Information Systems Analysis: Alibaba Group's Business Operations

This report delves into the information systems utilized by the Alibaba Group, a prominent e-commerce company. It begins with an introduction to Alibaba, highlighting its business model, consumer base, and key services. The discussion section examines the role of information systems in business, emphasizing data management and IT applications. Porter's Five Forces model is applied to analyze Alibaba's competitive landscape, considering supplier power, buyer power, the threat of substitutes, and barriers to entry. The report then details system specifications, including hardware, application software, operating systems, and network infrastructure. It also explores pricing strategies and the application of electronic commerce, including B2B and B2C models. Finally, the report discusses emerging trends and technologies relevant to Alibaba's operations. This analysis provides insights into how Alibaba leverages information systems for its business operations and competitive advantage.

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.