guest-centric data mining: guest history, guest profiles, past bookings, preferences, etc.
Enables informed decisions in real time
Allows fast response times
Real-time Guest Lifetime Value
Deliver business insight to executives, marketers, sales
2. PERSONALIZATION Personalization is more than providing the right information to the right person at the
right time. Personalizing the customer experience on the hotel website is a powerful conversion and retention
tool. Customizing your interaction with your most valuable customers will provide significant long-term rewards.
Adopt a policy on how to address your guests via email Addressing the customer segmentation issues on the property website is a logicalnext step. Creating a targeted email marketing campaign is another good step.

For the major hotel brands, the personalization efforts are much more complex and expensive. Customization tools used by some major brands and airlines allow website users to actively personalize their website experiences using over 250 criteria. Here are some of the efforts by the major travel and hospitality companies to make the user experience more personable:
Personalization agents using a variety of customization applications, capable of creating Behavioral
Profiles and a Real-time profile for each customer
Collaborative filtering: Using preference matrix and artificial intelligence to capture and predict
customer interests
Decision-support applications utilizing various applications for Behavioral Profiling, Predictive Modeling, Collaborative Filtering and Click-Stream Analysis, capable to sense the purchasing behavior and patterns of the user. By providing a customized booking experience these applications can boost the conversion rates.
2. CUSTOMER SUPPORT
It is important to understand that customer service is only one aspect of e-CRM and is primarily a reactive function aiming to improve performance and efficiency, while e-CRM as a whole is a proactive long-term strategy.
On the Internet the customer support aspect of e-CRM is an extremely important trust building and customer retention tool. A well positioned Contact Us or Help button or Push-to-talk feature speaks volumes about the
hotel brand and builds trust. 57% of online shoppers actively seek sites with good customer service

Case Study: e-CRM Comp Analysis of 9 major upscale hotel brands.
HeBS uses its proprietary CyberScore system to evaluate various aspects of 9 upscale hotel brands. HeBS addresses e-CRM features and functionalities considered essential for optimum customer experience, such as customer support, ease of use and visibility of customer support throughout the site, customer support by phone and email, personalization, “Self-service” Customer Service Tools , “Live” Customer Service Tools, corporate and property level help desks and contact info. Evaluated were a total of 9 e-CRM features. The maximum score is 90

Live Service Tools: Push-to-talk functionality and real-time interaction with live agent; instant messaging and chat-room type of assistance; Voice-over-Internet Protocols (VOIP) applications; automation to pre-screen live
support (selective approach) E-Mal Service Tools: Inbound e-mail management; automated e-mail response systems, capable of
automating 80%-90% of e-mail volume with 98% accuracy, and dramatically improving service and reducing support staff by up to 40%.

4. MORE EFFICIENT MARKETING
eMarketing plays a crucial role in establishing interactive relationships with your customers. eMarketing is a
marketing strategy that uses the Internet as its medium.
The main issues facing eMarketers in hospitality today are:
Guest profiling and one-to-one marketing.
Accurate segmentation: focused segmentation equals higher response rates
Create narrow-focused marketing campaigns
Utilizing lifestyle data and personal preferences in the marketing
Building opt-in email lists and precision e-Mail marketing (fivefold higher response rates)
Internal benchmark of customer lifetime value
Cross-selling opportunities
Campaign tracking and ROI analysis
Developing a robust and effective eMarketing strategy requires not only an extensive knowledge of your
customers and precise customer segmentation, shifting marketing finds from offline to online channels, but
deciding what your marketing objectives are.
Display Ads (e.g. Traditional Banners): Steady decline: 2003: 21% (as percentage of total online
advertising spend); 2002: 29%; 2001: 36%; 2000:50% (PWC/IAB). Click-through rate 0.83% in
Feb 2003 (eMarketer)
Keyword Search (e.g. PPC, paid-inclusion, etc): Steady increase: 2003: 35%; 2002: 15%; 2001:
4%; 2000: 1%.

Classifieds: increased usage of this format: 2003: 17%; 2002: 15%; 2001: 16%; 2000:7%.
e-Mail Marketing: Currently between 3%-4% of total spend; Jupiter Research reports that US email
marketing spending will rise from $2.1 billion in 2003 to $6.1 billion in 2008.

Overall Site Satisfaction: How would you rate your website experience overall?
Excellent 18.80%
Very good 35.73%
Good 28.94%
Fair 12.22%
Poor 4.31%
Total: 100%
Different customer segments perceive the hotel website differently. While not dramatically different, Business Travelers appeared slightly more critical than other user groups. Even when they felt satisfied, Business Travelers
appeared more critical: 54.57% found the site to be Very good or excellent compared to 55.14% for LeisureTravelers.

Conclusion: e-CRM is an integral part of online distribution and marketing in hospitality. The Internet provides the best direct means to reach existing and potential customers. Establishing interactive relationships with your
customers, which is the essence of e-CRM, will help you retain your customers, increase revenues, and build brand loyalty.

