VPC Subscribe As you learned this week, a virtual private cloud (VPC) enables you to launch resources into a virtual network that you've configured and gives you full control over those resources. That provides a level of security over a public cloud when you need to control your resources and sensitive data over a virtual infrastructure. But VPCs also have drawbacks, including increased configuration complexity.
Address the following questions in your discussions. Be sure to answer all questions in your initial post and respond to two posts by your classmates.
Question 1: What are the components of an Amazon VPC?
Question 2: What is the default VPC and what are its advantages?
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This week, you learned that a virtual private cloud (VPC) provides you complete control over resources and allows you to launch them into a virtual network that you have created. In situations when you need to manage your resources and sensitive data over a virtual infrastructure, that offers a certain amount of protection over public clouds. However, there are disadvantages to VPCs as well, such as more configuration complexity.
During your conversations, take up the following questions. Make sure to address every query in your initial post as well as the two posts made by your peers.
Question 1: What are the components of an Amazon VPC?
Assess the opening case study from Chapter 6: “Amazon is Hiring…Big Time!” In a three- to five-page paper (not including the title and references pages), create a recruiting and staffing strategy for Amazon, and select one position from the given list to write a recruiting and staffing plan; consider how many of these positions Amazon needs to fill. You must select from the following full-time positions: Warehouse Supervisor, Delivery Representative, and Customer Service Manager.)
Your paper must include the following:
1. Write an introduction including the selected position, a preview of your paper, and a succinct thesis statement.
2. Discuss the legal landscape, including special legal considerations that the company should be aware of.
3. Create a recruiting plan for the position selected that includes the following:
· Explain what recruiting is and why it is important.
· Explain the tools that will be utilized to find candidates for filling the selected position, and state why each tool was selected.
·
· Create a selection plan for the position that includes the following:
· Explain what staffing is and why it is important.
· State what assessments will be used and why.
· Discuss the types of interviewing techniques that will be used and why.
· List five job-specific interview questions for the position candidates.
1. Write a conclusion paragraph that reaffirms your thesis statement
Search the Internet for evidence that Amazon’s EC2 complies with ISO 27001. Summarize your findings.
SAS 70 is an auditing standard that provides guidance for an auditor issuing a report about internal controls implemented by a cloud services provider. To assess the adequacy of data center controls, it is necessary to read and analyze the report that was prepared in accordance with SAS 70. Search the Internet for evidence that Microsoft’s auditors have issued a report in accordance with SAS 70. Summarize your findings.
Search the Internet for evidence that Amazon’s auditors have issued a report in accordance with SAS 70. Summarize your findings.
On Cyber Monday, November 27, 2017, Amazon customers ordered more than 1,400 electronics per second from a mobile device.10 And shopping on Amazon’s app increased 70 percent over the previous year. On its busiest day, Amazon packed and shipped more than 1 million packages. Amazon’s last same-day delivery order for the holiday season was ordered on Christmas Eve and delivered in 58 minutes, arriving at 11:58 PM just in time for Christmas. (Some of Amazon’s major innovations are listed in Figure 2-15.)
You may think of Amazon as simply an online retailer, and that is indeed where the company achieved most of its success. To do this, Amazon had to build enormous supporting infrastructure—just imagine the information systems and fulfillment facilities needed to ship electronics ordered at a rate of 1,400 per second. That infrastructure, however, is needed only during the busy holiday season. Most of the year, Amazon is left with excess infrastructure capacity. Starting in 2000, Amazon began to lease some of that capacity to other companies. In the process, it played a key role in the creation of what are termed cloud services, which you will learn about in Chapter 6. For now, just think of cloud services as computer resources somewhere out in the Internet that are leased on flexible terms.
Today, Amazon’s business lines can be grouped into three major categories:
· Online retailing
· Order fulfillment
· Cloud services
Consider each.
Amazon created the business model for online retailing. It began as an online bookstore, but every year since 1998 it has added new product categories. The company is involved in all aspects of online retailing. It sells its own inventory. It incentivizes you, via the Associates program, to sell its inventory as well. Or it will help you sell your inventory within its product pages or via one of its consignment venues. Online auctions are the major aspect of online sales in which Amazon does not participate. It tried auctions in 1999, but it could never make inroads against eBay.11
Today, it’s hard to remember how much of what we take for granted was pioneered by Amazon. “Customers who bought this, also bought that;” online customer reviews; customer ranking of customer reviews; books lists; Look Inside the Book; automatic free shipping for certain orders or frequent customers; and Kindle books and devices were all novel concepts when Amazon introduced them.
