IT 210 Milestone Two

IT 210 Milestone Two

IT-210 Bus Systems Analysis/Design

Southern New Hampshire University

The first of two technologies that can help the business is Business analytics and business intelligence solutions. This type of technology is very useful for an emerging and upcoming business to compete with others in their market. Business analytics, according to WileyPlus is defined as the process of developing actionable decisions or recommendations for actions based on insights generated from historical data. Whereas, business intelligence is defined as a broad category of applications, technologies, and processes for gathering, storing, accessing, and analyzing data to help business users make better decisions (WileyPlus, 2019). In this situation where this type of technology would benefit the business would be to support one aspect of its operation in being able to reach more customers easily as the competition can. This would allow the organization to generate database to store the needed data on customers and their purchasing habits, preferences and demographics to help reach the target market. Although, this needs to be an independent entity as this data storage does not turn out to be a “data silo” which may lead to inconsistencies when integrating into other parts of the operation. The flow of information that business analytics provides is very important as it improves decisions made within the business. It also gives an analysis to see where the business currently sits however, large amounts of data are needed to have successful results and with the size of the current operation this may be a challenge (MSG, 2019). The business intelligence side is a critical step to incorporating the needed systems to allow customers to view products and meet their needs. With an intelligent business system, management can investigate more detailed and present information about several parts of the business. This could include the financial, production and customer data. In turn more informed decisions can be made when considering the products to focus on and which ones to terminate, thus meeting customers needs. The one downside to this technology is that it can be costly, complex and very time consuming to implement for the size of the company that it currently stands at (Strain. M, 2018).

The second technology that would benefit the business is social computing. In this day in age and the popularity of social media it only makes sense to promote and establish a foothold in this type of media. With social computing there are several platforms for the business to expand on and the ability to communicate with potential new customers is expansive as well. This will fulfill the need that the company desperately needs to expand its customer base. It’s a relatively inexpensive option that reduces marketing costs and increases customer service performance. Social Computing also potentially can increase economic revenue over other more traditional methods (Userhub, 2019). There are some downfalls however, monitoring traffic can be difficult as social computing is an open environment in the online world, so more resources will be required to manage the businesses online presence. Social media is immediate and will also require additional monitoring. Lastly with an increased online marketing method there is a potential to receive negative feedback that can harm the business (Business.gov.au, 2018).

Considering the potential that these two technologies can provide and the ability to enhance the business needs the best course of action in my opinion is to implement social computing along with a small addition of business analytics and business intelligence solutions. Considering the size of the business social computing makes sense as it is the most cost-effective method where the current availability of employees could implement this technology with less training. Management will be able to control the content to which will be disseminated across social media platforms. In addition, this method will reach new customers and will promote the business in a more expedient manner. With the addition of social computing, applying business analytics and business intelligence to incorporate data collection and to bring the business into a more modern-day operation standard. To be successful in today’s business world owners must modernize operations and implement these two business solutions. The data collection will give real time information on who is purchasing goods and will show demographics of the potential target markets the business must go for. By using the suggested technologies, the business will become more efficient and organized to where results will be seen. Social computing itself will cut the time it takes to communicate with customers and allow them to reach customer service more readily. Business analytics and intelligence will provide an expedient method to identify where the needs of the company will require the most attention and what segment of the business is most successful. The position of the company’s online presence will increase due to these technological additions as it will bring allow the company to be seen by a much larger audience.

References

Business.gov.au (July 9, 2018) Pros and cons of using social media for business. Retrieved from, https://www.business.gov.au/marketing/social-media/pros-and-cons-of-social-media

MSG (2019) Information Technology and Business Alignment: Why it is Important. Retrieved from, https://www.managementstudyguide.com/information-technology-and-business-alignment.htm

Strain, Mary (2018) The Advantages of Business Intelligence. Retrieved from, https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-business-intelligence-24548.html

Userhub (2019) Benefits of Social Computing. Retrieved from, https://www.theuserhub.com/literature/benefits-of-social-computing/

WileyPlus (2019) Rainer, Introduction to Information Systems, 7e, chapter 9, chapter 12. Retrieved from, https://edugen.wileyplus.com/edugen/lti/main.uni