Managing Information And Technology Solved Assignment

Managing Information And
Technology

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.Introduction of business and their current business strategy...................................................1
2.To analyse the external market with the help of Porters five forces model.............................3
3.Porters value chain analysis related to chosen organisation....................................................4
4.How business could deploy new technology and enhanced their operations..........................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERNCES ..................................................................................................................................9
.........................................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Information technology refers to study and using of advanced technology with the aim of
performing better as compare to other competitors resulting in competitive advantage over others
(Laudon and Laudon, 2015). For this report, British airways is taken for consideration which is
one of the largest airline in the UK. Whole company was owned by government in the starting
but after few years it has been privatised and now international airlines group owned it and
headquarter in London and Madrid respectively. In this report, products and services of BA will
be discussed with internal and external factors which could affect the company's performance in
a positive or negative way. To analyse the industry, porters five forces model will be elaborated
by taking BA as example. Porters value chain analysis will be done to identify its resources and
capabilities and how it could enhance their productivity. At last, importance of Information
technology in increasing the productivity will also explained.
TASK 1
1.Introduction of business and their current business strategy
British airways is one of the largest aviation company in the UK in terms of fleet size and
passengers carried per year. In 2011, BA merged with the Spain based company Iberia thus
creating the largest airline group in the world in context of revenue named as international
airlines group. According to their annual reports, BA has 12,226 million revenue in 2017 with
the profit after tax of 1,447 million and has approximately 45 thousands employees worldwide
(Annual Report and Accounts Year ended 31 December 2017, 2017). Company offers their
flights in more than 70 countries in the world with more than 200 destinations all over world.
British airways provides various kind of services like premium class flying in which
every facilities is provided by company like bed, free soft and hard drinks, food according to
customer demands, books and magazines etc. BA provides highest and finest quality of services
in this class. Other than this, organisation provides economy class services with the low cost as
compare to other competitors which ends up at increasing sales of company to a certain level.
Aviation industry is solely depends on the quality of services provided by the company
and price which they offer in exchange of services. BA main strategy is to assess and analyse the
need and demands of customers and then make their plan accordingly with the aim of acquiring
more market and customer share. Various types of strategy opted by BA is given below,
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 Complimentary foods and drinks are provided by the company in the long flights
without charging any money. Purpose of this strategy to attract the customer by
providing value added services.
 To minimise the cost of ticket price for customers, BA does not charge while paying
through debit and credit card. Moreover, there is no specific charges for check in
resulting in low cost of ticket as compare to other companies (BRITISH AIRWAYS
FACTSHEET, 2019.)
 BA mostly stoppage is primary airports due to which customers does not have to pay
extra for hiring the taxis.
It is important for every company to assess and analyse their external market where they
are operating because organisation have to make their strategies accordingly as then only they
can succeed in the market. British Airways should evaluate their external market with the help of
Pest analysis which is explained below with functional example,
 Political environment: It refers to political conditions under which company is operating
their business. British Airways has good relations with the political parties as it used to be
a government owned organisation. So it can be said that rules and regulations are made
according to their strategies only. But due to Brexit, company has been suffering from its
negative effect resulting in more losses for BA. For instance, due to this political
conditions, security at the airport increased due to which passengers have been suffering.
Apart from this, due to increase in VAT by government, company is finding difficulties
to reduce their cost price as compare to other companies.
 Economical environment: This factor is directly lined with the economic conditions of
the country in which company is working. BA have been facing severe backlashes from
the customer as they have recently hike their prices due to increasing in oil prices.
Moreover, due to decrease in pound sterling, customers disposable income is decreasing
day by day resulting in low sales for company (Durney and Donnelly, 2015). So it can be
said that BA performance has been negatively affected due to economy conditions of UK.
 Sociological environment: It includes various aspects of customer behaviour like norms,
attitude towards life, standard of living etc. British Airways have always try to minimise
their cost so that more customer would be attracted but it adversely affects the company's
strategies as customers started addressing BA as low cost carrier resulting in low sales.
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Apart from this, Italy strike of ATC has also affected the performance of company as
they have to use large fleet to carry the customer to their destination.
 Technological environment: Technology is essential for every company as it assist them
to increase their quality of services provided to the customers. BA has recently signed the
contract with the IBM technology to provide software for this system so that any delay
due to technical breakdown of system would be avoided (IBS Software signs multi-year
contract with British Airways, 2019). Moreover, company tries to update their apps on a
daily basis so that customers wont find difficulty while booking the flights through their
phone. So it can said that British Airways are updating their technology with the market
so that product and services differentiation would be attain.
2.To analyse the external market with the help of Porters five forces model
There are different types of environment in which every company works i.e., internal and
external environment. Internal environment can be controlled by an organisation as it includes
strengths and weakness of it (Schwalbe, 2015). But on the other side, external environment can
not be controlled by company as it is affected by the market factors like demand and supply of
product, political interference etc. To analyse it, British airways can use porters five forces
model which is explained below,
 Threat of new entry: It refers to entrant of any new or existing company in the market
where British airways is working. It will hard for any company to enter into market as
there are various regulations which must be follow to fly their own flights. Moreover,
aviation industry does have much scope in terms of profitability so new entrants prefers
not to enter in this industry. For existing companies, they don't prefer to enter as a sole
but wants to enter through merger or joint venture. So it can be said that threat of new
entry is low.
