Can Customer-Centric E-Business System Achieve Competitive Advantage for DreamState Cinema Inc

Abstract
The main objective of this study is to provide significant new insights into the development and implementation of e-business strategies that will lead DreamState Cinema to a competitive advantage. Compitetors that have implemented a on-line booking system has noticed a rapid jump in ticket sales.

The success of application of e-business strategy to DreamState Cinema depends on the value added of e-business to DreamState Cinema . Currently, many Cinemas are looking at e-business to protect their assets and to secure customer's loyalty, and to be successful in today's competitive environment. In view of the new features of Internet, the core question of this paper is: Can an e-business system utilising Internet technology to achieve competitive advantages for DreamState Cinema ?

Introduction
Many e-commerce principles were pioneered by the Cinema industry. These include the first business-to-business electronic information exchange and industry-wide electronic marketplace. This environment provided unprecedented opportunity for operations research (OR) modelling. Cinemas continue to derive billions of dollars annually from these and derivative models. The availability of reliable, low-cost communications via the Internet is not only providing new modelling challenges within the cinema industry, but it is also providing similar opportunities in other industries. Electronic Commerce is defined as "buying and selling of goods and services through electronic technology utilising on line services such as Internet, interactive television, commercial online services and screen telephones so that an organization's objective can be achieved." In the 21st century digital technologies will push beyond the existing boundaries in all these spheres of our lives . The transition from brickand-mortar business to "clicks" business is happening in all sectors of the economy . Any size business can have an e-commerce strategy; from a

sports club selling T-shirts with their name on, to a medium-sized business selling widgets, through to a traditional retail behemoth like WalMart . Some e-commerce companies sell only over the Internet; others sell both over the Internet and in standard brick-and-mortar distribution channels . Most cinema managers realize that a major business transition is taking place. Some believe the various processes by which business strategies are developed will need to change. New value propositions are being promoted by e-commerce, and it is being used to give cinemas competitive advantage. Regardless of which business model cinemas adopt, to be successful, cinemas need to understand how the Web and e-commerce affects their business . Cinemas need to develop an overall strategy covering: strategic management, IT infrastructure, design, content, e-commerce systems, marketing and customer service. Cinemas also need to be creative and entrepreneurial. As every entrepreneur knows however, you will only be truly successful if you provide genuine value to your customers and solve a problem for them.

Research Question Answered

Can a DreamState Cinema website increase market share and customer loyalty by achieve competitive advantage utilising e-business models? Undoubtedly, one of the faster-growing business sectors is Internet-based commerce, commonly called e-commerce (electronic commerce) or I-commerce (Internet commerce). E-commerce includes both B2C (Business-to-Consumer) and B2B (Business-toBusiness). The demand for e-commerce systems will translate into career opportunities and new challengers for systems developers, another name for systems analysts. Advances in technology have greatly expanded the role of e-commerce in business. Some business analysts believe that the Internet is changing consumer buying habits and reshaping the economy. E-commerce is changing traditional business models and creating new ones . To figure out just how fast the Internet economy is growing, the Centre for Research in Electronic Commerce at the University of Texas at Austin conducted a study of over 2000 Internet companies. If found explosive growth from $322 billion in 1998 to $524 billion in 1999, a 68% increase. The fastest growing sector was e-commerce, which skyrocketed by 72% from $99.8 billion to $171.5 billion. According to researchers' estimate, over 50,000 companies make some or all of their money online. By 2002, over a trillion dollars in revenue will be generated through the Internet . The number of Internet users surpassed 530 million in 2001 and will

continue to grow strongly in the next five years. Most of the growth is coming from Asia, Latin America and parts of Europe. By year-end 2005 the number of worldwide Internet users will double to 1.12B [9]. Goldman Sachs has estimated that B2B e-commerce will generate as much as 1.5 trillion dollars in revenues by 2004, with some estimates running even higher . Between 2001 and 2002, the proportion of Internet users that are shopping online has not increased. However, an increase in number of people online has helped to ensure that e-Commerce is growing [11]. Corporate spending for e-commerce infrastructure is increasing, despite the current economic slowdown. Worldwide spending on software and IT services are projected to increase nearly 36%, to $1.15 trillion, by 2003 . The Customer-Centric Electronic Business (CCEB) system model for cinema industry is still in its infancy, therefore, there are limited resources available. Customer-Centric Management is related to what is called Customer Relationship Management (CRM). "CRM is defined as aligning business strategy, corporate culture and organization, customer information, and supporting information technology; so that all customer interactions promote a mutually beneficial relationship between each customer and enterprise."

