IT 210: Business Systems Analysis

Final Project: Business Systems Analysis

IT 210

Lydia Harris

Southern New Hampshire University

Contents

Introduction 3
1
Problem Statement 3
Two Technologies 3
Business Requirements 4
Objectives 4
Project Description 5
Technology Requirements 6
Competitors and Technology 7
Wireless, Mobile Computing, and Mobile Commerce 7
Business Analytics and Business Intelligence Computing 7
Technology Benefit 8
Technology Solutions 8
Technology One 8
Technology Two 9
Recommendations 10
Technology Solution 10
Overall Benefit 11
Basic Security Considerations 12
Security Features 12
Third-Party Vendors 13
Internal Safeguards 13
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Final Paper
Introduction
Problem Statement1

This store is a small brick-and-mortar business with 5 employees, which sells discounted

designers clothing, shoes and accessories for both men and women. However, the business only

sells their products in-store and not online. This is causing a huge disconnect between the store

and the consumers because their products are not easily accessible, while their competitors are

utilizing their websites for online sales. The store needs to focus on creating a digital presence as

a way to concentrate their focus on reaching their consumers at all times and fulfilling their

shopping needs.

Additionally, if the owner incorporates more technology to streamline all business

procedures both in-store and online, she has to be sure that she is protecting her customer’s

privacy and company data by utilizing advanced security measures. Furthermore, she has to

integrate technology that can process all steps of online shopping like tracking inventory,

shipping information, order statuses, and online payments, as well as communicating this

information both internally and externally to the staff and customers. Lastly, she has to be able to

properly oversee her customer contacts, deliver the appropriate reports for the business, while

being able to incorporate all these new technologies in everyday operations like sales, payments

and inventory.

Two Technologies

The first technology is wireless, mobile computing, and mobile commerce. If our

consumers are able to easily access and purchase our products from the store on their mobile
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device, then this could lead to a massive increase in sales and advancing our brand (Mani, 2018).

The ability to use mobile commerce will provide a higher quality user experience since it’s very

fast and convenient, as it’s available at all hours of the day (Mani, 2018). Additionally, the

utilization of this technology will draw in new consumers, while achieving a higher ROI (Mani,

2018).

The second technology is business analytics and business intelligence computing. “Business

intelligence and analytics are data management solutions implemented in companies and

enterprises to collect historical and present data, while using statistics and software to analyze

raw information, and deliver insights for making better future decisions” (Durcevic, 2018). By

utilizing the data provided by our own customers, we can get a better understanding of their

habits and what appeals to them to assist business decisions (Durcevic, 2018). Additionally,

with the use of both intelligence and analytics, we can get a complete understanding of both

what happened in the past with our business, as well as why it happened (Durcevic, 2018).

Business Requirements
Objectives

The objective of utilizing these technologies in our small brick-and-mortar business is to

create a strong online presence, where our customers can easily access and purchase our

products. This will also offer an opportunity to further our brand since the only way to purchase

our products currently is in-store, and more people will be able to browse our products through

mobile commerce. Additionally, these technologies will provide more insight to our customers,

which can help us determine what our consumers respond positively to and where we should

make changes. This will lead to a better system that helps to maintain our customer contacts and
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show our customers that we care about creating an efficient process for them. Furthermore, by

making improvements with the help of the technologies, the system that the business will be

using for day-to-day business operations like sales, tracking orders, payments, etc. will all be

much more streamlined, which is exactly what needed to be solved.

Project Description

In order to fulfil these objectives, the store needs to start by implementing wireless,

mobile computing, and mobile commerce as soon as possible. Along with that, the business

should implement the use of business analytics and business intelligence computing with every

aspect of mobile computing and mobile commerce. By utilizing both these technologies

alongside each other, our company will be able to collect data from all parts of the mobile

commerce in order to accurately assess how capable the website is. We will be able to

understand how many people are coming to our website, how many people complete purchases

who come to the website, what people thought about their experience on our website, where

people are ordering from and much more. The intelligence we will be receiving will be

invaluable, and will help us in making business decisions, as well as making the website the best

experience for our consumers. The desired results also include an increased amount of sales and

consumers, as we will be reaching more people, and making improvements based on the data we

are receiving.