 Threat of substitute: It means that, ways through which same work will be completed
with higher efficiency. Substitute of aeroplane is cars, public transport which inclu8des
buses and trains etc. So this factor would only affect the British Airways if the distance
between two destination is shorter as no one wants to pay extra money for planes for a
shorter period of time. But those route which requires time to travel, then there is no
substitute of plane as it is cheaper and faster way of reaching the destination in
comparison of ships. It can be concluded that threat of substitute is low for BA.
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 Bargaining power of supplier: It consist of vendors who supplies raw material to the
company so that they can make their final products which directly consumed by the final
consumers (Long, 2018). There are mainly two types of suppliers in the aviation industry,
one is fuel suppliers, but no one has the power as prices are set according to market
demand and supply. But on the other side, there is a stiff competitions between the
supplier who makes planes and their parts as there are only few companies who are
working in the manufacturing sector. So it can be said that power of supplier is moderate
in nature.
 Bargaining power of buyer: Buyer refers to potential customers who consumes the
product or services offered by an organisation. There are large number of customers in
the market so slight power is in the hand of potential customer only. Along with this,
there is no switching cost for customer and fair of most of the companies are same. So
bargaining power in the aviation industry is in the hand of customer.
 Competitive rivalry among companies: There is always one or more than one
companies who are making the same product for the same customers with the aim of
enhancing the profitability to a certain level. There is few but big players in the market
like Airbus, Boeing, Dassault falcon, Cessena etc who are trying everything to acquire
more market share in the market. So competitive rivalry is high in nature.
3.Porters value chain analysis related to chosen organisation
Value chain is a tool which helps the the firm to analyse its activity internally. It
identifies primary activities and support services of the chain that is contributing in the final
output (White, 2015). In the context of the British Airways this tool helps to make a difference
between both the activities of the company and helps to identify the way to achieve it. It also
helps to understand the firm to identify if they wants to follow the cost advantage or the
competitive advantage.
 INBOUND LOGISTIC: Under primary activity, inbound logistic is the first activity in
which British Airways focuses on timely delivery of fleet of planes, catering, take care of
freshness of food which is very important in context to the health of the passengers and
all the other on board process to remove any delay in take-off. By doing everything
properly and timely will attract & satisfy their customers. And at this stage they achieve
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the competitive advantage by keeping eye on the whole process (supplies,stock control,
sophisticated system,professional training) at the time of boarding of the plane.
 OPERATIONS: In general this stage means the activities related to production of goods
and services but in case of British Airways, operations involve services like pre check-in
services so that passenger need not to come early at the airport just for the check-in
process they can even do it sitting at their home, some other services that company
provide to their customers are online ticket booking through website,luggage security &
other online services like cancelling of booking,shifting date of journey,online payments
etc (Aithal and Kumar, 2016). This company fully utilise the digital technologies for
adding value to their business and achieves the competitive advantage in operations.
 OUTBOUND LOGISTIC: This stage is mainly applicable in the manufacturing industry
but aviation industries also uses this step in primary activities. British Airways provide
services like handling of luggage at the destination point and conveying information to
the travellers if they required any.
 MARKETING AND SALES: In this stage British Airways advertise itself to the
targeted segment of the customers through different sources like print and media
advertising, events ,public relations,sales promotion, direct marketing, through websites
etc (Bryson, 2017). Company also ask for the feedback by the customers after their
journey ends so that they get to know how much people are satisfied with their services
and if they are not than what changes to be made in their services to satisfy them.
 SERVICES: Generally after sale services means handling complaints related to product
and services and sometime exchange of product also takes place in case of defective
items, but this is only possible in the case of manufacturing firms here British Airways
provide after sales services like loyalty club card, maintaining communication with the
client through different means, providing discounts or free food offers for the next trip if
they take in future, and by doing all this they attracts the customers to choose their
services again.
 FIRM INFRASTRUCTURE: This is the secondary services that support the primary
services of British Airways. In this stage company create the works space for the airline
like they build large big grounds for their planes where they can parked it and from where
they can take off and land. Without all this airline company can not survive.
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 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT : This is also the support service for the
primary services. At this stage resources are created in the form of human beings for
performing the services of the British airways like Air hostess,pilots etc.
 TECHNOLOYY DEVELOPMENT : At this stage of support services British Airways
focuses on developing their technologies like bringing innovations into their machineries
like aeroplanes advancements through adding some new features in it which helps to
attract and retain the customers.
SWOT analyses is a framework used to evaluate the organisations competitive position
and develops strategic planning (Martin, 2017). This tool or technique is used by the
organisations to assess the performance, risk, competition and potential of a business. It is useful
in guiding the businessmen to move towards those strategies which will be successful for the
business and stay away from those that will give unproductive or less successful results for the
British airways. It consist of four elements namely strength, weakness , opportunities and threat.