To know more about HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY check out ITC Infotech Website

http://www.itcinfotech.com

Travel Industry, Hospitality Industry, ITC Infotech, loyalty program,

The petrochemicals industry provides the widest range of challenges for rotating equipment. Buffalo Blower (New York) fans and blowers operate in conditions encompassing extreme pressure and temperature, and handle a wide range of gases containing aggressive and toxic components. Demanding specifications and strict safety requirements must be met and above all is the need for dependable operation over long periods.

Buffalo Blower (New York) fans meet the challenge of moving gases continually, reliably, efficiently and safely. They are built to API, or equivalent industry standards and their performance has been proven over many years of operation; and the blowers can meet unusual requirements that include dual drive systems with automatic drive engagement/disengagement and special materials of construction.

Buffalo Blower (New York) fans and pressure blowers are found in all major process plants. The range of applications is very wide but includes:

custom engineered centrifugal process fans for combustion air supply. These may be used directly for fired heaters for ethane or naphtha cracking plant and for processes with steam reforming such as methanol, or for boilers serving general utilities. Flue gas extraction and tail gas clean up are among the other applications for which we have supplied custom fans.
auxiliary boiler and other pre-engineered fans.
cooling fans for mechanical draught cooling towers, air-cooled heat exchangers and air-cooled condensers.
turbo blowers for sulphur recovery combustion and reaction air, sulphuric acid and carbon black plant
screw type pressure blower systems for process gas handling, notably for butadiene plants, gas turbine gas fuel compression and process refrigeration.
reciprocating turbo blowers for hydrogen processes – hydrocracking, visbreaking, catalytic reforming

The demands placed on equipment in the chemical industry are particularly high. Toxic, corrosive and unstable gases are frequently a part of chemical production processes. Maintaining the purity of gases being handled is a priority in the pharmaceutical and biological industries. Buffalo Blower (New York) supply a range of fan / blower types to the chemical industry, from fans for boiler and incineration plants that supply heat and process steam, to fans that are used on exhaust and emissions control systems to equipment that handles the materials being processed. In such a diverse industry the range of applications is very wide but there is often the need for special materials to prevent corrosion by gases such as wet hydrogen chloride and hydrogen sulphide. The blowers are adapted to meet these special needs.

Fans can be supplied to be gas tight and made of special materials to resist corrosion. Fans and turbo blowers are supplied to provide air for carbon black plants and for sulphuric acid plants.

Emerging Markets Direct (EMD) released the latest Indonesia Palm Oil Industry Report 2H10. In the report, it says that palm oil is the most important agricultural export crop of Indonesia, with exports increased at 10.7 million tons or 274% over the past decade or roughly 27.4% per annum (1.1 million tons). As of August 2010, exports rose 45% month-on-month to 1.72 million metric tons and expected to rise further approaching the last months of 2010 owing to higher demand driven by year-end festivals.

The report profiles the Palm Oil sector. Ever since 2006, Indonesia has been replacing Malaysia as the largest producer of palm oil. The government stimulated the growth of palm oil industry by introducing some of the core reforms like decentralizing the land-use licensing rights to provincial governments, granting subsidies to smallholders, establishing the pro-rated export tax system for crude palm oil. As the global demand for palm oil grows at 2.2 million tons per year, it is estimated that Indonesia could even satisfy 57% of the annual growth in demand. The high demand even drives crude palm oil prices up to USD750 per ton as of mid-2010.

Our analyst thinks that, Indonesia has the potential to grow into a world biodiesel leader and a model for plantation sustainability, as supported by two of its most valuable assets, namely its oil palm plantations (which is expected to increase to ten million hectares by 2015), and its people. The government encouraged the use of bio-diesel to reduce the use of diesel oil for transportation and industrial use. State oil and gas company, Pertamina started selling bio-diesel mixed with automotive diesel oil in 2006.

What are the problems faced in the industry?
– Difficulty in procuring lands results in the failure of implementing oil palm plantations projects.
– Insufficient supply of high yield seedlings give rise to falsely certified seedlings.
-Processing factories operate without having plantations means a mismatch of capacity.
– Rising environmental concerns trigger anti-palm oil expansion campaigns staged by environmental NGOs.

Rising environmental concerns lead to the withdrawal of major clients like Unilever, Kraft and Nestle. As a result, the palm oil industry supported the proposal of environmental NGOs to declare a moratorium on new licenses for the development of plantation in natural forest and on peat lands, effective from January 2011. How does Indonesia Palm Oil industry strike a balance between environmental concerns and productivity? What are the sustainable measures taken by the industry? What are the prospects and outlook of Palm Oil Industry?

Want to have an overview and competitive analysis of the major industry players?
– PT Astra Agro Lestari TBK
– PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology TBK
– PT Perusahaan Perkebunan London Sumatra Indonesia TBK
– PT Bakrie Sumatera Plantation TBK.

