Impact of Information Systems at Uber

This document discusses the impact of information systems at Uber, including the company analysis, Mintzberg's classification, Porter's value chain model, and the new information system implemented by Uber. It also explores the requirements, rich pictures, process model, and the Delone-Mclean model. The document provides insights into how Uber has revolutionized the taxi service industry through the use of technology.

Running head: IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT UBER
Impact of Information Systems at Uber
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

1IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT UBER
Table of Contents
1. Company Analysis.......................................................................................................................2
1.1 Introduction / Competitive Strategies....................................................................................2
1.2 Mintzberg’s Classification.....................................................................................................3
1.3 Porter’s Value Chain Model..................................................................................................4
1.4 Porter’s Competitive 5 Forces Model....................................................................................5
2. New Information System.............................................................................................................6
2.1 Identification / Requirements................................................................................................6
2.2 Rich Pictures..........................................................................................................................7
2.3 Process Model........................................................................................................................8
2.4 Delone-Mclean Model...........................................................................................................8
2.5 Identify Cons and Pros...........................................................................................................9
2.6 Success in New Information System...................................................................................10
2.7 Classification in New Information System..........................................................................11
3. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................11
4. Recommendations......................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................14
Appendix........................................................................................................................................17

2IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT UBER
1. Company Analysis
1.1 Introduction / Competitive Strategies
Uber Inc. that is commonly known as Uber had made its foundation in March 2009. The
company has experienced several kinds of significant growth in recent years and have thus
grown and expanded massively in recent years. The company has grown and have thus expanded
its services in the taxi service industry in the countries and regions in which they operate
(Berger, Chen & Frey, 2018). With a wide range of services, the company has strategically
defined and explored various kind of services. They have thus acquired additional funds in order
to implement several kinds of strategies within their business.
Uber is a massively growing transportation network company that makes use of a mobile-
based application for connecting the passengers with their drivers based on a taxi hiring service
(Dudley, Banister & Schwanen, 2017). The drivers can own a certain vehicle and thus register
themselves within the company. These vehicles that are employed by the company are employed
with GPS tracking facilities, web-based payment system and individual systems of rating for the
drivers as well as the customers.
The Uber Company primarily connects the transportation industry with high-end
technology in order to provide better kind of services to their customers. In a report by the
Company that was published in 2014, it was stated that the company is a high valued venture
supported company (De Stefano, 2016). The company had thus ensured its services in more than
200 cities in over 53 countries since 2014. The company has an annual revenue generation of
over $40 billion according to US dollars. The widest form of strategic decisions that have been
taken by the company is based on making use of highly efficient cab services. They have also

3IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT UBER
partnered with different car companies such as Toyota, Hyundai and many others to provide the
best kind of services to their customers (Hall, Horton & Knoepfle, 2017). The current core
business at Uber helps in providing the market with an efficient and easy usable hide-hailing
service that is mainly been supported by a mobile phone application and point-to-point software
technology. This technology offers a unique way to the two parties to get connected with each
other and avail such services.
1.2 Mintzberg’s Classification
The Mintzberg’s Classification could be applied within the particular case scenario. The
classification defined by Mintzberg could consist of five kinds of organisational forms. These
are:
1. Machine
2. Simple Structure
3. Professional
4. Divisional
5. Adhocracy
According to the classification supported by Mintzberg, the Uber Company could thus be
classified as an organisation, which helps in providing efficient kind of services to their
employees. The company follows a unique and simple business structure that is mainly aimed at
improving its services and also focusing on the growth of the organisation. The strategy selected
by Uber is mainly based on focusing over those regions in particular in which there is a high rate
of customer demands for taxis (Hjørland, 2017). According to the Mintzberg Classification, it

4IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT UBER
can be discussed that the company has offered a different wide range of services by making use
of the ICT platform. The strategic advantages offered by the company includes different and
dynamic levels of pricing strategies, quality, intended user groups and vehicle capacity. They
also maintain the current form of regulations for the taxis. The taxi service company also enables
the usage of Big Data. They also employ the process of yield management that mainly helps in
adapting to the changing prices and supply of demand at different times and in certain places.
1.3 Porter’s Value Chain Model
Appendix 1 Figure 1
Some of the primary activities that would be discussed within the value chain analysis
are:
Uber Inbound Logistics – The Company does not own their personal vehicles but
mainly outsource drivers who have their own cars. Customers who have access to smartphones
would be using the service. The value addition within the inbound logistics would mainly relate
to the internet-based nature of their business operations.
Uber Operations – The Company mostly provides service in almost all countries on a
worldwide basis. Customers can request for rides. They can also pay on the go. Each of the
services would be highly sophisticated and focused on customers.
Uber Outbound Logistics – The outbound logistics of Uber is based on the distribution
of products and warehousing (Walton, 2017). This aspect is not fully applied to the service sector
that results in the consumption of business services.

5IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT UBER
Uber Marketing and Sales – The Company is mostly dependent on social media
marketing and other marketing strategies based on communicating the marketing message. After
a particular ride, the customer is automatically charged with the help of a credit card.
Uber Service – The providing of a high form of customer service is discussed as the core
competencies as it would help in gaining the attention of customers. Riders would be able to rate
their drivers after the completion of the journey.
1.4 Porter’s Competitive 5 Forces Model
Forces Strength of the
Forces
Explanation of the Strength
Bargaining
power of
Customers
Differentiation There are a wide number of customers who make use of the
necessary services provided by the company. There are also
some specific circumstances in which the company makes
use of valuable services (Rogers, 2015). There is also a wide
range of other taxi service providers that include Lyft and
many others that have emerged in the competitive market.
The switching cost for users within the company is also low.
This is mainly due to the reason that the free application
software provided by Uber demands free customer
registration.
Bargaining
power of
Suppliers
Niche The company does not own any of the fleets of cars. The
business model owned by the company is primarily
dependent on their business partners and drivers who would
own their own cars. Uber primarily makes use of an
outsourcing technological system for their labour and assets.
Uber also finds it extremely hard to substitute their drivers
(Dallas, Ponte & Sturgeon, 2017). The car owners have the
freedom to choose between different organizations. This
helps the car owners to negotiate between different firms
The threat
of new
entrants
Innovation The Uber Company faces lack of protection based from ride-
sharing firms. The primary policy of Uber is to offer
innovative application software for willing customers. The
company is not immune to raise the rates (Christensen,
Raynor & McDonald, 2015). This further boosts other
competitor firms to penetrate within the industry and thus

6IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT UBER
prove themselves within the international market. This can
be thus considered as a strong force as it would be able to
determine the survival of the firm within the sector.
Threat of
substitutions
Innovation A substitute can be considered as a strong force in various
kind of competitive business environments. The taxi services
such as Uber can be considered as a close rival and one of
the potential substitute (Hall, Palsson & Price, 2018). It is a
highly notable factor that a slight amount of increase in the
rates of Uber could lead to the result in embracing other
competitors, which would offer cheap cost to the customers.
Rivalry
among other
Competitors
Differentiation One of the major competitors of Uber is Lyft (Wirtz & Tang,
2016). The company also faces an identical operation and
business model.
2. New Information System
2.1 Identification / Requirements
There are many kinds of issues that are faced by Uber Technologies in terms of surge
pricing, driver availability in peak times and maintaining their highly diversified business
processes. Based on discussing and comparing each of the issues faced by Uber, one of the most
critical issues that are faced is based on price surcharging. The pricing algorithm followed by
Uber is very unpredictable. Hence, in order to manage each of the issues faced, a proper
management Information System (MIS) should be placed in order to manage each of the issues
and thus solve by giving priority to each of the systems (Leng et al., 2016). The customer would
not have any idea about the multiplier, which they would be subjected to for opening the
application. This uncertainty could also be supplemented with the ‘mysterious’ black-box nature
based on the transactions made at Uber. These users would thus have to guess about the cost of
the ride based on the conditions of the start of their journey. The policy of surcharge defined by
Uber is highly dynamic and thus is difficult for the user to understand the complexities.

7IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT UBER
Hence, in order to manage the various complexities of surge pricing, the company should
be able to install an MIS, which would be able to mitigate the problems faced by the service
provider (Krotov, 2017). Some of the activities within the management that would be highly
affected with the inclusion of the system are planning, controlling, coordinating, modelling and
decision-making. During the planning phase, Uber would be able to decide the areas of specific
cities in which they would function. They would also decide the factor of their operations in
these cities based on the factor of demand, which would be met and in a certain period of the
day. The company makes use of heat mapping for indicating the place of high demand and also
overseeing the aerial view of their movement of cars.
The second aspect is based on controlling the various activities based on the application.
With the implementation of MIS, the company would be able to ensure that each of the activities
and rides would be completely overseen by the internal Uber team and thus also establish a
ranking system for both the riders and drivers (Faghih-Imani et al., 2017). The information
system would continuously optimize algorithms that would be able to perform different forms of
functionalities such as alerting of drivers in times of high demand scenarios, setting of dynamic
pricing, pointing the best riders in a certain location during peak demand times and many more.
Coordination of the important activities can be considered as also an important concern
for the mobile application. Flexibility in several situations of changes expected from customers
should be handled efficiently (Bresnahan & Yin, 2017). The dynamic supportable algorithm
within the MIS would be able to calculate the pricing structure and also analyse the accuracy of
forecasted demand in a certain region. In the final stage, it should be able to calculate the
probability of popular and accurate destinations. In terms of modelling and decision-making

8IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT UBER
procedures, the company would have to design and decide about the most popular cities in which
they could render their business operations.
2.2 Rich Pictures
Appendix 2 Figure 2
2.3 Process Model
Appendix 3 Figure 3
2.4 Delone-Mclean Model
System Quality – The information system developed for Uber is capable of proving a
wide range of exclusive benefits for both riders and drivers. This application comprises of a wide
range of functionalities that lets users bring out the best form of service for the clients. The
system would also provide shorter wait times (Van Alstyne, Parker & Choudary, 2016). It also
provides an easy-to-use interface that enhances the flexibility of operations within the system.
Information Quality – The information provided by Uber for their drivers and riders
would be able to give them several options to decide on the best factors based on availing the
service.
Service Quality – The services provided by Uber during the time of signing up within
the application is free. After each ride, the customer is charged with a variety of payment
options. The users are mailed with their due receipt and thus the customer can pay for the same
(Motta et al., 2015). They are also provided with the options of rating their drivers after the ride.
Use – Uber for drivers is defined as a source for additional income. This also helps
different professional drivers to make more amounts of money by making their rides during their
suitable times (Pearlson, Saunders & Galletta, 2016). The application would thus provide enough

9IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT UBER
flexibility for the drivers to adjust their working hours without any form of pressure from the
company.
User Satisfaction – It is considered as one of the most important aspects within the
organisation. User consists of drivers and riders within their platform. The company would not
hire any drivers but it does provide an open source platform for them to engage themselves
within the company and thus serve them (Middleton, Scheepers & Tuunainen, 2014). The rating
system put forward by Uber would be helpful in determining the quality of both parties after they
have used the service.
Net benefits – From the discussed aspects, the positive outcomes that can be generated
from the new information system supported at Uber would be able to generate a vast rate of
outcomes in terms of low wait times, higher service availability during peak times, easy to use
interface, flexible payment options and additional efficiency based on ride facilities.
Some of the areas in which the existing information system has not been successful are
based on the flexibility of payment options (Calo & Rosenblat, 2017). The existing information
system did not provide the facility to change the route directions or the destination after the ride
has started. The drivers were also not allowed the facility of rating their customers after the
completion of the application.
2.5 Identify Cons and Pros
Some of the disadvantages or negative effects that had been persisting within the existing
application at Uber is that it supported “prime time pricing” or “surge pricing”, which had
involved the lowering or raising of prices based on demand and supply of cars. The safety
concerns within the existing application were not stringent enough to safeguard the rights of

10IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT UBER
customers (Mustafa, Abidin & Rúa, 2018). The existing application would also prove to have
lost over the drivers as because when a rider would cancel a trip, it would prove to be a great loss
for the driver as they would not be able to make money for that particular trip.
Based on focusing on certain factors, there have been several kinds of improvements that
have been made in a new application. The new information system would be able to provide
enough flexibility for the customers to pay for their rides after the completion (Tran et al., 2017).
With the help of a credit card or other payment options, the customer would be able to pay for
the service. The new application would also allow the passenger to track their drivers on the map
provided in the application. They would also be able to call their driver and know the exact
location (Danks & London, 2017). GPS tracking facility has been further enriched in order to
track the drivers. The new information system would also help the passengers in managing for
their own security within a single tap on the application. The application also supports an
emergency button present within the interface.
2.6 Success in New Information System
Efficiency – The proposed information system would be able to provide efficient services
in terms of high flexibility for both the riders and drivers. The services would be offered at low
and affordable prices (Zhan, Qian & Ukkusuri, 2016). The data secured by Uber from their
passengers would be stored in internal cloud services that would support high encrypted storage
systems.
Efficacy – Each of the data stored by the application would be collected and stored
within a distributed server. The database ensured for the proposed system would divide each
customer based on certain segments and criteria (David & West, 2017). The data would thus be

11IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT UBER
segmented and thus a proper location for each stored data would be generated on an automated
basis that would be prepared by the internal algorithms.
Effectiveness – The new proposed information system would be able to support the
passengers and drivers by solving a wide range of critical issues that had pre-existed within the
previous application systems (Attard, Haklay & Capineri, 2016). With the introduction of the
new information system, it would be highly beneficial for the company to increase their business
productivity and provide valuable services.
2.7 Classification in New Information System
The new proposed system could be defined as a combination of front-end, back-end and
customer-facing system. The front-end system is mainly developed to support the needs of
customers. The back-end system is designed to include several important algorithms that would
be able to solve a wide range of complications and handle the flexible business scenario. ON the
other hand, the proposed system could be defined as customer-facing as with this, the company
would be able to meet the expectations of customers by solving the issues that were previously
present within the application.
3. Conclusion
Based on the discussion supported by the above report, it can be concluded that the
internal management systems could be further improved with the help of the proposed
information system. There is a wide range of issues that are persisting in the present application.
These problems are mostly based due to the low amount of focus over the business systems. The
report thus discusses the brief of the company, their internal strategy and the ways in which the
business competes in the international marketplace. The organisational form is also classified

12IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT UBER
according to theories supported by Mintzberg. The Porter Value Chain model was also useful in
discussing the primary and support activities that are present within the applications and that
would be beneficial for supporting the various activities. The competitive strategy established by
the company has also been discussed in this report.
Based on the identified problems, the report also discusses the ways in which a new
information system would have been useful to add value to the business of Uber. The likely
stakeholders within the organisation have been discussed in detail and their roles have also been
defined. The rich picture and BPMN notation described in the report have also added value by
discussing the various issues that have been faced by the business process and also puts emphasis
over the ways in which they could be able to improve the business scenario with the
implementation of the new Information System. The different dimensions of the impact made
with the implementation of the system have also been discussed within the report. The criteria of
success have also been measured based on discussing the factors of efficiency, efficacy and
effectiveness. After the supported discussion, the classification of the new proposed Information
System has also been discussed and the reasons have also been supported. Thus it could be
concluded that with the implementation of Information System, it would be helpful in improving
the business processes and bring in success for the business.
4. Recommendations
From the supported discussion and gathered conclusion, it could be recommended that
the new proposed system should firstly understand the needs of customers. The report discusses
the problems that are faced with existing business processes. Hence, the new and proposed
Information System could be helpful in transforming the business processes and ensuring the
success criteria of the business functionalities. Some of the discussed disadvantages have been

13IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT UBER
based on providing the customers with high wait times, less form of tracking experiences,
inflexibility in payment options and many others. Hence, the use of a proper Information System
would be able to support the needs of customers while also enhancing the business
functionalities.
The new Information System would be able to provide a high amount of flexibility in the
payment features as customers would be able to pay for their availed service as per their
suitability. They can also pay for the service with the help of various modes of online payment.
The passengers would also be able to track their rides and can also contact them. The
Information System would also provide a highly interactive interface that would help the
customers in keeping a track over each of their customers. The new system should also
implement a highly efficient customer service system in terms of need of help from their
customers. These kinds of functionalities would thus help the company in gaining high business
benefits and also incur huge business revenue.

14IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT UBER
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18IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT UBER
Appendix
Appendix 1
(Figure 1: The Porter’s Value Chain Model)
(Source: Created by author)

19IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT UBER
Appendix 2
(Figure 2: The rich picture of the discussed issues and concerns)
(Source: Created by author)

20IMPACT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT UBER
Appendix 3
(Figure 3: The BPMN Diagram for the new Proposed System)
(Source: Created by author)