Constraints and Limitation of Previous Models

Dreamstate Cinemas uses a standalone system of booking seats for their customers. This stand alone system is inefficient, ineffective, unreliable and inconvenient since it requires customers to go physically to the booking office. They may even find queue which may inconvenience them. Sometimes, they may even find that the seats for their specified movie are all booked hence wasting their time going to the booking office. In addition, the stand alone systems makes the booking offices overcrowded. Furthermore, the management of the booking records by the companys employees can only be done at the companys offices. This means that, one cannot do his/her duties outside the office. Also, a lot of paper work is encountered when using the manual system. Hence, records are stored in paper files which are difficult to deal with when retrieving a desired record, paper files occupy large space and they are also more vulnerable to natural calamities such as fire. Clerks may also cause double booking erroneously. Due to the above stated problems associated with the standalone system, there is much need to come up with an online-based system whereby much of the booking process will be done online. In this type of system, customers will have to book for their seats anywhere

provided theres Internet connectivity and the Online Booking Management System is available. On the other hand, Dreamstate Cinema employees and owners will also be able to do their managerial and administrative duties online hence more convenient. Double booking will be unable to occur due to the higher degree of accuracy of the web-based system.A web based Approach will be customer centric.

Research Approach for This Work

System engineering and marketing approach
System Engineering Approach to gain a better understanding of customer's requirements and Marketing Approach to learn about customer's needs. System Engineering:

Definition of the problem and system requirement System Analysis Preliminary System Design Detail System Design Model Validation and Simulation Model Performance Measurement System Installation and Operation Analysis of Results

Marketing:

Product Place Price Promotion

Benefits to the Community and Industry

There are many benefits to be gained for cinemas and cinema goers, firstly, cinema goers could book and check in through internet 24 hours, 7 days a week, at any time, any where. Secondly, cinemas could reduce sales cost. Significance derived from CCEB implementation will allow for new business model, based on the wide availability of information and its direct distribution to end-customers.

Directly connect DreamState Cinema and customers. Support fully digital information exchange between Dreamstate Cinema and customers, reduced cost of a customer contact. Suppress time and place limits.

Support interactivity and therefore can dynamically adapt to customer behaviour. To be able to satisfy customers' need, build customer confidence and retention. Can be updated in real-time, therefore always up-to-date. Enhance DreamState Cinema competitive advantages over its rivals Profitable and sustainable revenue growth.

Experimental Hypothesis Application of E-business Strategy could achieve competitive advantage for DreamState Cinema .
Design questionnaire and collect data

1. Do you think Dreamstate Website increase your satisfaction with the cinema? A. Yes B. No 2. Would you give up traditional booking if you have used Internet booking? A. Yes B. No 3. Web based chat room will increase your satisfaction with Dreamstate cinema? A. Yes B. No 4. Web based FAQs will increase your satisfaction with dreamstate cinema? A. Yes B. No 5. E-mail newsletters will increase your satisfaction with Dreamststate Cinema? A. Yes B. No 6. Web based one-to-one services will increase your satisfaction with dreamState cinema? A. Yes B. No 7. Web based ticket discounts will increase your satisfaction with Dreamstate cinema? A. Yes B. No 8. Personalized Website will increase your satisfaction with DramState Cinema? A. Yes B. No 9. Have you used the E ticketing option? A. Yes B. No 10. How do you think E-ticket? A. Excellent B. Good C. Fair D. Poor E. Very Poor

JUSTIFICATION OF AN ONLINE-BASED SYSTEM

The adoption of World Wide Web (WWW) has made the use of Internet ,as an appreciable way of communication and sharing resources, very reliable. Nowadays, services over the Internet have been greatly embraced due to convenience and faster access of the services unlike the manual process. This has led to the development of web-based applications. Objectives of the Online Booking Management System is to improve efficiency and effectiveness during seat booking process by the customers, to efficiently and effectively manage and administer all Dreamstate Cinemas records and movie schedule .The public part of the Online Booking Management System offers customers capability to book their bus seats online and then the system auto generates provisional tickets. On the staff part of the system, owners and employees use to manage the system once they are authenticated and also generate relevant reports.

The Web-based System would increase the efficiency of customer service hence it will attract a very good number of customers due to the conveniences it will offer to the customer. The customer will be able to book for their seats online hence no need to go physically to the booking office and therefore overcrowding at the offices will be greatly reduced. To add on this, security problems that would otherwise be caused by congestion of customers at the booking offices will be reduced. The system will offer better management of records since the management process can be done even outside the premises. This is achievable especially when one is at home but needs to do some administrative duties hence he will have to accomplish what he/she wants online.The system will also save time since it will offer faster services to both the staff and customers. Moreover, it is cost effective since the company will require only a few numbers of employees to handle booking process, and also web-based system makes it possible to share resources since only one server will be required. Furthermore, there is presence of centralized database whereby authorized individuals can retrieve their desired information reliably and efficiently.