Introduction To E-Commerce
E-commerce is nothing but the selling and the purchasing the commodities with the help of an electronic medium that is internet or online (Barnes and Hunt, 2013). This excludes the paper work and also from moving here and there in the market for searching of things. Business skills for e-commerce can be defined as the skills used to run the business electronically or over the network. Doing business over the internet is so profitable. The present report is based on scattering the awareness of the business strategies or running the market on the mobile or the web based system.
TASK 1
1.1 Assess an organization’s core business functions
The core business function is nothing but the task done in a business in order to achieve the aims and objective of the corporation. The London school of science and technology(LLST) consists of different business functions such as marketing, sales, accounting, administration, operation and Management information system. These are explained below:
- Marketing: The organization has the aim to establish a high ranked position in the market. To fulfil this goal it have to perform effective marketing by using the modern technologies.
- Sales: In order to enhancer the sale the company have to do the process of sale by using the mobile as well as the web based system (Ifinedo, 2011).
- Accounting: The work of accounting become quite simple by using the excel or spread sheets.
- Administration: The company head take the responsibility of the administrative sector. The different norms are made to work the system smoothly.
- Operation & the Management information system: The working of the MIS is deal by the IT department. They uses the internet in performing the various operations like billing, payment, registration,etc. (Torlak and et.al., 2011).
The LLST also take the technical or non-technical responsibilities. During this journey it will have to face, such as integration of recent and new technologies, social networking, cultural and ethical activities.
1.2 Evaluate an organization’s business aims and show how they relate to stakeholders
The organisation's business aim is to design an effective business plan that proved to be profitable for the company while dealing with the different stakeholders. Stakeholders can be simple defined as the group of people who owns a share in the business. There are of two types namely the external and the internal shareholder. The internal shareholder are those who are committed to serve the organisation such as the board members, former board members, the staff as well as the former staff member of the organisation, the volunteers, etc. On the contrary the external stakeholders are those people who influence the company's work in positive as well as negative manner. Such as the consumers, Community partners, the government bodies,the group of people being served by the organisation but are not accessing the services. The company is fully dependent on the above listed external as well as the internal stakeholders. LSST planned to offer new food hygiene course in their Alperton campus. The
Government cannot fund the course and the building manager cannot accept the health and safety risk of blended kitchen classrooms. This may create conflicts between this new program and its objectives in LSST and its stakeholders (Solaymani and et.al., 2012). The possible pluralistic solutions to this stakeholder conflicts are listed below:
Follow the Corporate social responsibility activities.
Company should take help from human resource development.
As the London school of science and technology deals with the problems of establishing the new plan that is building kitchen in the classrooms to implement new food hygiene course. This creates a reason for the conflicts between the government and the building manager. As the manager says that it will badly effect the health and hygiene of the students and the government is not ready to pay a large amount of fund. To solve this the CSR and the HRD are proved to be very helpful. The HRD protects the company from this conflict by making clear the views of the company in front of the government and showing its positive impacts (Chang and Graham, 2012). The HRD represent the rights of the employees in the eyes of laws and make decisions by supporting the ethical values.
The LSST uses many business functions like marketing, sales, accounting, administration, operation and Management information system with the help of internet based system. This all proved to be very effective in the development of the company and as a result enhance the yearly turn over of the organisation. The marketing is done by taking a large number of admissions in the institute. This is possible by using the social media like television broadcasting, news paper advertisement, etc. The sales can be done by making different partners who deal with the importing as well as exporting the raw materials like book, bricks, chemicals, notebooks, etc. The company can raise the MIS and the accounting operations by using the current technologies like excel and web based system respectively.
TASK 2
2.1 Analyse the impact including the risks, of introducing an e-Commerce system
The introduction of the e-commerce system is proved to be very beneficial for the organisation. This totally change the system by simplifying the work. The whole business function is positively effected by this.
The positive effects are discussed below:
Online payment & billing : The students can now easily pay their fees through online without doing any physical effort like going to the fee counters. This also reduces the rush in front of the counters. The process of billing can be easily done by sending the soft copies of the bill via mail or message without doing any paper work (Hashim, J., 2015).
Online Orders: The company can easily take or give the orders by sitting at one place without using the communication tools like mobile, telephone, SMS, etc. For instance the books, notebooks, chemicals, food, etc. can be ordered with one click only in the computers over the internet (Bovee. and Thill, 2012).
Online Admission: The LSST can also take online test to offer the admission in its institute.
While there also exist certain risk by introducing the e commerce. This can be anything from the changes in life styles, culture, or laws to possible costs of designing or implementing e-commerce. This implementation needs a large amount revenue to work properly. Also the whole culture will affect as no one do the physical labour. The risk of hacking will enhance causing a loss of valuable documents or even the money.
2.2 Discuss the global impact of e-Commerce on society
The e- commerce globally impact the whole business and the consumers positively as well as negatively. The advantages and the disadvantages of the e-commerce are listed below:
- Global Market: The use of e-commerce affected the whole market all over the globe. It makes the work so simpler by taking online admissions, test, orders, payments, bills, etc. On the contrary it increases the risk of hacking, illegal works, etc. which badly effect the society. Hacking causes loss of money or even leaking of important papers, etc.
- Competition: The company can effectively compete with the other's business by giving equal or more production per year with the help of online business. While the LSST also feels less secure as the competitor rises from all over the worlds (Bordonaba-Juste and et.al., 2012).
- Legislation: The norms or the rules of the corporation also positively effected. As less effort are made in regulating the several notice like exam routine, cultural as well as social activities, etc.
- Growth: The enterprise drastically can grow by using the internet based services as the production or turn over rises per annum.
- Security and Risk: The company feels less secure as the risk of the hacking, worms, viruses, etc. rises by using the electronic commerce or business.
