Ben Means 8470373

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INFOSYS.110 BUSINESS SYSTEMS:
DELIVERABLE 2: BUSINESS SECTION
SEMESTER 2 2014

Name Ben Means
NetID Bmea394
Group Number: 475
Website Link: http://infosys1102014s2group475.blogspot.co.nz/
Tutorial Details
Tutor: Day: Time:
Mira Lee Thursday 2pm
Time Spent on
Assignment:
17ish hours Word Count: 1644
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BUSINESS ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
There is a strong correlation between general well being and social interaction, and in turn a
strong relationship between general well being and academic success. We have come up
with a solution to this issue by endorsing social interaction through technology. People in
universities today have grown up with technology and use it to help with many issues in life
already. So why not use it again to help with this issue? After all people like to go with what
theyre familiar with.
3. BUSINESS SECTION
3.1 Vision
To eliminate the major challenges that face social interaction in universities around the
world.
3.2 Industry Analysis: Interactive Online Media Industry
Industry: Interactive Online Media Industry.
Force: High/Low: Justification:
Buyer power: High There are hundreds of social media sites/apps for
customers to choose from and more being made
every year. New social networks are emerging all
the time.. Not every platform takes off and
gains a significant user base. (Angela
Stringfellow, 2014)
Supplier power: Low Consumers have many choices when it comes to
social platforms and not every platform will
appeal to each individual. Theres a social
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network for everything these days, but do we
really need so many options? (Selena Larson,
2014)
Threat of new entrants: High Virtually anyone can start up their own social
platform for whatever reason now days. The
barriers to entry are just the individuals
determination to make it happen. As Kyli Singh
(2014) tells us there are plenty of new social
media tools popping up
Threat of substitutes: High There are just so many options for people to
choose from, no one platform will be good
enough to satisfy the needs of every indivdual.
Jason Gilbert (2012) talks about the many
different alternatives there are to Facebook, one
of many social networking sites.
Rivalry among existing
competitors:
High Competition in the market in is intense. Different
companies are always trying to push their
product upon consumers and/or buyout existing
competition. According to Hayden Donnell of the
NZ Herald (2014), Facebook has recently bought
WhatsApp and Oculus for 19Billion and 2Billion
respectively. Clear evidence of the hostility in the
industry.
Overall attractiveness of the industry: As competition is fierce with brutal takeovers
happening to any perceived threats and the amount of substitutes available being through
the roof, I would say that the industry is not looking very attractive. As the competition is
high, it would be hard for a niche upstart business to get a foothold without significant
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funding. It would be harder still to turn that business into a profitable one. Also there is
already a social platform for just about everything, so creating business strategy with
competitive advantage would be near impossible.
3.3 Customers and Thei r Needs
Our customers would be exclusively university students . Primarily University students living
away from home, or anyone who finds social interaction at university difficult. It can be
difficult to start fresh and make new friends, students at uni want as many opportunities as
they can get to meet new people and make new friends. These individuals are looking for an
have more fun in their daily lives, whilst balancing their studies. Not getting enough social
interaction can lead on to issues such as anxiety, stress and depression. Around 20% of
students experience social isolation at some stage during university. Jennifer L. Payne (2014)
tells us how one of the common symptom of depression is social isolation.
3.4 The Product and Service
People will be able to combat their social anxiety through our app. What our app does is it
generates opportunities for students to meet other people and get involved with activities
outside of academia. Our app will offer a range of services, and by using the apps
features/functionalities students will be able to; join university clubs, make new friends, find
study partners, keep up with social events and just general socialising. It will have a user
friendly search function and different tabs which students can go to depending on what
theyre looking for. It will bring together many of the features that other social media
platforms have; Like profiling yourself and searching for people with similar interests.
3.4 Suppliers and Partners
Our main supplier will be app developers, as we will need to actually have an app to present
to potential customers. A potential app developer could be App La Carte who offers the
services needed to make such an app come together. As well as this we would rely on
Apples App store and the Google store to supply us with the ability to have our app
downloaded.
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Our partners would be the universities, as we would need to get their permission and work
alongside them to make it work the way we want it to. They could help us get an instant
customer base by uploading their students IDs, this would also help ensure that it remains
exclusive to university students.
3.6 Strategy: Focused Low Cost
Our business is going to be targeting a narrow market, i.e University students. We are
unlikely to expand beyond that in the foreseeable future as managing a mass audience will
be a far greater challenge. We also are looking to keep it exclusive to university students.
Our business is going to be focused on low cost; keeping the app affordable. Nobody is
willing to pay for social platforms in todays technological age, so we will likely provide it for
free or at a very, very low cost.
The overall strategy is therefore Focused Low Cost.
3.7 Value Chain Activity: Technology and Development
Technology and Development is the most important value chain activity for our business.
This is the most important value chain activity for our business as the development of our
app is ultimately going to be the deciding factor in our success. An app that isnt developed
well will not gain any momentum and end up dead in the dark. It needs to be developed in a
way that will fall in line with our vision and help overcome the challenges around social
interaction at universities.
3.8 Business Processes
3.8.1. CUSTOMER REVIEWS PROCESS - Managing customer reviews is an important process in
our business as we need to be able to satisfy the customers in order to retain them. It is the
process of evaluating a customer review and then responding to that review appropiately;
depending on if its a good review or a bad review. Its is important to take customer
feedback into consideration so that we can make the right adjustments allowing for us to
continue developing and improve the app, keeping it up-to-date so that our customer base
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can keep increasing. Our product will be more likely to appeal to the customers if we are
letting them know that we are listening to them.


