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Category: Level 3, Software Enterprise

Published: Thursday, 06 September 2018 08:55

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Introduction

The main porpuse of the module was, to give an insight on software enterprise, foundation of business development and leadership skills. The lectures and the assignments gave a taste on local and international business implications and important elements of services. Also learned the importance of design, marketing, branding, financial plans, the administration and the possibilities offered by social networks.The group work was extremely important for the development of personal skills as well as evaluation, decision making, risk assessment, communication and problem solving.

The development procces in a business is made up from three main parts, which has taught the basics to the group as mentioned above. The first subject was the product, by which we do not only mean physical products, but also products such as services. The second is the porpuse of people within the business. The third was business processes. In the next paragraphs we will give more detail on these topics.

After the first group has attempted to find a product or service that is related to the previous studies within the University so we can utilise the knowledge gained there. The choice was to create a website named ''StudentDeal'', that would provide online discounts, coupons to students studying in the UK. So as the group would have set up an online service that offers discounts. The online offers would have been retrieved from systems known by one of the group member's (Affiliate, SkimLinks) which would have been displayed with a WordPress framework and Clipper template. The system would have redirected the customers to the websites that offer the discount, by using a special link we could use Cookies to store the information of the source and after any purchase, we would get paid a percentage of the purchase. As the product is a web page the only expenditure would have been the purchase of the domain name. We could use our private web server and use a free framework, to minimise expenses.

The group had four members. The different tasks were distributed between the members taking their experience and skills into account. One of the members have taken the task of administration, offer search, and search engine optimisation, another member has undertaken the managing of registration through social networks, while I took on the task of domain registration, server setup, framework installation and accountancy. We have arranged regular meetings to discuss the tasks carried out and other work required to continue the project. One of the main issues was not picking a group leader, so he could keep track and push the group to finish any unfinished tasks. Operating Agreement was not made within the group so there was no possible sanction. These deficiencies also contributed to the groups low tendecy to work.

The third topic was all about business processes. After Product selection and task distribution, the members of the group aimed to achieve the largest amount of profit possible in the shortest time possible as the main goal. In order to follow our set goals we had to learn about the basic operation of a business. One of the exapmles is getting to know the environmental attributes associated with the product, the systems that are being used (Affiliate, SkimLinks) and finding online offers that are important to the target audience and displaying them on our website. Due to the limited budget we were using free platforms and social media to advertise the website. With the knowledge and informationed gained we countinously monitored our progress, to see if there are any errors or problems need fixing. Other important tasks would have been support, development and with the possible money made, investing it into using other marketing techniques.

As mentioned above from the different views and tasks, it shows that we have chosen a complex activity.A truly efficient operation, significant research work and getting to know new, previously unknown areas is required. Group members with negative attitude can break the development of a business, so good teamwork and cooporation is required.

Literature review of the role of product and product development in small business

In this module we have received the task to start a business with 4 people. The starting capital was limited to £20. We had to complete the main tasks within a short time limit andmake as much profit as possible. The literature should be review to understand the meaning of product, its basic characteristics and its role within small businesses.

A product can be an object, service or intellectual which is needed by somebody. They can also be tangible or intangible. Tangible products are created at a factory and then it moves through different distribution channels until it gets to the consumer. During the sales, marketing has a significant role (Business Dictionary 2015).When creating a product, innovation, environmental protection and ethics need to be kept in mind. In terms of development, costumer focus, technical opportunities and sustainability is important.

You need a certain amount of skill for product development. In the software industry there is product management, but previously it was brand management. The lack of experts was made up by the hire of engineers. As product management cannot keep up with software development advancing, the IT technicians have to learn on their own (Chisa 2014).

The acceptance of new technology is an important factor during the product development process. This topic has been researched. The analysis was compared to Revolutionary Technology-driven Product (RTP), the Unified Technology Acceptance and Utilization Theory (UTAUT) and Task -Technology Fit (TTF) models. The RTP includes products that cannot be included in existing categories or known models or brands. The TTF theory researches the connection between technology and individual skill. When developing a new product, the users’ previous technological knowledge and capabality to adapt has to be taken into consideration too. According to the research, brand loyalty, wide range of services and ease of use were the most important to the consumers (Park, Gunn, Lee & Shim 2015).

