Analysis Of Computer Brands Suppliers, Google Glass Privacy, Authentication And Authorization, E-tailer, Market Creator, And Content Provider, And IT Services At UPS And Uber Essay.

Competitive rivalry among five suppliers of computer brands

Answer to question 1

The classmates or the students can be able to provide an analysis of the competitive rivalry among the five suppliers of computer brands. This is due to the little differentiation in the supplier power of the personal computer. The rivalry also occurs due to the costing correlated with changing suppliers, the other reason is the buyer power that originates from the price sensitivity of the users or the customers (Patterson and Hennessy 2017). The other reason is the low costing associated with switching to other personal computers. 

 

Figure 1: Business Strategies

(Source: Bharadwaj et al. 2013)

 

Figure 2: Product or Services

(Source: Kim, Cohen and Netessine 2017)

 

Figure 3: Methods for Identifying Competitive Advantage

(Source: Goetsch and Davis 2014)

 

Figure 4: SWOT Analysis

(Source: Bohari, Hin and Fuad 2017)

Answer to question 2

Google glass can be a threat to one's privacy as there is no authentication or PIN associated with the Google Glass. The hackers have discovered the vulnerabilities within, the Google Glass has the ‘root' capability that the hacker can enable by connecting it to the computer and executing some commands into it (Hong 2013). The hackers thus can hack the Google Glass’s output and can monitor what the user or the owner of the Glass is viewing or watching.

 

Figure 5: P3P

(Source: Hong 2013)

 

Figure 6: Wi-Fi Security Challenges

(Source: Hong 2013)

Authentication is the procedure of confirming the identities of the users. At first, the system will have to identify the authentication of one user, then the system can detect the access privilege for the user (Killian et al. 2014). Authorization is the procedure catering the users the permission to grant access to an enterprise system and access the files and access the storage space of database of the enterprise.

 

Fig 7: Authorization and Authentication

(Source: Killian et al. 2014)

 

Figure 8: Spreading of Malicious Software

(Source: Killian et al. 2014)

Answer to question 4

Executive Support System (ESS) is a software that helps to convert an organisation's data into reports. These reports are utilised by the management team to assess the billing, staffing, scheduling and cost accounting. Cambridge Systematics use the ESS to encourage the investment planning procedures for the Ministry of Transportation.

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is the document which defines the effects of a proposed action on the environment (Elam 2013). This is basically the documentation which provides the general overview of the entire business process in form of documentation.

Privacy threats associated with Google Glass

 

Figure 9: Types of System in Organizations

(Source: Elam 2013) 

Answer to question 5

E-tailer

E-tailer involves a retailer which sells products or goods by means of electronic transactions over the Internet. An example is Amazon.

 

Figure 10: E-Trailer graph

(Source: Elam 2013)

 

Figure 11: Example of Retail Sales Distribution

(Source: Elam 2013)

Market creator

The market creators utilize the Internet technology to develop a market including buyers and sellers altogether. An example is eBay, Inc.

Content provider

The content provider controls gaining access to the primary repository of data over the Internet. A content provider is determined to be utilized by some other application programs that access the provider with the utilization of a provider-client object (Guo et al. 2015). The provider clients along with the providers together provide secured data access. 

Answer to question 6

Vacuum Express must adopt the information technology. They must keep in mind their budget and should develop a basic website, the customers will know the existence of the company and along with that they know the products they are selling and the price range, it will help them certainly to increase the sales (Pei, Paswan and Yan 2014). Though initially, they will have to pay heavy for the development of the website, the information technology will certainly benefit them in the long run. 

Answer to question 1

1.a. UPS has taken a significant approach and has adopted the IT services for company's good. They have taken the initiative to attach a bar-code label to the trucks by which they ship their products. The MIS infrastructure includes the worldwide website, user-friendly software, communication systems and the and data management software (Mazzucato 2016). All the information details of the electronic label get transmitted to the central computer system of the enterprise from by utilizing the handheld devices like Delivery Information Acquisition Device (DIAD). All this information is then processed, recorded. All the information helps to monitor the details of the delivery.

