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ASSINGMENT TITLE: Critically evaluation of using of the Management Information Systems at Amazon.com
Introduction
In recent two decades retailing online has rapidly grown in the retail business. This growing, which is depended on the widespread improvements in the internet and information technology, caused the occurring of the term of electronic commerce, prefixed as e-commerce. E-commerce commonly includes the processes of selling and purchasing, delivering, marketing, servicing, developing and payment of the products and services via online. (Chaudhury and Kuilboer, 2001) It focuses on the internal and external activities of the commerce on the way of online with business partners and individuals by using the managing of the information systems. The company can benefit the advantages of being able to operate its business 7/24 all year, stepping the global market without border boundaries, reducing its operating costs and interacting with consumer to providing them convenient. Since the first application of e-shopping of Tesco on 1984 and the first application of 24 hour eshopping of Amazon.com on 1995 (Byers, 2006), e-commerce has been conducted with varies of types, such as Business to Business (B2B), Business to Consumer (B2C), Consumer to Consumer (C2C), Business to Individuals (B21) and so on. The burst of the dot.com bubble on 2000, which eliminates many internet based companies, has shown the importance of the improvement of the management information system to making decisions prudently and reasonably. (Cross and Miller, 2002) Management information system (MIS) refers to providing data, collecting in a systematic way, processing, storing, widening and enhancing of the information to execute the managing activities in an effective way and profitably. It objectives to facilitating the decision making, providing the essential information from entire sections, emphasizing the critical points, making reasonable decisions. (Anderson and Post, 2006) The MIS, ultimately goals the optimization, has to have the characteristics of providing relevant information for all levels of management from top to down, directing actively by the management, covering all the functions of the organization, having the common data flow to avoid the overlapping and reiteration, being in a long term planning at least 3 to 5 years, flexible and user friendly. It must not be forgotten that the well quality of the inputting data, well designing of the process and the system, and well managing of the processing system directly affect the quality of the necessary information which enables the organization to become productive and profitable. (O`Brien, 1999; McLeod et al, 2007; Beynon-Davies, 2009) 1
It has been founded by Jeff Bezos and has been gone online in 1995 by selling books. Jeff Bezos had thought that the ease in searching and browsing of hundreds of thousands of book titles in a short time could have been offered by only the Internet. The company soon has widened its selling by music industry products, electronics and technology industry products, appliances, automotive electronics, movie industry products, jewellery, watches, health care items, beauty products, clothing, furniture, food, toys and so on. The company has expended its e-commerce platform by establishing separate websites in UK, Canada, Italy, Japan, France, Germany, and China, which the countries use internet widely. It has also provided international fulfilment to some countries for some of products. The company has designed an e-business strategy such that the many technological innovations provide to offer hundreds of thousands of products at lower prices, in a single sitting shopping and in a short shipping time. The company`s e-business model has not only based on selling products but collaborating with its business partners and servicing its customers. In 2000s, the company has offered its e-commerce platform to individuals and the other retailers by launching Marketplace and Advantage programs that enable its partners to promote and sell their products directly on Amazon.com. It has provided the company to widening its product range and leveraging its power by world class retail brands. On the other hand, the company has improved its integrated system via internet by managing information system and has maintained technical and application system. By giving the opportunity to customers of less prices, widely selection and ease in, the company has had the success of gaining its popularity and becoming the world`s largest online retailer. (Saunders, 2002; McBrewster et al, 2009) It can be said that the secret of the company`s success lies under the operation of gathering and keeping the customers` information, and making the right decisions by analyzing these data and information. The company has developed an information system to collect and keep vast amounts of intimate information which has been voluntarily disclosed by its millions of customers. These voluntarily shared data allows Amazon.com the larger detailed profile of customers than any other retailers.
Conclusion
However, Amazon.com is the world`s leading B2C online company, it has been threatened by the brick-and-click companies, existing companies which has added web sites for e-retailing, such as Wall Mart, Tesco and Barnes & Noble, or other pure-click companies which increasing their geographical and product scope, such as e.bay.com, alibaba.com etc. Like all companies facing with the tough competitive and rapidly changing business world, Amazon.com requires sustainable and predictable improvements on its e-business and especially in its MIS. The sustainable improvement of its MIS for Amazon.com occur some necessities. Long term such as 3 to 5 years- well planning, predictable changing on the current situations, upfront costs, coping with tough difficulties at the competitive e-business world, coping with the suffers of integration of the widening millions of information which is needed by different levels of the organisation`s functions, quick decision making, requiring of well educated IT and non-IT staffs and so on.
Total word count excluding Cover Page, Question and References: 3336