It is an efficient way for guiding business strategy meetings and analyses the current and future
ways for doing bushiness. The following is the SWOT analyses of The British airways discussed
below :
Strength
 Ninety plus years of experience.
 Parent company IAGC international
airlines is the world's third largest
company in airlines (Gruber and et. al.,
2015).
 Strong brand name.
 Good returns on capital expenditure.
 Highly skilled and qualified workforce
through training and learning programs.
Weakness
 Overdependent on UK market.
 Large unionised workforce which
disrupt operations and affects business
performance.
 Need more investment in new
technologies.
 Limited success outside core business.
 High attrition rate of workforce
compared to other companies operating
in same industry.
Opportunity
 Opening of new market or expansion of
markets.
 Tapping new customer through online
Threat
 Competition in the market with other
airways like emirates, KLM, etc.
 Government regulation has a strong
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channel.
 Lower inflation rate enable lower credit
to the customers.
 Government green drive opens
opportunity for the procurement of
British airways.
threat on operations of the company.
 Lack of regular supply of innovative
products and offerings.
 Lack of skilled workforce in certain
global market.
4.How business could deploy new technology and enhanced their operations
It can be concluded from the above report that internal analysis is important for company
as it assist company to perform sustainable in the market. For instance, company is using
advanced technology to maintain their application which are used by customers to book their
tickets or check fairs. The interface of application is so customer friendly that first time
customers would easily book their tickets without any hassle resulting in better customer
experiences. If customer are happy with the services provide by British Airways then they will
turn into loyal customer for them resulting in better profitability for company. It can be
understood from the above information that how strengths of company helps them to acquire
more customer share in the market.
Apart from this, main aim of any company is to make their strategies dynamic in nature
so that they can perform in any critical conditions without affecting their productivity and
efficiency (Avgerou and Walsham, 2017). That's why it is essential for BA to conduct external
analysis on a regular basis. For instance, consumer disposable income are reducing day by day
due to weaken of pound. So this information assist British airways when to modify their prices
so that external factor wont affect the sales of company.
Various innovate which British Airways can use with the help of information technology
is given below,
 Airport Map: Customers usually faces problem after entering into airport as new
customers does not have any idea regarding which counter to visit etc. So to reduce this,
British Airways have to make a map which would be available after entering the flight
number in the application. After entering it, full procedure of that starts from check it to
check out will be shown in it. Airport map will save the time of customer as they does not
have to ask some one regarding the whole process of getting into plane.
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 Special card: The main problem which every customer of airline industry facing is
consumptions of time before getting into plane. There are various security checks in the
airport, then customer have to wait for the queue to get the tickets and seats etc. To save
this time, British Airways should make the special card in which customer can arrive at
the airport before 15 minutes according to timing of plane. For instance, if the timing of
plane is 11:00 AM then special card holder will have to reach airport at 10:45 AM. It will
enhanced customer experience as they don't have to wait for hours to getting the tickets
or plane. Special card will contain all the information about the customer which is
personally verified by the BA only. Allotment of card will be done on two basis, first is
frequency of flight taken by the customer. Other is extra money will be charged by
company to get the card.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that it is important for every company to
identify and analyse their resources as it assist them to make their strategies and plan
accordingly. Moreover, external environment will also help company to changes their marketing
activities according to the needs and demands of the market. Apart from this it is important for
company to opt new technologies on a regular basis through advanced and latest technology,
company can increase their quality and quantity of services provided to customers which leads to
better sales and productivity for company.
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REFERNCES
Books and Journals
Aithal, P.S. and Kumar, P.M., 2016. Organizational Behaviour in 21st Century–'Theory A'for
Managing People for Performance. IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-
JBM). 18(7). pp.126-134.
Avgerou, C. and Walsham, G. eds., 2017. Information Technology in Context: Studies from the
Perspective of Developing Countries: Studies from the Perspective of Developing
Countries. Routledge.
Bryson, J., 2017. Effective library and information centre management. Routledge.
Durney, C.P. and Donnelly, R.G., 2015. Managing the effects of rapid technological change on
complex information technology projects. Journal of the Knowledge Economy.6(4).
pp.641-664.
Gruber and et. al., 2015. Managing by design.
Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2015. Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital
Firm Plus MyMISLab with Pearson eText--Access Card Package. Prentice Hall Press.
Long, R.J., 2018. New office information technology: Human and managerial implications.
Routledge.
Martin, W.J., 2017. The global information society. Routledge.
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
White, J.D., 2015. Managing information in the public sector. Routledge.
Online
Annual Report and Accounts Year ended 31 December 2017, 2017. [Online]. Available Through:
<British%20Airways%20Plc%20Annual%20Report%20and%20Accounts
%202017.pdf>
BRITISH AIRWAYS FACTSHEET, 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<http://mediacentre.britishairways.com/factsheets/details/86/Factsheets-3/33>
IBS Software signs multi-year contract with British Airways. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/logistics/ibs-software-signs-multi-
year-contract-with-british-airways/article24218167.ece>
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