Troubleshooting Information Systems at Royal Hotel

ITC6020 – INFORMATION SYSTEM DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

ASSIGNMENT – 3
Case Study on UPSCALE MARKETS – Value creation in Mature industry.

BY
PAVITHRA AYYAMPERUMAL ESAKIRAJ
NUID: 00152500464
MPS INFORMATICS

Instructor name: Anjum Biswas

Term: Fall B 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS
S.No TITLE PAGE
No:
1. Case Overview 2
2. Background 2
3. Discussion Questions and Answers
3.1 Question 1 2
3.2 Question 2 3
3.3 Question 3 3
3.4 Question 4 4
4. Alternative Analysis 4
5. Conclusion 4
6. References 4
1. Case Overview:

This case study is focused on analyzing the new scope of income generation and way of business in a mature industry like
grocery shopping. Grocery shopping is one of the essentials every individual and family does. Usually it is an activity done
with a lot of pleasure. In the present days people are more focused on cutting down the time spent on this regular grocery visit
by doing a lot pre planning and focus. This makes the experience monotonous and a burden. A creativity solution to bring back
the pleasure in grocery shopping is the need of the hour. Upscale market a Texas based Grocery brand had taken up the work
of analyzing the innovative shopping idea implemented in Korea by Home Plus. Adopting a similar method in Texas by Upscale
and the necessary investments and business processes requires a huge analysis and study.

2. Background:

Blake Ives CEO of Upscale Markets, Dallas, TX was impressed by the innovative grocery shopping solution
implemented by a Korean Grocery outlet. By the new implementation Digital Replica of the racks in a physical
Home Plus store was installed in various subway of Seoul. Customers can use the digital display to select items
they wish to buy add to their cart by screening the QR Code and place an order through their account. This order
will be home delivered in the specified amount of it. A simple by brilliant solution to cut down the time taken by
the commuters to go to a physical store for their purchase. Instead the time wasted during the waiting and commuting
through a subway is utilized for a useful purpose.

There are many other background factors in setting up such a system, Seoul being a city well connected with subway
system made it easy to implement this. On the other Dallas a city with no subway or good public transport
connectivity other ways to implement a similar online shopping system had to be thought about. Talking about the
innovation part here is making the idle time during necessary travel into a useful one.
A vast analysis on the following perspective had to made to implement the project successfully
1. Online grocery shopping market in Dallas.
2. Setting up the web store
3. Partnering with vendors providing grocery shopping software.
4. Installation expense of packing machinery.
5. Additional staffing.

Budget, market and customer preference are the main things to be considered during such expansion plans.

3. Discussion Questions and Answers:

3.1 What is the value proposition to the customer of Web-based shopping? How does it compare to the
other innovations in customer service that Ives mentions at the end of the case?

When conducted user experience research on online grocery shopping experience the customers
feedback was reflected upon on the fact that many of them have a habit of shopping for groceries every
once in a week for necessities and maybe in between in the week for anything left out and special
needs. With a schedule so busy a minimum amount of time taken to do the weekly shopping will be
around two hours which can be put into other activities which gives more relaxation.

The following are the value propositions that can be seen in this
1. Innovative online shopping experience.
2. Easy selection and order placement.
3. Shopping through the week through add to cart method.
4. Quick door delivery.
5. Minimum subscriptions cost.
6. Better time utilization.
7. First of a kind experience in Dallas.
 8. Better vendor management.
When implementing an entirely new niche of sector the geography of the place and the attitude of
the local population also matters. The main innovation here is the fact that the precious time of the
customers are being utilized in a better way. When during the comparative study with Rice
Epicurean in Houston the idle time utilized was the time during waiting and commuting in the
subway but since Dallas does not have a public transport system so efficient the only way to think
about is giving an extensive time and space to divide their choosing time and placing an order
weekly once. Likewise the plan of providing pickup and delivery options at various subscription
costs that will suit the income category of the people in the target location.

3.2 What new capabilities do the following innovations bring to customer service in the grocery industry:
Scanner data, Loyalty card data, Web Shopping?

Scanner Data:

It is the system of scanning the bar code and reflecting the related item, quantity and price to the
customers. Once the customer scans the product code all the relevant details will be displayed. They
can choose to add/delete/edit/view the items as per the metric system mentioned. On the other hand
this data will be transferred to the vendor software that manages the online shopping portal for them
to provide the order details to the packaging team. In one scan code all the packing/shopping and
payment is taken care of. This makes the shopping experience for the customers and sales epereince
for the company very easy and innovative.

Loyalty card data:

Every customer spends his/her own time and money on their grocery shopping and most of the
customers purchase on repeat basis as they become comfortable with particular products offered by
the brand in general. This program is a best way to encourage customers to keep shopping with the
store always and years together by providing points for each purchase that can be redeemed for a free
product or other programs based on the points gathered.

Web Shopping:

Web shopping for grocery products is relatively new to the city of Dallas and Ives is going to be the
first company to do so. Introducing the comfortable shopping experience customers can have will
show the mirage of possibilities of marketing and customer attraction into the store.

3.3 What would you do if you were Ives? Should Upscale Markets implement online grocery
shopping in the Dallas, TX market? How similar, or different, should it be from the Rice
Epicurean initiative in Houston, TX?

The following are my analysis that supports the plan on setting up Upscale Market Online shopping in Dallas,
TX
1. Dallas is a city of growth and the rate of young population such as young family, students, newcomers are
increasing day by day as the job opportunities increase so it is no more a slow laid back city. Which
automatically means that the necessity to utilize the time in hand of people becomes more calculative.
Thus online shopping reduces the usage of free time and gives the people the freedom to use it
elsewhere.
2. Grocery shopping is an essential and any store that offers variety and cost effectiveness is always a
welcome. In that aspect Upscale has already made a mark so venturing into the next innovation will
definitely increase the name and thus helps in marketing it more.
 3. Expansion of physical store into neighborhood maybe an option but expansion and investment into digital
world will enable the store to cover higher radius of geographically thus by reaching out to more people.

3.4 How sustainable is any competitive advantage for Rice Epicurean? For
MyWebGrocer?

As a third-party vendor MyWebGrocer has an advantage over Rice epicurean by

partnering with a store first of its kind in Dallas. It has the first timers advantage and
has the scope to introduce all the innovative ideas. The competitive advantage here is
very healthy and sustainable as the buying population in both the cities are
comparable and always in the rise if the marketing and sales is done attractively.
4. Alternative analysis:
a. Ives would have to do a similar expansive analysis on substituting all the factor on the view of
Dallas and Upscale markets.
b. The product offering in Upscale can be made broader to choose from as there is no limitation
of shelf space in an online shop.
c. Loyalty programs can be combined with subscriptions and people with more points can be
given free subscription for home delivery.

5. Conclusion:
This case study shows how an implementation of a new information technology may end up in the success when various
components of an information system is considered and analyzed properly. Proper experience or training in handling a basic
information system is necessary before deployment. Also market study and user preference also plays a major role here.

References:
1. Sudhakar, G. (n.d.). The Role of IT in Business Process Reengineering. Information System. Retrieved
from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237050536_The_Role_of_IT_in_Business_Process_ReengineeringLinks to an external site.
2. Functional vs. General Management. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2020, from http://oer2go.org/mods/en-
boundless/www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundless-management-textbook/introduction-to-management-1/management-
levels-and-types-18/functional-vs-general-management-121-7572/index.htmlLinks to an external site.
3. Attaran, M. (2004). Exploring the relationship between information technology and business process reengineering. Information &
management, 41(5), 585-596.