Business Improvement Strategies for Carnivore Urban - Case Study Example

Business Improvement Strategies: Carnivore Urban Contents Introduction 3 Analysis 4 The problem 5 Solutions 5Challenges 6 Will the customers use the system? 6 Costs and benefits 7 The costs will be as follows; 7 Initial costs 7 Equipment 7 Training costs 7 Running costs 7 Server 7 Administration 7 Upgrade costs 8 Benefits 8 Non financial benefits of the systems 8 Happy customers 8 Happy workers 8 Good records for analysis 9 Internal staff and the systems 9 Recommendations 9 Reference list: 10 Executive summary Every business has to deal with various issues in order to remain successful in the market. Carnivore Urban is facing a number of challenges, most of which are related to logistics. The very nature and structure of Carnivore Urban is what has given the firm a lot of success and at the same time offering it new challenges. Carnivore Urban will need to be able to employ the use of information systems in order to make sure that these challenges have been purged out. Carnivore Urban will develop a system which will make it possible for customers to place their orders online thus reducing the logistical challenges. Introduction Technology has already achieved its place in the modern business. Unlike the earlier days when technology was seen as just a requirement of the big businesses, in a modern world, smaller businesses have to also use technology to solve most of the challenges they have in order to avoid losing market competitiveness. As Proctor (2009) says, every business has a problem or a challenge which makes it harder to serve its customers in a good way and this means that these businesses have to know how to address these issues. In regard to this, the business should be able to seek to see how it can use technology to be able to overcome these challenges. Carnivore Urban is a city restaurant which offers customers interesting cuisine most of them based on beef. Barbeque is a major part of Carnivore Urban hence the name of the restaurant. Carnivore Urban also offers drinks of all kinds, and it considers itself an entertainment hub, targeted to the common working class people who like to go to the restaurant every day after work to relax. Customers come to the restaurant and order their favourite drink and their food. Each day in the week is a special entertainment treat day where music of different tastes is played, but always to take of the customers. The main advantage is that customers can come in and order a dish of their own unique recipe and have it prepared within a reasonable time. This not only helps the customers to have customized meals which are tuned to their specific taste, it also helps them to eat fresh meals. There is however one problem with this kind of arrangement. Stock management is hard, and some time Carnivore Urban buys too much food material of a certain type which them goes to waste if that day customers don’t order meals requiring that kind of food materials. As Webne (2008) says, managing logistics is a major and vital part of successful business management. For instance, it is possible for Carnivore Urban to buy too many ribs in anticipation that most of the customers will order barbecued ribs only to have them remain. Most of the food material which remains has to go to waste so as to maintain the fresh food policy. Sometimes the issue is not about too much materials being bought, but rather too little materials being bought and this may lead to either the meals for customers being delayed too long or the customers not being able to get their preferred meals altogether. The other issue is the issue of the kitchen staff being overwhelmed by the orders as they come in. This business plan is a solution for Carnivore Urban to use information technology as a way to solve these issues. It seeks to see how the available information technology can be tapped in order to reduce these issues. Analysis Carnivore Urban was started in 2008 and got immediate success. It was started by three individuals, Andrew, Max and Stacy all of whom were former employees of a marketing firm. The three realised that it was harder to find a good joint to meet after work because the available restaurant were too structured and formal. They wished to have a place for relaxing where they could go after work and relax, has a good and affordable meal as well as drink and at the same time get entertained. They then decided to get the solution themselves so the idea for Carnivore Urban was conceived. They all quit their jobs and with the money they had saved set up the place. The success came as a result of most of their friends coming with their friends to the place. With time Carnivore Urban has received a lot of support and this gave the business a lot of customers who went there. The problem As already discussed in the introduction, the main challenge which Carnivore Urban is having is that it has outgrown itself as the number of customers has increased. Carnivore Urban has the risk of collapsing under its own success because of the following. Unless Carnivore Urban is able to overcome the logistical problem, it will end up failing because of a number of reasons. One is the fact that customers are becoming more and more dissatisfied every time they go to Carnivore Urban, and their meal takes too long to arrive after ordering. As Nieman and Pretorius (2004) say, it is important for a firm to understand how to manage growth in order to guarantee future success. The other issue is that the firm is incurring a lot of many in terms of food destroyed and the missed opportunity every time a customer is not served. Solutions Technology has been used by both large and small organisations to solve issues regarding logistics (Burgess, 2002). There are numerous ways in which Carnivore Urban can use technology to solve the logistical problems. Carnivore Urban should consider developing a system which will help the customers to log into the system and make their orders way before they come to the restaurant. The solution will enable customers to order their meals online and pay online, and this will reduce the uncertainty of the orders. This means that Carnivore Urban will have to prepare an online system which will income an online menu and an online payment system. The customers can log in and place a meal order and be charged online using their credit or debit cards. Each order will be given a code, and customers will be able to present the code and this code will be used to serve the customer. This will mean that customers can order the meals before leaving the office and therefore the orders can reach Carnivore Urban in time for the kitchen staff to