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Key Topics
- DIGITAL ENTERPRISE IMPROVEMENT/ENHANCEMENT PROPOSAL
- Executive Summary
- Company Background
- Current Use of Digital Enterprise/e-business in Flight Centre
- Internet Presence of Flight Centre
- Recommended Strategies to improve existing e-business scenario for Flight Centre
- Implementation Plan
- Post-Implementation Evaluation
- Conclusion
- References
DIGITAL ENTERPRISE IMPROVEMENT/ENHANCEMENT PROPOSAL
Executive Summary
This paper is representing the e-business study of Flight Centre. The Flight Centre is a famous and largest retail travel outlet in Australia which established during 1982. The main motive behind conducting the study is to evaluate the digital involvement of the company and its current e-business practices. This paper has been covered a large number of headings. For example, it has been described the current use of e-business practices by Flight Centre and various others. At last some recommendations is also propounded on the basis of current e-business framework of the Flight Centre. This is done to improve its working initiatives as well as e-business framework so that it can deliver high-quality facilities to its target customers. This paper is very important for the target audience because they will get significant information about the use of e-business practices and their role in the success of an organization.
Company Background
Flight Centre Travel Group is a recognized company of Australia which is engaged in providing travel facilities to its customers. Its headquarters is in Brisbane, Australia and founded during 1982 ("Flight Centre, The Airfare Experts, and World's largest travel agency," 2018). The company is recognized for its passion for travel and gain significant experience. It comes with a large range of services that is unbeatable in the travel business. It means that the company focuses enough on customers and gives them the significant value that is unbeatable. Apart from this, it can be said that the company is recognized due to its high-quality facilities offered to target customers. Its annual turnover is more than $20 million.
Current Use of Digital Enterprise/e-business in Flight Centre
The Flight Centre Travel Group is utilizing significant e-business models to facilitate its working and gain the attention of a lot of individuals. It has underlined its commitment to expanding its digital presence by creating a new global leadership position to oversee future growth. The e-business model that is being utilized by Flight Centre includes Business to Consumer and Business to Business digital business. Both of these models are supporting its functioning in an effective manner. With the help of Business to Consumer or e-tailing model, the company is selling its travel facilities by using online sources like the internet or digital presence. They are using wired, cable, wireless, applications, systems, and advanced network to support their e-business practices in favor of target customers ("Flight Centre cements online focus – Travel Weekly," 2018). Due to the use of e-tailing business model, the company has achieved high brand recognition, digitalized format, and reliable or well-known vendors. The launch of Boston-based Student Universe and Byojet.com is one of an important example of its business to customer model. Apart from this, Flight Centre is also using Business to Business model to facilitate its digital working in an effective manner. The Business to Business model facilitates easy working through the promotion of collaborative commerce and company-centric model within an internal environment (Andam, 2014). With the help of the Business to the business model, Flight Centre has become the world's leading travel booking services and fulfills the requirements of tech-savvy leisure travelers.
Internet Presence of Flight Centre
It is right to say that the Flight Centre has got internet presence in an effective manner. It does not only have a website but also contract with different social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn as well. The company is using its website for the motive of attracting target customers through providing instant facilities to them. On the other hand, the social networking sites are used with the marketing purpose. With the help of social network sites, the Flight Centre wants to market itself to a wide range of customers (Bohnsack, 2014). This has been done effectively to gain customer confidence and encourage them to be the partner of its facilities. Its improve initiatives towards the expansion of internet presence is effectively representing the company intention and seriousness behind the use of digital technology. For example, the company is using JETMAX booking system as a white label technology to generate additional revenue through marketing. Apart from this, it is also said that the company is boosted its presence in the online travel sector through securing 70% interest in the ByOjet.com business ("Flight Centre cements online focus – Travel Weekly," 2018). Moreover, it also utilized a large number of an online travel agency specializing in low-cost airfares. Therefore, it is right to say that the Flight Centre is operating internet presence in an effective manner.
