Pep My Trip Organization Analysis – PESTEL and SWOT

In current days there are many webpages for air ticketing and hotels bookings but in Sri Lanka there are only few websites which provides these services in that Pep my trip is one of the famous online site which provides services like air ticketing, hotel booking, holiday packages, and many more to various countries. Pep my trip interacts directly with the customers helping them to provide proper traveling packages and suggestions. By accessing the webpage they will be able to make hotel reservations book tickets and arrange a trip package. This is one of their services and they are in need of a Customer Relationship System (CRM). This is considered one of the draw backs of their business which should be considered.

By creating an automated system they will be able to keep track of their customer history and their booking, keeping track of all the booking made and live chat box to provide quick suggestions and to get general information. Currently Pep my trip uses a 3^rd party company’s support to provide live chat facility which isn’t helping the customer relationship. The company has decided to initiate the CRM project this would help them to gain more profit and gain more customer strength. This system will consist all the features which were mentioned above. This is form of unnecessary cost cutting as well as business development project. To start this project the proper plan should be implemented in this case a proper methodology should be implemented. These are the following methodologies which can be implemented waterfall model, iterative model, spiral model, v shape model, big bag model and agile model. In these models which will be suitable for the project is water fall model and agile model but in these two the best one should be selected.

Waterfall Model

This model is the oldest and easiest methodologies in this model every single stage of information which is provided is related to the previous stage and to the scope of the project plan bellow diagram will provide a brief idea of how waterfall model works.

• Waterfall model is considered as explained above the project should be completed with provided requirement and no changes can’t not be done to the requirement after the project is complete. Since this is a CRM project the customer requirement might change time to time and the problem statement is providing best solutions and services to customers. In businesses requirement changes are consistent since this model isn’t practical for this project.
• There will be a significant delay in the business process because in this model each stage has to be completed to start the implementation process. This is an online business and time is money so they can’t afford to lose their profit.

Since waterfall model doesn’t have the required flexibility this model can’t cope with the project scope.

Agile Model

This model is able to provide users with a testing platform and changes can be made to the requirement when progressing the project and this model is quite practical when considered to other models. Using this model the developer and customer will be working to gather in a close relationship but the majority is with the customer if their scope changes the project could lead in a different path way the bellow diagram will provide a brief idea of how agile model works.

• Using this model the team could deliver a testing product ones requirement goals are complete step by step without waiting for the complete CRM project to complete. This way the business would never get interrupted and easy to change the requirement when needed.
• By providing a testing product time to time would help the team to get feedback from the management and customers. This model has the flexibility which will cope with the scope of the project.

As the discussion above clarifies what would be the ideal methodology which would help the development of the CRM system. Using Agile model helps to make small changes in the requirement when needed this helps the team to test run the system step by step and get feedback from the management which helps the development process. As mentioned before customers are the main stakeholders since it’s difficult to come up with a fixed requirement.

Ecommerce Webpage for Hotel Booking

Currently in Sri Lanka hotel industry is developing so quickly because of foreigners and end of war made people to explore the country more. New projects like Shangri-La, Gale Face One are few upcoming luxury hotels. Since the demand of hotels foreign investors stared investing in Sri Lanka. Now day’s people intend to book hotels through online because it’s convenient and to get additional benefits but in Sri Lanka there no proper website that recommends local hotels for different budgets rang and locations with customer reviews. Customers now days expect value for money so they see for the places which are cheap and best but customers are unaware of less popular hotels there are few hotels which aren’t published in internet but they provide quality service and authentic food, how do they promote them self  in his massive market? The upcoming Ecommerce webpage will provide the correct solution for it. This new webpage is mainly targeted towards local upcoming hotels where customers can get complete satisfaction and it’s an opportunity for the foreigners to experience Sri Lankan culture.

The webpage will function similar to other hotels booking webpages where customers can make any hotel bookings reservations under one roof, new offers and promotions will be promoted weekly, customers can read and write their reviews about those hotels and view picture of the hotels and many more. This makes the customers life easy and it’s the best way to make profit out if it. This webpage is used as a marketing tool for hotels to publish them self and to promote offers and exclusives as mentioned this website is there to promote local hotels which are less popular which is a stage for them to showcase them. There will be a slight impact on other webpages which increases the competition. But the success of the business depends on the customer’s satisfaction and does it complete their requirement this could go in both ways if they aren’t able to capture enough customer’s end of the day it would end up in a loss. This affects not only the business but for the employees as well without proper salary employees would stop their support for their company. When staring a business there are many risks which should be considered this creates a huge impact on the investors as well as their clients. Below are the risk factors which can affect the clients.