For a good product, development is not the only important factor, but Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) should also be researched. One of the most important factors in PLM is monitoring the behaviour of the users and based on these results, further improvement of the product has to be carried out. Such as the user learning new knowledge, which will affect the next generation product’s necesssary functions (Horvath & Rudas 2013).

Walkdenmeyer and Hartman publicised studies on the habits for small and medium business's using product data management tools in 2013. They are using PDM tools to safely store, control data, which also provides ease of access and management. Building a system like this is complex and it could be very costly. Surprisingly small businesses were curious about the results of the study. These small businesses do not have the capacity to run high grade systems, but they handle surprisingly large amounts of data through their own systems. This study highlights, how small businesses can cope with globalization, and how they will be able to connect to bigger companies with their unique skills.

Another study, showcases the importance of new product development. The analysis draws attention to the markets opposition to technological innovations. It also draws attention to product availability and market shares. They have sent 200 questionnaires out to project managers and it was asking about their latest developments. More than half of the data that was received was useful and a third of this was from telecommunication and electronics related. The opposition of new technology by the users can be reduce with micro-political methods. One of these methods is to develop the product with the help of the users. But the most important factor is the consideration of environmental variables (Sethi, Iqbal, & Sethi 2012).

The studies mentioned above, showcases the difficulties of managing a product during the process of creation and its lifetime. Although the big profits are sometimes are created in a moment, but the real challenge for everybody, is continuous development and sales. Choosing a product or developing it is one of the most important decision in a business, so it should be first priority. The development is impossible when a product not suitable to the given environment or when the product is unusable.

References

1. Business Dictionary (2015).Pruduct Definition, Available from: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/product.html [13 December 2015]

2. Chisa, E.(2014). 'Evolution of the Product Manager', Communications Of The ACM, 57, 11, pp. 48-52, Business Source Elite, EBSCOhost, viewed 9 October 2015.

3. Horvath, L.& Rudas, I.(2013). 'Product definition by requested behavior',2013 IEEE 17Th International Conference On Intelligent Engineering Systems (INES), p. 249, Publisher Provided Full Text Searching File, EBSCO host, viewed 9 October 2015.

4. Park, J., Gunn, F., Lee, Y., & Shim, S.(2015). 'Consumer acceptance of a revolutionary technology-driven product: The role of adoption in the industrial design development', Journal Of Retailing And Consumer Services, 26, pp. 115-124, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, viewed 9 October 2015.

5. Sethi, R., Iqbal, Z., & Sethi, A.(2012). 'Developing New-to-the-Firm Products: The Role of Micropolitical Strategies', Journal Of Marketing , 76, 2, pp. 99-115, Business Source Elite, EBSCOhost, viewed 9 October 2015.

6. Waldenmeyer, K., & Hartman, N.(2013). 'Small & Medium Enterprises-Their Views of Product Data Management Tools', Journal Of Technology Studies, 39, 1, pp. 2-12, Professional Development Collection, EBSCOhost, viewed 9 October 2015.

Self-Reflection First Handin

As mentioned before, the purpose of the module is to create a business with minimal starting capital. The objective needs to be completed as a group, we have had to decide on the first lecture what our main activities were, when we did not have any knowledge about the product. Not having this information and with only having very limited time our decision was not optimal. As the name of the module is Software Enterprises and we were learning IT so far, we tried to find a product, which would fit into this subject and we could use our previously learned knowledge.

The low amount of starting capital has already ruled out the chances of a tangible product, so only a service remains. The market for services is completely covered by multinational companies, it is really difficult for small companies to find a gap that they could fill. As one of our group members has already had experience with online coupons and because we are students, we have decided with online discount offers for students. Since I have no experience in this market, I registered the domain name (studentdeal.co.uk) for £3.49(Appendix 1.1., Appendix 2.1.)for a basic CMS system installation (Appendix 4.1.) on my own server and its configuration (Appendix 3.1.). As one of our group members had the knowledge and sharing it has caused some problems, the website is up, but it does not offer any deals for potential customers. I have also registered for the services of Google and made it visible on their services, such as Google Analytics (Appendix 5.1.) and Google Webmaster (Search Console). As with previous teamwork related projects, the teamwork is cumbersome, the project is not going forward with the expected speed. I was given the task of Financial Organisation and accountancy, but since we only have a single expense and we did not receive any revenue, and I still do not have the exact details of the business plans, I cannot complete my tasks.

