Rich Picture on Frontier Jewellery - Case Study Example

INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN ORGANIZATIONS By (Name) Institution Instructor Class/Course City Date Rich Picture on Frontier Jewellery The Rich picture drawn below illustrate the large multi-faceted complexity of the Frontier Jewellery operations and also to focus the mind on the important relationship between the firm, and its environment, activities, stakeholders, as well as other context of the study in this case. These factors are the substances of development as well as improvement for Frontier Jewellery. Figure: Rich Picture on Frontier Jewellery Alter’s Framework of Frontier Jewellery Customers Product and services Business Process Participants Information Technology Context Infrastructure E-business An E-business model is a set of planned internet activities designed to make profit for the business. E-business is the process of conducting business over the Internet. The business in this case includes not only buying and selling, but also serving customers, collaborating with business partners and working with other companies (Currie, 2004). In the past few years, e-business has permeated nearly every aspect of business and daily life. Both individuals and businesses have embraced different methods of technologies in order to increase productivity and improve convenience and global communication. From the banking to shopping to entertainment, internet has become part and parcel of life. Frontier Jewellery is using two e-business models, the business -to -consumer model (B2C) and the business to business (B2B).Business to consumer business model involves transactions between Frontier Jewellery and buyers of custom made jewellery. The buyers access the products mostly through the internet. The payments are also made through online. Basically, the company targets and transacts with consumers of through the internet. The customers make their orders and payments through online mechanisms. As the necessary payments through the online different payment platforms are made, the product is shipped to whatever destination in the world is the customer. Buyers and sellers mostly communicate through emails and phone calls. The business to business model (B2B) is also used by Frontier Jewellery procure and transact with its suppliers. The suppliers of some of its gemstones from New Zealand and other types of gemstones from all over the world are contacted via internet and an order with specifications of the gemstones needed is made from Frontier Jewellery headquarters. The payments are also made using the online payment platforms. In terms of Frontier Jewellery business model activities that are geared towards making profit, the business has six key business models. Some of these important activities include revenue maximization model, business opportunity model, value proposition model, competitive model, business strategy, and organizational development (Currie, 2004).. Value proposition model- Focuses on how the company meets the customers’ needs. The company’s value proposition is in providing customized jewellery to the customers at their convenience. The convenience is achieved by the customers making their orders and specifications and then the company customizing the customers’ jewelry according to the customers needs. The company also meets the customers’ needs by delivering the products to wherever they are or want at the customers’ convenience. The customers also pay half the amount on an order and the rest on completion of order for shipment; this is friendly to the customer. Revenue model: The model describes how the businesses make their revenue, to make profits, and produce a good return on investment. Frontier jewellery depends mainly on its sales of jewellery to generate revenue and profits. They also do training on gemstones and jewellery making which also earns the company some revenue every four months. The business opportunity: This is the intended market space and financial opportunities that the business targets. The company seems to target the European market with a niche of upper middle class who are able to provide customized jewellery and can provide credit card payments. Marketing strategy: The marketing strategy of Frontier Jewellery involves establishing outlets around major cities in Europe in order to reach target market. The outlets have catalogues of the jewellery that potential customers can look at and make an order be processed if they want to buy. Organizational development: The Company organizes its business in a manner that all the orders from all customers are prepared from one database which essentially helps in monitoring the sales and for accounting purposes (Currie, 2004). Despite the fact that Frontier Jewellery Company has a working business model and having commendable sales for the last 18 moths, the E- business model can be improved and expanded to in case the sales for the next 12 months. The internet marketing model can be expanded. A company can have a more vibrant marketing strategy that that shall be in charge of web and internet marketing. The strategy can be done by a company staff that is conversant with the marketing strategy and products of the business. The website should be revamped and the content of the website improved. There should be a 24 hour contact line that customers reach the business at any time of the day. The nature of online business is that there are office hours 24/7 so as to reach people in different time zones and also to maximize the benefits of internet. The company seems to be detached from the customers. They can also use a social media design that can be used to get feedback, and improve interaction between customer and potential customers. Social media like facebook and twitter can help improve prompt response to any queries or complaints about the company’s products. The complaints should also be managed by a public relations and marketing team who will be responsible for engaging the customers and potential customers. This way the complaints about the orders delaying and emails not being responded to are addressed quickly. The social media