A Picture Is Worth, Essay Example

Overall Strategy

The analysis related to competitors in the area needs to be carefully analyzed before setting up a strategic plan. The competitive advantage is the conclusion of the unique strategy of IT Solutions which cannot be adopted by the competitors. The unique strategy includes customer loyalty at its best; it is also a vital element for a successful business. For entering IT Solutions in a new demanding industry, Michael Porter’s five forces model will assist the evaluation of the challenges. The model will assist to conclude the relative attractiveness of an industry. In Fig 1.1 Michael Porter’s five forces model is illustrated.

The threat of new entrants, suppliers, buyers and substitutes is directly impacting on the centralized hub which is the rivalry among existing competitors.

These may be many IT support companies in the city which may offers the same range of products and services. The management of IT Solutions is worried on the current marketing strategies of the company which they think are incompetent. The staff needs a motivation in terms of technology which assures that the competition will not influence the business and customers. Segmenting the competitive advantage on Porter’s Five-Force analysis, the buying power needs to be overcome. Buying power is defined by Zhiqi Chen as it “refers to the circumstances in which the demand side of a market is sufficiently concentrated that buyers can exercise market power over sellers.” A strategy is required to address the concerns of marketing the organization itself on the Internet. Loyalty programs are required for enhancing customer satisfaction and experience at IT Solutions. For an efficient customer loyalty programs, integration of Information technology is essential to track and inform the customers about the new products and services on the Internet. Customer loyalty programs are the most popular marketing strategies adopted by organizations across a variety of industries.  Programs that are alleged positively by customers will in turn create strong mind-set of customer loyalty and higher customer revenue (Furinto, Pawitra, & Balqiah, 2009). IT Solutions should offer a unique price on support services that other support companies do not offer

IT Solutions has a small Supplier power force to compete. There is a wide variety of suppliers for selection. Google extracts results for searching “IT support” about 4,400,000,000 results. Every 10 websites out of 50 have mentioned toll free number to communicate with and lodge IT problem tickets. The websites offers convenient support options with a variety of home visiting options. If the experience is not good regarding the services and operations, another IT support staff can be selected from the website just clicks away.

If the buyer power is relatively high then the threat of substitute products or services is high. There are numerous products and services representing the identical services and products. This threat is differentiated from buying power and emphasize on specific products IT Solutions offers. If IT Solutions is offering a particular unique support deal, it means that IT Solutions has effectively lowered this threat. The only switching cost IT Solutions has to bear is the distance which the support personnel have to travel to the home and the prices of the support deals offered by competitors.

The threat of new entrants is high when IT Solutions has a low workforce to challenge with. It concludes that the entrants also have a low level of difficulty to achieve what they require to initiate an IT support company. Customer loyalty and collection of unique and established clientele cannot be purchased by money. For starting a new business, it is easy for a competitor to manage what is required for setting up a new business but it is not easy to attract the customers who have developed regular satisfied and friendly IT support practice by replacing them with the new staff, which they are not familiar with.

Rivalry among existing customers is present when there is the possibility of large number of restaurants available. Competitive prices will add the company in the list of affordable support services as compared to other competitors. Service with better price will definitely make the customer joyful.

Looking from a broader perspective, IT Solutions is in competition already, the focused differentiation strategy will be beneficial as it will tackle the forces which are acting as a barrier for IT Solutions. IT Solutions can offer unique high quality support for its customers, which none can offer.

E business Strategy

IT Solutions will emphasize on using Self-serving technologies (SST). Self-serving technologies include interactive voice response systems (IVR’s), Installation of interactive kiosks which will be accessible by the customers not having laptops, an interface via a website to pay online (Welcome to the IIMA online). IT Solutions needs to implement E business solutions on a range of business operations and procedures. The first step is to develop a system in which all the information regarding system troubleshooting and manuals can be stored. Knowledge management systems have immense potential significance to business managers as well as to the functions of Information systems (King, Marks Jr., & McCoy, 2002). Apart from the IT support, information related to customer service including customer reviews, dissimilarity can also be recorded helping IT Solutions to convert the today’s leftovers in tomorrow’s special for customers.

Customer relationship management system is a vital element for improving and providing better customer service. As per the ICSC Dictionary of Shopping Center Terms it is the “The business strategy that aims to understand, manage, and personalize the needs of an organization’s current and potential customers. The customer relationship management system prioritizes customers who are spending healthy quantity of money to offer them fringe benefits and bonus meals. The reward system will work on the parameters of total money spent so far by each customer resulting in a proactive strategy for improving customer relations. The system will attract new customers as well as maintain a satisfaction level of existing customers. The system will provide the in depth detail to the employees of IT Solutions to identify loyal and potential customers. The system will collect information related to business intelligence by categorizing customers with their spending habits.

