Business Systems Analysis

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Business Systems Analysis

Introduction

Styled by Mocha is a small brick and mortar business with a small online presence. We offer designer clothing, shoes and accessories for men and women. We do have a website that only contains a few items from our store. Customers are currently only able to purchase items in our store. This is becoming a big problem because we are not able to reach many of our customers as easily as all our competitors. Our goal at Styled by Mocha is to promote growth with an online presence and provide convenience to our customers.

Problem Statement

The business owner is looking for a technology solution that will meet the following key technology requirements: integrating online shopping, managing inventory and shipping, providing order status and online payment processing, facilitating collaboration internally and externally (with staff and customers), managing customer contacts, providing reporting, and being able to use the new technology to manage the current brick-and-mortar processes (sales, payments, inventory, and customer contact).

Two Technologies

I have identified 2 technologies that will help reach this goal. The first technology is Wireless, mobile computing and mobile commerce. Society today depends heavily on wireless devices which can be used to shop online (Chhonker et al., 2017). Mobile commerce creates opportunities for the business to deliver new services to existing customer while attracting new ones. The second technology that I have chosen is social computing an area of computer science that is concerned with the intersection of social behavior and computational systems (Fernando et al., 2016). Social media is a huge platform for advertising and representation of a company.

Business Requirements

Objectives

• To promote online shopping and shipping by providing order status and online payment processing.
• To facilitate collaboration internally and externally (with staff and customers).
• To manage customer contacts so as to get reports and feedback.
• To create an online platform to be used to advertise the business to online potential clients.

Project Description

The first strategy that needs to be put in place is hiring a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant can provide your company with cutting-edge technological solutions with a human touch. On freelance websites, virtual assistants are widely accessible and reasonably priced, even for tiny firms. They can take on demanding jobs, saving you time and expanding your business. A virtual assistant also comes equipped with social media marketing skills and will therefore help create an online platform (Georgescu, 2018). Secondly, the business owner will need productivity applications. These apps come at no cost and are easy to use. All that is needed is a smartphone mobile device installation. Through the sending and receiving of payments online, web-based payment systems support the growth of enterprises. Web-based payment has made it possible for many firms to reach out to potential clients’ because of the variety of payment alternatives and their versatility (Tounekti et al., 2019). This is so that you can attract more clients who prefer using a certain web-based payment solution by offering a variety of payment methods.

Another strategy to be put in place is to improve social marketing through advertising. The business can get two model, male and female who will be used to model the clothes on Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok. The platforms will also be used to schedule surveys and questionnaires so as to get customer feedbacks and requests (Evans et al., 2021). Customers are more likely to recommend a business to others when they now that the business listens to their needs. By doing so the business creates a good image to its customers as well potential clients. Hence the business is able to give its competitors a competitive edge.

Technology Requirements

I’ve discovered 2 technologies that will facilitate achieving this objective. Wireless, mobile computing, and mobile commerce make up the first technology. Today’s society is increasingly reliant on wireless gadgets, which can be utilized to do internet shopping (Chhonker et al., 2017). Mobile commerce gives businesses the chance to offer new products to current customers while luring in new ones. The second technology I’ve selected is social computing, a branch of computer science that studies how social behavior and computational systems interact (Fernando et al., 2016). A significant marketing and brand-representation platform is social media.

Competitors and Technology

The best well known competitors in the fashion industries are Gucci and Chanel. Gucci however has a competitive advantage. Gucii uses its products to market for the company. Their customers post the products on the various social media platform therefore attracting other potential clients (Romo et al., 2017). They have studied their customers’ behavior and realized that people like posting clothes they look good in. Their products are also of very high quality hence attracting long-term clients. Gucci has made an image for itself such that the whole world knows that it provides quality products. As much as its competitors such as Chanel have good products, Gucci still remains on top.

Mobile Commerce

Fashion retailer Forever 21 is deserving of high praise for its use of social media. Social media is mostly available smartphones and other devices that can access the internet. Fashion 21 promotes advocacy and engagement in all its social media platforms. According to McCollum, Facebook is used by Forever 21 to present fashion in a fun, compelling, and shareable way. Given the large presence of the brand’s primary customer, which consists of teens who are digital natives, on Instagram, it makes perfect sense (Chhonker, 2017). What better way to foster a relationship with them and encourage them to drop by on the weekend to try the newest item.

