Azeta Pty Ltd - Innovation Enabling the Company to Attract More Customers - Business Plan Example

Proposal and plan Name Date Course Executive summary The current system used at Azeta Pty Ltd lacks an online platform and solution which has negative impacts on the marketing and customer interaction process. This makes it difficult for the customers to make inquiries through the use of online means. The lack of online platform also negatively affects the company as it is unable to advertise its products. The company is currently using emails to communicate with the customers. The new system will involved the development of a website as well as a social media page. Facebook and Twitter page will be used for interacting with the customers. The new innovative service will play a significant role in enhancing the communication process. The interaction with the customers will also be made easy. The products of the company will be advertised through the website and this will reduce the advertisements cost by more than 80%. The new innovation will enable the company to attract more customers which will increase the profitability of the company by more than 50%. A work breakdown structure will be used for ensuring every detail is taken into account. It will also play an essential role in making sure that the implementation process is successful. The actual works will be carried out in 12 hours within a period of 5 days. This process will cost about $ 1200 as the charges will be $ 100 per hour. The implementation process will be carried out on a step by step basis. However, the employees in the marketing and customer care will be affected. The business model and the organizational structure will require restricting in order to support the new innovation. Some training of the employees will be required in order to ensure that they fully understand the how to use the new system. Business Processes Azeta Pty Ltd showing a simple business process The rich picture above indicates that Azeta Pty Ltd has a simple business process. However, it lacks an online solution which can enable the customers to communicate effectively with the customers. The company does not have a website or social media page that can be used by the customers for the purposes of communicating. This is, therefore, inconvenient to the customers who are mainly dependant on the internet for communicating with the companies. The company currently uses emails for the purposes of communicating with the customers. The emails are not effective as it takes days for the company to reply to the issues that have been raised by the customers. The reply is also dependent on the online availability. This has negative impacts on the ability of the company to communicate with the customers. In the modern era where the internet is widely used, the customers mainly rely on the internet for obtaining information (Gordon, 2012). Since the company has global customers, it is difficult for them to obtain information about the process of the jewels of the company. A lot of customers usually compare different prices of products on the internet by accessing the websites of different companies. Since Azeta does not have a website or social media, it takes more time for the customers to know about the prices of the products of the company as they have to sent an email to the company. This locks out potential customers as the process is too complicated. The rich picture also indicates that the competitors are developing very fast. The ability of the company to complete is impacted negatively by its lack of a website and social media page. The competitors can easily advertise their products through their website and social media page. This has the potential of attracting the domestic as well as the international customers. This is considering that the internet has a global audience. The case diagram above indicates that the level of customer interaction with the business is quite low. The customers have to contact the owner in order for them to obtain information that can lead to the transaction. This is a complicated process and it is also inconvenient to the customers. The customers who are located far from the company have to visit the store in order for them to obtain information and carry out any transaction. The case diagram also indicates that the customers do not have an opportunity to interact with the company prior to carrying out the transaction. The interaction may involve obtaining information about the prices of the products of the company. The ability of a company to meet the needs of the customers is affected when there is a low level of customer satisfaction (Huang & Sarigöllü, 2012,). The business process model notation diagram above indicates that the customers have to visit the store in order to obtain any information and initiate a transaction. This may be discouraging to most of the customers as they may end up visiting the store and failing to agree on the prices. It is therefore important to for the customers to be familiar with the prices of a product in advance before making any decision. The marketing process as well as customer interaction at the company is therefore affected by the lack of a website and social media page. This is required in order to enhance the marketing process and facilitate the customer interaction. The business case The innovation will have a lot of benefits to the company in terms of marketing and customer relations. The website will provide the company with an opportunity to advertise its products. The company will be able to provide the customers with information regarding its products and services through the website. This will eliminate the need of the customers visiting the store in order to obtain the required information. The company will also be in a position to attract global customers through the use of its website. Any website can be viewed from any part of the world and hence its ability to attract the global audience (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2012). The customer base of the company will therefore be increased as a result of using the website. An increase in the customer base will translated