Analysis and Evaluation of E-Business Strategy

Question: 1. An original question about e-business that would be worth further research (20% of total). This section is concerned only with defining the problem/.question. Include a short paragraph that explains why it is interesting and a page of plan / research method that shows how your question could be answered. Your idea can be interesting for its own sake pure research. Or it might be useful to a specified organisation applied research. 2. A report to a senior manager of a real organisation on one of the following (80% of total). Or propose a topic of your own but get my approval for it before you start work. Clearly identify which option you are answering. Answer: Introduction E- Business is one of the most innovative technological advancement in the present era. The business strategy is making giant organization upside down while utilizing the internet and associated technologies. The internet has established a new business world, which can facilitate their user at any time and any place they want (Huang and Benyoucef 2013). The organizational heads have to put focus on these new innovative technologies for improving their business according to the competitive market. This report is proposing the system architecture for supporting the E- Business. The organization chosen for this aspect is the Primark situated in UK (Primark - About Us. 2016). One research h question has been suggested for the discussing the above phenomenon and making the impact clear of technology in the E-business. In addition to this, this report is comprised of certain aspects: important application, system architecture of E-Business, difference between the current application of Primark and the application those are supposed to be implemented. Research Question and Methodology Research Question What are the technological advancements and system architecture can be implemented in Primark to support E- Business? Justification of the Research Question The research question is based on the technological and system architecture needed for developing the business of Primark. Primark is based on UK. The agenda of the organization is to provide the goods and services to the civilians of the country within low cost. Providing the goods and services at reasonable prices are the core advantage of the organization (Al 2013). This business structure can be improved more with the help of the E- Business architecture and technological development within the organization. The research question is designed to analyze the methods and plans, with the help of which the organization can improve their condition and develop new strategic structure that will benefit their internal and external business environment. Research Methodology The above mentioned research question will be solved through appropriate methodology technique and analysis tool. Secondary resources and inductive approach will be followed to extract appropriate data and information for the selected research topic. In addition, quantitative analysis technique will go perfect with this research work to select appropriate number of respondents who can help to get knowledge about e-commerce implementation in Primark. Part B: Implementation of E-Business in Primark Plan for Implementing E-Business within Primark Implementation of the E-Business within Primark requires the evolving technology and system architecture to be monitored. These aspects will help the organizational head of Primark to know about these technology and system architecture (Primark - About Us. 2016). In addition to this, after identifying the technologies and system architecture, interrelationship of these systems and technologies have to be analyzed. The benefits of the applications are measured by comparing these advancements with the present applications Primark is using. Summary of the Application and Architecture to be used Three- Tier Architecture E-Business structure is nothing but an IT system that should follow architecture to be implemented into any system. Three-tier architecture is manly utilized for any kind of IT system. Figure 1: Three- Tier Architecture (Source: Hannak et al. 2014, pp-310) Previously, the IT systems moved from the mainframe system to the client based system. In this system the graphical user interface (GUI) is located in the client server (Rodriguez et al. 2014). The client server is mainly comprised of three tiers. First tier: GUI is implemented on the fat or thin client in this tier. Fat client is the personal computer and the thin client is the network computer. Middle tier: the processing logic is of the business is discussed in this tier. This tier is operated by the local server (Lapoule and Colla 2016). Third tier: This tier is providing the back end. This comprised of corporate data, the wide database of the company and the file system storage. Technologies Utilized In E- Business The effective implementation of the E- Business strategies requires some IT- technologies to be implemented. These are discussed below: Information Retrieval: Information retrieval tools are utilized to provide Boolean search capabilities for structured and unstructured text collections (Liu 2015). Google, Yahoo etc are the information retrieval tools. Document Management: This system provides an environment for retrieving, storing authoring the documents. Documents may be simple text based or multimedia based documents. Workflow Management: The workflow management system provides the chance to monitor, execute and define the business process. Managing supply chain, operating bank accounts, hiring new employees fall under this category (Patil and Divekar 2014). Important workflow management systems are: FileNet, IBMs FlowMark etc. Groupware: Previously the e-mail was the main source of communication. Now the Lotus note, Microsoft exchange have provided new sources of operating communication. Data Warehousing: Mass customization is new technology for handling the customer demands according to their personal profile (Chen, Pan and Ouyang 2014). Data warehousing is new technology that automatically maintains the mass marketing. This helps to analyze the customer behavior. Web Application Server: Web application server is used to link the back end system. The back end systems are: documents, database that are being transferred by sending HTTP requests. Object-Oriented Middleware: Web application