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INFOSYS.110 BUSINESS SYSTEMS:

DELIVERABLE 2: BUSINESS SECTION
2014

Name Harry West
NetID Hwes362
Group Number: 205
Website Link: http://infosys110group205.blogspot.co.nz
Tutorial Details
Tutor: Day: Time:
Johnnie Shubert Wednesday 10am
Time Spent on
Assignment:
28 hours Word Count: 1,641

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FORGET ME WATT
INTRODUCTION
People often leave electronic devices plugged into electrical sockets while turned on for
extended periods of time. This problem could potentially have negative symptoms, such as
high energy consumption or even a house fire. Forget Me Watt (FMW) is a system that
provides the solution to this problem. It allows users to view which appliances are plugged
into the powerboard from the FMW iPhone app. The ability to turn plugged-in appliances on
or off from any location allows the user to conveniently manage their power board without
the hassle of doing it manually.
3. BUSINESS SECTION
3.1 Vision
Forget Me Watt hopes to provide safety and awareness to a wide range of customers by
communicating relevant information in the most convenient manner, with a focus of
educating users of their electricity consumption.
3.2 Industry Analysis: Techonology Industry
Industry: Techology Industry.
Force: High/Low: Justification:
Buyer power: High Buyer power between the customer and the
seller is high as the technology industry currently
contains many companies, with buyers being able
to choose between many rival products. (Van
Camp , J. 2012)
Supplier power: Low There are many suppliers in the technology
industry that FMW can purchase from. For

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example there are many choices in selecting
which app developer to hire to create our app,
with little differentiation between developers.
(Smith, 2013)
Threat of new entrants: Low
It is difficult to enter the technology market as
there are high entry barriers. Developing
advanced technological products requires an
increasing level of skill and knowledge in todays
market. This entry barrier would likely incur high
start up costs for research and deveolopment for
the new entrant. Another barrier is that existing
products have patents that limit new
technologies. (The Guardian, 2014)
Threat of substitutes: High The technology industry contains many similar
products or services that are offered by different
companies. Customers may not be able to
differentiate between brands.
Rivalry among existing
competitors:
High Customers have low cost to switching products.
The high level of comptetion can be seen through
the relationship between Apple and Samsung,
two of the leading existing techonology
competitors. Brands may have to constantly
update and improve their product, have
competitive pricing with their product, and
successfully market their product to keep
customers interested in their product over a
competitiors.

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Overall attractiveness of the industry:
Overall the technology industry is not an attractive industry to enter. As buyer power is high
and supplier power is low, businesses must always have competitive pricing to compete
with rival products. Rivalry between competitors is high, and products in the technology
industry can be similar between companies, as product innovation from one product can
soon be copied by a rival business in the fight for customers. It may be difficult to enter the
technology industry due to the level of research, development and skilled production
required, but this means the threat of new entrants in the industry is low.
3.3 Customers and Thei r Needs
The target group of customers for the FMW appliance are owners of electronic appliances.
Appliances such as cell phones are almost a necessity in modern world, meaning to people
of almost every demographic in society could use our product. The phone application in
particular must therefore be accessible to a wide variety of customers. As a portion of our
large customer base will likely find the phone application more challenging, it must be more
convenient, easy to operate, and easy to understand than a normal application. (Agarwal,
2014)
3.4 The Product and Service
FMW satisfies the customers needs of being convenient, easy to operate and easy to
understand through its simplistic interface. The product is convenient to the customer it
eliminates the need to return to the power board to check what appliances are active.
Customers can simply use the FMW app to assess the power board usage from any location.
The power board and phone application are easy to operate for the customer due to the
simplistic design. Once an appliance has been plugged into the powerboard, it is easy to
view the appliance and its summary statistics from the phone application. The statistics are
easy to interperate and understand, as they are shown in common units such as watts and
dollars.
3.5 Suppliers and Partners
One supplier to FMW would be the supplier of raw materials. Materials such as wires,
plastic and metal would be needed to be outsourced to create the powerboard. Another

