Introductions The strategic information analysis is very crucial in driving a business.

Each business has its own information needs and strategic information system to keep their knowledge and information base strong and this helps the organization to keep them competitive and run their business. In this analysis report, the analyst will try to explore the various aspects of organizations information needs and their planning activities regarding existing information system and the e-business. The analyst will focus on various factors that are essential to keep their information system strong and what factors required to make it successful. Apart from this, the analysis report will also highlight the customer relationship management and the knowledge management of the organization which is required to keep the company unique in their respective field. The case company for the present report is the Confused.com. The short description about the company has given below. About Company Confused.com is a UK based organization, a subsidiary of Admiral Group. It is basically a price comparison website specialized in insurance and financial services. The company was started in year 2002 and it was the UKs first car insurance comparison website. It is FTSE 100 listed organization in the world. It was first price comparison website in the UK. It started its business with comparison of car insurance but it has revolutionized the price comparison market after that. Now many companies has come into this business but still it is been dominated by the confused.com. Confused.com is now offers almost all kind of insurance products such as home, car, travel, motorbike, life, van, caravan and pet insurance. The company earns from the service provider each time when a customer buy any insurance products from them.

Task 1(A) Strategic Information Needs The information need can be defined as the individual or groups requirement for the information to satisfy their basic conscious needs. In the context of confused.com, the information need is the crucial factor to run the online business. Since the confused.com is in informatics business where the customers information needs are fulfilled by the organization through their pool of information in different areas and industry. The need of information for an organization could be related to educational activities, professional activities, research activities, cultural activities or recreation activities. The need for information in online business is the demand of information from the customers side. And it has been assumed that the need of information by confused.com is directly proportional to the demand of the information from the customers side. The need for the information by the users/online customers can be more or less but for the company (confused.com) it is highly required as it is the only base on which company has been operational. There is difference between demand and need for information. The confused.com is information and knowledge based organization which needs to accumulate and store the information about the industries and the related companies in which it is specialized; for example insurance and financial product industry. So the strategic needs of information for the company are user specific. It is completely based on the demand of the customers and the demand of the industry. Following are the critical factors involved in information needs by the company confused.com: 1) Need of information for the customers: It is very critical factor for an online business company to know the exact requirements of information needs and demands because it is the customer who is accessing the information from the companys website and avail it for their personal use. The confused.com follows

the same thing to identify the users demand and requirement so that appropriate features and information can be added in the websites to offer the best possible services. The confused.com conducts regular online survey to know the requirements of the customer and their expectations from a websites and accordingly company brings the changes and adds new information in the websites. Here it has been assumed that customers give regular feedback to the company related to their present website status and what changes company can bring in their website in future. Since the inception of the company, there has been lot of changes brought by the company and all have been done on users demand and the capability of the company to deliver. 2) Need of information for the competitors: It is second most critical factor for an online business company to know what exactly their competitors are offering to their customers and how it is important to get the competitive advantage. A company gets competitive advantage only when it offers certain different features and information which has not been offered by any other competitor in the market. The confused.com keeps track on their competitor on regular basis that what new features and services has been added by their competitors under companys strategic external analysis and what makes their competitor to attract the users to use their websites. Once the external analysis is done, confused.com starts to collect the required information and knowledge related to those features and using their existing capabilities and resources develops the new features in its websites. Here it has been assumed that confused.com exactly knows the various features developed by their competitors so as to get the competitive advantage in the online industry. 3) Need of information for industry: This factor is a combination of above mentioned two factors. Since company is informatics based organization whose main objective is to deliver the company and industry based information to the users so both customers needs and the differentiating features would be the key overall appraise the company in the industry. The confused.com not only works on above mentioned two factors but also deals in adding new information that is additive for the industry overall. When company starts to explore in new business

area to deliver the information service then the requirements for the new information becomes much needed to make the things possible. The strategic need for information in new areas of business is highly required to excel the company as well as the industry as a whole. There are many organizations which are offering online information to a specific industry but there are very few organizations which deals in multi industry information provider; the confused.com is dedicated to acquire that position in the market where it can establish itself a unique online information service provider in multiple industry. It has been assumed here that confused.com has been putting efforts to acquire information from various fields and industry and trying to add new features in their overall information portfolio.

