Analysis of Amazon Australia's Information System for Stakeholders

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Amazon Australia's information system, focusing on a human activity system within the company, particularly the Amazon Fulfillment Center. It identifies problems within the system and proposes mitigation strategies. The report explores Amazon's business operations, organizational structure (using Mintzberg's classification), and value chain (using Porter's Value Chain Model). It also examines Amazon's competitive strategy through Porter's Competitive Forces Model, assessing the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, the threat of substitute products and new entrants, and industry rivalry. Furthermore, the report suggests a new model for implementing changes within the existing human activity system to enhance customer experience. The analysis covers various aspects of Amazon's operations, including inbound and outbound logistics, operations, sales, marketing, and customer service, highlighting key challenges and opportunities for improvement within the Australian market. The report aims to provide a detailed understanding of Amazon's information system and its impact on stakeholders.

An Information System for
Stakeholders
of Amazon Australia
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Executive Summary
This report focuses on the aspects of a human activity system (HAS) that
is implemented within Amazon, Australia. The company hires third-party
sellers who make use of the platform to list their products on the website
and thus sell them. The report discusses about the problems faced within
the HAS system and the mitigation steps for those issues. This report also
suggest a new form of model, which would be helpful for implementing
changes within the existing HAS and improving the experience of the
customers based within a certain framework.
Keywords: Human Activity System, Amazon Fulfillment Center, Amazon
Marketplace
1. Introduction
This report focuses on the review of a human activity system based within Amazon
Australia, which is facing some kinds of problems within the sector. One of the affected
sector, which is facing a huge form of problem is the Amazon Fulfillment Center. The
Amazon Company has one of the vast form of fulfillment networks in the entire world
(Gravina et al. 2017). With the help of Fulfillment procedure provided by Amazon, it has
been very much useful for storing the different products within the Amazon Fulfillment
Centers. These centers are mainly used for picking of the concerned products from the
stores, packing them within the Amazon packets, shipping the products to the
concerned destination and thus enriching the customer service based on the products.
The Amazon Fulfillment Center is working on the technology of improvising several
kinds of improvements based on the human-computer interaction within their fulfillment
center (Welch 2015).
The various fulfillment centers that are located in Australia are working on the
involvement of robotic form of interaction within the fulfillment centers. With the
expanse of the company, it has been a concern for the people within the fulfillment
center for taking the responsibilities of a vast number of orders and thus perform their
jobs in an efficient manner. These fulfillment centers have hinted the possibility of the
working of humans and computers together. This would be helpful in assisting the
humans in performing the manual tasks in a quick and efficient manner (Liang 2015).
With the advent of the robot technology, it has become easy for the processes of
automation within the sector. The robotic technology within Amazon Fulfillment Center
help in understanding the various kinds of needs of the customer. These automated
Assignment Report – 1803ICT or 7610ICT (omit one)
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processes help in the stacking of the products and piling them as per the requirements
(Smith and Anderson 2014). The collaboration of the humans and robots would be
important for the continuation of the work within the fulfillment center. The automated
systems within Amazon fulfillment center are controlled with the help of a central
computer, which are able to automate the various processes that are performed within
the fulfillment center. They help in exploring newer kinds of innovations within the
sector and thus ease the accomplishment of the tasks that would require the finest form
of manipulation or bring certain improvisations within the ease of the business
operations (Varia and Mathew 2014).
2. Part 1 [An Analysis of the Business of Amazon, Australia]
This part of the report focuses on the various aspects of the business of Amazon
2.1 Part 1- question a: [Information about Business of Amazon,
Australia]
Amazon is considered as the biggest form of e-commerce giant, which was primarily
founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. The company was primarily originated in the form of
bookstore. The website of the company that is based in Australia is mainly functional at
www.amazon.com.au. The website of the company is mainly used for purchasing a wide
range of products that could be mainly found in the retail stores. The business of
Amazon is able to provide a broader form of services in various categories such as
books, video CDs, toys, home improvement devices and other kinds of services (Dootson
and Suzor 2015).
The main strategy of the company is to provide immense form of services in the various
areas and thus satisfy the needs of the organization. The business of Amazon is mainly
measured with the help of revenue and the capitalization within the market. Amazon
implements a multi-level for =m of strategy based on e-commerce. They mainly focus on
business-to-customer based relationships between the business process and the
customer services (Terry-Armstrong 2013).
The main operations of the business of Amazon is based on providing various kinds of
services such as the booking of the products, organizing the articles and thus providing
the selected form of services to the customers.