Social Computing

A large selection of women’s clothing may be found at Sophie and Trey, an online fashion retailer. Since Sophie and Trey have been working in the online fashion industry for a while, they have demonstrated how fashion companies can use Instagram as a powerful marketing tool (Fernando et al., 2016). Their social media activity and visibility are growing daily, but their Instagram and Pinterest pages have garnered greater attention in terms of marketing. The best aspect of their social media marketing plan is that they continually use various strategies and engage in friendly banter with their customers and supporters

Technology benefit

The fashion companies Forever 21 and Sophie and Trey and gaining massively from their online social media platforms. Their customers can easily order from them online and get their products delivered. They do not have to make physical appearances so as to buy the products (Stephen, 2016). Customers are also exposed to products of variety of types, colours and sizes giving them options to choose from. The social media platforms enable the customers to review the products and offer feedback. This gives the companies information on what to improve on. The companies are also able to use the different online platforms to advertise their products. The target market online is bigger compared to physical advertisement (Stephen, 2016). The companies are also able to monitor their competitors’ social media platforms and scan potential gaps.

Technology Solutions

Mobile Commerce

Having smartphones will help for easier communication with clients. The landline phones are not portable and have no access to the internet. With smartphones, one can download apps such as slack and asana which are very profitable for the business (Chhonker et al., 2017). They also have access to social media platforms which makes it easy to advertise and attract potential buyers.

Social Computing

The technology will help analyze social behavior of potential buyers. By doing so they will understand their needs and the target markets wants and find ways to satisfy them (Fernando et al., 2016). The current target market is both men and women. Conducting studies using surveys and questionnaires can be very effective.

Recommendations

The technology solution that best suits my business is hiring a virtual assistant who can also be my social media manager. He or she will be able to create online platforms which can be used for advertising, shopping, payments, reviews and feedback. The virtual assistant can also use the different platforms to monitor social behavior and trends. This technology solution will help identify market gaps and potential clients.

Overall Benefit

At Styled by Mocha, the main benefit we hope to acquire from the technology solution is to encourage growth through an online presence in order to benefit our clients and gain a competitive edge (Stephen, 2016). We will also be able to attract more clients hence more sales hence more profits.

Basic Security Considerations

Security Features

Introducing your business to the online platforms has a lot of advantages. However, everything with an advantage has a disadvantage. The different social media accounts are prone to hacking and other insecurities. The business should consider a number of security features. One of the features is confidentiality (Qayyum, 2021). All employees should handle all passwords and information regarding the online platforms with confidentiality. Unauthorized personnel should have no access to them. The business administration should also perform random audits to ensure that there are no breaches (Qayyum, 2021).

Third Party Vendors

Third party vendors also need to be managed by conducting risk assessment to ensure that the potential vendor exceeds the company’s security standards. The risk assessment may be tiring but it is better than hiring a vendor who may not be confidential (Kim & Altmann, 2020).

Internal Safeguarding

The company should also input internal safeguarding protocols. These include having screenlocks on all company devices, clearing out old data and updating passwords often (Qayyum, 2021). Employees should also be advised against using public wifi to access company data.

References

Chhonker, M. S., Verma, D., & Kar, A. K. (2017). Review of technology adoption frameworks in mobile commerce. Procedia computer science, 122, 888-895.

Evans, D., Bratton, S., & McKee, J. (2021). Social media marketing. AG Printing & Publishing.

Fernando, M. D., Ginige, A., & Hol, A. (2016). Impact of social computing on business outcomes. 13th International Cnference on Web Based Communities and Social Media (WBC2016).

Georgescu, A. A. (2018). Chatbots for Education-Trends, Benefits and Challenges. ELearning & Software for Education,

Kim, K., & Altmann, J. (2020). Platform provider roles in innovation in software service ecosystems. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.MacCollum,

C., Pape, H., Romley, N., & Witmer, O. FOREVER 21 CASE STORY.

Romo, Z. G., Medina, I. G., & Romero, N. P. (2017). Storytelling and social networking as tools for digital and mobile marketing of luxury fashion brands. International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies, 11(6), 136-149.

Stephen, A. T. (2016). The role of digital and social media marketing in consumer behavior. Current opinión in Psychology, 10, 17-21.

Tounekti, O., Ruiz-Martinez, A., & Gómez, A. F. S. (2019). Users supporting multiple (mobile) electronic payment systems in online purchases: an empirical study of their payment transaction preferences. IEEE Access, 8, 735-766.

Use of Social Media over the years

Year	Facebook	Instagram	Youtube	Tiktok
2017	70%	53%	35%	24%
2018	73%	60%	44%	33%
2019	70%	67%	51%	45%
2020	66%	80%	67%	72%