• The hotels would start advertise in other webpages or create their own webpages instead.
• Some hotel won’t like them to be reviewed in other websites since they won’t advertise or participate.
• Fear of losing their customers.
• Additional costs by promoting on other webpages.

The above mentioned risks must be taken in to consideration before starting a business in this competitive market. This is part of a challenge website like this should come up with new creative ideas and new offers every week to get people’s attention which is the easiest way to capture the market. A simple strategy should be implemented to start promoting from small hotels and when time goes by stepping in to bigger hotels this provides variety of hotels from low budget to expensive hotels. After gaining the strength of customers they can create bonds and partnership with banks to get discounts and deals for Visa and Master card holders. Currently in Sri Lanka Sampath bank and Commercial Bank is the leading in providing offers and exclusives now this has become a trend for banks to promote themselves to gain customers attrition, adopting to the trend helps to improve the webpage and their business.

In the above suggestion for a new business plan will benefit the customer as well as their clients. The customers will be able to get better services, value for money and they will be able to experience varies food types and culture. The customers could get the details and information about any hotels in the country the clients can make them self-popular.

SWOT Analysis

This analysis is done to identify the strength, weakness, opportunity and threats for Pep my trip organization and how it affects their business.

Strengths –

• Basic infrastructure has been built so no need of doing it from scratch.
• Company already consists with experienced developers, DBA’s and QA’s.
• 3^rd party group already providing support for customers.

Weaknesses –

• Customer support not up to expected standards.
• Online assistants not available 24/7.
• No records of customer history.

Opportunity –

• A friendly and quick CRM system form Pep my trip organization.
• 24/7 customer support.
• Responsive customer service.

Threats –

• Other rivals and competitive websites.
• Introduction of new government regulations.
• Natural disasters.

As the SWOT analysis says the company has some very string strengths to support the new project. They have their own in house development team which is very experienced if they don’t have this it would be a very costly requirement. Since there is already a 3^rd party group proving support they can use the same model and make enhancements to the new system this saves cost as well as time. The company already has the basic infrastructure built to its convent for the developers to work on an environment which is familiar. The strengths are the key for success as well as to overcome the weakness of Pep my trip. As mentioned above the current issue that’s affecting the business is there no friendly customer support where users are complaining they don’t get their requirements correctly and it’s not available all the time it causes inconvenience to customers which affects the business so by implementing a 24/7 customer support these issues will be covered. After implementing the CRM system they will be able to maintain a clean record of their customers and their history. Ones the CRM system is complete the company will have new opportunities to make profit out of it. The CRM system will be implemented separately as an application this could be utilized as a marketing tool where small changes can be made and sold in the market as a revenue stream. The customers will be able to get complete information if what they need and what they can expect form this CRM system. Threats play a vital role in business the company is gaining profit my selling tickets to support a good CRM system is required, after implementing the new CRM system it could go in both was it can be a success or a failure if it’s success it’s not a problem but if it becomes a failure the company should have backup plans to solve it and this might affect customer relationship and lead to lose their business. In the above discussion weakness can be out run by the strengths and the treats aren’t strong enough to collapse the business. SWOT analysis provides solid confidence for this new project.

PESTEL Analysis –

This analysis is done to identify the Political, Economic, Social, Technological and Environmental factors which affect Pep my trip organization.

Political Analysis –

• New taxes implementation.
• New policies implemented by countries.
• New regulations.

Economic Analysis –

• Fluctuating exchange rates.
• Policy changes in airlines.
• Changes in air ticket charges.

Social Analysis –

• New job opportunities.
• Increasing population.
• Changes in new trends.

Technological Analysis –

• Introduction to smart phones.
• Introduction to web based applications.

Environmental Analysis –

• Using recyclable products.
• Reducing the use of papers.

Legal Analysis –

• Product trademark and copyrights.
• Customer protection law.

As we know currently new taxes have been added by the new government this affects business in many ways. Every day there are some changes in tax and revenuers because of political reasons the company management should be aware of this because international flight rate are changing time to time. In this CRM project the change of requirements should be updated time to time. To lead the air ticketing market it’s a must to sell air ticks as cheaply as possible and promote more deals to stay in the market as long as possible it the managements duty to take the business in the right direction. All the air ticketing is processed through CRM and they are sold for advertised price in their webpage if any unpredictable change happens to the airfare or the exchange rate this would create an impact on CRM system. The CRM project team should be aware of these risks because it’s common in ecommerce business to go through these changes every day, customers are acknowledged regarding these changes. The growth of population will make are huge difference on the society and in the technical world for any ecommerce business it’s important to keep up with the trend it helps to provide a reliable and easy service to the customers, this a tool to market themselves and to gain profit. In any modern business environmental factors matter and using recyclable products to deduce our carbon foot print helps to make the earth much greener. Another major part of CRM system is to stay up to date with the price changes they can’t add any hidden costs or make changes in the ticket fair unnecessarily because it would be a violation of customer protection law. The above discussion show how PESTEL analysis affects Pep my trips CRM system as discussed this as a positive impact on the project and it’s good to proceed.