team can also market products by posting the jewellery on the social media pages and the website of the business thereby making the customers be able to assess the products everywhere all the way to the outlets. In this case, the company will reach the customers wherever they are and market their products globally. The benefit of internet marketing is that the company can maximize its visibility in the market hence reaching a bigger audience globally, and also getting the potential customers wherever they are. Another benefit is that the company is likely to get more repeat clients when they are served efficiently and their issues handled promptly. More than that, their loyal customers can act as marketers as well by giving positive feedback on the web pages and social media pages. Another model that can be adapted is having Information Technology (IT) being outsourced to two different suppliers. One supplier to offer the services for Frontier Jewellery manufacturing and outlets while another to offer ISP services. This will help separating the functions to avoid total collapse of the system when one IT functions fails. It will also help minimizing sabotage possibilities in case the company disagrees with the supplier of IT services. Frontier Jewellery can also communicate in advance, any delays that may be experienced during the processing of an order so that the customer is not left in the darkness to why his order is not coming in time. Lastly, the revenue model can be improved by having more gemstone and jewelry making trainings in a year. Also since the demand is high for the trainings, the rates can be revised upwards and probably the trainings to take more days in a year. A trainings arm that deals with training can be formed so that the trainings do not interfere with the core business of the company. Frontier jewelry can work on a business model whereby they agree with the suppliers that ones the gemstones are bought from them, and then they are responsible for arrangement of transportation of the gemstones. This will reduce their overreliance on the suppliers’ efficiency on transporting the gems. When Frontier Jewellery is in control of the transport of the gemstones from the mines, they can be able to manage the customers’ expectations and ensure that the clients order is processed within the agreed timelines. However this strategy may mean that Frontier Jewellery may incur extra expenses because they will transport the gems themselves, but this cost can be transferred to the consumer in the pricing of the products. The strategy is less costly compared to losing customers due to being deemed unreliable. Eventually, the company will build a reputation for being reliable. Security Issues Internet marketing The internet with all its benefits also has its risks. This includes security, privacy and technical attacks. Outsourcing of IT services means that a third party has access to company sensitive company information. Some of the data captured include the business finances and personal information that can be used unwisely especially by third parties. It is, therefore, necessary that Frontier Jewellery signs binding agreements with whichever service provider on non-disclosure of confidential information. Also when outsourcing such services the company should make sure they work with people with integrity. When using internet media, the company may also face challenges of hackers and malware who corrupt the systems, it is, therefore, necessary that the system is secured well by the best systems and also the password and codes should be well kept and the correct measures taken to secure them. The people using social media should also be cautious so that they do not damage the reputation of the company by misrepresenting the company through their comments or briefs. In conclusion, e- business has revolutionalised the way business is done globally and it opens opportunities for business to be more efficient, reach a wider market maximized resources. E- Business is here to stay and is the future of business. Business Intelligence The modern world of business, competition is paramount, companies and businesses strive to stay well inform about the facts and trends of the business. In this way, they become aware of every information that pertains to customer changing tastes and preferences, price variation, any interventions in the market, and incoming new technological among other market trends that affect profitability of these companies or businesses, as well as their efficiency (Bonasia, 2006). The process by which businesses and/or companies use the available data to come out with the precise market and business information and trends in order to affect the company’s profitability and efficiency is the business intelligence. Business intelligence revolves around gathering data, competitor data, or the industrial data both currently and past in order to determine the industrial and market trend in order to make informed and reasonable strategic decisions. Analysis of the business intelligence requires critical attention to the technical skills (computer oriented), analytical skills (analysis of trends), problem solving skills, as well as time management skills (Bonasia, 2006). Therefore basically, other being a discipline involving data mining, online analytical processing, querying, and or reporting, the basic value of business intelligence is to tap the market details for improved decision making, identification of new business opportunities, as well as for costs minimization. Many business intelligence programs and software have proven effective nowadays, and Frontier Jewellery has reaped full benefit of such intelligence. Frontier Jewellery particularly has been using these business intelligence applications for the following purposes; i. Collecting data from various sources ii. Making sure the data is accurate, consistent, etc (i.e. data cleaning) iii. Discerning patterns and meaning based on the information derived from the data iv. Responding to the resultant information The information above helps the Frontier Jewellery to support decision-making efforts especially in areas of