ICT Service Improvement Report

The report analyzes the ICT service framework of RealEstate.com.au, focusing on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). It highlights the need for improved customer support and e-business strategies to enhance user experience and increase sales. Recommendations include implementing live chat support and a toll-free number, as well as preparing for future e-commerce technologies. The report emphasizes the importance of adapting to digital communication trends to remain competitive in the market.

9/8/2017
Student Name
Evolutions, Assessment and Suggestions for ICT service Improvement- Task A

ICT SERVICE IMPROVEMENT
Task A - SWOT Analysis of RealEstate.com.au ICT service
SWOT Template
Organisation: RealEstate.com.au Date: 07/09/2017
Description of current/new ICT service: Instant Customer Support (Chat Support;
Toll Free number)
RealEstate.com.au is a well-developed website supporting computer, Tablets and other
mobile and smartphone device. The website offers a vast amount of information but
lacks instant customer support which can be viewed as a negative aspect of the
website. Instant customer support medium allows customers to contact the business
immediately allowing for an instant constant which can increase the number of sales
made by the business (Minutes, 2015).
Many potential customers looking to invest in the property would like instant
communication making it a basic requirement the business has failed to deliver and
which may be incurring the business huge losses (Pahl & Richter, 2009).
STRENGTHS
 Clear Navigation Dialog
 Multi Device Support
 Easily accessible Smartphone
App
 Simplified Property Search
Bar
 Fast loading time
 Easy Registration Process
WEAKNESSES
 Lacks instant customer support Chat
 No clear Toll Free number displayed
 International markets hidden
 Limited Company constant information
 Tedious contact us process
OPPORTUNITIES
 Develop live chat support
 Offer Toll Free number
 Display international reach
 Access contact information
easier
 Reduce Data consuming
Visual dialogue
THREATS
 Loss of Customers needing assistant to
navigate
 Inability to collect potential customer
data
 Loss of business to competitors
offering easy to access communication
 Loss of customer due to data
consuming visuals
 No Customer Reviews
Summary and Recommendations:
On analysis of the RealEstate.com.au website, it is clear the business has invested a
considerable among of capital on the encores interface. This is a very important
requirement due to most people utilizing the internet to search for information and
communicate with clients.
Strengths: The business has offers a well-developed website with easy navigations
and multi- device support. The company also offers smart phone app support helping
speed up loading time and connecting the customer. Another befit observed on the
website is the easy registration process where the customer only needs to provide their
email and enter an alpha numeric password and an account is instantly created. This
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delivers instant access to the website allowing for business to connect with potential
customers quickly and allowing
Weaknesses: The business also has several weaknesses related to lack of instant and
toll-free communication which limits customer access. The businesses physical
address is also hidden which creates scepticism among customers who may want to
note down and verify the businesses existence and also review previous customer
comments before dealing with the business.
Opportunities: the business has the infrastructure in place to develop live and toll-
free support so as to access more customers. It should also display international reach
and must reduce the visual content on the mobile interface to reduce data
consumptions and increase the websites loading speed. Customers are growing
impatient each day and want work to be done quickly
Treats: Competitors are the biggest threat facing the business making it important for
the business to focus on delivering high quality information and facilities to its
customers. It is critical to evaluate and monitor facilities being offered by competitors
to determine areas the business can improve so as retain customer confidence thus
ensuring sustainability.
Short Term (Now)
It is critical to establish an instant customer support console on RealEstate.com.au.
This console should be able to allow the customer to connect to support instantly so as
to offer assistance on queries the customer may have. It is also important to provide a
1-800 toll-free number to establish communication immediately with the customer.
The number should be clearly displayed on all pages and be interactive on the website
thus ensuring it is visible to the customer at all time. The toll-free and support chat
buttons should also be easy to access and be connected with the support team.
Mid Term (next 12 months)
RealEstate.com.au already has a well-established website portal which most of its
customers access to avail the property investment, purchase and rental services. This
makes it important to avoid disturbing the appearance of the website to suddenly
which may affect customer’s perception and confidence. With visual images on the
websites identified to consume a lot of band width and contributing towards slowing
the websites, it is critical to remove the High definition images or develop a separate
mobile friendly website. The remove or replacement of current images requires being
gradual with back page images first being removed or replaced with low definition
images. These processes should gradually be undertaken over a 12 month period to
avoid shocking clients which may create panic and scare away existing clients.
