Information System Used In Blackberry Information Technology Essay

In earlier times, when someone is willing to send messages or data from one place to another, then Sending of messages was usually done in the form of letters and posts, and sending of data to far places would often take too long time may be months. Hence this would many a times cause a delay in the transmission of information. Now with the advance technology, this scenario has changed to what it is was and what it is today.

In today’s advanced world, sending of messages and sharing of data has become a piece of cake, wherein all your tasks are completed simply with a few clicks! And it has all become possible because of Telecom and Information Systems.

Telecom is actually the short form for Telecommunications. The field of Telecommunication deals with communication from one place to another. It basically consists of transmitting signals and messages over long distances in order to make communication. Many types of electronic media or equipment like radio or telephone are used for this kind of communication.

RIM

RIM is abbreviated as Research in Motion (RIM). It is the designer and manufacturer of the award-winning BlackBerry Smartphone, which is used by millions of people around the world.

RIM is the company which was found in 1984. It has its headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It has its offices in North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. It launched its Blackberry handset in the year 1996.

This company is also into creating software for businesses and the operating system that allows the BlackBerry provides facilities like email access, Internet facilities, social websites and media files.

BLACKBERRY

Blackberry is among the first companies to introduce internet facilities in cell phones. Blackberry was introduced in 1996 by Canadian company called as “RIM” i.e. Research in Motion. Blackberry was the first phone with mobile e-mail and internet facilities. It was first introduced as a two-way mobile pager device.

This was the main reason why businessman opted for blackberry cell phone devices. One of the best features offered by BlackBerry is that of the BlackBerry messenger service, wherein one can send and receive messages from one BlackBerry handset to another free of cost just by making use of the BlackBerry PIN system.

ANALYSIS

SALES

MARKETING

SALES

Now, before moving on to the Sales activities of BlackBerry, we will have a brief look at what exactly do we understand by the term “Sales”.

Sales with respect to businesses, basically consists of selling of either products or services. It is generally accompanied with the return in terms of cash or any other form of compensation.

With respect to markets, you have a seller and a consumer. The consumer is the one who makes demand for the products. The seller is the one who sells, or provides the consumers with the goods or services. However, a Sales Department in any organization, however large or small it might be, has many activities and functions to be undertaken. It does not just include selling and purchasing. It takes care of many other factors like deciding on the price, distribution of the products, advertising the product with the help of the media, market research and many more. Also, in order to achieve the sales goals of a company, the company has to concentrate properly on other things like adequate staff, proper planning and management etc.

Now, moving on to BlackBerry, it is the company which has made a grand entry in India. RIM started selling the Blackberry handsets at a very low cost in the market and hence it lead into a huge demand of this particular phone. There was a sudden hit in sales department since a phone with a least cost with all features having nice internet facility and push e-mail and many other features was accepted by the people.

They create a batch which is actually a sample representing their wholesale supply chain and provide them with a free blackberry phones to assess the usability and the attractiveness of the soft launch. Based on the results of this sample, the company decides either to expand the sample base (to get a wider feedback) or launch the product.

INFORMATION SYSTEM USED:

On making a visit to blackberry showroom in Khar, Mumbai the further information is being revealed. Blackberry has a huge sale over the world. For the sales department the work was firstly done on paper. But then the demand went on increasingly and then for them the paperwork was becoming too tedious and hence they needed software to operate their work. In order to get rid of the huge paperwork, software was being built by AIS Construction Equipment (AIS).

AIS built software which would change the paper based work into an automated one which would make them to follow up on the sales leads and would improve the customer service. Here the job of the software is related to the sales department and with respect to the technician department.

The software helped in the way to take down the order as what is the requirement of cell phones as ordered by the distributor and how they can accomplish the needs by the amount of handsets are available with them. It even has a support that if they are in short of requested handsets in a particular showroom then they can get it from the other showroom. The best feature of the software they are using is that they can order the parts directly.

The working is like if they need a part, then the technicians can send a request using their Blackberry phones and automatically an email is generated which is forwarded to parts department with what kind of part is required, and this would help them reduce the time and their job will be done quickly.

It even has a feature in which the technicians can check a notification by using their Blackberry phones and once the technician indicates that the job is completed then the information is sent automatically to the back-end database. Now the process is over and the handset is ready to use and deliver back to the customer. Technicians can document the time, materials used and time taken for each job. Now they do not need to remember that which parts were used since they are automatically resulted in the output at the time of delivery.

MARKETING

Marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in goods or services. It

is the process in which companies try to build strong customer relationships and creates value for their customers and for themselves.

The marketing strategy was first targeted to penetrate the high growth corporate market by advertising the PUSH-mail technology. This PUSH-mail technology made the corporate communication fast and easier. The first level strategy followed by RIM received tremendous response with all big corporate houses promoting blackberry for their top-level management.

Earlier, the general impression of the BlackBerry phones was that they were used only by the “real professional guys – the office goers”, and that it was of no use, or was not much necessary for others to use them. However, this impression underwent a gradual change too.

Post success in the corporate market, RIM strategized to enter the non-corporate and youth segment by introducing their ad-campaign “WE ARE THE BLACKBERRY BOYS”. This further promoted the “CHAT” facility provided by the company enabling the users to stay in constant contact, popularly known as the BLACKBERRY MESSENGER. All you need to stay in contact with people is to activate your BlackBerry PIN, and you can easily stay in contact for like almost free of cost. The blackberry messenger enables the blackberry users to stay in touch with any other blackberry user placed anywhere around the globe.

INFORMATION SYSTEM USED:

In large scale companies like RIM, there is a constant need for the managers to acquire various types of information regarding different marketing as well as informational purposes. And this information has to be available to the concerned authorities at the correct time.

A marketing information system is the one in which the data from the departments is stored in a very formal manner. This information is later analysed and then forwarded to the concerned authorised people (generally managers) for their use.

RIM started with their marketing by entering into corporate sector and then after a certain period they started marketing by using the other means like advertisement, newspapers, hoardings, etc.

Earlier how they use to manage the marketing is not known but on research made from one of the blackberry marketing head of western department says that they had asked a company (whose name is not revealed) to manufacture a software in order to manage the marketing of the company.

The software is mainly developed with facilities that where the marketing of the particular product is done and in which manner is it done i.e. by newspaper, hoardings, television, etc. It mainly also keeps a record of the amount paid for the advertisement. This helps them to maintain a record and hence for using the same media for another product, it would help them to compare the cost. It also has a feature in which the blackberry people can know the response of the people to their advertisement on internet, by using “affiliate marketing tools” , which counts the number of persons visited the ad by managing a count on clicks. This can help them to know that whether internet ads are advantageous to them or not.

It also has a feature of maintaining the contact detail of the person who is in charge for which particular department of advertisement. This helps to connect them easily. This software is also including a feature that manages a reminder for the payment. For e.g. if a hoarding is put up for a period of 3 months den during the due date an automated reminder is generated.

CONCLUSION

In the earlier times, not many companies and organizations used Information Systems for Sales and Marketing. However, as times are changing, people are becoming more and more conscious about the use and benefits of these information systems, and how their use can help in the betterment in the management and working and overall progress of the organization. Information Systems for Sales helps the departments and the organization to work in a comparatively faster and more precise manner. Information Systems for Marketing helps the employees to understand the effect and importance of various types of media through which they have marketed, and how well a response it has got. This helps them to concentrate on the type of media that gives them the maximum profit.

Thus, Information Systems for Sales as well as Marketing help in the overall working and betterment of the organization, as a result of which, more and more companies are coming forward to use them.