MAJOR ASSIGNMENT

AF302: INFORMATION SYSTEMS

“TONGA WATER BOARD”

GROUP MEMBERS:

S11113153: LAVENITA FAKAVA

S99004376: FALIKILOUTOA KISINA

S11093057: ASUPA LATU

S11100975: ‘ILAISAANE MOEAKIOLA

Tonga Water Board is a government agency in the Kingdom of Tonga where the water sector
conferred with policy-making and streamlined regulatory functions. The priority is to provide
twenty four hours (24) and seven (7) days a week of a reliable, safe and clean water supply. The
aim of Tonga Water Board is “Managing the Water Resources of Tonga for present and future
generations”[CITATION Ton15 \l 1033 ] . Initially, Tonga Water Board is responsible for ensuring
the optimum exploitation, development, utilization, conservation and preservation of the water
resources of the country. The Tonga Water Board website provides information to current and
potential customers; promote the vision and mission of the organizations. [CITATION Ton15 \l 1033
] . It also assists the customers intermediate needs of the water supply and it does gives
opportunity for clients to send through any complaints or feedback straight away about the
services of the organizations. This essay will provide a better understanding of the organizations
website of identifying strengths, weaknesses and provide recommendation on how to improve
the website of Tonga Water Board. First of all, this essay will analyze the strengths of the
website which are: the capacity and capability to create a website, user-friendliness and
availability of service fee. Secondly, it discusses some weaknesses of the website which are: no
link to an online payment, no notification of vacancies advertisement and maintenance of
website. Lastly, this essay will conclude with recommendation of possible ways of how the
Tonga Water Board website could improve.

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Firstly, having the “capacity and capability to create a website” a strength for Tonga Water
Board. It exhibited specific business functionality that are exposed by this enterprise through
Internet connection. It is providing another convenience way for business to consumer (B2C) and
business to business e-commerce through building the marketing plan around the customer,
monitor progress toward the vision for the business in order to identify when adjustments are
needed also to identify all key assumptions in the marketing plan. [ CITATION Tur15 \l 1033 ] As
the enterprise Web evolves into a network of service providers, Tonga Water Board offer Web-
based services to potentially customers and users. The users and customers count on the ability to
access any service at any time. As noted by Mr. Suliafu “Since 2015, Tonga Water Board
decided to have a web services (website) to be convenient to all businesses and customers
wherever they are; they found out that nowadays technology are growing rapidly and it is
available for access. For instance; there is an increasing number of customers who are reliance
on information on the services provided by an online businesses.[ CITATION Sio17 \l 3081 ]

In-addition another strength of Tonga Water Board's website is its User-Friendliness. Several
common features for any standard website were noted by Nygaard (2009) as,:- "Those are easy
to read, easy to navigate, view comfortably, quickly to download, avoid dead links, keep the
content fresh,clear and to the point, keep your target audience in mind, provide a forum for
visitors to contact you and have browser compatibility"[ CITATION Raj15 \l 1033 ]. Similarly
User-friendliness comprises of two criterions: ease of contact and ease of navigation [ CITATION
Ash \l 1033 ]. As per interview with Mr. Suliafu, the IT supporter of TWB, he confirmed that the
website was launched in March 2015, to improve their communication with their customers and
related parties hence the reason why the website is very simple so anyone can access it, navigate
and understand all information's in it about TWB. Accordingly with the interviewing of Mrs.
Pasikala, 72 yrs. of age who resides at Kolofo'ou, she explained, "TWB's website is very simple
to understand for myself, as an elderly woman. I can just click on each tab and read their
respective information's, they are just straight forward and short enough to read and understand."
This is also the same case when talking to Mr. Vakatapu, 18 years of age and currently attending
Tupou College, he stated, "I used TWB's website in my school's assignment with title monopoly,
exploring their website was simple enough for me as a student, I was easily navigate it and
understand everything there about them being the monopoly for water resources in the
Kingdom". TWB's website is very easy to navigate and understand by any age level.

