Proposal For A New Information System For Cabcharge Australia Ltd

Overview of ‘Cabcharge Australia Ltd’

The strategic information system enhances the efficiency of the business by deploying newest information technology in the business operation (Issa-Salwe, Ahmed, Aloufi and Kabir, 2010). The technical efficiency is important for the successful operation of the business through which it can determine the long-term success with the increased rate of return. Further, the technological advancement enhances the business performance through the bringing the innovation in the business technology (Gassmann, Enkel and Chesbrough, 2010). However, the technology brings some weaknesses in the operation of the business and influences the business market reputation as well as the profitability (Anderson et al. 2014).  

In this context, present report is based on the importance of technological advancement for the Cabcharge Australia Limited. The selected company is based in Australia which offers thetravelling services to the end users or tourists. In this regard, aim and objectives of the business has been specified along with the analysis of the current technologies used for rendering the services to end users. For this purpose, organizational chart, flow chart, data flow diagram has been prepared. On the basis of identified weaknesses, the new system has been proposed with the help of MRP II advanced technology. This advanced technology improves the effectiveness of current system. Lastly, future risks might affect the proposed system of the business has been explained along with the proper control system.

In the present era of modern technology, the digitalization is imperative for the success of any business (Markovitch and Willmott, 2014). In this context, the Australian public transport company Cabcharge offers quality transportation service with their operation in the Australia (Cabcharege, 2016). Further, it performs several operations by including transport services, insurance, vehicle leasing, loan, driver training and smash repair (Cabcharge, 2018). Thus, it executes many transportations related operation in their regular routine with the help of latest technology. The company uses effective strategies which helps in grabbing the attraction of large number of buyers by offering them quick services (Nott, 2018). At the same, it has 85000 vehicles in Australia including premium silver service cabs. This is because the primary objective of Cabcharge is to become a leading transportation firm in Australia by offering superior service (Cabcharge, 2018). Owing to this, the Cabcharge is one of the top Australian cab services provider company offer high quality service for the personal and business passengers.  

The Cabcharge is successful in delivering the quality services to end users with its quickness and easy method of approach the destinations or passengers. However, the critical success factors of Cabcharge are explained as follows-

• Digital payment- The involvement of latest technology increases the probability of business success by affecting the outcome of business functions (Grissemann and Stokburger-Sauer, 2012). Similarly, digitalization improves service quality by connecting the companies and consumer in an effective manner (Rayle et al. 2014). Further, it increases the firm’s collaboration and fills the communication gap between the firm and consumers (Patrutiu-Baltes, 2016). In the same manner, the Cabcharge offers cashless digital payment method for its consumers (Nott, 2018). Thus, it provides cashless transaction to r customers and make their travelling experience convenient. In this regard, the customer convenience is important for the business because it increases the satisfaction level in the customer which works as base for the increment in the market reputation. However, mere focus on the technological investment and less focus on marketing affect the brand image of the business to a great extent (Annual financial report, 2017). Owing to this, it faces those issues which are related to poor focus on marketing as low customer’s awareness. However, the customer retention is imperative for growth of any business; this is because if the company does not retain customer than the profitability of regarding firm goes down.   
• High quality of customer services for different customer- The Cabcharge offers services by targeting different consumers group. In the same manner, they accept fare payment of Chinese tourist trough the Alipay app (Nott, 2018). In this regard, they tie up a business relationship with operator of Alipay and minimizes the currency barrier while dealing with foreign customers and offers high quality of services in their transportation (Smith, 2018). In this context, the adaptation of consumers’ convenience in the services may helpful at the certain level to attract the customer with the quality of services (Kassim and Asiah Abdullah, 2010). However, it is important for an organization to adapt customer prescription in their offer services with the more accuracy. Similarly, treading relationship with other Business partners may influences the service quality of the organization (Hsueh, Lin and Li, 2010). This is because, the breaches occurring in relation to business partner gives the negative impact on the services. For example, if security of Alipay data is low then it will create the causes for low service quality.      
• Employee engagement- The Cabcharge is aware about the engagement of the staff member. Further, their code of conduct increases the employee attention in the customer services with the security of confidential data of the Cancharge (Cabcharge Australia Limited, 2012). Although, the Cabcharge provides training to its employees which helps in retain loyal employees and improves their job performance (Cabcharge, 2018). In this context, the employee engagement is beneficial for increasing the firm’s productivity (Ferinia, Yuniarsi and Disman, 2016). Similarly, engaged employees perform their job in effective manner and contribute positively in the operation of organization (Fachrunnisa and Adhiatma, 2014). Therefore, the employee engagement in the Cabcharge improves their employee performance regarding job which further increases their productivity. However, the more focus on the employees’ training will affect the working schedule of employees. This is because they spend more on training rather in their job task. Further, it enhances the financial and human resource investments which increase the add-ins in the overall cost of production (Obisi, 2011). Owing to this, the employees’ engagement related activities are important for the successful operation of the corporation for the longer time span.       

