Taking an E-Business Initiative in EasyTravel Ltd - Case Study Example

Introduction EasyTravel Ltd is a Tour Operator and Travel Agent. They have been in the travel and tourism business since 1997; started as an approvedagent of various international airlines .Company has established itself as a reputed concern offering multi-product travel services. The company operates through a website for Hotels, Tours, Ticketing and Visa bookings and the profit is earned in the face of the commission paid to them for getting customers for various airlines and hotels. With the development in tourism industry, EasyTravel has seen a growth in the market share. Sales and profits increased dramatically for first few years, but the last few years have been disastrous, despite the potential in the market. In this environment EasyTravel has not had it all its own way, and has faced stiff competition from other companies who have same services to offer. The business problem is declining sales of the company despite the market potential for business to expand. The managers are aware of the opportunities in the cyber world but exploring these opportunities is a real challenge. The company aims to take an e business initiative to boost its sales and maximize its profits. Currently the website has been designed to book the destinations and Hotels online. There is no facility for online payment and the customers have to see their banks to transfer the payment. Customers often complain about complicated features of the website that consumes a lot of time. There is no direct interaction with the customers and the packages lie idle unless a customer himself visits the website and search for it. Due to traffic, the server is down if many customers visit the site and customers log off without making any transactions. These are few evident reasons that have been causing continuous dissatisfaction among the customers and declining sales. Taking an e business Initiative The emerging e-business market gives companies of all sizes and types, the opportunity to leverage their existing assets, employees, technology infrastructure, and information to gain their market share. Often the companies use features borrowed from e business to attain a competitive edge. With the low barriers to entry competitors are increasingly entering the market, and here the service and not the technology remains the differentiating factor. Companies are struggling to enhance the services they provide by adding features of ease, convenience and making it more economical for its users. (H. Albert Napier, 2005) By definition e business is any net-enabled business activity that transforms internal and external relationships to create value and exploit market opportunities driven by new rules of the connected economy. However in this era where a successful approach has to be more customer focused, the adoption of digital technology does not suffice without enhancement in value chain proposition. (Shannon Belew, 2009) The following model shows how to go about implementing an e business strategy and how to monitor its effectiveness. The steps mentioned below provide a systematic approach to implement e business and regular monitoring to determine its progress towards the goal achievements. (Ravi Kalakota, 2000) Following steps can be followed by EasyTravel in taking an e business initiative. The critical role played by the internet technology and the integration necessary for in cooperating e business requires a comprehensive planning framework. Firstly the changes in the business environment are felt to be the stimulus that requires the organization to determine the modification needed. These changes were felt by EasyTravel in the form of declining sales and the new opportunities emerging within the new digital environment. A business model developed will enable the organization to distribute its resources efficiently to achieve the goal of maximize the sales and using their resources efficiently. As the second step in developing an e business initiative EasyTravel would determine its strengths and weaknesses and how much resources it can afford to expend to implement this change. To establish a successful e business integration of all resources to support the same objective is very crucial for the success of the e business model. The third step in the above flow chart carries great importance, which is developing a successful e business strategy. An e business model essentially consists of three elements; solid strategies, knowledge management techniques and effective processes to enhance customer relationship management. (Tawfik Jelassi, 2008) EasyTravel aims to develop an e business model that incorporates the above three essentials for a successful e business. The success of an e business strategy depends on its execution and the integration with the key business processes. The strategy should be aligned with the critical success factors of the organization. An alien e business strategy would complicate the procedures even further if it does not comply with the key issues the company is facing. In the today’s competitive electronic environment, it is harder to maintain consistency in the levels of services offered around the world. E-businesses must be ready and able to adjust their business and IT strategies rapidly, depending on unpredictable competitors and market pressures. Today’s e-business climate requires the continuous optimization of an organization’s business and IT strategies. A successful e business strategy for easy travel has to be developed in parallel with the IT strategy. Since the website is the only way of reaching customers focus on the IT strategy is vital for the business success. The strategy for EasyTravel would be to offer real time service to its aligned with the company’s IT strategy. All the resources should be expended to develop a robust e business strategy that would enhance the customer base of the company. EasyTravel should develop a strategy that would be flexible enough to incorporate the new adoptions in the internet technology. The server should be supported with a robust backup to avoid any inconvenience customers might face that could lead to dissatisfaction. The other essential for a sound e business initiative are the knowledge management techniques. Knowledge can be both tacit and explicit. Tacit