Business and Information System in Creative Recreation - Case Study Example

Business and Information System Your Name, Name of Institution, Date of Submission Background Information Creative Recreation is a company that was set up to provide a unique blend of footwear and clothing to men and women. Creativity is their strength. They always come up with different new and very creative products for their market. This company was established in the year 2002. It was officially established in Orange County, in the State of California. This was after the founders realized that there was a big market gap in the footwear market. Most companies would design either official, or sports wear shoes. The founders thought of coming up with new creative products because what was in the market was not suitable for most lifestyles. Creative Recreation hence started off as a shoes company. The two founders had a good history and experience in the footwear industry by the time they made this decision. Creative Recreation decided to start their own generation that would not require one to put on a tie or suit. They came up with a new fashion style that was quickly picked up by entrepreneurs and people who do not need to be strictly in ties and suits. 1. Name of the Company: Creative Recreations URL (Company Website Link): 2. Current Information Technology in the Company: i. Store Locator- This system helps customers to find Creative Recreation stores whenever they are in a new location. People do not always have to carry around a lot of bulky clothing when they are travelling [Ral13]. They also don’t have to travel long distance to get to that single store that they know. They can simply make use of this tool to locate the nearest store, and buy products form it. This creates efficiency to the customers, and helps maintain customers for the business. ii. Order Tracking- When customers buy products; they want to make sure that they receive them safely, within a favorable time. This tool helps them to manage and track their order, by receiving real time feedback from the company in regards to the status of their purchases [BSh03]. iii. Email Order Notification-Email order notification is an automatic email system. It sends automatic emails to customers regarding their purchases, and any new products or news from the company. This is a good marketing tool, as well as an easy way to communicate with company customers. iv. Customer management System- This tool is used by the marketing department to profile and manage individual customers Through this, they can understand the individual needs of their customers, and divide them into specific groups before moving on to design products that will meet the demand of each group. This gives them a competitive edge over their customers. 3. One of the Information Systems Available in the Company: Online Ordering System-Shopping Cart An online ordering system is the heart of all successful online stores [BSh03]. This is a crucial system that must not miss in any online store that is thinking about success. Creative Recreations have an online ordering system in the form of a shopping cart. A good shopping cart needs to have the following: Secure Socket Layer Abilities- These are necessary for god security while conducting shopping Calculators- These are important as they help the customers to do their math during shopping. People would prefer a shopping cart with an automatic calculator because it makes their work easier [Had12]. Shipping calculators would also be very helpful for a company that ships worldwide. They will help the customer to know the amount of money it will cost to buy and ship the product. Sales tax calculators are also very important. Search Functions- These should help the customers to easily locate whatever products they are looking for. They could help in selecting specific products or products that fall within a specific description [Mar02]. Frequent Shopper Functions- these are functions that identify frequent shoppers. They may be used to award discount coupons to returning clients. Database Importers-These are very essential features of any shopping cart. They help import information from the programs that have been used to set up databases for your products, like Ms Access and Ms Excel [BSh03]. Just like any other information system, an online ordering system has various components that must be coordinated for it to work successfully. The following major components make up an online ordering system: a) Hardware- Computer hardware is simply a term used to refer to all the physical components that make a computer system [Jei03]. To operate this system well, there needs to be a monitor, a device for data storage, a hard disk drive, and any other hardware that makes a computer. The customer needs a full computer to operate the system. The administrators need that too. b) Software- The main software that makes an online shopping system is a store front and administration. Administration allows for the system managers to watch over the system and manage it effectively in order to achieve their goals, while store front is what the customer uses. It has all the features that enable a customer to go through the whole process of ordering and purchasing products [Gar09]. c) Data-An online shopping system does not have any data in itself. Data is the information that is required. In this case, the customer needs to know what products are available in store, and at how much. Such data is stored in databases, which are fixed with a database transfer capability. d) Network-Since the website is used by the whole international community, a local area connection would definitely not be the best. Availability of wide area network, metropolitan network or e) Procedures- The only procedure involved in this system is the ordering and buying procedure. A customer searches for a products and then selects it by adding to cart. If a wrong product is added to cart, it can be removed easily [Pan08]. The customer then confirms the order, and receives an automatic calculated price that includes shipping cost, and taxes. If the customer is fine with everything, he will proceed to checkout and make a payment. The goods will be shipped within a specified number of days. f) People- There are various people involved in this type of information system. We have the back-end users and front-end users [Jei03]. Back-end users are the people who are responsible for building and maintaining the system, they ensure that it is running the way it should operate. They include system developers and designers. Front end users are the actual users of the system. They are the reason for creating the system. In this case, they are mainly Creative Recreation customers. 4. System Control and Security Tools Intrusion and extrusion detection systems- These are security tools that add a [Eff08]security layer to provide ultimate protection to the system [Had12]. They are able to detect when an intruder tries to hack not the system or forcefully get into the system. In such cases, they will alert the system administrator and block any unaccepted behavior. A network sniffer is a good example of broad systems that this security control tool can detect and block. Data Encryption- Continuous encryption is essential to block eavesdroppers and spies. E-transactions should be secured by combining encryption techniques with good authentication systems [Syn11]. 5. Job description for a system analyst A system analyst is that IT person that is responsible for designing new information technology solutions that will help improve the performance of the business and increase efficiency and effectiveness in the business. He may do a design for an internal client like a particular department, or for an external customer [Gar09]. Analysts should be able to look into current business models, inspect their performances, and come up with relevant IT suggestions that can improve the business performance. They always work hand in hand with their clients and system developers. These are the people who will come up with outline designs and give their costing. They will estimate how much the new system will cost, and how profitable it will be . They will explain how the system will be used, step by step, and why the organization needs to acquire it. Once the design is approved, they work closely with the developers to make sure they produce what is needed [Pan08]. Work Activities Looking into the company’s systems and coming up with proposals that will help improve current systems. Conduct feasibility study for company activities and produce a report. Building up on client’s requirements into a detailed project brief. Presenting company proposals to investors and any other person who may need them. Overseeing the installation and implementation of any new systems in the company. Testing new systems for efficiency and effectiveness. Developing user instructions for new systems. Training staff on how to use the new systems. Keeping up to date with any developments in the industry. Desired Qualities Technical understanding and management, Information Analytic techniques, should be able to communicate effectively and inform other people, should have strong problem solving techniques, be able to develop budgets, good strategic planning skills and quality management. Should have good experience and knowledge in apparel business units. Clean understanding of the clothing and footwear industry Able to install and implement online payment and shopping systems. Good grasp of C#ASP.NET Working experience in an ecommerce environment Working Experience: At least 7 years of experience in a busy ecommerce environment. Bibliography Ral13: , (Stair & Reynolds, 2013), BSh03: , (Sharp, Filipe, & Cordeiro, 2003), Had12: , (Nahari & Krutz, 2012), Mar02: , (Kirikova, 2002), Jei03: , (Cano, 2003), Gar09: , (Shelly & Rosenblatt, 2009), Pan08: , (Kourouthanassis & Giaglis, 2008), Eff08: , (Oz, 2008), Syn11: , (Syngress, 2011), Read More