Task 1(B) Strategic Information System Planning Strategic information system in an organization especially in online business is very important as it is the backbone to run the business. The planning for the information system in an organization starts with identification of business needs and demands. The need of the organization can be met by developing any computer based system exists in the organization which is responsible for entire information system in the organization. The existing computer system can be complex information system, any transaction processing level or any support system. It has been assumed that Confused.com has developed customer support system along with the information system in order to enhance the customer support activity through their existing information system. The confused.com has planned an information system that meets the strategic planning for their management. Since company deals in online services of price and service comparison of various products/services of different companies so the objectives and priorities are very much clear in companys mind and if the needs of information system of the organization is clear then direction of

development can be formalized easily. The Confused.com has certain plans and specific projects for the future and they have priorities for each plans and projects under specific procedures and application areas. The Confused.com has certain planning regarding the specific online services they want to provide to the customers in future such as comparison of electronic products, comparison of vehicles and motor byes and comparison of daily usage products etc. These mentioned services is still not introduced by the companys website but still the planning for such business requires consolidate information system in place to meet the needs and the requirements. The plan for such requirements first requires the deep understanding of the service area and the applicability of application among the target customers. The continuous improvement of information system and infrastructure and the capabilities of the organization (online price and service comparison in confused.com) help the company to gain the competitive advantage and to sustain the growth path. Under strategic information system planning of confused.com, the company first analyzes the existing information and process system with the help of business information model along with identification and assessment of risk, current requirements and needs. This has resulted the confused.com to formulate the new strategy required to achieve the desired results by aliening with the information use and requirements with strategic targets of the organization. The planning and development of information based system has helped the confused.com to achieve the desired market position in the online service market. The role of information technology in the development of SISP has been crucial for the company as all computer based applications and innovation in services has been possible just because of that only. E-Business Planning Activities Electronic business is an application of information and communication technologies (ICT) especially in support of the main business activities. E-business is an integral part

of E-Commerce where the products and services are sold through online. The confused.com is solely an online business where providing the services is the main objective. Confused.com is basically deals in comparing the various insurance products such as car insurance, home insurance, life insurance, travel insurance and many other related insurance products. It completely offers the services that are basically meant to deliver the clear picture about the features and service level of various financial companies. When confused.com was launched in year 2002 then it was UKs No.1 car insurance comparison website and then gradually enhanced its online services to the customers. Now company has online comparison of life insurance, landlord insurance, travel insurance, financial services comparison of credit cards, loans, mortgages, unemployment insurance etc. Here it has been assumed that confused.com has been exploring their business and service activities in other areas of insurance and financial services also. As a part of companys e-business activities, now they are looking to explore their business in other area of business industries such as electronic products, daily usage products, non-financial products etc. Following are the steps that confused.com is following to appraise their e-business activities: 1) Conducting internal analysis i.e. SWOT analysis of the business to check the potential customers and existing competitors in the online market. To check what company can offer in terms of new information, services or products using internet technologies and at the same time how daily operations can be improved using internet technologies. 2) Identification of key issues and challenges in business planning such as industry and market competitor analysis. The company is trying to identify the needs of the customers, potential of online market, marketing strategy, differentiating factor from the competitors, competitors business strategy etc.

3) Marketing and sales planning and strategies for selling the online services to the potential customers. The need for development of comprehensive marketing strategy, e-commerce website, advertizing campaigning etc. 4) The development of well structured and well arranged website. The purpose of the website, the look and style of website and security measures and customer privacy of the website. 5) The implementation of business operations, controlling and monitoring process. To ensure some of essential software like customer relationship management software, database and accounting software and email application. 6) Set the estimated budget for the development of E-business.

