Bsc Management with Information Systems, Group 6

Cyber Tower Phone (230) 4644444

Lo s t Pa r a d i s e C o. Lt d. Ebene (230) 4644445
Mauritius Fax (230) 4644446
- A Ta s t e o f H e a v e n

Contents
PAGE

The Business
2

The Product and its Market

3

Marketing Plan 4-5

Organisational Structure
6

Purchasing Department
7

Marketing Department 8-9

Finance Department 10

IT Department 11

Hardware 12

Benefits to the users and the company 13

Bibliography
14

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1. The Business

Lost Paradise Co. Ltd is a newly established business. It is based in the paradise
island of Mauritius, as its name already suggests. More specifically, it is based in the
Cyber Tower at Ebene, a strategic location, both for the purchase of goods from
manufacturers and the shipping of such goods to the customers. It is indeed obvious that
Lost Paradise Co. Ltd is a service business as it does not manufacture any goods, but
purchases finished goods from manufacturers and puts them on the market. Put simply,
Lost Paradise Co. Ltd provides a link between manufacturers and final consumers.

Fig 1.1: Ebene Cyber Tower

The aim of Lost Paradise Co. Ltd is to commercialise locally produced goods on
the international market, that is, in foreign countries. This idea sprang out from the
manager of the company who found that tourists who came to the island were very much
interested in the hand-made products of Mauritius. However, such products did not reach
out to those who could not afford to come to Mauritius. It was obvious to the latter that
this would be a very flourishing business but the main constraint remained the
geographical barriers in order to reach out people in foreign countries. Thus, came he
idea of e-commerce, whereby Lost Paradise Co. Ltd would commercialise these products
via the internet.

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From the above, it can already be sensed out that Lost Paradise Co. Ltd is an
online business, dealing in the purchase of hand-made products from local manufacturers
in Mauritius and the sale of these products via the internet to people worldwide.

2. The Product and its Market

It has already been mentioned in “The Business” that Lost Paradise Co. Ltd will
be engaged in the purchase and sale of locally made products from manufacturers in
Mauritius. These locally made products will include: leather products from crocodile-skin
[purse, belts, hand-bags and so on], ship models, plastic sea-shells and other locally-made
products which bring out the very essence of the so-called “paradise island of Mauritius”.
Such products are termed as luxuries and it is quite obvious that such products will have a
great demand on the international market because of their value-added nature.

Fig 2.1: Wood Ship Models

Hence, the market of Lost Paradise Co. Ltd will consist essentially of foreigners
as the products will be marketed on the internet and because it is unlikely that Mauritians

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will purchase such value-added products. Thus, foreigners who cannot come to Mauritius
will be able to place their deal for Mauritian-made products via the internet itself. The
above has already been proved by a market research undertaken before the start of the
business to determine who will be the potential customers of Lost Paradise Co. Ltd, and
whereby the great demand on the part of tourists was found out.

3. Marketing Plan
It has already been mentioned before that market research was conducted by Lost
Paradise Co. Ltd to determine who its potential customers will be and what they will be
demanding exactly. With the gathered data, important business decisions can be made
more scientifically than if the marketing manager depends on intuition or ‘hunch’.
Perhaps, the most important decisions will be assisted by applying research data, that is,
‘marketing strategies’ that the business is to follow. Thus, the marketing plan or
marketing mix is made up of four elements, namely: Product, Price, Place and Promotion.
A combination of all these factors will make Lost Paradise Co. Ltd’s products available to
the consumers in the best possible manner.
Product: After conducting the market research, Lost Paradise Co. Ltd’s next step is to
identify opportunities to position and sell its product online in a way that differentiates it
from other online retailers:
• By the physical look of the product
• By the brand name
• By the packaging
• By the quality of the product
• By the service level provided
Price: For the majority of firms which sell their products offline as well as online,
there are several formalized methods of determining price levels. Lost Paradise Co. Ltd
will adopt a competition–based pricing policy where the price will be largely based on
competitors’ prices, without paying too much attention to its own costs or demand. The
marketing manager will also take into consideration the market oriented pricing methods

