ABC is a brick and mortar business that has been in the market for the past four years. The company offers different products to the mass market. It recorded significant growth in the first three years, but the environment has changed with competitors adopting new technologies and strategies for reaching their customers. Similarly, the corona pandemic has affected its ability to serve its customers, and sales have nosedived thanks to government initiatives to curb the spread of Covid-19. Such challenges have forced the management to rethink their strategies and develop new approaches for countering new developments (Laudon & Traver, 2019) . A feasibility study shows that most customers are embracing e-commerce and moving away from brick and mortar businesses. The management wants to generate new revenues from e-commerce, calling for the integration of new technologies. The current business system analysis focuses on social media and e-commerce mobile application solutions and recommendations.
Problem Statement
A changing business environment calls for new approaches to reach customers. Businesses must rethink their current operations and the effects of disruptors like technology, competition, pandemics, and changing customer taste and preferences. Such factors affect the long term success of companies by disrupting their operations and the ability to reach their customers. ABC must adjust its current services; otherwise, it will not gain a competitive edge and might be forced to scale down or close shop. The current business environment requires companies that are dynamic and agile and result-oriented leadership to steer a company in the right direction. The following section presents a detailed explanation of the two technologies.
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Two Technologies
Social media and mobile e-commerce applications are two technologies that are gaining significant usage by e-commerce companies as they try to overcome business challenges and meeting the ever-changing customer wants. The two presents a competitive edge by enabling firms to interact, engage, communicate, and build lasting relationships with their customers. Social media, for example, enables companies to market their products at low cost and reach a wider market segment. Similarly, mobile apps allow customers to manage and monitor their orders, including payments and track their orders, thus plan for their deliveries (Laudon & Traver, 2019; Taiebi Javid et al., 2019) . The users can also engage the company and make inquiries or raise complaints.
Business Requirements
Objectives
The objective of pursuing this project is to integrate technology in the current operations of ABC Company to realize improved customer service, expand market share and counter competitor's action by adopting technology solutions like social media and mobile applications. The initiative will lead to online orders and enable the company to increase its weekly and monthly sales, thus realize its long term objective of creating value for its shareholders.
Project Description
The current project aims at integrating technology into the company's operations by investing in social media and mobile e-commerce applications. The business will invest in the two technologies and train its employees to satisfy the desired objective of integrating technology in the current brick and mortar operations. At the end of the project, it is expected that the company will serve new market segments, especially the technologically savvy customers and youths who desire the comfort and convenience of e-commerce (Abed et al., 2015; Laudon & Traver, 2019) . The new technology will enable the company to counter competitors' actions and meet the needs of the ever-changing market. Similarly, it will create an opportunity for countering the restrictions on movement caused by Covid 19. The technology further supports business continuity and expansion to new markets not served by the brick and mortar model.
Technology Requirements
The two technologies must meet the reliability, performance, and availability requirements. The technology solution will ensure that the system is available 99% of the time 24/7. Similarly, searchers will occur in less than four seconds 95% of the time. Lastly, all searches should occur in less than ten seconds, 99% of the time.
Competitors and Technology
Dominant competitors operating in the industry include established companies like Amazon and eBay. Amazon is a leading e-commerce company that has to capitalize on its website and mobile app to reach millions of customers around the world (Laudon & Traver, 2019) . eBay also capitalizes on its website, social media, and mobile apps to reach customers from different markets. The two technologies have contributed to the growth of the two.
Social media - Amazon has social media accounts like Facebook platform, which has a compelling business model combining integration through social graphs and business opportunities thanks to its ability to create connections with other users (Taiebi Javid et al., 2019) . The company communicates to its stakeholders through its twitter handle and engage customers through different platforms like Facebook
Mobile apps- Most of the e-commerce companies like Amazon and eBay are trying to capitalize on the capabilities of mobile applications to reach new customers and serve them with the desired products. The companies develop apps that customers install in their mobile devices and use them to order products and track the same.
Technology Benefits
The use of mobile e-commerce applications enables customers to manage their accounts and make orders at their convenient time. Similarly, they can track their orders and engage the company if they have any queries (Laudon & Traver, 2019) . The companies also get customer reviews and feedback through social media; thus, they can adjust their product offering to suit the ever-changing consumer needs.
Technology Solution
Social Media
Social media is emerging as a marketing tool for products and services. Companies across the world are embracing social media as an alternative for engaging customers, creating awareness, and communicating with the target audience (Laudon & Traver, 2019) . Social media can help ABC reach its customers, promote its products, and get feedback from its clients. Similarly, it offers a cheaper alternative for marketing the company's products and reaching a wider market segment (Taiebi Javid et al., 2019) . Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Tumbler, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, and Linkedin offers new opportunities for marketing products and engaging customers for long term success.
E-commerce Mobile App
E-commerce mobile applications help companies realize their objectives by serving their customers better. A client creates an account and uses the mobile app to manage daily activities, including purchases, raising complaints, reviewing the services offered by a company tracking the progress of a product, and managing their e-commerce activities (Laudon & Traver, 2019) . The applications have considerable capabilities and functionalities that enable customers to get the desired services without engaging employees or agents from the company.
Recommendations
Social media and mobile e-commerce app will help the company to realize its short term and long term goals. The company should, therefore, invest in the two technologies to counter its competitors and meet the ever-changing needs of the market. The management should invest resources, including human resources, to the two technology solutions to benefit from the short term and long term effects. The two technologies will have significant benefits to the entire organization by promoting efficient customer service and order delivery. Similarly, it will open new growth opportunities, thus boosting the company's future outlook.
Basic Security Consideration
Some of the securing issues that need to be considered include the security of information, cyber threats, hackers, and malware. The technology solution should have security features like two-step verification, strong passwords, user authentication, and restriction of applications from unknown sources. A third party vendor should have a history free from attacks and other computer crimes (Abed et al., 2015; Laudon & Traver, 2019) . They should also have a computer security policy. Some of the internal safeguards include company policies on computer use and security, employee training, access, and authentication policy, restriction of personal devices, and strong password policies.
References
Abed, S., Dwivedi, Y., & Williams, M. (2015). Social media as a bridge to e-commerce adoption in SMEs: A systematic literature review. The Marketing Review , 15 (1), 39-57. https://doi.org/10.1362/146934715x14267608178686
Laudon, K., & Traver, C. (2019). E-commerce: Business, Technology Society (13th ed.). Pearson Education Limited.
Taiebi Javid, E., Nazari, M., & Ghaeli, M. (2019). Social media and e-commerce: A scientometrics analysis. International Journal of Data and Network Science , 269-290. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.ijdns.2019.2.001
