Information Systems Report: FlashMobz and PhoneRUs Acquisition

This report analyzes the information systems of FlashMobz, a mobile phone company, focusing on its acquisition of PhoneRUs and subsequent challenges. The report details the technical and business difficulties encountered, including insufficient IT integration, lack of visibility, data integration issues, and compliance regulations. It also examines the challenges in transitioning to e-commerce, such as cross-platform integration, cart abandonment, and scaling inadequacies. Furthermore, the report discusses barriers to implementation, including human resources, venture capital, government legislation, and lack of liquidity. The report provides an overview of how the company can overcome these challenges and improve business performance. Part B of the report contains a self-reflection on the information system process and the impact of technology in the author's personal life.

Running Head: Information Systems
Information Systems

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Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................ 1
Part A.......................................................................................................................... 1
Challenges faced by FlashMobz in acquiring PhoneRUs and in transitioning e-
commerce.................................................................................................................. 1
Barriers to implementation......................................................................................... 4
Strategies to recommend........................................................................................... 5
Part B.......................................................................................................................... 5
Conclusion and Recommendation..............................................................................6
References................................................................................................................. 7

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Introduction
The purpose of this task is to provide a brief overview of the information system used by
companies in the environment to grow and attain success. FlashMobz is a mobile phone
company selling mobile phones and its accessories in England. The company is owned by Asif
who initially started the business as a single store selling the electronic products and has now
grown into a chain of eleven stores in the country. Asif purchased PhoneRUs which a group of
three outlets. He bought this store with an aim to make these stores work under the brand name
of FlashMobz. This activity initiated by Asif became of one of the significant operation for
expansion in the company. Further it should also be noted that both the organizations FlashMobz
and PhoneRUs have their different functionalities for IT for which the owner need to integrate
different systems under them.
Further the below mentioned report contains two part. The first part of the report talks on the
activity of the company FlashMobz on acquiring the PhoneRUs Company. It explains the
technical and business challenges faced by the company in acquiring PhoneRUs and expanding
their business in the international market. Further it also talks about the barriers faced by the
company in implementing various expansion and growth activities in the business; all these
issues and recommendations are stated by SBS consultancy team. It also talks about the ways in
which FlashMobz can properly implement the activities in the business and improve its growth.
Furthermore the second part of the task talks about my self-reflection on the information system
process and the impact of technology in by personal life. More details about the task are
discussed below:
Part A
Challenges faced by FlashMobz in acquiring PhoneRUs and
in transitioning e-commerce
Now days, it has become the need of the era to expand their business by collaborating with
different organizations of same sector in the market. This process gives the aid of advancement

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to the company and use of qualified raw material as well. Acquisition and merger are mostly
regarded as the best ways for an organization to grow; similarly it also helped the company
FlashMobz to create an advantage in the market. But as both the companies FlashMobz and
PhoneRUs were having differential information technology system which made it difficult for
the company to collaborate their activities (Beier, and Wagner 2015). Further the technical and
business challenges faced by the company are discussed below:
Insufficient IT integration: the lack of synchronization throughout the IT infrastructure
attracted difficulties for the company to process their everyday activities. As the organization
acquired new company due to which all the resources of the company multiplied, resulting to
which the management cost of the company increased to manage such resources. But FlashMobz
was unable to manage all the resources properly due to which some of them remained
unexploited. Further the case study also explains that both the IT companies had their differential
systems in use (Eisenberg, and Gupta 2015). Resulting to which, the process of the company
slowed down as they were unable to handle both the systems at a time, apart from which they
faced the difficult to integrate the FlashMobz software in PhoneRUs. Without integration of the
supporting and the operational process applications in the process, the mistakes and its
replication is impossible which increased the complications and distracted the company from
achieving its core business objective (ETcontributors 2017).
Lack of visibility: with the process of merger of two different companies the problem of
duplication of customer’s information can be increased. Both the companies will share
information of their clients which will emphasize on the need of single view of customer
information. Further it should also be noted that attaining information about the customers will
initiate the customer data driven integration system due to which visibility reduces. As the both
the companies integrates their systems due to which the single view of customer reduces as both
the companies show their respective information stored about the client (Hammer 2015). Lack of
visibility and gives rise to confusion in the organization; the information of the client duplicates
due to which it becomes difficult for the employees of the company to search information of the
customer. For instance, if there is a name of two clients of the company is same, so the
employees will face confusion while billing the amount of the respective client. Thus, in this way

