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INFOSYS.110 BUSINESS SYSTEMS: DELIVERABLE 2: BUSINESS SECTION

2014

Name Owen Jin

NetID ojin338Group Number: 206

Website Link:D1:http://infosys1102014s1group206.blogspot.co.nz/p/d1.html

D2: http://infosys1102014s1group206.blogspot.co.nz/p/d2.html

Tutorial Details

Tutor: Day: Time:

Yvonne Hong Wednesday 11am

Time Spent on Assignment: 16 hours Word Count:

1650 (not including title page and reference list)

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NZ HOUSING DATABASE INTRODUCTION

Our core problem was a lack of easily accessible and readable information on housing. This is a relatively large problem due to the leaky homes scandal, people should avoid living in these houses by being more informed. Furthermore, with rising property demand means rising property information demand. Our solution is a user friendly housing database which is easily accessible to provide that information.

3. BUSINESS SECTION

3.1 Vision

To improve people’s wellbeing by providing meaningful, convenient and readable information to allow for better decisions when it comes to housing.

3.2 Industry Analysis:

Industry: Housing Database Industry

Force: High/Low: Justification:

Buyer power: High There are some choices for consumers like Terranet (Terranet, n.d) and local councils for housing databases. (Auckland Council, n.d)

Supplier power: Low There are many software developers to help make the software. (IndexNZ, 2014) (Workhere, n.d) There are some property surveyors that can provide the property

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information (IndexNZ, 2014). There are a lot of photographers too for photos to make our 3D models and real life maps.

Threat of new entrants:

Low It’s difficult and expensive to obtain all the housing information needed to develop an effective database. Currently a full leaky homes assessment report, costs at least $511.11. (Consumer Build, n.d)

Threat of substitutes:

High With 34% of houses purchased being discovered with a real estate agent, this means for home buyers, the substitute of open homes are still a relatively popular choice. (Stone, B, 2013). There are some individual licensed building surveyors for obtaining the property information too. (Westpac, n.d).

Rivalry among existing competitors:

Low Mainly just Terranet and council databases so there’s only a few competitors. Also there’s little innovation hence competition. (Terranet, n.d), (Auckland Council, n.d)

Overall attractiveness of the industry: It’s a relatively attractive industry as it can be profitable and sustainable because of: Low monopoly power with suppliers since supplier power is low, it’s difficult to enter since

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threat of new entrants is low, and there is little competition within the industry since there is low rivalry amongst competitors. Even with high buyer power, there is still relatively little choice so buyer power is not extremely high and can be reduced by having our competitive advantage of 3D modelling and real life maps. This means we increase switching costs. People have started favouring digital research as evidenced (Stone, B, 2013) in more people discovering their homes they purchased on computers, so the threat of substitutes may decrease with the modern age.

NB. For supplier power, it could high since home owners are a supplier. They would ‘supply’ permission for inspections, otherwise we cannot issue inspections without permission. However, although important they’re not absolutely necessary as we may already the information from source documents and so I justified low (since there’s no medium and would otherwise be too complicated) based on our other key suppliers.

3.3 Customers and Their Needs

Our target customers are home buyers and real estate agents (REA). For home buyers, Westpac says that “the house-hunting process can be a long one… but with such an important decision to make, it pays to check a place out thoroughly.” (Westpac, n.d). So home buyers should do research for ‘house-hunting’ before making their decision. Part of a REA’s job is to “organise building inspections and reports” (CareersNZ, n.d) from property surveyors. Although they may operate less open homes because of the NZHD, their main role is an intermediary for buyers and sellers and as such, they can focus on giving other property services like price and terms of sales negotiations (Stone, B, 2013) (which they still get paid for), hence they need to gather the property information in order to make decisions on these services (may even benefit from more buyers asking for these services). For home buyers and REAs these tasks can be time consuming, costly and complicated.

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3.4 The Product and Service

Our product, will provide home buyers and REAs with convenient property information, since it can be viewed remotely, anytime. This saves time and money since home buyers won’t need to visit and REAs won’t need surveyors for every house. Also for home buyers, it may provide more information than visiting the house. For example, wiring and insulation and wiring in the walls which isn’t in plain sight. We also provide simplified reports to reduce complexity (but details are provided if they are wanted). Our functionalities of 3D modelling and real life maps can provide meaningful insights to the property, and helps our database be more convenient and less complicated compared to traditional long reports.

3.5 Suppliers and Partners

Our suppliers are software developers and the government. Software developers like Datacom, are needed to help make our application and database. The government (both local and national) can provide the housing source documents for the database. Our partners are housing surveyors and REAs. Housing surveyors like TheSurveyingCompany are needed for continuous housing inspections to add more information to our database. REA companies like Harcourts, require property information regularly so we can collaborate with them regularly on what information we should provide.

3.6 Strategy: Differentiation

Our product is usable for every home buyer and REA since the information is not complex; hence a broad market.

Premium services like 3D modelling, real life maps and providing constant updates to our database means our pricing will be high; hence high cost

The overall strategy is therefore Differentiation

3.7 Value Chain Activity: Service after sale

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After purchasing our license, we need to retain customers with extra services like more content and smooth software performance, especially considering when more content may cause bugs. For our vision, more content provides more meaningful information for home buyers’ purchasing decisions and REA’s servicing decisions. Smooth performance provides less inconvenience. For our broad market strategy, we want more information so to be more relevant to more people i.e. Wellington buyers will not find Christchurch property information relevant so we need to expand our market to Wellington. With high costs, we want a quality, bug free database with plenty of content.