1.b. UPS can track the trucks all the time, in turn, tracking the truck drivers all the time, thus the drivers will be under constant monitoring. UPS can track each and every move the truck takes and that can violate the privacy of the drivers, the drivers may not want to disclose the details (Schwalbe 2015). It may happen due to any natural calamities they can be late delivering the packages, also they can take a different route for shortcuts and for road blockages, also they can halt somewhere for any personal reasons. However, they have to explain the things every time to the seniors of UPS. Thus UPS is an ethical dilemma whether to track trucks or not.

Authentication and authorization

The security breaches can occur due to the hackers’ attack, if that happens the hackers can know the business procedures of UPS. The entire tracking department may falter due to attack. The track drivers may get confused and the whole delivery system can get disrupted.

Answer to question 2

2.a. The main challenge associated with wireless networking is the security challenge. Uber must ensure that their data network is secured enough, if the data of the company gets breached, then thousands of customers’ personal data will be hacked and their privacy will be compromised, also the drivers drive cars based on the maps provided over the Internet (Bilbao-Osorio, Dutta and Lanvin 2013). The maps may shoe some dispute results due to the attack and that can disrupt the entire network, in turn, disrupt the overall operations of the enterprise.

2.b. Market segmentation is the procedure involving division of customers into multiple groups. Uber mainly targets the urban customers. The customers those who live in distant villages or forest areas or near the country boundaries are out of scope and these segments are not included by Uber. The Google map or similar other maps generally do not show the exact locations and exact pathways of those distinct regions, also the roads are bad and there are threats from robbers and thieves and other forms of physical security.

Answer to question 3

3.a. Amazon is applying information system to facilitate the e-commerce business. Amazon offers numerous functionalities like ‘Recommendations for you', ‘Related items you have viewed', ‘Inspired by your shopping trends', ‘Wishlist', ‘Saved for later' for the customers. The sellers also get appreciated by feedbacks and ratings thus they can get benefits and reputations as well. They also have the best return policy, the customers who are not happy with the product can return and can get the full refund. The products they sell are being categorized and that makes the searching of products simple (Bloom et al. 2014). The reviews from the customers play an important role, thus Amazon get to know about the product and the sellers and that ease them to take the best effective decision. They also recommend similar products to the customers thus help them to increase their sales more. These are strategies Amazon follows while conducting online retail business.

Amazon has developed web version of the site and also a mobile app which offers the same functionality as the web-based site (Jing et al. 2014). The page speed loading is crucial for a business that is why they focus heavily on the page buffering so that the customers can get full shopping satisfaction, in this way the information technology is helping their business.

Types of e-commerce models

3.b. Amazon has introduced a new business ‘Amazon Go'. The ‘Amazon Go' is the procedure where the customers check in, grab the product they want and just check out. Once they check out, Amazon sends the bill. The name and details of the products they pick up are stored in the cloud and the bill is processed according to the cloud data and lastly, the bill is sent to the customers (Sandberg, Amin and Johansson 2015). The entire online retailing website and ‘Amazon Go’ both are executed on the Amazon AWS cloud platform. Their innovation and advanced secured customer service are attracting large customers from every corner of the world.

Answer to question 1

Management issues

The management information system is associated with the management behaviour, human resource management and the strategy.

The issues that are involved and that needs to be detected are:

1. Human resource management:The human resource management is associated with the training, the training of employees of the enterprise so that they can cater maximum productivity and the compensations (Weiss 2014). The employees must get trained to adopt the relatively new information technology and new tools to enhance business operations.
2. Strategy:The sensitive data of the enterprise must not get leaked and the competitors should not access those data as well. The sensitive data or the personal data obtained as a result of data mining should be handled by managers and the managers must take the decision.
3. Management behaviour:The management behaviour deals with the development of quality leaders those having the quality of taking the best decision and the best decision in time.

