Business Development: SWOT Analysis of JPBUYONLINE

This report presents a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis of JPBUYONLINE, an online company specializing in buying services for goods from Japan. The analysis, conducted on a startup founded two years prior with a small staff and outsourced IT functions, examines the company's business model, organizational structure, and current ICT services. Strengths include cost-effective web hosting and efficient delivery of goods, while weaknesses encompass low IT agility and a lack of specialized skills. Opportunities are identified in the growing e-commerce market and online payment solutions, while threats include increased competition and cybersecurity concerns. The report concludes with recommendations for short, mid, and long-term strategies, focusing on the implementation of online payment systems, cloud computing adoption, and potential hardware or outsourcing solutions. References to supporting literature are also included.

Running head: SWOT ANALYSIS
SWOT analysis
Name:
Institution Affiliation:

SWOT ANALYSIS
Task A:
Background
Organization: JPBUYONLINE
This is an online company which is involved in the buying services company for the Japan
goods. The company is a start-up which began two years ago and it has three staff while
majority of their information technology functions outsourced. The main business model
which is utilized by this organization is the business to business and the business to customer.
The structure of the organization is a simple one as the operation manger is the overall
control of the major business functions and is supported by the administrator. There is a
managing director who acts as the buying agent as well carrying on the duties of coordinating
on all of the ordered goods as well as shipments from Japan.
SWOT Template
Organisation: JPBUYONLINE Date: 28/9/2017
Description of current/new ICT service:
The website of the organization is hosted by a United State company and their data center is also
located in the USA and no presence of an office located in Hong Kong. The local administrator does
all the maintenance as well as updates and posting of news.
STRENGTHS
 The cost of web hosting is
extremely fair with an estimate of
one hundred dollars per month.
 There is no issue in regards to the
maintenance as well as upgrading of
since the hosting company is the one
responsible for hosting and
maintaining the website (Brooks,
Heffner & Henderson, 2014).
 It is possible for the local
organization to meet on their
obligation which is the solvent
economy.
 There is easy taking of challenge
and be able to adopt on the
dynamics of the market (Chan &
Yazdanifard, 2014).
 There is a good level of the
customer trust as the organization
has delivered the goods efficiently.
WEAKNESSES
 There is a low level of information technology
agility since the hosting organization is from
another country and they are also providing the
hosting services (Rothaermel, 2016).
 Another organization which was outsourced dis
the design of the website. This company was later
closed since they did not have support to the
website.
 There is lack of the content management system
on the website which leads to less management as
well as maintenance of the website (Brooks,
Heffner & Henderson, 2014).
 There is lack of the specialized skills which is
available in the organization.
 There is lack of competitiveness due to the small
size of the organization.

SWOT ANALYSIS
OPPORTUNITIES
 There are many people now days
who are doing online buying
therefore there is an opportunity in
the e-commerce.
 There are online payments solutions
which are available such as PayPal
therefore it is easy for the
organization to adopt.
 There is potential for growth in
market especially to China that has
many opportunities in terms of
selling their products or even
providing services to many business.
 The level of the ICT maturity in the
organization needs to grow and
improve and there is a lot of work
which needs to be done (Bull,
Jobstvogt, Böhnke-Henrichs, A.,
Mascarenhas, Sitas, Baulcomb &
Carter-Silk, 2016).
THREATS
 There are many competitors who are entering the
online buying services market.
 There is the issue of the cyber security which has
affected potential clients who want to make
purchases (Rothaermel, 2016).
 There is lack of innovation which has been
exhibited in the organization.
 There is culture to the mobility of the job as
opposed to the commitment of the employees.
Summary and Recommendations:
Based on the analysis it is very obvious that the company website is not at all attractive and it is not
easy to manage it (Brooks, Heffner & Henderson, 2014). Additionally, the company which is hosting
the website do not have any competitive serviced and they lack local support and services. It is also
observed that the payment gateway are very essential especially in the online businesses, hence
improvements of these factors is very important.
Short Term (Now)
In the short term the necessary thing which should be done immediately is the implementation of an
online payment system which would be important to process of the payments done by the clients when
they make their purchases (Brooks, Heffner & Henderson, 2014). Currently, they are utilizing the
manual processes for payments which are cumbersome and prone to risks implementation of this
would increase efficiency as well as reduce risks.
Mid Term (next 12 months)
In the short term plan the organization should be in a position of creating environment as well as create
demand. This can be done through use of incentivizing on the use of a cloud computing technology to
be able to market their products. Moreover, this would encourage this start-up company to be able to

SWOT ANALYSIS
venture to the other markets apart from Japan.
Long Term (next 3 to 5 years)
In the long term the organization could acquire their own hardware so that they would be able to host
their own website or they could outsource a company that has an office in Japan. Moreover, they could
employ information technology experts to be able to manage their website on issues of updates,
posting of the news and any other changes the organization would want to undertake.

SWOT ANALYSIS
References
Brooks, G., Heffner, A., & Henderson, D. (2014). A SWOT analysis of competitive
knowledge from social media for a small start-up business. The Review of Business
Information Systems (Online), 18(1), 23.
Bull, J. W., Jobstvogt, N., Böhnke-Henrichs, A., Mascarenhas, A., Sitas, N., Baulcomb, C., ...
& Carter-Silk, E. (2016). Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats: A SWOT
analysis of the ecosystem services framework. Ecosystem services, 17, 99-111.
Chan, J. M., & Yazdanifard, R. (2014). How social media marketing can influence the
profitability of an online company from a consumer point of view. Journal of
Research in Marketing, 2(2), 157-160.
Rothaermel, F. T. (2016). Competitive Advantage in Technology Intensive Industries. In
Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results (pp. 233-256). Emerald
Group Publishing Limited.