E-Business System for Avitz Bike - Case Study Example

E-Business System for Avitz Bike E-Business System for a Bicycle Company Introduction Avitz bike is a small manufacturing company in UK. The report is on the subject of E-Business or web-based system of Avitz Bike. In the company, various systems require to be redesigned such as the department of sales, production and purchasing. The report is center of attention for the sales department in the system using electronic business approach. 1.1 Background and problems to be solved The company Avitz bike is been selling its product to more than 15 countries in the world with a large share in the marketplace of UK. The company has started implementing e-business system because of decrease in the selling of its product and downfall of its share in the market. Market share of Avitz bike has decreased by 10 percent in recent years. The competition has also increased in the market within few years. The company hopes and aims at lowering the cost of its product by implementing the e-business strategy. E-business strategy will also help the company to improve its supply chain system with effective exchange of information and better web services to improve the communication and fulfilling the requirement of its customers (Thongpapanl & Ashraf 2011). Furthermore, improving and linking up with the supplier support system will help the company to deal in more services. It is considered that the new system will greatly help the company to improve and solve the current issues it is facing. As a report suggests that the web has increased the total sales by 30 percent. From 2007 to 2008 the web services increased the total sales for 500 websites from 8.8% to 21.8%. Web services are capable of increasing the selling of a company and better facilitate and satisfy the requirement of customers which is favorable to both company and customer. 1.2 Business Process Figure 1 Individual customers and retailers are the two kinds from where a company receives its orders. The sale department process order requirement of retailers after retailer have negotiated price. The sales department is liable of checking the stock before the order is confirmed. A customized bike requires more time so the order usually takes a month, in the end, there is a direct link with both department of sales and production (see Figure 1). When the product is ready, it is sent to the warehouse. E-business system will help the company to take less time in delivering the products to the customer hands and to get the market share back by competing against competitors in the UK. 1.3 Objective and solution The company aims at achieving the best results by implementing the e-business system. Improving the system will lead to low product cost, better marketing with web, and more services to the customers improving the performance and low selling price. Offering customers various choices will help a company to maintain and gain more potential customers. Web services can enable a customer to search for the product and if it is not available, a customer can easily provide the requirement and the product can easily be manufactured according to the desire of customer. The idea of customization is highly attractive in gaining customers and it is a step towards improving and solving current issues the company faces (Zhang, Wu & L. 2009). 1.4 Project implementation procedure Some steps are required to implement the subsystem for the department of sales. Use case and user interface, but several analyses were made before the diagrams of subsystem were shaped. 1.5 Achievement The system will benefit three categories of users: sales staff, sales manager, and the customers. The sale staff can be benefited as the staff can examine the stock availability. Sales manager can examine sales performance and the customers can order and make payment using the web services and they can also see the status of their orders. 2 Sub-System analysis and design 2.1 User Profile Implementing the system will lead to better decision making as the data and figures will be more accurate and reliable. The total sales and stock availability for a time period will be available while making a decision. Furthermore, the system will increase sales and interaction with customers. The system need to be user friendly and it should contain the information needed to meet the desire of customers. For this, strong analysis of the wants and desires of customers is needed before the system is developed (Kelder et al. 2013) (Couix, Darses & De‐La‐Garza 2012). 2.2 User requirement User requirement refers to the desire or wants of customers. To better serve these requirements, a company needs to display various choices and different configuration of its products. The customers expect a company to display detailed configuration and information like bike’s function, colors etc. Displaying the order status and time of delivery will satisfy customers and the company can take advantage over the competitors in the market (Couix, Darses & De‐La‐Garza 2012). 2.3 Process map of individual functions Main functions of the department of sales are shown in the figure 2, but there are some additional responsibilities for which the department is liable. Figure 2 Figure 3 The main function of the sales department is to cooperate with the customers and fulfill their requirements (Zhang & Wedel 2009). Processing the normal orders (orders selected from the company’s bike category) and produce the customized orders of customers. That is why, only these three elements are shown in the sales department process map (see Figure 3). 