E-Business Applications for Product Development and Competitive Growth - Assignment Example

Business proposal and website design (e-business) Executive summary The Internet has been known to provide the best and most effective platform for marketing products and both local and international products. It is most economical and more efficient when compared to traditional marketing methods. There are many parameters that should be considered before one engages in online advertising. The Internet is complex and presents a dynamic market platform that requires regular and daily training. Online marketing is far much different from the world of print, broadcast, and out-of-home advertising markets. The Internet is so vast and is evolving at very high-rates such that it is becoming hard to properly target the audiences which are intended. The online marketers are looking for efficient way of reaching their online audience while at the same time they are supposed to minimize expenditures. Websites are the primary tools that are used by companies to market their products and services online. There, is therefore, a need to make sure that the website that is being marketed meets the aim they were meant to achieve. Most e-commerce sites that have been developed lack strategy to appeal to the audience. They lack in proper segmentation to address the issues and the needs of the various visitors that come to their sites for some information. They therefore fail to win these visitors and more still, fail to convert them to customers. Companies who are keen to turn more visitors to client swill have to learn about their intended audience and the needs and tastes they have. Every visit they make on the website should be an opportunity to entice them to buy or better still to come for services in the site. This report will look at ways in which La Jolie Hotel & Spa can make use of e-commerce and CRM technologies to improve their business processes. La Jolie Hotel & Spa Viability of introducing a web-based ERP system The current processes that are seen in this organization are autonomous, so that every department works on their own, independent from others. For example, booking is done in one department but the other departments do not get to know the booking that was made. The proposal is made here, therefore, so that all the departments are integrated in their operations;in this case, what takes place in the finance department is seen and appreciated in the human resource department. There is an online system, but each department operates online, autonomously. There is a need to have the departments somehow integrated so that staff have a shared vision and shared culture. The suggestions are therefore to have online Enterprise Resource Planning systems that will take care of this. ERM systems are handy when one is managing large portfolio. This is because one is required to get the data from all the departments and branches in these organizations. There is need to have a common view of all the data in the remote branches of the organization. There is need for the managers to have the data from the various branches so that there is a central database. When booking is made, all the departments can get the details of the booking and therefore reduces the paperwork that would have been done to harmonize the records in all the departments. The time and effort that will be used in this case will also be less. With this respect therefore, there is need to have all the departments integrated in an online system so that they will have shared data. The human resource department will be able to access the booking data likewise all the other departments. This is the main reason for having one online system. There is a need to eradicatethe autonomy that is present in the current system so that access is achieved centrally. This is the online system that is so desired in the new proposed system that is being done in the new changes that are required. The ERM system serves as a central database that is used for information feeding for the various modules that make the ERM system. The modules operate in a common platform. With the use of ERM systems, the data will have one uniform standard and format. They are entered only once to the company. In the work of the ERM system to maintain integrity of the data that has been stored in it. The ERM system, in this case, provide data which are consistent and of high integrity. Current online competitor assessment It is true that many competitors in the market have online booking systems. This is no longer the cutting edge in business.Most of the competitors are online and have most of their processes done online. A specific competitor is Hilton Group of Hotels. This competitor has an online preservation and booking system. The customer base of this competitor is comparable to La Jolie Hotel & Spa as they have as many customers as La Jolie Hotel & Spa. At the moment, there is no form of enterprise application that has been installed in this firm. They have not installed Web 2.0 technologies. Most of their websites are static and not dynamic the way La Jolie Hotel & Spa’s website is. Some of the specific tools that have been installed in our website are that of optimization of search engine. This is a very important tool as it will be important when searching for hotels. Our website comes up first and this where we beat the other competitors. This is not to say that they are not thinking of doing this, they might be in the process of working out on this strategy.(Maria, Cruz, & Joao, 2011). Another competitor is that of Sarova Hotels. They have an online presence and they are working on online transaction and processing. They have offline enterprise application systems; this is where La Jolie Hotel & Spa outshines this competition. Online marketing suggestions and strategies Search engine considerations and optimization strategies Site content will have to reflect the services and products offered by La Jolie Hotel & Spa. In order to capture the attention of potential customers, marketing strategy will be employed in the writing of the content. One example of such strategy is getting straight to the point while framing the content in an eye-catching manner without a compromising the correct and informative information offer. Limitation of content in each page to a manageable amount is also one consideration that will be taken into account. The right color for text, coupled with the correct font and text size will most surely give good results. In order to ensure that traffic is directed to the site easily, Search engine optimization will be considered. SEO involves use of key words that user queries would most likely contain if they would be searching for a hotel. Some of the words that are used specifically for our website include restaurant, accommodation, sumptuous, safe, booking and