Porter’s Competitive Force Analysis –

This model simply explains where the power is being produced from in a business situation. This model helps to identify the strengths of the current position that the business is in and strength of the business in future.

Suppliers Power –

For Pep my trip identified suppliers are airline companies and banks who are associated with Pep my trip. The reason they are identified as supplies because the ticket prices are decided by the airline and payments are made through banks. Pep my trip has many airline companies as partners since the suppliers power is evenly distributed there is very low risk in facing any issues with the ticket price fluctuation. Various banks have partnered with Pep my trip and provides offers every week because of that most people prefer Pep my ride. In few occasions banks take their own decisions on the discounts and the company has to agree with terms and conditions this shows the suppliers power which might affect the business process.

Customers Power –

This part depends on the total amount of customers the company has since there are other web sites for online ticketing every week they also advertise new promotions because of this the customers intend to go for the better deals. Till now the company daily 50 – 80 tickets are being sold and customers are provided with offers as well but they intend to negotiate with agents to reduce the ticket prices as much as they can. Since to provide better service to the customer the CRM system and system operators will be able to assist them.

Competitive Rivalry –

Pep my trip is a growing company since they have huge completions some other companies have already have been established internationally and with huge customer based. Pep my trip is targeted to words local market and they are the ones who provide more offers and deals compared to other companies and they are capturing the customer base slowly and by cutting down unnecessary cost and building their own CRM system will help them achieve their goals easily.

Pep my trip companies CRM project stake holders have been identified as Customers, managers, Group directors. The main stake holder is the customer since this is fully focused on customer relationship, others who get involved in the project and who has a concern of the progress. The bellow chat will give a brief of how the project gives its impact on each stake holder.

Identified Stakes Holders	Customers	Managers	Group directors
Required from stake holder.	Providing feedback and suggestions.	Adding innovative ideas and completing the project with provided time and resources.	Providing financial support.
Requested from stake holder.	Increase the sales by purchasing tickets and packages.	Support the project and provide more facilities.	Increase the profit.
How stake holders affect the project.	Sharing their opinions and their experience with others.	Adding complexity to the project and not providing proper guidance.	Cutting down on unnecessary costs.
How to handle stake holders.	Providing them with a final product which could make them satisfy and recommend to others.	Having a weekly review section discuss the draw backs issue and implement new solutions.	Monthly review and discussion on the progress.
Level of impact to the project by stake holders.	High	Moderate	Low
How much stake holders influence the project. (Scale of 1%-100 %)	100%	60%	80%

Table 1 – Stake Holders

Before starting any project doing a feasibility study on it is a must which would revel are the requirements complete and this gives a rough idea can this project be done and is it feasible. This proposed CRM project is to reduce the unnecessary costs which the company is facing now. In the below chart will show you the financial analysis of CRM project if implemented.

Figure 3- Financial Analysis

Currently Pep my trip spends over USD 4,000 on their current online chatting system per year, the estimated time to complete the CRM project is 3 months which starts off on 2^nd of February and planned to complete on May 4^th. Since there is a partnership with live chat system they will have to share the profit. By this new in house developed software they don’t need the share the profits which could be used for other projects or development of the company. The CRM system will be beneficial in long run. The new system will overcome all the drawbacks which would help the development of the company.

Technical feasibility

Since this company has its own developers, architects and QA’s who have well know knowledge and experience dealing with projects likes these and the basic infrastructure like computers, software’s and servers which have been provided. Currently their developing their own web sites so they know what change could make to enhance their CRM system. Since the project is stable on technical side which makes this project feasible.

Legal feasibility

Legally pep my trip doesn’t have any risk factors but the thing to be taken in consideration is they have signed a legal agreement with live chat system which they are using where in the agreement it says to part of the profit should be shared as well as each year there is an additional charge which will be added for new functions and every year they renew the subscription and after completing the CRM project the live chat system can be dropped without further delay  which makes it feasible in legal side.

Operational feasibility

The implementation of CRM project will cut down on unnecessary costs like paying additional payments to live chat system which causes inconvenience to the company as well as customers and by implementing the CRM system will cover up all the drawbacks where users aren’t able to gather correct information, no customer history, poor customer service and no 24/7 customer support the following will be considered by implementing the CRM system so as on operational side it’s feasible.