(Class start time)
Part 1.
E-commerce will increases on sales. It will provide information to customers on product availability. However, most customers may find it insecure from the provision of confidential information on their accounts, and probability of internet fraudsters.
Part 2.
CRM will assist the business in recognizing the value of its clients, and in capitalizing on their needs (Kracklauer 2004, pp. 21). It will boost relations with existing customers that lead to increased sales as a result of optimized timing of customer’s needs, cross-selling of related products by highlighting alternatives to customers, identifying customer’s needs and requirements effectively, and identifying the most profitable customers. It will also lead to improved marketing for products as it focuses on targeted communications aimed to identify customer’s needs, and induces a personal approach to customers allowing provision of feedback that may be used for innovations and product differentiation.
Part 3.
ICT has in the recent years generated tools for management, monitoring, learning and planning and communication through dialogue on environmental sustainability. Such tools include automatic calculators of hazardous emissions provide information on the effects of the choices that producers and consumers make regarding the environment (Hilty, and Bernard 2012, pp. 317). Information systems facilitate intelligence and remote collaboration; this minimizes the use of transport means such as use of rails and vehicles that use fuels for transport. Such means lead to increased air pollution. The high memory capacities of information systems reduce paper usage, and disposal that is harmful to the environment.
Part 4.
The entry and exit barriers such as capital requirements and costs of leaving business indicate the challenges faced by new entrant while entering the market. The levels of substitutable products also dictate the competiveness of the business; existence of many substitutes implies less competitiveness while minimal substitutes imply high competitiveness. According to Porter business rivalry also dictates competitive power: The higher the number of competitors the higher the rivalries while the lower the number of competitors the lower the rivalry and the less the completion. The supplier is characterized by the concentration of these suppliers in the market, their product differentiation, size of the supplier, and the cost of moving from one supplier to another. According To Porter, the few the suppliers in the market the powerful they are as compared to many suppliers (Hill, and Gareth 2012, pp. 67). The buyer power refers to the number of buyers in the market: The competitiveness of the business is determined by buyer’s concentration, and their power to move to other markets.
The rise in the alternative products in the music industry implies increased substitutes thereby increased competition. Traditional music sellers have not established barriers of entry and exit thereby increasing competition in the music products market.
Part 5.
Among the interesting things witnessed in the data center was the environmental control measures put into place to keep the equipment under high or low humidity. The policies, as explained, helped the users of the equipment to keep the environment maintained and managed. This polices included system access and usage where only data administrators have full control over the servers. This concept was said to apply even when installing new equipment, checking for obsolete services or devices, and removing old equipment. Scalability was another factor in the data centre that applies in lessons learnt in this course. This implies having appropriate sizes of data center that allows for business growth. Retaining customers implies high profit margins, and business expansion (Arregoces, and Maurizio 2003, pp. 38). An appropriate information system is that which is scalable to fit in new changes brought about by business changes.
Part 6.
Apple exerts full control over every supply chain process. As the controller the company gets massive discounts on manufacturing capacity, freight, and parts. It handles massive inventories that reduce flexibility of the players in the supply chain. The company has adapted the supplier power element of the Porter’s model.
The company’s operational expertise is one of the strategies the company applies. This implies launching products that are sold at higher prices than that of the competitors. This allows the company to achieve high profit margins than the competitors. Another strategy used is spending on a product where necessary awaiting long run profits. Apple spends on the employees, freights, and innovation of products with minimal expectations of short-run profits. Capital expenditures are other policies applied for competitiveness. The company plans to spend almost double of its capital expenditures in its supply chain on the coming year. This creates rivalry and barriers to enter into the market. Finally, the company tracks demands from all stores, and uses such feedback to adjust on production as per the needs of the consumers.
The characteristics of Apple’s product that make its strategies work for the company include product differentiation, product branding, for instance with the green lights on Track pads, and MacBook, producing on customer’s trends and demands, and high volumes of production. In addition, the products are customized as the designers work with suppliers while creating new manufacturing equipment. Price differentiation also enables the company to reach both its niche market and make the products available for low income earners.
This strategy would not work for perishable goods as tastes and preferences change over time. The products would also not work for large product lines as this would reduce the quality of customization. The strategy will also not work for products with high numbers of substitutes and complements available in the market. Apple is working for both effectiveness and efficiency. Effectiveness in terms of resource allocation where the company prefers spending high amounts of capital on production to yield customized results, and efficiency in optimum resource utilization like delivery and manufacturing quality products.
Part 7.
REFERENCE.
Kalahota, R. and Winston A. Frontiers of Electronic Commerce Addison Wesley, 2000
Kracklauer, Alexander H. Collaborative Customer Relationship Management: Taking Crm to the Next Level ; with 7 Tables. Berlin [u.a.: Springer, 2004. Print.
Hilty, Lorenz, and Bernard Aebischer. Ict Innovations for Sustainability. , 2012. Internet resource. 313-356
Hill, Charles W. L, and Gareth R. Jones. Strategic Management. Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.
Arregoces, Mauricio, and Maurizio Portolani. Data Center Fundamentals. Indianapolis, Ind: Cisco, 2003. Print.
Luftman, Jerry N. Competing in the Information Age: Strategic Alignment in Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Print.
