Small brick-and-mortar business deals with shoes, clothing, and handbags. It has a basic website displaying only a few products and very few employees (two full-time and three part-time) as well. This makes it hard to reach many customers; however, its competitors are nailing that through practicing e-business. The business, therefore, has an ultimate goal of enhancing growth through getting involved in the same e-business. This business systems analysis looks at two technologies namely Wireless, mobile computing, and mobile commerce 1 and Business analytics and business intelligence solutions 2 that is an ideal technology solution.
Business Requirements
The objective of this whole idea of integrating new technology is to promote the growth of the business. It supports the goal of the business through streamlining the business processes involved with an e-business. This can be achieved by aiming to create an online presence as well as get more focused on the customers. There is also the objective of ensuring both internal and external data security and privacy. This way, the business will have aligned its strategies with e-business. It is very important that the business consider this aspect of implementing new technology to do away with problems associated with customer information management and ease decision making.
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Integration of new technologies is supposed to meet a number of requirements so that the business problem is solved. One is the integration of online shopping. Secondly, management of inventory and shipping. Thirdly, provision of order status and online payment processing. Fourthly, facilitation of collaboration internally and externally (with staff and customers). Fifthly, management of customer contacts. Provision of reporting and being able to use the new technology to manage the current brick-and-mortar processes (sales, payments, inventory, and customer contact) are the sixth and the seventh key requirements.
Competitors and Technology
There are several small brick-and-mortar business competitors but let us look at two of them that have embraced the use of technology; Bluefly Company and Zappos Company. Bluefly is an online fashion marketplace for everything offering over three thousand designer brands while as Zappos is an online retailer that specializes in shoes.
Business analytics and business intelligence solutions
From the two businesses listed above, Bluefly has embraced this technology the more. It has tried, in several ways, to collect information and has used it to make decisions in the business. One way is through the aspect of collecting customer reviews. Customer reviews make the business learn its progress as well as make new decisions depending on the reviews they get. Reviews seem to be a very big deal to the business as Bluefly even has a section on the website that displays the customer reviews.
Wireless, mobile computing, and mobile commerce
Zappos Company has embraced this technology. This is evident from the fact that the business has a mobile application that users could use to access the services. As if not enough, it has created social media pages on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. The business took advantage of the fact that these sites are what people mostly use when using their mobile devices hence had to display their products there.
Technology Benefit
Looking at the benefits, the Zappos company is greatly benefiting from the use of the Wireless, mobile computing, and mobile commerce technology. Mobile commerce has become every part of a business from retails, services, telecommunication and information technology services, and finance (Jain, 2012) . It is able to grab so many customers hence increase its market share. If the small brick-and-mortar business adopts such a technology, it will be able to achieve its goal of grabbing so many customers as well become visible online.
Technology Solutions
This section looks at the how the two technologies are able to meet the key technology requirements earlier mentioned.
Business analytics and business intelligence solutions
One of the key requirements that this technology meets is the integration of online shopping. It does this using Business Intelligence tools that monitor a customer’s online search and then generates reports that a business uses to make decisions that satisfy customer demands (Patel, 2017) . Business analytics and business intelligence solutions also enable facilitation of communication as well as manage customer contacts (Patel, 2017) . It collects customer information from purchase histories and uses it to communicate back to customers through communication means such as personalized emails. The aspect of data intelligence also enables as information on what customers mostly purchases is collected and reported then businesses are able to know what to stock more (Patel, 2017) . From all the fulfillment of key requirements, this technology seems to be good at the provision of reports as whenever it collects data, it presents it n form of reports. There is, however very little that can be said about management of shipping using technology.
Wireless, mobile computing, and mobile commerce
This technology also meets all the key requirements. It enables the integration of online shopping as it becomes very easy for people to buy commodities using their mobile devices. Mobile commerce also allows inventory management and shipping as deliveries are made as per agreed time, through wireless communication, and the business knows when and what quantity to restock depending on order trends (Jain, 2012) . This technology has enabled online payment through mobile banking, which allows access to account details and performing of transactions. When mobile commerce is performed, businesses have the opportunity of collecting customer information and create reports out of that.
Recommendations
I would recommend the two technology solutions discussed. These solutions seem very appropriate for the small brick-and-mortar business because they tend to fulfill all the needs of the business by satisfying the key requirements. They will enhance efficiency through the collection of data and provision of reports for decision-making as well as capture so many customers using mobile commerce, as it is convenient for very many people. The two technologies will position the business at a very high competitive advantage owing to the fact that it will have combined two very powerful technologies that not many businesses have been able to combine and get the double advantage.
Basic Security Considerations
If the business decides to adopt the two technologies, it has to use the Security Risk Assessment Tool (SRA Tool) 3 to make sure the move complies with all the security measures such as confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The same tool should be used to ensure security and privacy when dealing with third-party vendors. Lastly, the SRA tool also helps in internally safeguarding the business against loss or misuse of company data.
References
HealthIT. (2016). Security Risk Assessment (SRA) Tool User Guide. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Retrieved May 31, 2018, from https://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/attachmenta-security_risk_assessment_tool_user_guide_v6.pdf
Jain, S. (2012). Mobile Commerce: A Review. Council for Innovative Research , MOBILE COMMERCE: A REVIEW. International Journal of Computers & Technology. Retrieved May 31, 2018, from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.300.470&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Patel, N. (2017, July 6). Business intelligence and Analytics in Retail Industry. Rapidops . Retrieved May 31, 2018, from https://www.rapidops.com/blog/business-intelligence-and-analytics-in-retail-industry/
