Business Information Systems Analysis: Honest Jim's Carsales Case

This case study provides an in-depth analysis of Honest Jim's Carsales, an Australian auto dealer, focusing on its business information systems. It begins with an industry background, highlighting the evolution of the Australian car market and the company's history since its establishment in 1972. The study examines the business model, value proposition, and conducts a SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Furthermore, it applies Porter's Five Forces to assess the competitive landscape, including the threat of new entrants, substitute products, supplier bargaining power, and overall market rivalry. The report also includes a mock-up of a non-functioning business website designed for Honest Jim's Carsales, showcasing potential online presence and functionalities.

Running head: BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Business Information Systems
Honest Jim's Carsales
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author Note

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Executive summary
The “Honest Jim Carsales” is referred to be one of the popular auto dealers at Australia, They started
in 1972 and has grown to capture the most affordable and quality autos at several parts of the nation.
Here, the study aims to demonstrate the overall business scenario of the organization. This analysis
is done for offering the analysis of the auto industry and the process identification in most of the
practices of practical business. Furthermore, the investigation also aims to generate knowledge and
include awareness of the car industry, future prospects and current strategies for the present and
future players.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:..........................................................................................................................................3
1. Part A: Evaluations of the business...................................................................................................3
1.1. Industry background:..................................................................................................................3
1.2. Discussion of the business model and environment:..................................................................4
1.2. Analyzing value proposition:......................................................................................................5
1.3. The SWOT Analysis:..................................................................................................................6
1.4. Analyzing Porter’s Five Forces:.................................................................................................8
Conclusion:............................................................................................................................................8
Summary:...........................................................................................................................................8
Additional recommendations:............................................................................................................9
References:..........................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction:
The “business information system” refers to different inter-related processes. This is done
through the IT infrastructure under the business enterprise. It is intended to create and disseminate
expected information. These are helpful to support decision making with the people related to
enterprise under the process of attainment of the aims.
Here, the information system of Honest Jim’s Car is analyzed. They are involved in selling
over 100,000 quality vehicles in various regions in Victoria. Their interstate demand for quality price
cars is developing. Since their dealership has been continuing to grow they are looking to a new
method to enhance their business.
The study analyzes the industry background. Then the business model and scenario is
demonstrated. Next, the value proposition is discussed along with SWOT analysis and discussion.
Further, the organization is reviewed with the help of Porter’s five analysis.
1. Part A: Evaluations of the business
1.1. Industry background:
Initially, the car in Australia was found to be manufactured at the starting of the 20th century.
This has been because of the inauguration of Australian plant from the side of Australian
manufacturers. Here, the Australian Ford Motors is regarded as the initial auto-dealer. On the other
hand, Holden is considered as the initial mass-produced car in 1948. Their car manufacturing in
Australia rose in about half million for 1970. They were then ranked among the most popular ten
nations in the market of an auto dealership (Dowling and Kent 2015). The nation, by 2004 has been
known for designing and manufacturing huge sizes autos having around 400,000 vehicles of mass-

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produced. Additionally, as the considerable depression was going on in the late 2000s, an industry of
the nation shrieked and the production of a car fell to across 175,000 cars. At this time, the car
market of Australia has been dominated mainly by vehicles that are imported from Asia and Europe.
During 2015, the Australian cars have been made by Holden and Ford Motors as the Toyota
Australia has been maintained by local variants of cars in the global market (Standing and Mattsson
2018). Hence, it has been vital to remind, that despite the decline in car production, various auto-
dealers in the nation has been active in the provision of quality and affordable cars within unbeatable
deals.
The business was started by Jim Smith. Their aim has been to provide the unbeatable deals
and services in the most significant range of various quality used vehicles. These are done in
Melbourne by arranging few best car loans of the available finance. Their initial car opened in 1972.
From there they struggled to compete against different popular ones like Holden and Ford, for the
first three years. Moreover, they have turned into the preferred fleet car supplier for various
government and local businesses (Short 2016). Now they have intended to create their online
presence for promoting products to different local market and interstate market. A website is
expected to be designed for promoting their business over the Internet. This site must include their
business history, designing logo, information of products like cars and various light commercial
vehicles. Their mission statement would include “Good cars at a good price”. Besides, they must
design the online purchasing and facility of feedbacks.
1.2. Discussion of the business model and environment:
The compelling business model for the present scenario reflects the idea that the enterprise
plans for using in creating revenues. This also demonstrates the framework that the business would
be leveraging as per the incurring expenses, generating revenues and controlling expenditure.

