Internet Strategies

Task 1.1

Understand the core business of chosen organization and determine the business strategy.

Introduction

Any organization which wishes to make changes in its existing working Performa has to develop
a plan or a strategy and then accept it and implement it in the organization. Application of
strategy brings out change in the working culture of the organization and also has effects on its
profitability margin. Many new business strategy models are designed by old companies to make
enhancement in the production and accounts department and it is also developed by new
upcoming companies so that all the things go in an appropriate, planned way and make the
business a success right from the start. The word strategy is used in various different contexts.
Just as it is used in business, similarly it can be a plan of a football think tank before the match, a
revision strategy before exams or a strategy for military campaigns. The 5 P’s of Mintzberg
states that a strategy can be a plan, a behavioral pattern, a ploy, a perspective or a positioning as
compared to others. (David et.al., 2002)

The organization for study- Columbiana

The study topic is Columbiana, which is an independent island in Caribbean. It has many tourist
attractions and places of beauty but has not been fully exploited. The island is under developed
and hence do not attract tourists. Although the place can be fully developed into a fascinating
tourist destination, lack of good planning has restricted its growth. The island consists of Indian
ruins dating back to over 800 centuries. During the time when the place was a British colony,
many forts and historical monuments were built, the reminiscence of which are still standing
erect on this island. The place can boast off beautiful and clean white beaches with good high
profile hotels and budget accommodations lining the shore and inside many towns. The fishing
villages, mountains, volcano, rain forests, rivers etc. all have the captivating qualities for
attracting tourists. The native dishes and fish varieties available in local restaurant are famous for
their sumptuous servings. Air transportation service is provided by two major airlines and some
of the Caribbean airlines. One major shipping organization provides water transportation service
to this area.

Core need of the project

Since Columbiana has still not got the attention it is due for, resources and methods are needed to
be tapped and evolved to make it attract the tourist. To make full exploitation of the beauty and
historical background of this place, it is very important that all its information should be reached
amongst common people. The government of Columbiana wishes to draw the attention of the
whole world to this picturesque place so that it will generate revenue and also create job
opportunities for the local residents. So the need of the project is to form a strategy so that the
place of Columbiana gets tourist visits from all over the world.

Determining business strategy

Defining or determining a strategy for an organization or a project is a highly evolving and

creative process and different models, tools and techniques are to be devised to choose one of the
most proper options. The best way is to identify the current position or status of the project and
what sort of change or metamorphosis is expected. One of the most important factors relevant
while defining new strategy is use of the existing resources and infrastructure before going for
the new one. In today’s scenario, where information system has become the cheapest and widely
reachable medium, the best business strategy for any project like Columbiana is to develop a
website which will cover all the information regarding the place.

While developing a business internet strategy for our project it is important that several factors
are considered before the perfect business model is evolved. The factors include:

• Understanding the potential of this place-Columbiana

• The economics behind the deployment of new strategy

• Evolving applications that are economical

• Available local and nearby skills for the use of these applications

• The need to implement these applications (Ward & Peppard, 2002)

A business strategy also needs to be evolved while studying some other common factors such as:

Business Scope
This comprises of product, scope, market, services, clients, locations, government and social
environment and competitors.

Distinctive competencies

Core competencies and critical success factors provide the project an upper hand as compared to
the competitors. This includes research, developing product, cost and its pricing structure and
also sales and distribution channels.
Business governance

Relationship management in between the people who are connected with the project and also
understanding the government regulations, facilities and norms. (Luftman, n.d.)

Depending upon the above factors we can determine our business strategy. An internet strategy
for Columbiana will consist of a website which will fully highlight its features, understand the
economical restraints while developing the site and make the website for open, user friendly,
communicative and organized one. The website will give all the information regarding the place
and about the hotels, restaurants, their categories and the means of transportation. The booking
facility for the same will be made on the website page which will enhance the interest of the
general public. Real photographs with traditional background can be posted to establish
authenticity about Columbiana’s special attractions.

Task 2

Determine the critical success factors (CSF’s) for the business.