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the problem of visibility was faced by the company as information of PhoneRUs was adjoined in
the company (Drucker 2017).
Data integration: The process of data integration refers to the process under which the business
gains access to the information of another company. In the company FlashMobz, the IT team
gained the access of PhoneRUs information due to which they combined the data of both the
companies due to which the employees faced issues in implementing regular day to day
activities. Apart from that, process of data integration requires qualified software which can
easily store all the information on the cloud without hampering them (Harmon 2014). Thus, the
company faced difficultly in integrating the information due to which they got scattered in
different systems and resulted in loss as well. Further the service delivery also became
complicated as the employees were unable to properly retrieve the information of PhoneRUs due
to which the efficiency of the system of FlashMobz reduced resulting in loss of information of
clients. Thus, it is important for the organization to integrate data effectively otherwise company
can attract various issues. Lack of visibility is also a problem of data integration only (Kane,
Palmer, Phillips, and Kiron 2015).
Compliance Regulation: all organizations have their different compliances for their business as
FlashMobz comply with different regulations in their organization and PhoneRUs have different
compliances to follow. So, the organization FlashMobz faced difficulty in complying with the
rules and regulations of PhoneRUs. Although, both thee company are a part of information
technology industry but different rules applies to both of them. As PhoneRUs is also present in
Belgium due to which the company needs to follow the rules of regulations of that country as
well (MuleSoft 2018). And now FlashMobz also becomes liable to entertain the European region
regulation applying on their system. It is mandatory for FlashMobz to comply with the code of
procedures of another company which they have acquired and in the event of non-compliance the
organization might face strict penalties for the same. Further, with the process of acquisition the
process of organization diversified due to which the management faced difficultly in controlling
the process and run smoothly (Nusca 2014).
Transitioning e-commerce challenges: The Company FlashMobz faced issues in transitioning
e-commerce. With the development of diversified business, the owner of the company Asif
realized the need of e-commerce in their business. E-commerce helps an organization to promote

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their business and initiate sales through internet; it gives the ability to the organization to serve to
international customers as well. Further, below mentioned are the transitioning e-commerce
issues faced by the company FlashMobz (Petkova 2016).
Cross-platform integration: mobile and accessories shopping has now days become an integral
part of the e-commerce business as most of target market of the company look for these products
online and buy them through internet only. Thus, overseeing such demand of products in the
internet, Asif also entered in this market by customizing their application and optimizing
products and resources for the same (Neelankavil 2015). Further, talking about the issue it should
be noted that the organization faced the problem in functioning their business online. B2C e-
commerce functionalities changed the current platform of the company as now the management
needs to work on both online and offline platform which create a problem for them. The
management of FlashMobz finds it difficult in integrating transactions of both platforms due to
which efficiency of the company reduces (Mazzarol 2015).
Cart Abandonment: This is one of the major problems which the enterprise faces while
initiating their e-commerce business. Cart abandonment refers to the problem under which the
visitor leaves the page without completing the activity of shopping. The millennial target
customers of the company only make window shopping with the company due to which their
cart includes products which they wish to buy but did not buy. Resulting to which, the company
faces high revenue loss due to cart abandonment. The customer might leave their products in the
cart without purchasing because of high cost of shipping, complications in checkout process, and
fewer options for payment etc. (iFour Team 2016).
Inadequacy in Scaling: The Company FlashMobz is new to the field of e-commerce due to
which they faced difficulty in scaling the price of products to different customers. The company
offers differential prices to the enterprise that purchase the products from the company in bulk
(Tan, Guo, Cahalane, and Cheng 2016). Another problem in scaling FlashMobz faced when they
increased their product portfolio and offer diversified products to its customers, thus different
products have different prices to which the company was unable to label them effectively.
Scaling takes place when a company deals in B2B and B2C services, thus FlashMobz was unable
to scale the products properly (Knoke 2018 ).

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Barriers to implementation
Human resource: As the company FlashMobz aimed for expansion in the IT sector due to
which they required qualified employees to help the management to initiate sales through online
as well. But the company faced difficulty in implementing their strategies as the company didn’t
find quality human resource to match up to the expectation of the company (Sekaran, and Bougie
2016). Thus, it should be noted that due to inefficient human resource present with the
organization they were unable to implement the plan of expansion properly in their organization.
Also increasing competition in the e-commerce business increased the problem of management
present their services in such a way that the customer gets attracted towards them (Chen 2017).
Venture Capital: In order to expand the business by acquiring other business and using
innovative technology, the organization would require adequate venture capital. It is the capital
which an organization funds into another organization to increase its efficiency. It is also called
risk capital. So, if an organization has optimum sum of venture capital with them then only they
can think of expanding their business by introducing new technology or increasing product line.
In the company FlashMobz, as they acquired PhoneRUs due to which the venture capital of the
company reduced, further the management aimed to expand their business into e-commerce but
lack of venture capital hindered the growth of the plan of the company (Jemison, and Sitkin
2018).
Government Legislation: The government also imposes various legislations which affects the
growth of the company in the external market. As the company FlashMobz is present in England
so it should be noted that the company needs to follow the rules of England, apart from that the
company need to comply with the rules of the region in which PhoneRUs initiates their working
and the areas where they are aiming to expand their warehouses. Complying law of three regions
at a time made it difficult for the company to implement their regular activities properly
(Dunning 2014).
Lack of liquidity: In order to successfully implement the new defined operational plan, it is
important for any organization to have adequate amount of liquid so as to meet the unforeseen
demand of the organization. Thus, FlashMobz invested most of their liquid cash in expansion
purpose and acquiring different business unit due to which the company started facing cash