Organization issues

The information system of any organization is associated with the hierarchy of the organization, the political interest team, business culture and process and the functional specialities. As P& G has decided to adopt the IT technology, that is why they must consider the management issues associated with the IT technology and they are-

1. The Functional specialities-P & G requires backing up of the functional specialities in the IT department (Schwalbe 2015).
2. Business Processes-The business processes must get changed and must be relevant to the new initiative taken by the enterprise.
3. Culture-A new culture must be developed for the business culture and the workers of the enterprise must get adapted to the culture needs.

Technology issues

The information technology of any enterprise consists of data management technology, networking and telecommunications technology and hardware and software components. The configuration of the Decision Cockpits, Business Sphere and Business Sphere in P&G assists in changing the way it accumulates data and process data. For this reason, the technology issues associated must be detected within that are associated with networking, networking issues must be resolved to support the solutions, issues associated with the computer hardware must be addressed as the software must get complied with the hardware, the issues associated with software must be detected as the software programs must be updated regularly (Bryman. and Bell, E., 2015). The issues associated with the data management technology must be detected as well since the data management technology is associated with storing and accumulation of data.

Answer to question 2

Business Sufficiency

The business sufficiency helps to predict the market share of P&G and the associated key performance matrices ranging from a period of six months to one year. Various analysis models help to know the exact scenario of the current market and the exact scenario of the enterprise with relevance to the current market share. The effectiveness of the tool is based on the analysis model and they are as follows-

IT services at UPS and Uber

The "why" models showcase data sales data at the product line, country border and the territory line and the store levels along with the drivers, for example, consumer consumption and the advertising of the products (Bocken and Short 2016). It also highlights the factors associated with particular economic data at the country levels as well as the regional levels.

The “action” showcases the path that the enterprise P&G can undertake by adjusting the product mix, pricing and the advertising to react to the predictions.

That is why Business Sufficiency can assist the enterprise, P&G’s CEO and the executives to detect and predict the quality of products and the markets which are responsible for the sixty percent of the sales. The tools cater the visualization of data that showcases changes both in the market share and the sales (Bocken and Short 2016). The Business Sufficiency programs also help in more detailing of data, in turn, helps the executives to flourish the business.

Business Sphere

The Business Sphere is developed and powered by P&G’s GBS popularly known as P&G’s Global Business Services (GBS). It provides the data environment or the data platform which encourages effective decision making by enhancing real-time business information (Manna 2016). There are numerous algorithms and analysis models that are associated with the Business Sphere and it facilitates the store level, product line and the country boundary and territory level and it also assists in the monitoring trends like proper respond to advertising and properly respond to consumer consumption around specific regions and countries (Beach and Lipshitz 2017). The Business Sphere provides the tools which facilitate the top managers to take an effective decision by conducting video-conferencing and in this way the managers can detect the problems occurring within and can take the best decision that can enrich the business activities. P&G currently has around fifty Business Sphere all around the globe.

The Decision Cockpits

The Decision Cockpits are capable to provide the data sources related to market to the users and the customers. The cockpits generally act as dashboards that display the readable charts for the users or the customers. The users can know the latest status and trends about the current market (Ferrell and Fraedrich 2015). There are lots of features incorporated into it and the features are sending of alerts automatically at the time of occurrence of some meaningful or useful events. The statistical analysis, the control charts helps in the mining of more and more data. Decision Cockpits caters a platform where all the real-time business data can be found, all the employees can able to focus on the effective decision to flourish the business.

Answer to question 3

P&G utilizes the ‘Distributed development’ model that enables adoption of specific tools that is required for the enterprise to flourish and grow. P&G by adopting the IT technology in their premises can get the desired growth and the desired outcome. In this way, they can get a competitive advantage. The Business Sphere, Business Sufficiency and the Decision Cockpits have been elaborately defined in the study and these can be quite useful for the managers in taking the best decision. The systems are bound to provide products and solutions with those are cost-effective. These systems can make sure that the accurate data can be drilled and all these systems can help the management team to take the best effective decision for the business embellishment.

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