be ready to prepare the meal. The customers will also indicate their estimated time of arrival, and this will mean that the kitchen staff will know exactly when the best time to start making the mean will be. The system will be accessible from both computers and smart phones and this means that the customer can access the system every time and at any place because many people have smart phones these days. Challenges As Boone and Kurtz, (2000) say, there are many challenges related to online payment and it will be necessary to make sure that Carnivore Urban will be able to find an online payment which will not be too costly or insecure. The customers will need to be guaranteed that their financial information is secure as they transact their money. In fact, this is the cause of the next challenge which is the refusal by customers to use the system Will the customers use the system? To convince customers to use the system, it will need some effort. However, although this is a challenge, it is necessary to note that people are getting used to buying goods and services online and therefore it is will be easier to break the resistance (Conrad & Pultorak, 2010). The main challenge will be to educate the customers of the benefits. To encourage the customers to use the online system, those who will order online will be given a discount. People like free discounts and this will encourage them to use the online system. Costs and benefits The costs will be as follows; Initial costs Initial costs will involve the cost of developing the system. Developing a good system can be very expensive and failing to invest the right amount of money in system development can lead to huge challenges which may lead the system into being unable to deal with the issues. Equipment At least three good computers will be required for the project. While Carnivore Urban will not need to have in-house servers for the system, a connection to the internet will be required so that the staff can access the system online. Training costs Training will be required so that the employees are able to know to use the solution. Training will also make it possible to have the system to be successful and to reduce the chances of failure. Running costs Server Being an online system Carnivore Urban will need to pay for server hosting services. Carnivore Urban is not big enough to have their own servers in-house, and the option will be to use hosting services. Hosting services costs are continual, and the firm can be paying monthly, quarterly or annually. Administration Carnivore Urban will also have to hire someone to be doing the sever administration. This will definitely increase the wage bill for Carnivore Restaurant. Upgrade costs Any IT systems require to be upgraded and this and the firms should plan for upgrade costs. Benefits The big issue is that sometimes the benefits of IT system may be measurable in terms of financial gains (Vandenbosch, 2003). For instance, customer satisfaction can’t be measured in financial terms. There are however also some financial gains. The main financial gain in this case will be the fact that Carnivore Urban will be able to save on costs and that they will also be able to serve more customers. As already identified, one of the major issues with Carnivore Urban is that it is losing a lot of money to as it is not able to serve all the customers due to poor logistics. Once the system is bought, and the logistical systems are developed and implemented, it is going to be possible to tap this extra revenue and profits. The system will also help in avoiding the various losses associated with the current situations. Non financial benefits of the systems Happy customers Needless to say, if the system helps in making it possible to always be able to serve the customers, the customers will be happier with the service and they will give more business to the firm as they bring in more of their friends. This means if the system is successful it will help in making sure that Carnivore Urban will continue growing and expanding in the future. Happy workers The workers will also be happy because they will be able to do their work in an easy way. Good records for analysis Carnivore Urban will be able to have useful records. These records can be used later for data mining which will then provide useful information for strategic planning and growth planning. In the future, this information can be used to detect certain trends about the customers and use this information for planning. It could also be used for promotional campaigns such as customer loyalty systems. Internal staff and the systems Acquisition of information technology systems is always a challenge because the internal users may boycott the system and this may be a failure (Upstart Pub Company Series, 1994). To be able to deal with this challenge, it will be necessary to be able to train the users adequately. More importantly, the employees should be educated about the changes about to happen in order to help them have more control of the situation and understand that their works is likely to be changed (Wilson & Bates, 2005). Recommendations Carnivore Urban should hire an external system developer who will help with the system development process. A proper system analysis will have to be carried out to help in understanding all the intricate issues surrounding the issue of the system and the concerns which the employees will have. The system should be able to deliver the needs without making it too difficult for employees. Reference list: Boone, L.E & Kurtz, L.D. (2000). Contemporary Business 2010 Update. New Jersy: John Wiley & Sons. Burgess, S. (2002). Managing Information Technology in Small Business: Challenges and Solutions. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Inc (IGI). Conrad, S. & Pultorak, D. (2010). IT Business Management Solutions from SAP: A Pocket Guide. New York City, NY: Van Haren Publishing. Nieman, G. & Pretorius, M. (2004). Managing Growth: A Guide for Entrepreneurs. Johanessberg: Juta and Company Ltd. Proctor, T. (2009). Creative Problem Solving for Managers: Developing skills for decision making and innovation. London: Routledge. Upstart Pub Company Series. (1994). Problems & Solutions in Small Business Management. NA: Kaplan Publishing. Vandenbosch, B. (2003). Designing Solutions for Your Business Problems: A Structured Process for Managers and Consultants. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Webne, H. (2008). The Practice of Facilitation: Managing Group Process and Solving Problems. Charlotte: IAP. Wilson, P. & Bates, S. (2005). The Essential Guide to Managing Small Business Growth. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Read More