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What are the pros and cons of Agile?

The system development life cycle, known as the SDLC, is the industry-standard approach to managing phases of an engineering project (it can be thinks of as the equivalent to the scientific method for software development and other IT initiatives). The common breakdown of the SDLC includes seven phases that trace a product or project from a planned idea to its final release into operation and maintenance (innovativearchitects, n.d). There are a number of different System Development Life cycle methodologies, such as (innovativearchitects, n.d): - Waterfall: The waterfall approach is one of the oldest SDLC models, but it has fallen out of favor in recent years. This model involves a rigid structure that demands all system requirements be defined at the very start of a project. Only then can the design and development stages begin. - Iterative: The iterative methodology takes the wa...

What is BPR?

As per PEARSON(n.d), "Business process reengineering is the act of recreating a core business process with the goal of improving product output, quality, or reducing costs." Become popular in the business world in the 1990s, we will say in general that its role is to analyze the workflow of a company, while looking for processes that have lost their performance or are simply inefficient then, to find ways of ameliorating them by modifying them, or of removing them. Since it is not an easy task, process reengineering, it aims to fundamentally change all processes to create new ones, unlike the management or improvement of business processes, which aim to work with existing processes and processes and improve their mode of operation. According to EDUCBA (2017)"Business Process Re-engineering is the radial designs of the business that help to experience dramatic improvements in the business cycle, quality, as well as productivity.....Particularly this system designs for the...

What is Business Process Re-engineering (BPR)?

Business Process Re-engineering (BPR), is not about making small changes, it's about re-thinking the approach to a business concept, or re-designing a solution to meet the demands of the customer. In 1990, Michael Hammer, a former Professor of Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), published “Re-engineering Work: Don’t Automate, Obliterate”. He made bold statements and claimed, "the major challenge for managers is to obliterate forms of work that do not add value, rather than using technology for automating it". (M. Hammer 1990). In many businesses, from SMB through Mid-Market and Enterprise; what started as "quick-fix" to an issue may no longer be sustainable, or will not scale to cope with growth volumes. For example, an in-house accountant running the accounts, managing expenses and payroll, may have initially supported a small business; but as the business grows, they may need to hire an additional accountant. Alternatively, ...

What is business process reengineering?

According to the video by Prolearn posted on Youtube, business process reengineering or BPR has three components of action (Nagasundaram, 2014): adding value to the customer, carefully and completely rethinking an organization’s goals and processes, and radically transforming the processes to achieve efficiencies and new, and formerly unachieved goals. BPR was a significant movement in the thoughtful restructuring of an organization that began in the early ’90s. The idea behind it was to make your company more flexible, responsive, efficient and effective for all stakeholders, including customers, employees, and owners (Grimsley, 2019). That idea of company reform comes with plenty of radical changes. Some easier to get behind than others: The focus must shift from management to customer (who now becomes the boss) Empower employees with decision-making powers Shift emphasis from managing activities to result driven Focus on leading and teaching employees, not “scorekeeping” Change the ...

What is BPM?

There are several definitions for a system, but the most generic and practical is that a system is a group of parts or components that work together to achieve a common goal. For example, every person has many body parts that combine to form the human body and its systems, which has goals such as growth and survival. In a business organization, employees and groups work together to achieve the organization's goals, such as higher market share and technological leadership (White, n.d.). We can define a system's main elements as the "parts" that perform the work and the "relations" that define how the work will be accomplished. Obviously, both parts and relations are important for a system to perform adequately. For instance, a basketball team could be a good example of a system. The system parts are the players, and the relations are the way the players work together. Both the players and teamwork are important to the team's success. In the same manner, p...

How does Amazon beat competition?

Wikipedia posts the following information about competitive forces: “Porter's Five Forces Framework is a tool for analyzing the competition of a business. It draws from industrial organization (IO) economics to derive five forces that determine the competitive intensity and, therefore, the attractiveness (or lack of it) of an industry in terms of its profitability” (Wikipedia, n.d.). Those five forces are the threat of new entrants, the threat of substitutes, bargaining power of customers, bargaining power of suppliers, and competitive rivalry (Wikipedia, n.d.). Porter also spoke to value chains. “A value chain is a set of activities that a firm operating in a specific industry performs in order to deliver a valuable product or service for the market. ... In Porter's value chains, Inbound Logistics, Operations, Outbound Logistics, Marketing and Sales, and Service are categorized as primary activities” (Wikipedia, n.d.a). The following analysis looks at the competitive forces of...

How does Amazon fight competition?

“Amazon.com", Inc. is a US-based multinational e-commerce company. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, it is America’s largest online retailer, with nearly three times the Internet sales revenue of the runner-up, Staples, Inc., as of January 2010” (Fleerackers, T., 2010). To better understand the elements of Amazon’s success, we will study its competitive forces, value chain models, business strategy, as well as its market expansion and the marketing 5P’s. Competitive forces As explained by (Pratap, A., 2018), the five forces model was developed by Michael E Porter and can be used to analyze the level of competition and the forces that are affecting competition in the industry. According to Porter’s five forces model, five competitive forces determine industry profitability: bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of customers, the threats of substitutes, the threats of new entrants and rivalry among existing firms (Kroenke. D., 2007). Porter’s five forces analysis of Am...

Will amaon continue to be successful?

The most widely used model for understanding competitive advantage is Michael Porter’s competitive forces model. This model provides a general view of the firm, its competitors, and the firm’s environment. All firms share market space with other competitors who are continuously devising new, more efficient ways to produce by introducing new products and services, and attempting to attract customers by developing their brands and imposing switching costs on their customers. In Porter’s competitive forces model, the strategic position of the firm and its strategies are determined not only by competition with its traditional direct competitors but also by four forces in the industry’s environment: new market entrants, substitute products, customers, and suppliers. Value chain is a tool that charts the path by which products and services are created and eventually sold to customers. The term value chain reflects the fact that, as each step of this path is completed,...

How does Amazon provide value to customer?

Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational e-commerce organization, with its head office in Seattle, Washington, USA. The company opened for business in July 1995, and runs in the un-conventional environment of the Internet, promoting itself as the world’s biggest bookstore (Laudon, & Laudon, 2007). In 2010, Amazon became America’s leading online retailer, with almost three times sales revenue of its closest competitor, Staples, Inc (Ferguson, 2017). Jeff Bezos the founder started Amazon.com, Inc. as Cadabra, Inc. and later changed it because it was observed that people often refer to it as “Cadaver” (Fleerackers, 2010). Amazon started as an online bookstore, but rapidly and strategically differentiated its e-commerce (now selling computer software, DVDs, CDs, video games, electronics, toys, clothes, furniture, food, music and video downloads, etc.), cloud computing, and video streaming. Amazon expanded by establishing separate websites all over the world for its products and service...

How does Amazon stay ahead of competition?

What is value chain model?

In 1995, former investment banker Jeff Bezos had the idea of using the internet to sell books directly to customers online via a website. At the time, there were approximately three million titles in print, (Laudon. 2007) and any bookstore could only stock a fraction of them. Whereas, an online, or “virtual” bookstore could offer a much larger selection of titles. Bezos believed consumers did not need to actually “touch, or feel” a book before buying it. Although there are many psychological triggers that can influence a consumer, Bezos felt that an online synopses, tables of contents, and reviews would be enough to help with selection and purchase. In addition to the broad selection, Amazon was able to charge lower prices than traditional High Street bookstores, as it carried very little of its own inventory, relying instead on distributors, and did not have the expense of maintaining physical storefronts or a large retail sales staff. In 1998, Amazon started selling CDs, videos, and ...