A Massive Growth of Electronic Commerce Across the Globe - Assignment Example

Module Review 2_2 QUESTION ONE Technological innovations have become critical in business activities across the globe in the past one decade. This led to the generation of the term e-commerce (electronic commerce) which necessarily means the trading in services or products using computer networks, for example, the internet. Examples of avenues that draws on the use of electronic commerce include electronic data interchange, mobile business transactions, online transactions processing, internet marketing, supply chain management, systems of inventory management, electronic cash transfer et cetera. Electronic commerce incorporates the use of World Wide Web in some parts of its transactions. Information technologies have led to a massive growth of electronic commerce across the globe(Einav, Levin, Popov & Sundaresan, 2014). Use of new technologies of information have led to the reduction of transaction costs and has increased coordination among business partners. This is as a result of automation of transactions online as well as productivity and gains in efficiency. Information technologies, such as the ability to advertise and selling and buying of goods online have facilitated the entry of electronic businesses into new markets or the extension of existing markets. It has also resulted in the greater integration of business systems with suppliers and customers. Business organisations and firms invested in electronic commerce have been able to improve the performance of a variety of different business activities along the chain of production. For example, for the past decade, it has become easier to manage and lead global e-commerce organisations through the use of video conferencing and smartphones. The invention of smartphones has also facilitated close contact with customers (Einav, Levin, Popov & Sundaresan, 2014). It is possible nowadays to create mobile phone applications that describe a firm’s products, its locations and the company can use it as a tool to provide feedback from customers to the company. All in all, information technologies have facilitated the bridging of huge gaps that existed between the various players in business transactions. Consequently, this has led to faster and more efficient business operations. QUESTION TWO Rapid advancements in information technology combined with shorter cycles of production have reshaped how businesses currently operate.JIT (Just-In-Time) alludes to the ability of companies to respond promptly to changing customer requirements and needs. To survive, it is essential that firms nowadays be able to meet the ever-changing situations in the business environment. Famous inventions have had a significant effect on the daily supply chain operations (Perry, 2014). Examples of these designs include electronic data interchange and point of sales (POS), Enterprise resource planning and collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment. Electronic data interchange is the use of electronic formats for the transmission of documents, purchase orders ET Cetera.EDI facilitates easy communication between different companies which has increased efficiency as well as making it easy for businesses to act on new customer needs and requirements. The point of sale has been a crucial technological tool in the payment of goods by customers across the globe. The RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) has enabled firms to track the movement of items making it easy for businesses to operate on a real time basis. Information technology has also facilitated an easy management of inventory in businesses. The use of methods such as automatic data capture and scanning of barcodes to track inventory processes provide businesses with an opportunity to manage information flow effectively. The utilization of information technology to automate the business and inventory processes has led to the improvement in access to information and increased efficiency in a logistics enterprise (Perry, 2014). The information technology solutions sequence the inventory data to provide proper organisation of inventory processes and product placement plans in the business warehouse. Consequently, the IT solutions facilitate workflow agility and lower staff requirements of the business. QUESTION 3 Value added services are services beyond voice calls and fax transmissions which are availed to customers at little or no cost. The goal is usually to promote the business providing them. Value added services mostly come into use in the telecommunications industry they offer a wide range of opportunities to the parties involved that is the company and the customers. Value added services are essential to a telecom business primarily because of two reasons. The two primary benefits are the consequent increase in revenue and the retention of customers. Value added services can be stand-alone services (services that the business can offer alone as core services) or they can be bundled i.e. services that are bundled with the core services. Both of the services benefit the company in that they generate multiple revenue channels i.e. (additional revenue that is separate from that of core services).Such services include SMS, WAP and GPRS.The services also benefit the company in that they generate demand for core services. The value added services get bundled with the core services and the business offer these to the customers that ultimately motivate consumers to demand core services. Examples of these services are MMS, conference calling and downloads. An example of a value added service I have been provided by a logistics provider is the pick-pack operations by Nexus. The picking and packing service entails the breaking of a pallet of cases from which individual cases are shipped to fulfil different orders. In my case, the Nexus logistics provider picked a single item that I needed from cases of orders and built new packs that met my requirement. QUESTION 4 As explained above Electronic Data Interchange is the direct computer to computer exchange of standard data and business forms that occur between companies (Perry, 2014). It comprises a mixture of the business, data communications and data processing. Bell Helicopter Textron (BHT) is an example of an airline manufacturer that uses the Electronic Data Interchange in the conduct of its activities. It is an American rotorcraft whose headquarters lie in Texas. It manufactures helicopters and other airline products in Fort Worth as well as in Amarillo, Texas. Bell Helicopter uses Electronic Data Interchange to communicate with other companies. The companies are usually supplying companies that manufacture the equipment needed by Bell Helicopter to make helicopters, tilt rotor products and commercial rotorcraft products. The supplying company first sends instructions to Bell helicopter by first contacting the EDI support group in order to determine which ID to use. The supplier indicates which type of provider he or she Is.Bell Helicopter Textron buys goods and services either through routine suppliers or Commodity (Just in Time) suppliers. For regular suppliers, an active Bell Helicopter Textron supplier receives a purchase order from a Bell Helicopter buyer. The transmission of the business transaction occurs via an EDI 850 transaction set. For the JIT suppliers, Bell Helicopter provides the commodity contracts to its active supplier for extended periods of time. There is usually a pre-negotiation of contract items and prices. Once the contract becomes an active one, it issues a release that transmits it to the supplier using the EDI 850 transaction set. Bell Helicopter incorporates the use of different EDI implementation guides for its routine and commodity purchase orders (Frank & Marchewka, 2015 ). Consequently, the supplier needs to use the appropriate implementation guide during the processing of the BHT documents. QUESTION 5 The most important customer service attribute required of an airline catering company would be that of customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction alludes to the measure of how the services provided by a business or organisation meets the requirements of the customer or surpass his or her expectation (Frank & Marchewka, 2015). Food is a sensitive but critical theme in many people’s lives. The people working in an airline comprise individuals from different origin and backgrounds. In addition, the customers that use the carrier (passengers) are people going to different destinations and, therefore, are from different places. The Chinese do not eat the same type of food as the Americans nor do Africans eat the same food as Europeans. Even in Europe, the different countries gave subtle differences in the types of diet they are used to. It follows, therefore, that catering company ought to provide food that meet the different requirements of all these individuals. The airline catering company should also take into consideration individuals in need of special foods. Such individuals include people suffering from diabetes and other metabolic diseases as well as those suffering from cancer. To ensure customer satisfaction, an airline catering company has to make sure that its foods are clean and do not pose any hazardous threat to its consumers(Perry, 2014) . A food poisoning crisis occurring during a flight might lead to disastrous consequences. It might even lead to an abrupt and unplanned landing that may inconvenience the passengers. It would also tarnish the image of the airline company as most people presume that the airline is the one responsible for the foods they eat during the flight. Consequently, the catering company should customer tailored and adhere to the highest standards of hygiene. References Einav, L., Levin, J., Popov, I., & Sundaresan, N. (2014). Growth, Adoption, and Use of Mobile E-Commerce. The American economic review, 104(5), 489-494 Frank, C., & Marchewka, J. T. (2015). Project Zenith: A Case Study of Electronic Data Interchange. Communications of the IIMA, 4(2), 2. Perry, D. (2014). Worth its wait: competitors have been faster off the blocks, but Bell Helicopter hopes it will offer a superior rotorcraft with its super-medium 525 Relentless. Flight International, 186(5464). Read More