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INFOSYS.110 BUSINESS SYSTEMS:

DELIVERABLE 2: BUSINESS SECTION
2014

Name Gregory James Warren
NetID gwar791
Group Number: 479
Website Link:
http://infosys1102014s1group479.blogspot.co.nz/p/d2-
gwar791.html
Tutorial Details
Tutor: Day: Time:
Khushbu Tilvawala Thursday 12pm
Time Spent on
Assignment:
20 hours Word Count: 1546

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TRASH TO TREASURE
INTRODUCTION
Too much organic waste goes into landfills. This creates a huge amount of unnecessary
pollution. At the same time, environmentally friendly businesses are struggling to attract
customers. Trash to Treasure will address both these issue by initiating community
composting programmes that will offer locals vouchers to their local organic food stores,
supporting the environmental and local green businesses.
3. BUSINESS SECTION
3.1 Vision
To bring together environmentally conscious consumers and businesses, while helping the
planet through composting.
3.2 Industry Analysis: Electronic Composting Promotion Industry
Industry: Electronic Composting Promotion Industry. This industry revolves around
providing businesses access to a promotional scheme that directs customers to their firm
through electronic composting bins.
Force: High/Low: Justification:
Buyer power: High There is high buyer power in our industry as
businesses have many choices of advertising
strategy, and they could easily abandon us for
another advertising firm with little cost. (Yellow
Pages, 2014).
Supplier power: Low Supplier power is low because our industry
requires a few raw materials such as wood and
plastic, and a few simple electronic components

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that are widely available and consequently not
overly expensive. (Central Restaurant Products,
2014)
Threat of new entrants: High Other than the fact that this is an industry with a
small potential size, there is almost nothing to
stop competitors entering the industry. The cost
of establishing electronic composting is low, and
so new entrants could quickly and cheaply
establish themselves. (Northeast Regional
Agricultural Engineering Service, 1993). (Kristen
Vernon, 2010).
Threat of substitutes: High The list of potential other promotions that
businesses could utilise is almost endless. Many
conventional advertising options are available to
businesses and so our industry is extremely
vulnerable to substitutes. (Yellow Pages, 2014)
Rivalry among existing
competitors:
Low There are a very small number of firms in the
industry commercially collecting compost. There
are a also few not-for-profits in community
composting. However, the commercial firms have
different business models and the not-for-profits
are under-developed, so overall there is little
competition. (We Compost, 2011).
Overall attractiveness of the industry: Overall the attractiveness of the industry is low. In
particular, the high threat of substitutes means that if our service does not deliver good
value for money to businesses, they will quickly shift to different avenues of promotion. If

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we do make a significant profit, however, new entrants can quickly jump in and claim
market share by undercutting us, as the threat of new entrants is high.
3.3 Customers and Thei r Needs
The customers for our service are small local food stores. Organic food stores are
particularly our target as are hoping to attract customers interested in environmental issues
like composting, and are keen to be seen as helping the environment. They need to attract
more customers to their stores, but dont have a large advertising budget to purchase TV
commercials the like. They need promotions that are targeted at the people they hope to
attract to their store environmentally conscious people. They also need to promote an
image of being deeply concerned about environmental issues. Producing thousands of
posters that will end up as litter within weeks is not an option. Since their environmental
image is critical to their business model, it is crucial to be environmentally friendly in all
their endeavours.
3.4 The Product and Service
Our service fulfils both these needs. Environmentally aware people will be attracted to
composting bins, taking the vouchers given to the organic food stores. Many may become
repeat customers. Thus, we have offered advertising that is relatively cheap by being
targeted, as people who do not care about the environmental and thus are unlikely to
become repeat shoppers will probably also not be interested in composting.
We also fulfilled the stores need to be seen as environmentally friendly. Customers will
appreciate that the store is supporting a composting initiative, and this will give the store a
distinction from other stores by cementing its environmental image.
3.5 Suppliers and Partners
Two suppliers of our firm would be a firm supplying the simple raw materials for our
compost bins, and a firm supplying the electronic components. We require the
wood/metal/plastic that our bins will be made of, so this will be one supplier. A more
important supplier relationship will be with the firm that provides our electronic weighing

