IT210 Final Project PDF

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IT-210 Final Project Alexander Yi Southern New Hampshire University

IT-210 FINAL PROJECT

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Envy Fashion is a small, local business that specializes in providing its customers with designer clothing, shoes, handbags and accessories. Currently, the store only offers a very basic website that only lists a few popular items but does not give customers the option to buy any merchandise online. This causes a problem because Envy Fashion’s competitors use online and e-commerce to attract a lot more customers and they are able to increase their business revenue. Envy Fashion’s owner wants to promote business growth with an online presence and become more customer orientated. She is aware that there will be some potential consumer privacy and security concerns associated with this change, and she wants to ensure that company data is protected internally. She also wants to be confident that the business’s suppliers and technology vendors do the same. The business owner is looking for a technology solution that will meet the following key technology requirements: integrating online shopping, managing inventory and shipping, providing order status and online payment processing, facilitating collaboration internally and externally (with staff and customers), managing customer contacts, providing reporting, and being able to use the new technology to manage the current brick-and-mortar processes (sales, payments, inventory, and customer contact). Currently, the physical location struggles with managing customer information and does not have a reporting tool to help management make informed decisions.

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The two types of technologies I would recommend for Envy Fashion would be cloud computing and intelligent systems. Cloud computing will allow Envy Fashion to store and backup their data to the internet rather than having it saved on a computer or stationary server. The big benefit of storing data to the cloud is that it can be accessed from anywhere using any compatible device. Intelligent systems would be beneficial because it has the capability to gather and analyze data and communicate with other systems. The intelligent system can learn and adjust Envy Fashion’s business based on trends and data. It can help secure customer data and allow users with the proper access to monitor the business remotely. By taking our services for Envy Fashion online we hope to drive in more revenue, attract more customers, provide a much more efficient shopping experience and provide better customer support. Adding technology and committing our business through e-commerce will allow Envy Fashion to reach larger number of customers. Right now, the only way customers can purchase merchandise from us is by coming in to our brick-and-mortar store. But our competitors provide their customers with the option of shopping online and that is where they an advantage over us. Not only would e-commerce help drive up our numbers, it will allow us to provide a much better experience for the customer. This would be accomplished by allowing customers to see all the different merchandise we offer, asking any questions they may have through online portal and resolving issues online.

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One of Envy Fashion’s main competitors is Zappos. Zappos is an online retailer that sells shoes, clothing and accessories. Zappos caters to women, men and children. The company was founded in 1999 as an online shoe retailer but as time went on, they have added more products and now provide a wide array of apparel. Zappos was bought out from and merged with Amazon in 2009. Since Zappos joined Amazon, they use the Amazon cloud-based service for their company. The use of the cloud for Zappos has been a success for Zappos. Their company and customer service have grown so much from the use of technology that they had to divide the company into ten different departments in order to keep the customer service the same. Another competitor for our company is Kohls. Kohls is a brick-and-mortar store with stores all across the country and they also use e-commerce so that their customers can shop for products online. They sell everything from clothing to small kitchen appliances and electronics. Kohls uses intelligent systems throughout their stores. They integrate the intelligent systems in their point of sales machines. They also use it in their hand-held portable scanner devices that the employees can use to see inventory at any store and online. The integration of intelligent systems allows Kohls to be one of the frontrunners when it comes to retail business and ecommerce. I believe that both Zappos and Kohls have done an outstanding job with their retails sales and e-commerce. I also believe that the use of new technology and incorporating this technology into their business has helped them become very successful. I believe that we can and should incorporate the suggested technologies into our business and by doing so it will help our business grow and attract new customers, not just from our local area but all over the country.

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There are some important factors to consider when thinking about which technology solutions Envy Fashion should incorporate into the company. Here are some factors we should look at before deciding: integrate online shopping, manage inventory and shipping, provide order status checking and online payment processing, facilitate collaboration internally and externally with staff and customers, manage customer contacts, provide reporting and manage current brick-and-mortar process. In my opinion, an intelligent system can help Envy Fashion facilitate all the factors for a technology solution. It can manage inventory and shipping by allowing store personnel to monitor it remotely and have an option to order more merchandise. Another factor intelligent system can tackle is reporting. It can monitor and track how the business is doing and gather data for reports. The intelligent system can also help with managing the brick-and-mortar store because it gives users remote access to the online store. Cloud computing will be very beneficial to Envy Fashion. It can store customer data and store data to the cloud-based servers. This will allow store users to access this information using a computer, tablet and mobile phone. It can also help manage inventory and shipping by tracking the data that is stored to the cloud. This may seem like very basic tasks, but it will help tremendously when we launch our online store. Security and privacy are very important for any business to succeed. Since we are competing with other companies and launching our very first online branch it is crucial that we ensure the protection of our customer’s data, company data and protecting our company from any potential security breaches.

IT-210 FINAL PROJECT I recommend the following to ensure that Envy Fashion has the tools to protect customer and company data. We should implement an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption so that any data that is passed around is protected. I also advise we use a firewall system so that we have better protection against cyber-attacks. A virtual private network (VPN) would add additional protection so that we are not transferring any data or processing transaction over a public network. Instead, a VPN would allow us to use a secured, encrypted connection. There are a lot more options for use to look into but for now I believe this a good starting point that will help with the launch of Envy Fashion’s online branch. It is a very exciting time for Envy Fashion as we venture off and launch our very own online branch. It will require a lot of moving parts and planning in order for Envy Fashion to be successful in the e-commerce world. The final recommendations I would make for Envy Fashion is that we implement cloud computing and intelligent systems. I also recommend that we use secure our online branch using an SSL, VPN and a firewall system to protect company and customer data. With these systems in place I know Envy Fashion will have a great opportunity to be successful.

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About Zappos. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.zappos.com/c/about-zappos Admin. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://corporate.kohls.com/company Raineri, S. (n.d.). How Zappos Became Wildly Successful. Retrieved from https://www.thebalancesmb.com/zappos-uses-technology-and-operations-to besuccessful-2533530 What is intelligent system? - Definition from WhatIs.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/intelligent-system Best Small Business Firewall? Here are some of the top contenders! (2018, October 15). Retrieved from https://www.firewalls.com/blog/best-small-business-firewall/ E-commerce Security: Protect Your Store. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.business.com/articles/e-commerce-website-security-5-best-practices-to protect-your-online-store/...