The launch of a website will certainly improve business and the image of IT Solutions in the digital world. The website will include the current menus, specials and events occurring in IT Solutions. Customers can review what IT Solutions is offering in terms of meals and specials. Customer feedback will helps IT Solutions to know, which meal is gaining popularity as the customers will demand for specific customer service along with the prices. Integration of E commerce will enable IT Solutions to take support tickets online. Customers can pay via credit card.

Ethical and Information Security Dilemmas

A strategy must be defined for providing free support coupons to the customers. Organizations are frequently implementing mobile media for promotional services via short message service. A Survey of 370 mobile phone users was conducted in Austria indicating that the attitude of the customers towards mobile coupons affects their intentions to redeem these coupons (Dickinger & Kleijnen, 2008). There must be a verification mechanism of these coupons. The mobile coupons should be associated with the unique ID for verification. The coupon should be in the form of text message otherwise the customer has to download it in the case of MMS. There are lots of spam text messages received by the customer; will they accept the coupons in the form of text messages which will give negative impact of IT Solutions? The frequency of transmitting the mobile coupons should be low to avoid this factor. Anne de Kerckhove, managing director of mobile marketing company 12Snap said “Low costs and large potential audiences could make campaigns using mobile technologies such as SMS a cost-effective alternative to traditional direct marketing. Although still a relatively small market, the support of a brand like McDonald’s is likely to boost the uptake of mobile marketing”.

For detecting the cell phones and phone numbers with the help of the wireless network, marketing mobile coupons is not acceptable in this way. The Coupons will have Unique ID printed in the text message. Customers who are reluctant to send SMS to the system in order to receive a coupon are connecting their phone number to the unique ID. This offers a great prospect for gather information regarding customer activities. If the same number appears attached to multiple coupon unique IDs, then the customer is using the system to its full potential. If a new phone number penetrate in the system, it indicated the presence of a new customer or less likely old customer has a new phone number. A mobile coupon campaign has an established history for identifying customers who have not been in the café for a long time.

Systems Development 

There is a requirement to build the timesheet component of the Supply Chain Management system for IT Solutions. There are some vital elements which needs consideration. Before selecting vendors for the development of the organizations core business software, some questions are necessary. As compared to the scenario, COTS product is available from a well-known reputable vendor with proper documentation and support. Documentation is the only essential element the organization possesses when a small system with no technical staff is implemented. The IT support company must have a self-service IVR and a 24 by 7 hours support center. The customization of the system makes it feasible for the organization in a long term perspective. The evaluation of COTS system needs to emphasize on the customization which will support the evolving business of IT Solutions.

A system which can take place in between these two is Microsoft access based system. A system based on Microsoft Access is not too complicated. There are wizards for creating each function making it easy as compared to other database systems.  Developing a system based on Microsoft access will also be a consideration as the staff adaptability of Microsoft access is relatively higher as compared to the in-house development system and the vendor based system.

It is not easy to evaluate the adaptability factor of the employees regarding the time keeping system. When the staff do not know how to navigate from field to field by using keyboard shortcuts, it is difficult to conclude the efficiency of the system rather than entering the data on paper.

The old employees will not be entertained by giving presentations of benefit on saving and entering data in the system which may force them to use the system. The factors related to cost savings and organized reports related to the organization’s overall success, will encourage them more as compared to presentations and discussions. If the employees are encouraged, they might give their suggestions resulting in improving the overall system.

Conclusion 

IT Solutions has capacity to compete with the current competitors in the digital economy. The company can enhance their marketing and overall strategy by injecting information technology best practices and current trends in the infrastructure. By scrutinizing a focal point which is differentiation strategy, marketing the unique menus along with revolutionary support deals that only IT Solutions will offer, the business will be a success in the IT consultation industry. Knowledge management systems, customer relationship management, Internet and business intelligence systems will contribute to all aspects of the business. The website will provide the interface to communicate with customer and place orders online, increasing revenue and better customer services. Mobile coupons will definitely add a value to the customer satisfactory, as the coupons will be received in the customer’s cell phone.  The system development can be conducted on custom based system from Microsoft Access as a backend. The strategy of motivating older employees will be conducted by perusing them the factors related to the organizations success rather than providing them technological advantages.  Overall wide varieties of Information Technology enabled business process are discussed along with their strategies.

Bibliography

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Furinto, A., Pawitra, T., & Balqiah, T. E. (2009). Designing competitive loyalty programs: How types of program affect customer equity. Journal of Targeting, Measurement & Analysis for Marketing, 17(4), 307-319. doi:10.1057/jt.2009.20

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Kiosks. (2005). ICSC Dictionary of Shopping Center Terms, , 76-76.

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Welcome to the IIMA online Retrieved 12/6/2010, 2010, from http://www.iima.org/CIIMA/CIIMA%205.1%2077%20Hsieh-9.pdf