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and voucher printing components, as this will be be more complex and probably more
expensive.
Potential partners for our firm are not-for-profits involved in environmental work, and local
governments seeking to promote composting. Not-for-profits have expertise in composting
and environmental promotion that will be invaluable to our business. Local governments
may have an interest in reducing the amount of waste going to landfill, and thus may be
willing to support our work to ease the load on local garbage dumps.
3.6 Strategy: Focussed High Cost
Our firm is targeting a high-end market because the sort of people who will be interested in
composting will also be interested in high-end organic food stores. Our promotion will be
likely to bring high-end customers to firms, so it only makes sense to target high-end firms.
Furthermore, this is a relatively expensive promotional strategy per customer so the firm
must be one with a high margin per customer. Our service is unique and differentiated.
We are targeting a narrow market because we are specifically interested in (organic) food
stores, not just any high-end business. This is because these stores share the environmental
ethos of our company and have the most desire for the sort of customers we will bring to
them.
The overall strategy is therefore Focussed High Cost.
3.7 Value Chain Activity: Marketing and Sales
The most important value chain activity for this business is Marketing and Sales.
Promoting our company to business clients will be critically important. In a world where
there are thousands of different marketing strategies, it will be difficult, and critical, to make
ourselves stand out. This will require constant marketing of ourselves to firms, focussing on
convincing them that we will ensure the best return on investment.
3.8 Business Processes

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3.8.1. CUSTOMER RESEARCH PROCESS Researching the interests and needs of the
customers who the firms we work with are seeking to attract is critical for our business. We
must understand, and must prove to businesses that we understand, these customers, or
they will not trust us to make them more appealing to these customers. Understanding
customers is crucial to marketing to them effectively. This is therefore the most important
process for our company, because if we cannot market other firms effectively, we will soon
be out of business.


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Start
Select Target
Customers
Decide on
Appropriate
Customer
Research
Techniques
Conduct Web
Surveys
Web
Survey
Conduct Phone
Surveys
Phone
Survey
Process gathered
data into
information
Decide whether to
offer to market to
these customers
No
Begin promoting
this service
Yes
End

3.8.2. BUSINESS CUSTOMER SELECTION PROCESS Our firm will approach select businesses
with the best fit with our business model to encourage them to purchase our services. First,
however, we must select which businesses would be the best fit, and which would have the
most success at promoting. This will ensure that we can show an excellent record of success
to future businesses, and that we avoid becoming entangled with brands that have a
negative image that could tarnish our own image as an environmentally responsible
company.

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Start
Locate a residential
community where
we could establish
composting
Are there food
stores nearby?
Do any of them fit
with our
environmental ethos?
Yes
No
No
Approach them
about engaging our
promotional
services.
Yes
Did they accept?
No
End
Yes


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3.9 Functionalities
3.9.1. CUSTOMER RESEARCH PROCESS
Customer information storage
Web-based customer surveying
3.9.2. BUSINESS CUSTOMER SELECTION PROCESS
Mapping of food store locations
Email communication
3.10 Systems

3.10. 1. CONSUMER INFORMATI ON DATABASE Our firm will require a system to keep track of
the information we will gather about consumers, to allow us to assess which areas to target
for our promotions. This system will also support our analysis of this data so that we can
understand trends and gain knowledge.
3.10. 2. MAPPING OF FOOD STORE LOCATIONS- To accurately assess where we should place
our composting stations, we need to utilise mapping software that will allow us to consider
many variables including the wealth of the people living in an area, the proximity to other
composting options and to food stores, and perhaps other variables. This will allow us to
make the best decisions about composting placement.
3.10. 3. EMAIL COMMUNI CATI ON - We need to be able to communicate easily with large
numbers of businesses who we are considering offering promotional services to. This
requires a very efficient and upscale-able system like Email to facilitate cheap
communication. We will be able to assess their environmental awareness by communicating
with them, and plan campaign with them if they become our customers.

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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)

Marketing
and Sales
1. Customer
research
process
1. Customer information storage


2. Web-based customer surveying
Consumer information
database

Web Surveying System
Customer Relationship
Management System

Decision Support System
2. Business
Customer
Selection
Process
1. Mapping of food store locations


2. Email Communication
Interactive Mapping System


Email System
Decision Support System


Collaboration System

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CONCLUSION
Trash to Treasure faces difficult market conditions, but the environment is on everyones
lips, and environmentally friendly business will have competitive advantages. Businesses
need to be seen to be doing something for the planet, as well as themselves, and thats
where we come in. IT is critical to supporting our vision, as it would be very difficult for us to
understand our customers needs or to make important decisions without information. With
enough information we can make correct decisions, and Trash to Treasure can support the
environment and local businesses.
REFERENCES

1. Yellow Pages. (May 2014). Advertising Agencies in New Zealand. Retrieved from
http://yellow.co.nz/new-zealand/advertising-agencies
2. Central Restaurant Products. (2014). Digital Food Scales. Retrieved from
http://www.centralrestaurant.com/Digital+Food+Scales-pl563.html
3. Northeast Regional Agricultural Engineering Service. (1993). How to Build a Compost
Bin. Retrieved from http://extension.missouri.edu/p/g6957

4. Kristen Vernon. (2010). Composting: How to set up a backyard composter. techlife,
3(2).
5. We Compost. (2011). Our Story. Retrieved from
http://www.wecompost.co.nz/about/