Information System

Try Before Buy Marketing Scheme

Workshop: Friday, 2:00pm

Jo-Anne Clark
Benjamin Hodgkinson

GRIFFITH NATHAN

(1410ICT)

ShaRon Ramanathan

Table of Contents
-Introduction.PAGE 2
- Co-Op Book StorePAGE 3
-Goods & Services..PAGE 4
- Transaction Diagram.PAGE 5
- Value Chain Diagram.PAGE 6
- Type of Organization.PAGE 7
- Competition..PAGE 7
- Strategies to Compete..PAGE 7
- Rich-PicturePAGE 8
- Customers Perspective PAGE 9
- Purpose of this Information System....PAGE 9
- Key Human Activity System..PAGE 9
- The 4 Quadrants of Hartmans Matrix....PAGE 10
- Measures of Success ...PAGE 11
- Mintzbergs Classification of organizations....PAGE 11
- Inventory management System..PAGE 12
- Evaluation and Failure of the System.PAGE 13
- Business Analysiss Perspective..PAGE 13
- Reflections...PAGE 14
- Evaluation..PAGE 15
- Reference list...PAGE 15

Benjamin Hodgkinson

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Introduction
IS Wizards always strives to achieve success in creating information systems. With your
store (Co-op University book store) we have designed and created a new information
system that remains true to current business strategies. This new information system will
make use of current user experience and attempt to improve this both in-store and online.
Some of the previous strategies that the CO-OP bookshop include becoming a member,
which allows a small discount on almost all products in-store. They also highly value all the
university students and occasionally host promotional events just for students.
The information system we are recommending is for improving the marketing of the Co-op
book shop. This new system will be a try-before-buy marketing scheme, which will allow
customers who are member of the bookshop, to try/rent books and items for a 5 day
period. During this time, members can only try one item at a time and must look after the
item that is currently being rented. If the customer is satisfied with the value of the item,
they are obliged to a 5% discount towards buying the items during the 2 days after the
renting period has expired. Since this system requires the customer to be a member, it adds
a primary activity value to becoming a member. The process that will be conduction in using
this system requires the customer to place an order for the try (renting) of the goods, this
order must be approved and requested that the customer pick up goods if successful with
the order. All goods must be returned in good condition otherwise penalties apply.
This system will be targeting all current students at Griffith University, this includes current
customers who are members to adopt this new system and customer who are not members
who potentially will want to become a member. Also this system may attract potential
customers at the university who may want to become a member to take advantage of this
new system.

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Co-Op Book Store

The Co-op bookstore is a community based business as it is located at the heart of many
universities, the environment in which the company operates is usually to those which are
students at these universities. Because of this, students are the majority of the market and
sales and play an important role in implementing the new information system. The relative
power of the buyer shows how important these customers are in the market, if they fail to
adopt this new system, it would fall through. With this in mind, it is possible that it will take
time for the new system to be widely used after it is introduced so marketing of the system
will be key.
An important factor in introducing any system into the company would be consulting key
stakeholders. Stakeholder mapping is an important technique which will help judge who will
be affected by this new system will help improve the system and meet everyone's needs.
Some of these groups include:

University Students
Customers
Staff members and employees
Lecturer of university classes
Supplier
Other Co-op shops at other locations

Keeping the needs of all the stakeholder will help keep the integrity of the system, if one of
these members is affected in a negative way from the new system, it could have a drastic
affect on future operations of the system. To keep all stakeholders happy, it is important to
consult all groups before, and during first uses of this system and receiving feedback.

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Goods & Services

The new try before buy scheme can be classified in 'Porters concept of Industry Structure as
a Tangible good because customers will receive a physical good for 5 days free of charge
unless damaged. When using this system, all main activity will be logged keeping track of all
transaction in this new information system as it supports the internal trading activities made
by the Co-op book shop and their customers, it is mandatory to keep track of past and
current transactions as this will be used to measure the degree of the companys
performance. Also if for any reason, a previous transaction needs to be investigated, it will
be possible
The Human activity systems involved between transactions are staff members and
customers. Staff members will be responsible for processing all requests made by customers
and recording all information. If a customer is unsatisfied, it will be the duty of the staff
working on the new information system to help satisfy the needs of the customer. All details
of human activity and transaction can be shown in a transactional diagram
A transaction diagram of the companys and the customers activates will show primary
activities between customers and the book store. On one side is the book store making the
trade to the customer, first to become a member then place an order for the product and
then system awaits for approval by checking the items availability. Once its approved the
customer can then come pick up the book, this is where the trade of tangible goods occur.
On the 4th day of the borrowing period, the customer receives a friendly reminder either via
text or email regarding the item they are holding. After the 5 day period the item is returned
or bought by the customer, receiving a bonus discount voucher when purchased.