It is vital for our company to consider implementing these technologies because our

competitors already utilize many of these tools. The main aspect that sets us apart from them, at

the moment, is that they are able to sell their products and reach their customers online. By

expanding our online presence to allow customers to browse and purchase our discount designer
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products whenever they wish will give us a huge advantage. Furthermore, we can use business

analytics and business intelligence computing to improve our customer’s experiences and create

an easy to use website that will lead to a higher ROI, and cost reduction and productivity (Mani,

2018). Additionally, we can track trends to have a greater understanding of what the customers

responded really well to and why, as well as what they did not like as much and what factors led

to that reaction (Durcevic, 2018). On top of that, mobile commerce is another channel we can

market our store through, and it can even lead to an increase in sales in-store, which would be

incredibly beneficial (Mani, 2018).

Technology Requirements

One requirement that will be necessary from the new technology put in place so that it

effectively solves the business’s problem is that the wireless, mobile computing, and mobile

commerce needs to be user-friendly and work with little to no problems or glitches. It also needs

to be able to withstand many consumers using it at once without freezing or any other issues.

Additionally, the technology needs to be able to store all the customer information including

their orders, shipping data, payments, and much more. There needs to be many people who are

capable of keeping up with the maintenance, as well, in order to keep the website running

smoothly. Another important requirement is that the business analytics and business intelligence

computing need to be providing accurate information. If the information is not exact and

comprehensive, then the business decisions made based on the information could end up being a

very costly mistake. The business could miss out on potential orders if a customer’s experience

was not top of the line. In order for this to not happen, there needs to be many people keeping

track of the security of the website and making sure there is nothing suspicious happening like
IT 210: Business Systems Analysis 7

hacking of information or unsafe activity. This will ensure we provide our consumers with a

high-quality experience, while maintaining the truthfulness of our analytics and intelligence.

Competitors and Technology

consumers, specifically a younger target market (Bohannon, n.d.). In an effort to be more

innovative than their competitors, Macy’s uses a resource called Cortexica that allows people to

post a picture of a clothing item or an accessory they like and the technology will show them

items that look similar, whether it’s the style, the color or the pattern of the item they

preferred (Bohannon, n.d.). “Macy’s is the first United States retailer to use visual search

technology from Cortexica, promising to reduce the number of clicks between inspiration and

purchase to make it easy for young fashionistas to shop from their phones” (Bohannon, n.d.).

By utilizing this technology alongside mobile commerce, Macy’s is creating a much more

efficient user experience, which will lead to more sales since they are being shown items that

are similar to things they’ve liked before (Bohannon, n.d.).

Business Analytics and Business Intelligence Computing

Kohl’s is using data from business analytics and business intelligence computing to perfect

consumer’s experiences on their website in order to draw in more users and to streamline the

search process (Binns, 2017). Additionally, customers who shop at Kohl’s online have 15%

higher satisfaction than shopping in the store because there’s more variety and it’s easier to

find the right product they’re looking for due to the functionality of the site (Binns, 2017). “By

reviewing search data on their websites, retailers can uncover trends and opportunities…One
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mistake many retailers make is focusing on only one step of the total customer journey. From

the customer’s viewpoint, search and findability tend to be one and the same” (Binns, 2017).

Kohl’s has been able to use technology that analyzes data to understand what their consumers

want and need in order to create an experience that keeps them consistently satisfied (Binns,

2017). This technology offers them a huge competitive advantage since they are quick to act on

the data they receive and use that information to provide consumers with the seamless

experience that they expect to receive (Binns, 2017).

Technology Benefit

Based on the technology that Macy’s has implemented in their mobile commerce, there is

so much that our store can learn from and use. It’s very clear that websites thrive if their

interface is easy to use, and the users can find what they are looking for in a timely manner. The

first step our store needs to take is to implement mobile commerce but focus on making sure the

consumers are finding all the products with ease. The more satisfied our consumers are, the more

friends they can share their experiences with, which leads to a multitude of new users and the

furthering of our brand as a business.

The information from the Kohl’s section may help with creating a desirable and

straightforward experience for the user. By incorporating the business analytics and business

intelligence computing provided through the user’s habits, our store can create that ideal online

shopping journey for our consumers to experience. This will lead to a higher number of users

who are regularly returning to use the website for all of their clothing, shoe or other accessory

needs, which means larger sales and revenue for our store.

Technology Solutions
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Technology One

Wireless, mobile computing, and mobile commerce will meet the technology requirements of

our business mainly because we are finally able to reach a huge chunk of our audience through

the online store. Customers will always be able to purchase our products online if they have

access to our mobile commerce. Additionally, it will be more accessible for our audience to

purchase our products even if they don’t live close to our small brick-and-mortar store. By

utilizing mobile and wireless computing, our store can better maintain our customer contacts,

which will then lead to creating long and lasting relationships with loyal customers. Furthermore,

this technology offers a great way to track customers' order statuses and process their payment

information. Wireless, mobile computing, and mobile commerce also allows our business to

manage the store’s inventory and shipping, while communicating all this data with our customers

and employees. Areas where this technology may fall short is providing an upgraded system for

the brick-and-mortar location to manage everyday processes like sales, payments and inventory,

which would help our store advance. Lastly, there is a gap with this technology since it does not

provide our business with necessary reports to make educated business decisions.

