iShare platform
Business overview
iShare platform will be a platform where individuals will share stuff which has been used moderately. This is called and enhanced by the need to have a friendly environment which will enable people to share stuff instead of throwing the stuff to the environment. The aim of the iShare platform is to have a way in which members will share what they have instead of disposing them to the environment (Kwak, Lee, Park, & Moon, 2010). This way, there will be conservation of the environment because no item will be disposed to the environment. There will be stuff owners who will post the items for grabs. They will be ones looking for the market. The stuff owners will be required to pay small amount of money so that the money will be used to run the platforms. The platform will be delivered with the use of website (Centola, 2010). This will later be developed to have mobile provision. There will also be users of the platform where they will be required to the stuff from the platform. They will also be required to pay some little amount to be able to have the information that they need. Those who are seeking for stuff to use will search through the platform for stuff owners. They will contact the owners by making use of the platform (Viswanath et al., 2011).
The mission of iShare is to give members a platform and a place they are able to share the stuff that they could have thrown away to the environment. This way, they will be able to protect the environment from pollution. The achievement of this aim is by providing a simple platform which will allow the people to interact. This will be a platform where the people who have the stuff that they are not using to share with the people who are looking this stuff. It is more like a marketplace. This way, the platform will allow the stuff to be recycled because the people who could have bought the items afresh will be able to get the stuff which has been fairly used by others.
Business objectives
Within the first four years of operations, iShare hopes that the following objectives shall have been achieved:
Market overview
Market segments
There are will be different market players that will be interested with the products that are offered by the platform. The market that the iShare platform includes the following:
Item owners
These are the people who would otherwise want to dispose goods and services. They are the people who have the items that they feel that they want to share. They will use the platform to show the items that they have and would like to share. This way, they will be able to have a platform in which they are able to advertise the items that they have for sharing.
Buyers
These are the people who do not have the items that are being shared in iShare platform. This represents the clients who would like to access the platform and search for the items that have been shared in the platform. This way, they will be able to post interest on the items that have been posted.
Strategic analysis
There is a need to undertake a strategic analysis of the market where the platform will operate from. There is a need to understand the market. The tool that will be used in analyzing the market is PEST and Porters five forces. The choice of porter’s tool will help understand the microenvironment in which the iShare will operate (Aggarwal, 2011; Burke, Marlow, & Lento, 2010). There will be the need to understand the immediate environment and the competitors. There are also legal requirements for the operation of the platform. This is the reason why there is a need to ensure that there is proper understanding of the environment. The buyers, competitors, and the suppliers will have to be understood in this process (Sallet et al., 2011).
The choice for PEST tool will be to understand the microenvironment. The choice of the microenvironment will be to understand the economic, political, social, and technological aspects of the platform. These are the factors that are external and cannot be controlled or affected (Asur, Huberman, & Bandari, 2012).
Porter’s Five Forces Analysis
In the appendices
PEST analysis
In the appendices
Technology trends
Mobile computing
Mobile computing is a new trend that is taking place and enables users to use smart phones to access a service or database. This is a new trend where there is the use of mobile computing in the development of mobile apps to undertake communication and business processing. There are two levels of hierarchy in the development of mobile computing. The two levels are the mobile device and the cloud (Lewis, Gonzalez, & Kaufman, 2012). The aspect of the cloud comes in because of the fact that there is the development of the cloud aspect in cloud computing. There is now the cloudlet computing which is an emerging field where there is the use of mobile device to access the cloud computing infrastructure. This development comes as a result of having many people adopting the use of smartphones in their daily use. This is a developing aspect of the cloud because most of the services and the applications that are used by smartphones are accessed in the cloud (Marin, & Wellman, 2011).
Cloud computing
This is an emerging field of computing where services are accessed from the internet. This is a developing phenomenon where applications and services are accessed from the internet without having to install the hardware and software in the organization. Cloud computing is a form of computing where there is the access of services and the payment based on the service that has been used and not payment based on the infrastructure that has been set (Cheung, & Lee, 2012). The model that is being developed is that of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) where all the challenges and strengths of SOA are obtained from the SOA infrastructure. SOA is a new development where software applications are developed in services which are interoperable. This is an important aspect that needs to be integrated the development procedures (Giordano, & Fulli, 2012). Computer software is developed in the form of services where the offerings are offered in terms of services. This is one way in which business logic will be distributed. This is an important development for the platform development in the research. There are companies who offer cloud computing services. These companies include IBM, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, among others (Osterwalder, & Pigneur, 2010).
This technology is important in iShare because it is one way in which the platform will be developed. The users will access the service from the cloud. This will enable the users to use the platform without having to install any other platform of service in their devices. With the installation of this service, it will be possible and important to understand the requirements and the aspects of the development of the iShare platform (Van Noort, & Willemsen, 2012). This is the most appropriate technology trend that will be used in the development of the platform. This is because of the fact that there are there will be no other requirement that will be needed for the development of the platform. Most of the requirements are already installed and integrated in the cloud service. The cloud computing platform will enable the development of information and the technical aspects of the iShare platform (Li, Pieńkowski, Van Moorsel, & Smith, 2012).
Social media
Social media will help in the marketing of the iShare platform. This is one of the most important developments of the technology because there are many issues and enhancements that are required in the development of iShare. There will be the need to market the platform. The only way in which marketing will be done is through the use of social media. There is the social connection which will boost the brand awareness of the iShare platform. There are many ways in which the social connection and sharing will be done (Jung, 2011). One of the ways is to have a link to the social network page and another one is to have a link to social app that shall have been developed for use. With the popularity of social networks, there are many opportunities that are presented for businesses in order to market their products. This is one of the developments for the research. This will enable the business to understand the role of the social media aspect. The customer satisfaction will also be assured with the use of social network applications. It is one cheaper way in which the iShare organization can get simple and cheaper marketing (Chen, Chiang, & Storey, 2012).
IS Strategy
The following strategy will be used as a guide for the development of IS strategy for iShare.
Critical evaluation of strategy development process
Appendix
Appendix
Appendix I – Porter’s five forces analysis
Appendix II – PEST analysis
Appendix III – Critical evaluation of strategy development process
This assignment has been a challenge and a great opportunity to learn. I have managed to understand the need to align technology with the strategy that will be used for business. This assignment has been a challenge because I was required to understand the business strategy and at the same time understand the technological strategy that was required for effective use of the business. I was guided by the aim and objective of iShare. This made me understand what I wanted and how I was to get the objectives that was set for the sharing and enhancement of the project. I had to choose the technologies that would be used in this project carefully and in comparison with the business objective. Cloud computing was chosen because of the relevance and the development of this technology. This technology provides a cheaper means of development because it would offer the company a lower subscription fees.
The marketing aspect was another part that needed thorough understanding. I had to understand the best way possible that would enable me to market the iShare brand. The most probable and the most reliable option would be to make use of social media. This was an appropriate choice because of the statistics which point out at the use of social media and the popularity of the social media. Although there is the negative side of the use of social media, the overall benefits of the use of social media would be beneficial and would outdo the overall perspective of the negative aspects.
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