2.2 Part 1- question b: [Organizational Form of Amazon, Australia]
The organizational form of Amazon, Australia as per the Mintzberg’s classification are
described as per the five form of coordinating mechanisms:
Mutual Adjustment – With the help of the mutual form of adjustment within the
processes of Amazon, it would be helpful for controlling the work within the
organization. The company follows this structure for performing a negotiation with the
employees within the organization in the areas of their work (Weill and Woerner 2013).
Direct Supervision – This form of mechanism is helpful within Amazon for
coordinating the work of one employee and thus taking the responsibility of other
employees. In the systems of Amazon, the supervisor of a certain department issues
instructions and thus performs a monitor over the performance of that particular sector
of the business unless it is accomplished fully (Lovelock and Patterson 2015).
Standardization of the Processes of Work – Amazon specifies the form of work to
their employees. Hence they are able to schedule the work and perform the tasks in a
procedural manner (Tregear 2015).
Standardization of Outputs – The Company sets a particular standard of work and
specifies the dimension of the particular product that would be needed to be delivered.
This helps the company to complete the scheduled work in an efficient manner (Jha, Jha
and O'Brien 2016).
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Standardization of Skills – Amazon provides a wide form of training to their
employees in order to increase the level of their skills. This is highly useful for putting a
high level of coordination within the various processes of work and gaining high level of
outputs (Schall 2013).
2.3 Part 1- question c: [Value Chain of Amazon, Australia using Porter’s
Value Chain Model]
The analysis of the Porter’s value chain model within Amazon is based on an analytical
framework that would be helpful in assisting for the identification of the activities.
(Fig 1: Porter’s Value Chain Analysis of Amazon, Australia)
The core business processes of Amazon own the entire value chain within the industry.
Extra form of investment is required within the various forms of perishable goods.
Amazon does not support long-term forms of contracts with their various vendors. The
Fulfillment Centers of Amazon, Australia are the heart of the inbound logistics (DaSilva
and Trkman 2014).
In this context, it could be discussed that the company performs the full form of
responsibility based on logistics, product returns and customer service. Amazon makes
use of their logistics beyond their limits for the purpose of serving within the Amazon
Marketplace. Amazon leverages the scalability power for the purpose of accessing
millions of customers who were new within the internet platform (Weill and Woerner
2015). The primary activities based within the analysis of Porter’s Value Chain model
includes the Amazon Inbound Logistics, Outbound Logistics, Operations, Sales and
Marketing and Amazon Service.
The Amazon Inbound Logistics takes the full responsibility of the customer service,
logistics and the returns of products. They take the help of long-term contracts for
gaining information about the availability of merchandise, terms of particular kinds of
payment methods and the extension limits of credits.
The Amazon Outbound Logistics integrates the functionalities of their fulfillment
centers, digital form of delivery of ordered items and the physical stores, which are
linked with the company for delivery of products.
The operations performed within Amazon are based within international domain and
Amazon Web Services. They also offer several forms of computing resources,
networking and other forms of computing services.
The marketing by Amazon helps in conveying the promises based on the large form of
selection of their services and products, faster methods of delivery and maintaining the
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reputation of the company based on customer services. Some of the components of sales
and marketing also includes promotion of products, public relations and direct
marketing.
Exceptional form off customer service is a wide form of aspect that is maintained by the
organization. They have kept their ratings at the top by providing a rich form of
customer experience by dealing with the faced challenges and thus mitigating them by
keeping them at the topmost priority.
2.4 Part 1- question d [Competitive Strategy of Amazon, Australia using
Porter’s Competitive Forces Model]
The retail industry of Amazon has grown at a fast rate in the recent years. The business
model of Amazon could be depicted in the form of Porter’s Competitive Forces Model.
Bargaining Power of Suppliers of Amazon – The bargaining power of the suppliers
of the various services within Amazon varies from low to medium. Although there is a
big form of suppliers of the various products of Amazon, hence these suppliers would
have to perform the activities of the business as per the rules that are being set by
Amazon. These form of suppliers follow the various code of conducts that have been set
by Amazon. The company follows the standards set within the supply chain. Amazon can
also switch between various suppliers of their products (Kim and Henderson 2015).
Bargaining Power of Buyers of Amazon – The power of the buyers within Amazon
ranges from medium to high. The company mainly pouts focus on the satisfaction of
their customers and thus improves the various quality of their products (Laudon and
Traver 2013). The costs of switching for the customers are particularly low. As the
company faces a stiff form of competition within the market from their various rival
companies, hence the retention of the existing customers is a major challenge for
Amazon. Hence the bargaining power of the various buyers within Amazon is high
(Haucap et al. 2013).