Change is important but must be gradual since many consumers view change as
negative and may stop dealing with a brand or business if major changes to their portal
or customer interface are made abruptly. This has been observed by several major
global brands which registered a slowdown in sales due to changing logos abruptly
which confused consumers and saw many withdraw till it was confirmed why the
company had made the changes.
Long Term (next 3 to 5 years)
It is also important that RealEstate.com.au prepare to embrace future Information and
Communication Technologies. The information’s and communications sector have
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registered major changes in the past decade and are expected to continue seeing some
major developments in the future as well. Network-Based Telepathy, Hologram
communication, Artificial intelligence Assisted Communication, and Instantaneous
Translation are just some of the new forms of communication expected in the future.
This makes it important for RealEstate.com.au to monitor the developing forms of
communications and incorporate them into the websites current communication
medium which would further increase the businesses reach to its customers.
Task B - E-Business & E-Commerce Models and Strategies
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Abstract
Businesses must today be able to adopt E-Business & E-Commerce Models and Strategies so as
to remain competitive on the global market. This makes it important for every business to
evaluate its current operations to determine the most appropriate approach to consider with
regard to adopting E-Business & E-Commerce Models. The report shall analyse
RealEstate.com.au and determine important statistics related to the website and areas that may
require improvement. The report will also propose areas of improvement which can be consider
for the business to increase the number of visitors and ultimately the sales made by the business.
Contents
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Abstract............................................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
The Importance of E-Business & E-Commerce in Today’s Business World.................................2
Need for ECommerce and websites.............................................................................................3
E-searches....................................................................................................................................3
Saves Time and Resources...........................................................................................................3
Evenly distributed competition....................................................................................................4
Evaluating current E-Business & E-Commerce Models and Strategies..........................................4
Overall Website Analysis.............................................................................................................4
Website Ranking......................................................................................................................4
Website Audience.....................................................................................................................5
Search Terms and Keywords....................................................................................................6
Sites Linked..............................................................................................................................7
Areas of improvement..................................................................................................................7
Live Support Chat....................................................................................................................7
Toll-Free Number.....................................................................................................................8
Preparing for Future E-Commerce Technology Frameworks.........................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References........................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
Information and Communication Technologies play an integral part towards any businesses
smooth operations and growth. This makes it important for every business to focus its attention
towards evaluating and putting in place an effective ICT service framework. The report shall
focus on evaluating the ICT service framework (E-Business & E-Commerce Models and
Strategies) utilized by RealEstate.com.au. This will help develop an effective action plan and
which can be used towards developing E-Business & E-Commerce Models and Strategies which
will benefit the business (TheStationeryOffice, 2002). E-Business & E-Commerce have become
a basic form of communications used on a daily basis making it important for the businesses to
develop effective Models and Strategies which evaluate the current E-Business & E-Commerce
services and propose future models which can be used to further enhance
The Importance of E-Business & E-Commerce in Today’s Business World
The world has experienced a digital revolution over the past decade whereby businesses and
people have adopted digital communication to communicate as opposed to traditional forms of
communication. Today postal services continue to be used only to send hard copies of formal
paper work and parcels but businesses depend on e E-Business & E-Commerce Models and
Strategies to conduct their daily operations (Chaffey, 2014). This has made it important for every
business to develop a powerful E-Business & E-Commerce framework due to the majority of
customers preferring to use e-business and e-commerce frameworks to perform their business
operations.
Need for Ecommerce and websites
Owning and maintaining a web developed website, Social media page and running e-commerce
campaigns are basic requirements every business must have in place today to meet customer
expectations. This is especially important for businesses like RealEstate.com.au due to customer
preferring to use e-commerce platforms to locate basic information and data related to properties
before considering physically visiting the property and making the final decision (Young, 2014).
E-searches
In 90% of the situation, the customers will use their computer or smartphone to search for a
property using key words on search engines like Google to narrow down the search for a
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property to a certain location. This makes it easier for the investor to locate suitable properties
and dealers who have similar properties in a few seconds after which they contact the concerned
individual. E-searches also help an investor secure a wider perspective related to available
properties by allowing them to review more properties available and listed in a certain area thus
delivering more option to choose from for the investor.