operational, tactical, and strategic process of the firm’s decision making process. Through business intelligence, Frontier Jewellery may collect data in the following areas; Operational Data for operational areas need to be detected and corrected through data cleaning processes and profiling process. According to Frontier Jewellery, most operational data pertains to specialties in different jewellery and creation of custom made jewellery. Insomuch as data pertaining to special as well as creation of attentive jewellery, Frontier Jewellery also still need well refined data especially on the following; Customers purchase or customer ordering sequence of any of the jewellery from any of the retail outlets All customer, sales, and order data (customer details, payment details, order details, sales details) records in the database, especially at the Albury/Wodonga Material source for gemstones that are set into rings, chains, earrings, bracelets, etc. especially those that are made through Frontier Jewellery business partners located in WA, SA, NSW, and Queensland. All supplier information and orders to suppliers Operational data pertaining to all IT functions that have usually been outsourced to a single supplier who covers the IT needed for all Frontier Jewellery manufacturing and retail outlets and is Frontier Jewellery ’s ISP. Considering the importance of business intelligence in operational advantage perspective, Frontier Jewellery is able to run its business in efficient manner and actually deriving value from the use of information technology adoption. More importantly, Frontier Jewellery uses the operational data to improve decision making process, especially involving suppliers, customers, and pricing models. Cutting cost and identification of new opportunities is another quality of refining operational data that improves the value creation, customer niche spreading, as well as the firm’s growth within the cultural and technical challenges involved. Tactical Tactical moves of any firm must be very private and usually deterministic. As far as Frontier Jewellery is concerned, the tactical data involves information revolving around the insight into the jewellery materials supply (e.g. gemstone) and its customers (including negotiating contracts with suppliers), the use of information technology (IT) for efficiency purposes, this being centered at Albury/Wodonga, as well as production of unique and custom made jewellery. The business intelligence tactical matters are very important especially when negotiations are involved. Suppliers and relevant business stakeholders and partners must be well kept under profitable contract to the business. Tactical data also help firms to become operational driven with viable moves on what new products (jewellery) to add to its range of jewellery, which jewellery lack demand and which underperforming stores to close. In this case, therefore, Frontier Jewellery uses tactical business intelligence data to identify opportunities and develop inefficient processes, and also to help the firm to run its businesses for real value retrieval. Strategic Strategic data usually revolves around future growth and industrial positioning of the firm. Frontier Jewellery has flexible strategic pattern that considers the changing consumer preferences in the modern day consumer behaviors. Basically, some of the strategic data that pertains to customers purchase or customer ordering sequence of any of the jewellery from any of the retail outlets, customer volume, increased use of information technology, as well as maintaining customer contacts are all strategic information that pivotal in the process of making decision and improving sustainable profitability. One of the primary value of business intelligence is that its solution provides strengthened perspective or view of critical and key business data that are usually not available anywhere else in the organization (Currie, 2004). This enables firms like, Frontier Jewellery to have an accurate management visibility and control over the measures that may seem would not have existed. In this case, therefore, from strategic point of view, the strategic data of Frontier Jewellery may help the management to improve on the key performance indicators, make real and viable decision making, especially pertaining to the customer complains, suppliers and payment methods. Some of the backbone of growth and sustained profitability of the firm include Customer satisfaction and having better relationship with the suppliers. Apart from the efficiencies that come by through adoption of information technology in the operations of the business, Frontier Jewellery must be very clinical in its effort to increase its relationship with the suppliers and the customers. Having many stores and outlets, with at least 6500 customers, the company stands at a better ground for growth. The firm’s product is very unique, and these data; tactical, operational, and strategic data are very critical in positioning the firm in a better than the current position in the industry. Notably, the customer complains, especially pertaining to payment resources as well as slow responses must be dealt with from strategic and operational point of view with the best speed. More importantly, the firm should use its valuable tactical data to identify more opportunities in other segments. The following chart expresses how information on the customers, product, and market help in determining intelligence surrounding the business. Customer Relationship Management Customer relationship management (CRM) involves managing all aspects of a customer’s relationship with an organization to increase customer loyalty, retention, and to increase an organization’s profitability. It is a strategy that manages all the company’s interactions with the current and the prospective customers, thereby enabling the company to increase its productivity, its customer satisfaction, as well as retention. In this case, therefore, customer relationship management must be well from the strategic point of view and adopted to reap from the power of customers. CRM needs to be an end-to-end practice that includes such areas