Information Systems Management: FlashMobz & PhoneRUs E-commerce Report

This report examines the key business and technical challenges that FlashMobz faces in its acquisition of PhonesRUs and subsequent transition to e-commerce. It identifies various barriers, including those related to customer trust, internet connectivity, language issues, retailer relevance, website development costs, IT skills, legal issues, logistics, and payment systems. The report also delves into technological, organizational, and environmental challenges, such as lack of skilled ICT personnel, financial constraints, security concerns, organizational culture, and the impact of the business environment, including the availability of credit cards and macroeconomic facilities. Furthermore, the report offers insights into overcoming these challenges, presenting a persuasive argument for Asif and concluding with recommendations to enhance FlashMobz's e-commerce activities. The report emphasizes the need for strategic planning, technological advancements, and addressing customer and retailer concerns to ensure a successful e-commerce transition. The report also highlights the importance of addressing the identified barriers and challenges to ensure a successful e-commerce transition for FlashMobz.

Running head: INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT
Information Systems Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................1
2. Identification of the key business challenges and technical challenges of FlashMobz
acquisition of PhonesRUs and transition to eCommerce................................................................1
Barriers due to the acquisition of PhoneRUs...............................................................................1
Barriers to the customers.............................................................................................................2
The Internet connectivity.........................................................................................................2
Consumer trust and protection.................................................................................................2
Language issues.......................................................................................................................2
Barriers to the retailers.................................................................................................................3
Lack of relevance.....................................................................................................................3
Relatively high costing of developing and maintaining the website.......................................3
The fear of fraud and the payment...........................................................................................3
The lack of IT skills.................................................................................................................3
The legal issue.........................................................................................................................4
The logistics.............................................................................................................................4
Payments in course..................................................................................................................4
Integrating all the chain stores.................................................................................................4
3. The barriers or the challenges to the implementation and how these can be overcome..............5
Technological Challenges............................................................................................................5
Organizational Challenges...........................................................................................................5
Not having skilled ICT personnel............................................................................................5
Lack of finance........................................................................................................................6
Security concerns.....................................................................................................................6
Organisation culture.................................................................................................................6
Environmental Challenges...........................................................................................................7
The Business Environment which is unfriendly......................................................................7
The lack of credit cards and payment systems........................................................................7
Lack of macro-economic facilities..........................................................................................7
Peculiar nature of the industries..............................................................................................7
The occurrence of the natural disasters...................................................................................8
Challenges from the owner or manager challenges.....................................................................8
4. The building of inclusive and persuasive argument that can be presented to Asif......................8
5. Conclusion and Recommendation.............................................................................................11
6. References..................................................................................................................................12

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1. Introduction
FlashMobz is a mobile phone retailer in England and they have decided to take over
PhoneRUs. Asif has also decided to adopt the ICT services to initiate the e-commerce activities
(Sandberg and Håkansson 2014).
The report will highlight the barriers and challenges that FlashMobz can face while
integrating with PhoneRUs and while taking up e-commerce activities. The recommendations
have been made in the report following which Asif can enhance the business activities of the
company.
2. Identification of the key business challenges and technical challenges of FlashMobz
acquisition of PhonesRUs and transition to eCommerce
Barriers due to the acquisition of PhoneRUs
The PhoneRUs is an independent company that has been purchased by FlashMobz.
FlashMobz has decided to retain the employees that are working in PhoneRUs, however, the new
management team employed by FlashMobz will take care of PhoneRUs’s current business
operations. The employees and the management may face issues regarding communication with
each other. There may be a linguistic problem while communicating with each other and this
linguistic issue is certainly the barrier for the company (Mupfiga 2015). The employees will have
to follow the business policies and will have to work with the existing employees of FlashMobz.
Thus FlashMobz’s employees can face communication barriers.
Barriers to the customers
The Internet connectivity

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The Internet connectivity can prove to be one of the barriers to the e-commerce. The
citizens staying all over England must have an Internet connection. The citizens must have an
online Internet connection or a broadband connection so that they can sell a mobile phone.
FlashMobz must configure the Internet connection in their premises and must provide the better
connectivity to the consumers so that they can enjoy the services of FlashMobz.
Consumer trust and protection
The consumer trust and protection is mandatory. In case of offline shopping, the
consumers and the users have the opportunity to choose a particular phone and can test it and
view the features. The consumers can see a sample of a mobile specimen on the website of
FlashMobz. The consumers can view the workings of the mobile phone of their choice on the
company website. The customers of FlashMobz can get to know the best model of their choice,
can choose the colour of the mobile specimen, however, it is the responsibility of the FlashMobz
to deliver the right product to the customers (Ahmad and Ibrahim 2017). The consumers can
even get a faulty product and so FlashMobz will have to be careful about the phone they deliver.
The customers can order a product and it may happen that they do not get the product. It may
also happen that they get a faulty product, thus this can be an issue that can prove to be a barrier
for the customers. Many customers’ may get feared and this fear can act as a barrier for the
customers.
Language issues
If the consumers are not well versed in English, then it may happen they cannot shop
online (Tatnall 2014). Therefore, the language is the barrier for the e-commerce. Although many
popular retail sites have initiated their multi-lingual version of their website, FlasMobz is the

