Fallons: A Home Maintenance Service Provider In South East Queensland

In this assignment you are required to play the role of a trainee business analyst working on an information system solution for an organisation called Fallons  that provides a range of home maintenance services to clients in South East Queensland. Fallons offers home maintenance such as airconditioning, plumbing, appliance repair, gas fittings, blocked drains etc. Fallons also supplies and installs new home appliances including airconditioners, hot water systems, ceiling fans and lighting. You work for an IT consultancy firm called Information Systems Wizards and have been called by Fallons to contribute to the quality of their information systems .

This  assignment  has  4  parts.  In  part  1,  you  will  analyse  the  overall  business  of  Fallons  by  answering  a number of questions. In part 2, you will identify an existing human activity system within the organisation needing  improvement  and  answer  a  series  of  questions  in  relation  to  that  system.  In  part  3,  you  will suggest a new information system for a specific purpose supporting the HAS in part 2 that will help the organisation perform better and answer a series of questions with regards to that information system. In part   4,   you   will   synthesise   the   outcomes   of   parts   1,   2   &   3   into   a   report   containing   a   series   of recommendations to the organisation’s management.

Services and Product Offerings

Fallons is an organization that provides its customers with home maintenance services in South East Queensland. The organization was started by Neil T Fallon in the year 1962. The company started as Fallon Services and moves to Fallon Solutions in 2013.

The company follows the strategy of working for the customers by providing the customers with a wide range of home maintenance and improvement services, such as air conditioning, electrician, carpenter, TV & Data, Gas Fitters, Blocked Drains, Plumbers, and Appliance Repairs. The company also deals in the products as hot water systems, air conditioners, ceiling fans, and LED lighting (Fallonsolutions, 2018).

The company competes in the marketplace by offering enhanced customer service and support. The company provides 100% guarantee for the work and always offer clean-up after the services are completed. The customers are also contacted for scheduling the service time so that the execution is done as per their convenience. The organization keeps on enhancing its operations, services, and products to attract other customers.

The organization form of Fallons as per Mintzberg’s classification is Professional Structure. It is because the organization provides a wide range of products and services to the customers, such as air conditioning, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc. Each of these services demand specialized skills and the professionals having such skills work for the organization to achieve the goals and objectives (Mintzberg, 2001).

The primary activities of the organization include the home maintenance services, such as air conditioning, electrician, carpenter, TV & Data, Gas Fitters, Blocked Drains, Plumbers, and Appliance Repairs. The customer support services also come under the primary activities as the customers can schedule these services, re-schedule, or cancel these services as per their convenience. The sales and marketing of the services is also a primary activity as the customers need to know about the services being offered to them.

The company also deals in the products as hot water systems, air conditioners, ceiling fans, and LED lighting. The supply chain management activities are the secondary activities that are involved.

The bargaining power of the suppliers is moderate as the availability and involvement of the suppliers can impact the business operations of the organization significantly.

There are new entries that are being witnessed in every business sector and the impact of these entrants on the organization will be of moderate level.

The threat of substitutes is low as the organization is in the market since 1962 and has a huge customer base. The services that are offered by the organization cannot be replaced by any other services or products (Asad, 2012).

Market Competition and Bargaining Power

The customers are the primary entity that has an impact on the decision making abilities and strategies of the organization. The impact and bargaining power of the buyers is therefore high.

There is competition in every industry and the industry competition for Fallon is of moderate level.

Marketing Management System & Problems 

The marketing activities and the management of these activities is an issue for the organization as reported by the senior management and operational staff members.

The issues that marketing management system is currently facing are the use of traditional marketing practices instead of following an ad-hoc and pro-active approach. These are limited marketing channels and tools that are being used without strong presence on the social media channels. The organization is still working on the basis of word-of-mouth practice as the primary marketing technique and is not making use of any of the automated data analysis tools to understand the market patterns and trends.

The stakeholders that are currently involved in the system include the Marketing Manager and team that are responsible for developing and implementing the marketing plans and strategies.

The senior management and Board of Directors are also involved that are responsible for reviewing the sets of activities and suggesting the areas that may be improved upon.

The customers are the end-users that are the primary stakeholders that will be made aware of the organization services and products through the marketing of the same.

 

 

There are six parameters that are involved in the DeLone-McLean Model of Information System Success.

The marketing management system that is being used at Fallon has a lot many loopholes and is analysed on the basis of these six parameters.