Threat of Substitute Products – Although several brands have made their presence
within the online market, there is always a possibility that people would purchase
products from the offline retail stores. The only form of competitive advantage within
the business of Amazon is that they should have an excellent form of customer service,
which would be helpful for impressing the customers and thus retaining them. Hence,
the threat of the substitute products of the company is always high (Raphan and
Friedman 2014).
Threat of New Entrants – The severity of the threats from the new entrance of
products within the market is low for Amazon. The growth in the form of digital
technology has helped in reducing the form of barriers from entering within the market.
This is due to the reason that Amazon has a very high marketing strategy as they invest
more within the business (Van Alstyne, Parker and Choudary 2016).
Rivalry within the Industry – There is an extreme high level of rivalry within the
industry. This is due to the reason that there is a high number of rise within the growth
of many dominant players within the market. The rivalry within the retail sector has
intensified due to several kinds of factors. Each company plans to improve their services
and thus offer better services to their customers in order to become the best player
within the market. Hence the level of competition within the market has increased to a
higher level (Ellram, Tate and Feitzinger 2013).
3. Answer to Part 2: [Problems within an Human Activity
System]
There are some forms of problems, which are being faced by Amazon, Australia. The
following part of the report discusses about the faced issues in details.
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3.1 Part 2- question a: [Identification of the Issues within Existing
Human Activity System]
Amazon employs various suppliers who are responsible for supplying the goods to the
customers who make use of the website of the company in order to book for the selected
products. These sellers ship the products from their personal warehouses. This ensures
the responsibility of the supplier to ship the booked products to the designated
customers. This might create problems with their personalized courier service as they
might have the risk that the products might not be able to reach to the buying
customers at the proper time. This would incur a bad name for the company and they
might lose the trust of their customers.
The stakeholders within this human activity system are the third-party suppliers,
manufacturers and buyers.
The third-party suppliers are able to receive the order of the products from the Amazon
website based on which they would pack the products and thus pass them on to the
courier department in order to make them readily available to the customers.
The manufacturers are solely responsible for designing, developing and bringing the
end products to the market for the buyers to view them and then purchase the products.
The buyers would view the products from the Amazon website based on their selected
choices. These items are displayed before the buyers in a customized manner as per
their provided requirements. The customers hence are able to choose their selected
products and then purchase them.
3.2 Part 2- question b: [Issues and Concerns for Stakeholders]
(Fig 2: Issues and Concerns of Stakeholders within Amazon, Australia)
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3.3 Part 2- question c: [Process Model]
(Fig 3: Process Model of Existing Human Activity System)
3.4 Part 2- question d: [Use of DeLone-McLean Model of Information
Systems Success]
The use of DeLone-McLean Model of Information Systems Success is being used for
reviewing the existing faults within the human activity system and to determine the
unsuccessful areas. The areas in which the systems of Amazon are unsuccessful
according to the model are:
Service Quality – The Information Systems within Amazon are mainly evaluated
according to the quality of services that are being provided by the company. The quality
of the service that are being delivered would be able to directly impact the mind of the
customers. The systems within Amazon totally relies on the third party sellers who
would deliver the products to the customers. Putting the entire responsibility on to the
third party sellers would lead to some problems as they sometimes might not be able to
deliver the products to the buyers. This would hence impact the quality of service,
which would eventually bring a bad name to the company (Demirkan and Delen 2013).
User Satisfaction – The satisfaction of the customers is the ultimate goal of any
company. The satisfaction of the user would be helpful for influencing the net incurred
benefits for the organization. Amazon should take proper measures to deliver the
products directly from their personalized warehouses in order to take the full
responsibility onto themselves, which would hence be useful for ensuring the direct
communication between all the stakeholders involved within the company (Xu, Benbasat
and Cenfetelli 2013).
3.5 Part 2- question e: [Measures of Success]
On placing of the delivery of a certain product, the customers would generally expect an
efficient method of the delivery of their products. Based on the current human activity
systems, it is quite possible to ship the products right from the warehouse of the third
party sellers. The factors of success in which the human activity system would mainly
lack is the proper delivery of the products in a proper time frame and also with the
proper form of packing.
