Business Information Systems in the Knowledge Source Book Store - Case Study Example

INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS (IBIS) Name Course Tutor University City and State Date Executive Summary The Knowledge Source book store is one of the oldest bookstores selling specialising in the sale of both new and used printed books. Regardless of the availability of large scales and established bookstore mainly selling e-books to customers, some customers still find time to purchase a book print once in a while. The Services offered at the bookstore also enables customers to access advice on the type of books suitable for their area of interest owing to the experience. The store also sells used books which are not easily available on e-libraries. The company was established in 1975 but the returns have been reducing tremendously in the last few years owing to the increase in competition from well established bookstores. Contents Executive Summary 2 Contents 3 1.Introduction 4 2.Knowledge Management and Business Intelligent 5 3. Porter’s Five Forces Model 6 4. Website Success 8 4.1. Web traffic is not an Indication of web success 8 4.2. Recommendations to improve the website 9 5. Social Media 9 5.1. Social Media Tools 9 5.2. Barriers 10 5.3. Recommendations 10 6. Mobile Customers 10 7. System Customisation 11 7.1 Pros and Cons of Using an Employee to Build a Custom System 11 7.2 Pros, Cons of Purchasing an Off-the-shelf Time, Attendance Application, and Outsourcing Custom Development. 11 7.3 How to Ensure a Smooth Transition for the Older Employees 11 8. Security 12 8.1. Importance of Safeguarding Data 12 8.2. Security Threats 12 8.3. Methods of Data Security 12 1. Introduction Knowledge Source is a book outlet which was established in 1975 during the times when formal education and research activities were picking in Australia. The book outlet was established to sell books to the locals at affordable prices. The Knowledge Source bookshop initially employed four employees who include the owner and three others. At the time of its establishment, the Knowledge source bookshop did quite well in terms of sales. The increase in the sales is highly attributed by establishment of fundamental level schools as well as institutions of higher learning in the local area. The Students in the newly established schools bought their learning resources from the bookstore. Two years after its establishment, the bookstore was increased the number of employees from the initial four to the current fifty employees (Hatten, 2011). Apart from book sales, the store also sells other stationeries such as writing materials, cards, learning equipments like geometrical sets and writing pads. The bookstore is however not performing successfully as before owing to the advancement in technology and competition from the large established bookstores. This implies that a business information system will be incorporated in the business activities of the bookstore for effective service delivery, record keeping and increase in sales. The establishment of business information will be in line with the store’s new objective of digitising its operations (Hatten, 2011). 2. Knowledge Management and Business Intelligent Knowledge management is defined as the process through which a business integrates all it activities for effective performance. It involves evaluation, identification, capturing and the process of retrieving as well as sharing the business’s information effectively to enhance performance. The Knowledge Source book store currently utilises a manual system of evaluating, identifying, sharing, retrieving and capturing its information assets (Elbashir, 2011, 157). All the information regarding the operations of the business is currently stored in files and very little information is kept on the available computer. However, the business is initiating a mechanism of transforming the mode of implementing knowledge management by digitalising all its operations and information storage. On the other hand, business intelligence refers to the security of the business’s information assets. The information includes; employees details, information on the business earnings, payments, suppliers details and the business’s trade secrets (Elbashir, 2011, 157). The Knowledge Source bookstore currently has no business intelligent technique as a result of the current conservative nature of the business. Most of its marketing methods are done through printed fliers around the town. However, the business is undertaking reconstructive measures to enhance business intelligence through the use of digital systems. The business marketing strategy will be capitalising on the social networks, digital advertising and the newly redesigned website (Elbashir, 2011, 157). 