Group Assignment

Your groups are now posted in the Group Assignment section of the blog. If there are any problems with group allocation, please let me know otherwise these are considered locked in. Here are some recommended actions at this stage:

• Your first priority is to ensure that every one of the group members have contact details. I would recommend electing (or self electing!) an individual to be the 'organiser' so that they can sort out contact details, meeting times, etc. 
• Your second priority is to start thinking about what technology/topic your group could take. I would like it if everyone contributed at least one idea to the blog post for their group to kick things off (this should be a given as I will be taking blog participation into account when calculating your final blog marks).

Everything else I would consider non-essential until the next tutorial as you have a test on Monday. Good luck!

Week 2 Weekly Blog Question: Option 3 - Simaota Magele

Information systems (IS) must complement business strategy. In the KiwiAir case, they are:

(1) cutting costs - by introducing the new customer-centric information systems as the core of the business strategy and digitising the supply chain, they are able to cut costs by offering a ticketless and paperless e-travel experience to customers (reduce cost of supplies), fuel could be immediately monitored, and wastage would be reduced by customising the supply of resources to each step in operations (optimising resource allocation to reduce costs), and reducing the time gap from supply order to supply delivery meant less inventory on hand and aligning costs more tightly with services (reduce wastage of products not being used means less costs).

(2) enhancing the customer experience - restructuring the existing loyalty programme by implementing the use of RFID tags to regular customers will save them time (from booking, to paying, to baggage deposit, to boarding - no paper work required). Also, the flexibility to cancel flights within one hour of departure and to book flights whenever, wherever is more convenient and tailored to customers personal preferences.

(3) out-performing the low-cost airlines - competing on costs was always going to be an issue with KiwiAir so competing in terms of offering the customer flexibility (cancelling flights as early as an hour before departure, booking and paying a fare on-line, check-in kiosks for baggage deposit, paperless and ticketless e-travel, etc), a better customer service experience (educating both internal (employees) and external customers in alignment with new strategic initiatives (training employees who can then assist external customers) and optimising the entire supply-chain to reduce costs), KiwiAir can out-perform its competitors on service by implementing IS as part of its strategic and organisational business plan and compete using non-price competition tactics (by offering a better customer service experience than its competitors).

Getting Started

Please make sure to check your student email for an email inviting you to be a contributor/author for this blog. That way you will be able to create new posts as well as respond to posts.

Welcome to the INFO 301 Blog (Five Forces) for Wednesday's 11:30am Tutorial.

Using Blogger

Each week you need to contribute to your tutorial blog for INFO 301.

Every Friday evening, the question that you will need to be answered will be posted. You must submit your reply by 12:00 (noon) Monday.

You can reply to the main post or create your own post if you have accepted the invitation to become an author on the blog, but also consider asking questions of your fellow classmates in response to their posts. The goal is interaction and to help build on what you are learning.

If you would like to test to make sure that you are able to post comments, please feel free to leave a comment on this post.