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4. Answer to Part 3: [Suggestion of a new Information System
within Amazon]
4.1 Part 3- question a: [Identification of a New Information System]
With the various kinds of problems based within the human activity systems of Amazon,
a proper form of Management Information System would be suggested for the
improvement of the business processes within Amazon (Bharadwaj et al. 2013). This
form of system would be able to aid the organization and the various internal systems to
integrate and perform the tasks in a diligent manner. The management information
systems within Amazon helps in certain processes within the business of Amazon such
as browsing, accounts management and the final step in the shopping process (Gandomi
and Haider 2015). The management information systems within Amazon helps in
bringing the ease of buying experience for the customers as they would be able to buy
specific products based on their previous search histories. They would be able to view
their previous products and thus the MIS would be able to provide better form of
suggestion based on the selected purchase history (Manning and Bucher 2013). The
users are provided with several forms of recommendation systems, which are able to
manage the types of buying intentions of the customers and the improved form of
suggestions for the people. This new form of MIS systems would also include the
Amazon Fulfillment Center, which would be able to bring innovation within the
concerned sector. This system would ensure the timely delivery of products by
collecting the product from the third party seller and storing them in their personal
warehouses. On a particular buying request, the item would be packed and shipped by
Amazon itself. This would put the entire responsibility on the company, which would
lead to better efficiency within the processes of work and ensure timely and
effectiveness within the system of delivery.
According to the Porter’s Value Model, the new MIS systems could be classified under
the Primary Form of Activities.
The likely stakeholders who would be involved with the new information systems are the
sellers, buyers, the Amazon Fulfillment Center authorities and the management systems
within the company. Based on the new form of information centers, the definition of the
roles of the individual stakeholders could be defined as follows:
Sellers – They would be mainly responsible to make their products to get listed within
the website of the organization. They would also be able to make the proper availability
of the products such that there should not be an acute shortage of products for which
the buyers might face a problem during the phase of purchase.
Buyers – The buyers would see the final products, which automatically gets listed on
the website of the company after the seller has registered for providing the particular
service. They would then be able to choose their desired products from a wide number
of provided options.
Amazon Fulfillment Center – This center would mainly be responsible for collecting
the concerned products from the seller and thus be able to store them in their personal
warehouses. They would keep a huge storage and maintain the stock of their products
such that they would be able to provide immediate service to their customers whenever
they would get a request.
Management Systems – The internal management systems sort out the various
request from customers and thus place them under topmost priority. They are
responsible for controlling the entire systems within the company. They help in the
entire process management of the company.
4.2 Part 3- question b [Data and Information within the new system]
The Amazon Fulfillment Center collects data from a vast number of sources based on
the lists of products that are ordered by the customers. The information gathered is
used for making several kinds of decisions and thus fulfilling them. The expansion of the
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network of Amazon helps in the proper form of processing of the order of delivery. The
Amazon Fulfillment Center ships the items to the consumers within 2.8 days (Kim, Trimi
and Chung 2014).
The knowledge collected from the delivery experience gained by the customer helps in
tracking the delivery by monitoring the consumer behavior and notifications of
shipment.
4.3 Part 3- question c: [Process Model of the Amazon Fulfillment Center
based on BPM Notation]
(Fig : Process Model of Amazon Fulfillment Center)
4.4 Part 3- question d: [Classification of the new Information System
within Amazon, Australia]
The new form of Management Information System that are mainly supported by the
Amazon Fulfillment Center could mainly be classified as back-end and customer-facing.
The fulfillment center performs the basic operations of listing the products that are
being ordered by the customers. They would then search for the particular product
within their warehouses based on which they would be able to sort put the exact item
and bring it out from the shelf. The center would then pack the item and then perform
the operations of shipping the product to the customer.
The Amazon Fulfillment Center also intakes the responsibility of collecting and thus
assessing the data gained from the experience of the customers. This data is collected
within a single form of supported group based on an IT framework and is customer
facing. With the help of this system, the fulfillment center is able to save money, protect
the customer from annoying and redundant solicitations. They would then permit the
direct form of comparison of the customers based on their location, choices of products
and various other criteria (Decman and Vintar 2013).
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4.5 Part 3- question e: [Impact of the Proposed System on Stakeholders]
Based on the implementation of the new system, it could be defined that the new system
would be able to incur various positive effects on the customers as well as the company.
The new form of MIS would be able to provide better experience to the customers as
they would be able to get their products within the shortest possible time. Moreover the
company would be able to track the entire process of the delivery information of the
products to their customers (Wamba et al. 2015).
4.6 Part 3- question f: [Measures of Success]
With the implementation of the new MIS it would be extremely helpful for the Amazon
Fulfillment Center for distributing the products to their customers within a shorter span
of time and with proper care. It would reduce the burden of the third party sellers of
packing the products and distributing them. Amazon takes the entire responsibility of
packing and shipping of products. Hence this could be seen as a measure of success for
the company.
