Small Real Estate Business
J&M Real Estate is an Oregon-based real estate business that will offer the most comfortable and latest model rental units to Portland, Oregon community.
As its goal states, the business will strive to outcompete all other real estate business in the region, by striving to provide the Portland community with classic, homely and safe rental units. To meet its start up expenses such as architects, legal, equipment, constructions among others, the business will heavily rely on a borrowed bank loan and thereafter rely on cash flow. The business will employ an information system that will enable it to achieve its goals and objectives and at the same time, steer it towards realizing profit year after year. The information system foundation laid down for the business will consider critical success factors that will enable it to run all its activities as planned. Efficient and effective electronic and commerce technologies will be appropriately chosen to ensure that the business achieves its objectives. Model driven and data driven technologies will be used to support the organization’s decision making process.
The business will use a system approach in coming up with solutions to its business operation and Information Technology (IT). Appropriate strategies to deal with anticipated security and ethical challenges, such as computer crime, privacy violation and viruses attacks will be developed. Mission and Vision J real estate’s mission will be “To stay ahead of other competitors by providing the Portland community with the most comfortable, safe and up to date rental units, based on the needs of our customers and market demand.” The vision will be “To be the best real-estate service providers in Portland as a region, and with time extend our services to other states within the US. Goals and Objectives Meet our customers’ needs and market demand by providing the most safe, cost-effective and up to date rental units.
To maximize profit through proper management, so as to maintain a cash flow that will keep the business running. To implement and maintain an information system that will keep us abreast of our customers’ needs and steer the organization towards realizing its vision. The business will mainly focus on buying old rental houses, and then renovating them with the latest designs that will attract many customers. The business’s structure will heavily rely on division of responsibilities. The management team will be comprised of 10 people. The top most team member will be the senior, operating manager, and his or her two assistant managers.
The other seven team members will be responsible for overseeing construction, marketing and other minor activities. Main duties and responsibilities will be divided among the two assistant managers. The senior manager will be responsible for overseeing all the activities of the organization. The capital required to start the business is around $ 450, 000. The busiess expects to make revenue of $ 1 million by the end of the first year.
With total expenditures calculated to be around $ 250, 000, the business will have made a profit of $300, 000. With such a progress, the business hopes to have cleared the bank loan by the third year and managed to keep some savings. Portland is chosen as the strategic position for this business. This is because the area is populated with many colleges and universities, and hence there are many students seeking for rental houses. Apart from the students, there are many professional settling there who will add up to the number of expected customers. There are other real estate businesses within the region.
However, their services are not up-to-date and do not meet the customers needs and demands. Therefore, the business will focus on renovating the bought houses to meet customers’ needs so as to outcompete the other similar businesses in the region. M&J real estate business will mainly rely on the e-business and e-commerce technologies to support its business processes. Internet will be used as the main medium for marketing company’s products and services. In order to run all its operations and activities, the business will require the various resources. Human resource persons well equipped with skills and knowledge of handling, and maintaining the latest information systems technologies.
Up to date hardware, software, and a network, this will assist the business in running its operations. The Information System Business FoundationInformation System Structure and the Critical Success Factors Considered Since the business is small, it will use portable micro computers as the main hardware. As Kenneth and Jane (2011) point out, computers enable communication among employees within an organization, and enhance communication between an organization and other or with the customers. J real estate will use both system and application software. These two will be used in managing the hardware and handling specific tasks for the users so as lessen their workload.
Due to the needs of the business, J real estate will use local area network. It will also utilize the Internet by installing intranets within its premises so as to allow the employees smoothly browse and interact with customers. Databases will be used as the main data resource. As Englander (2009) points out, databases support an organization’s operation and management functions. The information system will need various human resources. These people should be conversant with the IS application and operations.
The information system chosen will be used in supporting various business processes such as communication; marketing, and establishing market tends among others. Critical success factors such as knowing customers’ needs and satisfaction, acquiring new customers, and maintaining the existing ones will be considered under the communication, IS supported process. Under the marketing process, critical success factors, such as marketing the quality of the products and services, available infformation to customers on products and services, prices and their availability will be considered. In determining the market trends, factors, such as availability of markets, product, and service availability in the market will be looked into. Electronic business and E-commerce Business Components In terms of an e-commerce system, M real estate business will use information communication technology (ICT) in carrying out both its intra and inter-organizational transactions. This will ensure that the employees are able to interact efficiently within the organization and interact with other employees from other organizations.
As Turban, et al. (2010) point out, ICT can also be used in executing interactions between an organization and its customers or consumers. In terms of e-business, the business will choose ICT to enhance its business operations. According to Devaraj and Kohli (2002), e-business ICT enables an organization to deliver products ad services that retain and attract more customers. Therefore, the business hopes to apply this technology so as to outcompete other similar organization in the market.
Decision Support System The organization will use both model and data driven systems to support its decision making process. According to Mingers and Willcocks (2004), model driven systems are used in setting an organization’s product and services’ prices. The data driven system will be mainly used for mining data from data warehouse, so as to discover current such as market trends and availability.Developing Business and IT Solutions M business will use a system approach in developing its business and IT solutions. The system will assist the organization in determining how to address business opportunities and priorities.
Through the system approach, the organization will use a system orientation in defining problems and opportunities, in order to come up with effective solutions. Information System Security and Ethical Challenges to be encountered Security issues such as computer crimes, privacy, and virus attacks are anticipated. To deal with these problems, J real estate business has laid down various strategies on how to overcome them. There will be encryption of data through the use of passwords and security codes. This will ensure that the organization’s data is not interfered with by Internet abuser. E-Mails will be monitored and computers protected from virus attacks by updating them with anti-viruses.
Impacts of Information System on the Organization J&M real estate business aims to manage its information system properly in order to impact positively on the organization. These impacts include: support for various business operations, providing support to individual and group decision making processes, establishing fruitful relationships with customers, supplies and partners and assisting the organization top pursue for a competitive advantage. The information system is also expected to lower the cost of communication between workers and firms.