The information quality that is involved and is provided by the system is poor as it makes use of limited sources and does not use automated analytical tools for enhanced processing of the data sets that are gathered (Delone & McLean, 2003).

The system quality of the marketing management system is also poor since the system is not reliable and is also not updated since very long. The service quality a result in not up to the mark as the marketing strategies that are suggested are limited and do not cover the expectations of all the customers involved.

The intention to use and user satisfaction of the system are inadequate as the system does not adhere with the latest quality and technology guidelines and is obsolete. The customers associated with the organization may not get to know about the services and products being launched which may result in enhanced levels of customer dissatisfaction in the long run.

Issues with Marketing Management System

The net benefits of the system may be poor due to the inability to carry out the marketing tasks and processes effectively. It may also have a negative impact on the sales and revenues of the organization.

Effectiveness of the system is setting up the right targets which are inadequate for market management system as it covers only 50% of its customer base and potential customers with the existing marketing tools and strategies that are in place.

Efficiency of the system is also not up to the mark as the revenues generated through the marketing efforts and strategies are 40% below the expected levels (Zidane & Olsson, 2017).

Efficacy is the ability to produce desired amount of the desired effect which is also not adequate since the employee engagement and satisfaction levels along with the customer engagement and satisfaction levels have dropped down by nearly 29%.

Details of the New Information System 

The new information system that is proposed for the organization is the automated marketing management system that will have the following new functionalities and features implemented in it.

• The system will be integrated with the Business Intelligence tools, such as automated data analytics tools, data warehousing tools, and online analytical data processing tools to make sure that the marketing data and management is automatically analysed. It will result in the recognition of the marketing trends and patterns to understand the expectations of the customers.
• The system will also include the analysis of the data from the social media channels. There will be a social media marketing team that will be set up in this system that will control the marketing of the services and products of the organization on the social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and likewise.
• The marketing channels will include the tele media, print media, and social media along with the offline modes of marketing (Bagshaw, 2015).
• The use of Big Data tools will be done so that the marketing data and information is better organized and stored.
• The marketing system will present the marketing team with rich graphics in the form of expectations of the customers, preferences of the customers on the basis of age group, community, region, gender, etc. using graphs, pie charts, and other graphical elements. The use of these features will assist in the decision-making processes and activities.
• There will be integration of the security tools and controls that will be done which will make sure that the data and information sets associated with the marketing processes are kept safe and protected at all times.
• The use of NoSQL databases will be done for the storage of the information and data sets.

The stakeholders that will be involved with the process will include the internal and external stakeholders.

The stakeholders that will be involved in the system will include the Marketing Manager and team that will be responsible for developing and implementing the marketing plans and strategies. The marketing team will also include data analysts and data scientists to analyse and monitor the market data and conduct surveys on the basis of the collected information sets.

Social media marketing team will be set up and will be involved as the stakeholders of the system. These will include Social Media Marketing Manager, Social Media Analysts, and associates (Biegel, 2009).

The senior management and Board of Directors will also be involved and the stakeholders will be responsible for reviewing the sets of activities and suggesting the areas that may be improved upon.

The customers are the end-users that are the primary stakeholders that will be made aware of the organization services and products through the marketing of the same.

The data and information that the new system will involve will be the data sets that will be collected using the processes as interviews, social media channels, group discussions, market agencies, surveys, questionnaire, and observations. These will include the use of the services and products offered by the organization by the customer on the basis of the customer id. The analysis will be made on the usage of these services on the basis of the age group of the customer, gender, community, region, economic status, etc.

DeLone-McLean Model of Information System Success

The system will involve the information as the social media information comprising of the customer details, product details, competitor details, and service details (Dorenda-Zaborowicz, 2012).

The type of knowledge that will be created by the new system will be enhanced and elaborated marketing guidelines, plans, and strategies. The marketing system will present the marketing team with rich graphics in the form of expectations of the customers, preferences of the customers on the basis of age group, community, region, gender, etc. using graphs, pie charts, and other graphical elements. The use of these features will assist in the decision-making processes and activities. The marketing tools will be used to automatically analyse the information sets and it will result in the recognition of the marketing trends and patterns to understand the expectations of the customers. The system will also generate automated market reports on the basis of the performance of the organization is specific regions.