5. Answer to Part 4: [Recommendation and Reflection]
5.1 Part 4- question a: [Recommendations to Amazon Australia’s
Management]
Based on the discussion from the above report, it would be recommended that the
systems of the delivery processes within Amazon should be much more improved in
order to handle the various pitfalls within the human activity systems. They should
implement newer forms of strategies, which would be helpful for improving the
conditions within the delivery processes. Satisfaction of the customers should be the
utmost priority of the company and hence a proper form of management system is
extremely vital for handling the various processes within the system (Jones and Jones
2013).
5.2 Part 4- question b: [Recommendations for the Improvement within
the new Information System]
The discussion from the above report helps in focusing on some of the major aspects
that should be improvised within the system. Based on the understanding from the
discussion it could be focused that the satisfaction of the customers should be at the
topmost priority. A proper form of Management Information System would be able to
schedule each of the processes within the system and thus ensures proper delivery of
each of the ordered items. With the advent of the Amazon Fulfillment Center, the
company would be able to own the inventory and thus be able to fulfill the concerned
orders without the involvement of any third party. The control over the inventory and
the manufacturing processes would reside under a single roof. Amazon should intensify
and expand their warehouses, which would act as a space for the distribution hub
where the shipment pickers and the product packers would be able to ship their
products to the concerned customer (Holtgrewe, U., 2014).
6. Conclusion
Based on the above discussion it could be concluded that the distribution of products
based by the Amazon platform is a major area where customers order for several kinds
of products. Amazon mainly hire third party sellers who list their products on the
website, based on which the company is able to deliver the items. The implementation
of a proper form of delivery system by the company would be helpful in ensuring timely
delivery of products and satisfaction of customers.
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7. References and Citations
(Ensure that all references are present, complete, in
alphabetical surname order, and accurate as per the
examples)
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the max, i.e. 2.1.2.
Figures, Tables & Captions
Place figures and tables close to the relevant text (or where they are referenced in the
text).
Captions should be Georgia 10-point bold (Caption Style in this template file). They
should be numbered (e.g., “Table 1” or “Figure 2”), centered and placed beneath the
figure / above the table. Please note that the words “Figure” and “Table” should be
spelled out (e.g., “Figure” rather than “Fig.”) wherever they occur. Remember to refer
to the figures in your report and discuss the content. Don’t let the tables or figures ‘do
the talking’.
Inserting Images
Occasionally, MS Word generates larger-than-necessary PDF files when images inserted
into the document are manipulated in MS Word. To minimize this problem, use an
12 Insert your name and student number here

Insert your Report Title here (up to 8 words)
image editing tool to resize the image at the appropriate printing resolution (usually
300 dpi), and then insert the image into Word using Insert | Picture | From File...
As indicated in Figure 1, using figures to hold places can work very well in Word. If you
want to copy a figure from another application (such as PowerPoint) and then paste to
the place where you want your figure to be, make sure that (1) the figure stays in the
position, and (2) it does not take up too much space. You can ensure the former by
double clicking the figure, then go to “Layout” tab, and select “In line with text.” To
ensure the latter, use “Paste Special,” then select “Picture.” You can resize the figure to
your desired size once it is pasted.
A
D
B
C
Figure 1. Process Model of the XYZ Human Activity
System
Table Style
Inserting a table in the text can work well too. You may want to adjust the vertical
spacing of the text in the tables. (In Word, use Format | Paragraph… and then the Line
and Page Breaks tab. Generally, text in each field of a table will look better if it has
equal amounts of spacing above and below it, as in Table 1.)
Table 1. A Very Nice Table
Capability Target
Capability
Process A L H
Process B L H
Process C L H
Table of Contents
Table of Contents is not required. This is a small report, so let’s save paper.
Language, Style, and Content
With regard to spelling and punctuation, you may use any modern dialect of English,
but please pay attention to the following:
 Spelling and grammatical errors will result in marks being deducted. There is no
excuse for spelling errors when using a modern word processor with an inbuilt spell-
checker.
 Write in a straightforward style; and always proof-read your work before
submitting.
 Try to avoid long or complex sentence structures.
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 Briefly define or explain all technical terms that may be unfamiliar to the CEO
reading the report.
 Explain all abbreviations the first time they are used in your text – e.g., “human
activity system (HAS)”.
 Be careful with the use of gender-specific pronouns (he, she) and other gendered
words (chairman, manpower, man-months). Use inclusive language that is gender-
neutral (e.g., they, s/he, chair, staff, staff-hours, person-years).
Headers and Footers
This document is set up for you to insert identifying content in your headers and
footers. Odd and even pages are not the same, so work through all of them. Page
numbers are already included. If you are using Word, then click on ‘Insert’ and click on
the ‘Headers & Footers’ tab. Enter your name, student number, course code, and report
title where indicated.
[End remove this text]
14 Insert your name and student number here