accommodation. Information on hotels will be obtained from internet sources. Correct referencing will be applied where necessary to support and information that might be quoted from copyrighted material or where authority of the argument is sought. Some SEO strategies that our website employs include ensuring that the content are relevant, using key words in a wise manner, and making some linking so that some companies refer to us by use of links that we exchange. Our website is tagged in many websites that provide complementary services to us. These include cab services and airline travel firms. These firms’ websites have links that will easily direct travelers to our hotel. This is a strategy that has helped our company grow. Internet strategy One of the Internet strategies that La Jolie Hotel & Spa will have to put in place is their selling of tickets on their website which the clients can have access at. Although this strategy is not yet at par with companies like Sarova Hotels, it is one of the fastest products that the company can adopt and is gaining popularity fast. There is also a suggestion to use Galileo GDS which permits the Hotel to examine the online and offline total booking distribution. With this capability, La Jolie Hotel & Spa will now be able to sell more tickets effectively by use of Galileo’s wide range exposure to agent locations. With this, sales will be increased tremendously because booking agents and marketers of the hotel who have Galileo connectivity will be having new opportunities through the new content which is available directly on their desktops. In addition to this, La Jolie Hotel & Spa has outsourced contact center services which will provide travel agents with general information like sales, inquiries, and assistance for customer service throughout the day in a very efficient manner. Marketing La Jolie Hotel & Spa will have to have a marketing process which is integrated so that all departments get to know about the bookings that have been made in a given time. This will bring a shared marketing process and all the staff will participate in the most of the important processes of the company. The marketing process of La Jolie Hotel & Spa will be simplified. The company will have to set up an online store and an online process system which will be used to make bookings. One of the Internet strategies that will be used is to put in place selling tickets on the website; it will therefore guide potential clients to access and make arrangements for booking wherever they are. Although this strategy is not yet at par with other companies in the same business, it is one of the fastest products of the company and is gaining popularity. There will be need to have online promotions where the company has been giving away free products companies with more purchases as an initiative to attract more online clients. All these strategies will help make sales increase tremendously. In addition to this, La Jolie Hotel & Spa will have to outsource contact center services which will provide marketers with general information like sales, inquiries, and assistance for customer service throughout the day in a very efficient manner. La Jolie Hotel & Spa will have alsohad to partner with various similar product industries get efficient marketing. This was effectively incorporated into La Jolie Hotel & Spa’s website as one of the many conveniences of clients looking for services. Social media integration There is an increase in the use and adoption of social media in various aspects. Marketing through the social media is a common phenomenon that is seen with companies today. This is because many employees and staff use this new form of communication. Beer (2008) states that with the reference that the young and the future generations give to online social networking increasing by the day, it is becoming apparent and important that companies and enterprises should ensure that there are tools that are used to enhance social networking. In the case of La Jolie Hotel & Spa, the use of social networking tools will help to solve company issues from unofficial that are used in social communication. Social networking will definitely help employees to communicate on their way to work. Another benefit that social networking has for businesses is that it provides a new source of information which can be stored. With data mining in place today, it is possible to use the data that is being exchanged in the business to increase productivity. This is so because of the fact that employees are known to be open when using this technique. Because of this reason, they will be valuable to the decision-making process of the company. This information would be available outside the company were it not for the introduction of social networking concepts in business. Operations The success of La Jolie Hotel & Spa will be attributed to the integration of e-commerce features in its website so that they are able to sell booking tickets over the Internet. The use of information systems will be easier because customers will be able to save time given that they will get the booking tickets by ordering online and not having to go around looking for the tickets by looking for them physically in La Jolie Hotel & Spa. The shopping process will be simplified with the use of this online information system; it will not try to bring about a new shopping process. It will make the normal shopping process to be simple and efficient. What is more, the new system will be very familiar to the people. Online marketing would attract more clients to the website, increase customers to the hotel business; this would also enhance branding of business and services. The most preferred strategies for La Jolie Hotel & Spa’s hotel business would first be to begin an online promotion plan and a cost-effective site design and progress strategy(Stefan, Christof, & Jochen, 2008).Second is always maintaining great search optimization methodologies to get listed at the top in top search engines.They will also get used to effective electronic mail marketing; dominate a bigger part of their marketing niche with close, reseller and programs associated.It is also useful to call for analysis from a web-based marketing institution or consultant. Third would be to erect a feedback option in mail list and at least publishing articles or making some way to news stories list. Fourth would be to put down and publish web-based press releases, conduct and run competitions and awards through the website. Lastly would be to post blogs and get to know customers. From the above steps they would have devised a substantial web marketing strategy that should assist their hotel business appropriately. Online customer relationship management The issue that is talked about in the case study is about understanding the customer. There is a need for businesses to be