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Moreover, is the “availability of their service fees” and other information on the content of the
website. As, "Content is a critical part of the website. It is the reason as to why users visit the
website. The importance of this characteristics has been noted by most authors with a motto
“Content is king”. Users in an academic website come looking for particular information. This is
because the users have what they are looking for in mind before coming to the website"
[ CITATION Kos16 \l 1033 ]. This is relatively the issue with TWB's website, it contains
information where it's users will be looking for. As Mrs. Pasikala explained "the best part is
finding what I was looking for in their website. This is their list of service fees/charges
displaying in one of the tab, this list broaden my knowledge about their fees and charges which I
was not aware of until viewing them on their website". Mr. Vakatapu also states, "All
information I used in my assignment were from TWB's website, the explaining of their nature,
the product and service they offered with applicable fees, these were easily located on their
website and were very easy for me to locate them and used in my assignment". TWB's website
addressed the different needs of different user’s age group.
.

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The Tonga Water Board website does has some weaknesses. The website of the Tonga Water
Board has: no link to an online payment, second; no notification of vacancies advertisement
and maintenance of website

Equally, with no link to an online payment” as one of the weaknesses of the website of the
Tonga Water Board that has identified then the customers are not being properly served as thus
indicated by the information and direction in the website. These forms can be shared on the
organizations website, through a link, or with a payment button that sends customers directly to
the organization form. Whereas, the links can use to pay invoices bills of the customers which
allows a streamline of the checkout process and help to protect sensitive payment account data.
With a hosted form provided by the link to an online payment on the website it can pay bill and
process payments through simple and convenience way to be easily available for the customers..
“There has been a significant increase in the use of social media and the volume of personal
information provided on social networking websites. As such, social media has a potential for a
variety of uses by businesses.”[ CITATION Col12 \l 1033 ] Based on a customer’s perspectives, it is
clear that the majority of the firms and people in the Kingdom of Tonga maintain at least some
presence on Facebook, Twitter, Email and LinkedIn etc. Nowadays, most of the consumer
demands and are usually engaged with uses of technology. It gives an opportunity for an online
payment directly from overseas to the organizations, as no one in the Kingdom of the families to
be trustworthy to do the bill payment.[CITATION Moe17 \l 1033 ] This is due to the fact that
numeration from overseas for families to pay bills are usually use for other things and thus water
outlets for some families are suspended for a while or indefinitely in some cases. Furthermore,
the link on the website provides general information and encourages interaction within the
community and the firms. So without the link the potential for quick and easy payment is not
available thus rendering the website as useless for some customers.

Additionally, “no notification of vacancies advertisement” is the second weaknesses identified

of the Tonga Water Board Website. Usually people find the best company websites are those that
place job posts regarding any particular vacancy is in the company’s website. Notification of
vacancies advertisement is very vital to job seekers that use the web directly or through social
media network contacts. It helps to build an online reputation of both job seeker and employer
that can be researched and built. [ CITATION Tur15 \l 1033 ] In an interview of a graduated student

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from Fokololo Technical Institute, he shared of how frequently he uses often the organizations
website to search for a job openings. [ CITATION Tup17 \l 1033 ] Moreover Cheng wrote on his
journal that, “vacancy advertisements posted on websites have a longer shelf life than those
placed in newspapers or magazines’’ [ CITATION Che14 \l 1033 ], this makes them useful in the
context of ongoing recruitment, and it can also be easily updated. In fact, by posting jobs online
it is cheaper than advertising in the newspaper or post in other websites and it is a low cost for
the organization. When there is no notification of vacancies advertisement it portrays the
inability of Tonga Water Board to realize that the goal mine on their website is to bring new
recruits. It is true,” That engaging on internet recruit is better, faster, cheaper and more
strategic”. (Florea & Badea, 2013) So when there are no job vacacies posted on the website than
a huge loss of new skills and ideas are totally lost in a few minutes. So when job information are
put in the hands of job seekers quickly than ever before because of technology where instantly,
the job seekers can act on this information and it allows the organization to transcend
geographical boundaries by seeking the best people.

