IT Strategy Bike Sales and Service List

IT Strategy

Bike Sales and Service

List 3 strategic goals for Ted's business and provide an explanation of each.

Reduce Overhead -- lower his expenses

Make better use out of part-time employee scheduling

Match supply and demand in the various locations

Identify 5 specific types or categories of information that Ted needs to run his business and explain why they are important to him.

Sales data -- he needs to know specifically what drives his revenue

Employee costs -- he also needs to understand how to optimize his workforce

Customer data -- he needs accurate information about his target market

Seasonal data -- he needs better information about how the seasonal aspect of his business affects him

Capacity Planning -- he needs better estimates in understanding the sales and services he needs to offer at each location as well as better inventory management.

Identify and explain three business processes that Ted likely uses in his business and explain how a technology solution could help each one of them.

Inventory management -- technology could let him know where is inventory is held at all times

Human resources management -- he could keep some better records with technology that manages employee productivity.

Sales management -- he could use a CRM software solution to take the place of most of his marketing activities by bringing customers back.

4. Ted has a website with information about his stores. Identify and explain two additional ways Ted could use the internet in his business. Tie each use to a specific e-commerce business model and explain how that model applies.

Make reservations for rentals

Purchase bikes or accessories or even repair services

5. Explain to Ted what a supply chain management (SCM) system could do for his business and how it might improve his operations. Be sure to cover the full range of SCM functionality as it applies to Old Dominion Trail Bikes.

Supply chain management would help organize his vendors. He has vendors that supply various parts of bicycles that he uses for repairs, probably some that supply accessories and some that sell finished products. By using supply chain management he could get products to potential customers quickly and make more sales.

6. How could Ted combine the information he gets from in-store customers with those who purchase via the website into a single Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and what three benefits would he gain from doing so?

He could link the in store systems with the central database. This would allow him to have a single database with all his customer information. This would let him have accurate records about his customers history from any location which would include bike sales, service history, and maybe even things like part #s that could be useful for service.

7. Ted would like to increase repair work and rentals as they are the highest profit aspects of his business and the Internet is not a competitor. What are three specific ways he could use technology to accomplish this?

If he had a CRM database he could send out reminders for regular tune-ups

He could also send out promotions for sales during off-season times

He could keep complete records of the customers products so that the store was sure they had the right parts for the customers bike before they scheduled service.

8. Ted is not sure if he should implement an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. Identify and explain three benefits to an ERP for Old Dominion Trail Bikes. Identify and explain two important considerations in implementing an ERP.

An ERP system would link the entire organization into one platform that would store all of the company's information about all of its business functions. The advantages to this is that it could help streamline operations and provide some savings per transaction. However, the upfront costs are generally high and this also requires a great deal of employee training to operate an ERP system.

9. If Ted implements an ERP for Old Dominion Trail Bikes, he will need to know whether the project was a success. List and explain three metrics (or measures) he can use to determine whether the project was a success.