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crunch in implement their expansion process of e-commerce. As FlashMobz has more ratio of
investing activities than operating activities due to which liquid cash ratio present with the
company reduced with adversely affected the operational activities of the company (Hair 2015).
Logistics and supply chain: In order to initiate the e-commerce activities of the company it is
important for the management to attain efficient supply chain management system which can
effectively supply the products and service offered by the company to prospective customers
present in the market. As FlashMobz has newly initiated the e-commerce activities in the
business and they are not even present in different parts of the world due to which the company
faced the difficulty in assembling the raw material providing finished goods to the customers in
the market (Currim, Mintz, and Siddarth 2015).
Strategies to recommend
Below mentioned are the strategies which shall be recommended to the company FlashMobz to
improve their activities in the market.
 In order to remove the barriers of implementation, initially the company shall train their
existing employees about the process which they are currently using and which they will
use in the near future to initiate sales online. This will improve the efficiency of
employees and reduce the human resource management problem. Also the company shall
use the performance management tool to satisfy the requirements of the employees in the
organization. Satisfied employee will bring more fresh talent in the organization
(Buckley, and Casson 2016).
 Further in order to maintain venture capital and liquid cash in organization, the
management team needs invest carefully. Also the company needs to monitor their
expenses and aim to reduce them so as to save liquid cash for other activities in the
organization. The supervisors shall aim to initiate waste management activities which
shall monitor the irrelevant expenses made by the employees in the organization. Cutting
cost is an effective way for the company to maintain liquid cash (Gervasi 2016).
 Logistics and supply chain activities can be initiated in such a way that the company shall
spread their activities in different parts of the world so that the demand of customer is
fulfilled on time. Demand shall be forecasted by the management so that they do not face

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pressure when the actual demand of thee product arises and they can easily deliver the
products to the customers (Grant 2016).
Part B
Ethics is an important aspect which should be considered by all IT professionals. Leniency in the
use of information system tools can adversely affect the growth of the company. Before reading
this module, I had no clue about precarious implications of ethics. But with further investigation,
I came to know about the legal aspects of IT what can happen if these rules regulations are not
bounded appropriately. Further talking about the case of ‘Kim Wall’ case, I came to know that
publicity of information can damage the reputation of people. Under this case, a person was
murdered and the clipping of that event was made viral. Looking at this event with a legal and
ethical eye, it should be noted that the person whose computer was misused to reveal all such
information was held liable. Even after expressing his feelings, the accused was not saved
because while purchasing a computer software and internet connection the statement is clearly
mentioned to the customer that any kind of information stored in their computer belongs to them.
As an IT profession, this incident gave me teaching that I need to carefully store my data from
the dark web activities as it can ruin my image in the market.
Another case of General Data Protection Regulation talks about the responsible ethical rules and
legislations which should be followed by people worldwide. The DPO talks about the consent of
people about the data which they want to store or delete. Thus, from the above two scenarios, I
came to know about the dos and don’ts in the legal IS world which an IT professional shall do. In
my future practices as an IT professional I will surely incorporate the activity to bind all the legal
rules and keep a track of the information stored in my system.

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Conclusion and Recommendation
Thus in the limelight of above mentioned events it should be noted that Asif, the owner of
FlashMobz initiated all these activities with an aim to expand their services in the international
market and attain growth as well. The company acquired various organizations and invested in
various areas with an aim to expand. The organization also aimed to operate the e-commerce
business in which they faced many difficulties as well. The organization faced issues in
managing their ecommerce business, apart from that acquisition of PhoneRUs was also an
important decision taken by the management of the company, as both the company were having
different IT system which made it more difficult for the employees to operate their activities.
Lastly, it should be recommended to the employees to initiate their activities strategically and the
management shall lay more focus on the ecommerce business only so that the company earns
sales from online business as well.

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