Information System in Enterprises

This document discusses the role of information systems in businesses and provides a case study of Alibaba Group in China. It covers system specifications, hardware requirements, and the use of application software. The document also explores Porter's five forces model and the role of information resources in business.

Running Head: INFORMATION SYSTEM IN ENTERPRISES
Information system in enterprises
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................4
Information resources..................................................................................................................4
Role of information system in business:..................................................................................4
Porter’s five forces model:.......................................................................................................5
System specification....................................................................................................................7
System description:..................................................................................................................7
Hardware:................................................................................................................................8
Application software:...............................................................................................................9
Operating system:..................................................................................................................10
Network infrastructure:..........................................................................................................11
Pricing:...................................................................................................................................12
Electronic commerce.................................................................................................................14
B2B or B2C:..........................................................................................................................14
E-commerce plans:................................................................................................................14
Emerging trends and technologies.............................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................16

Introduction
The chosen company is “Alibaba Group in China," according to the official website of the
(Alibaba.com, 2019), it is one of the innovative and trendy means of the e-commerce market that
has been taking place within the current era of the time. It is one of the world’s biggest e-
commerce company that operates on a large scale. Speaking about the business undertaking of
the concerning brand. Talking about the business undertaking, it supplies the required
commodities and products on a bulk amount that is on a wholesale basis. The brand makes use of
the three main sites they are as follows:
 Taobao
 Tmall
 Alibaba.com
Speaking about the consumer proportion that stays on the side of the brand. There are about
millions of users that are actively undertaking business prospects. The services that the
concerning business provides range from the consumer electronic goods, digital goods, and that
too raw-materials that are essential in the manufacturing process of the other specific
commodities and products.

Figure: Top 10 E-commerce retailers within the region of China, ranked by retail E-
commerce sales share, 2018
Source: (marketing-interactive.com, 2019)
The owner of the Alibaba brand is the professional body who is recognised by the name
“Jack Ma.” His origin is China by nature. Besides being entrepreneurship, Jack-Ma is a speaker
too concerning the dynamic business environment. It has it's headquartered within the region of

China itself. It is one of the globally recognised e-commerce platforms. The CEO is Daniel-
Zhang, an 11-year veteran of the company (Shoutmeloud.com, 2019). Besides above all the
above mentioned criteria, Jack-Ma is one of the professional body within the field of politics,
business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. It was in the early era of the year of 2018 that the
professional body jack-ma announced that he is going to step back as the chairman of the
company. The total assets that stay within the hand of the company outstand to about
CN¥717.124 billion (US$114.326). The company’s net operating income is about CN¥61.412
billion (US$9.791). The company’s operating profit is about CN¥69.314 billion) (Burke et al.,
2016).
Figure: China Public Cloud (IaaS) market share by revenue in H1, 2018
Source: (chinainternetwatch.com, 2019)

Discussion
Information resources
Role of information system in business:
The information system plays a very vital role in carrying out day to day related business
such that each record and that of the business-related tracks are being monitored and maintained
within the information servers by making use of the IT applications. This set of the IT
applications are specially tailor made keeping into view the nature of the business undertakings.
There is a requirement of the professional body to maintain and to keep an eye on these specific
IT applications to make the business-related transaction fall within the right track (Kasemsap et
al., 2018).

Figure: Information Systems Department Organization Chart
Source: (Sonomacounty.ca.gov, 2019)
There is a various level of authorities that stays within the organisation. This ranges from
the management body to the IT departments. There is a requirement of the specific reports and
data’s that are being generated upon proper evaluation and analysis. This helps the management
body to undertake actions taking into view the future am of the business unit. One of such
information system example is the MIS (Management Information System).