Critical success factors

On basis of critical success factors the Cabcharge has potential risk from their high technological advancement. Owing to this, it needed improvement in the information system with the involvement of easy to access latest technology. In this regard, the mission statement for Cabcharge is “to offer superior transportation service with affordable price and more convenience”.

Organizational chart is helpful for understanding the structure of firm by dividing them into interrelated sub parts (de Freitas, Barão and da Silva, 2011).  In this context, the following organizational chart of Cabcharge broadly defines the several departments and their centralized management. The CEO is on the leading position in the chart who helps in managing the overall operational flow of the business. Further, the MD assesses all the departments, which are managed by the several mangers so as to effective ensure collaboration between different teams (refer to figure 1). Moreover, the information interchange between several departments is crucial for the effective management of available resources as well as for increasing the productivity of the firm (Jaques, 2017). Owing to this, the organizational chart divides functions of firm which helps to meet organization’s objectives in an effectual manner. By referring the following organization chart, it can be said that Cabcharge is operating with the various departments.

Figure 1: Organizational chart of Cabcharge.

In the present time, Cabcharges uses Cabcharge Fareway EFTPOS system. It is a mobile payment system designed for the taxies by consisting the pin pad unit, printer and communication unit. Further, it provides the fare transaction receipt to the customers by including the pickup and destination points (Cabcharge, 2012). This system accepts payment trough several cards as Cabcharge card, Master Card, Visa and American Express etc. (Cabcharge, 2018). Thus, the Cabcharge uses an effective payment system for the billing and payment transaction with mobile device. However, in the present system of Cabcharge has some lacks in the terms of operational functionalityy. This is because it provides only records of electronic transaction. Apart from this, it does not provide the records of all the transaction in real time (Hamilton, 2011). Owing to this, the visibility of transaction is affected and impedes the operational performance of the business. Therefore, it is imperative for the Cabcharge to work on the technological issues an d provide the real time information for clients.

Figure 2: Flow chart

On the basis of above flow chart, it has been found that the flow of instruction is easy to understand. At starting point of the drivers request for the start of fare then the system activates the GPS and identifies the location. After that it starts the counting of distance when reach the ending point then driver request for the ending of fare. After the stopping request the system calculates the distance between the starting and ending point and shows the total charges of fare. Then it requests for payment method as which card will be used for payment to Cabcharge or other. If the Cabcharge card is used for payment then the GST will not be eaddd automatically to the charge otherwise GST will be added. In this context, the system displays the information regarding to the only current record. Owing to this, it is the major drawback of current system which needs to be recovered. In this context, these drawbacks create negative competitive edge of Cabcharge in the business market. Further, with the help of advanced system, the competitors of Cabcharge as Uber and ingogo creates the significant impact of Cabcharge business (Simmons, 2017).  Moreover, data flow in a system is most important to analyze the relationship between different entity of business and the flow of information interchange (Scheer, 2012). In this context, the following dataflow diagram gives the deep understanding of data flow in the current system.

Mission statement

Figure 3: Context level Data flow diagram

According to the context level data flow diagram, the driver, consumer and company personnnel are three main external entities which access the EFTPOS system according to their task. These entities request to the system for their task then the system respond on the basis of queries.

Figure 4: 1st level Data flow diagram

Driver, company personnel and consumers access the EFTPOS system in different manner. In this context, the driver and consumers are authorized to access data to limited extent. However, the company personnel access the all data related to driver and consumers. Owing to this, the company personnel are the admin of current system and the consumers are the end users. At the same, the drivers are mediator between the customers and the company.

Moreover, On the basis of analyzed success factors of Cabcharge, it has been found that the management has low focus on the marketing of the current services. Further, the communication between the IT department and marketing department is insufficient for the better management of business operation. Further, the heavy price of fare charges is considerable weakness of the Cabcharge.

