Recomendations.

[Regino]

Throughout the semester, we, as a group, have analyzed a structured and dynamic business process and their corresponding information systems. As we analyzed these processes, we came across multiple issues with each process. We have created recommendations that will help Target with each process.

   

     The first system we analyzed and found a problem in was with the structured process and corresponding information system. As brought up previously in the report, the structured process that we researched is the Order fulfillment process. Also known as “curbside pick up”. This process is a major part of Target and needs to run smoothly to be successful. As mentioned in the analysis section, a main problem that occurs during this process is that Target employees do not know exactly when the customers will be arriving at the store. Based on this analysis, we have come to a few recommendations that we can give. First of all, Target could make a change to their software. The change would include creating a pop-up notification for the user indicating to enable geolocation services (GPS). This will allow Target employees to know exactly where the customer is located while on the way to Target to pick up their order. To follow up, if the customer does not want to share their location for any reason, there needs to be an alternative. As the customer denies access to their location, there would be another notification to choose a pick up window. The customer would select a desired store location, choose a date and time, wait for a confirmation, then come during their desired time window. Both of these recommendations will tremendously help the problem that we found within the structured process. It will do so by helping Target employees achieve the three minute window goal of getting the product to the customer.

    

    Next is the dynamic process. As mentioned before, the dynamic process we analyzed is Target’s Beacon Technology. The biggest issue we found with this technology is the irrelevant ads. There are many ways to fix this type of issue, but there are a few that we recommend the most. Our first recommendation would be to keep the number of ads per visit at no more than two. As many studies show, if a customer receives more than two ads, it decreases the amount of users that will use the Target app again. Our second recommendation is to change the requirements needed to send an ad to the user. Target sends ads based on search history, which is not always the proper way. Many users browse items online; however, this does not mean that they are interested or want to purchase that specific item. Instead, Target should change the ad process. If they went from search history to recorded time spent looking at an item, more customers would be satisfied with the ads shown. In order for this to happen, a minimum time threshold the user has to look at a product needs to be set in place. This will drastically decrease the unnecessary ads that users receive, and increase the chance of the user utilizing the Target app again. This will also help keep the ads that a user receives under our recommended amount of two per visit. All ad issues would be resolved this way, and it would generate much higher positive feedback.