There are seven internal factors that affect a business operating in a competitive market in today’s business world. Therefore, it is always very vital that the company considers these internal factors as important as other external factors which could ultimately become challenging for the business developments.
Stability, Aggressiveness, Team Orientation, People Orientation, Outcome Orientation, Innovation and Risk Taking
On the other hand, there are several external factors that may arise from the environment in which the company is operating. These factors could be more challenging than sometimes the internal factors.
Physical-natural factors, Social-cultural factors, Technological factors, Economic factors, Political-legal factors & Competitive factors
However, each of these factors has a direct impact on the company. Therefore, in order to gain the competitive advantage, the company has to carefully update with these areas of business developments. These are things that cannot be taken into grant, in a competitive situation in business, especially in travel and tourism industry as the market is global.
Benefits of e-commerce to the company & Competitive Advantage in the Global Market
- The company can develop a more cost-effective e-business Strategy – The most obvious advantage of “upgrading” to e-Business is that it gives you a vital web presence. In an upgraded “e-Business environment” the company web site becomes the focal point of its communications and marketing as well. And in an era when an increasingly large number of people are using the web as their first source of product and service information available at 24 hours and 7 days a week would be necessary.
- In this way, the company can reach new markets worldwide. The internet offers exciting ways of reaching new markets that could only be dreamed of in the past. There are methods of promoting the travel services online that allows the company to precisely target the customers in its town or on the other side of the world.
- Further, the company can reach local customers and prospects more effectively. Similarly, the company is offering travel service packages to local customers could not see the benefits of having an online presence. However, more and more people become comfortable with using the internet instead of traditional sources like classified ads or yellow pages having an aggressive web presence make better business sense even for local customers. This may also offer a springboard to developing new markets further afield.
- The company can cut down Advertising and Marketing Costs – Online advertising is not only more efficient, but it is often less expensive than traditional advertising. In this regard, sales training expenses can also be reduced by utilizing online seminars, training videos and tutorials.
- Implementing an online ordering system allows you to eliminate manual paper work or telephone order taking. It also offers the possibility of integrating your ticketing and reservation system with order fulfillment and customer service can be speed up on the progress of online orders at all times.
- It can further cut down Communications and Telephone Costs – While the costs of voice communications using long distance telephone services have been coming down rapidly over the last few years, switching to an e-Business strategy model offers the possibility of totally eliminating many of these costs. Despite there is still traditional email. However beyond that, there are systems like customers can chat live with support or sales staff. Most recent development is Voice-Over-Internet which promises to completely revolutionize telephone service.
E-strategy Development & Implementation
- Development of an e-strategy is something very technical and to be done with extreme care in order to make implementation viable. The reason for such strategies is to innovate its current procedures to cope up with the new developments. Trough innovation of process, companies can secure competitive advantage in the rival global market.
- The aim is to develop the company’s e- strategy. “E- Strategy” refers here to the development of an approach that is consistent with the overall strategy of the company and describes the orientation and approach of the company in the context of the e-business initiative. In a top-down approach, the e- strategy is derived from the corporate strategy of the company.
- The outcome is an overview of the potential e-business options and present e-business activities plus a high-level project plan which specifies a sequence over time for these e- business projects. This implementation plan for e-business strategy is the driver for the company’s future business developments.
- Strategic business objectives and operative sub-goals of the e-business initiative is a necessary precondition for the development of the e-strategy that the strategic and operative objectives of the e-commerce initiative are available in the form of a catalog of goals which provides the orientation frameworks for the analysis of the environment and the interest groups of this company under consideration.
- In the composition of the E-Strategy there should be an established project structure and sequence of events well defined when it comes to implementation of the plan. The company must ensure its human, technical and physical resources capacity in going for complete e-commerce approach in its travel services.
- The initial marketing events aimed at informing and involving senior management, the Staff and the employees have taken place so as to create the necessary transparency for the subject of e-commerce approach in business. Only in this way is it possible to ensure that the further activities will meet with acceptance and that the workforce will be prepared to co-operate with the change and innovation.
- The technical infrastructure for an e-business strategy includes networking, computing, micro-processing and telecommunications technology. The following diagram shows a basic infrastructural model under consideration for the purpose of this analysis and evaluation.
Portals
Portal is a single Web interface that provides personalized access to information, applications, business processes, and much more. With this technology, the company can lower development and deployment costs and significantly increase productivity. Using portal information can be aggregated and integrated within a particular working environment, application, or service, or a single interface can be used to target an individual user’s needs and interests. It facilitates to harmonize content, commerce, and collaboration with business goals.
There are different types of portals as listed below;
- Line-of-business portals provide easy access to applications that serve a specific area, such as procurement or human resources.
- Corporate intranet portal often acts as a gateway to other portals and Web sites operated by an organization.
- Extra-net portals act as an interface between companies, customers, and suppliers, revealing subsets of information to specific audiences.
- Customer service and self-service portals are often seen as subsets of a corporate extra-net.
- Team or divisional portals are used by groups or communities that want to share specific content or business functions.
Resources required for implementing e-strategy
Technical expertise and physical resources are required for e-strategy implementation. However, every company would have the basic physical resources where it might not have to invest further for physical resources. World Link has the computer and network has already in place, therefore, little more upgrading could possibly be fine to implement its e-business strategy successfully.
As the e-commerce option is cost effective, its initial investment is not as large as it could otherwise be. Hence, the company can foster advantages and benefits to flourish through new developments in the market.
Existing Capacity for the new Strategy
The company already has an online ticketing portal and customer base affluent with adequate number of well trained staff. The company has its head office well equipped with the modern setup of office furniture and computers. The company has a strong marketing platform and the network is on the increase. However, due to global market movements, this e-strategy is essential for the company to be reputed among others of the similar nature. With these capacities and know how, the company is expected to achieve competitive advantage and developments through change and innovation in terms of newer technology options.
Monitoring Mechanism for e-Strategy
Monitoring the e-business strategy is something worth give more focus by the management. However, the online system could be at risk of competitor financed hackers which needs to be carefully monitored as it might cause loss of vital information about the organization, about the customer base or about its employees. This sensitive and vital information could be peep through by potential competitors at any time. Therefore, a well-protected monitoring mechanism needs to be established along with the e-business strategy.
The company needs to strengthen its IT unit and monitoring software to safeguard its critical information and smooth functioning of the online system in place. There are professional service providers offering strong systems with after sales service which could be an option for the company in carrying out its new e-business strategy for ticketing and reservation, travel arrangements and hotel bookings, online payment process and customer care.
The company is now prepared to implement its new strategy in a safe and proven platform. This tends to enhance its operational effectiveness and well as management at large. The organization is on the expansion and developments through its e-business strategy in place.
To sum up, there are several systems in which the e-business can work better. Industry-related external factors are constitutive for a company’s innovation management. They determine when companies rethink their innovation management. Firm-specific external factors and internal factors determine how companies implement open innovation models. The realization of open innovation models affects the architectures, culture, and communication of a company’s innovation management. In this report, we argue that the implementation of open innovation models varies for each company according to external and internal factors. Therefore, each company has to analyze their specific industry-related and firm-specific external factors along with the internal factors and adapt the open innovation models to these factors.