On the basis of flow chart and data flow diagram the current system needs the improvement. In this context, MRP II system with several primary features enhances the efficiency of present system.  

The appropriate coordination between the data enhances the management skills for effective decision making. In this context, the MRP II system creates the real time coordination among the data which provides the detailed information of the business operation (Lightfoot, Baines and Smart, 2011). Similarly, the low focus on data management influences the organizational productivity negatively.  In the same manner, the low focus on the data coordination creates the complication for the Cabcharge (Hamilton, 2011). Owing to this, it is imperative for Cabcherage to improve their management on the data. It is further helpful for increasing the company productivity for the end user. Therefore, the Cabcharge must involve the MRP II in their system and enhance their system capabilities.      

The available resources are the main assets of the organization. For improving the firm productivity with available resources, the effective utilization of resources is must (Ologbo, Oluwatosin and Okyere-Kwakye, 2012). Similarly, a firm can have many resources by including financial, human, information technology and database and the effective utilization of every resource is imperative for an organization (Hu and Sheng, 2014). In this regard, in an IT based company database in most valuable resource and impede the firm’s performance (Wang et al. 2011). In this context, Cabcharge can improve their customer services with effectual utilization of the available resources like database. This is because, their present system does ensure effective presentation of data (Hamilton, 2011). Therefore, MRP II improves their usage of resources in effectual manner.  

Organizational chart of Cabcharge

Moreover, the electronic data interchange (EDI) IT technology enhance the data security of a system when it transmits to other system and helps to increase the transmission of data without any involvement of human (Pfeiffer, 2012). Thus, it amplifies the accuracy of interchanged data and minimizes the usage of paper in the information interchange in the business. In this regard, for using EDI company can use several of EDI standard as TRADACOMS, ANSI and ebXML and decrease the expenditure of information exchange (Lampathaki et al. 2008). Owing to this, it imperative for an organization to adapt this technology in their business operation and increase the operational efficiency. In the same manner, the Cabcharg can use effective EDI technology in their system and reduce the cost of information interchange. It will help for decreasing the surcharge rate on taxi fare and retain the customers’ attraction.

The integration of data which come from several resources creates the comprehensive, consistent and the accurate information (Fielding, 2012). It enhances the management capabilities to improve their decision making on the basis of quality information (Derue, Nahrgang, Wellman and Humphrey, 2011). Further, the integration with other trading partners improves the firm performance in the business market. In this context, the Cabcharge faces critical situation from the 10% surcharge which is applied on the payment through the other card for the taxi fare. It further leads customer dissatisfactions (Drummond, 2016.). In this context, the seamless integration among the business partners increases the coordination of business operations (Oliveira, and Martins, 2011). Owing to this, the Cabcharge improves their relation with other service provider companies and offers cost effective services to their customer. Further, it can improve the integrity of data and build effective decision-making system.  Therefore, it is necessary for Cabcharge to build healthy relation with their trading partners and amplifies the service quality with affordable cost.  

On the basis of above discussion, it can be found that the Cabcharge needs improvement in the quality of system wherein they overcome the barrier of current system and enhances their market reputation with the great extent of customer satisfaction.  

As per the above discussion current system has some weaknesses like real time presentation of data. Owing to this, the new system is proposed to overcome the current weaknesses and enhances the efficiency of the business operation. In this context, the advanced technological platform is needed. In this regard, an advanced operating system, data base and high quality of web server is essential for the mobile technologies. It enhances the coordination of data and reduces the time consumption in the database management. These supportive systems improve the system effectiveness and present data in an effective manner.  Furthermore, the innovative mobile technological system help in creating easy to operate payment system which increase the customer services through the taking the minimum time in operation. As already known that Cabcharge EFTPOS system are used only for the electronic transaction; thus, the new system with effective database management and flaw less communication between the system and operator display the data in a useful manner.

Current system analysis

Moreover, latest technology is used for banking gateways which provide high transaction in low cost. It decreases the surcharges on the taxi fare and retains customers. Furthermore, build the healthy relationship with the service providers. Owing to this, they can provide their services in the Cabchareg with minimum price. Therefore, the mobile technology with the advance supportive system as operating system, Database and web server can be helpful for Cabcharge to avoid their current weaknesses.