3.8 Business Processes3.8.1. Maintenance management process – This runs tests and checks customer complaints on our application to figure out problems. Maintenance can be contacted to resolve these problems. For a high cost strategy, we should ensure a quality software performance by checking for issues and making adjustments to resolve them, which is also important to our vision since it provides convenience. For our VCA, customers want minimal trouble in the software after their purchase.

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3.8.2. Inspection data management process– This checks our database for gaps (missing or outdated information) and determines if we have

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permission and whether it’s worthwhile to fill the gaps based upon information like property inspection costs. If it’s worthwhile, an inspection order is issued (inspections can include both surveyors and photographers). Then it collects the inspection data, categorises and stores it into the database. For our broad market strategy, it makes more information available in our database, which makes it relevant to more people. For our high cost strategy, we have the premium service of an expanding database. For our vision, more relevance and information provides more meaning and better decisions. For our VCA, having constant updates is important as customers want to access more information after their purchase.

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3.9.1. Maintenance management process

Detect issues in the software Analyse customer complaints Resolve any issues in the software

3.9.2. Inspection data management process

Check for gaps in the database Collect data for decisions on filling gaps Determine whether gaps should be filled up

3.10 Systems

3.10.1. REA communication management system– The functionality is “collect data for decisions on filling gaps”. It allows collaboration with REA companies to see what content they want. Then it sends that information to our decision makers. For our vision, we want to ensure meaningfulness in the information, so we need to check with our key customers for what they want.

3.10.2. Customer complaints management system – The functionalities are “detect issues in the software” and “analyse customer complaints”. It will collect customer complaints, categorise and determine the frequency of that complaint category. The system will help provide recommendations based upon the complaints for software adjustments. For our vision, we want to ensure convenience with our product, so we need to address customer issues and fix our product as such.

3.10.3. Database analysis system – The functionalities are “check for gaps in the database” and “determine whether gaps should be filled up”. It analyses the database inventory to find gaps. It then provides recommendations on whether we should fill them based upon information like owner’s permission and REA requests. For our vision, we have to figure out which gaps are most troublesome to our customers so it’s most meaningful when we add content to fill them up.

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3.11. Summary Table: Value Chain to Systems

Value Chain

Activity

Processes Functionalities Specific Information System(s)

Broad Information System(s)

Service after sale

1. Maintenance management process

1. Detect bugs/errors

2. Analyse customer complaints

3. Resolve any issues in the software

Customer complaints management system

CRM, TPS and DSS

2. Inspection data management process

4. Check for gaps in the database

5. Collect data for decisions on filling gaps

6. Determine whether gaps in the database should be filled up

REA communication management system

Database analysis system

Collaboration and CRM

TPS and DSS

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CONCLUSION Our business idea is to develop a convenient housing database for home buyers and REA to provide them with quality and convenient information to make well informed decisions. Information systems helps add value by:

Customer complaints management system increases productivity since maintenance will waste less time figuring out the problems and more time fixing them

Customer complaints management system increases customer satisfaction by reducing issues with our software to allow a smoother software experience

Database analysis and REA communication management system increase customer satisfaction by helping provide constant meaningful/quality updates to the database which customers will find relevant

REFERENCES

From D1 Stuff. (15/07/2012) Leaky home obligations 'overlooked'. Retrieved from

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7280754/Leaky-home-obligations-overlooked Consumer Build. (n.d) Background to the problem. Retrieved from

http://www.consumerbuild.org.nz/publish/leaky/leaky-background.php 3 News. (22/12/2009). Leaky homes bill estimated at $11.3 billion. Retrieved from

http://www.3news.co.nz/Leaky-homes-bill-estimated-at-113-billion/tabid/421/articleID/135163/Default.aspx

Consumer Build. (n.d). The Department of Building and Housing. Retrieved from http://www.3news.co.nz/Leaky-homes-bill-estimated-at-113-billion/tabid/421/articleID/135163/Default.aspx

Consumer Build. (n.d). Case study 3. Retrieved from http://www.consumerbuild.org.nz/publish/leaky/leaky-case_studies3.php

Consumer Build. (n.d). Health Risks. Retrieved from http://www.consumerbuild.org.nz/publish/leaky/leaky-health-risks.php

Auckland Council. (n.d). Property files and reports. Retrived from http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/ratesbuildingproperty/propertyinformation/Pages/PropertyFilesReportshome.aspx

Stuff. (30/06/12). New Zealand’s worst real estate agents. Retrieved from http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/ratesbuildingproperty/propertyinformation/Pages/PropertyFilesReportshome.aspx

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Terranet. (n.d). Terranet property information online. Retrieved from http://www.terranet.co.nz/terranet3/

From D2 Westpac. (n.d). House hunting, What to look for. Retrieved from

http://www.westpac.co.nz/home-loans/home-buyers-and-sellers-guide/buying-a-home/house-hunting

Stone, B. (2013). Why Can't the Internet Replace Real Estate Brokers?. Bloomberg Businessweek, (4320), 58-63.

Workhere. (2014). Software Development Companies. Retrieved from http://www.workhere.co.nz/companies?company_industry=2

IndexNZ. (2014). Software Firms. Retrieved from http://www.indexnz.com/Top/Computers-and-Internet/Software/Software-Firms/1

IndexNZ. (2014). Surveyors. Retrieved from http://www.indexnz.com/Top/Business-and-Economy/Real-Estate/Surveyors

CareersNZ. (n.d). Real estate agent. Retrieved from http://www.careers.govt.nz/jobs/property-services/real-estate-agent/about-the-job

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