Task 1 (C) Customer relationship management in Confused.com The customer relationship management of the confused.com has been pioneer in price comparison website industry. It has been assumed that company is using the high technological customer relationship tools to manage their customers. The confused.com uses the Service Cloud technology to manage their customers and other prospects to ensure that they get best possible services and promptness in services. This industry highly focus on variety of services and the speed of services and with the help of Service Cloud the Confused.com meets and manages the customer requirements and delivers services. Some of the problems asked by the customers sometimes it is related to forgotten passwords or unsubscribe requests are logged and solved by the company taken as the matter of urgency. The customer relationship management team is divided into two parts in Confused.com: one team is highly dedicated to manage all complex issues and problems from customer side and another team is highly dedicated to give fast response that manages the requests which can have an impact on commercial opportunities. It is also assumed that Confused.com resolve customer issues through Service Cloud only. The confused.com solves the issues and complaints through email/web if

customer asks through this way only. When customer write a email or contact through websites Contact Us then it directly goes to the Service Cloud where system generates a new case. The customer service agent give reply to that email within the case and if any further query is raised by the customer then Service Cloud opens the same case if the reference number of the query is same and kept in the subject line in the mail. It does not create any new case if the old case reference number is kept in subject line in the mail. This is how confused.com keeps track of their customers issues and tries to quickly resolve the issues and complaints in much effective way. The Service Cloud is been used by the Confused.com to resolve the customer queries and complaints and also keep track of their customers by giving response on daily/weekly/monthly basis. The reporting is the key behind such a fast response given by the customer service team to the customer. The Service Cloud gives the potential and flexibility to the customer service team to respond to their customer issues in much effective way and also in large volume. Confused.com has now decided to automate the business process by converting the web browser to new business opportunities and also decided to integrate the websites Service Cloud with the social communities like Facebook and Twitter and this is how company can communicate the new product and services to the people.

Results of Service Cloud

y

Increased efficiency of resolving customer issues and higher conversion rate between customers and the CRM team.

y y

High responsiveness in terms of speed and volume Easy to track customers and easy to prioritize the customer issues at the same time

y y

Easy to customize the system on CRM teams will Reduce cost and save time

Knowledge Management of Confused.com Knowledge management is a process of managing and leveraging the knowledge and wisdom so as to increase the innovation and responsiveness in the system. The knowledge is collective and connected with many sources and it comes with multiple experiences and different perspectives. The Confused.com also believes in regular flow of knowledge and information among the people internally and externally through various ways. The company collects information and stores it and disseminates it to the public through their websites after conforming the source and authenticity of data. It is been assumed that company collects and stores the information various sources and uses it for delivering the information for the consumers. Since company deals in price and service comparison of insurance and financial products of the company in their online portal so dissemination of information and knowledge is the base of the company and it is the driving force for the company as it is in online informatics business. The knowledge management of the company is so strong that it always comes up with innovative and new solution of the problems and challenges. The innovation in services and bring new things for the customer is the main objective of the company and this is only possible when company have good knowledge management in the system. The company has acquired some of the industry experts in insurance and financial services field who constantly keep track on new information and knowledge about the industry and store it and accordingly frame it for the use of online consumer of the companys services. This directly affects the viewership and publicity of the company and hence the profitability of the company. So the knowledge sharing and management is the critical tool for the organization to run their online portal and to make it different from the other competitors who are also deliberate to deliver best possible information and knowledge to the public from end. Conclusion It has been found from the above analysis report that the knowledge and information plays important role in gaining the market leadership and high market share. The

analyst found that any online business should ensure what strategic information may lead them to get the competitive advantage and what information can attract the end users to use their system. It is also found in the report that ensures the strategic and effective information system in the organization so as to meet the day to day operational activities and to meet the objectives of the organization. Apart from this, it has been found that the customer relationship management and the knowledge management is the key to achieve the customers attention and loyalty for the longer term as it is the main root for any organization.