Tangible
Intangible

Benjamin Hodgkinson

Goods
Physical goods with value
Non-physical goods with
less or no value

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Service
Activities performed for
the customer with value
A service for the customer
that has no real value or
information

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Transaction Diagram
Order

Approval

Customer

Goods

Book shop

Customer
pick-up

- 5 days -

Return of goods

Discount
Voucher

Figure 1: Transaction Diagram of the system being implemented. (Benjamin Hodgkinson, 2014)

The diagram above is a brief draft of what should be expected in terms of transactions when
using the new system. It shows the relationship between customer and bookshop with
information shown as a white square and physical transactions shown with a filled arrow.
(Benjamin Hodgkinson, 2014)

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Value Chain Diagram

Figure 2: Value-chain Diagram of the new system. (Michael E, 1985)

A value chain is a diagram that can show key activity systems in terms of value and
deliverance or a product or service. The value chain diagram above also shows the primary
activities within this company, inbound logistics refers to how the books come into
circulation. Inside the organisations operations are occurring to stock goods from the
inbound logistics ready to sell to customers. Then the managers of the company keeps track
of sales and current stock levels and can orders more stick from the publishers according to
the trends and patterns of sales. (Michael E, 1985)
The outbound logistics shows how the company distributes or sells these products to
consumers. Marketing logistics has to grab customers attention in order to sell the service
or product. The new information system is a way of promoting the book store making it part
if the Marketing Logistics which is a Primary Activity. Friendly customer service is executed
by the staffs in store by supporting and keeping the customers happy. All of these 5 primary
activates do matter in making a successful book store with the addition of support activities.

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Type of Organization
Understanding where the Co-op bookstore competes with depends on the type of strategies
used to compete with other organisations. These can be divided into five simpler groups,
Cost leadership, Product differentiation, Innovation, Operational effectiveness and
Customer orientation. Cost leadership and differentiation are not the strong point of the
bookstore because many other bookstores and libraries have the many of the same
products at the same or lower price.
However the bookstores has some strong points in the other categories starting off with
innovation, with the introduction of the new information system, a service will be available
to customer that is unknown for bookstores, creating competition for the library.
The operational effectiveness of the store performs well, all staff members are very familiar
with the university and the products and services of the bookstore. It executes sales
efficiently with more effort during the start of university semesters to help student find and
buy the correct books for their course. This service is better than that of other bookstores
considering it is also local for all university students making it very competitive.
In terms of customer-orientation the university has hired current students as part of their
staff, which can create a friendly and more trusting environment for customers thinking
about buying.

Competition
The competition that faces the University bookstore are other bookstores, the library and
online resources for books. Since the bookstore is the only on-campus bookstore,
competition is heavily in favour of it, however with more widespread adoption to
technology, in the future, online bookstores and electronic books will have a stronger
influence on sales.

Strategies to Compete
Some of the strategies already involved are a membership card, which can be purchased for
$20, which offers members a discount to almost all products. Another strategies involved is
the organisation of stock, all stock can be easily searched for availability and found in store
sorted by courses, this makes purchasing products much more pleasing for customers as
there is less hassle.