server is classified as the special type of object oriented middleware (Eaton 2013). The selection of the middle ware depends on the needs of the application. Examples of these are: COM, DSOM permit etc. Process Oriented Package-Ware: Automation of the process is done through the workflow management process but for more innovation, standard software packages are being used towards the user interfaces. Java: Java programming is nominated as the core part technical structure of E- Business, as it provide platform independent software development environment. Interfaces of the Applications The three tier architecture introduces the graphical user interface within the client server. The first tier of the structure maintains the GUI within the clients. The middle tier integrates the business process within the system architecture (Fernie and Sparks 2014). These processes involves the front end and back end sub processes. The third tier involves the back end processes with the transactions. Information retrieval is the first step for implementing the technologies needed for the E- Business. Web search engines like Google, Yahoo, Alta Vista provides the information to be utilized in the document management system. Information is searched among the collected documents. Document management is there in the system for distinguishing the various kinds of documents, which are reviewed by the multiple authors simultaneously (Patil and Divekar 2014). This system comprised of the general purpose tools and integrated documents. This document management system is commonly attached with the workflow management system. Workflow management allows the smooth movement of another process while not touching other rapidly changing IT systems. Boolean searching operation utilizes the AND, NOT, OR operations for making relevant search (Hubner, Kuhn and Wollenburg 2016). If the workflow management system follows ad hoc characteristic, then the groupware and messaging system are used. Messaging is used to make proper communication. The asynchronous messaging system provides the exchange of messages among the Arpanet. The document management capability is tested in this platform. Messaging is utilized to understand the demands of the customers by making proper communication with them. This aspect is only possible with the data warehousing technique. The E- Business process introduces the demands of the customers. The mass marketing is done by applying the data warehousing. The web application server is another element of the technological part of the E- Business. The web application server connects the back end systems. The business organization communicates with the vendors by sending the HTTP requests to the system (Huang and Benyoucef 2013). Object oriented middleware, process oriented package ware and Java these three services are used to communicate with the vendor about their problems and demands. In addition to this, these programming languages are used in the platform to act as the coordinator. Java provides the platform independent software support which can act at any platform (Lapoule and Colla 2016). This aspect makes the program more compatible according to the problematic situations. The server of the web applications includes the documents, user objects and the database connections. These web applications allow the database connection to avoid the expensive functions. These connections every time requests a document when it sends a request. The relational data bases are also connected to the server. The enterprise deployment is done through utilizing tens and thousands of user data. Figure 2: Interface of Technologies in E-Commerce (Source: Solaymani, Sohaili and Yazdinejad 2012, pp-250) The Current System and the proposed System to be implemented The conventional business techniques used by the Primark utilizes many technological facilities though these facilities are not enough to improve the E-business strategies within the organization (Shemi and Proctor 2013). Primark uses web service facility to attract more customers and launch their products and services in an innovative way. This aspect may be resolved with the help of the proposed technological development above. The aspects which can be implemented within the business strategies of Primark are explained as follows: App Development of Primark: The application development is becoming very common in E-business. The application of any particular brand makes their products and services always available to their customers in any situation (Carrillo, Vakharia and Wang 2014). This platform can be provided to the customers by utilizing the group/ messaging, workflow management and data warehousing. This process utilizes the user data to make them aware of the new products and keep them linked with their organization. Therefore, the development of application of Primark helps the brand to involve more into the competitive market. E-Mail Subscription: The organization previously did not follow the e-mail subscription to inform their users. This subscription technique can inform the user and customers about the new product and services (Chen, Pan and Ouyang 2014). The techniques utilized in the e- mail subscription are described as follows: The subscriber sends an e-mail to the auto responder. The program is in built in the auto responder allows the request to be subscribed. All the mandatory information is forwarded to the subscribers. E-mail subscriber can any time check for their requirements according to their demands, this can help the company as well as the individual customers to know about their products and services. Platform Independence of the App: The application to make Primark more popular needs the application to be platform independent. The application should be like this that can be operated in any kind of platform. Java is a software platform that will help the applications to be operated in every platform. The Java language compiles to the virtual machine. The virtual machine is typically a CPU that runs the code written on the specific language (Hirt and Willmott 2014). This code enables the executable binary system to be implemented on the virtual machine. The java processors can be utilized to execute the java code. This is most applied for the embedded system in the practical scenario. The JVM offers access to the OS-system. The mentioned techniques for the JVM are utilized for operating the program (Solaymani, Sohaili and Yazdinejad 2012). Platform independence is well maintained with the help of the Java. Benefits of the Application There are several benefits of the technological advancements those Primark wants to implement in their business. These benefits are explained below with respect to the technological implementations: Benefits of Information Retrieval: The structured and unstructured collection of the texts is searched with respect to the information retrieval tools (Colla and Lapoule 2012). The document management system is generally operates the information retrieval tools. Benefits of Document Management System: The document management system provides support for distinguishing the different versions of documents (Eaton 2013). The text document or multimedia documents are the examples of these documents. The complexity is reduced as the manager knows the type of the document. Benefits of Workflow Management: Workflow management helps to sequentially design the process of the work culture for the E- Business (Fernie and Sparks 2014). This aspect provides the process control that is separated from the core business logic. The workflow management has the limited scope for specialized application. Groupware: E-mail facility allows the entrepreneurs to manage the data for their customers according to their demands and specification (Galliers and Leidner 2014). The groupware is concerned with interaction between the customer and Primark. Data Warehousing: The automatic mass market is enabled by the use of the data warehousing technique. Web Application Server: A Web application server allows Primark to know the buying behavior of their customers (Mohapatra 2013). An HTTP request allows the consumers to know about the state of their order or about any activity they are doing in the online sites. Object Oriented Middleware: There are certain sequences of actions that are placed between the transaction brackets of the transaction. The transaction is totally measured with respect to the object oriented middleware. Process Oriented Package Ware: Process oriented package ware are the software packages, that offers the consumers a standard protocol for operating their online site and also helps to search for the desired options. Java: This is the most important and innovative option for the offering the platform independence to the applications Primark is using (Liu 2015). Java allows every applications of Primark to be platform independent. Recommendations Security Improvement: The application of e-commerce improves the security consumer data. Technological advancements improvise this scope. Increment of Sale: E- commerce system can improve the sale of Primark with the help of the technological advancements. Brand Image: The brand image of Primark can be improvised with the help of the technological advancements. Conclusion E- Business has changed the present scenario of the conventional business. There are several limitations in conventional business. E- Business strategy is introduced by the implementation of the technological advancements within the industry. In this report the concerned organization is Primark. Primark wants to implement new technological advancements within their organization for making improvisation in the field of E- Business. The report is discussing about the current technologies that are utilized by Primark in the present scenario in contrast with the description of the new technologies that can be implemented within the organization. In addition to this, the benefits of the concerned technologies are also discussed with respect to the demands of Primark. References Afshar Jahanshahi, A., X. Zhang, S. and Brem, A., 2013. E-commerce for SMEs: empirical insights from three countries.Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development,20(4), pp.849-865. Al, S. 2013. Interpretive research design: concepts and processes. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 16(4), pp.351-352. Carrillo, J.E., Vakharia, A.J. and Wang, R., 2014. Environmental implications for online retailing.European Journal of Operational Research,239(3), pp.744-755. Chen, J.E., Pan, S.L. and Ouyang, T.H., 2014. Routine reconfiguration in traditional companiese-commerce strategy implementation: A trajectory perspective.Information Management,51(2), pp.270-282. Eaton, S. 2013. The Oxford handbook of empirical legal research. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 16(6), pp.548-550. Fernie, J. and Sparks, L., 2014.Logistics and retail management: emerging issues and new challenges in the retail supply chain. Kogan Page Publishers. Galliers, R.D. and Leidner, D.E., 2014.Strategic information management: challenges and strategies in managing information systems. Routledge. Hirt, M. and Willmott, P., 2014. Strategic principles for competing in the digital age.McKinsey Quarterly,2. Huang, Z. and Benyoucef, M., 2013. From e-commerce to social commerce: A close look at design features.Electronic Commerce Research and Applications,12(4), pp.246-259. Hbner, A., Kuhn, H. and Wollenburg, J., 2016. Last mile fulfilment and distribution in omni-channel grocery retailing: A strategic planning framework.International Journal of Retail Distribution Management,44(3), pp.228-247. Lapoule, P. and Colla, E., 2016. The multi-channel impact on the sales forces management.International Journal of Retail Distribution Management,44(3), pp.248-265. Liu, S.U.N., 2015. The Development and Countermeasures of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises B2B E-commerce.US-China Foreign Language, p.608. Malhotra, B., 2014. E-Business: Issues Challenges in Indian Perspective.Global Journal of Business Management and Information Technology,4(1), pp.11-16. Mohapatra, S., 2013. E-commerce Strategy. InE-Commerce Strategy(pp. 155-171). Springer US. Patil, H. and Divekar, B.R., 2014. Inventory management challenges for B2C e-commerce retailers.Procedia Economics and Finance,11, pp.561-571. Shemi, A. and Proctor, C.T., 2013. Challenges of E-Commerce Adoption in SMEs: An Interpretive Case Study of Botswana.Botswana Journal of Business,6(1), pp.17-30. Solaymani, S., Sohaili, K. and Yazdinejad, E.A., 2012. Adoption and use of e-commerce in SMEs.Electronic Commerce Research,12(3), pp.249-263. www.primark.com, 2016. Primark - About Us. [online] Primark.com. Available at: https://www.primark.com/en/about-us/about-primark [Accessed 11 Aug. 2016].