as marketing, advertising, sales, order processing, order distribution, and customer support. The basic components of customer relationship management are the customer retention and customer attraction. All these components of customer relationship management depend on the available, identified, and engaged customer data as shown in the diagram below. Customer data and its components According to Sanchez & Sanchez (2005, pp. 307-316), there are real business benefits that are linked to improved customer relationships and offering better customer service. Companies that have majored in their customer experience have produced more than 60% of their profit better than their competitors according to researches. Frontier Jewellery deals with jewellery products that are often considered giffen goods. The perception of the customers is directly linked to higher prices to mean better quality. Under such circumstances, Frontier can improve and increase sales from its existing customers by considering the following two methods; 1. Look for and engage with the customers and prospects wherever they are using different channels of communication, through all forms of product promotions 2. Ensure customers are treated fairly and issues are resolved quickly 3. Reward customer loyalty in order to retain them The sole purpose of a profit making company is to maximize profit both in the long run and also in the short run. Doing this involves extensive and comprehensive aspects of customer relationships in terms of creating awareness or maintains an awareness of the product. Frontier Jewellery can use the following methods, considering the above methods in order to attract new customers. Notably, it is very logical based on the diagram above to argue that customer relationship management depends on strategy, sales, technical support, customer service, marketing, and social media. These are the pillars of customer relations management. In this case, therefore, the ability of Frontier Jewellery to network and advertise its jewellery products using the available social Medias will determine the number of new customers that the company gets within the 6 months period. The next two ways can be used by Frontier Jewellery to get new customers over the next six months, within a budget of not more than $60,000. Networking and referrals With the rising information technological use in the operations of companies, many companies invest highly in this vice to not increase efficiency, but also to attract many new customers. Basically, networking is one of the best ways of attracting new customers, yet very simple. Referrals from networking or other business association work better within the context of time and with higher retention rate. The ideal customers of Frontier Jewelry must be well understood and this information is communicated to others of the type of the customer that the business needs. Within the budget of $60,000, the company, through networking can create high-leveled links and sponsors. The business can network by sponsoring some events, considering jewellery is more attractive to, especially people of higher dignity, rich people, or celebrities. In this case, Frontier Jewellery can system in promoting or sponsoring some events that help in making its products identified. Advertising According to Hoots, (2005 pp 346-361), the key to successful advertising is to create a convincing leads in the exchange for the money that is spent on the adverts. An effective adverts, insomuch expensive, have a highly customer attraction rate than others. Using television, magazines and radio to adverts some of the jewelry ranges available at Frontier Jewellery, the volume of customer will increase massively, due to rising number of the new customers. TV adverts are fairly expensive, but using around $40,000 on TV adverts of the product ranges of the Jewelries at Frontier Jewellery, leaving the rest for other forms of adverts will marginally increase the number of new customers. Consider the diagram below that best explains how advertisements and networking help in attracting new customers for an organization. The current technological advancements are very crucial for marketing products and also improving customer satisfaction (Hoots, pp. 346-9). Through the continued use of the social media as well as prompt networking, Frontier Jewellery can increase its customer support and help resolve most of the customer issues affecting them. Using the CRM software and applications are very cost effective and develop the strategic data solutions very fast. Basically, the right cust0mer relationship management technology massively supports the CRM strategic aims and increase productivity as shown in the diagram below. The potential of having a more adapted and good customer relationship management lies within getting more sales, having happy and satisfied customers, as well as having productive employees (Hoots, 2005). Customer relationship management would enable the Frontier Jewellery to gauge satisfaction of every customer, checking their records, interactions, as well as responding promptly to their concerns. Having different data on client specifics is better from the customer strategic perspective of the firm, especially on the customer’s tastes and preferences, and Frontier Jewellery marketing department should be enabled to tailor-make these jewelleries to suit different clients. Accordingly, the plan below illustrating furthers how understanding of the customer relationship management can help the business to reap more success. Project Management The systems development life cycle (SDLC) is used for the overall process for developing information systems from planning through to maintenance. This system (SDLC) is a conceptualized model that describes the various stages from the initial feasibility study and through the maintenance of the completed application as stated above. In this case, the company decides to fund a new project to replace their current Web site with a new one, the project become applicable under SDLC. Notably, the project will include input from owners and all full time staff in all outlets. The project is to be