How Flight Centre supported its business processes and functions by Digital Enterprise/e-business Initiatives
The digital Enterprise and e-business initiatives of Flight Centre include the use of social networking sites and website to attract target customers. The use of these e-business initiatives supports its business processes and functions by adding different features like trainability, compatibility, advancement, and various others. These features become the foremost factor of improvement among business processes. The technological implications and e-business initiatives help the company in the management of existing business processes in an effective manner. This has been done through the promotion of integration among both internal and external e-business initiatives (presence, 2015). Moreover, it is right to say that the digital enterprise and e-business is serving as a backbone of the foreign exchange, stock, and company operations. The use of e-business initiatives permits development and engineering teams to work from home or their most effective location, and collaborate with other team members scared all over a nation or even the world (Babin, 2015). This becomes the foremost factor of improved business processes which ultimately came with significant growth opportunities. Therefore, it can be said that the Flight Centre is effectively supporting its functions and processes through e-business initiatives.
How Flight Centre supported interactions with Customers through E-business initiatives
The Flight Centre is operating in the customer-centric era. So, it becomes essential for the company to perform effective interactions with its customers. The company has done this through the use of both Businesses to Business and Business to Customer models. With the help of e-business models, the company is offering customer value which is superior to their competition. On the other hand, it can be said that both models support customer interactions through facilitating the easy way of communication between management and ultimate customers. The improved level of communication among them becomes the foremost factor of effective customer relations for the organization. For example, Flight Centre personalized its publishing agencies and web pages to reach its market ("Case Study - Flight Centre - Marketo," 2017). Moreover, the company is also using online sampling to develop the new series of internet research and print guides as a part of its e-business initiative to nurture its customers. Therefore, it is right to say that the Flight Centre is supported its interactions with customers through the use of different e-business initiatives. These initiatives facilitate well-organized interaction with target customers and also avoid the wastage of time through reducing the access gap between management and customers (Berg, 2014).
How Flight Centre supported relations with business partners through E-business Initiatives
The business partners are considered as preferred suppliers of the e-commerce and travel industry. The use of e-business initiatives gives a chance to Flight Centre to enhance the visibility of its efforts through developing an extensive social network. The creation of these social networks allows an opportunity to gather valuable insights and expertise through networking and sharing information with business partners ("Case Study - Flight Centre - Marketo," 2017). The Flight Centre e-business initiatives help it to connect with its business partners in an effective manner. It is because the e-business initiatives of the organization support both formal and informal setting with business partners. This setting further creates valuable industry-related opportunities which prove fruitful for the company as well as its business partners. The main motive of the organization is to create various business partner network through accumulating experience and expertise in order to stimulate international cross-board e-commerce. Therefore, the social networks and internet presence of Flight Centre encourages its business partners to join expert meetings to discuss different important factors. This further becomes the reason for the improved relationship between Flight Centre and its business partners (Darnell, 2017). Therefore, it is right to say that the Flight Centre is operating its e-business initiatives in a right direction to support healthy relationships with business partners.
How Flight Centre supported intra-organizational communications by e-business initiatives
Intra-Organizational communication happens within the internal environment of an organization. Presence (2015) said that the Flight Centre is effectively managing the intra-organizational communication through e-business initiatives. The adoption of both Business to Business and Business to Customer e-commerce models facilitate an improved level of intra-organizational communications within the organization. The e-business initiatives of Flight Centre is doing this through the creation of a unify workplace under one roof. The e-business models of the company have created a platform which promotes the union and collaboration among members through improvement in communication. It is because both models provide effective sources of communication so that each team member can interact with each other without any external barrier. On the other hand, it can be said that the e-business initiatives of Flight Centre promoted the integrity within the team members. Therefore, the improved integrity becomes the success factor of the organization within the exiting travel industry. Apart from this, e-business initiatives of the Flight Centre also improved intra-organizational communication through bring changes in supply chain concepts (DaSilva, 2014). The use of e-business initiatives reduces the complexity of its existing supply chain network that it is maintained through trading partners. The improvement in intra-organizational communication becomes the reason of improved relationship with employees and top level management.