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new mobile phone retail store that has emerged in the market. They can implement a website
having a multi-lingual facility, however, a huge amount of money, a huge amount of time will be
required to implement a multi-lingual website having a multi-lingual facility. This is another
kind of issue both the retail chain and their consumers can face.
Barriers to the retailers
Lack of relevance
Often it is found the retailer conduct the business activities online and the procedures are
not relevant enough for their business and are not aligned with the business needs.
Relatively high costing of developing and maintaining the website
FlashMobz will have to concentrate on developing a website for their business
convenience and that requires a huge amount of costings, also to maintain the website
FlashMobxz will have to spend heavy (Makondo and Wang 2015). Therefore, this is one sort of
barrier.
The fear of fraud and the payment
There are risk and threat from the hackers to conduct the business online and so this is
certainly a barrier.
The lack of IT skills
FlashMobz needs to have the proper IT skills that means the skilled people having the
IRT knowledge who can take charge of the online activities as they do not have any right now
they will have to hire them and certainly it is a barrier (Lawrence 2013).

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The legal issue
The employees must be aware of the all the rules and regulations of e-commerce and also
abide by the and should act accordingly, the consumers also must be aware of all the regulatory
barriers and the legal issues are the barriers for the company (Baddegamage 2014).
The logistics
FlashMobz must consider the transportation and the delivery of the phone to the
customers that is why the courier service is one sort of barrier. Therefore, the transportation
facility is important, FlashMobz must consider all the barriers associated and the courier service
team must be appointed by the FlashMobz (Fattal 2014). Therefore, that the barriers related to
the logistics need to be solved.
Payments of course
The payments related to e-commerce is somewhat problematic, if some consumers
outside England want to purchase the items then they will have to convert the currency and then
will have to pay this can be a barrier for FlashMobz.
Integrating all the chain stores
To integrate the chain stores all over England FlashMobz will have to use the Internet
connectivity effectively. They need to constantly update the stock so that the consumers can get
the correct information about the stock products as well as the details of the branches can be
aware of all the details of the stock products (Kithulgoda and Jayaweera 2015). If stocks are
updated in a proper manner, then they can face barriers and can face huge problems to maintain
the same.

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3. The barriers or the challenges to the implementation and how these can be overcome
Technological Challenges
The technological challenges associated with the e-commerce are the lack of electricity or
the power cutoffs. In the rural areas the consumers generally do not have the electricity service
and thus those consumers can be deprived of the FlashMobz’s service. Again there is an issue
related to the Internet connectivity, the slow Internet speed can be really challenging (Bannister
and Connolly 2014). The rural areas generally have the connectivity issues, the network
connectivity is relatively slower and for the slow connectivity they can face issues while
purchasing any phone from the FlashMobz’s website.
Organizational Challenges
Not having skilled ICT personnel
FlashMobzs currently lacks the ICT personnel who are skilled in the computer
technologies, they are not well versed in the software technologies, cloud services. They also
need to communicate among themselves and lest not forget the new stores that Asif bought.
FlashMobx needs to educate the employees so that they can communicate with each other, can
communicate with the customers and solve their queries, also they can update their stock phones
and can keep track of the financial data and the purchase history of the customers (Albert,
Serafica and Lumbera 2016).
Lack of finance
FlashMobzs has decided to adopt the ICT services and the latest cloud technology
services to enhance the B2C services, to enhance the business activities of the company (Amiri et

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al. 2017). The development of the website requires a lot of money, also the maintenance requires
tons of money, they have to hire the IT technicians who can assist them and educate them so that
they can conduct the business activities that require a lot of charges, they will have to pay the
consultancy fees, have to pay for the electricity and the network connectivity so they have to
bear huge amount of costs, they must consider all the charges and should make the budget
beforehand effectively and should spend accordingly, the lack finance can be a serious challenge
for the company in ere future.
Security concerns
The security concerns must be taken into consideration. FlashMobz must adopt the cloud
services, must adopt the cloud technology from the reputed cloud vendor like Amazon AWS,
Microsoft Azure otherwise they can face issues regarding security breaches. The insecure
network can lead to the malware attack from the hackers’ end (Siddiqi et al. 2013). The hackers
can hack and exploit the database, can steal vital information from the employees, the financial
data of the enterprise and the customers’ personal information.
Organisation culture
The organizational culture can lead to the risk of e-commerce adaptation failures
(Damunupola 2014). The employees often feel the face-to-face interaction is much better and
easily adaptable and generally avoids the online chatting and the online interaction. This
adaptation can be really challenging.
Environmental Challenges
The Business Environment which is unfriendly