2.4 UML modeling for the subsystem Unified Modeling Language (UML) is used to portray the beginning of the relations of a company with customers by using diagrams such as case diagram, class diagram, sequence diagram etc. For this reason; the diagram is used in Figure 4 as the diagram portrays the characteristics of classes in a subsystem and a system (Zhang, Wu & L. 2009). Figure 4 2.5 Database schema and relationships within the sub-system Two figures are used in this section to provide the explanation of subsystem. A figure to show the data flow of system for the sales department and sales database relationships figure. Figure 5 shows the data flow system of the sales department. It can be seen in the figure that the customer orders the bike selecting from the company’s category using web. The next step of the sale department is to confirm the order after confirming the availability of the stock, and then the product is sent to production site. FIGURE 5 Figure 6 shows 16 tables in which the customer order is the major table as it has a connection with all the other tables, as the responsibility of sales department is to deal with customer orders. FIGURE 6 2.6 A selection of use case diagrams including two activities As it mentioned above that the UML provides a set of notations of users. The use case diagram is one of the functions presented by the UML. It is a technique of making new customers by developing the system. It represents the user as customers. Use case shows the functional requirement of the customers within the box (Zhang, Wu & L. 2009). FIGURE 7 Figure 7 shows the steps involved in purchasing a bike. As a new person has to open a new account when using for the first time and the returning customer will not need to sign up as the customer can easily login and select the bike meeting his requirements. Payment can also be done after a bike is selected when entering the card details. A customized bike can also be created if the customer is unable to find the bike of his requirements. The sales department then examines the order whether it is a normal or customized order, as the normal order can directly be sent to the logistic after confirmation from the sales staff. Customized order will require to be checked whether there are quote from the customer or not and the quote are acceptable or not. After processing the payment and confirming the order, it is sent to production. In case of retailers, there is not much difference in the procedure. However, retailers place a big order so they can negotiate price with the company and they can place order directly to the company. The sales staff then examines the order and confirms making similar steps to those in the individual customer orders. But the retailers will be sent the information of stock availability in order to place their order according to the stock. The payment will be received after the order is delivered. FIGURE 8 2.7 User interface for the above use cases User interface is a screen shown on the company’s website to sell their product. It has to be attractive and convincing to the customers in order to sell the product (Galitz 2007). It should include eight qualities which are clarity, concision consistency, familiarity, responsiveness, attractiveness, efficiency, and flexibility (Hearst 2011). Figure 9 shows that a customer can select the bike which appears in orange after clicking. The interface has two options; a customer can choose a bike or a customized bike. Discounted bikes are shown with the original price and discounted price. Part b of Figure 9 shows that a customer can choose a customized bike with different types and size. The top of the page represents the user interface of company’s staff and it can only be accessed by the staff. The staff can see the new orders placed in the website and the requirement from the customers can be seen by the staff. 3 Discussion and conclusion The report contains the e-business approach for the company named Avitz bike. Several analyses were made before the designing the subsystem diagrams. The company can compete and improve by following the strategy of e-business. The company can take advantage over the competitors in the market and redeem its share and stock in the market. List of References Couix, S, Darses, F & De‐La‐Garza, C 2012, The added value of ergonomics in needs analysis, From needs to requirements for computer systems, vol 41, pp. 737-744. Galitz, WO 2007, The Essential Guide to User Interface Design: An Introduction to GUI Design Principles and Techniques, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey. Hearst, MA 2011, Communications of the ACM, Natural search user interfaces, vol 54, no. 11, pp. 60-67. Kelder, SM, Oskam, WTM, E.T, MJB & Van Gemert-Pijnen, JEWC 2013, BMC Medical Informatics & Decision Making , Development of a web-based intervention for the indicated prevention of depression, vol 13, no. 1, pp. 1-11. Thongpapanl, N & Ashraf, AR 2011, "Enhancing Online Performance through Website Content and Personalization, Journal of Computer Information Systems, vol 52, no. 1, pp. 3-13. Zhang, J & Wedel, M 2009, The effectiveness of customized promotions in online and offline stores, Journal of Marketing Research, vol 46, no. 2, pp. 190-206. Zhang, D, Wu, H & L., T 2009, A UML-based approach for the development of shop floor control systems, International Journal of Production Research, vol 47, no. 6, pp. 1601-1633. 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