Information Systems Development For Motosport

Current Business Strategies and Customer Preferences

Question:

Discuss About The Information Systems Development Motosport?

Customers’ preferences today go a long way in bringing about technological and information system up gradation within companies. The changing preferences of the consumers form cornerstones for the future business strategies of the companies. The business organisations today can use customer information not only to earn revenue at present but also in the future. The paper stands on a case study based on a new American startup entrepreneurial venture named Motosport providing motor sports vehicles’ spare parts of branded companies (motosport.com 2018). The company received orders over phone from customers or from walk-in customers. The firm then offered the products as per customer specifications. The firm came to know about the new demands of these customers-online product viewing and ordering system. The assignment would delve into the need of incorporating these needs of the customers by installing of new technology and information systems.

The case study clearly shows that Motosport Limited requires installing technology to make the products visible to customers on their official website. The new technology is supposed to be a multipurpose technology which would aid more transparent business between the company and the customers. The customer communication initiatives which Motosport Limited carried out pointed out to the changes in the customer preference especially pertaining to purchases of products like motor spare parts. This showed the apex management the direction to bring about technological developments in the company (Bakar et al. 2016). The customers revealed that they were satisfied with the company and had new expectations from it. They wanted the company to device an online product viewing and ordering system to view and order products. The second demand of the customers was to offer a system that would allow delivery of products at their convenience. Thus, the new technology which the company required to install was expected to have three main attributes. First, it should be capable of receiving online orders. Second, it should make it possible for customers to view a variety of products on the online platform of the company and third, the customers should be able to put in the location details where they want the delivery to take place (Strauss 2016). According to these requirements of the customers, the technology should be capable of accepting orders placed online and communicate the same to the concerned department. The technological requirements in the described situation also point out to massive advancements in the information system both within and outside the company. The company has to align its technological prowess and human resources to integrate operations of all the related departments like finance, marketing and logistics department. The technology should have two sets of properties, namely the attributes of ecommerce websites and capabilities an information system (Goetsch and Davis 2014).

The case study clearly points out that the goal of Motosport Limited is to adapt to the demands of the clients which would boost its achievement of overall business objectives namely, growth and revenue generation. The above discussion shows that Motosport requires building a new innovative psychology to receive online orders from clients and direct the same to the warehouses for delivery at the convenience of the clients. Thus, the information system should enable the company to bind its marketing activities, warehouses and clients. The sections below would delve into this requirement of Motosport Limited (Parveen, Jaafar and Ainin 2015).

Need for Technological Advancements

Motosport requires a new advanced system to bring about achievement in its business goals which are retention of its customers and continuous revenue generation. Motosport requires a communication-cum-ordering system, an invoicing system and powerful data management system. The communication system should be capable of two attributes, processing of manually placed orders and accepting of online orders by customers. The system should also be capable of making the information received from clients to the concerned departments (Zohar and Polachek 2014). For example, if the customers place orders by visiting the outlets of Motosport, the communication system should allow the staff accepting the order put in the details like particulars of the model of spare parts preferred by the client like Honda or Suzuki. The employee should be able to input a tentative delivery date according to the requirements of the client. If the order is very urgent and the warehouses do not have the model of the spare parts preferred by the client, the communication system should instantly show the alternative brands whose motor sports parts are available with the company (axerosolutions.com 2018). Thus, the new system would also allow the company to market its different branded sports vehicle parts to customers, thus creating future sales opportunities. The same details should be available to the customers who place orders online. In fact, the communication system should have the facility to instantly connect the customers to sales representatives so that they can solve their queries. This would boost the customer supportive image of the company, even towards the new customers, thus boosting the sales of the company. The software should then have a part which should only be accessible to the staff of the company as shown in the template below (Bretschneider, Leimeister. and Mathiassen 2015). The different departments would be able to share the order information received to process the orders. For example, as soon as an orders are received, the sales manager would get auto-generated emails which would state the clients’ information, the particulars of the orders, payments and tentative due dates. The marketing manager should be able to forward the detail to the finance department so that the payment aspects of the orders like advance payments, if any can be taken care of. The finance department in turn should be able to communicate any discrepancy pertaining to the payments like lack of available balance in the customers’ accounts to debit the advance payment to the marketing department using the same portal. The marketing manager should be able to communicate the customers about these discrepancies instantly using the email facility of the portal (Amarah and Langston 2017). Once the payment portions are cleared by the accounts department and the orders are ready to be processed, they should be forwarded to the warehouses. The managers at the warehouses should be able to inform the marketing manager if a particular part is not available temporarily so that the same can be communicated to the client along with suggestions of alternative products. Once the clients approve the delivery of particular alternative products, the marketing managers should communicate the same to the warehouse managers. The warehouse managers then can execute the orders and make arrangements to deliver the products as per the convenience of the clients (Askariazad and Babakhani 2015).