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FlashMobz must be careful about the Internet connectivity as well as they must be
careful about the electricity services and electricity and the network connectivity aids in the
efficient implementation of e-commerce activities. FlashMobz will have to adapt the ICT
services and that not going to be easy as they have to bear the heavy cost (Jameel, Abdul-Karem
and Mahmood 2017). They will need to have the electricity services all throughout 24x7 services
besides they will have to provide the high-speed Internet connectivity without any buffering and
all these going to be a tough challenge for the enterprise.
The lack of credit cards and payment systems
Many consumers do not use the online banking facility, even they do not use the credit
cards and the debit cards as there are no proper established e-commerce payment systems (Zafar,
Ishaque and Javaid 2014). Therefore, those consumers get deprived of the e-commerce facility.
Lack of macro-economic facilities
Like any other enterprises, even FlashMobz will have to follow the regulatory policies
and the policies of the Government so they can be restricted from taking any initiative.
FlashMobz must be aware of all the latest laws and the latest regulatory policies and must stay
updates all the time (Djavanshir et al. 2017). They must stay focused on meeting the needs of
their customers.
Peculiar nature of the industries
FlashMobz can take up the ICT technology to enhance the business activities of the
enterprise, they can stay ahead of their competitors as a result of the adoption of the ICT services

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or the e-commerce activities. As FlashMobz wants to move forward they must be willing to take
the challenge and the risks.
The occurrence of the natural disasters
The natural disasters like tsunami, earthquakes and the floods can be really challenging
for the enterprise, their hardware and their server can be at risk and can be under vulnerability
due to the disaster caused by the natural disasters. Thus it is a serious risk and challenge.
The local business culture: The managers and the employees of the company must not share the
information with others outside the enterprise otherwise the security breaches can occur, the
confidential data of the enterprise can get compromised due to this, the financial data of the
enterprise can be a stake if the managers share information with others. The sharing of
information by face to face interactions can diminish the chance of the e-commerce activity and
there will be importance and encouragement for the ICT usages.
Challenges from the owner or manager challenges
The managers and the leaders must be knowledgeable of all the ICT technology
knowledge and must educate the employees of the company the same so they can use the ICT
services in case of e-commerce activities effectively (Nawi, Fong and Tatnall 2014). If the
managers are not knowledgeable then they can face huge problems adopting the e-commerce
activities and can face huge losses and their productivity can get disrupted due to this attack.
4. The building of inclusive and persuasive argument that can be presented to Asif
i. Communicating with the employees of PhoneRUs: Asif as well the managers of
FlashMobz must conduct meeting on daily basis and should communicate with the employees of

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PhoneRUs, the managers should educate them with the workings of the company and must
educate them the use of ICT services so that the employees of PhoneRUs can conduct e-
commerce activities and can work hand in hand with the existing employees of FlashMobz.
ii. The lack of verification measures: Any customer can get registered with FlashMobz,
however, the enterprise cannot know the real identity of the customer. The customers can create
a fake account. If the customer registers bank card with the account, then the originality of the
account can be predicated, if customers want to purchase any phone via cash on delivery, the
genuineness of the customers cannot be predicted (Sandberg and Håkansson 2014). Asif can
solve the problem by verifying the mobile number and the email address verified by the
customer.
iii. The product returns: The consumers can be dissatisfied with the phone’s quality,
phone’s colour texture and can be willing to return the phone. The company must be ready for
those circumstances, their queries must be heard of and must refund back the money (Mupfiga
2015). FlashMobz can face losses due to this, Asif must control the cost management applying
certain rules and regulations for the return management.
iv. Integration: All the aspects of the e-commerce like the order management system,
dispatch system and the order tracking system and the customer support system must be well
integrated and the respective teams should work together hand in hand (Ahmad and Ibrahim
2017). Asif along with the managers of the enterprise must develop management body that can
help the enterprise to carry out their business activities online fast and effectively.

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v. The customers’ feedback: The customers’ queries often remain unnoticed. FlashMobz
must set up a customer service team that will provide 24x7 services to the customers. If any
critical issues arise Asif should be ready to solve the problem.
vi. The solutions to the technological challenges: FlashMobz must make a budget and
based on that Asif must implement a quality internet service and the electricity services.
vii. The solutions to the organizational challenges: The enterprise must appoint skilled
ICT personnel to carry out the business activities over the Internet. The company must educate
the employees on the cloud technology and the ICT services so that the productivity can enhance
and the profit of the company can significantly great increases (Ahmad and Ibrahim 2017).
Asif must optimise the budget which they get by selling the phones. They must use the
money properly to develop the website, to maintain the website, to pay the IT technicians, to pay
the electric bill and to pay the Internet bill.
The security concerns must be considered and The must adopt the cloud services
provided by the cloud vendors like Microsoft Azure or Amazon AWS. The cloud vendors have
the capability to provide advanced cloud solutions and the advanced secured solutions so there
are fewer chances of security breaches and the privacy breaches.
As FlashMobz will use the cloud technology and the cloud services so there are fewer
chances of data losses due to the occurrence of the natural disaster like flood, earthquake (Tatnall
2014). The cloud vendor will record and store the vital information of the enterprise and they
will keep a backup of the files stored so FlashMobz does not have to worry about the security
breaches.