Saves Time and Resources
Unlike traditional methods of searching for service providers and suitable properties, investors
are now able to search for relevant information on properties in a matter of seconds. Simply
entering Key words like properties for sale Melbourne will yield a list of available properties and
dealers which can then be narrowed down to one’s specific need. This helps investor locate
suitable dealers and properties instantly and also allows the property owner to advertise their
properties to potential customers in a matter in a matter of seconds without. E-businesses are key
word sensitive which helps reduce the need for manpower thus helping reduce property related
costs which help makes properties deal more affordable.
Evenly distributed competition
Another major benefit related to adopting E-Business & E-Commerce Models and Strategies is
the platforms ability to deliver evenly distributed competitors among stake holders. Unlike the
past when major players monopolized the market by purchasing all marketing media, E-Business
& E-Commerce frameworks allow a business to adopt market their services and good directly to
the customer using keywords. A businesses ranking is based on the keyword ranking which
makes it important for the business to focus its attention more on business SEO, key word
ranking, and social media marketing. This evenly distributes competition among seller and dealer
which allows for each stake holder an opportunity to tap into the business opportunity and secure
profit (Mehdi, 2013). It also works in the favour of smaller dealers as it allows the smaller dealer
to present their services and good to the public on the same platform as multinational companies
thus leaving it on the customer to make the final decision to deal with the brand or not.
Evaluating current E-Business & E-Commerce Models and Strategies
To evaluate RealEstate.com.au in a better manner it is critical to perform an in-depth search
RealEstate.com.au current statistics which deliver better understanding related to the websites
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current standings (Funabashi & Grzech, 2006). To release this information Alexa.com shall be
used to evaluate the website which would deliver the basic statistics for the business and website
thus allow for further analysis to be conducted.
Overall Website Analysis
Website Ranking
Figure 1- retrieved from Alexa.com
A search on alexa.com reveals that RealEstate.com.au is currently ranked 2203 globally and the
website is ranked 28 in Australia. This is a relatively high ranking but the closer analysis of the
website reveals the data reveals the website has been able to achieve a much higher ranking
between January and April 2017. Having achieved higher rankings it is necessary for the
business for the business to focus on its SEO efforts to improve ranking which will reflect and
also increase the number of visitors to the website.
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Website Audience
A geographical review of RealEstate.com.au helps reveal important information related to the
location of the website's visitors, bounce rate daily page views per visitor and average time spent
on the website. It’s clearly by reviewing the data that the majority of site visitors are from
Australia constituting to 88% of the total visitors to the website. Other country visitors who have
shown interest towards the website include the USA, China, United Kingdom and India. This
data can be used towards helping identify potential international investment markets which need
to be prioritized in future thus allowing for better consumer exposure and reach. The data also
displays the websites daily page views per visitor which I currently an average of 8.72 pages per
visitor. Each visitor also spends around 10.34 minutes on the website searching through the
different pages for new information and data. It is important for the business to focus on
increasing the amount of time spent on the website which also increases the potential of making
higher sales thus the SEO and website content management will also require being carefully re-
evaluated to ensure it is up-to-date and meets customer’s needs.
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Search Terms and Keywords
The Keyword and search data also plays an important role towards determining the search terms,
key words, and websites responsible for generating traffic to RealEstate.com.au. 31.30% of the
website's visitors come from search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing where leading
keywords such as real estate. Real estate.com.au, real estate, realestate.com, and
realeststate.com.au.vic have been used. This has allowed the visitors to locate RealEstate.com.au
via search engines which are an important source of traffic contributions to 31.30% of the
websites total visitors. The remaining 68.70% may be visitors who find the website via social
media websites and clients who have bookmarkers the website at their favourite thus visiting the
website directly.
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Sites Linked
In order for RealEstate.com.au to secure high ranking for its key words on search engines, it is
important for the website to also focus on interlinking to other websites. This allows the visitors
to the website to visit other recommended websites as well as have their visible links on other
highly ranked websites which could help generate traffic and support keyword searches. As per
the data, RealEstate.com.au is linked to 3596 websites each having a directly linked to the
website but the website must continue increasing the number of links so as to increase the
number of visitors from every possible source and increase its exposure and number of visitors
which increases the possibility of securing more sales.