Figure: Public Cloud Leadership by region, 2018
Source: (chinainternetwatch.com, 2019)
Speaking technically in terms of the basic start-up level the information system stands for
the set of components that works together and manages the collection of data and information for
the sole purpose of processing the data and for managing the company’s business related data
and information. The sole objective of any information system is to manage the data set and to
keep the business related work to fall and align in the correct path. Technical speaking its
activities ranges from the communication, record-keeping, decision making, data analysis and
more. Companies use this information to improve their business operations, make strategic
decisions and gain a competitive edge.
Porter’s five forces model:
Speaking in terms of Porter’s model of five forces they are as follows (Rothaermel et al.,
2015):

 Supplier power- The Alibaba group is one of the largest and most significant wholesaler
body within the region of the china, but it serves raw-materials and the required commodities to
the external part of the different countries as well. It is one of the qualitative business firms that
is known because of the qualitative supplies and low range of products and commodities
availability. They supply all the merchandise from their own respective home country. They
make use of the manual labour force that belongs to their own domestic country. Hence, this
reduces much of the cost that will incur in the process of hiring the labour force from that of the
international boundaries (Shaughnessy et al., 2016).
 Buyer’s Power- The power that stays within the hand of the individual consumer is
positive as such that mostly the consumer market for the concerning brand Alibaba comprises of
the business firm. This business firm may be operating within the international boundary or may
be within the domestic country as well. Their primary strategy of product offering comprises of
making product or commodity offering at a shallow price segment such that it will automatically
attract the interest of the individual potential consumers.
Besides, the concerning bard provides an extreme and positive mode of the user interface
such that it gives the advantage to the user to keep track of the flow of the shipment. There is an
availability of the confirmation receipt from the side of the user which confirm that the
concerning user has successfully received the product or the commodity. The market is in favour
of the Alibaba brand as such that the consumer market might have to purchase the same products
at a very high price if they opt to consume from the other rival markets.
 The threat of substitutes- However, speaking in terms of the recent changes that have
been taking place within the consumer market of the e-commerce channel there has been the
entry of some of the new firms that are giving a fierce competition to the brand Alibaba. The

fierce competition that they provide is possible by making product offering at a very lower price
in comparison to that of the product offering that is being made by the brand Alibaba group.
Technically speaking the significant number of competitors for the concerning brand is the
physical retail shops that offer the same product offering but at a shallow price segment (Bashir
et al., 2017). The second though the competition is the domestic suppliers of the country itself
they make the same product available to the desired destination by mean of the direct shipping
services. These suppliers are DHgate, global sources, Made-in-China, etc. Whereas, speaking in
terms of the worldwide market there exists a number of the rival forms they are the ezbuy, eBay,
Amazon and, etc.
 Barriers to entry- The generation of the concerning firm brand loyalty, goodwill and
that of the market position are all of the restraints for the entrance of the new firms within the
region of China. In the early era of the year of 2004, the e-commerce platform such as that of the
E-bay tried to make several efforts to beat the rival brand Alibaba by making use of the Taobao
which was a free use at some point of the time. However, they entered the competition with the
aim of western expectation but didn’t adapt quickly. However, the economy of China operated
on a different mentality and perspective such that they don’t even make use of foreign search-
engine. They have their search-engines that they make use of. They use their social-platforms
that they make use of.

Figure: Public Cloud Leadership by region, 2018
Source: (chinainternetwatch.com, 2019)
System specification
System description:
An information system is an integrated and inter-linked set of components for the sole
purpose of collecting, storing, and processing data. This act of processing of the data is being
carried to provide information, knowledge, and digital products. Business firms and other
organisations rely upon the information systems with the sole motive and objective to carry out
and manage their business-related operations. Besides, to form a communication channel is
another one of the primary reason such that interaction among the concerning firm will enable to
formulate a strategic plan for the future business undertakings. Moreover, this set of
communication enables a business entity to understand their rational consumers and that of the
suppliers (de Souza et al., 2018).