understood so that the right approach can be used to meet their needs. Dynamic pricing is a business practice that has been condemned by many as it has a bad taste for customers. Instead of doing dynamic pricing, it is good to know what the customer needs and to work towards attaining that need. It is important for La Jolie Hotel & Spa to have a data warehouse that will show the needs of their clients. It is not enough to have the data only but to understand the people handling the data too. It is important that the data in the organization be integrated. CRM are important because they integrate customer data and help to bring about very important information about the customers. CRM tools One way in which they solved this was to introduce CRM to the already built data warehouse. Analytical CRM is a tool that can be added which will enable La Jolie Hotel & Spa to have advanced functionalities that would enable the customers to communicate and know what is happening in the firm. There is much functionality like tracking the customers to ensure that they pay some bills. This is made simple with the use of billing system which is available in a CRM. La Jolie Hotel & Spawill be able therefore to understand the customers and offer more services and on the other hand reducing prices. CRM will solve most of the problems that are experienced by the hotel. One tool that should be introduced is the use of data warehousing. This is a data mining strategy that will help to gather information about customers and understand what they need. They are used in the analysis of the clients about what they would like. Another strategy is the use of automated marketing processes within the company. This is a powerful tool for CRM as it combines the data mining techniques to look for new clients. It is a tool that will be used to market the company basing ion gathered information and is thus poised to produce great results. E-commerce solutions La Jolie Hotel & Spa should develop an e-business center to act as a strategic e-strategy for their business model. It has to improve the IT capabilities, reduce the costs to La Jolie Hotel & Spa customers. They should look for partners in this project who are able to meet high-end technology requirements with the Websphere e-business platform and should have expertise and resources to meet this. The WebSphere of BM is open in nature and has the advantage that it is supported by large number of third-party vendors which a debatable issue in the decision was making process. One of the solutions that have been developed at La Jolie Hotel & Spa is that of Mob eCommerce solution which is a strategy that is used to allow potential and existing clients to make orders from their mobile phones. La Jolie Hotel & Spa partnered with mobile service providers like Microsoft, Android and iPhone to make an application that will enable clients to make orders from their mobile phones. This ecommerce solution is a partnership with Magento Company that makes magento ecommerce solutions. With this, it is possible to make orders while using mobile phones, the next big thing in e-commerce. There is also the partnership with Virtuemart which is a company that develops merchant solutions that enables an organization to make orders and process existing orders from anywhere as long as they have internet connection. With this, La Jolie Hotel & Spa will have the largest market integration systems in the region. Their unique approach towards integration has given them a chance to move forward in the marketing strategies. The WebSphere technology will enable them to integrate the new technologies with the existing platforms without the need to isolate hardware or software and also provides full integration with existing systems where backend systems are supported. La Jolie Hotel & Spa should consider introducing enhanced consolidated customer portal, mobile business using SMS, wireless computing and WAP have all integrated well to put this company ahead of the competition. What is more, with enterprise Web content management properly ion place, there is much that the competition have to do to outdo this company. International considerations Of course they would have to go global for their business. The major issues would be first conducting some research especially so as to be able to reach target customers which would come from several locations.Second would be familiarizing themselves with the legal policies especially in regard to making deposit payments security for online bookings. The local currency would also be vital, cultural troubles and all the issues that would influence their success. Third would be to incorporate local help to aid in the business due to their familiarity with the country and the cultural values. It’s also economical to even hire locals to travel on business trips and work outside than getting employees from outside. It’s also necessary for La Jolie Hotel & Spa to ascertain fair charges that are sensible for their hotel services and apply marketing methods and packaging. Lastly would be valuing client service by ensuring that they allocate adequate resources in their customer preferences. Taking sometime in getting to know what each of target customers likes or dislikes(Albert, 2006). Web site mockup https://sites.google.com/site/La Jolie Hotel & Spahotel/home https://sites.google.com/site/La Jolie Hotel & Spahotel/menu https://sites.google.com/site/La Jolie Hotel & Spahotel/reviews Website index Home page About us Home page Services Booking Booking Ticket acquisition Projected web development and maintenance costs The cost of developing the website is shown in the table below. Most of the costs are encountered after the website has been developed. This is due to the fact that most the tools are added when the website is already functional. No Item Price ($) Period 1 Website design 30 Paid once 2 Domain acquisition 9 Paid once 3 Web-space 21 Paid once 4 Maintenance 50 Twice a year 5 SEO optimization 100 Monthly 6 Data collection 70 Quarterly 7 CRM tools 100 Yearly 8 Marketing plugins 100 Yearly 9 Web 2.0 authoring 100 Yearly 10 TOTAL 580 References Albert, N. (2006). Creating a winning E-business. New York: Cengage. In, L. (2010). E-business applications for product development and competitive growth. New York: Hershey PA. Jianming, Y. (2008). Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design IV: 11th ..., Volume 4. Melbourne: Springer. Maria, M., Cruz, C., & Joao, V. (2011). E-business issues, challenges and opportunities for SMEs: Driving competitiveness. Cincinnati: Hershey PA. Roland, W., & Giuseppe, P. (2008). E-commerce and web technologies: 9th international conference, EC-WEB 2008 . Dublin: Springer. Stefan, L., Christof, W., & Jochen, S. (2008). Designing E-business systems Markets,Services and Networks 7th Workshop on E-business, Web. Paris: Springer. Read More