ASSIGNMENT STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT: CASADELLIBRO.COM
The definition of the target is basic in order to choose which platform (Unix or Microsoft) is more suitable for Casa del Libro, and the target is pretty clear: to position the chain in the main Spanish cities and to become the top name for book sales in the national market. In addition we should also not forget about the rivals: El Corte ingles, which by that time has already successfully entered the on-line books sales market and FNAC that was slightly behind but still able to enter the competition.
The decision to just change the platform to the cheaper and simpler version that the team in my opinion will find easier to deal with seems to be a very easy one, but it not as easy as it seems. If I were Nacho Somalo I would prefer the UNIX platform, because of the following reasons. In the first place, the Microsoft platform that has the big advantage that the price is cheap, even though its maintenance does not exist and nobody from the team has tested it and no one can guarantee that it would not need changes and additional investments. Though The UNIX platform is twice as much expensive as the Microsoft one, it has already been tested, the team has found drawbacks which can be removed in the future.
Secondly, upon one of the strongest points of the UNIX system is availability. For the online book store the uptime of a website is absolutely critical, because being unavailable even for some minutes means losing thousands or millions of dollars in revenue. Moreover it is said by the experts` consensus that the Ms platform produces more incidents in operating, which means that in case of the possible system failure some useful information (orders in the bin for instance) could not be recovered. It is typical to see Unix servers with months, even years of ongoing operations without the need to turn them off.
Thirdly, the UNIX platform offers a customer service a better quality which meets the requirements of Casa del Libro to attract customers and to make them feel comfortable making purchases as said in the text to make them “feel at home”).
Casa del Libro is eager to own the national market by offering a large quantity and quality of books, expanding its range to CDs, audio books, new and authors` books that the customer will not be able to find anywhere else. According to the Revised Plan (even with the worst forecast) the page will be visited by more than million (1,095,720) people in 2001 and visits will increase till 12,242,693 visits in 2006. That means that the platform should be able to sustain heavily increased number of transactions, increase in the level of the bibliographic database, additional traffic etc. In terms of scalability the UNIX platform is a better option because it is able to handle five time much volume than the MS platform.
In my opinion I would stick to the UNIX platform, but I would also make some changes to the team, basically regarding Human Resource as a key factor and it was said that the contracted team was unable to implement the new website based on the UNIX platform because of the limited knowledge of the complex tools used. Casa del Libro is interested in a long-term success on the market and we should not forget that the technological market is one of the fast growing ones in the industry. That means that the team should not only implement the original platform but also should be able to constantly develop and upgrade it in order not to fall behind the rivals which are seriously equipped. So, sometimes it is not only about the technology but it is also about the human factor – about creativity, enthusiasm, ability to go far beyond your limit. I see the best option not in contracting a team from the third agency, but to create your own team (a small one – probably 5-6 people) who will be constantly working on the platform`s operation. And in case of emergency (failure of the system for instance) you should not cooperate with the agency – time is money - you will be able to remove the faultiness by own strength quickly.
Also, this team will be able to work out an own security system, which will be necessary while thousands of clients will be using their credit cards to make the online purchase. And in that case the risk of information leakage is less with your own security system.
For sure the UNIX platform has drawbacks such as from the commercial point of view not many people know this platform, because its not installed in most computer systems when they get purchased. Also the lack of flexibility and the difficulty in managing, but they can be changed and adopted by IT experts. Probably the MS platform will be a good decision for a short\middle – term plan, but it is not the case of Casa del Libro that wants to be on the market for as long as possible. And by the way it is easier to add changes to the existed platform than to start working out everything from the very beginning.