The decision-making processes of the organization will improve with the implementation of the new information system. It is because the data and information sets from all the data sources will be available in the system which will be integrated and used to form collective strategies and decisions for the purpose of marketing. The use of social media channels will be done to understand the customer perspective and interact with them to gain information on their expectations from the organization. The tools that will be used for automatically analysing the data sets will reduce the processing speed and will provide the information on the prevailing trends and patterns in the market. The services and products to promote will be made clear for the organization. There may also be service areas that may not be performing well and such areas will also be highlighted. The decisions regarding the continuation of the services or to discontinue the services will be made clear.

 

The new system will be customer-facing system along with the involvement of the database management and analysis activities carried out at the back end.

The customers will be interacted with on the social media channels and will be able to view the details of the services and products being offered to them. The information on the discount deals and offers will also be made available to the customers. The massive sets of data will be handled using NoSQL databases and data analytics tools along with the Big Data tools. All of these will be handled at the back-end.

Proposed Automated Marketing Management System

The basic leadership procedures of the association will enhance with the usage of the new data framework. It is on the grounds that the information and data sets from every one of the information sources will be accessible in the framework which will be incorporated and used to shape aggregate procedures and choices to market. The utilization of online life channels will be done to comprehend the client point of view and communicate with them to pick up data on their desires from the association. The instruments that will be utilized for naturally dissecting the informational collections will lessen the handling speed and will give the data on the overarching patterns and examples in the market. The administrations and items to advance will be clarified for the association. There may likewise be benefit territories that may not be performing great and such regions will likewise be featured. The choices in regards to the continuation of the administrations or to stop the administrations will be clarified.

The customers will be provided with their desired services and products which will enhance their satisfaction and engagement levels. Also, the employee engagement levels will increase as the marketing processes and associated business operations will streamline.

The negative impacts could be the inability to manage the changes and security risks that may come up. These will be required to be managed using change management plan and security controls.

Effectiveness of the system is setting up the right targets which will be adequate for market management system as it will cover over 90% of its customer base and potential customers with the existing marketing tools and strategies will be in place.

Efficiency of the system will be up to the mark as the revenues generated through the marketing efforts and strategies will increase by 40%.  

Efficacy is the ability to produce desired amount of the desired effect which will be adequate since the employee engagement and satisfaction levels along with the customer engagement and satisfaction levels will go up by at least 45%.

The proposed information system must cover the existing customers and the new customers of the organization. The implementation of the system shall be done in a set of phases comprising of the phases as initiation, planning, execution, control, and closure of the system. This will make sure that the chances of system failure and the inability to manage the changes is avoided. The employees of Fallons and the other stakeholders will become used to the new system and will be able to adapt to the same.

There may be certain security risks and threats that may come up and these shall be avoided using the enhanced forms of security controls and measures. There shall be integration of the system with the automated controls as anti-malware tools, anti-denial tools, encryption of the data sets, intrusion detection systems, intrusion prevention systems, and likewise.

There shall also be use of social media channels done adequately and the adherence to the ethical and legal standards and norms shall be made all throughout. This will make sure that the revenues of the organization increase and the goodwill of the organization is also not impacted in any manner.

References

Asad, M. (2012). Porter Five Forces vs Resource Based View - A Comparison. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.1986725

Bagshaw, A. (2015). What is marketing automation?. Journal Of Direct, Data And Digital Marketing Practice, 17(2), 84-85. doi: 10.1057/dddmp.2015.46

Biegel, B. (2009). The current view and outlook for the future of marketing automation. Journal Of Direct, Data And Digital Marketing Practice, 10(3), 201-213. doi: 10.1057/dddmp.2008.37

Delone, W., & McLean, E. (2003). The DeLone and McLean Model of Information Systems Success: A Ten-Year Update. Journal Of Management Information Systems, 19(4), 9-30. doi: 10.1080/07421222.2003.11045748

Dorenda-Zaborowicz, M. (2012). Marketing w social media. Nowe Media, 0(3), 59. doi: 10.12775/nm.2012.003

Fallonsolutions. (2018). About Us | Fallon Solutions | One Call Trade Specialists. Retrieved from https://www.fallonsolutions.com.au/about_us.html#

Mintzberg, H. (2001). The yin and the yang of managing. Organizational Dynamics, 29(4), 306-312. doi: 10.1016/s0090-2616(01)00035-3

Zidane, Y., & Olsson, N. (2017). Defining project efficiency, effectiveness and efficacy. International Journal Of Managing Projects In Business, 10(3), 621-641. doi: 10.1108/ijmpb-10-2016-0085