3. Porter’s Five Forces Model The Porter’s Five Model forces focuses on the forces driving the competition factor in any industry. The book industry is extreme competition from the established as well as new comers in the industry. This result from the establishment of new learning institutions as well as advancement in research which relies on the information obtained from existing literature. The Knowledge Source bookshop mainly specialises on used as well as new books (Pringle, 2011, 40). This field is also being partaken by the increase in the firms that sell the same products at extremely low prices and digitalised services. The Knowledge Sources bookstore first initiative is to establish an effective strategy to eliminate and reduce competition in the industry. The company’s services will be digitalised to make it easy for the customers to access the services easily. Moreover, the bookstores diversified products ensure that most of the customers are retained. In addition, the brand name is well established making easy to beat the completion. Since the bookstore serves a large population of individuals living in the town, there is stiff competition from established firms which mainly sell their products online (Pringle, 2011, 40).. The bookstore’s website will be redesigned to allow customers to make purchases online and door to door deliveries will be made to the customers residing within the country. The bookstore will avail its products at discounted prices which will be lower as compared to those offered by other outlets (Pringle, 2011, 43). The book industry is characterised by new entries on daily basis. The increase in the number of bookstores both online and physical being established is as a result of increase in both online and academic research. The stores are established to cater for the needs of ever growing number of readers. The academic and the research field is also expected to grow tremendously with the adoption of the formal education by majority of developing countries hence new market establishment are meant to cater for the expected demand as well as the returns. The company is on the initiative of acquiring a local online bookstore which serves as the major competitor in the local market. This will be one of the initiatives of establishing the Knowledge Source bookstore as a fully digitalised seller. The company will also carry out a massive campaign meant to re-establish the brand name and introduce it to prospective new customers (Pringle, 2011, 50). This is because the business’s name is well established among the local community as compared to the new market entrants. The advancement in technology is another factor that currently affects the operations of the bookstore. The bookstore poor performance started with the introduction of internet as marketing as well as a business platform. The business is expected to embrace technological advancement through redesigning of its websites so that it can serve as a marketing platform, creation of social networking platform for the customers in terms of blogs and other social network sites. This is meant to enhance the effectiveness of service delivery as well as market the young generation who are mainly found on the social networks (Pringle, 2011, 40). The suppliers bargaining power arises when the number of the books suppliers to the bookstore supersedes the number of customers. This is because; initially the Knowledge source bookstores sales were quite high which compelled the business to seek more book suppliers. The drop in the number of customers translates to reduced sales which imply that the suppliers supply more books which supersede the demand. The implication of this situation is seen in the large number of unsold books available in the bookstore. The bookstore’s initiative to reduce the number of the books suppliers is geared towards balancing the demand with supply of the books (Pringle, 2011, 40). The book industry is also comprised of quite a wide range of products. This results from the availability of the large variety of choices for the customer to choose from. Currently reading materials can be obtained easily from the internet without the needs of payment. This is because some sites and blogs provide readers with reading materials at absolutely no cost (Pringle, 2011, 40).. The availability of substitutes translates to extremely low returns for the business. In addition, there are various journals which provide readers with information regarding their areas of interest hence providing more substitutes in the market. The bookstore also deals with stationeries which are currently being substituted by mobile phones, ipads and computers. There is therefore need by the bookstore to diversify the products to include such electronics as ipads and computers which are quite familiar with the readers (Pringle, 2011, 40). 4. Website Success 4.1. Web traffic is not an Indication of web success Measuring web traffic is not an effective indication of the website’s success since the website traffic could be resulting from search engines referrals. The ability of the business to achieve its objectives as a result of its website’s traffic is the only clear indication of the success of a business’s website. The success of the business resulting from the websites traffic is indicated by increase in the product’s sales and market share percentage. Moreover, the website traffic cannot be utilised in measuring its success since it might be as a result repetitive visits. 4.2. Recommendations to improve the website The business website is redesigned to include various services such as online selling of the books and inclusion of the business’s blog which enhances communication between the various business clients. The website will be redesigned to make it easy for customers to purchase the books and other stationeries effectively without the need of visiting the bookstore physically. The business website is also designed to market the various books and products available in the bookstore effectively. This will serve in increasing the business’s sales as well as attracting new clients to the business. The business will also make use of the social network for sales and marketing which is meant to enhance the efficiency of service provision which translates to increase in sales. 