to growth and development of the store. Through the use of the website, the customers can place their order after obtaining the information about the process of the jewelry. This will have positive impacts on enhancing the efficiency and capacity of the company to meet the needs and demands of the customers. The website will enable the company to carry out its business transactions with the suppliers within a short period of time. The competitiveness of the company will also increase in the market as a result of using the website. This is due to the easy access to the products that the customers will have. Gaining a competitive advantage in the market improves on the profitability, growth and development. The social media that will be used to enhance the interaction with the customers is Facebook and Twitter. These social media sites have millions of followers from different parts of the world (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2012). It will therefore boost the ability of the company to market its products as millions of people will be able to know about the products of the company. This has the potential of increasing the sales for the products of the company. The use of Facebook and Twitter will also enhance the ability of the company to interact with the customers. It will take shorter time to reply to the issues raised by the customers as compared to the use of emails. The levels of customer interaction will be enhanced at the company through the use of Facebook and Twitter. This will also decrease the effort and time required by the customers to obtain any information from the company. It will also be easy for the customers to make any suggestions or raise any issues through the use of social media. The development of this innovative service will require about $ 100 per hour for 12 working hours as testing has to be carried out before it is put into use. A fulltime employee who is qualified will also be required to manage the website and the social media page on a daily basis. This innovation will increase the profits at the company by more than 50%. It will also save the company over 80% of its current marketing cost. The implementation plan I. Work breakdown structure A work breakdown structure is a tool that is used during the implementation of the project. It is mainly a list that is comprised of key project deliverables. The work breakdown structure plays an important role in terms of ensuring that the work is organized into manageable sections (Hatten, 2015). The work breakdown structure will be used for the purposes of implementing the innovation at the company. All the deliverables will be highlighted in the work breakdown structure and it will ensure that the implementation is carried out successfully. Since the innovations will mainly involve the aspects of information technology, the work breakdown structure will be comprised of elements of product, services and data. The work breakdown structure can be presented in the form of a tree structure. However, for the implementation of the innovation, it will be implemented in the form of a table. The timing of the activities is also an important aspect in the work breakdown structure. In order to present the timing of the activities, a Gantt chart will be used. This will clearly highlight how the implementation process will be carried out. The work breakdown structure will subdivide the components into manageable components. This is in terms of the size, duration and responsibilities. The work breakdown structure is usually used during the implementation of projects may also include all the necessary steps required to achieve the objectives. The success of the implementation will mainly rely on the work breakdown structure. Level WBS Code Responsible person Time required Cost $ Element Name 1 1.0 I.T technician 2 hours 200 Product definitions 1 1.1 I.T technician Industry specific version 1 1.1.1 I.T technician and marketing personnel Retail services 2 2.0 I.T technician and staff members 2 hours 200 Customer specific version 2 2.1 I.T technician and business manager Product tailored to the individual business needs 3 3.0 I.T technician 6 hours 600 Create code design document 3 3.1 I.T technician Release schedule 3 3.1.1 I.T technician The code control system 3 3.1.2 I.T technician User interface design 3 3.1.3 I.T technician Data base model 3 3.2 I.T technician Code generation 3 3.2.1 I.T technician Bug fixing 3 3.2.2 I.T technician Release tests 3 3.3 I.T technician Content 3 3.3.1 I.T technician and manager User agreements 3 3.3.2 I.T technician Product catalogue 3 3.4 I.T technician Web testing 3 3.4.1 I.T technician Setup of test environment 3 3.4.2 I.T technician Test plan 3 3.4.3 I.T technician Result reporting 4 4.0 I.T technician 1 hour 100 Deployment of website 4 4.1 I.T technician and manager Hosting agreement 4 4.2 I.T technician Integration of application 4 4.3 I.T technician Switch over of operations 4 4.4 I.T technician Documentation 4 4.4.1 I.T technician End user documentation 4 4.4.2 I.T technician Application administration documentation 4 4.4.3 I.T technician System administration documentation 4 4.4.4 I.T technician Disaster recovery 5 5.0 I.T technician 1 hour 100 Facebook and Twitter Account 5 5.1 I.T technician Terms and conditions 5 5.2 I.T technician User Account 5 5.3 I.T technician Account security 5 5.4 I.T technician Operationalization Gantt chart Task Start date Duration (hours) End date Product definitions 15/9 2 15/9 Customer specific version 16/9 2 17/9 Create code design document 18/9 6 20/9 Deployment of website 21/9 1 21/9 Facebook and Twitter Account 22/9 1 22/9 Change management plan The implementation of the innovations will lead to changes in the mode of operations within the organization. This is especially in the area of marketing, customer care as well as the business management processes. The change management plan will therefore be useful in ensuring that the organization is able to operate successfully even after the implementation of the change. Change management is useful for any organization whenever new aspects are introduced (Brooks, 2014). The marketing process within