Key Features and Analysis of E-business - Coursework Example

Introduction The phenomenal growth of the new information and communication technology particularly the internet has revolutionized the ways people conduct business during the contemporary period. What is really noteworthy is the ability to conduct business with the aid of interconnected computers which has seen an increase in eBusiness activities within different organisations. In this regard, e-Business is primarily concerned with exchange of electronic information between parties normally followed by the exchange of goods and payment transactions (Cloete 2001). Against this background, this report seeks to critically explore some of the measures that can be put in place by Friendly Supermarket which has underscored to transform from the traditional use of price tags at the tills while processing a transaction to a modern and sophisticated system that uses scans to detect the bar codes which in turn detect the product and its price. Friendly supermarket is developing this system from scratch and this report seeks to outline the major requirements as well as the benefits of adopting this new system to the top management of the group of supermarkets in Port Elizabeth. Major impacts and changes to infrastructure Revamping the traditional method of using price lists at the tills or price tags on all products as the only source of getting the correct price for the product at Friendly Supermarket requires a holistic approach since it will certainly bring about various changes to the infrastructure. The traditional method meant that more people would be on the floor sticking prices to each single product in the supermarket using the rivet stickers. However, the new system would see a dramatic shift from this traditional way to a sophisticated method aided by the use of computers and scanners. The major change to the infrastructure would be the introduction of computers in many departments including the till areas and these would be connected to a single server so as to ensure a smooth network. This would also require a system that is capable of holding large quantities of data and can process it at a tremendous speed so as to ensure effectiveness and efficiency compared to the traditional way of sticking price tags on each single product. This system would require all the bar codes on the products to be captured where all necessary details about the product would also be recorded. In this case, the name of the product, quantity as well as price would be recorded against the barcode of that particular product. Scanners connected to the computer servers in the supermarket would also be required at every purchasing point. The major impact on the organisation is that efficiency in processing sales would be improved while there would be a drastic reduction of floor workers formerly responsible for putting price tags on the products. Major benefits new e-Business strategy If carefully implemented, indeed, the benefits of this new system are tremendous and overwhelming. McGarvey & Campanelli (2005) suggests a lot of advantages of using e-Business which include the following: it is cheap to operate, the catalogue is always up to date, paperwork is reduced and there would be likely chances of customer satisfaction since efficiency would be increased. The use of scanners at points of sale is relatively easier to operate since all the relevant details about a product would be readily available. This means less work for the till operator and the chances of making mistakes would have been minimised since all the transactions would be done electronically unlike the traditional way of using price lists which uses manual methods. Another major advantage of using this system is that the catalogue is always current. This system would allow a merchandiser to instantly check if a particular product is in stock. A print catalogue can cost a lot of money where there would be nobody who would like to make a reprint just to change prices for a few items. With the aid of computer system, a catalogue can be updated in a few minutes if not seconds. In this way, paperwork is greatly reduced since only a single price tag for a certain identified category of the same product would be required on the shelf. This also means that inventory is greatly reduced since it would be done electronically. Indeed, customers can accept inventory problems but they will never accept their time to be wasted while searching for a product manually. Another advantage is that this system would greatly cut the staffing costs where limited manpower would be required for performing the same task. With the use of computer technology, it can be noted that tasks which would previously require about 20 people to perform could only be done by may be two or three at most. Another unnecessary cost on paying labour would have been reduced and this would also immensely contribute to the efficiency of the workers. Essentially, each business enterprise is primarily concerned with making profits hence the need to minimise operating costs such as high labour costs which can be greatly reduced by the adoption of using computer aided systems. Lastly, another major benefit of this system would be that customer satisfaction would be increased since they would not spend very long time while waiting to be served. There would be no angry customers in the store which would determine how well the supermarket would be performing which is also a measure of its success. Another measure to establish the benefits of this system would be the existence of shorter queues in the supermarkets since the customers could be quickly served compared to the traditional method of using price lists at supermarkets. An increase in the number of sales compared to the previous statistics can be used to measure the success of using the new system by the above mentioned supermarket. Challenges of the new system and strategies to avoid them Change entails doing something differently. However, the major challenge of implementing change that is likely to be encountered by Friendly Supermarket is resistance to change. The major risk of adopting this strategy is that some employees may be skeptical about the new changes hence would do everything possible to scuttle the efforts to implement the changes envisaged. In order to minimise the chances of resistance to change, there would be need to educate the workers about the benefits of the new system to the organisation as well as to their own operations in the company since it would improve their efficiency. The employee is the major driver who makes the success of the organisation real hence the need to develop him to meet the expected standards of performance. The other risk associated with implementing this strategy is that the employees may lack IT or IS related knowledge to be able to handle the new system. This would require training or outsourcing other skilled employees which can be costly to the organisation as a whole. Whilst training would be cheaper, it would be recommended that there ought to be at least one senior employee who has the knowledge about the system since it would be easier for him to train and develop the junior workers in the organisation. Another way of minimising the risk of employees having limited knowledge about the new system may include outsourcing where head hunting skills will be employed to select highly skilled workers who have the knowledge and experience in the same field. Whilst this may be costly, its advantage is that there would be high chances of getting people who know how to use the system which would minimise the chances of outright failure to benefit from the new system. Conclusion It can be noted that the advent of e-Business during the contemporary period has been greatly influenced by improvements in the new information and communication technology aided by the use of computer technology as explained above. It can thus be noted that Friendly Supermarket which has underscored to transform from the traditional use of price tags at the tills to a modern and sophisticated system that uses scans to detect the bar codes which in turn detect the product and its price ought to develop this system from scratch. The report therefore sought to outline the major requirements as well as the benefits of adopting this new system to the top management of the group of supermarkets in Port Elizabeth. It has been noted that the major change to the infrastructure would be the introduction of computers in many departments including the till areas and these would be connected to a single server so as to ensure a smooth network. If carefully implemented, the benefits of this new system are tremendous and overwhelming and they include the following: it is cheap to operate, the catalogue is always up to date, paperwork is reduced and there would be likely chances of customer satisfaction since efficiency would be increased. One major threat likely to be encountered during the implementation process is lack of IT knowledge among the workers which can be overcome by putting training measures in place. Bibliography Anderson D.L. & Post G.V (2003). Management Information Systems: Solving business problems with information technology. Boston. McGraw Hill. Carsterns J. & Lucouw P. (2004). E-Commerce in practice. SA. Corals Publishers. Cloete E (2003). E-Commerce: A contemporary view. Cape Town. Pardus Publication. Entrepreneur Press, McGarvey R. & Campanelli M. (2005). Start your own e-Business. Canada. Entrepreneur Press. Read More