1

INFOSYS.110 BUSINESS SYSTEMS:

DELIVERABLE 2: BUSINESS SECTION2014

Name Ronak Patel
NetID Rpat815
Group Number: 116
Website Link: http://infosys1102014fcgroup116.blogspot.co.nz/
Tutorial Details
Tutor: Day: Time:
Helen Chen Sunday 11.59pm
Time Spent on
Assignment:
25 hours Word Count: 1649

2


2
Affordable Educational books
INTRODUCTION
Have you ever found yourself in a position where you lack convenience when you need to access educational
books? The solution to this problem that I recommend, universities should create an online portal accessible
via online university platforms. The aim of this portal will compress everything into an easily accessible
location in order to answer the key problem students face, which is convenience, allowing students to freely
purchase their educational books.
BUSINESS SECTION
3.1 Vision
To increase students learning ability by providing faster and cheaper educational books to improve education.

3.2 Industry Analysis: Student resoruce retail industry
This industry contains physical retail shops.
This retail industry store provides educational books to New Zealand (NZ) universities. 8 universities within NZ
and over 130,000 students. (1)
Force: High/Low: Justification:
Buyer power: High
Students have other options (331 physical bookshops in NZ) to purchase books from,
there are many options students can choose from in the bookshop industry. (2011
book sellers) Trade me is an online example where students can purchase
secondhand books at an affordable price.
Supplier power: High
There are many publishers out there wanting their educational books to be sold to
students. There are 331 physical bookshops in NZ, which sell educational sources.
Owners have many options to choose from in order to satisfy students ( 2011
bookseller )
Threat of new entrants: High
It is easy for new comers to enter the industry and sell books to students in order to
satisfy their needs and to set up an online website such as TradeMe and sell
textbooks, this would be a low cost strategy as it wouldnt cost much to set up an
online portal. (2)

3


3
The attractiveness of the industry would be difficult for my business to enter as competition is high and buyer
and suppiler is high. Students have a varity of places to choose educational books from. Therefore I cannot see
my busness working out in this industry.
3.3 Customers and Thei r Needs
Our educational book service will aim to target university students across NZ, who struggle to afford
textbooks. With the average student in full-time study, its understandable that it may be difficult for them to
keep up with their living costs and having to purchase textbooks. It is common that most students have poor
time management and are in need for quick access to resources. Customer service is also a vital part of the
business, therefore, fast customer orders and delivery along with payment safety transaction must occur. For
example a parcel sent from London to New Zealand will take 6 days. I will have to make sure my shipping is
fast and cheap. (3) 'I can't afford it' senior Shane Zackary says of all the expenseslike books
3.4 The Product and Service
Carrying out my service of providing cheap educatinal books can be done by monitoring competitor prices e.g.
Whitcoulls, this way I can challenge these prices by providing discounts while also ensuring payment safety of
transaction is guaranteed. My team could do this by sending out the material the student has ordered as soon
as the payment had been cleared. Purchases can be made on laptops or smartphones, which will satisfy
students needs. Our service aims to satisfy both the financial and time requirements of students across the
country by providing them with textbooks and an online service where they can quickly order and receive their
resources in a short amount of time.






Threat of substitutes: Low
There is not really any other alternative to textbooks as it is a part of students
learning and only be sold through bookshops. There are 331 retail bookshops in NZ,
which is low, compared to other countries such as USA. (2011 bookseller) Trade me
is a example of online store that sell textbooks for students to purchase at a
affordable price.
Rivalry among existing
competitors:
High
Competition is high in the bookshop industry; there are 331 bookshops in NZ that
sell books. There are lots of competitors in the industry that sell educational
textbooks. Example of a bookshop that sells educational textbooks is UBS.
(2011 bookseller).


4


4
3.5 Suppliers and Partners
The publishers will supply textbooks for universities within NZ and aim to sell to students at an affordable price
than other retailers. E.g the Hill supplies UBS with Business Information Systems. An alternative could be a
furniture supplier that would provide shelving for the bookstore e.g. Whitcoulls.
A beneficial partner could be University Student Associations. They are generally in direct contact with my
target market and would publicize my service. Having an online website means that students are able to save
time on purchasing books. Another likely partner could be a stationary store, for example Warehouse
Stationary, because it would be value adding to the service that we provide i.e. students are likely to need
these materials along with their textbooks.

3.6 Strategy: Cost leadership
The strategy which most algins with our vision would be cost leadership. Looking at our customers needs, this
cost leadership stategy would be the most efective. Customer base is made of students, we would aim to
target this market which is all univeristies in NZ and studnets within univerities (134,721 students) and my
low cost strategy is low because we are aiming to sell affordable material, by comparing our prices with
other retailers like Whitcoulls and Amazon. Students find it very difficult to keep up with the price of
textbooks so our low cost stategy Is likely to appeal to them and at the same time make us more
cometitive. To achieve this strategy we would focus on lowering costs in procurement and logisitics, so
we can pass on savings to our cusomters.












