A Comprehensive Analysis of the Web-Based Systems Integration - Assignment Example

Systems Integration Name Date Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary All the corporations have different business management systems. These systems are built and established to support different business processes. In case of web based business there are different IT systems such as customer relationship management (CRM), information databases, electronic point of sale (EPOS) or some other enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. However, there is vital need for inner communication among these systems to get better support and working. In addition, there is a large number of online web based systems those are integrated into websites through a broad variety of systems to facilitate streamline business and corporate operations as well as minimize costs. This report presents a comprehensive analysis of the web-based systems integration. Here this report will analyze two cases of the web based system integration. These businesses are aquarelle.com and amazon.com. In this report I will investigate the systems integration for multiple information sources and associated issues and challenges. This research will also analyze the web-based systems integration regarding customer perspective in terms of usability, ease of use and interoperability and from the IT perspective in terms of back-end and enterprise information systems integration for above two businesses. 2. Web-Based Systems Integration Analysis from Customer Perspective This section outlines customer perspectives in terms of usability, ease of use, and interoperability for the web based systems integration for aquarelle.com and amazon.com businesses. In scenario of assessing customer prospective we are aimed at assessing the customer satisfaction and convenience in using web based system. Below are some factors of customer prospective regarding above stated businesses: 2.1. Usability Prospective For assessing the web based systems integration, usability offers a way to judge customers' common experience of utilizing the services that websites offer. In addition, there are many usability factors such as ease of use, navigation, customization, accessibility and download speed (MIT-IST, 2010). Web site interoperability pays attention on services across a variety of systems. Usability of the web system and interoperability are two most important aspects of assessing e-business websites from the customer viewpoint, though they are more or less related (Pearson et al., 2007; Hassan & Li, 2001). In the next sections I will assess some of the main aspects of the usability analysis for the aquarelle.com and amazon.com businesses: 2.1.1 Navigation Website system navigation is one of the main factors of system usability analysis. For assessing the Amazon.com business website navigation we are able to know that this system has offered a very clear and effective navigational system. Here we have tabs and buttons those are effectively demonstrating the different areas of navigation. Here we also have classification of search of desired products. We can separately search books, electronic or other products. Figure 1- Amazon Business navigation On the other hand the business of aquarelle.com is small. However, the web based system is also offering effective navigation. Here we have few products flowers, chocolates and bouquets. Here we also have different navigational options regarding shopping and searching. Figure 2- Aquarelle.com navigation 2.1.2 Customization In case of customization the Amazon.com is much better as compared to the Aquarelle.com. Here we can completely customize our search and interface according to our desires. However website of Aquarelle.com is only offering very few options in this scenario. Figure 2- Amazon.com Customization 2.1.3 Accessibility and Download Speed Form the download speed point of view the Aquarelle.com is having less heavy graphics and small loading and accessibility time. On the other hand the Amazon.com business website is taking more loading time. If we talk about the accessibility point of Amazon.com is more accessible in a lot of nations, languages and currencies. As Aquarelle.com is offering multi language support and few nations shopping facility so that we can say that Amazon.com is more accessible. Figure 4- Amazon.com accessibility 2.2. Ease of Use Prospective In case of ease of use point of view, both systems are very effective. For example customer account registration process is similar on both web based system. However the system of the aquarelle.com is offering few problems with this overall process. In this scenario, this system only takes password in uppercase that can confuse the user in memorizing the real password of the account. However the way of registration of Amazon.com is much effective. Figure5- Amazon.com Registration Figure 6- Aquarelle.com Password Confusion 2.3. Web-Based Systems Integration Interoperability This section is about the interoperability regarding the integrations of the system from customer point of view. Interoperability is the capability of any two systems to understand one another and to utilize services of each other. In case of web based or network based business the factor of interoperability is aimed at offering the capability of communications (exchange of services and information) among enterprise systems (Dix et al., 1998). In this section I will analyze the interoperability of the two business systems regarding the navigation and ease of use. Interoperability issues are obvious in the two business models in terms of two majority significant principles of usability such as navigation and ease of