How Flight Centre measure its initiatives against the industry norm and best practices
In order to become successful within the existing industry, it is necessary for an organization to evaluate its business initiatives against the industry norm and best practices effectively. The Flight Centre is carrying out a lot of significant steps to measure its different business practices and initiatives against the industry norm. The first step Flight Centre carries out here is an evaluation of the Australian Travel Industry norm ("Flight Centre, The Airfare Experts, and World's largest travel agency," 2018). The Australian travel industry norms include customer satisfaction; ensure quality services, better product offerings, and various others. In order to fulfill these norms, the company has utilized the online platform. This initiative of the company in favor of industry norms make it reputational among existing competitors. Apart from this, the company ensures the use of best available business practices to serve customer satisfaction. It is because the company is highly customer centric and came with initiatives which prove fruitful for its customers (Hollebeek, 2017). Therefore, it is right to say that Flight Centre is taking significant actions to measure current initiatives against industry norm and best practices.
The Presence of other Initiatives that can do by Flight Centre
It is right to say that the Flight Centre has a large variety of options that can adapt to improve its working scenario and e-business environment. The foremost option in front of the company is the use of Customer to Customer e-business model to support a healthy relationship with customers. The use of customer to customer business model will promote the collaboration, business process automation, and content distribution within its internal environment. Moreover, it can be said that the use of Customer to customer business model will help the company in offering online services, performing classified advertisements, the creation of support services, and file sharing utilize (Cameron, 2015). All these improved working scenarios create satisfied customers with further bring the reason of a healthy relationship between business partners, customers and top management of Flight Centre. On the other hand, one important benefit of Customer to customer business model is that it facilitates the creation of a peer-to-peer network. This network is a combination of an architecture which has workstations of similar capabilities and shares data and processing with each other directly rather than through a central server (Ali, 2016). This supports the customer interactions within Flight Centre effectively. So, it can be said that the company has a right option to use Customer to Customer business model to raise growth opportunities in the International environment.
Strong and Weak Areas of Flight Centre e-business involvement
There are also some strong and weak areas of e-business involvement for Flight Centre. The first and foremost strong are of Flight Centre e-business involvement is customer interactions. The e-business model adopted by the organization to facilitates improved customer interactions which further raise healthy relationship between top management and existing customers. The Business to Business and Business to Consumer has been done this through the promotion of online and sales selling, internet marketing, and improved customer services. The internet marketing is a well-recognized platform provided by the Business to Business model to Flight Centre. On the other hand, the second strong area of Flight Centre e-business involvement is technology. The company is operating a large variety of technology to promote its efficiency over existing competitors. These technologies include Legacy applications, security, IT skill sets, help desk, websites, and different networks ("Case Study - Flight Centre - Marketo," 2017). The use of all technology factors facilitates core infrastructure that further becomes the foremost competitive factor within Australian Tourism industry. In addition, the weak e-business involvement areas include core infrastructure and people. Both e-business models do not facilitate growth opportunity to the organization. It is because both models offer poor research and development features to the company. In the absence of research and development activities, it becomes difficult for Flight Centre to develop core infrastructure which further brings competitive advantage within existing industry.
How Flight Centre e-business practices comply with industry/legal standards
The Flight Centre e-business practices are taken the combination of active initiatives to comply with industry standards. The first and foremost Australian tourism standard is customer satisfaction. Flight Centre is operating through the customer-centric e-business model which facilitates healthy customer interaction with top management (Cameron, 2015). On the other hand, another Tourism industry norm is the use of high-quality services. The company provides the high-quality tourism services through the integration of best online channels and services of different e-business agencies. Therefore, it can be said that the best practices of Flight Centre make it compatible with legal standards and norms.
How Flight Centre handles the Security and Privacy Issues
The e-business environment is full of different security and privacy issues which becomes the failure factor for an organization. The Flight Centre handles the security and privacy issues by performing different actions. The first action is the use of authorization process. The main motive behind the use of authorization process is to evaluate whether a person or program has the right to access the company online, and other social media sources ("Flight Centre, The Airfare Experts, and World's largest travel agency," 2018). This helps it in the maintenance of security of its social networks and websites. On the other hand, the second action is a use of auditing. With the help of this procedure, the company tracks the people who access its website. The main motive behind auditing is to maintain security and privacy of content.