Critical success factors (CSF’s) can be defined as the restricted numbers of areas where results
are satisfactory, ensures successful and competent performance for the project or an
organization. (Rockart, 1992)

Or

They are the areas where management should give detailed and constant attention.

Many factors are responsible to make a business successful. Though not always, almost all of
them have to be taken into consideration before a compact internet strategy or to that matter any
business strategy is chalked out. These critical success factors are very important so that the
project works as per the planning and hence its study becomes all the more important. It is very
vital to identify these factors depending upon the type of business. Determining these factors can
enable to frame out the objectives and strategies very transparently. Critical success factors help
to determine the priorities of a particular project or strategy. Detailed understanding and study of
past failures can be obtained on the parameters of CSF’s. Critical success factor enables one to
understand the thing that is needed to be changed or executed so that the objectives are fulfilled
with the help of information system. The analysis of these factors help in identifying the business
activity area, guide to select potential IS/IT thrust areas and measures the performance of the
strategy. CSF analysis is a very popular method for developing internet strategy and also for the
development of business strategy. Before determining the critical success factor for the business,
it is vital to know its uses.

• This technique is very essential as it is deeply rooted in the issues of business and in
deriving commitment to the proposed IS strategy which is important for achievements in
critical areas.
 • It easily demonstrates the connection with the strategy of business and thus provides an
influential role in gaining confirmation from the top authorities.

• It links information and objective requirement and thereby the potential of priority
investments.

• It is most useful while developing internet strategies where the business strategy is more
focused only on objectives. This analysis draws the attention towards the critical points
and shows the need for improving performance.

• If used along with value chain analysis, its impact is more effective due to which finding
out the critical points of the project becomes relatively easier.

(Ward & Peppard, 2002)

Determining critical success factors for project Columbiana

• Since Columbiana is an island, its critical success factors are very much restricted to the
place itself. Some of the CFC’ of the concerned projects is:

• While giving information about the place on the website, it should be checked whether
the figures of population (demographic representation), number of hotels, restaurants,
transportation details, other facilities and specialties like tourist places, beaches, fishing
villages and nearby beautiful spots are correctly mentioned.

• The food quality and accommodation type should be vividly described and also the
highlights about the special menus and dishes available in these parts.

• Some points like being underdeveloped, the beauty is all the more original and pristine
and the place is less crowded, more cheap as compared to other similar places and still
equivalent on the parameters of nature’s beauty quotient to other places.

Considering all the critical success factors an internet strategy for the website will have to be
developed. More efforts will have to be concentrated on these areas as right and enhanced
information on these factors will bring more awareness about the island Columbiana which is the
basic intention behind the development of this internet .

Task 3

Identify the key benefits of using the internet for this business based on the above
requirements which will form the basis of IS strategy. Consider other peripheral benefits
which may add value to the proposal.

Internet has today become a very high profile and the most advantageous and fastest means of
reaching out to the people the world over. Using internet is more of a need nowadays than just a
fashion or another option of advertising and promotion. Be it any product, if it has to be reached
beyond local fringes, then nothing works better than developing a Website for it. Let us study
how internet can prove beneficial for our project.

Global Audience

Once the information about Columbiana is made available on the internet, it will be exposed to
the whole world and will get global audience i.e. the information will reach 190 countries at one
go. Use of Web will make this effort more cost effective.

Relatively inexpensive

Publishing information on the internet will be an extremely feasible and cost effective strategy.
The traditional methods are too costly and take too much time to reach the same amount of
people. But use of internet will enable the information of Columbiana to reach so many countries
at a fraction of cost.

Operates 365 days and nights unstopped

Anyone from all parts of the world can view the information and extract the resources, do the
booking and make use of the access as internet is open all the year round unstopped days and
nights together. This will make the overseas people get information even when it is night in this
part of the world. This is one of the most important benefits of internet. Similarly, to attract
tourists from far off countries; it is essential that they have access to information on Columbiana
whenever they are free or during their working time.