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Rich-Picture

Figure 3: Rich Picture of the new information system. (Monk & Howard, 1998)

When developing a new information system, it becomes much easier to see the flow and
impact of this system using a Rich picture. A rich picture above has been created to display
the relationship and impact of different partner and stakeholders of the company.
As displayed above marketing will have a huge impact on attempting to persuade existing
customer and bring in new customers to use the system. Also with the introduction of this
new system, stock order schedules will need to be evaluated and changed because there
may be lower stock with books on rent. (Monk & Howard, 1998)

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Customers Perspective
As customer, experience in store is exceptional. Staffs in the Co-op bookstore are friendly
and understanding, when becoming a member of the Co-op book store I get great benefits
such as 5% of all books and products. Joining the bookstore community only costed me $20,
this gives me a life time worth of discounted products. However the online service isnt as
great or efficient, the website isnt as user-friendly and the prices of items are far more
expensive compared to the offline prices in store. I am still a happy customer at the Co-op
bookstore, but I still think they have to implement a better system and website to improve
their service.

Purpose of this Information System

The new system being introduced will help students try books that are recommended for
their course. Students can then determine if the book will be useful for them in their
studies, if so the students will be able to purchase the book at a discount. Another benefit
that will be introduced with this system is determining what books are currently in high
demand in terms of buying or renting. Information such as this can then be provided to staff
or managers of the bookstore who are organising stock-takes. Books can be ordered and restocked depending on current trends of book rentals, helping the company to sell goods
that they know customers will buy instead of stocking goods that have little interest.

Key Human Activity System

Some of the key Human Activity system used for the information system to succeed would
be the manager and staff members. The managers would need to monitor all activity within
the system to make sure all rules and procedures are followed correctly. While staff
members must follow all procedures and record information on all book rentals.

Benjamin Hodgkinson

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The 4 quadrants of Hartmans Matrix

Figure 4: The 4 quadrants of this information system. (Hartman A, 2000)

The diagram represents the Hartman matrix, which can represent a system or service
effectiveness in terms of effort and reward. Ease of execution is how simple the system will
be to conduct while the business impact shows the reward of the outcome. With the
introduction of the new Information system a blue star has been placed on the diagram to
show what should be expected in terms of effort and reward. (Hartman A, 2000)
The execution of the system will be easy to conduct (low) however, using the new system
may have multiple outcomes, for example a customer may damage a product then issue of
liability will occur. This will take more time and effort to execute and dissolve the issue. The
reward of using this system could be high as there will not be a huge amount of money
investment involved so it will not be a money pit. An estimation that it the system will sit
between must haves and quick wins is because new customers and existing could easily be
won over to buying goods after using the system, and since the turnaround time for renting
is around 5 days multiple wins can be achieved in less than a week with multiple people
using the new system.

Benjamin Hodgkinson

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Measures of Success
The level of performance an organisation attains is a function of the efficacy, efficiency and
effectiveness of the actions it has undertaken. It can be predicted that in terms of efficacy,
the system will work and be operational however, when the system becomes operational it
may be the complete opposite.
The efficiency of a system would determine how smoothly operations are performed, a
highly efficient system would require less time and resources to run well, it is believed that
the system will have enough efficiency to operate smoothly with correct staff training. If the
system isn't very efficient it could lead to problems such as bad time management in
organising rental books. However there shouldn't be many other problems as the system is
fairly low maintenance and doesn't require much initial action to perform.
Effectiveness gains normally involve delivering greater value for the products to the
customer of some organisation. Hence effectiveness is primarily focused on the deliverance
from some organisation. It can also be measures as improvements of a service and customer
satisfaction of using such a system. It could be argues that the new information system does
contribute to a higher-level system, which is selling books. Value has been added for using
this system because it allows a customer to receive a discount, but is only eligible for
customer who use the system. This means customers will want to use the system to buy the
books attracting more customers to use it. It also adds more value to becoming a member
of the book-store as only they can take advantage of this new system

Mintzbergs classification of organizations

Using the Mintzbergs classification of organizations, the Co-op bookstore can be
categorized into some of these areas, Entrepreneurial, Machine, Professional, Diversified,
and Adhocracy. Classifying the bookstore in just one category would be impossible as it
could fall into more than one area depending on the perspective. The two main areas are
Machine and Diversified, it is similar to machine because of the standardized format and
strategy of selling books. It also has a mass quantity of books in store to sell.
While it maintains a diverse range of books for every course and other stationary products
to maintain diversified. When the new information system is added it will also be the new
service available for customers.
Machine: mass production, inward looking, standardisation i.e. factories
Diversified: range of products or services, autonomous business units

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Figure 5: The inventory management system diagram. (ShaRon Ramanathan, 2014)

Inventory management system

The Diagram above highlights the most important procedures involved within this information
system. (ShaRon Ramanathan, 2014)
Blue circles defines the actors involved in the system.
Red diamond represents the actions involved within.
Red circle represents the halting of the system.
Green rectangles represents the process involved in the IS.
Green Sliced square represents the orders which take place in store.
Green circle represents successfully completes a purchase.