done by the I.T. provider and the project needs to be completed within six months. The basic components of SDLC are planning, analysis, design, implementation, and maintenance. However, the 6597 systems development life cycle (SDLC) follows the following stages (phases) as each phase applies to the project development. Source: spot.pcc.edu According to the diagram above, the systems development life cycle (SDLC) goes through seven phases; identification of objectives and/or opportunities (problems), resolution of the information requirements, analysis of the system needs designing the recommended system, development of the document software, testing and maintaining the system, as well as implementation and evaluation of the system. An SDLC has basically three main functions; ensuring the delivery of high quality systems, providing sound management controls, as well as maximizing productivity in an organization. This means that SDLC ensures that the business is able to produce more function, wit higher quality, in lesser time, with predictable manner, and also with fewer resources. The website development project of Frontier Jewellery undergoes through the following phases as described by what take place at each phase. Identification of objectives and/or opportunities (problems): This phase involves conducting preliminary analysis by identifying the objectives, the problems, as well as the opportunities. The alternative solutions are proposed at this period whereby objectives are analyzed thoroughly as the alternate solutions are sought from the clients, employees, suppliers, consultants and other stakeholders of the business. This stage finalizes by examining the associated costs and benefits of the project. Determination of the information requirements: this phase involves defining the project goals and putting them into well defined functions and operations that the intended application can efficiently use. In this case, therefore, the end user information is needed. Design of the recommended system: This phase involves describing the desired features and the operations in details. Some of these details are the screen layouts, business rules, process diagrams as well as other documentation. Development of the document software: In this phase also, the actual codes are written and programmed. Integration and Testing: All the components of the program is brought together and set to real testing environment, where errors, bugs, and interoperability are checked appropriately. Implementation and evaluation of the system: After testing, the software is put into real production stage and made to run businesses. This stage encompasses all the maintenance procedures that aim at assessing the system in order that it does not become obsolete. Maintenance involves evaluating the progress and effectiveness of the program and whether it meets the intended objectives and functional requirements. Disposal: The final stage of a program or software is where the plans to discard the program are set underway in order to make transition to another program altogether that is more effective and efficient than the current program or software. Project development requires many professionals, resources requirements, and planning, especially the human skills. Basically, skills and knowledge in operational managements, economic determination of how feasible a project is technical experts, as well as legal assurance must be involved in developing and running a program. In this case, therefore, skills in the respective said fields are vital at each stage, therefore, considering the number of the phases, approximately ten people are required for the overall project development. Cost In order to develop, implement, manage and control a project program or software, costs are involved directly and indirectly. Some of the costs involved designing costs, input costs, labor, and capital costs. According to Elbashir & Williams (2007), in an ideal situation, if the design is perfected to understand all the requirements and considers the expansion of the product and the usage into consideration, the development cost will be slightly higher but the maintenance cost will be kept at a bare minimum. If the developed code has a lot of bugs and issues then the maintenance period will be the most expensive period and there is a potential that the business can also get affected, causing further expense to the client. This makes the total cost for the new web site development excluding the cost of the final phase depends on the team and efficiency of the team that works on the project. References Bonasia, J. 2006, New CEO Looks To Outsmart Software Rivals In Business Intelligence; Business Objects chief says company has more to offer than SAP, Oracle, Los Angeles. Currie, W. 2004. Value creation from e-business models. Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann. http://www.engineeringvillage.com/controller/servlet/OpenURL?genre=book&isbn=9780750661409. Dimitriadis, S. & Stevens, E. 2008, "Integrated customer relationship management for service activities", Managing Service Quality, vol. 18, no. 5, pp. 496-511. E-Commerce: Business, Technology, and Society 2009, Fifth Edition, by Kenneth C. Laudon and Carol Guercio Traver. Copyright © 2009 by Elbashir, M. & Williams, S. 2007, BI Impact: The Assimilation of Business Intelligence into Core Business Processes, Data Warehousing Institute, Seattle. Global Business Intelligence Market Report (2013 - 2018) 2013, , New York. Hoots, M. 2005, "Customer relationship management for facility managers", Journal of Facilities Management, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 346-361. Kalakota, R., Robinson, M., & Kalakota, R. 2000. E-business 2.0 roadmap for success. Boston, MA, Addison-Wesley. http://0proquestcombo.safaribooksonline.com/640. Kenneth C. Laudon and Carol Guercio Traver. Published by Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education, Inc. Sanchez, R. & Sanchez, R. 2005, "Analysis of customer portfolio and relationship management models: bridging managerial dimensions", The Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 20, no. 6, pp. 307-316. Read More