knowledge is not written but embedded in the organization’s culture. It is ‘known’ by the employees. No matter what type of knowledge an e-business has, the company must put into place processes for organizing that knowledge. Knowledge management includes managing intellectual capital, such as best practices, critical business processes, and operating metrics. Establishing ongoing processes for acquiring, organizing, and distributing this knowledge about customers, products, and processes is critical to success. Distribution of information is very necessary for successful e business implementation. The employees should share complete knowledge so about the e business initiative the company aims to adopt. This will ensure complete integration of the various departments. (Tawfik Jelassi, 2008) EasyTravel should develop a wide distribution channel through which all the necessary information about the company’s products, changes and regular customer survey would be updated so that all employees have the same knowledge about the company’s developments. Lack of knowledge distribution can be conducive to declining sales of the company. The IT strategy must be aligned with the business strategy especially in case EasyTravel which is an online business. Implementing eCRM EasyTravel has not been very successful in maintaining its relationships with its customers. The weak attributes of the website like complicated features and frequent server failures have lead to bad image among its customers. EasyTravel aims to modify its website to ensure on time feedback and develop a backup to support excessive traffic. This is where it should incorporate the third essential of a successful e business initiative. Customer relationships are becoming a more important factor in differentiating one business from another. It is a way of identifying, reaching and retaining its customers, the company’s biggest asset. eCRM, or electronic Customer Relationship Management, is an integrated online sales, marketing and service strategy that is used to identify, attract and retain an organization’s customers. It describes improved and increased communication between an organization and its clients by creating and enhancing customer interaction through innovative technology. EasyTravel should employ these techniques to gain the loyalty of its customers. There are numerous benefits of e CRM that would help EasyTravel maximize its brand loyalty. Following model proposes how implementation of e CRM in the business model ensures expansion in the market share. (Alfredo Zingale, 2001) EasyTravel needs to develop the e business strategy of maximizing its sales through placing importance on its customers. Customer focus strategy along with the features of an e business would enhance the image of the organization for the company. eCRM will enable it to keep a customer profile for all its customers. Frequent interaction with them via emails informing them about the new offers for their favorite destinations and resorts will keep them updated and can serve as a major source of marketing. An integrated database will deliver improved and consistent customer response. This focus on retaining customers will guarantee optimum profit and other interactive tools can also be used to attract new customers. This new initiative would have the automatic detection system that would track the customer’s favorite destination. If the customers are served individually they would feel important and would develop loyalty for the company. A well maintained data about the customers will ensure enquiries are met on timely basis and issues are managed well. This feature of CRM would be conducive to the growth of the company and survival. EasyTravel should follow the above mentioned steps an incorporate an e business initiative gradually into its existing procedures. The current online transactions do not take place efficiently and frequent server breakdowns are often a cause of dissatisfaction. No marketing is done to inform the customers about new packages of entertainment at different resorts and destinations. A complete database of the customer visiting the site and the tracking the transactions can help the company retain its customers. The implementation of eCRM would enable customers to do business with EasyTravel the way they want, that is any time with online payment and on the spot booking to their favorite destinations. The eCRM does this by creating a central database for customer records. Linkbaits can be used to reduce to reduce the traffic load from one website. The website can be made more interactive by uploading videos and pictures of different destinations and resorts. The organization can also make profit from the resorts and hotels by marketing them on their website. This would serve as a dual source of profits firstly by attracting new customers and secondly by earning a commission from the hotels and tourism industry. (Amrit Tiwana, 2010) Recommendations EasyTravel can also develop an internal portal that would contain easy access to the customer profile. All the employees can have the customer profile to entertain their request transactions and requests. An e business initiative should be developed with a comprehensive planning and integration within the organization is very important. Training sessions should be carried out before the implementation of new technologies to avoid any resentment from the employees. The software can be outsourced or developed internally by the technical staff of the company. Comprehensive planning and integration is the backbone of a successful e business initiative which EasyTravel can implement to boost their sales and expand the market share. References Albert Napier, Ollie N. Rivers, and Stuart Wagner, 2005, Creating a Winning E-Business Shannon Belew, 2009, Starting an Online Business All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies Tawfik Jelassi, 2008, Strategies for E-Business: concepts and cases (2nd Edition) Entrepreneur Press and Lynie Arden, 2009, Start Your Own E-Business, 2nd Edition (Start Your Own) Ravi Kalakota, 2000, e-Business 2.0: Roadmap for Success (2nd Edition) Jorge Gasos, 2003, E-Business Applications Alfredo Zingale, 2001, New Economy Excellence Series, New Economy Emotion: Engaging Customer Passion with e-CRM www.research.ibm.com www.ebusinessmodels.com Read More