Networking and telecommunications
Networking is an important tool for business groups, for entrepreneurs in general. The strong alliance with the entrepreneur and the business demands of entrepreneurs invade the new world of business and uphold business relationships. The good generation of business is mainly through word of mouth, the business networking helps in explaining the nature of the business and as the associate networking business people will help to know about the business and resume to obtain the new sales as the people like to pass on the business to people. A café is considered to be an ideal venue as it provides a vast opportunity for presenting the business and to make relations and to develop a good rapport with the customers. The networking system provides the work system in the coffee shops, It is a system in which human participants or machines are actively involved in the business process operation. While creating or implementing a work system, one needs to be very careful. This system makes use of the hardware and the software and the system act as the display systems in providing the information from the coffee desk, by feeding the in formation from the table itself. The telecommunications use the intercommunication between the employees in the work place and the easy methods involved in the process.
The advantage in making customers involve in the work system directly is that it eliminates the need of having extra employees in the restaurant, and hence it can decrease the operating cost. It provides much of the increasing opportunities for the firm in technological terms. It makes the operation in the firm much smoother.
The challenge that are faced by the networking business are that face to face communication is not possible. The networking consists of hardware and the software application and the system failure causes interruption in the operations.
The M-coupons are bar code operations with the window application, which are useful in sending sms through their IT system. “Our system can send a unique coupon code or a UPC number that is entered in at point of purchase at retail stores or online. We work with local and national retailers to facilitate redemption. We can collect and track response rates by customer, place, and effectiveness of offer. We can even track if the offer was forwarded to another phone” (Mobile coupons, 2010, para.5).
Customer relationship management
The CRM is much useful in the organization, it is plays a vital part in the management in optimizing the opertions.It catalyzes the organization for better management of the resources, minimizing wastage, optimising resources, maximum efficiency and excellent feedback and turnover from the customer.The main CRM strategies are the focus on the existing customers,maximize the revenue and the operations,maximum output with the minimal input,minimization in the operating expenses and the optimization of the resources. “CRM processes that help identify and target their best customers, generate quality sales leads, and plan and implement marketing campaigns with clear goals and objectives” (Ward, 2010, para.3).
A CRM strategy is the outline of how the enterprise deals with the customer to meet its different value. The different strategy for the implementation of CRM are the investment from the customer depending on the value, the relationship with the customers, reputation in the market, relevancy in the service related issues, values that are worth, appropriate relationships,brainstorming of ideas,innovation,upcoming technology and the stakeholders. The CRM strategy in the business process is the collecting, managing and developing of the data.
The increasing use of virtual sites and ‘you tube’ to support interactions and transactions inside and outside the organization makes it critical that the web functionality and the virtual sites are vital to the CRM. The virtual functionality is very useful in the online sales and services. The users of the CRM require an ubiquitous acess to the web applications.
The workflow propogated by CRM refers to the automatic routing of work to the users responsible for executing the specific steps in the integrated business process.
Customers are the deciding factors in all businessess. There are only pros in developing business through the use of software. The café can gain competitive advantage through the use of technology. Having its own website makes it easily accessible to customers as well as employees and is an alternative means of making the firm’s contents known to people. The target customers of the café increases if the café has a proper website where people can just log in to know the details about the products that the café has , the location of the café, the employees associated with the café, the pricing and the delivery schedule etc. Use of new technology results in better service delivery to customers and it allows customers to communicate with the café through the websites and e-mail queries. The use of software can help in establishing customer relations in such a way that it can increase the level of communication and secondly customers can be attended at a faster pace and thus will create a personal touch in providing service. Using software important customer data can be accessed from all systems on a daily, weekly or monthly basis which can help in customer retention and increased customer loyalty.
System Development
Broadway café’s system development plan covers the activities undertaken in the coffeehouse in which the prospective requirements are first recognized and then actions are taken to implement the system so that the process is accepted by the customer, and Broadway café can adopt new business practices in order to keep business running and gain profits. In an organization, systems development depends upon the organizational structure, the amount of divisional power and the competency of personnel in the separate departments. Systems Development is an extensive team endeavor and comprises of a broad variety of responsibilities and skills. Tasks in Systems Development are classified as Strategic, Tactical and Operational tasks. “Systems are so big and complex that teams of architects, analysts, programmers, testers and users must work together to create the millions of lines of custom-written code that drive our enterprises. To manage this, a number of system development life cycle models have been created like waterfall, fountain etc” (Kay, 2002, para.1).
One of the key issues of Broadway café’s systems development is employee concerns. Broadway café should install such type of software which can control the employees by ensuring right employees at the right time and at the right place. The café should adopt advanced modernized technology for maintaining the records of employees for better business. Some employees propose developing their own information technology system while others propose customizing the software by another seller. The pros in using an internal employee to build a custom system is that employing one’s own employee to do the job will result in building such a software system as per the design specifications specifically needed for Broadway café. When the café has in-house expertise then it need not look for outside agencies for timely maintenance. The con in using an internal employee is that the employee might exercise authority over other employees because he has the full knowledge of the operating system. The pros in outsourcing is that Broadway café is not into the business of creating software so it is sure that in-house will be lacking in the expertise and skill needed in software development so outsourcing is a better option. Broadway needs the functionality related to employee concerns in its software which is a functionality in need to every firm so this type of software will be easily available in the market so it is better to outsource rather than waste time, energy and labor on development of software in-house. The cons associated with outsourcing is that if Broadway café wants to incorporate fully new unique software for its employees then it might not be available in the market.
Analysis is thus reached that employees can be better tracked through the use of software in which their attendance and payroll can be monitored. The development of a proper IT system can help in dealing with the different ethical issues and confidentiality of information can be maintained. Weighing the pros and cons of the options of outsourcing and in-house development of software the better options is outsourcing.
Reference
Mobile coupons. (2010). NetInformer. Wev.
Kay, R. (2002). Quick study: System development life cycle. Computer World Development. Web.
Ward, S. (2010). CRM (customer relationship management). About.Com: Small Business Canada. Web.