Check our pages to see more details about our latest Indonesia Palm Oil Industry Report:
http://www.emergingmarketsdirect.com/products/Indonesia-Palm-Oil-Industry.html

Table of Content

1. Industry Profile
1.1 Indonesian Palm Oil
1.2 Production
1.2.1 Production of Palm Kernel Oil
1.3 Palm Oil Exports
1.3.1 Crude Palm Oil Shipment
1.4 Prices
1.5 World Major CPO Producers and Major Oils
1.5.1 Malaysia Palm Oil Industry
1.5.2 Major Oils
1.6 Development in the Palm Oil Industry
1.6.1 Oleochemical Industry
1.6.2 Biodiesel Industry
2. Market Trends and Outlook
2.1 Greenpeace and the Indonesian Pam Oil Industry
2.2 Problem Faced in the Industry
2.2.1 Scarcity of Land
2.2.2 Falsely Certified Seedlings
2.2.3 Issues Over CPO Factories Without Plantation and Plantations without Factory
2.3 Development in the Industry
2.4 Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)
3. Leading Players and Comparative Matrix
3.1 Leading Players
3.1.1 PT Astra Agro Lestari TBK (AAL)
3.1.2 PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology (SMART)
3.1.3 PT Perusahaan Perkebunan London Sumatra Indonesia TBK (LONSUM)
3.1.4 PT Bakrie Sumatera Plantation TBK (UNSP)
3.2 Comparative Matrix
3.3 SWOT Analysis

4. Tables and Charts
Table 1 : Area and Production by Category of Producers 2006 – 2010
Table 2 : Indonesia Crude Palm Oil Exports by Major Destination Countries 2006 – 2010
Table 3 : Shipment Size Distribution
Table 4 : Average Annual Production of Major Oils and Fats 1958 – 2009
Table 5 : Plantation Statistic of AAL 2008- 2009
Table 6 : Palm Oil Planted Area of AAL (as of June 2008)
Table 7 : Operational Highlights of SMART 2005 – 2009
Table 8 : Operational Highlights of LONSUM 2005 – 2009
Table 9 : Operational Highlights of UNSP 2008 and 2009
Table 10 : Financial Highlights of Major Players 2008 and 2009
Chart 1 : Indonesia Regional Palm Oil Production
Chart 2 : Indonesia and Malaysia Palm Oil Production 1996 – 2008
Chart 3 : Historical Palm Oil Area & Production 1985 – 2009
Chart 4 : Indonesia Annual Palm Area Growth
Chart 5 : Indonesia Palm Area Growth by Location
Chart 6 : Production of Crude Palm Oil by Country in 2008
Chart 7 : World Production of Palm Kernel Oil 2005-2010
Chart 8 : Indonesia Palm Oil Exports 2001-Jun 2010
Chart 9 : Indonesian Crude Palm Oil Export by Port 2006-2010
Chart 10 : Shipment Size per Month 2010
Chart 11 : Export Price and Volume of Indonesian CPO Jan 2006-April 2010
Chart 12 : Palm Oil Production in Malaysia and Indonesia 2004-2009

About Emerging Markets Direct

Emerging Markets Direct is the online research store from ISI Emerging Markets, a Euromoney Institutional Investor Company. We deliver in-house industry research report, industry analysis and data vital to support all kinds of business decision, academic and research purposes. Our flagship product-Emerging Markets Direct Report covers the top 20 industry sectors of India, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Indonesia. ISI Emerging Markets in-house analysts crunch the numbers from our proprietary CEIC databases and combine the results with on-the ground industry insight. The result is reliable, hard-to-get industry data, analysis and insight. Previously available only to subscribers of the ISI Emerging Markets Information Service, Emerging Market Direct reports are available now at our online research store. Our Other products are: CEIC snapshots, CEIC datatalk, Intellinews. To view our full catalogue of products, please visit http://www.emergingmarketsdirect.com

Over the last few decades, there has been significant progress in the development of international food safety standards. Many companies refer to the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) guidelines in ensuring food safety and quality at the manufacturing plant level. However, many retailers and buyers in the food industry supply chain have slightly differing requirements, depending on their particular circumstances. For example, US retailers must comply with onerous and very specific food safety requirements laid down by the FDA, and they pass these on to their overseas suppliers, making supplying the US market sometimes costly for suppliers.

The impact of ISO 22000

Given worries about food safety and the emerging standards, ISO, the international body responsible for standardization, decided to produce a food safety standard covering the entire food supply chain. The ISO 22000 was launched in 2005 in order to meet this requirement. ISO 22000 has become one of the most recognized global food safety standards. It lists over 60 codes of practice and guideline documents associated with the food sector.
An informal survey on the impact of ISO 22000 on various sectors was conducted in 2008.

Category Number of certificates
Catering 164
Food processor 149
Dairy processor 116
Beverage manufacturer/winery 90
Meat/poultry processor72
Ingredients 66
Packaging 54
Confectionery 51
Fruit and vegetable processor46
Distributors and Handlers45
Feed manufacturer 32
Seafood/fish processor25
Bakery 25

As the table above shows, ISO 22000 has yet to be adopted widely in the retail sector, but a significant number of catering establishments from small restaurants to large hotels, and school cafeterias have found the standard to be a useful tool.