Lectures held on the subject were about the definitions of products and their classifications and their main components. Also the subject of other lectures were about the expectations of running a small business and the basics of making a sale. The current state of our project does not allow us to put any of this information to use. To have an actual efficient work, we have to put more research into our chosen service, and the students, as our target market's usual behaviour. Based on the information so far, we have to sort the discounts on offer and putting them out to show would be our most important task. Once there is a useable, shown supply on our website, only then can we start with advertising, search engine optimisation in order to get as many customers as possible. With the rest of the starting capital the most appropriate action would be to spend in on the advertising and then continuing the advertising by financing it from sales. As Google dominates the search engine market, we definitely have to make sure our website is visible on there. But we still have to do some researching, to find the most economical and largest advertising platforms, to make sure that it is money well spent.

After the first phase, we can come to the conclusion that to create a well made structure for business activity, knowledge, accurate mapping and research is vital. For the future projects similar to this, it would help a lot find a product we, as a group, already have basic knowledge on its main attributes, so we can avoid a number of problems we ran into. However, if the module is about problem solving, we could use the same method so we could create problems from the outset.

Literature review of people in the organisation

The definition of organisation is a group of people who take part in structured and managed meeting to reach a common goal (Business Dictionary 2015). From this we can conclude that the main part of an organisation are people, therefore the individual properties define the characteristics of the organisation. The relationships within organizations and tasks are defined by regulations.

Probably, Stephen P. Robbins (San Diego State University) carried out the deepest study about people’s role in organisations in his Organization Behavior series. The 16th edition of this book was issued last year which proves its authenticity. Only the 15th edition was available for our literature review. According to Stephen P. Robbins, individual abilities are divided into the following categories in terms of importance of organisations.

Diversity of these abilities also points out that various atrributes can determine the roles of individuals in an organisation. Besides abilities, many other attributes can influence the performance of an individual. These are, without mentioning all, Diversity in Organisations, Attitudes and Job Satisfaction, Emotions and Moods, Personality and Values and Motivation.

Relationship between people and organisations has a negative side, too. According to Clive R. Boddy (2011), efficient operation of organisations can be affected significantly by numerous negative actions. Bullying, Conflict, Withdrawal from Work, Ethical Issues and Unfair Supervision can be mentioned as the most common causes. Boddy gives a detailed analysis of the impact of these actions on organisations, and also tries to find possible solutions.

Communication has not been mentioned yet, but it is a key feature of organisations. Collier, Blackstone and Taylor (2012) mainly discuss the communication with handicapped people but also list communication features of other aspect of society. Among the types of communication, such as verbal, written communication and others, verbal communication is chosen the most important one by nearly 100% of respondents. Within verbal communication, face-to-face communication is considered principal one by 88% of interviewees. Additional research was carried out regarding electronic conversations, such as telephone or Skype. Conversations via Social Media or Internet are ranked nearly as equal as face-to-face spoken communication.

Employment relationship is one of the most common relationship between organisations and people. This theme was studied by Coyle-Shapiro and Shore (2007) in “The employee-organization relationship: where do we go from here?”title of publication. The first publications were issued about employment relationship more than 50 years ago, and it has been a subject of research since then. Booming technology and modern social structures have brought professional career to the fore, thus other aspects have been ranked back what were important before. This process has also increased the importance of research of relationship between employee and employer.

Mullins and Christy (2010) analyses behaviour and characteristics of organisations through 900 pages in Management & Organisational Behaviour. The book mainly specifies the features of organisations. Categorisation of organisations, such as informal and formal organisation, has not been covered in my report yet, but it is worth pointing out. The comparison of these two types of organisations is shown by the table below. Informal organisations are flexible and less structural, and members cannot be identified in most cases. These organisations can be characterised by spontaneity and diversity, too. Formal organisation has contrary features.

