In the E-Commerce industry, organizations endeavor to attain core competencies through the creation and sustenance of unique processes to collect personal information about customers as well as their purchasing trends. Amazon is a service-based organization that uses Management information systems as their effective tool in acquiring an upper hand and attaining a competitive advantage through the efficient management as well as the acquisition of information (Laudon, 2013). Management information systems make it possible for organizations together with their systems to integrate into both an effective and efficient to bring out the collaboration between the various interactions of the people within the information systems. Management information systems facilitate the management decision making at the strategic as well as the operational levels of an organization (Vahidov, 2012).
Amazon’s use of management information systems shows the successful alignment of information systems with the outlined strategic goals of the organization. Amazon fine-tunes its E strategy by way of keeping its website systems unique, distinct and separate from those of its order systems. Management information system has played a significant role in the development of the organization in a global context. Amazon has effectively used Management Information System as an effective tool through which it has streamlined its management activities while at the same time it has also ensured that the systems are used effectively to offer the customers with diversified services (Oz, 2013).
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Amazon uses Oracle as the Enterprise Resource Management which has a huge database that holds information related to customers. The role of Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) has been crucial and ultimate in the process of collecting and integrating the collected data with the appropriate functions of the organization (Rainer, 2011). The customer’s ordering process is automated since the orders are taken, and the process automatically finds the nearest distributing center and issues the delivery. The system sees to it that the order fulfillment process has been fastened together with the order tracking as well as reducing the distribution mistakes. The uniqueness of the ERP system is based on their ability to synchronize and integrate the external and internal information that influences the management of the different functions within the organization (Oz, 2013).
Amazon, like most E-commerce organizations, has played a significant role in the laying of strong foundations towards the integration of the internal and external processes of an organization and aligning them with those of the expectations of the stakeholders. Increase the number of software used by the E-commerce organization has been subject to multiple changes and up gradation as a result of the factors that influence the expectation as well as the outcome of the use of the software. Software configuration management has continually received considerations as an essential in the controlling of the entire evolution as well as the life cycle of the software projects.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has commonly been used by the growing E-commerce organizations. Customer relationship management is an efficient tool that helps the organization with the streamlining of its information with the primary focus working towards marketing, technical assistance and offering satisfactory services to customers (Crosson, 2012). The success of the implementation reflects in the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization in the reaping of the maximum benefits derived from the collected information about the interaction of customers with the organization.
Amazon uses Customer Relationship Management system (CRM) to gain customer satisfaction and loyalty. The CRM follows an application as a way to collect the necessary information from the customer. All personal information of the customers, their credit card record, transaction and order records, profile as well as their past purchase history is collected and stored in the database. The order processing system then takes deals with the transaction record through the use of secured transaction methods after which it relays instruction to the delivery system instructing the execution of the shipment (Crosson, 2012). The web page system collects the customer information through the customers’ feedback, wish list and interest as well as through the product reviews. Automated communication with the customers is enhanced through email and message systems as well as through the order information systems. The customer relation management system makes it possible for Amazon to integrate the services, customer sales, and communication successfully.
Amazon emerges as an American multinational E-commerce company. It turns out to be the leading online retailer company and offers cloud computing services. The integration of Customer Relationship Management and the Information management to the overall business strategy are the primary technologies that drive the growth of Amazon. Linux is a core strength underlying in the technology of Amazon. The Information Technology of the organization has been established in a way such that it could handle more than millions of operations as well as also handle queries and issue of more than half of the total volume of the sellers. The company faced threats and challenges of the storage and security of the credit cards and debit cards information of more than thousands of customers daily.
Electronic CRM is the basic concept of the application of CRM to the internet based e-commerce business. It provides an organization with the ability to capture, integrate and distribute the data acquired through the company’s website throughout the entire enterprise. Currently, e-commerce platforms do not bind themselves in single channels but are rather expanded toward being multichannel through the use of the internet, web browsers and emails. E-CRM supports the sales and marketing as well as the service of the rapidly growing online based businesses (Laudon, 2013). Customer selection through Amazon’s website has given the company extra advantage to boost their business. The organization uses numerous methods to select customers by knowing their customers’ behavior.
