Club IT, is a downtown music store, managed by Ruben Keys and Lisa Tejada (Wiley.com). For venturing into the analysis of the information needs of the Club, the first step is to have a closer look at the mission and primary clientele of the business of the Club. The following section presents a discussion on the mission and primary clientele.
Mission and Primary Clientele
A review of the Website of the Company reveals that the company has a well-defined mission included therein. The mission of the company states, “We, Ruben and Lisa, offer you live music, DJ’s, dance space and refreshments that suit your lifestyle. You are our friends, and we seek to build a community that meets regularly at Club IT” (Club IT). The mission statement appears to bring out the complete scope of the services the Club would like to offer to the prospective customers.
The best part of the mission statement is the intention of the company to create a community, which would meet very often for exchanging ideas. The mission of the company is well stated and with the proposed changes in the IT systems of the company, the Club would be in a better position to make the mission possible.
From the mission statement of the Club, it is possible to identify the primary clientele of the company. The clientele must be the people who are between young and middle aged and who visit the Club for enjoying the fun and excitement of the gathering of people having same ideas about life.
Being youngsters, it can be presumed that their knowledge on the latest developments in the information and communications (IT) technology and the use of Internet must be fairly good, which provides a good base for the development of a comprehensive technology-based information system for the company.
Role of IT Department and Management of its Information Resources
The proliferation of the IT systems and procedures has significant impact on the functioning of the present day’s organizations. Drawing on the same line within Club IT it is possible to establish latest information systems based on sophisticated technologies. A prolific IT department can ensure the smooth running of the systems in the company.
Once it starts functioning effectively the IT department will enable the Club IT to downsize its middle management staff, appointed by the Club for performing several functions, which could be mechanized easily. The additional advantage with the technology-based information systems for Club IT is that there can be effectively gathering of timely and detailed information to assist the top management in their decision-making process.
It is for sure that the use of technology-based information system will make the work of Ruben and Lisa much easier and faster. With the available information systems presently, Club IT would be able to manage its operations and the systems would facilitate an effective management of the information sources. Some of the information systems that Club IT can use to improve its organizational performance are:
Computer-Based Information Systems
Club IT can look forward to install a computer based information system, to enlarge its capability to gather, process, store, analyze and circulate information pertaining to specific areas and use the collected information for specific purposes. The proposed information system will enhance the utility of the IT department by making use of the use of computer technology to perform all of its planned functions efficiently and speedily.
Application programs
Application programs are computer programs designed to support specific functional areas like sales or purchases. Such application programs are available on a readymade basis from the market or the company can develop the applications to suit its specific needs (Rainer & Cegielski, 2009).
In addition to the computer-based information systems and the application programs, there are many other software application programs, which Club IT can use for managing its information sources. The installation of such systems enables the firm to gain advantages related with technology-based information systems.
Strategies for Competitive Advantage
“When a firm sustains profits that exceed the average for its industry, the firm is said to possess a competitive advantage over its rivals” (QuickMBA, 1999). Customer orientation strategy is the ideal competitive advantage strategy that Club IT can adopt for improving its organizational performance. This strategy is the fittest to ensure the customer satisfaction and to sustain the growth and profitability of the Club. Club IT can employ this strategy in an effective manner, when supported by technology-based information systems.
The database containing customer information when used effectively will increase the personalized relationship with the customers, which is important to retain the existing customers and to attract new customers. There are several Web-based applications, which support the customer orientation strategy and these applications are able to collect, store and analyze the customer information in different was to suit the marketing needs of the organization.
Since the primary clientele consists mostly of IT-savvy young adults, this strategy can work very well for enlarging the customer base of the company. When the technology-based information systems become operational, the Club can create E-announcements about the events and promotional offers and post them on social network Websites such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter or any other Website worth posting.
The announcements in these social networks will have a tremendous positive impact, as these are the Websites, which attract younger adults, as well as older adults. When the Club makes its announcements attractive enough, it can be sure of increased revenue and earnings with little additional cost.
From the above discussion, it is clear that Club IT will be in a competitively advantageous position, when it chooses to adopt customer orientation strategy from the suggested strategies of competitive advantage. This is because with this strategy, Club IT will be able to serve its customers in a better way for meeting their entertainment and relaxation needs and preferences. With this strategy in place, Club IT can focus more on the customer satisfaction to ensure returning customers.
In order to implement the customer orientation strategy, Club IT has to gather number of basis information about the customers and their tastes and preferences to create proper database of the customers. The information on the preferences of the customers on food, music, dance and any other special requirements has to find a place in the database for retrieval and analysis when required.
The ideas of the customers on the proposed changes that they suggest for the Club may also find a place for review by Ruben and Lisa, when they find time. Technology-based information systems are capable of collecting all these information and store them for use by the management in their decision-making to improve customer satisfaction.
To sum up, it is imperative that Club IT reorganized its present business operations to include IT based information systems and adopt customer orientation strategy so that the company can use its information sources effectively to the maximum advantage and for future growth of the Club.
References
Rainer, Kelly and Cegielski, Casey (2009) Introduction to Information Systems: Enabling and Transforming Business USA: John Wiley and Sons.
Club IT About, (2007). About. Web.
QuickMBA, (1999). Competitive Advantage. Web.
Wiley.com. (n.d.). About Club IT. Web.