Source : Adapted from Gray, J. L. and Starke, F. A. Organizational Behavior: Concepts and Applications, fourth edition, Merrill PublishingCompany (1988), p. 432. Reproduced with permission from Pearson Education Inc.

While reading through the literature we have gained information on the important human qualities and abilities in an organisation and also the possible negative qualities. In addition, we met another key element of the organization, communication, this was highlighted in the literature. The most common relationship with employment is unfortunately when the career progress is focused on instead of other important aspects such as motivation. We have been introduced to the basics of formal and informal organisations. Although this did not provide a lot of information, it did point out the importance of individual skills, communication and determines how rules are handled in a business.

References

1. Boddy, C. (2011) Corporate Psychopaths: Organisation Destroyers Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

2. Business Dictionary (2015), Organization Definition, Available from: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/organization.html[16 December 2015]

3. Collier, B., Blackstone, S., & Taylor, A. (2012) 'Communication Access to Businesses and Organizations for People with Complex Communication Needs', AAC: Augmentative & Alternative Communication, 28, 4, pp. 205-218 14p, CINAHL with Full Text, EBSCOhost, viewed 31 October 2015.

4. Coyle-Shapiro, Jacqueline A-M. and Shore, Lynn M. (2007) The employee-organization relationship: where do we go from here? Human resource management review, 17 (2). pp. 166-179. ISSN 1053-4822 DOI: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2007.03.008

5. Mullins, L. & Christy, G. (2010) Management & Organisational Behaviour, n.p.: Harlow : Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2010., Library Catalogue, EBSCOhost, viewed 1 November 2015.

6. Norton, T., Zacher, H. & Ashkanasy, N. (2014) 'Organisational sustainability policies and employee green behaviour: The mediating role of work climate perceptions', Journal Of Environmental Psychology, 38, pp. 49-54, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, viewed 31 October 215.

7. Parker, S. & Ying, W. (2015), 'Helping people to 'make things happen': A framework for proactivity at work', International Coaching Psychology Review, 10, 1, pp. 62-75, SPORTDiscus with Full Text, EBSCOhost, viewed 31 October 2015.

8. Robbins, S. and Judge, T. (2013). Organizational behaviour 15/E. Boston: Pearson.

Self-Reflection Second Handin

During the assessment of the first Literature Review and Self-Reflection, several mistakes were pointed out. These mistakes were too much survey data, short evaluation of results and listing previous personal experiences in the section of evaluation. Since it was my first Literature Review during my university studies, I tried to use instructions and knowledge what I have gained during a semester of Academic English module. In my view, personal experieces are the part of the knowledge of this topic but only curriculum has to be summarised in order to give a feedback. As I have learned from mistakes, previous documents will be amended and the given guideline will be followed in this report.

The second phase has not brought any changes into the work of the group. Only slight cooperation could be identified. Only one member attended the meeting so majority decisions could not be made. Although, as a result of negative experience of previous group works, I vowed that I would never do more than other group members, I could not stand the wait and I started again to do the agreed group work by myself. During the work, I tried to find online vouchers and offers which are related to the name and subject of the project. In other words, I was looking for offers for students in the Affiliate system which matches their primary shopping habits. Our project had been presented to a marketing student who suggested focusing on food, drinks and clothes because students spent money on these items. I have not found any commercial offers in Affiliate system which would suit our target group and fall into the above mentioned categories. I have noticed another problem during searching in the only system I know. Multi-companies on Affiliates require exclusive subscriptions for using their advertisements, and although I sent some request I have not got any respond. I shared these problems with the only group member presented at our next meeting whom suggested moving the system to the United States. In my opinion, before doing so, a primary research should be carried out to be able to explore which target group can find useful online offers in the new country. Unnecessary new domain registration should be avoided as well as spending money on it from low start-up capital.

