Club IT, Essay Example

Club IT is a nightclub put together by Ruben Keys and Lisa Tejada, the two graduated Business Administration (Rainer, & Turban, 2008).. This came from their inspiration in college, working as musicians to support themselves through their studies. Through these experiences they learned much about business operations of a nightclub, and more on music also. Club IT’s Mission is to “offer you live music, DJ’s, dance space and refreshments that suit your lifestyle. You are our friends, and we seek to build a community that meets regularly at Club IT” (Rainer, & Turban, 2008). Through its re-modeling, it has reached the owners’ desired ambience which they claim to be of fun and energy. The club is around 6,000 square feet, the dance floor is 600 square feet and it can seat about 220 people.

The club has designated different acts and genres according to each month of the year, they format from MP3 music to live. Club IT has a short menu which offers appetizers and beverages (Rainer, & Turban, 2008).. They also have merchandise which offer Club IT members a discount of 10% on the products they purchase. Their small staff consists of one (1) assistant manager, four (4) bartenders, six (6) waitstaff, two (2) stewards, two (2) shortorder cooks, and four (4) people for security. Seeing their small amount of staff and their available seating, Club IT seems to be going more for a personal vibe, keeping regular customers comfortable, and building new relationships with new customers (Rainer, & Turban, 2008)..

Club IT aims to cater to mostly customers of the Net Generation and “Millenials”. These are the individuals who regularly make use of technology via the use of their Blackberries, PDAs, camera phones and other wireless communication devices. These are people who consider online shopping to be a regular part of their lives.

Ruben sees that there are not many nightclubs who have taken advantage of the e-commerce world. He sees this as an opportunity to get ahead in that field and also take advantage in dealing with suppliers and guests. Also, Club IT operates its business through the selling of tickets for special Friday and Saturday night concerts through phone or in person. Ruben plans to set up a Web site, through this Web site Club IT will be able to sell tickets, and guests will have easy access to self-service in the club any time.

Firstly, Club IT needs to acquire its IT applications. The first step in doing this is justifying and committing an investment towards IT, and then they must decide how they want to go about this (“Acquiring Information Systems”, n.d.). As Ruben said, he wanted to create a Web site for their customers, which enables them to make purchases online. There are several ways of acquiring IT applications, this includes:

• Buying the applications
• Leasing the applications
• Using open-source software, Using Software-as-a-service
• Developing them in-house; or Outsourcing them (“Acquiring Information Systems”, n.d.)

Since both Ruben and Lisa are business graduates, and they would like to get more into the IT world, it would be suggested that they purchase the applications, this is considered as the “off-the-shelf approach”. This would come in very easy for them because applications can be found in the type of commercial software packages. When an individual purchases an existing package, it may be considered as a good investment (depending on how well they utilize the product) and it can be a cost-effective as well as a time-saving strategy compared to developing an application in-house. Developing a project in-house is not recommended for the experiences of Ruben or Lisa.

However, this option should be taken carefully into consideration. Both Ruben and Lisa needs to make sure that the software they are purchasing may be used to their full advantage in dealing with club matters (“Acquiring Information Systems”, n.d.). They need to be aware of the software’s features, and also to match those features with the needs of the club. The current features Ruben and Lisa are looking for in a software is one which will help them create a Web site which caters to customers and allows them access to making purchases online through their mobile devices. Being a straight-forward type of need, the club owners can look to buying software which is more traditional and basic. This is because software has to satisfy an organization’s needs. They will save much time by choosing this option, and they will be able to familiarize themselves with software of this nature (“Acquiring Information Systems”, n.d.).

The negative side about purchasing software can be that they purchased one which does not carter to their needs entirely, or lacks some features which are crucial for their business or organization to thrive (“Acquiring Information Systems”, n.d.). Even though the buy option may look like a good idea for newcomers in the IT world, it does not allow for any modifications in the technologies of the software to be able to meet technological needs. Also, the technologies in the software, with the fast-paced world of IT today, can be obsolete in a very short time after purchasing (“Acquiring Information Systems”, n.d.). However, Lisa and Ruben can take the opportunity in this software to learn its applications, and see first what they are lacking. Then, when business is thriving and they have gained more capital for investment, they can develop an in-house application to fully satisfy their IT needs. Since they only need the basics so far, this option can provide the club as well as its customer’s flexibility in order to address the company’s needs.

References

Acquiring Information Systems and Applications (n.d.) WileyPLUS Web. Retrieved from http://www.wiley.com/college/rainer

Rainer, R.K., & Turban, E. (2008). Introduction to Information Systems: Supporting and Transforming Business, 2nd Ed. Retrieved from http://bcs.wiley.com/he-bcs/Books?action=resource&bcsId=4176&itemId=0470169001&resourceId=12379