Technology Two

Business analytics and business intelligence computing will help our business analyze how

effective our online and mobile commerce is working for our consumers. It provides valuable

information that can allow us to change the interface of the website or app so that it is easier for

our audience, which will lead to more sales. Studying business analytics and intelligence

computing will also help our business to understand why certain things may have happened. For

example, it can help to discover and explain why there is a trend of more mobile commerce sales
IT 210: Business Systems Analysis 10

later in the day. We can then use information like this to assess when we need to hire additional

support for the website in order for everything to run smoothly with as few problems as possible.

This technology is also incredibly useful for managing inventory, shipping and customer

contacts. Additionally, business analytics and business intelligence computing will provide

important reports and offers a system for brick-and-mortar processes to be effectively managed,

which includes activities like payments, inventory and customer contacts. The obvious place this

falls short is if mobile commerce is not put in place, then this technology will not be very useful

for expanding the store’s online presence. Furthermore, this is not the best technology to manage

order statuses and payments or to communicate information to employees and customers. These

technologies are at their best when they are used together for the advancement of the brand and

the business.

Recommendations
Technology Solution

The technology solution I would have to recommend for the future success of this business is

wireless, mobile computing, and mobile commerce, as well as business analytics and business

intelligence computing. These are a very valuable combination of technologies to use to further

spread our business online and give us the greatest chance for future success. Each advantage of

both technologies covers where each of them fall shorts, so together they perfectly complete all

of our business objectives. Additionally, when used together, they provide a place where

consumers can always purchase their products with a seamless experience. Mobile computing

meets a main objective about our business being intent on growing our online presence. It will do

that by allowing our store to show more people our products, while keeping costs down and

increasing our ROI (Mani, 2018). With the help of analyzing information from our website, we
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can provide the best experience for our users to keep coming back for all their clothing needs,

while maintaining our customer contacts.

Furthermore, the use of these technologies will allow the business to create a better system to

manage and track all the information that comes along with mobile commerce like keeping track

of inventory, shipping information, order statuses, and online payments, which was a very

important objective of adding to the future success of the business. Once the system is created, it

will be easy to relay all that information to our customers and our employees so everyone can

stay updated. The brick-and-mortar location will also be able to have a system put in place that

helps to manage everyday processes, which is yet another very significant objective for the

business to grow. Altogether, this creates a brand that provides higher quality customer service,

which will lead to creating lasting relationships with our customers.

Overall Benefit

The utilization of both wireless, mobile computing, & mobile commerce and business

analytics & business intelligence computing will without a doubt enhance the overall efficiency

of the company. As previously touched on, the application of business analytics and business

intelligence will help in making a seamless experience for a consumer. Not only that, but by

creating this cohesive mobile commerce technology, along with it comes a way that we can keep

track of all the important details having to do with orders and inventory. Additionally, it becomes

much more efficient for our consumers to purchase our products whenever they feel like it. This

system can also be used for our brick-and-mortar location to manage our everyday processes.

These technologies will position our business for future growth online because by creating a

seamless experience in mobile commerce for our consumers, then our brand will be able to
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spread further online. The better the experiences that our audience has, the more our customers

will spread word of our business and entice more potential customers to visit our website or

store. This will only be possible by expanding our small business to mobile commerce and

applying business analytics to offer an easy and straightforward journey through the site. Not

only will these technologies spread our brand online, but it can advance our brick-and-mortar

location. By utilizing business analytics, we can create a way to better manage processes for our

store location, which will set us up for greater future success in-store.

Basic Security Considerations

& business intelligence computing, it is important to keep in mind that there is the possibility

hackers could try to steal your company’s and your customers’ private information such as

addresses, banking information and credit card information. One thing we can do is require our

users to create a long password with special characters and numbers to make it more difficult

for someone to guess their password. Additionally, we can implement two-factor

authentication so when a customer logs in, they would need to know the password and would

then receive a one-time password (OTP) sent to their phone or email to verify it is actually them

signing in to their account.