Attributes of the Information System

The next system which Motosport needs to acquire to modernize its product selling methods is online invoice management software. Motosport can consider installing invoicing software made by reputed companies like Microsoft (products.office.com 2018). The invoice software should enable the customer to input details like bank account numbers and the prices of the products they are ordering. The software should allow the company to inform the customers about discounts and offers, if available. The customers should see their payment status and details for future references. The finance department on its end should be able to use the payment details for its internal use like adding them to its books of accounts (Li, Liu and Li 2014).

The third system which Motosport needs is a data management system which is capable of storing a huge data base for future use and simultaneously prevents intrusions like data theft. The company should be able store customer information like their future needs like plan of buying new cars and servicing their cars after certain periods. The marketing department should be able to retrieve the information and get back to the consumers to generate repeat business. The data base should a have strong firewall to prevent virus attacks and theft of confidential information like customers’ credit card details. Motosport should acquire three types of software to enable dynamic order acceptance, process and revenue generation. They are communication software, invoicing software and data management software (Aktepe, Ersöz and Toklu 2015).

The above discussion points out that the business goals of Motosport are to enhance the spare parts purchasing experience of the customers to boost its revenue generation. The information system augmentation which the company is planning to undergo on the basis of the three software is well aligned to realize these two goals. The communication software would enable the customers to view the spare parts and place orders at their conveniences. This means that the company would be not dependent on its brick-and-motor sales units solely to generate revenue. The company as a result would be able to generate more revenue (Khodakarami and Chan 2014). Since, the customers would be able to view the products, in detail, it would allow them to plan their future purchases. Thus, the software would be able to source orders for future sales and revenue generation. Moreover, the advanced software would create positive purchase experience of the company in the minds of the customers and boost its goodwill. Thus, the new information system would boost revenue generation and customer satisfaction (Laudon and Laudon 2016).

The invoicing software would allow the customers to view their payment details at their conveniences and raise the issue with the company promptly. Thus, on one hand it would enable the company to process orders faster, thus maximizing customer satisfaction. It would on the other hand create a more transparent image of the company; boost its goodwill and customers’ purchase experience (Law, Buhalis and Cobanoglu 2014).

The data management software would enable the company acquire, manage and share a huge customer data base. It would be able to capture future purchase requirements of the customers, thus creating future revenue opportunities. The analysis clearly shows that the information system is well aligned to the business objectives of the company (Khodakarami and Chan 2014).

Communication-cum-Ordering System

Information system supports the overall business strategies in several ways. As pointed out, IS helps business organisations like Motosport to market its products before the customers. This creates demand among them which enables them to place orders. Thus, IS supports the marketing and selling activities of organisations, thus paving the ways for revenue generation.  

IS enables companies to streamline their operations by integrating their different departments. Thus, IS support the efficiency achievement in the organisations and boosting their sustainability.

IS enables business organisations to acquire and maintain huge customer data. The companies like Motosport can use this customer data in making future strategies. For example, the managers can contact the customers to repeat business and references. Thus, IS also supports the future business generation of the companies.

The above discussion shows that information systems support business operations of the business organizations in a large way. The following are the objectives for overall business strategies:

Objective 1: Streamlining of business operations:

Modern information systems are integration of communication systems linked with other systems across departments like invoicing and accounting which increases efficiency. Thus, these systems are actually facilitation of streamlining of all the departments in the organizations to boost efficiency. This ensures that the companies align their activities thus doing away with the need to records transactions separately by separate departments. Thus, this boosts the efficiency levels of the companies and makes business more profitable (Khodakarami and Chan 2014).