Recommended Strategies to improve existing e-business scenario for Flight Centre
The Flight Centre is operating at a large level. Therefore, its way of managing the security and privacy are not good. This can significantly perform by the company through the use of special technology tools like different authentication systems. These systems are SET SSL and PKI. On the other hand, another recommended strategy promotes the use of customer-to-customer e-business model to facilitate healthy customer interaction (Ali, 2016). Both of these strategies will prove as a competitive factor in its future success.
Implementation Plan
The customer-to-customer model can implement by the Flight Centre through following steps:
Post-Implementation Evaluation
The Flight Centre will perform the post-implementation evaluation by following a standard evaluation procedure. This procedure contains three steps. The first step is to design and plan the evaluation. At this step, the Flight Centre will develop a standard plan to conduct an evaluation of the implemented Customer-to-customer e-business model. In this plan, the organization will determine the question which it wants to answer from customers, identify possible sources of data, and various others (Keiningham, 2015). The second step that will allow user for evaluation purpose is information gathering. The necessary information and feedback will collect by using questionnaire and interview method from users. The last and final stage is an analysis of information. The information analysis will give a right glimpse to the organization about its implementation process outcomes.
Conclusion
After studying all this, it can be concluded that the Flight Centre has a wide range of digital operations to perform its functioning. The digital presence of the company becomes its foremost success and competitive advantage factor over existing competitors. The use of Business to Business and Business to Customer model works as a guidebook in its overall success. On the basis of the current status of its digital environment, it is also recommended that the organization should use the Customer-to-Customer business model to facilitate effective working and high-level digital presence within the existing market. With the help of this business model, it can satisfy the industry norms and standard of offering high satisfaction to target customers.
References
Ali, R. (2016). Disentangling the effects of customer-based corporate reputation on business-to-customer relationships: direct, mediated and moderated effects (Doctoral dissertation, Middlesex University).
Andam, Z. R. (2014). e-Commerce and e-Business.
Bohnsack, R., Pinkse, J., & Kolk, A. (2014). Business models for sustainable technologies: Exploring business model evolution in the case of electric vehicles. Research Policy, 43(2), 284-300.
Babin, B. J., Boles, J. S., & Griffin, M. (2015). The moderating role of service environment on the customer share→ customer commitment relationship. In New meanings for marketing in a new millennium (pp. 266-271). Springer, Cham.
Berg, E., & Kilambi, K. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 8,639,542. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Cameron, N. (2015). How Flight Centre is mapping out a new kind of customer journey. Cmo.com.au. Retrieved 12 February 2018, from https://www.cmo.com.au/article/563967/how-flight-centre-mapping-new-kind-customer-journey/
Case Study - Flight Centre - Marketo. (2017). Marketo.com. Retrieved 12 February 2018, from https://uk.marketo.com/customers/flight-centre/
Darnell, J. A., & Rahn, D. R. (2017). E-Business for Entrepreneurs: A Turnkey Experiential Based Course for Teaching Faculty. Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 17(5), 25-27.
DaSilva, C. M., & Trkman, P. (2014). Business model: What it is and what it is not. Long range planning, 47(6), 379-389.
Flight Centre cements online focus – Travel Weekly. (2018). Travelweekly.com.au. Retrieved 12 February 2018, from http://www.travelweekly.com.au/article/flight-centre-cements-online-focus/
Flight Centre Expands Digital Presence - Flight Centre Travel Group. (2016). Flight Centre Travel Group. Retrieved 12 February 2018, from http://www.fctgl.com/investors/latest-news-and-press/news-item-5/
Flight Centre, The Airfare Experts and World's largest travel agency. (2018). Flight Centre. Retrieved 12 February 2018, from https://www.Flight Centre.com/
Hollebeek, L. D. (2017). Developing business customer engagement through social media engagement-platforms: An integrative SD logic/RBV-informed model. Industrial Marketing Management.