Furthermore, our company needs to make sure only authorized users have access to an

authenticated payment system (ClickSSL, 2013). “By implementing proper security, two parties

get authentication and a bridge of trust develops between both parties for safe payment”

(ClickSSL, 2013). Furthermore, our business needs to maintain their integrity and verify the

information going between the server and our customer is trustworthy and is not being
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distorted or intercepted (ClickSSL, 2013). Nowadays, it is harder for hackers to have an

opportunity to decipher this information due to increased security measures (ClickSSL, 2013).

Lastly, it is vital that our business retains customer confidentiality and guarantees their

information given during the transaction (payment, address, etc.) is safe from any outside or

unauthorized sources by making sure the “data sent over the network is encrypted and cannot

be identified by the third party” (ClickSSL, 2013).

Third-Party Vendors

First of all, our business has to ensure we make the right decisions when completing our

vendor selection. We have to be sure to complete our due diligence and ensure the vendors share

similar beliefs with privacy of information and risk management (Matteson, 2018). "Ensuring

that systems are secure when deployed and monitoring them for changes is part of doing the

basics right…Those security basics apply as much to the cloud as the data center" (Matteson,

2018). Additionally, the third-party vendors have to not only express they feel the same about

protecting private data, but actually exhibit that behavior, as well (Matteson, 2018). Lastly,

utilizing contracts to explicitly spell out the terms of the agreement is imperative for making sure

the vendors complies with all the professional business standards. “Where possible, contractual

agreements should also involve indemnification of your organization should the vendor suffer a

breach. Standards are a key factor to ensure compliance. If your organization is governed by PCI,

HIPAA, SOX or other standards, those should also be enforced and monitored among and third

party vendors with whom you share data” (Matteson, 2018).

Internal Safeguards
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Internal safeguards we have to be aware of are phishing attacks, as well as other kinds

of viruses and alien software that employees can accidentally happen upon (Rainer & Prince,

2016). Training them to not click on strange links they receive in their emails and installing

firewalls and anti-malware systems in the computers can help prevent and protect our systems

from these kinds of problems (Rainer & Prince, 2016). Other ways to increase internal

safeguards in our business is to incorporate physical controls, access controls and

communication controls (Rainer & Prince, 2016). With physical controls, our business can utilize

locks and fences to keep random people from accessing our buildings and property when we

are not open for business (Rainer & Prince, 2016). Through incorporating access controls, we

can use access codes and passwords to restrict unauthorized people from accessing our

computer systems (Rainer & Prince, 2016). Lastly, by including communications controls, it

limits protected access of communications systems to authorized personnel only (Rainer &

Prince, 2016).

Of course, we have to be aware of instances of human error if an employee loses a key

or someone leaves their computer password written on a pad on their desk when other

employees like janitors and security guards can easily access their rooms and see this

information (Rainer & Prince, 2016). Moreover, there could be circumstances of social

engineering like when someone “shoulder surfs” or when someone watches an employee’s

computer behind their shoulder (Rainer & Prince, 2016). Another example of social engineering

is “tailgating”, which is when an employee asks another to hold the door open for them

because their hands are full, but a key card or special code is usually required for restricted

areas like that (Rainer & Prince, 2016). This is a huge breach of security and often allows people
IT 210: Business Systems Analysis 15

who do not have proper security clearance into private areas. In order to prevent instances like

these, it is imperative to host meetings about the importance of safeguarding important

information and be vigilant for people trying to take advantage of other employees.
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References

Binns, J. (2017, October 15). How Kohl's Turns Customer Insights Into Bottom-Line Results.

Retrieved from https://risnews.com/how-kohls-turns-customer-insights-bottom-line-results.

Bohannon, C., (n.d.). How Macy's combines fashion, mobile technology to target younger

shoppers. Retrieved from https://www.retaildive.com/ex/mobilecommercedaily/macys-

innovation-of-image-recognition-to-push-holiday-mobile-sales.

ClickSSL. (2013, December 9). Important Mobile Commerce Security Measures. Retrieved from

https://www.clickssl.net/blog/important-mobile-commerce-security-measures.

Durcevic, S., (2018, November 13). What Is The Difference Between Business Intelligence And

Analytics?. Retrieved from https://www.datapine.com/blog/difference-between-business-

intelligence-and-analytics/.

Mani. (2018, August 02). 8 Key Advantages of Mobile Commerce You Need to Know. Retrieved

from https://www.zuantechnologies.com/blog/advantages-of-mobile-commerce-you-need-to-

know/.

Matteson, S. (2018, March 29). How to achieve better security with third-party vendors.

Retrieved from https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-achieve-better-security-with-

third-party-vendors/.

Rainer, R. K., & Prince, B. (2016). Introduction to Information Systems: Supporting and

Transforming Business. 7th Edition. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.