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where a price below competition will be set in order to stimulate an increase in demand
and to achieve a high market share in the short term. Lost Paradise Co. Ltd’s products
will be of equal or better quality than the competitors to attract buyers. However, on the
internet, penetration pricing has been widely used by producers to build market share and
secure a first mover advantage. In the long term, after acquiring a large market, then we
can increase our price gradually in order to make higher profits or to add value to our
products.
Place: As mentioned before, the business will be situated at Ebene, which his
believed to be in the very centre of Mauritius. This location will allow Lost Paradise Co.
Ltd to have the best required personnel from various regions of the country. It will also
facilitate the purchase of finished goods from local manufacturers and the shipping of
these goods to final consumers .
Lost Paradise Co. Ltd will be buying the products on large scale for resale directly from
the local manufacturers. It will be acting like an agent for the local producers. The
distribution channel will take the form of direct selling. It involves marketing directly to
the final customer with the use of internet. This has become a very popular channel of
distribution for producers. With direct selling the company can make use of specific
information on consumers so as to target the respective groups willing to buy our
product. The company will avoid wasting resources in distribution if the product is being
targeted to specific consumer groups.
Promotion: Promotion is about communication with actual or potential customers.
Promotional campaign will be designed to achieve several objectives. At the beginning,
Lost Paradise Co. Ltd will have to use informative advertising which will give
information to potential purchasers of a product rather than just trying to create a brand
image. This information could include price, product specification or main features and
places where the product can be purchased. Sales promotion in the short term is more
tactical in approach. These tactical moves will be in response to actions of competitors or
derive from changing expectations of consumer buying behaviors. This short of sales
promotion is used to ensure that we continue to meet specific needs of our customers in
order to achieve the overall marketing objectives in terms market share.

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As well as server space, Lost Paradise Co. Ltd will also need a shopping cart and
catalogue software. This will allow the company to display its goods and let its customers
choose to buy and send it an electronic order including their credit card number. Finally,
in order to create an awareness bout the company to foreigners, a monthly magazine for
tourist visiting Mauritius, aimed at all ages will offer one full page in next ten editions
circulation. Other options include radio advertising and street posters for local customers.

4. Organisational Structure

Organisational structure refers to the levels of management and division of

responsibilities within the organization. An organisational chart is used to depict the
hierarchy of the formal relationship, authority and responsibility of different people in the
organization.

Lost Paradise Co. Ltd’s organizational chart is as follows:

General
Manager

Marketing
Purchasing Manager Finance Manager IT Manager
Manager

3 Operatives 3 Operatives 2 Operatives 2 Operatives

Fig 4.1: Organisational Chart

Lost Paradise Co. Ltd will consist of 15 people and will be divided into four
departments, namely:
1. Purchasing Department

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2. Finance Department
3. IT Department
4. Marketing Department

Each department will have a manager [Purchasing Manager, Finance Manager, IT

Manager and Marketing Manager] and each of them will be under the direct supervision
of the General Manager. Each of these departmental managers will have under their
control a number of shop-floor workers, also known as operatives as depicted by the
organizational chart. This will further be analysed in the subtopics that follow.

5. Purchasing Department

The purchasing Manager will always aim to get the right goods at the right price and at
the right time. The main activities of such a department will be:
1. Purchasing of goods
2. Storage of goods
3. Stock Control

Supplier
s

Purchasing Department
Stor
e

Finance Department

Marketing Department
Fig 5.1: Information flow related to Purchasing Department

It is to be noted that in Lost Paradise Co. Ltd, it is the Purchasing Department

itself that will take care of the stock or inventory control. As such, information that will
be required by such a department are:
1. Amount of goods in stock [current stock balance]
2. Amount of goods being sold [Stock Outflow]
3. Amount of goods being bought/ that need to be bought [Stock Inflow]

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The responsibility of the operatives in the Purchasing is to communicate with the

suppliers, to get goods at more competitive price and to ensure that quality is being
respected. The officers duty is also to transfer the products from the suppliers to the
company store where the marketing department takes over. There should be good
communication between the purchasing and the finance department, payments of good
ordered by the purchasing department is paid from the finance department.

6. Marketing Department

The main function of this department is to help a business sell its goods and
services. Briefly, the functions are:
1. advertising
2. distribution
3. market research
4. sales promotion
5. after sales service

Again, like the Purchasing Department, the Marketing Department also does not
work in isolation and there should be interaction between this department and the other
departments, namely, the Marketing Department and the Finance Department.

Information that will be required by this department is as follows:

1. Amount of goods in stock
2. Amount of goods ordered by customers
3. Other information related to the nature of the goods ordered

The Marketing Department will normally receive information from customers

about the type and amount of goods that they would want to purchase. In turn, the
Marketing Department will have to see to it with the Purchasing/Storage Department that
there are enough of such goods in stock to meet the demand of customers. If such is the
case, the goods will be shipped by the Marketing Department to the customers.
Otherwise, the Marketing Department will send information to the Purchasing
Department, requesting it to purchase more of such goods to be able to meet the demand
of customers. It is to be noted that in Lost Paradise Co. Ltd, the Marketing Department is
responsible for the delivery/shipping of the goods as well.

