Mgmt 641 Management Information System

ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY

College of Business and Economics

Masters of Business Administration

Assignment Paper

 Information Science for Management

Course code MGMT 641

Information technology for increasing switching cost and locked in customer; IT backed customer Loyalty program

The challenges of Import and Export is immense .However government has been doing great jobs in encourage export oriented business and facilitating export business through government initiatives of bimodal logistic system. In this report the main challenges encountered by import and export business in Ethiopia is going to be discussed and IT oriented solution will be provided. Import and export business will individually discussed and purport the role of IT in the resolution of the problems mentioned below.

Challenges of Export business and the role of IT in loosening the problems.

Export business, in Ethiopian context, have encountered so many challenges. The most prominent challenges in the export business are lack of information about foreign customers and their test preference. Ethiopian exporters are not frequently aware of the dynamic nature of export trade .Business should react the ever changing export business in foreign country, to do so suppliers should know their competitive advantages and customer preference in the international market

Through widening their on line presence and customer tailored advertising the Ethiopian exporter can reach out their customers and conduct e-commerce through internet. The use of foreign based business as source of generating real time data, and analyzing the collected data and a swift response can be made .In doing so exporter get access to know their customer better. The same token, customer base of the exporter can be increased and in return both the country and the business will be benefited a lot. In this scenario, for instance a special and luxuries shoe manufacturers can show case their products on the internet with their price. This acquire the product to widen its market horizon. This in rerun facilitate the product to bond with reputable brand shoe retailer .consequently, the products will get the privilege of being seen on big brands selling outlet. This has been seen in our country in the case of shoe rebills, which is one of the most successful shoe manufacturing company in Ethiopia, its export sales volume is estimated over $ 10 million. Conducting e-commerce in Ethiopia is not easy as it thought to be. The bureaucratic red tape is immense in relation to customs authority and inefficient logistic system, just to mention a few.

 Ethiopia customs control is one of the in efficient in its kind, and one of the area in which government should give great emphasis. The facilitation of export trade is hampered by handling exported items with little or with no IT backed initiatives. Most export items, perishable vegetables and horticultures, have been sold in the international market with cheap price; the reason is exporter do not have internet based selling system that show case their product and how it is manufactured and the intactness of organic nature of the products makes the exported items to be sold at good price than the inorganic counterparts. Internet based promotion has been gaining momentum these days ,customers could get the privilege to design their own shoes and the shoe manufacturers can produce the shoe overnight and sent it to abroad. In this case customers can pay more money and proud of for their participation in manufacturing their own shoe.