The History About The Ecart

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

The most interesting fact about this company is that it will require almost negligible initial capital input compared with the profits we expect from it. Its expenses will then expand according to its success and increasing hold on the market, so that the income generated from eCart can be used to bear its own expenses, and still gain profits. Having said that we plan to make a company which will require minimal monetary input and will be able to sustain itself without depending on external resources, I must mention that we will be required to input a lot of efforts, toil, and nurturing for our company.

This was an introduction to the setup of the company. Now for the elaboration on the idea behind this venture – as the name suggests, this is going to be an e-shopping company. eCart is our venture aimed at harnessing the widely spreading power of technology and automation. Not only this, we will explore how well we can use internet, which has made the world a global village, to make our town totally automated. To start with, we idealize eBay, and have an idea of creating an online business working on its lines, but on the level of our city. "eBay is a highly visible company that has been immensely successful in their implementation of a business strategy that incorporates their information strategy. It is a shining example of an Internet era company that actually turns a profit." (Chen, 2005) We will not be able to start at the global level at which eBay is working, but by the end of a couple of years, we aspire to be a tough competitor of the same.

"By remaining flexible and adaptable, the ever-changing eBay has developed a technology platform that differentiates them from their rivals. The company is resilient, versatile, and an excellent example of how a company can successfully leverage information technology for a competitive advantage." (Chen, 2005) Being Computer Science professionals, we also know it is indispensible to have a strong information technology strategy and information systems policy to react to the business dynamics while maintaining the leading position in the industry.

Information technology can be roughly defined as using computers and telecommunication systems to store and share information. Businesses use information technology to automate many kinds of tasks, which can save both time and money. Businesses who successfully automate can then use that time and money for other business purposes.

Information technology plays an important role in global economies. Companies rely on IT for fast communications, data processing and market intelligence. IT plays an integral role in every industry, helping companies improve business processes, achieve cost efficiencies, drive revenue growth and maintain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Before going into the details of how eCart will employ Information Technology, I feel it is must know the business objectives for which companies go for Information Technology. (Basu, 2013):

Product Development

Information technology can speed up the time it takes new products to reach the market. Companies can write product requirement documents by gathering market intelligence from proprietary databases, customers and sales representatives. Computer-assisted design and manufacturing software speed up decision making, while collaborative technologies allow global teams to work on different components of a product simultaneously. From innovations in microprocessors to efficient drug delivery systems, information technology helps businesses respond quickly to changing customer requirements.

Stakeholder Integration

Stakeholder integration is another important objective of information technology. Using global 24/7 interconnectivity, a customer service call originating in Des Moines, Iowa, ends up in a call center in Manila, Philippines, where a service agent could look up the relevant information on severs based in corporate headquarters in Dallas, Texas, or in Frankfurt, Germany. Public companies use their investor relations websites to communicate with shareholders, research analysts and other market participants.

Process Improvement

Process improvement is another key IT business objective. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems allow managers to review sales, costs and other operating metrics on one integrated software platform, usually in real time. An ERP system may replace dozens of legacy systems for finance, human resources and other functional areas, thus making internal processes more efficient and cost-effective.

Cost Efficiencies

Although the initial IT implementation costs can be substantial, the resulting long-term cost savings are usually worth the investment. IT allows companies to reduce transaction and implementation costs. For example, the cost of a desktop computer today is a fraction of what it was in the early 1980s, and yet the computers are considerably more powerful. IT-based productivity solutions, from word processing to email, have allowed companies to save on the costs of duplication and postage, while maintaining and improving product quality and customer service.

Competitive Advantage

Cost savings, rapid product development and process improvements help companies gain and maintain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. If a smartphone competitor announces a new device with innovative touch-screen features, the competitors must quickly follow suit with similar products or risk losing market share. Companies can use rapid prototyping, software simulations and other IT-based systems to bring a product to market cost effectively and quickly.

Globalization

Companies that survive in a competitive environment usually have the operational and financial flexibility to grow locally and then internationally. IT is at the core of operating models essential for globalization, such as telecommuting and outsourcing. A company can outsource most of its noncore functions, such as human resources and finances, to offshore companies and use network technologies to stay in contact with its overseas employees, customers and suppliers. Therefore IT provides a perfect elevator for stepping towards globalization. This will also be the ultimate goal of eCart.