The information flow of such a department is depicted in the diagram on the next
page:

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CUSTOMER

Customer Order Information

MARKETING
DEPARTMENT

Sales Information

SHIPPING

Shipping Information

BILLING

Billing Information
Billing Information

Customer Payment ACCOUNT

CUSTOMER
RECEIVABLE
OFFICER

Reminders

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Fig 6.1: Information Flow related to Sales

7. Finance Department

The Finance Department has a number of important functions and is the core part
of the business as all activities of the business take place through this department. The
Finance Department’s functions are as follows:
1. Payment to suppliers: The invoices or bills for goods or equipment purchased
from suppliers must be checked and paid.
2. Wages of Staff: Wages need to be paid to staff or personnel for the work
undertaken during the accounting period concerned.
3. Calculation of Selling Prices: The Finance Department will need to calculate the
appropriate Selling Prices which will make it reap a good profit margin from its
sales figure.
4. Preparation of Final Accounts: The Finance Department will have to keep the
financial records and calculate the annual profit or loss account. It will also have
to prepare a Balance Sheet, which is a financial summary of everything that the
business owns and owes.
5. Budgets and forecasts: The Finance Department will also have to prepare budgets
and forecasts for the company. This provides information on which future
planning can be made by the managers of Lost Paradise Co. Ltd.

The Finance Department will require the following information:

1. amount to be paid to suppliers
2. amount to be paid tostaff
3. total costs of the company to compute the selling price that will make it get a
satisfactory profit margin

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4. the value of stock in hand

5. value of debtors and creditors of Lost Paradise Co. Ltd
6. value of the assets owned by the company

8. IT Department

The IT Department will be responsible for the overall running of the business.
Amongst its functions will be:

1. Maintaining and updating Lost Paradise Co. Ltd’s website as and when required
2. training of staff so that they can cope with IT
3. ensuring the smooth running of all the components forming part of the
information systems namely: hardware, software, stored data, personnel and
procedures

To fulfill these functions, the IT Department will require information on the

following:
1. amount and price of products to update the website
2. Level of IT Knowledge of staff
3. Information on the needs of other departments in the form of hardware and
software

It is evident from the above that the IT Department will have to work in close
collaboration with the other departments to ensure the smooth running of the e-business.

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9. Hardware Requirements

To function properly, Lost Paradise Co. Ltd will require the following hardware:

Input Devices:
• Mouse
• Touch screen to facilitate the work of personnel
• Pen Input to facilitate the work of personnel, instead of using mouse
• Scanners
• Camera Input Devices for photographs of products to be displayed online

Output Devices:
• Visual Display Units in the form of Cathode Ray Tubes because of their cheap
nature
• Production Printers because of the large amount of bills to be printed

Lost Paradise Co. Ltd will also have to keep in mind people with disabilities while
deciding on the nature of the hardware to be used by its staff members.

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10. Benefits to the Users and the Company

The benefits of using Information Systems to the Company are as follows:

• Less paper work is done, therefore lesser people is employed and there is saving
both in terms of labor and paper.
• The company is easier to manage since less people is employed and is still
performing at its best
• Payments from the clients are easier to bank, speeding up the sales cycle
• Elimination of processing mistakes, humans tend to make mistakes while
computers do not increasing efficiency of the company.
• Efficient business relationship, clients can get virtually any information they need
about the product before buying like weight, size, etc
• Shorter sales cycle, reductions of paper work has reduced time between order and
delivery.
• Different departments can process same order simultaneously with computerised
IS
• Improved service to customers due to rapidity
• Decisions can be made more quickly
• Information available quickly and enabling the managers to take the optimum
decisions
• Competitive advantage to the company relative to competitors due to fast decision
making
• Customer Satisfaction leading to increase in sales

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11. Bibliography

1. Robert C. Nickerson 2002, Business Information Systems, Prentice Hall of India

Private Limited, New Delhi

2. Steve Sleight 2000, Essential Managers- Information Technology, Dorling

Kindersley Book, Great Britain

3. Pauline Bickerton et al 2000, Cybermarketing- How to use the internet to market

your goods and services, The Chartered Institute of Marketing/Butterworth-
Heinemann, Great Britain

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