Objective 2: Predicting future business:

Information systems help companies to predict future business generation and sourcing of revenue. The modern information systems are managed centrally and are linked to the data bases of the companies. For example, the marketing department of Motosport obtains information about future business needs of the customers. Thus, they can get in touch with these customers according their future plans and cater to their needs, thus generating business (Aktepe, Ersöz and Toklu 2015).

Objective 3: Making new business strategies:

Information systems enable companies to make new strategies aligned to customer needs, thus increasing profits. For example, the data base about the future needs of the customers can form the basis of new business strategies like introduction of new products to those customers which increases the chances of customer satisfaction. Thus, one can point out that, this increases the opportunity of generating higher revenue in the future, thus ensuring long term growth of the company (Askariazad and Babakhani 2015).

Conclusion:

It can be concluded from the above discussion that companies today need to upgrade their information systems to suit the needs of the customers. Information systems are not limited to internal operations of companies anymore. The companies like Motosport require extending their information systems to integrate their internal operations with order placement of customers. Modern information systems enable companies to integrate their activities and streamline them which ultimately contribute to more efficient operations. One can recommend that Motosport should install these three system software namely, communication software, invoicing soft and data management software. One would also recommend to the apex management that alongside managing this huge information available the data management system to generate more business, it must be very cautious about misuse of the data by staff like credit card details. The employees using the data should put in their email ids and passwords as shown in the template. The company while offering digital product viewing and ordering facility should keep the employee id and password panel marked in blue separate from the customer-user panel marked in green, red and yellow. The company must protect all data against intrusions and thefts.

References:

Aktepe, A., Ersöz, S. and Toklu, B., 2015. Customer satisfaction and loyalty analysis with classification algorithms and Structural Equation Modeling. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 86, pp.95-106.

Amarah, B. and Langston, C., 2017. Development of a triple bottom line stakeholder satisfaction model. Journal of Corporate Real Estate, 19(1),management.

Askariazad, M.H. and Babakhani, N., 2015. An application of European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI) in business to business (B2B) context. Journal of business & industrial marketing, 30(1), pp.17-31.

Bakar, N.H., Kasirun, Z.M., Salleh, N. and Jalab, H.A., 2016. Extracting features from online software reviews to aid requirements reuse. Applied Soft Computing, 49, pp.1297-1315.

Bretschneider, U., Leimeister, J.M. and Mathiassen, L., 2015. IT-enabled product innovation: Customer motivation for participating in virtual idea communities. International Journal of Product Development, 20(2), pp.126-141.

Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.

Khodakarami, F. and Chan, Y.E., 2014. Exploring the role of customer relationship management (CRM) systems in customer knowledge creation. Information & Management, 51(1), pp.27-42.

Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2016. Management information system. Pearson Education India.

Law, R., Buhalis, D. and Cobanoglu, C., 2014. Progress on information and communication technologies in hospitality and tourism. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 26(5), pp.727-750.

Li, L., Liu, F. and Li, C., 2014. Customer satisfaction evaluation method for customized product development using Entropy weight and Analytic Hierarchy Process. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 77, pp.80-87.

Motosport.com. 2018. Dirt Bike & Motocross Online Store | MotoSport. [online] Available at: https://www.motosport.com/ [Accessed 2 Mar. 2018].

Parveen, F., Jaafar, N.I. and Ainin, S., 2015. Social media usage and organizational performance: Reflections of Malaysian social media managers. Telematics and Informatics, 32(1), pp.67-78.

Products.office.com. 2018. Microsoft Invoicing Software | Quotes and Estimates. [online] Available at: https://products.office.com/en-us/business/microsoft-invoicing/invoice-software [Accessed 2 Mar. 2018].

Strauss, J., 2016. E-marketing. Routledge.

Using, 5. and Eisenhauer, T. 2018. 5 Foolproof Business Communication Tools Every Company Should Be Using. [online] Axero Solutions. Available at: https://axerosolutions.com/blogs/timeisenhauer/pulse/283/5-foolproof-business-communication-tools-every-company-should-be-using [Accessed 2 Mar. 2018].

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