Amazon also uses customer acquisition through the customer accounts, their wish list, and the review system. Every customer that buys through their website has a profile on the website, and their account is stored in the database as well as the information of the customer and their credit or debit account. The customer account enables Amazon to know about the customer, their personality and this makes it possible for the company to satisfy them (Rainer, 2011). Amazon keeps encouraging the customers to add their favorite items to the wish list, and this helps the company to know the customer much better. Product review by the customers helps them to find and select the product they wish and also served a direct marketing campaign for Amazon’s website.
The organization uses the Customer Relationship Management module under the Enterprise Resource Management as a way of storing the personalized information as well as the purchasing trends of its customers. The personalized information and the purchasing trends of its customers are integrated with the marketing and advertising campaigns of the organization (Gibbert, Leibold & Probst, 2002). Below is a figure that shows the type of CRM available in Amazon.
Amazon's Management Information system is reflected in its unique sales strategy. The operations of the company have continually transitioned from a single level strategy to that of a multi-level e-commerce strategy. Initially, the growth of the organization was favored by business to consumer models of selling as well as business to the business model of operations. Currently, the recent development in the E-commerce population has dramatically enhanced the interactions between the consumer and the business and this led Amazon to prioritize and customize its information technology (Laudon, 2013). The prioritization and customization of the information technology at Amazon focus on valuing and respecting the reviews of the customers as a part of the business operations. The exclusion of retailers has rendered the numerous signs of growth in Amazon since it makes it possible for the customers to sell and buy the products directly using Amazon as a platform.
The business model of Amazon depicts the use of management information systems. It includes browsing, management of accounts and shopping as the final stage. The unique management information system plays an essential role in each of the stages. Elastic cloud computing is another vibrant web service that is offered by Amazon. The objective of elastic cloud computing at Amazon has been to serve the developers that work with the web-scale computing primarily. It offers complete control to the end users over the computing actions and makes it possible for customers to use the computer environment of Amazon (Gibbert, Leibold & Probst, 2002).
The advantages of the elastic cloud computing at Amazon are its ability to save more on time thereby ignoring the needs of booting a new server. An Amazon machine image is being created by the end user as a way of utilizing the elastic cloud computing services. The feature of only paying for the actual use is the most attractive part of the E2C, and it helps the developers to customize their applications, and as a result, common failure scenario is isolated.
Alongside the E2C application of the Amazon Company, S3 serves as a storage device one that is used for the usage of internet. The interface allows the end users to use, retrieve and save any amount of data from any location regardless of the time. To find the products they wish to buy, users initiate the surfing. At this juncture, the business model used by Amazon is the search agent. The model uses data mining technique through which the information stored about the products and services is easily retrieved from the central database, and the customers are offered with the right results (Lucey, 2010). The customers who wish to sell their product are required to upload the image of the product alongside a small description of the condition. The brokerage model is assumed by Amazon since it acts as a platform for business to business as well as the consumer to consumer transactions. A fee is charged against the mode of usage by the end users by the organization. Another tool that has been used by Amazon includes auction brokers. The tool involves bidding information as well as fulfillment.
Amazon has the patent registered under which it can offer the personalized content to the customer through the help of tracking the actions of different users in a given surfing session. This personalized content gives Amazon the unique competence in offering the most likely products to the customers at the time of their search (Cusumano, 2010; Gibbert, Leibold & Probst, 2002). When customers successfully search for or complete finding a book, the virtual space appears stating “customer who has bought this book/product have also bought." The phrases show the success of the company in enhancing the retention rates related to the customers, and this has caused a sense of belonging to the customers.
Customers are free to add any number of products they wish to buy. It is the integration of CRM at this level that makes it possible for the users to view the products that have been purchased by their close networks and it also allows the customers to save a particular product for purchase in the future. This kind of information is saved under the Infomediary model that is n Management information system. Amazon has also created a platform for social networking still within the website which goes further in offering more interactivity for the users (Cusumano, 2010).
At this point, Amazon gives their customers the option of viewing their search histories making it possible for them to select similar products that they would wish to buy. The feature is also patented by Amazon, and this adds more to the inventory of the organization's core competence in its Management information systems. Amazon's sign-in process collects the new user's information through the appropriate fields that are to be filled and are direct to the Infomediary model (Bagad, 2012). The next time the user enters the company’s website they are offered with a set of recommendations entailing the products available on Amazon.
The objective of Amazon’s use of the Infomediary model is collecting the consumer purchase information as well as their personal information which is critically evaluated and analyzed so that it can be initiated for use in the marketing campaigns. The information is crucial in assisting Amazon to offer recommendations to their customers on the frequently shopped as well as frequently visited items. The personal preferences are asked at the user's time of registration, and the recommendations pop up to the customer based on the fundamental words of their areas of interest (Cusumano, 2010).
