Group 9: Smart Leisure ( 3 Case Studies )
Automakers Become Software Companies
1) How is
software adding value to automaker products?
Ø The eventual system would require the cars feed
increasing amounts of information to systems which can minimize highway
congestion.
Ø By using software in automaker products, the products
are entering uncharted territory.
Ø Raise the same privacy concerns surrounding location
tracking improve navigation controls, the music and phone features, and also
can control the car temperature
2) How are the automakers benefiting from
software-enhanced cars? How are customers benefiting?
A) Automakers benefiting from
software-enhanced cars
Ø This will enable Ford and other automakers to
significantly improve the passenger experience and the automaker can add new
features to cars after a few year
B) Customer benefiting
Ø Enable drivers to connect their tablets and smartphone
to the Sync system to access music and other apps using voice commands
3) What value chain
activities are involved in enhancing cars with software?
Ø Automobile companies are enhancing their vehicles with
onboard software that will improve customer experience and the automaker can
manage to car via the cloud
Ø Ford has doubled its investment in vehicle-to-vehicle
communication technologies.
4) How much of a competitive
advantage is software providing for automakers? Explain your answer.
Ø The Ford can analyze how their customer reaction when
using the software
Ø The automakers can interact with the customer by
software
Ø The engineer can also make changes on software with
customer feedback
Starbucks
1. Analyze Starbucks using
the competitive forces and value chain models.
Ø Competitor Forces, they pursue a more aggressive product
differentiation strategy by using high quality beverage and emphasize to
improve their customer service.
Ø Implementing Wi-Fi technology enabled Starbucks to
increase the in-store presence of district managers by 25% without adding extra
managers.
Ø Starbucks using fast-food chains to increase the
profit.
2. What is Starbucks’ business strategy?
Assess the role played by technology in this business strategy.
Starbucks implemented a technology that allows customers to pay using
smartphone apps as their business strategy. This app is integrated with the
Starbuck Card System which allows regular customers to pay with a pre-paid and
rechargeable card at any Starbucks branch.
3. How much has technology
helped Starbucks compete? Explain your answer.
Wireless technology enhanced Starbucks’s business process simplification
effort. Starbucks district managers use the in-store wireless networks to run
store operations and to connect to the company’s private corporate network and
system.
Interactive
session: People “Should You Use Your iPhone for
Work ?
1) What are the advantages and disadvantages of
allowing employees to use their personal smartphones for work?
Advantage of allowing
employees to use their personal smartphones for work:
a) The company does not need to spend their own money on the mobile
device
b) Make the business processes easier:
Ø
By
using employees’ personal smartphones in work, it will make the business
processes more efficient on generating order, submitting order, checking
credit, assembling product to ship product
c) It will help the company’s
leverage mobility to become more effective
Ø
Smartphone
can connect to the firm existing IT platform and also company system like CRM,
which will increase the company mobility.
d) Easy to communicate with customer and senior management
Ø
Employees
can directly communicate with customers, it will improve the relationship with
customers. In return, it will raise the company profit.
Ø
Senior
manager can monitor the work of employee at any time
Disadvantages of allowing
employees to use their personal smartphones for work:
a)
Company
may face some difficult problem of allowing employees to use their personal
mobile device.
Ø
Like
security, inventory management, support and integrating mobile devices
b)
Leakage
of confidential information of the company to the third party.
Ø
When
employees lose their smartphones or their smartphones are stolen by people, the
information of the company will leak.
c)
The
performance of employees will be
affected
Ø
Because
of using their personal smartphones, they may do other things during working
period and they will not pay fully attention on their work. The employee may
use their phones to online or chat with their friends
d)
Data
flowing over networks, steal valuable data during transmission or alter
messages without authorization
e)
The
security of smartphones are not stronger
than that of computer.
Ø
The
data in smartphones will be easier to leak out than that of computer system.
2) What people, organization
and technology factors should be addressed when deciding whether to allow
employees to use their personal smartphones for work?
The security,
inventory management, support, integrating mobile devices into pre-existing IT
functions and systems and measuring return on investment should be addressed
when deciding whether to allow employees to use their personal smartphones for
work. The corporate IT resources are important for managing and maintaining a
large number of devices in an organization. The company’s networks must be
configured to receive connections from the employees’ mobile devices and
operating system to access the company’s information. When employees make changes
to their personal phones, companies need to quickly and flexibly ensure that
their employees are still able to remain productive. Firms need an efficient
inventory management system that keeps track of which devices employees are
using, where the device is located, whether it is being used, and what software
it is equipped with. Besides that, company needs to provide adequate technical
support for every employee who is using a variety of phones and operating
systems. When employees are not able to access critical data or encounter other
problems with their mobile devices, they will need assistance from the
information systems department. A firm’s software development teams need to
have one professional focused on ensuring that new applications will be easily
used and useful on smartphones. The applications and software need to be used
on mobile devices to connect to the firm existing IT platform and company-wide
CRM, SCM, and ERP systems. The mobility experts can make company’s leverage
mobility more effective. Companies need to ensure that sensitive or confidential
information is secured by using technologies that allow them to wipe data from
devices remotely or encrypt data when a device is stolen or missing so that it
cannot be used.
3) We agree that allowing
employees to use their own smartphones for work will save the company money.
a) Using smartphone to replace stationeries/ assets
Ø
Smartphone
is like a mini computer that employees can take notes, review and edit the
appointments, contacts and documents in the smartphone without using any
stationery.
Ø
Smartphones
today have bigger money capacity. With this, employees can easily store files
particularly those that are important for the business which means company does
not need to purchase assets to store the data
b) Free communication tools
Ø
Employees
can connect to the internet for using free communication applications in
smartphone such as Wechat, Facebook Messenger and Line that provide free
texting, voice messages and video calls to communicate with the customers
without any cost.
Ø
Employees
also can save costs by using email to send the documents to customers. Many
documents that used to be sent through the mail at regular postage rates can be
sent by email. These savings add up significantly over time. Money is also
saved by the speed of email.