For understanding the relation of several bodies of the system and their information the following Entity Relationship (ER) diagram is helpful. It shows the connectivity of the different entities in an effectual manner.

Figure 5: ER diagram

According to above ER diagram of new system, customer, drivers, payment, cab and admin are the key entities. These entities have several operations in the database. Further, each entity has many data attributes by including financial and non-financial attributes which are included in the following table.

Table 1: Financial and Non-financial data attributes of the ER diagram entities.

Entity	Non-financial attributes	Financial attributes
Customer	C_Name, C_id, C_email, pickup, Destination, Paymnet_mode	Charges
Cab	cab_Id, Registration_no and Type
Driver	D_Id, D_Name and License_no	Receive_amount
Payment	P_Id,C_Id, D_Id and Payment_Mode	Charge
Admin	Username, Password
Fare	F_Id, C_Id, D_Id, total_distrance, Departure, Paymant_mode	Charges

Moreover, each entity in ER diagram is interrelated which increases the coordination of data. The relationship among the entities will be helpful for accessing data from several tables and present in a valuable manner.

• Views of accountant- According to the view of accountant, the new system will be imperative for increasing the efficiency of data retrieval. It will be helpful for accurate calculation of taxi fare as well as for the calculation of consumer and drivers in taxi fare. Further, it will be creating the accounting process easy to execute. Owing to this, the accountant gives their opinion in the favor of new system.  
• Views of customer-The new system overcomes the present barrier in the current system. It will reduce the fare charges through the decreasing the taxes. This is because it already known that customer was dissatisfied from the high charges of taxi fare. Therefore, customers have positive view for the new system.    
• Views of HR manager-On the basis of HR managers’ view the new system will overcome the weakness of old system. It will improve the consumption of existing resources. Further, the outcome of new system will be helpful for modifying the current operation of the business. This new system will be improved through the coordination in the available human resources which further improves their job performance. It will influence company’s productivity positively.  
• Views of marketing manager- The new system will be helpful for amplifying the competitive edge in the current business market. Further, latest system will improve the customer satisfaction through the high quality of services. This is because the service quality imposes the customer to change their mindset for the liable organization. Owing to this, the marketing manager supports the system in the context of greater competitive edge.

The new system is more innovative in comparisons to older system with additional features. However, the new system may get affected from several security issues. This is because the new technology brings together some security threats. Owing to this, in the future the new system may face some harmful situations from the below mention risk.

• Loss of data- In the future the possibilities of data losses may occur. It influences all the business operation of Cabcharge. Further, it will create the down turn in the competitive edge of Cabcharge in the business market. Owing to this, the authentication process for the database access is highly secured. However, if any case data would have been lost in the future then the secondary option will be available due to regular backup of available data. Therefore, the focus on the regular backup of data is imperative for the Cabcharge.
• Unauthorized access- the unauthorized access of data creates harmful situation for company as well as for other trading partner and customer. This is because it enhances the misuse of data and increases the unsocial activities. These activities impede the belonging person in term of financially as well as mentally.  In this context, if this accident would occur in Cabcharge system then it may create the down turn in the market reputation. Apart from this, it can bring the company at the stage of insolvent. Further, it increases the terrorist activities.  Owing to this, in this system only high secured gateways will be used and regular security check-up will be done. These will be helpful for preventing unauthorized access and avoid future complications.    

Conclusion 

On the basis of above report, it can be concluded that the information system is imperative for the growth of a business. In this context, the flow chart and data flow diagram are helpful for understanding the process of system and identifies the weaknesses of the system. Further, it can increase the probability to overcome the barriers of current weaknesses. However, the MRP II information system can improves the performance of the system by creating real time data coordination, utilization of essential and available resources. Owing to this, the proposed system by including the features of MRP II gives proper solution for Cabcharge’s weaknesses. Moreover, the good technological platform is imperative for the development of effective information system. Further, on the basis of potential risk the future planning to avoid these risks is necessary. Therefore, the focus on information system improves the firm performance in trading market.   Further, the technological advancement enhances the business performance through the bringing the innovation in the business technology. However, the technology brings some weaknesses in the operation of the business and influences the business market reputation as well as the profitability. Thus, with the help of effective technologies, it would be helpful for corporation to meet the expectations of target buyers. Moreover, it would be effective in obtaining the competitive edge of the business. Thus, it facilitates in meeting the expectation of end users.

Primary features of the new system

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