3.8.2. APP DEVELOPMENT PROCESS Having the app developed in the correct manner and to
a high standard will add to the overall business success. It is the app that is most important
to the business; without the app there will be no business at all, so we want to put a lot of
resources into getting it developed well. This is part of our value chain activity of technology
and development; it is the development part. A well developed app will be able to help us
see our vision of eliminating challenges facing social interaction within universities.
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3.9 Functionalities
3.9.1. CUSTOMER REVIEWS PROCESS -
Record customer opinions and analyse them
Change the wrongs if fault is found
3.9.2. APP DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
Ability to update and modify content
Ability to be downloaded
3.10 Systems

3.10. 1. CUSTOMER REVIEW SYSTEM: A customer review system will allow for us to hear what
the users of the app think about it, and gain some information on how we could improve to
suit their needs. We will incorporate the functionalities from the customer review process
so that we can further improve the business as a whole; I,e. Recording customer opinions
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and evaluating how it can help the business. This will make it possible for the customers to
directly help us reach our vision.
3.10. 2. APP DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM: The app development system give us the opportunity to
develop the app on an ongoing basis, to stay up to date with trends and being able to satisfy
customers changing needs. It is important to have this system to stay ahead of customer
expectations and so that we dont fall short of our vision.
3.10. 3. DOWNLOAD PROCESSING SYSTEM: The download processing system is a critical
system. It gives us the ability to have our app readily available to download for consumers,
and be of the standards required by the App store/ Google play store. This is arguably the
most important system as if the app cant be downloaded then there will be no business at
all, making our vision completely unattainable.
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3.11. Summary Table: Value Chain to Systems

Value Chain
Activity
Processes Functionalities Specific Information
System(s)
Broad Information
System(s)

Technology
and
Development
1. Customer
reviews process

1. Record customer opinions and analyse
2. Change the wrongs if fault is found
Customer review system Decision support system
2. App
development
process
1. Ability to update and modify content

2. Ability to be downloaded
App development system


Download processing
system
Transaction processing
system


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CONCLUSION
Our apps primary purpose is to help fight the challenges of social interaction that face
university students around the world. IT and IS can help us with this by improving efficiency
and letting us stay ahead of todays competitive market. They let us co-create with our
customers and use their feedback to improve their experience whilst also improving our
business.
REFERENCES


1. Angela Stringfellow. (2014). 7 Emerging social netwroks to watch in 2014.
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/7-
emerging-social-networks-to-watch-in-2014/

2. Selena Larson. (08/01/2014). Are there too many social
networks?. http://readwrite.com/2014/01/07/are-there-too-many-social-networks

3. Jason Gilbert. (05/17/2012). Facebook alternatives: 10 new social networks to join if
facebooks too corporate for you.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/16/facebook-
alternatives_n_1522647.html

4. Hayden Donnell. (26/03/2014). Five of the biggest tech
takeovers. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=
11226839
5. Kyli Singh. (28/07/2014). 10 rising social networks you should explore.
http://mashable.com/2014/07/28/social-networks-on-the-rise/

6. Jennifer L. Payne (20/07/2014). Loneliness, Britains silent plague hurts young people
most. http://www.thegaurdian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jul/20/loneliness-britains-
silent-plague-hurts-young-people-most

7. Ryan the graduate. (19/07/2014). Dealing with PHD stress the right way:advice from
3 PHD graduates. http://thegradstudentway.com/blog/?=386

8. http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/friends-average-person-have