5. Social Media 5.1. Social Media Tools Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and watsapp are quite common among the modern generation and the company will establish effective social networks among the customers and employees which enhance sharing of ideas and interaction. The bookstore will establish a function Facebook page, twitter hurdle and a watsapp number for effective communication with customers (Campbell, 2011, p.3). The social network will serve in enhancing customer service by solving most of their grievances online. The customers will also obtain updates on the current offers available in the bookstore as well as the new arrivals (Campbell, 2011, p.3). 5.2. Barriers The use of social media will most probably be hindered by the inability of the old customers to transit to the digital system. Moreover, the business will require the services of a specialised profession which is quite expensive given the current state of its operations (Campbell, 2011, p.4). 5.3. Recommendations The business will also establish a blog which is mainly to cater for the customers’ queries as well as their recommendations. The blog will be accessed by the customers as well as the customers hence the customers’ issue will be easily settled on the social network platform. The business will also use the customers’ feedback from the social networks for future improvement of services. The social networks platforms established by the business will serve in enhancing the business’ advertisements which will be relayed through the social network (Campbell, 2011, p.3). 6. Mobile Customers Mobile technology has advanced effectively as a result of the introduction of the smartphones which can support various business applications. The business will utilise the applications available on the smartphones to enhance marketing and sales. The use of the watsup application for interacting with the existing and prospective customers will be an effective mode of sales and marketing. Most of the mobile phones easily access the internet hence the business will development applications which will enable the customers to purchase the books and other stationeries on an online platform (Chen, 2012, 650). 7. System Customisation 7.1 Pros and Cons of Using an Employee to Build a Custom System The use of an employee to build a time attendance system is advantageous in that it will enable the company to reduce expenses which could be incurred in case the company bought one. In addition, the time taken to develop the system will be reduced when the company obtains the services of an employee. Moreover, the employee will be readily available in case of the systems technical breakdowns. The limitation of using an employee to develop the attendance system is that, the employee might leave the company with confidential information regarding the operations of the company (Longenecker, 2013). 7.2 Pros, Cons of Purchasing an Off-the-shelf Time, Attendance Application, and Outsourcing Custom Development. An off-the-shelf time attendance system enhances equality among employees since all of them will be using the system for the first time. However, the system is quite expensive to purchase which might be difficult for the company. 7.3 How to Ensure a Smooth Transition for the Older Employees The old employees will encounter difficulties in adapting to the new system since they will view the system as a threat to their jobs. The customers will be trained effectively on the use of the new system and they will also be educated on the advantages of adapting to the new system. This serves in enhancing smooth transition of employees to the new system (Longenecker, 2013). 8. Security 8.1. Importance of Safeguarding Data The business information and data is quite crucial in ensuring the success of the business. There are various benefits of safeguarding the business data from both external and internal threats which includes: privacy purposes, maintenance of the trade secrets of the business and that information is not accessed by external forces such as hackers and competition (Panko, 2010). 8.2. Security Threats Cyber criminals Competition Employees who might leak the business’s information Corruption of the data as a result of worm infections 8.3. Methods of Data Security Ensure that access to the business’s data is only limited to specific management personnel who are legally accountable for its loss or leakage Ensure that the computer which contains the data is protected from worms and malware The website and data should contain the appropriate security mechanisms to prevent attacks from cyber criminals and hackers. 9. Reference Longenecker, J., Petty, J., Palich, L., & Hoy, F. 2013. Small business management. Cengage Learning. Hatten, T. S. 2011. Small business management: Entrepreneurship and beyond. Cengage Learning. Campbell, C., Ferraro, C., & Sands, S. 2014. Segmenting consumer reactions to social network marketing. European Journal of Marketing, 48(3/4), 2-2. Panko, R., & Panko, J. 2010. Business data networks and telecommunications. Prentice Hall Press. Chen, D., & Zhao, H. 2012. Data security and privacy protection issues in cloud computing. In Computer Science and Electronics Engineering, 2012 International Conference on, Vol. 1, pp. 647-651. IEEE. Elbashir, M. Z., Collier, P. A., & Sutton, S. G, 2011. The role of organizational absorptive capacity in strategic use of business intelligence to support integrated management control systems. The Accounting Review, 86(1), 155-184. Pringle, J., & Huisman, J. 2011. Understanding universities in Ontario, Canada: an industry analysis using Porter's five forces model. Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 41(3), 36-58. Read More