There are many ways in which it has been used for automating business processes. For example "businesses use mass emails to disseminate information to employees. Some businesses set up an automated help desk to handle customer service. Online customer-service software saves time in much the same way as automated phone systems. Then there are even more powerful online knowledge bases. Online shopping carts automate the development of a customer database. Software for customer relationship management, or CRM, streamlines the sales process. Large companies can purchase software for enterprise resource management, or ERP, which contains separate modules for each business process. For example, CRM is one module in some ERP software products." (Boyd, 2013)

As this is an entirely online business, eCart will serve as a decent example of exploiting the power of a sizeable variety of information technology features, and how leveraging IT can help a creative mind in spreading benefits out to the common people and earning profits simultaneously.

Some of the IT resources already in our minds include a web-based auction application, which we will develop ourselves. This application will form the base of our business. It will provide the functionalities for all of the involved business processes and those for customer facilitation. This will be explained in more detail later.

To accompany the application, naturally eCart will need a strong database which will contain all data regarding each and every transaction and interaction with the system. Entities representing each possible process will be defined, and will cater to all kinds to database involving tasks regarding those entities. To name a few, entities will include users, transactions (who is buying what and who is selling that), ads posted, etc. The working of the business will be aided by mass e-mailing and short-messaging features. These features, to be incorporated in the basic eCart application, will be used to aware all users about the latest promotions, or some special new ads in bulk and also for disseminating information to the eCart team and employees. The very precious IT domain of business intelligence will also be incorporated. This will be used for enhancing the community’s experience with eCart, and automate the business almost entirely. An example of its use is enabling the system to main or SMS individual users to aware them about anything new that shows up, based on user-specific interests. Then there will be a customer relationship management system. This we will use as it specifically focuses on organizing the transactional process.

Now for an overview of the web-based auction application. Firstly, it will be eCart’s gateway to connect with online market. It will serve as eCart’s sole source of online presence, as a user-friendly business-customer interaction portal, as a point-of-sale and purchase, as well as the whole backend management. It will be built keeping in mind the targeted future expansion of the business, in terms of encountering modifications, inclusion of newer features, security, management of increasing traffic, etc. This will be an application built on the parallel and distributed systems concept, so that one server doesn’t host the entire processing and its failure doesn’t cause an irrecoverable loss to the business. Applications built on parallel or distributed architectures allow more fault tolerance, and flexibility. They also enable much speedier computing, which is a prerequisite for an entirely online business proper and secure, fool-proof functioning and facilitation and thus trust of its customers. The application will be built using latest technology that can work equally efficiently and securely on multiple platforms, and which enables access through any device from desktop computer to a PDA or a mobile phone.

Apart from the above mentioned technical advantages, these features will clearly give a strategic advantage as mass mailing and messaging will aid in promotion and marketing of the new start-up, and aware people of reasons to join and use it. Then online presence through a web application useable from any device will make it handy for users to keep connected with extra efforts. The parallelism will support fast processing; hence both sellers and buyers will be kept satisfied, constant customers of the eCart, and will help in the nurturing and uplifting to global level. Business intelligence will help it make easier for the business to relate to its customers on individual level, and let them know what’s good for them and where is what they want. This always cherishes a bond between the clients and the company, making every client feel easy to relate with the interface and feel like being given special importance. Business intelligence will also allow for financial forecasting, observing buying behaviours in different geographical areas, and constantly measure the success and failures of the company. These features and much more, will therefore assist in competing in the global market with already established competitors. The better our way of using the same technology, the more we will stand out.

eCart will not have any physical outlets, warehouses or inventories. Its foundation will be on the community, and will solely provide a platform for this community to interact. The income will be from commissions on sales-purchase transactions, so the more the community interacts using this platform effectively, the more the transactions and the higher eCart’s profits. It is certainly a business solely dependent on online presence, and this fact can perfectly signify the importance of the above-described web-based application to us.

For challenges, these high-tech powers bring many serious concerns with them. Currently I am aware of the concerns regarding scalability, security of personal as well as transactional data, uninterrupted online presence and handling of virtually unlimited simultaneous transactions at any time.

There are many more uses of technology and information systems too. The company is constantly developing additional tools and features to assist the user community to buy and sell items, to promote the sense of connectivity, and increase the levels of trust. Also of the foremost importance to the mission of eBay is the stability and scalability of the system platform, it needs to be able to adjust to accommodate more members as the community's global presence expands. Technology and information systems are critical to the success and future of the company.