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According to the “Honest Jim Carsales”, it has been primarily depending on the sales model directly.
Here, the revenues have been developed by the network of the salespersons. They have been
marketing and auctioning the autos for interested buyers and consumers (Remane et al. 2016).
Besides, another model has been leveraged by Jim. This is the franchise model. This is gained with
the process of purchasing the ownership rights. Here, a look into the catalog of Jim’s car, for
instance, highlights a plethora of vehicles that are owned by Holden, Ford and Toyota.
Hence, it indicates that “Carsales” has been primarily depending on different franchise plans
that are well-arranged. Within this plan, the auto dealers have been found to be purchasing the
models of business that are developed already by car companies (Lee et al. 2016). Hence, this has
denoted that Honest Jim has been earning mainly from various arrangements of business that have
been developed by the pioneering brands like Holden and Ford. This has been important to note that
the franchise models and direct sales have helped the auto dealers in remaining relevant. Instead of
offering affordable and quality car models, the strategy has been helping the player of the car in
maintaining and developing close relations along with effective consumers.
1.2. Analyzing value proposition:
This indicates a specific feature of innovation in any business. It is helpful for remaining
attractive to different buyers. Here, it is found that Honest Jim Auto has comprised of primary value
propositions, various cars of high-end, unbeatable rates, affordable and financial plans such as car
loans. Besides, the organization has been trading cars of high qualities. This has been the most
common element of the Models of Holden, Toyota, Iveco and Ford cars (Wagner, Brandt and
Neumann 2016).
Furthermore, the business has been offering rates that are affordable including cars moving
low as ten thousand dollars AUD to five thousand dollars AUD. It is seen that from the time of

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inception in 1972, their sales have exceeded over ten thousand sales. This has been with the
consumers situated in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Melbourne. Here, the capability
of offering low-cost, affordable and quality cars has been continuing to generate an essential
contributor to the success of the car dealers (Stanimirovic and Vintar 2015).
1.3. The SWOT Analysis:
It is illustrated through the following table.
Strengths: Weakness:
 It is seen that Honest Jim dealer has
possessed access towards affordable and
quality cars from their suppliers.
 Further, the business has access to the
massive base of consumers. This has
been specified in the region of rising
populations at Queensland, New
South Wales, Victoria and Melbourne
(Van Der Aalst 2015).
 Unbeatable and affordable rates
 Positioning strong brand due to the
ability of the organization to display the
car yard under the popular TV show.
 Here low labor productivity is found.
This has been since Jim auto dealer has
been operating as the efficient franchise.
 Furthermore, the cost of purchasing has
been higher especially for different
quality used vehicles.
 Additionally, as a popular franchise,
Honest Jim has composed of no access
to different well-built card brands. This
includes BMW, Mercedes and
Volkswagen (DaSilva and Trkman
2014).
Opportunities: Threats:
 This is a fast-growing population in  This include changes in regulations

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various sectors like Australia.
 A rise in demand for affordable, quality
and fast cars.
 Rise in rural demand for different
affordable vehicles.
 This has also included a vast rate of
disposal for different used cats at
Australia. This has created the scope
for the car buyers of first-time
(Tregear 2015).
affecting the usage and disposal of
various types of used cars.
 There has been increasing customer
awareness on longevity and usefulness
of lasts cars. This has been opposed to
the sued ones.
 The organization has included less
skilled labor for market and distributed
used cars.
 Failure to fulfill different international
standards as perused cars. Maximum
global marketers have been found to be
setting thresholds and regulations. This
is done through which the buyers have
been sourcing cars from the foreign
markets (Conforti et al. 2015).

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Competitive rivalry:
ook place. This signaled the competition since the size of current players has competed for shrinking the buyer’s base. From this Porter’s five force analysis, it is found that Honest Jim Car has
Threat to new entrants: This has been high in the car dealership of Australian
industry. Here, for instance, there have been about 1800 dealers present in New
South Wales. At Victoria, it is about 1500 and in Queensland, it is 1250 (Fleisher
and Bensoussan 2015). This indicates that there are difficulties of small
penetration for various car dealers who have been starting up.
Supplier bargaining power: It is
high on the basis of the present
number of car buyers and various
auto dealers. This is because of
greater penetration rate and the
power of supplier is greater.
Moreover, this indicates that the
suppliers have more magnificent
grounds of bargaining courtesy.
This is for various dealers seeking
to trade the autos (Truong et al.
2017).
Overall market competitiveness: This has been comparatively high.
It is seen that there are about 1800 dealers present in New South
Wales, 1400 in Victoria and about 1200 in Queensland (Goulding et
al. 2015).
Threats of substitute products: This has
been relatively moderate and low. It is a
robust area that has been employing
numerous car developers. Moreover, they
have been sustaining hundreds of
contracts (Peppard and Ward 2016).
Besides, they have been supporting useful
innovation in distribution and design. It
has indicated that there are few threats of
different substitute products like electric
cars, railroads and the same type of
innovations. This has been probably
disrupting the automobile sector.
1.4. Analyzing Porter’s Five Forces:
Figure 1: “Understanding the Porter’s Five Force Analysis of business environment at Honest
Jim's Cars”
(Source: Created by Author)
Spreadsheet

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Part B: Developing a mock-up of a non-fun coning business website
Website Link - https://student894193.wixsite.com/honestjimcarsales
Home Page

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Service Page

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Contact Page