Only one member attended again at the second meeting, and he is the only one who has personal experiences about the main activity of the group. This group member presented two other relevant systems which were Skimlinks and FMTC.CO. Skimlink is a similar system to Affiliate but exclusive subscriptions are not required. I have tried to register on that site several times but email for registration confirmation has not arrived so I have not been able to finish the registration process. FMTC.CO is an aggregator where users can search for offers but generating a link and making profit are not possible. Because of the above mentioned reasons, our system is still unable to make profit. My task would also be to make financial plan but we have got only one payment, do not have income, what is more, do not have tool for making income either, so making the plan is not possible.

In the second phase of the lectures we became acquainted with the main characteristics of organizations such as their structure, internal and external influences, strategy, rules and expected work of the employees. The other subject was the role of networks, quality and value analysis and social trends such as demographics, religion, culture, family etc.

Lectures and our research pointed out how complex an individual’s role is at a company, enterprise, and how people can influence its operation. These aspects are proved well by our project’s pitfalls. Our project did not move forward in the last weeks which can be justified by lack of communication, disorganisation and lack of motivation, too. If we really want to establish an enterprise which will be operating efficiently, we have to correct these fundamental errors.

For the reasons listed above, it did not feel as if anybody within the group gained experience, but during this period some basic errors were revealed in the details of the project. After realising the basics of the coupon system, we had to make changes. We have found more service providers and with each service we had to learn the way each individual system worked and new research had to be carried out. For effective teamwork, more meetings should have been arranged, and the group should have put more attention and effort into working on the project. Each group member should have had an assigned task and establish rules or penalise intentional omissions. It would be important for the selected target group’shabits, learning about the culture as well. Information on profits should be obtained to create a financial plan. A number of other tasks need be addressed, but first basic rules should be established and the most important knowledge on the subject should be learned.

Literature review on developing business processes

The main topic of the third module is processes in a business environment. The following literature review will examine these processes. In this document we are looking for answers for the reason why we need these processes, how they have developed in the last few years and what amounts to a good business process.

Processes by definition mean a series of actions or steps taken in order to reach a defined end. According to the definition of business processes, it is a logically built up order of jobs and tasks, such as planning, manufacturing, sales etc., which are needed to achieve a specific goal (Busineess Dictionary 2015).

When searching for Business Process Modelling google finds 1.470 million hits, while the simulation only gets 40 thousand hits. Modelling is a complicated task, but it occurs in every major business. The main difference between modelling and a simulation, that in a simulation we can clearly see the variables and we can analyse them, altough the variables do not always show actual real-life values. Business rules defining these data should be clarified, but unfortunately for a long time in the business, rules and simulations were developed separately. There are many known languages known for modeling. The most well known is Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), 2.0 was released by the Object Management Group in 2011. Many large businesses like IBM, ORACLE, Sparx use it. These businesses mostly do software related work, so these methods were optimised for this industry which does not always correspond with other industries. Human creativity can support modeling, but it could also cause problems during development. Simulation is not used as often, although it can create results that are much more accurate (Stankevičius & Vasilecas, 2014).

Business Process Management is influenced by the enviromental variables, so it is important to focus on this unique aspect. In the list of situational requirements are not always accurate according to the situation. BPM environmental characteristics can be divided into the following categories.

· The characteristics of our goal are the primary subject we need to look at, to find out which techniques we should use. Different objectives could be exploitation and exploration.

· The next category is the features. These include the value contribution of repeatability, knowledge intensity (Cao, Thompson, & Trichet, 2013), creativity, interdependence and variety as well.

· Different categories can be organized into characteristics as well. This category includes the scope, industry, size, culture, resource features. The category includes competitiveness and environmental uncertainty.

The situation is complicated by the fact that the listed environment variables are constantly changing, hence the need for continuous re- planning, "Business Process Engineering” (Brocke & Schmiedel, 2015).

One important category in Business Processes is Re-engineering (BPR). In recent decades due to globalization the BRP also had given a greater role. The basic objective of BRP is to eliminate and correct errors. This can be found in every instance and its use is vital as well, design errors can occur at any time. One known method of detecting errors is to map the base knowledge. This displays the knowledge of individuals or a group as a whole. The main questions this makes is who knows what and what can they do inside the business.