It boosts the concerning business firm to compete within the marketplace. Information
systems are being utilised to operate and run inter-organisational supply chains and electronic
markets. The different business units and firms make use of a separate information system that
differs from one another. For instance, the corporations and the organisation make use of the
information systems to process financial accounts, to manage their human resources, and to
reach their potential customers with online promotions.
However, this is a fact that the significant proportion of the business firms and units are
inter-linked with that of the information systems. These business firms and the organizational
units range from eBay (a largely auction marketplace), Amazon (an expanding electronic mall
and provider of cloud-computing services), the concerning brand Alibaba (a business-to-business
e-marketplace), and Google (a worldwide and globally known company that generates
significant proportion of its revenue form the keyword advertising technique and by making use
of the digital marketing platform).
The government deploys information systems to provide services cost-effectively to
citizens. Digital good and commodities such as that of the electronic books, video products, and
software, and online services such as gaming and social networking, are delivered with
information systems. The individual's consumers rely upon this set of information systems
generally Internet-based for conducting much of their personal lives: for socialising, study,
shopping, banking, and entertainment.
Hardware:
Type of computer system- The use of the modern i7 based processor of the computer
system will be undertaken as such that this processor can render the bulk of data without lagging.

This set of the computer has the potential to carry on the majority of work such that multi-
tasking activity is possible. On the other contrary, this processor has the potential to make the
operation smoother.
The 2nd generation of the processor will be made use of as it is more convenient in terms
of usage in comparison to that of the 1st generation of the 7 processor. The HDD capacity of
about 1TB will be used that of the Seagate brand that is most reliable taking into concern the
various other rival brands that are present therein. In terms of the CPU speed to carry out the vast
amount of work on a real time basis, the use of the octa-core processor will be used that has the
potential to run at a speed of 2.5 GHz. The use of the SDD will be implemented will act as the
secondary device. This is to ensure that the loss of data does not take place. The SDD capacity
will be about 500GB.
Moreover, speaking in terms of the output device the use of the Wi-Fi routers, network
hubs, servers, extender, mouse, monitor, CPU and that of the couples of hard-drive will be
undertaken. The use of the multiple hard-disk will be undertaken as there will be the transfer of
the data and information from one end of the office towards another end of the office. Speaking
in terms of the peripheral devices the use of the scanner and printer will be made along with of
the separate Xerox machine that will be set up at the same location as that of the nearby
computer system and at the point where much of the paperwork is being carried out.
Application software:
The application software will be comprised of the Windows operating system that will be
backed up by the system utility software. This operating system is required to be supported by

the antivirus programme to eliminate any worms and virus that may corrupt the vital data of the
company.
The use of the system firewall will be undertaken to make the security doubled.
Continuously the system along with that of the firewall is required to be updated. Besides, the
use of the MIS software along with that of the accounting software will be made. The use of the
MIS software such as that of the CRM4sure, EAMbrace Asset management, Medico SG, Buyer
Ease, SmartDrive-BI/MIS system, HRiS365, KAEM-Electricity Management & Billing System,
MenuSquare, SAP ERP Customized ERP mobile application, WINHMS central MIS, and much
more (Sandmel et al., 2018).
Besides, the use of the security software will also be made to make sure that the theft of
data does not take place among the employees of the organisation itself. The use of the security
IP camera software such as that of the Security Monitor PRO, iSPy, Security eye, IP camera
viewer, MonitorEyeOS, and much more will be undertaken to make the workflow more efficient
and convenient. The use of the MS office package, is mandatory to make available the charts and
report within the front desk of the financial professional and that of the managers.
Operating system:
The use of the windows will be undertaken for the ease of the usage and the sole purpose
of the reliability. The Win based SO that is the Win-10 will be used as this OS has the feature
and the capability to make use of the software. Along with that, it has its separate play store that
provides a wide range of software that can be even purchased. This reduced the risk of being
cheated while availing a particular software for its consumption purpose.

