The problem
Due to airlines selling their tickets on the Internet directly
to customers and the emergence of low cost airlines like Air Deccan
and Spice jet, the commission received by travel agencies for each
ticket is very low now. This fall in commission threatens the travel
section of ABC greatly and could eventually cause them to go out
of business completely. They therefore need a cost effective way
of competing in the industry.
The Solution
Mr. X recognises that the technology for ABC Travel should be improved
in the future. ABC therefore is adopting the turnaround strategy
within the Strategic Importance Matrix. This also implies that they
should adopt a leading edge strategy with regards to the Generic
IS Strategies and consequently invest in new technology that will
put them ahead of the rest of the travel industry. They should therefore
implement an e-commerce website, as it is a high potential system.
The website for ABC Travel should aim to fulfil all the customer
desires to make a central portal and consequently have a strategic
advantage over the rest of the travel industry. This therefore becomes
a delicate project trying to fulfil everyone's requirements through
one medium, the web.
Minimum Requirements
The minimum that must be produced to help solve this problem is
a maintainable website that would
host the purchased online booking engines. My minimum requirements
are to:
- Summarise the current travel systems and business.
- Perform a feasibility study of the new information system and
the website.
- Design and implement a basic pilot website to host an online
booking system.
- Enable the company to perform basic updates of the website easily.
- Perform a basic evaluation of the new system.
Deliverables
There are three main deliverables: the external website for the
public, which will host the booking engines; the internal system,
which will be on the company's intranet and they will use to make
updates; and the project documentation.
The Scope of the Project
ABC Group is undergoing many technological changes at present.
The system was to be a prototype so as to enable ABC Group to have
clear idea about how they want the website to look like, for Mr
X is aware that any change in the original requirements is expensive
when outsourcing. The content on the website was consequently for
presentation purposes only, as the internal system would enable
the company to provide any content they wished. The booking engines
have not yet been bought so the website does not have the ability
to book online. It was established that the booking engine would
be treated as a `black box' during the development. The possibility
of extending the project to embed the booking engines in the website
was discussed briefiy. It was however not performed.
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