The development of business processes is an important part of all organizations. It is a process that is both complex and influenced by many variables. During the planning we have to take the basic goals into consideration, as well as the environmental features, because only by knowing this can management is effective. Management needs to analyse regularly and any problems that are discovered by this should be reworked to fix the problem, which depending on the seriousness of the problem could mean a complete system overhaul.

References

1. Brocke, J., Zelt, S., & Schmiedel, T. (2015). 'Viewpoint: On the role of context in business process management', International Journal Of Information Management, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, viewed 26 November 2015.

2. Business Dictionary (2015). BusinessProcess Definition, Available from: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/business-process.html [25 November 2015]

3. Cao, Q., Thompson, M., & Triche, J. (2013). 'Investigating the role of business processes and knowledge management systems on performance: A multi-case study approach', International Journal Of Production Research, 51, 18, pp. 5565-5575, Business Source Elite, EBSCOhost, viewed 25 November 2015.

4. Musa, M.A., Othman, M.S. & Al-RahimiW.M. (2013).Ontology Driven Knowledge Map forEnhancing Business Process Reengineering, Computer Science & Engineering:An International Journal (CSEIJ),Vol. 3, No. 6, December 2013

5. Rao, L., Mansingh, G. & Osei-Bryson, K. (2012). 'Building ontology based knowledge maps to assist business process re-engineering', Decision Support Systems, 52, pp. 577-589, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, viewed 26 November 2015.

6. Stankevičius, K. & Vasilecas, O. (2014). 'Research on rules-based business process modelling and simulation', Science: Future Of Lithuania, 6, 2, p. 147, Publisher Provided Full Text Searching File, EBSCOhost, viewed 26 November 2015.

Self-Reflection Third Handin

The third phase of this module was about business processes, so in this self-reflection the we will look at the subjects main aspects. So in this self reflection we will show the different processes that occured in the team work, also what would have been vital for improvement.

As nothing has changed since the first day in the group, it is still difficult to make positive descisions about the task at hand. So far we have only received negative feedback, where we want to achieve positive one, but because of the lack of progress this is difficult.

Since the previous section we have found out that starting plans are not working, as there are no online deals in the systems known and used by us for the UK students. So we have made the descision to expand our target group to the United States and we will place new coupons and deals on a new website. I have purchased a domain named, greaonlinedeals.com(Appendix 1.2.) I have set up the DNS server (Appendix 2.2.)on an appropriate storage(Appendix 3.2.). I have installed WordPress CMS and Clipper add-ons(Appendix 4.2.). I have set up a new GoogleAnalitics account (Appendix 5.2.). Registered a new e-mail address. All the projects expenditures were covered by me for the two domains, and so far after many requests only one of the other group members paid their part. I have shared the new e-mail address with SkimLinks, which is used by all members of the group. As the new account was not opened after a week, I have contacted customer services, after which they have activated the account in a couple of days. So every tool was in place for us to use, so we could create useful content and attempt to make profit.

If I wanted to make better progress, what would I do? To avoid previous errors, make related reasearch about the market, assess opportunities and demand. I would select work, which we are experienced with or can be learned within a reasonable period of time. Make plans about the differents steps and goals that need to be achieved. While we carry out the tasks I would analyse the plans to see if they are realistic, their effectiveness and would change the plans accordingly. I would oraganise every individual in the groups and give them tasks, depending on their skills and would request reports as to what was done to complete the task. This with my experience, does not mean that I will be making large amounts of documents, as with previous businesses I could do this task simply by using my memory. Leading a small group of four people, does not require complex leadership system. A complex system is much more appropriate for Large businesses or when the objectives itself are complex.

I would have chosen other activities because of lack of expertise effective work cannot be carried out. The marketing industry has specialised and with multimillion investments they have reached monopoly status. On a market like this, a small, inexperienced group and without any budget, has no chance at all.