Beynon-Davies,
P (2013),S2944714
Business Information Systems. Palgrave
Macmillan
Benjamin Hodgkinson
ShaRon
Ramanathan S2942771
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Evaluation and Failure of the System

Depending on the success or failure of a system will determine its future use in the
company. To try and avoid the new information system failing, an evaluation will be made
to cover all sections within the company in which may detriment the system. Some of these
areas include HAS, IT, Management of the new system and marketing.
These can fall into different categories of failures which include:

Correspondence failure: failure to meet requirements set in advance

Process failure: system not produced within given budget or time
Interaction failure: system not used or under-used by target
Expectation failure: failure to meet user expectations (a super set of the above 3)

Some of the possible failures could be that no-one will use the system, which would be an
interaction failure, another possibility could be that people do not return books at set times
which would be a correspondence failure.

Business Analysiss Perspective

As a business analysis some of the recommendations I would make to avoid these types of
failures predicted would be to have a test run of the new system. Testing the new system
would prepare staff members for their role in supporting and maintaining it. Also, this may
help find the weakest point in operating the system so it can be addressed before customers
start using it.
Another recommendation would be to create a survey for customers to answer before and
after using the system. This would also feed into the evaluation of the system so changed
can be made much earlier in the life of the new system.

Benjamin Hodgkinson

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ShaRon Ramanathan S2942771

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Reflection (Benjamin Hodkinson)

Completing this assignment was an achievement in itself considering the size and type of
work required, however all went together fairly smoothly. ShaRon and I already had
communicated before this assignment and get along well. All the work requirement was
divided up into sections and during most days an even amount of work was added in by
each partner. Most of the modelling and diagrams were completed by ShaRon and the
longer writing sections were completed by me (Ben). Co-operation was easy as most of the
communication was either done on campus at uni or during online interactions to keep
check on the completion of work. Overall I feel this assignment was completed to a
competent level and work load were divided well.

Reflection (ShaRon Ramanathan)

As a group we have been really successful with our IS (Information system) report. As soon
as we got the assignment we had a few ideas on what our IS would implement into the book
store but had no idea on how to start this assignment. But then by taking notes during
lectures Ben created a skeleton or a structure of how our report would look like from there
we allocated each other different parts of the assignment which worked really well, one of
our key to success. Communication was well done, we mostly used Skype to talk while
working on this report and sent each other improved versions of the assignment. I will have
to agree that Ben did help write bigger sections or headings of the report, however we both
had great ideas and split the work load fairly. Overall I think our idea of this information
system Try before buy would be a great business strategy if implemented according to our
plans in the Co-op bookstore!

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Evaluation
Synthesising all the information above it has been predicted that the new system will be
successful within the store and some recommendations have been made to help start using
this new system if it is to be accepted by the Co-op Bookstores management. Marketing this
new system will be the main step as customers and members will need to know about this
new system and how it works; an email can be sent out to all members as a notification.
The second major recommendation is maintaining the system, as all human activity and
book transactions will need to be recorded. This is because of the liability of the goods being
rented, if this is not completed fully, some goods may be damaged. In conclusion all the
diagrams and information above shows a clear picture of how the "try before buy" system
operates. If implemented according to our plans in the Co-op bookstore, this Information
System would be a successful business strategy which will increase the productivity and
capital of the company.

Reference list

Hartman, A, and Sifonis, J. Net ready - Strategies for success in the E-conomy,
Mcgraw-Hill 2000

Monk and Howard, 1998 The Rich Picture: A Tool for Reasoning About Work Context,
Interactions, ACM.

Porter, Michael E., "Competitive Advantage". 1985,

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