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supplier of our product would be an app developer. They would need to supply us with the
coding to create our application and connect us to phone application platforms.
One partner for FMW would be the mobile application platform provider itself. The FMW
application would be placed onto the platform with the assisstance of tools provided by
companies such as Apple and Android that allow it to be downloaded onto devices.
3.6 Strategy: Differentiation
FMW is scoped towards a broad market. The product is not specialised towards a particular
sector of the market, but rather aimed at anyone who owns electrical appliances. The
product would use a high cost strategy, as the technology is advanced and focused on
offering high quality convenience and assistance as opposed to trying to be the cheapest on
the market.
The overall strategy is therefore Differentiation.
3.7 Value Chain Activity: Technology development (and Research and Development)
The most important value chain activity for this business is Technology development
(and Research and Development).
FMW would require a high level of technology research and development to achieve its
vision of provide safety and awareness in a convenient manner. Constant research into how
to best monitor levels of electricty usage within the powerboard, and how to best convey
those levels through the wifi connection and phone application would be necessary to fully
accomplish the companys vision. The focus constant improvement through research and
development is what hopes to justify the differentiation strategy, as customers are paying
for high quality rather than low cost.
3.8 Business Processes
3.8.1. PRODUCT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROCESS - The product research and
development process involves reviewing the current product, identifying improvements for
the product, designing the improvements and creating the prototype. If the prototype is
reviewed to be successful, then the business can begin creating the new product. The

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process of continued product review and improvement helps ensure the customer is
receiving a high quality product that delivers value and keeps to our vision.
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

3.8.2. CUSTOMER SERVI CE PROCESS The customer service process is an essential part of the
research and development value chain activity. Customer feedback is the best way for the
company to identify how the product could be developed further to reach the companys
vision. The first step in the customer service process is to make contact with the customer
through phone call or email based on their details. This can either be initiated by the
company or by the customer. Once the customer has been identified by their user account,

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their details can be retreived from the customer database. If the customer makes a negative
complaint, the helpline should attempt to resolve the issue. If the complaint is a negative
opinion of the product, the process requires the feedback be recorded. Positive feedback
should also be recorded. The customers details are then updated with a summary of their
experience.
CUSTOMER SERVICE PROCESS



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3.9 Functionalities
3.9.1. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
To analyse trends in customer feedback
To control development of product
3.9.2. CUSTOMER SERVI CE PROCESS
To contact a customer
To record customer feedback
3.10 Systems

3.10. 1. CALL PROCESSING SYSTEM The call processing system is used by call centers to
support the functionality of contacting customers. It stores the contact details of the
customer base and alerts the call operater when a customer should be contacted.
Contacting and communicating with customers is essential to ensure the business is keeping
in touch its users. Their feedback can help us understand what technology and development
is necessary to acheive our vision of a convenient product .
3.10. 2. DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEM This computerised system manages the database of
raw information that has been provided through sales or customer feedback. It can support
the functionality of analysing trends in customer feedback by taking recorded feedback data
and sorting it into customer demographic categories to give a clearer user-friendly picture of
the data for identification of patterns. This knowledge and wisdown gained through
managing data helps the company to make decisions on a managerial level that can
influence technology and development to improve our product and achieve our vision.
3.10. 3. DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM The development management system is
used to organise and coordinate the technology development process. Once a time frame
and budget for development have been established, the system uses enterprise wide
information (finance, inventory etc) to simplify the development process by calculating its
limits. Having an organised and controlled development process helps the business focus on
delivering a product of the highest value to the customer.

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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)

Technology
development
(and
Research and
Development)
1. Product
Development
Process
1. To control development of a product

2. To analyse trends in customer feedback
Development Management
System

Data Mining System
Enterprise Resource
Planning

Decision Support System
2. Customer
Service
Process
1. To contact a customer

2. To record customer feedback
Call Processing System Customer Relations
Management

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CONCLUSION
Forget Me Watt is a product that uses information systems to create information
technology, which delivers value to customers. The companys vision is to provide
information and awareness to customers by conveniently providing relevant information on
their electricity usage. To achieve this vision, FMW has a focus on technology research and
delevopment. This value chain activity is supported by a number of information systems
that ensure the company is operating at an optimum level.
REFERENCES

1. Van Camp , J. (2012, June 26). How to choose a smartphone | Cell phone buying
guide | Digital Trends. Retrieved from http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/cell-
phone-buying-guide/#!Ql1N1

2. Smith, G. (2013, December). 10 Excellent Platforms for Building Mobile Apps.
Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2013/12/03/build-mobile-apps/


3. Samsung ordered to pay Apple $120m for patent violation | Technology |
theguardian.com. (2014, May). Retrieved from
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/03/samsung-ordered-to-pay-apple-
120m-for-patent-violation

4. Wagstaff, J., & Kim, M. (2012). Apple and Samsung: A defining rivalry in a changed
mobile market| Reuters. Retrieved from
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/07/us-apple-samsung-
idUSBRE8B61B220121207

5. Agarwal, S. (2014). What makes a great App? [Infographic]. Retrieved from
http://www.socialstrategi.com/great-app-design/