Keiningham, T. L., Frennea, C. M., Aksoy, L., Buoye, A., & Mittal, V. (2015). A five-component customer commitment model: implications for repurchase intentions in goods and services industries. Journal of Service Research, 18(4), 433-450.
Martins, L. L., Rindova, V. P., & Greenbaum, B. E. (2015). Unlocking the hidden value of concepts: a cognitive approach to business model innovation. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 9(1), 99-117.
McElheran, K. (2015). Do market leaders lead in business process innovation? The case (s) of e-business adoption. Management Science, 61(6), 1197-1216.
presence, F. (2015). Flight Centre boosts online presence. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 12 February 2018, from http://www.smh.com.au//breaking-news-business/flight-centre-boosts-online-presence-20151221-4851a.html
Saebi, T., & Foss, N. J. (2015). Business models for open innovation: Matching heterogeneous open innovation strategies with business model dimensions. European Management Journal, 33(3), 201-213.
Andam, Z. R. (2014). e-Commerce and e-Business.
Bohnsack, R., Pinkse, J., & Kolk, A. (2014). Business models for sustainable technologies: Exploring business model evolution in the case of electric vehicles. Research Policy, 43(2), 284-300.
Babin, B. J., Boles, J. S., & Griffin, M. (2015). The moderating role of service environment on the customer share→ customer commitment relationship. In New meanings for marketing in a new millennium (pp. 266-271). Springer, Cham.
Berg, E., & Kilambi, K. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 8,639,542. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Cameron, N. (2015). How Flight Centre is mapping out a new kind of customer journey. Cmo.com.au. Retrieved 12 February 2018, from https://www.cmo.com.au/article/563967/how-flight-centre-mapping-new-kind-customer-journey/
Case Study - Flight Centre - Marketo. (2017). Marketo.com. Retrieved 12 February 2018, from https://uk.marketo.com/customers/flight-centre/
Darnell, J. A., & Rahn, D. R. (2017). E-Business for Entrepreneurs: A Turnkey Experiential Based Course for Teaching Faculty. Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 17(5), 25-27.
DaSilva, C. M., & Trkman, P. (2014). Business model: What it is and what it is not. Long range planning, 47(6), 379-389.
Flight Centre cements online focus – Travel Weekly. (2018). Travelweekly.com.au. Retrieved 12 February 2018, from http://www.travelweekly.com.au/article/flight-centre-cements-online-focus/
Flight Centre Expands Digital Presence - Flight Centre Travel Group. (2016). Flight Centre Travel Group. Retrieved 12 February 2018, from http://www.fctgl.com/investors/latest-news-and-press/news-item-5/
Flight Centre, The Airfare Experts and World's largest travel agency. (2018). Flight Centre. Retrieved 12 February 2018, from https://www.Flight Centre.com/
Hollebeek, L. D. (2017). Developing business customer engagement through social media engagement-platforms: An integrative SD logic/RBV-informed model. Industrial Marketing Management.
Keiningham, T. L., Frennea, C. M., Aksoy, L., Buoye, A., & Mittal, V. (2015). A five-component customer commitment model: implications for repurchase intentions in goods and services industries. Journal of Service Research, 18(4), 433-450.
Martins, L. L., Rindova, V. P., & Greenbaum, B. E. (2015). Unlocking the hidden value of concepts: a cognitive approach to business model innovation. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 9(1), 99-117.
McElheran, K. (2015). Do market leaders lead in business process innovation? The case (s) of e-business adoption. Management Science, 61(6), 1197-1216.
presence, F. (2015). Flight Centre boosts online presence. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 12 February 2018, from http://www.smh.com.au//breaking-news-business/flight-centre-boosts-online-presence-20151221-4851a.html
Saebi, T., & Foss, N. J. (2015). Business models for open innovation: Matching heterogeneous open innovation strategies with business model dimensions. European Management Journal, 33(3), 201-213.
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