Broadway Cafe

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PROJECT ON E-BUSINESS

The New and Improved Broadway Cafe

Contents Page
1. Overview 3

2. Broadway Cafe Past History (originated from) 3

3. Broadway Café Present 3

4. Competitive Advantage using Porter's Five Forces Analysis 4

5. E-Business Strategy 5

6. Using Information Technology (M-coupons) 7

7. Customer Relationship Management 7

8. Systems Development recommendations 9

9. Conclusion 17

10. References 18

1. Overview

I just inherited the Broadway Café from my grandfather. However, over the past few years the café's clientele has been dwindling away resulting in the loss of revenue. Basically, my grandfather did not understand how today's technology would change the dynamics of how he should have run the café. Now don't get me wrong, my grandfather is a savvy businessman that has all the information dealing with any part of the café's business structure in his head. Which has put me into my current position, of trying to fix the problems we have today to stay in business. Therefore, I will outline a modern day strategy below that will ensure our Broadway café becomes a top hot spot for the new generation (present and future).

2. Broadway Cafe Past History

My grandfather Carl started this business back in 1952 in Woodbridge, Virginia. Carl was definitely a visionary at that time. He saw an opportunity to give the community a specialized coffee shop that served other specialty items such as homemade soups/sandwiches, salads, bakery items and exotic coffee's. This in turn would make him a lot of revenue over the years. This has been great. So let's roll forward to the problem at hand today. I see it beginning the day the café was open because I think my grandfather truly understood that his simple idea would take off like a rocket, making his café a primer hot spot within the area for years.

Basically, he did not make a business plan that incorporated improvements/changes to the market he went in.

3. Broadway Café Present

Therefore, he has been losing money for the past several years all because he could not embrace change. He came up in a different era/mindset on how to do business. Per example, back in his day most business contracts were solidified by a handshake and a man's word. This old school mindset does not work in today's world. In addition, he did not keep up with all the technology changes that would have kept him as a primer café in the area. i.e. putting in a wireless system for customers, implementing online business transactions etc.

Hence, making my job hard but rewarding because now I have to come up with a competitive advantage, implement e-business, implement new IT changes, come up with a new customer strategy and recommend systems development to get the café back on track. Below is a quick layout of my basic business strategy that will put the café back on the map.

4. Competitive Advantage using Porter's Five Forces Analysis

First, I have to turn our well-known café into a new age place that everyone can enjoy. This means I have to use a competitive advantage within my new community of café customers. Since, my café is already a well-established part of the community and it has been a family hot spot for generations of customers all I need to do is work on the information technology upgrades. I.e. employee portals, new ads, Internet web page etc. I'm so glad we have a good reputation with my customers because this would have been the second biggest problem to tackle. But they all know the coffee will be fresh as well as all of my food items. I.e. pastry's are made daily this is something that all my competitors don't do.

So for starters, I will continue to give my customers quality food/coffee to minimize their buyer power. Second, I will continue to stay with my current supplier since together we have made substantial revenue together. Now don't get me wrong, I looked around to see if other suppliers could give me quality products for a reasonable price but they could not. The reason for that is, the other entities are third party vendors and we have been buying directly from the manufacturer for years. Also, grandfather had a gentlemen's agreement between himself and the current supplier that said as long as the café was open he would only get supplies from Mr. Craig.

Additionally, the agreement allowed Mr. Craig to advertise his merchandise within the cafe. Of course, I will carry this over to our Internet site as well. Bottom-line is that this agreement helped both of them get their businesses/products on the open market. However, now using a web page we will be seen by an international market. Third, the threat of substitute products is low since the switching cost is not in the equation. Fourth, the threat of a new entrant will be high which is good for me since, I'm just putting the café on the Internet to maximize all revenue sources. Fifth, I will not really feel a rivalry among existing competition because there are so many web sites that are only offering pre-packaged items that us coming online will be viewed as less of a threat, since my motto is all café items will be fresh made with high quality products. This leads to my way ahead, which is using the generic focused strategy. Hence, I'm focusing on giving my Internet customers the same care, promptness and product quality that I give to my customers that physically come to the café.

5. E-Business Strategy

This is why I chose the business-to-consumer methodology to revamp the café business structure. B2C strategy gives me the ability to take my already established business and share it with the rest of the world via the Internet. By doing this, I will be helping the Broadway café attract new customers locally and internationally. Furthermore, our new web site will give new customers a picture of what they are missing and what they would want to have when they come to the great city of Woodbridge. Meaning it will be one of ...