5


5


3.7 Value Chain Market and sell the product or service
Selling the product/service would add value because there is a fair amount of competition. By focusing on
promoting our services to make our point of difference obvious, in that we provide cheaper textbooks with
fast delivery. This activity relates with our vision and strategy as we focus on informing our customers of how
our service will best meet their needs compared to other retailers. Compared to other activities in the value
chain marketing and sales was most suited to our vision and strategy as we aim to increase awareness of our
service, which ultimately aids in improving customers quality of learning. Other activities such as procurement
and logistics may play a secondary role in fulfilling our cost leadership strategy.

3.8 Business Processes
3.8.1. Marketing Analysis Process The process will evaluate competitive advantage of understanding
students in a student customer concentric market. I will market to student through relevant social media and
websites like Facebook. I will advertise through pamphlets to students outside universities. I will market and
analyze to students by understanding their motivation and advertise according to these relevant channels.





6


6

3.8.2 Customer Recommendation Process - When students interact with the company, they will be
prompted to fill in a feedback form about this interaction to ensure that our products and service match what
they need and if not then we can research further and use this information and further refine our marketing
system around.




7


7
3.9 Functionalities
3.9.1. Marketing customer and campaign Analysis Process
Analyze target customers
Test if market campaign is effective
3.9.2. Customer Recommendation Process
Help customers needs
Creating customer requsition form for customers to fill out.

3.10 Systems

3.10. 1 Marketing analysis system, this system evaluates current student tastes and preferences by looking at
other successful student oriented companies and use this information to recommend the content for a social
media advertisement. This system ensures that advertising is used effectively at attracting customers to
purchase textbook and increase students learning ability.
3.10. 2. Customer recommendation system, this system takes information given by customers and analyzes
whether the solution is correct for this customer problem. The feedback forms generated a tailed in student
centric way that they find fun and easy to fill in. We will keep a record of the customer details as well for
future references. This is important to ensure that our solution is reliable, accurate and relevant for the
customer and ensures that we can continue to save our customers time and money for textbooks and dealing
with the company.
3.10. 3. Marketing campaign implementation system, throught this system, I will be able to effectively
manage the marketing of the business whilst also reaching out to my customers. This can be achieved by
gathering data for the system and design the campaign to be implemented. I would test the system before
rolling out with the campaign. From this testing, it would tell the owner what campaigns are effective to gain
customer attention. Once the campaign is over, the information gathered would be inputted into the system,
and would allow me to improve and make better decisions for future campaigns.


8


8
3.11. Summary Table.

Value Chain
Activity
Processes Functionalities Specific Information
Systems
Broad Information
Systemss

Market and
sell the
product or
service
Marketing Analysis
Process.
Analyse marketing option.


Test if marketing campaign is effective
Marketing Analyse system.


Marketing campign system
Decision support system
( DSS)

DSS Customer
relationships
management
system(CRM)

Customer
Recommendation
process.
Help customer solve problems.




Creating customer requsition form for
customers to fill out.


Customer recommendation
system.



DSS, CRM

9

9
CONCLUSION
To conclude this proposal where the availability of purchasing educational books is a problem affecting NZ
students, my solution is the most effective approach to solving this issue. We will have several business
processes and systems supported by reliable technology. The information systems such as the marketing
campaign system will be an imperative part of this business that will be used to achieve our vision, saving
students time and money, and improving productivity. Once students start realizing the problem, Im sure that
all students will gladly play a part in our solution and if they do, the benefits will be well deserved for students.
REFERENCES

1) TE POKAI TARA UNIVERSITIES NEW ZEALAND The NZ univeristy system ( n.d) Retrieved
Novemeber 7
th
2013 from http://www.universitiesnz.ac.nz/nz-university-system
2) Thesitewizards.com How much does it cost to set up a website (n.d) Retreirved 7
th
April
2014 from ) from http://www.thesitewizard.com/gettingstarted/cost-setting-up-website.shtml
3) TEENVOGUE Poor at princeton strapped at standford being a low income student retreired( N.d) Retreieved
27
th
May 2013 http://www.teenvogue.com/my-life/2014-03/low-income-students-elite-schools
4)BookSellers NZ Book shops ( (n.d) Retirieved (n.d) http://www.booksellers.co.nz/directory/bookseller/1100
5) The writers edge The book stops here- All about bookstore buyers ( n.d) Retrieved Novemeber 19
th
2008
from http://writersedgeinfo.blogspot.co.nz/2008/11/book-stops-here-all-about-bookstore.html
6) Michelle OBrien (2011) The average cost of textbooks ( Flatword knowledge blog ) Retreived from
http://blog.flatworldknowledge.com/2012/09/14/average-cost-of-college-textbooks-yikes-infographic/