Areas of improvement
A closer review of Reviewing RealEstate.com.au helps identify important information related to
the website which can be improved. While the website is well developed and has achieved a high
ranking the website lakes some critical components of communication offered by competitors
and other reputed websites (Schniederjans, Cao, & Triche, 2013). The website lacks a live
support feature and no toll-free number has been clearly displayed which could have a negative
effect on the businesses performance. This makes it important to consider infusing the two
communication medium immediately to the website.
Live Support Chat
Live support has become a feature that is available on most websites today as it helps personalize
and bring business employees and staff closer to the website visitors. In many situations, visitors
will turn to live support immediately to secure support and assistance related to locating features
and services. This helps speed up the service delivery which is an important requirement a
business website must have and should be included to the website and portal. Live support also
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helps to collect important customer contact information such as email and contact number
information which can later be used to establish communication with the client. It is important to
understand many investors may lack the knowledge to navigate through a website thus offering
support will help demonstrate a business’s efficiency towards catering to its client’s needs.
Toll-Free Number
Many clients also require direct communication due to the inability to navigate through the
website and offering a toll-free number will help encourage them to call the support team
regarding their query. The toll-free number if very important as it helps collect direct contact
information and established direct communication between the businesses and its website
visitors which is likely to increase the chances of improving sales. This makes it mandatory for
the toll-free number of being provided on the website immediately and ensures it is interactive
thus always being displayed on the computer screen. It should also have a direct call button
which helps speed up calling and also allow for a call back feature if required by the customer. It
is critical to maximizing the number of ways in which potential customers can establish contact
with the business thus increasing the number of leads which can be followed up on to increase
sales.
Preparing for Future E-Commerce Technology Frameworks
E-Business & E-Commerce is heavily dependent on digital communication making it important
to research, locate and use the latest communication medium. This makes it critical for
RealEstate.com.au to research and identify the latest trends in communication being used by the
web surfers and implement them to the website and smartphone application so as to maximize
customer exposure being an e-commerce website, customers may also require to make online
payments using their debit or credit cards which makes it important to provide a safe and secure
e-commerce platform. This makes it important that the latest and most secure payment gateway
is delivered to customers and their payment data is safely stored to avoid loss (Mohapatra, 2012).
This is also important towards building the brands reputation and gaining customer trust making
it critical requirement the business must fulfil while evaluating and managing its E-Business &
E-Commerce Models and Strategies
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Conclusion
With the internet being accessed and used by more people today it has become a necessity for
businesses to put in place E-Business & E-Commerce facilities. In addition to setting up the
facilities, the businesses must also be able to upgrade to the latest technologies as well as offer
the most secure payment gateways. Management of e-commerce portals also plays an important
role as it allows the business monitor and manages its e-commerce operations. This makes it
important to also utilize online e-commerce and website analysis tools which would allow the
business to secure its current status thus allowing the business develop effective strategies related
to the future development and improvement plans.
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References
Chaffey, D. (2014). Digital Business and E-Commerce Management. Pearson Education Limited.
Funabashi, M., & Grzech, A. (2006). Challenges of Expanding Internet: E-Commerce, E-Business, and E-
Government. Springer.
Mehdi, K. (2013). E-Commerce for Organizational Development and Competitive Advantage. Hershey: IGI
Global.
Minutes, 5. (2015). The SWOT Analysis: A key tool for developing your business strategy.
50MINUTES.COM.
Mohapatra, S. (2012). E-Commerce Strategy: Text and Cases. Odisha: Springer Science & Business Media.
Pahl, N., & Richter, A. (2009). Swot Analysis - Idea, Methodology and a Practical Approach. GRIN Verlag.
Schniederjans, M. J., Cao, Q., & Triche, J. H. (2013). E-Commerce Operations Management: Second
Edition. London: World Scientific Publishing Company.
TheStationeryOffice. (2002). ICT Infrastructure Management. Norwich: The Stationery Office.
Young, T. (2014). Winning the Website War: Four Steps to Marketing Success. BookBaby.
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