Product advertising

Various products are advertised on websites via internet. The websites consists of all the various
attributes, pictures, images, price structure and specification about the product and makes it
easier for the customers to choose as per their requirement and budget. In case of project
Columbiana, since it is a place with scenic beauty, good photo graphs of beaches, historical
places, information on hotels and bookings available and various other facilities can be posted.
This way the interested persons will be able to judge the place and also make arrangements for to
and fro and living.

Announcements

Various Medias were used and are still used for some products for announcements about special
offers or new arrivals etc. But with the aid of internet such announcements can be made to reach
millions of people in few minutes. The latest tit bits and developments, traditional fairs and
festivals and other competitions organized in Columbiana specially to attract tourists or even as a
part of regular socializing can be announced on the website. Anyone who has the inclination for
such things can get attracted by this information.

Customer Feed back

The interactive page specially composed to post comments can be an effective suggestion and
evaluation box about the website and the total project’s success and its evaluation. This way, the
mass opinion about the project can be obtained without doing any tedious survey and changes
can be implemented. A page such as this posted on the website of project Columbiana will help
to understand the opinion of the public regarding the island and also the necessary amenities,
games or infrastructure expected by the tourist to make this place more attractive for them.
(InVirCom,Website)
Some of the peripheral benefits of using internet are: Immediate information distribution,
creation of online forums for discussions, easy integration due to internal use of information
system, use of multimedia (audio-video) for promotion and availability of different formatting
capabilities like Html, JavaScript, VBscript etc. which can enable loading of pictures, images
and photo graphs on the Website.

Task 4

Process detail needed to develop a functional specification and implementation steps for the
website and to finalize the IT/IS strategy for the organization.

So as to understand the processing of functional specification, it is important to know what

functional specification is. A functional specification describes in elaboration the specifics of the
product like its potential, appearance and communication with the users etc and is developed as a
formal document for the software developers. The functional specification process consists of a
continuous series of interactive dialog box and windows and also contains formal detailing of
user tasks, usability criteria and dependencies on other products. More lucidly stating, functional
specification is the response generated in the wake of objectives which are the product attributes
designed by product designers. (SearchQualitySoftware, Website)

The functional specifications and implementation for website on Columbiana

The functional specification will include information on the island, its highlights, specialties, use
of images and photo graphs, infrastructure information, the latest and new on the island, security
and protection measures on the island, availability of various thrilling games and adventure
sports like scuba diving, hiking, paragliding etc, detailing about scenic spots, rivers and
waterfalls and other overall accommodation and transportation facilities. To implement all these
features on the site various capsules have to be inserted and sections will have to be made.
(Dominica, Website)

The strategy of the website Columbiana will be to make a home page featuring various windows
and capsules titled tourism, adventure, beauty spots, accommodations, climatic features,
geographical attributes, transport fares, events, calendars, maps and listing of various businesses
in the areas. All these things are needed to be categorized properly and presented in such a way
that the tourist will find it easier to extract information and also the pleasant display of the site
will attract them to explore more. The various keys and dialog boxes, booking options and
availability of various living spaces should be regularly updated so that the customer gets latest
information on the aspects.

Conclusion

If all the above features are taken into consideration and an internet strategy is developed then it
will certainly attract huge tourist attraction and to start with at least awareness regarding the
Caribbean island will be distributed throughout the whole world which is one of the most
benefitting virtues of internet strategy and information system.

References

David et. al., Business strategy-an introduction, second edition, Elsevier Butterworth
Heinemann, 2002

Rockart; J.F., Chief Executives define their own information needs, Harvard Business review,
1992

J. Luftman, Assessing business –IT alignment maturity, Communications of AIS, n.d

Ward; John and Peppard; Joe, (2002) Strategic planning for information systems, John Wiley &
Sons Ltd.

Website:

InVirCom, Advantages of Using the Internet, http://www.invir.com/int-bus-advantages.html,

Accessed on 7th June, 2010

Website:

SearchQualitySoftware.com, Definitions,
http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid92_gci212169,00.html,
Accessed on 7th June, 2010.

Website:

Dominica, Available at: http://www.visit-dominica.com/#business,

Accessed on 7th June 2010.