the company will change after the implementation process as most of the marketing activities will have to be carried out through the use of the website and social media. This will affect the members of staff who are responsible for marketing the process of the organization. They will have to familiarize themselves with the use of the innovation. The customer care service will also experience some changes as the mode of communicating with the customers will have to change. The employee who was responsible for handling the emails will have to be familiarized with the use of social media as well as the website. The changes will therefore have a direct impact on the operations of the company. It will also affect some of the employees of the company as their roles may end up changing. Change management strategies will therefore play an important role in ensuring that the needs of the employees are met. Several equipment will also be purchased in order to support the changes that will be made. In order for the implementation process to be successful, the employees dealing with the marketing issues as well as the customer care will have to undergo some training. The training of the employees will mainly focus on the use of the website as well as the use of the social media. This is considering the employees in the marketing department will be responsible for updating the market information as well as the product information on the website of the company. This will be carried out from time to time depending on the development of any new products. The employees of the company dealing with customer care issues will also be responsible for the constant interaction with the customers as well as the other stakeholders including the suppliers. The interaction with the customers through the use of social media requires training in order to satisfy the needs of the customers (Longenecker, et al, 2011). The training of the employees will take a period of 4 days. This will ensure that the employees are fully aware of the technological concepts as well as the operations concepts of the website and the social media. During the four day duration, the employees will be trained for two hours daily. The training of the employees will be carried out with a lot of expertise in order to ensure that they are fully conversant with the operational aspects. The employees will also be trained on the aspects of maintenance so as to use the system effectively. The business process model will also need some changes in order to support the innovation. The customers will not necessarily be required to visit the store for the purposes of making inquiries or initiating a business transaction. The customers will have an opportunity of contacting the store through the website or the social media. This will eliminate most of the manual transactions within the organization. The customers can also ask for various custom made design through the use of the website as well as the social media. This will also require the employees to be constantly monitoring the website as well as the social media. Any questions from the customers should be responded to immediately or within the shortest possible time (Bharadwaj, et al, 2013). The implementation of the new innovation will be effected immediately so as to ensure immediate benefits. The customers can also communicate the about the issues of payment through the use of the website or the social media. Since the new innovation is set to increase the number of customers both at the local as well as international level, the delivery of the products to the customers will also require some changes. The company will work with local as well as the international logistics company for the purposes of ensuring that the products are delivered to the customers within a period of 72 hours. The changes to the business model will mainly be for the purposes of ensuring the new system is effective. The prices of the jewelry together with the images will have to be clearly displayed in the website of the company as well as the social media page. This will enable the customers to know about the products of the company through the website and the social media page. Updates will be made on a daily basis or incase of any changes to the prices. Any new product will be posted on the website of the company as well as on the social media page of the company. This will play an important role in terms of creating awareness among the customers. Adequate resources will be allocated to the implementation process in order to ensure that it is successful. Financial resources will be allocated so as to ensure that the process does not stall as a result of lack of adequate funding. The lack of resources is one of the factors that contribute to the failure of a new innovative product or service (Brooks, 2014). Human resources will also be devoted to the implementation process. The organizational structure will undergo some changes in order to support the new system. This is considering that some of the roles will no longer require a high number of employees. As a result of the implementation of the new system, the company will expect an reduction in the number of people visiting the store. Some of the employees will therefore be laid off as their role will no longer be relevant. However, this will be carried out in a step by step manner. List of References Gordon, R, 2012, Re-thinking and re-tooling the social marketing mix, Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 20(2), 122-126. Huang, R, & Sarigöllü, E, 2012, How brand awareness relates to market outcome, brand equity, and the marketing mix, Journal of Business Research, 65(1), 92-99. Chaffey, D, & Ellis-Chadwick, F, 2012, Digital marketing, Pearson Higher Ed. Hatten, T, S, 2015, Small business management: Entrepreneurship and beyond, Cengage Learning. Brooks, W, 2014, The International Business Environment, Prentice Hall. Bharadwaj, A, et al, 2013, "Digital business strategy: toward a next generation of insights," MIS Quarterly 37.2: 471-482. Longenecker, J, et al, 2011, Small business management: Launching and growing entrepreneurial ventures, Cengage Learning. Read More