5.1 Critiquing Competitor's Website

The competitor website we chose to compare to was Kings Dominion's website.

Rule 1: The website should offer something unique
          - This website offers the same amount of services like any other amusement park website. There are tabs to click to receive online specials, see new attractions, and there is a tab on the website to purchase your tickets online!

Rule 2: The website should be aesthetically pleasing
          - When customers go on Kings Dominion's website they see the bright colors and huge letters to describe what their park contains. Also, there is a slide show of pictures describing the new attractions and specials.

Rule 3: The website must be easy to use and fast
          - I think the website is easy to use because it is very organized with all of the different tabs at the top of the screen. If I want to purchase my tickets online I know where to click.

Rule 4: The website must motivate people to visit
          - Personally, I don't think this website motivates people other than the online prices of the tickets because they are usually cheaper online. Other than the ticket prices, the customers see what new attractions are at the park when they are on the homepage of the website.

Rule 5: You must advertise your presence on the web
          - When you search for amusement parks on Google, Kings Dominion is an organic link. It doesn't appear on the side of the screen with the other adds where Busch Gardens is. I think they need to advertise their website more so people will notice it.

Rule 6: You should learn from your website
          - On Alexa.com, this website's traffic rate is 152,460 which is really good. But the time on the site was around last month for only a couple of minutes, which isn't really good compared to other websties.

4.1 IFS H/W Infrastructure

For HELLO to be seen on an output technology (the screen) the user would have to use an input technology (keyboard) to enter in those letters. Then, those letters will go through the processing technology containing the CPU. Inside the CPU the letters are decoded either by the ALU or controlling unit and then are contained in the system unit. When the letters go through the processing unit, they will be put into their ASCII code and declared their bit or byte number. After the letters go through this process then they will be able to be seen on an output technology.

3.2 Sell Your Idea

I think someone should implement our information system for the fact that the cost benefit
analysis chart shows that implementing knowledge management will help us reduce errors by 55 percent , reduce operating cost by 20 percent a year, increase production by 5 percent a year, and will pay for itself within 6 months. I believe that having a customer relationship management system will help us to serve our customers significantly better, and in doing so, we will beat the opposing competition. If we don't have the best maintenance system, our rides could possibly stop working properly and make our company lose business and eventually go bankrupt.

3.1 Value Chain Analysis

This diagram shows the business processes of the amusement park and the steps that the park goes through everyday with each customer. These different business processes allow the park to automate the business. Sunshine Land needs their business to run faster because of the number of customers that come through. Speed is a competitive advantage for the park to have over the other parks that are similar.

The information systems that I would propose to to obtain competitive advantages are: enterprise resource planning system, customer relationship management system, knowledge management system, functional area information system, intelligent system, transaction processing system, and management information system. The transaction system will b when the ticket gets scanned. The management information system, functional area information system, knowledge management information system, and enterprise resource planning system all overlook the business including the financial status of the park, inventory, and the employees. The customer relationship management system supports the interaction with the park and the customers.

2.2 Automobile Industry

This case study was about the big three firms of automobiles in the US were afraid of globalization because they don't want the world to become homogeneous. Honda, Ford, and GM, in the 1990s, attempted to make a world car that is a basic car with a few modifications and tried to sell it around the world. Those models didnt sell as much as they hoped because of customer's different tastes in automobiles. The global marketplace has allowed the automobile industries to sell cars from all over the world and also online.

Questions:
 1. Globalization 3.0 is fueling change in the auto industry by allowing the automakers to build global networks of suppliers and selling to customers from all over the world.
2. Europeans like smaller cars compared to Americans who like larger cars. The US uses plastic in door panels unlike the Europeans who prefer steel construction. Asians prefer smaller-sized cars that can maneuver well through smaller, narrow streets while Americans prefer larger models like SUVs and pickups. The US doesn't think of the fuel economy as much as the Europeans do.

2.1 Flickr.com

Flickr.com provides their viewers a variety of services. Some of those services include "tags", adding comments to pictures, writing captions, rating the pictures, photo manipulation, selling pictures to viewers, and the OpenID project. 

One enabler that Flickr.com has is uploading. This allows users to upload their pictures on the website and add comments and rate each others pictures. Another enabler will be the steriods which allows the viewers to manipulate pictures and collaborate. Finally, another enabler that Flickr.com has is in-sourcing. Flickr.com joined the project OpenID like many other websites. OpenID allows the users to register for the free service and use the same password and ID each time they log in.

1.3 Organizational Chart

At the top of the chart is the CIO who is the person that is over the amusement park. The next level has the three managers: Support, Development, and Maintenance. They are required to watch over their employees and make sure that the park is being ran correctly. Under the support manager there is an operations manager, telecommunications manager, and an information security specialist. Under the development manager there is a programmer, business analyst, and a manager of emerging technologies. Under the maintenance manager there is a systems manager, an auditor, a quality assurance manager, and a lead systems architect.

I have chosen the CIO, Support Manager, Development Manager, and Maintenance Manager as the top four most important jobs at the amusement park. The reason I chose the CIO is because they are the person that runs the whole park, making sure that their customers are happy. The different managers have a section of the park that they are responsible for making sure it runs like it is supposed to. The support manager makes sure that the customers are happy, the database is running smoothly, and everything else in the parks other than the rides is running smoothly. The development manager handles any changes made to the rides, any new technology that the park may receive, and how the rides run. They might need to test out a ride before they put it in the park. The maintenance manager handles and maintains all of the amusement park rides. They make sure there isn't anything wrong with the way the rides are going to run. If a ride does mess up, the maintenance manager and their department is always going to be there and fix the problem to make sure that the customer feels safe and stays happy.