The LSST uses various online methods to increase the working and the revenue. The methods are doing online admission, tests, payment, billing, calculation, marketing, selling, giving orders, etc. These all tasks reduces the overall processing or the manufacturing time of the enterprise. The administration also work effectively by making the awareness of several norms by issuing the notice online to all students. The removes the printing and the documentation work as well ass its costing.
TASK 3
3.1 Investigate market potential for an e- Commerce opportunity
The E- commerce has provides many opportunities to strengthen the market potential of the LSST. As it only have Physical college and has no online or hybrids colleges in UK. The marketing can be strong
by using the various below strategies:
Establishing Online Library: The corporation can build the online library and can effectively make the new business of selling materials like book, notes, projects, etc. over the internet or the intranet (Awa and et.al., 2015).
Building online shops: The corporation an also sell the clothes for the university like T shirts , Trousers, etc. by making their own logo.
Offering Online courses: Company can also offer short crash courses or the intership for the business online. This also helps in improving the turnover as well as the reputation of the corporation (Ferraro and Brody, 2015).
Establishing partnership: The LSST can expand their business by making new partners across all over the world. Other external stakeholders effectively do the selling of their products online by taking accurate share from it. For example the different brands of computers or other electronic equipments like printer, monitor, keyboards, etc. are sold by them at the appropriate price and also share this profit from the university.
The disadvantages of these activities also existed like the students may pay extra penny for these facilities. This online business destroy the offline markets of the vendors. The quality related warranty also not given in such business.
3.2 Evaluate current e-Commerce systems in use by organizations
The e- commerce provide the different methods and techniques to enhance the turnover as well as expand the business of the LSST. The methods includes the businesses like online shopping, establishing online library department, doing partnership, offering internships or crash courses over the internet. These all tasks ultimately minimizes or diminishes the work load of the company. The building of online library reduces the paper work like registration, signature, making no dues, the billing and the payment of the books. There is no need of hiring new employees for the purpose of look over the library sector. This reduces the investment or saves the money of the enterprise. The online shops selling the t-shirts, trousers having the college logo and the expansion of the partners in every part of the world increases the competition in the market. The LSST secure a recognised position in the current competitive market. AS the business of the company can touch the height of the sky if and only if it uses the online based services.
3.3 Discuss the financial implications of an e- Commerce solution
The London School of Science and Technology uses the various E- commerce solutions that influence the financial conditions positively as well as negatively. As the online services are used they need some special raw materials like routers, computers, the LAN or Wan internet connections, the updated operating systems, the various tools like ubuntu, Ms word, Power-point, Excel, and many other different applications (India.Da Costa, 2016). This causes increment in the budgets of the corporation. Some of the important terms related to finance are discussed below:
Using house web services: The company uses web services like gmail, email, the social media tools such as Facebook , messenger, the what's app, etc. for the purpose of the communication. It creates extra charges to the corporation (Turban and Delen, 2011).
Online payment: The enterprise uses the payment modern techniques that is online paying the bills reduces the time of paying. This is quite beneficial as it removes the paper calculation and their errors while it increases the risk of fraud.
The institute has chosen the best marketing plan by using the E- commerce business skills. The planning includes the online admissions, examination as well as counselling of students. This creates a large number of admissions across all over the globe. Additionally the recruitment of the associate or assistant professors can also be done online. The payment, giving or taking orders also are done by using the web services aids the corporation a lot in making the growth of it. There exists some disadvantages too as the online work is totally dependent on the internet ; if the server get down any day a single work can't be even start.
3.4 Design an e-Commerce solution
The LSST deals with the several problems as it only have the Physical college and has no online or hybrids colleges in UK. The e-commerce provides it several solutions that are below given:
Security : The use of e- commerce businesses in the company make the whole system secure by providing many firewalls across the different websites of the corporation. The illegal activities like hacking are effectively restricted by using the new and secure technologies like JavaScript, Java server pages , etc. in building the websites (Laudon and et.al., 2011).
Legal requirements: The enterprise legal requirements can be met with the help of e-commerce like the authorities to run the university, the CSR, HRD, activities.
Building shopping basket: With the help of electronic business the corporation can effectively creates the shopping basket including the various items to sell in the cart via online. The payment can also be done by the users on the same website (Bovee and Courtland, 2012). This aids a lot in making the digital market and as a result the revenue increment of the corporation.
The above listed requirement and the solution of the e-commerce for the LSST is quite effective. As it influence the performing as well as the out coming of the corporation. The use of online shopping by creating the basket are proved to be profitable for the consumers as well as the retailers. Because the users are not need to travel at different places for buying different things, they can easily select the items from the carts and can easily make the payment too on the same website (Barnes and Hunt, 2013). This removes the physical work and the user get their ordered item on the same day by the online delivering norms.
3.5 Evaluate the suitability of an e-Commerce solution
The online payment system established by the LSST is quite suitable in doing the shopping and the payment through online. This can be done by using the other systems for example mobile-phone based money transfer and micro-financing services, virtual currencies, micro-payments, mobile payments such as apple pay or Google pay,recycling exchanges, etc. like M-Pesa (M for mobile, pesa is Swahili for money) . This makes the company a standard one in the current market.
The E-commerce proposed system for the business such as search ability, shopping catalogue, accessibility, etc. for the corporation. This increases the yearly turnover or the productivity of the enterprise. The payment is based on the mobile like transferring of the revenue with certain apps. The payments can also be done by using the systems like M-pesa.
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CONCLUSION
From the above based report it has been concluded that the e-commerce has changed the whole operations of the MSST by aiding regarding the revenue as well as making the corporation a recognisable brand in the market. The use of different tools and the skills of business to do online marketing is also explained. This increases the security of the whole system.
You may also read: Financing Business Initiatives
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