use (Pearson et al., 2007; Dix et al., 1998). In case of Amazon business we are having problem regarding the interoperability factor. The global network of the Amazon business does not support the international account of the Amazon business. I have logged on to Amazon.cn and Amazon.co.jp these two different national business websites have given the log-in error means that is an interoperability based error. They did not offer support for the single processing of account all through the world. Aquarelle's account has also behaved in a similar way. Aquarelle.co.uk is the sub business website for the UK also offers log-in facility. However when I tried to log-on to this website via its international business customer account that I have previously created then system sent me error message. So, this system also does not comprise interoperability based feature. Figure 7- Aquarelle's account error on Aquarelle.co.uk 3. Web-Based Systems Integration Analysis from IT Perspective In this section I will analyze the web-based systems integration analysis from IT perspective. Here this research will assess few main aspects of the IT based prospective of analysis. IT perspective for the web-based systems integration will be discussed through back-end and enterprise information systems integration viewpoints for the www.aquarelle.com and www.amazon.com businesses. 3.1. Back-end In this section I will assess main feature of analysis for the IT perspective that is back end. Aquarelle's seven business websites' databases are completely separated. They are simply linked through HTML hyperlink. Every business website manages and controls its own orders as well as manages its own users. This directs to a huge disadvantage of the support of the club policy. This factor of not supporting whole business website I have demonstrated in the above section through log-in based example on different website. On the other hand, all the web sites of Amazon's business databases are partially shared with each other. Amazon business websites manage and control their own business orders, as well as the order data are not shared by the other business sites. In this scenario few websites of the Amazon business are having shared business data and customer information. Therefore we can say that the Amazon business is having partial back end support factor. 3.2. Enterprise information systems integration Dahanayake & Gerhardt (2002) stated that there are a lot of problems regarding the enterprise information systems integration. These problems vary in nature. These can be classified into People, Process and Technology (Dahanayake & Gerhardt, 2002). 3.2.1 People, Process, and Technology In case of Aquarelle's and Amazon's businesses those are based on the different aims, people and responsibilities. These people are having different aims and objectives so that they cannot uphold a single integration based system. In this scenario the business of Aquarelle and Amazon are having different nature because of different business products. Here Amazon can offer multination business support because of its diverse products nature but the business of Aquarelle is having flower based business that is sensitive in nature. In this scenario serving multinational people from a single platform is harder. In case of assessing IT prospective of these two businesses analysis of the processes is also having a main intention. In the scenario of process Aquarelle and Amazon fundamentally pursue a Sales Order Process however Aquarelle's process appears simpler as compared to Amazon's, for the reason that Aquarelle's sites do not depend on external support when they practice their orders as well as manage users, as Amazon has signed up a lot of 3rd-party contracts. In case of technology prospective the Amazon business is much higher as compared to Aquarelle. In the Amazon business customer is having a lot of technology options. There are also a lot of different software and hardware standards. On the other hand the business of the Aquarelle is not having too much technology however if they require to expand the selling, better management tools are required to be developed as well as/or integrated. 4. Conclusion In this report I have presented a detailed analysis of the web-based systems integration. In this report I have analyzed the two cases of the web based systems integration. First system is Amazon.com and other is Aquarelle.com. This report has outlined a comprehensive analysis of the businesses of aquarelle.com and amazon.com. I have tried to analyze these businesses from customer and IT prospective. 5. Bibliography Dahanayake, A. & Gerhardt, W., 2002. Web-enabled systems integration: practices and challenges. Idea Group Inc (IGI).Publisher. Dix, A., Finlay, J., Abowd, G. & Beale, R., 1998. Human-Computer Interaction. Hillsdale: Prentice Hall. Hassan, S. & Li, F., 2001. Identifying Web Usability Criteria: The Scanmic Model. Management Theory, Method and Practice, 2001(3), pp.1-22. MIT-IST, 2010. Usability Guidelines. [Online] Available at: http://ist.mit.edu/services/consulting/usability/guidelines [Accessed 12 August 2010]. Panetto, H. & Molina, A., 2008. Enterprise Integration and Interoperability in Manufacturing Systems: trends and issues. [Online] Available at: http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/25/96/78/PDF/EIIMS_CII_Panetto_and_Molina.pdf [Accessed 12 August 2010]. Pearson, J.M., Pearson, A. & Green, D., 2007. Determining the importance of key criteria in web usability. Management Research News, 30(11), pp.816-28. Telleen, S. & Meltze, B., 1997. Intranet Systems Integration. [Online] Available at: http://www.iorg.com/papers/bcr.html [Accessed 12 August 2010]. Read More