To add on, “maintenance of the websites” has been identified as the third weaknesses of Tonga
Water Board. Globally, a website is essential for many businesses because it brings traffic and it
is one of the first interactions prospectors will have on an organization. Nowadays, we have
moved to a world of digital economy, most prospects are more at ease with using technology
based on websites rather than anything else such as business card. Technology and social media
have grown rapidly within the past decade and so it continues to grow today. With its rapid
growth, they have become such a distraction and addiction to humans. Through observing the
Tonga Water Board websites, there is a lack of maintenance of websites such as monitoring and
updated of information. As stated on a questionnaire answered by TWB IT, “he intended to
update the website structure per year and update the data weekly but he is too busy with another
tasks given to him so there is a lack of staff IT in the organization. [ CITATION Sio17 \l 3081 ]
Additionally, the link for Facebook, twitter and Gmail account is no longer working. Therefore,
maintenance of website is vital for leaving the right impression for visitors, Chen emphasized,
“That 75% of online surfers make instant judgment about an organization based on the first
impression of the website. If the website is not better than, then it should consider upgrading the
website immediately. (Auger, 2015)

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In considering the above weaknesses, this essay has some recommendations on how Tonga
Water Board can upgrade their website to better assist their customers and related parties and
also to easily communicate their services to the public.

Firstly, the Tonga Water Board should include in their website the customer complaint form
and drop box. As their IT assistant, Mr. Suliafu confirmed, customer complaint was one of the
reason why they adopt this website. Therefore, having the customer complaint form and drop
box on their website will enable their customers' to just let them aware of their complaint
through the form and the drop box. As customers' have multitasking per day, this will minimize
their demanding of people time, instead of coming straight to Tonga Water Board for
complaining, they can just fill up the form on the website and drop in the drop box. This will
also assist them in distributing the complaints to respective staff to attend to and also to respond
quicker in 1 or 2 days and not like their current process of 3 - 5 days as per confirmation with
Mr. Suliafu. Furthermore, Tonga Water Board will have near real time records of each
customer’s feedback or complaint.

Secondly, Tonga Water Board’s website should make use of their websites to display relevant
information's like press release, public awareness, annual reports and job vacancy
advertisement, etc. All these relevant information's are very important to them as the only water
provider and for the general public as a whole as they are all water consumers', displaying all
these in their website will trigger the public to read them to know more about how water
resources are being exploited, developed, utilized, conserved and preserved. Their job
advertisements will also reach out to the largest qualified audience hence the organization will
get to employ the best qualified interested applicants.

Lastly, Tonga Water Board website should include online statements, online payments and
should also link to other utilities although these may trigger high cost for the organization.
Many of the customers nowadays are very busy with other activities and are preferably
comfortable with paying online as it saves time, they will not have to come and queue at their
office but rather pay their water bill online. Having the online statements will enable customers
to access them online and gets updated of their water accounts as and when they need to.
Linking to other utilities is best to have it on their website especially now that they (water,
power, waste) are under 1 board of directors. This link will enable them to better serve their

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customers as their customers will be happy to perform all their 3 transactions in Tonga Water
Board's website. With all these in their website, they will contribute more to their revenue
collections of Tonga Water Board.

All in all this essay has provided an illustration of the importance of providing services that does
meets the needs of potential customers and other business who have direct needs and demands
that should be prioritized always. Although this essay has analyzed and provide ideas and
feedbacks from people directly linking to the usage of the Tonga Water Board, what is important
in our analysis is that the weaknesses no matter how few or seemingly not important to some
they always seem to deflect from the great strengths that the website may have in place.

Furthermore, in this analysis it is a wakeup call to Tonga that technology is here to stay and
customer – client relationship has entered a new phase. In providing an excellent website, a
company is promoting itself in professionalism and showing they value their customers and other
businesses. Therefore maintaining and running a website is the lifeline of any company and must
always be maintained appropriately and efficiently to reap great rewards.

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