Amazon acquires the customer’s shipment address by asking the customer to offer the shipping address to which the product has to be sent. In the cases where the buyer orders for the product from Amazon, their shipping address that were saved at the time of the registration can be retrieved (Gibbert, Leibold & Probst, 2002). The availed option of retrieving the address assists the users in reducing the otherwise involved time in re-entering the address again. For customers who wish to add a different address, they can save it by offering a new name.
Figure 2.0 below shows Amazon’s Enterprise systems.
The end users are offered with more options by Amazon to choose from the different shipping models. Once the orders are placed by the customers inclusive of the shipping methods, the information is integrated with that of the enterprise resource management involving the logistics and delivery department. Amazon’s logistics department actively uses the acquired information as a way of making sure that the customers receive the products within the stipulated team. The technology that is used by Amazon is made up of web services, middleware, and groupware as well as networking which is very crucial. These are the important aspects that lay the pillars and basic foundation of management information systems (Laudon, 2013).
The enterprise systems that are synchronized and integrated with the internet include accounting, human resources, and logistics. The enterprise systems and the technology at Amazon are interconnections through vibrant as well as relational database management systems which are dependent on one another. Amazon’s payment gateway takes from the account the debit card or credit card information of the end user placing an order for a product. The organization uses Netscape Commerce Server, which is a vibrant tool, alongside the help of the secure socket layer to effectively store the banking information. The data is not made accessible over the internet, and his enhances high confidentiality and guarantees the protection of the customers’ data. The organization also provides the customers with the option of making a section of the payment online and completing the rest through a telecommunications post order. At this stage, legal and privacy policies are communicated to the users to establish and enhance the trust component among customers (Cusumano, 2010).
Amazon utilizes the CRM to achieve effective integration of logistics systems with that of the customer contact information. Customers can track the progress of the shipping by logging into the organization's website and entering the unique identity order number. This provision goes a long way in enhancing the confidence among the customers through offering tangibility in the services (Oz, 2013) . It makes it possible for the customers to be in a position to know the status of the product at any given time. Every marketing strategy employed by Amazon has reflected in the customer's behaviors as well as their preferences. The company also makes use of an incentive marketing program as a way of gaining more customers and businesses to its website. Amazon makes use of the incentive marketing as an efficient too through which the company collects the customer information that is then used for the marketing activities of the organization, and it is also sold out to different pertinent layers at a particular fee.
Virtual storefronts have been utilized by Amazon as the interface that attracts high numbers of customers to the company’s website (Gibbert, Leibold & Probst, 2002). The virtual storefronts have made it possible for Amazon to enhance its retention of the already existing customers as well increase marketing through word of mouth from gaining loyalty from the customers. The company has ensured to make use of all available opportunities to under the dynamic and ever-changing preferences and expectations of the customers, and in return, the customers value the importance attached by Amazon.
The employees of the Amazon Company are satisfied with the work since the ERP packages offer them details on what is exactly being expected from each of the end users working in for sales and marketing as well as the administration of the business processes. The incredible role played by automated warehouses is credibly appreciable as the user interface through which the employees get to interact with the customers efficiently (Gibbert, Leibold & Probst, 2002). Amazon makes use of cloud computing alongside the other interacts with the customers. Amazon’s AWS product acts not only as a product but also as a tool through which the company achieves successful integration as well as efficient management of the information systems.
References
Bagad, J. (2012). Management Information Systems in the KnoWeber 2010ledge Economy. Chicago: Sage.
Crosson, S. (2012). Managerial Accounting. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Cusumano, M. (2010). Cloud computing and SaaS as new computing platforms. Communications of the ACM , 53 (4), 27-29.
Gibbert, M., Leibold, M., & Probst, G. (2002). Five styles of customer knowledge management, and how smart companies use them to create value. European Management Journal , 20 (5), 459-469.
Laudon, K. (2013). Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm. Toronto: Pearson Canada.
Lucey, T. (2010). Management Information Systems. London: Cengage Learning.
Oz, E. (2013). Management Information Systems. Boston: Thomson Technology.
Rainer, K. (2011). Introduction to Information Systems. Hoboken : John Wiley & Sons.
Vahidov, R. (2012). Design-type Research in Information Systems: findings and practices. Hershey: Information Science Reference.
