Use of technology in business

Kelly must upgrade her company’s information technology

due to the rise in consumer volume and their influx into the company. Technology has improved the efficiency of how businesses are run, especially when it is used correctly. In order to effectively compete with the rival businesses that surround Kelly’s industry, the company must be modernized. In order for the suggested information technology to be effective and business-efficient, it must first be usable. It is important to improve the usability of information technology so that customer service activities run more smoothly. Kelly’s IT needs a solution that takes maintenance into account. The essay offers Kelly’s computer problems with IT fixes through clear outlined steps of implementations and the generic strategy for competitive advantage and the business processes to be improved.

Proposed IT Solution

Kelly’s Salon is a small enterprise which needs to take the opportunity of using Software as a Service (SaaS) which is a preexisting cloud-based system made and constantly maintained and operated by its vendor. It is vital that the platform operates legally and effectively to promote the usability requirements of the work (Bourgeois, 2014). The Service (SaaS) cloud-based system operates on Google. The use of SaaS by Google is simple and easy to manage by the employees of Kelly under little or no supervision. It is advisable that Kelly chooses the use of SaaS operated by Google because the platform is depicted to make book appointments for easy use by both the customers and the employees of Kelly salon. The choice of the vendor and the platform it is founded which is the principle of usability aims at little or no training needed in the operation of the system.

The maintainability of the system

is predicted to be easy and manageable by the vendors who are constantly on the checkouts to ensure proper functionalism of their platform. Therefore since the system of Kelly’s business shall be in operation daily, her choice of the vendor is ultimately right considering the fact that Google is ever available and her services are prompt.

Since Kelly needs to welcome more customers

to her salon, the platform which is accessible by many internet users and mostly classify users by their age groups will attract the relevant population to the salon. The selection of the IT solution depended on the cost of the platform which was highly considered. Due to the frequent usage of the platform by the vendor, most people have been able to gain easy access and usage of the platform hence thereby lowering the costs of maintenance and usage (Nelson, Todd & Wixom, 2005). Their prices have been standardized to accommodate smaller businesses like that of Kelly. She is, therefore, secure and right in the usage of the platform.

Implementation Steps

Vendor Agreement

Kelly is required to contact the vendor and make the request for the services of the platform. She has to read the agreement forms to understand the terms and conditions of the platform. Upon the agreement, she is then required to pay the fees as per the stated terms and conditions of the vendor. The vendor will be invited to introduce the platform to the employees and install the system to enable Kelly to use the service. The cost is estimated to be less than 1.8% of the annual earnings (Nelson, Todd & Wixom, 2005).

Hardware and Telecommunications

Enterprise Systems (ERP, CRM, SCM) and the Business-to-Consumer e-commerce are the requirements that Kelly needs to put up in her salon to ensure the functionalism of the platform. She has to install the internet platforms and ensure the computer hardware and software that are configured with the platform. The use of VoIP communication shall be effective in the saloon (Wang & Strong, 1996). This type of communication is reliable and most efficient in the provision information from distant places. The cost of communication is preferably cheaper and more can be applied to any business to improve the communication networks.

Configuration

The configuration shall provide options for the single customers or the entire one account of access. In this case, it is proposed that the configuration is done on the account of Kelly only for the purpose of privacy in the business. The process shall be done by the vendor.

User Acceptance Testing

Kelly will be offered some test time and chances and will be required to use some other information outside the business and configure it to see the functionalism of the platform.

Employee Preparation

Kelly is required to sensitize the employees on the use of the platform through the use of memos and meetings. She will call the experts to inform the employees on the usage and effectiveness of the system.

Data Migration

The vendor is required to provide guidelines on the entering of the old information of the business and help in the feeding of the current and other future information of the business, the vendor shall leave some other manual to be used in the process till the employees are used to the system.

System Use

Kelly is required to hire an expert who will be involved in the process of storing the information on behave of the business. The person must be well conversant with the users of the system. The person will provide answers to the asked questions by the customers and other required information.

Maintenance

The expert in connection with the vendor shall provide updates on the usage of the system and play a key role to ensure that the system is successfully used in the storage and processing of the information (Wang & Strong, 1996). The expert shall work on the maintenance and other services needed to the system like monitoring the functionalism.

Conclusion

Through the information provided, Kelly is obliged to implement the system proposal to aid her to improve the performance of the business. The system is predicted to be reliable and effective in the storage and service provision to the customer. Generally, the system shall promote better management and other operational duties.

References

Bourgeois, D. T. (2014). Data and Databases. In Information Systems for Business and Beyond, 3-14.

Nelson, R. R., Todd, P. A., & Wixom, B. H. (2005). Antecedents of information and system quality: an empirical examination within the context of data warehousing. Journal of management information systems, 21(4), 199-235.

Wang, R. Y., & Strong, D. M. (1996). Beyond accuracy: What data quality means to data consumers. Journal of management information systems, 12(4), 5-33.