On the other contrary, the use of the network management system will be undertaken. A
network management system is a set of applications that allows the network administrator to
manage a wide variety of the network within a more significant collection of the network
management framework. Within the network application, the use of the NMS can be undertaken
for both the software and the hardware as well (Anderson et al., 2017). The working of such an
application is the recording of data and information from a network's remote points with the sole
objective of carrying a central reporting to a system administrator. Its advantages are as follows:
 Network device discovery
 Network device monitoring
 Network performance analysis
 Network device management
 Intelligent notifications, or customizable alerts
The use of the database will be undertaken to make the records available within the
desired server at any point in time. So that the meaningful data that is required can be obtained at
any point in time. This server will be the primary asset of the company. This server will be
composed of three layers such that failure of one particular server would not delete or corrupt the
entire data that is related to the business activities. The data will shift to another HDD from one
specific HDD when the data gets damaged in one particular drive.
Network infrastructure:
The use of the network such as that of the LAN, WAN, VPN, and wireless medium will
be undertaken. The use of the LAN will be made to make sure that the flow of communication
takes place at various point of business time. It is essential that the devices like that of the

printers, VAX machines, and that of the scanner always stays connected with that of the network
such that meaningful information can be printed and made available to the desired place at any
point of time.
The information such as that of the daily report and the communication is required with
the client’s at any point of time for that there is a requirement to stay connected with the
network. Besides, there is a need to report to the top authority hierarchy regarding the daily flow
of the activities and to address the responsibility that stays within the hand of the individual
concerning employees (Hyde et al., 2014).
The use of the VPN, technology will be undertaken as such that there are some of the
websites that are banned within the region of some of the country. However, there exist some of
the websites that are essential and vital. Hence, to make use of these specific websites, the use of
the VPN software will be undertaken. The use of the VPN will be conducted to eliminate the
restrictions that exist.
The use of the various ports and hubs will be undertaken to make sure that each of the
computers is being connected with each of the other computer. This is to ensure that at any point
in time there is the availability of the connectivity among the computers.
Pricing:
The comparison will take place among the dell and that of the Asus brand.
The specification of the brand Dell is as follows:


Figure: Dell laptop
Source: (https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/ 2019)
 15.6 inch Screen
 Intel Core i7 Processor
 8 GB Memory
 1 TB HDD
 200 GB SSD
The price of the product offering is 1288.70$
The specification of the brand Asus is as follows:
Figure: Asus laptop
Source: Dell.com, (2019)

 13.3 inch Screen
 Intel Core i7 Processor
 16 GB Memory
 512 GB SSD
The price of the product offering is 1654.00$
Hence, in comparison both the product offering has the same kind of specifications. Whereas, the
laptop Asus has some of the above features in contrast to that of the Dell laptop. Therefore it is
advisable to choose the Dell laptop for the daily business-related purpose.
Electronic commerce
B2B or B2C:
Taking into consideration how the concerning brand Alibaba is undertaking business
activities it seems like they make use of both the commercial business platform that is the B2B
and the B2C. The business, on the one hand, sells commodities and products directly to the
business unit. On the side, it also makes product offering for the end potential consumers. Thus,
it can be concluded that the use of both platforms that is the B2B and the B2C is undertaken
(Anwar et al., 2017).
E-commerce plans:
The use of the e-commerce platform will be undertaken as it has the potential to reach the
bulk of the consumers at any point of the time. In spite of the geographical barrier, the business
firm can reach potential consumers at any point of the time. The digital marketing platform has
the potential to create attractive ads that avail the potential consumers the variety of the product
that is being offered by the concerning business firm. On the other contrary, the use of the

various ad campaigns can be undertaken to make the ad available to the desired consumers at any
point in time.
These ads can be tailor-made according to the preference of the consumer market. The
use of organic ads, as well as a paid advertisement, can be undertaken to make the product
offering more effective. Besides, the development of the brand equity ad that of the goodwill of
the firm becomes more convenient. It is one of the trending platforms that is globally accepted.
People find it more comfortable with making the desired product available within their doorstep
without physical seeking for such a product (Yi et al., 2017).
Emerging trends and technologies
The emerging technologies like that of the data analyst and data science will be an
innovative move within the consumer market. The field of AI is being improvised daily. Within
the future era of the time, much of the improvement will be taken place within the field of the
AI. Hence, running the AI scripts along with that of the HTML or Python scripts within the
background of the webpage will help to understand the changes and moves of the desired
potential consumers (Ryan et al., 2016).

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