It is likely that the subjects mentioned in this and previous modules, help with teamwork in real-life situations adn that’s why they were included in our corriculum. Unfortunately, I have not managed to gain any experince regarding this subject. The cause was probably the lack of motivation. I hope that in the future I will be able to gain much more useful experience and I will be able to use it alongside the subject learned here.

Conclusion

In the life of businesses continous improvement is essential. Altough during the project we did not manage to make any substential profit, but we did manage to gain experince about business creation and the way they function, so we can rate the work we managed to do and we learned about the upcoming tasks.

The starting business plans did not work, as the chosen market was chosen without much knowledge about it. Therefore the requirements for the product were not met. We could not change this fact simply from our inhouse experience, so we have chosen a new product and a new area of operation. The http://greatonlinedeals.co/ domain name was registered as mentioned previously, where we could reach any customer in the United States and offer coupons to them. We have decided to do this because, as other online coupon offering systems also focus on this market, and this area has the largest supply and demand for it. The error in the decision in we made, a lesson we can learn from this is that it is essential to know the product and its environment that you are trying to sell.

The main subject of the second part of the assignment was about the importance of individual skills within a business. We have received information during the presentations and making literature reviews, but due to the absence of activity not much experience was gained. The group had every negative qualities that were given to us as examples, causing our progress to not move forward at the required pace. Within the group disorganisation, withdrawal from work and communication shortfall was common. This could have been caused by the fact that the group was not made using traditional methods, the group was not created based on individual skill, but it was chosen randomly and we tried to adapt certain tasks to this fact. In a real-life situation this only rarely happens and there are problems operations there too. The project being unsuccessful has probably contributed to the cause of negativity, as a successful company encourages each member.

In the third unit we have looked at business processes. A well built business model needs to have exact operating rules established, giving out tasks and managing ranks, the management of processes. This is difficult to simulate in a small group. Although not much work was done by the group, however some process was easy to notice within the group. For example re-planning, which we had to go through after we realised the dysfuntion of our plan. If we analyse our project using the Business Project Management then we can make the following conclusions.

· The goal of the project is simple, making as much profit as possible, but because the goal's uncertainty, it is left too open, which could cause problems in decision making.

· The intensity of the knowledge required was the most concerning characteristic as it adversly affected effeciency.

· Due to the short time limit external factors changed aswell, because our offers were not appropriate offers for our target market, therefore we had make new plans and we had to learn about a new environment.

Drawing a conclusion from above we can see that the project was insufficient for real-life business characteristics and process simulation, but gained some information about them. We have learned the basics, we have seen new aspects on the subject, and we were part of a processes we have never been a part of until the project. Learning from our errors and mistakes, we can make a better start with the next similar project.

Appendix has been shared at E-Portfolio system: https://eportfolio.sunderland.ac.uk/view/view.php?id=18188

Project access details available at Appendix 6.

Appendix

1. Invoices

1.1. StudentDeal.co.uk

Source: Paypal.com, Accessed: 3^rd January 2016

1.2.GreatOnlineDeals.co

Source: Paypal.com, Accessed: 3^rd January 2016

2. DNS settings

2.1. StudentDeal.co.uk

Source: GoDaddy.com, Accessed: 3^rd January 2016

2.2.GreatOnlineDeals.co

Source: GoDaddy.com, Accessed: 3^rd January 2016

3. Server settings

3.1. StudentDeal.co.uk

Source: Webszolg.info, Accessed: 3^rd January 2016

3.2.GreatOnlineDeals.co

Source: Webszolg.info, Accessed: 3^rd January 2016

4. Word Press CMS systems

4.1. StudentDeal.co.uk

Source: StudentDeal.co.uk/wp-admin, Accessed: 3^rd January 2016

4.2.GreatOnlineDeals.co

Source: GreatOnlineDeals.co/wp-admin, Accessed: 3^rd January 2016

5. Google Analytics

5.1. StudentDeal.co.uk

Source: https://www.google.com/analytics/, Accessed: 3^rd January 2016

5.2.GreatOnlineDeals.co

Source: https://www.google.com/analytics/, Accessed: 3^rd January 2016

6. Access Details

6.1. StudentDeal.co.uk

6.2. GreatOnlineDeals.co