Amazon’s retailing business operates on very thin margins. Products are usually sold at a discount from the stated retail price, and 2-day shipping is free for Amazon Prime members (who pay an annual fee of $119). How does it do it? For one, Amazon drives its employees incredibly hard. Former employees claim the hours are long, the pressure is severe, and the workload is heavy. But what else? It comes down to Moore’s Law and the innovative use of nearly free data processing, storage, and communication.
In addition to online retailing, Amazon also sells order fulfillment services. You can ship your inventory to an Amazon warehouse and access Amazon’s information systems just as if they were yours. Using technology known as Web services (discussed in Chapter 6), your order processing information systems can directly integrate, over the Web, with Amazon’s inventory, fulfillment, and shipping applications. Your customers need not know that Amazon played any role at all. You can also sell that same inventory using Amazon’s retail sales applications.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) allow organizations to lease time on computer equipment in very flexible ways. Amazon’s Elastic Cloud 2 (EC2) enables organizations to expand and contract the computer resources they need within minutes. Amazon has a variety of payment plans, and it is possible to buy computer time for less than a penny an hour. Key to this capability is the ability for the leasing organization’s computer programs to interface with Amazon’s to automatically scale up and scale down the resources leased. For example, if a news site publishes a story that causes a rapid ramp-up of traffic, that news site can, programmatically, request, configure, and use more computing resources for an hour, a day, a month, whatever.
With its Kindle devices, Amazon has become both a vendor of tablets and, even more importantly in the long term, a vendor of online music and video. Amazon Echo (Alexa-enabled ordering system) and Amazon Dash (a one-button reordering device) have become two of Amazon’s top-selling products.
In late 2016, Jeff Bezos announced the first package delivery by drone via Amazon Prime Air in the UK.12 But regulations have slowed it’s adoption in the United States. While drone delivery is something that will happen in the future, consider a service that Amazon is offering right now.
In mid-2017 Amazon made news by acquiring grocery giant Whole Foods. By 2018 Amazon had opened its own automated grocery store named Amazon Go, which didn’t use cashiers or checkout terminals. Amazon’s expansion into the traditional grocery store space drove speculation about how far Amazon’s reach would extend.
Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)
Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is an Amazon service by which other sellers can ship goods to Amazon warehouses for stocking, order packaging, and shipment. FBA customers pay a fee for the service as well as for inventory space. Amazon uses its own inventory management and order fulfillment business processes and information systems to fulfill the FBA customers’ orders.
FBA customers can sell their goods on Amazon, sell them via their own sales channels, or both. If the FBA customer sells on Amazon, Amazon will provide customer service for order processing (handling returns, fixing erroneously packed orders, answering customer order queries, and the like).
The costs for Fulfillment by Amazon depend on the type and size of the goods to be processed. The FBA fees for standard-size products as of May 2018 are shown in the table.
If goods are sold via Amazon, Amazon uses its own information systems to drive the order fulfillment process. However, if the goods are sold via an FBA customer’s sales channel, then the FBA customer must connect its own information systems with those at Amazon. Amazon provides a standardized interface by which this is done called Amazon Marketplace Web Service (MWS). Using Web-standard technology (see Chapter 6), FBA customers’ order and payment data are directly linked to Amazon’s information systems.
FBA enables companies to outsource order fulfillment to Amazon, thus avoiding the cost of developing their own processes, facilities, and information systems for this purpose.
Questions
1. 2-4. Based on the facts presented in this case, what do you think is Amazon’s competitive strategy? Justify your answer.
2. 2-5. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, has stated that the best customer support is none. What does that mean?
3. 2-6. Suppose you work for Amazon or a company that takes innovation as seriously as Amazon does. What do you suppose is the likely reaction to an employee who says to his or her boss, “But, I don’t know how to do that!”?
4. 2-7. Using your own words and your own experience, what skills and abilities do you think you need to have to thrive at an organization like Amazon?
5. 2-8. What should UPS and FedEx be doing in response to Amazon’s interest in drone delivery via Amazon Prime Air?
6. 2-9. Summarize the advantages and disadvantages for brick-and-mortar retailers to sell items via Amazon. Would you recommend that they do so?
7. 2-10. If a brick-and-mortar retailer were to use FBA, what business processes would it not need to develop? What costs would it save?
8. 2-11. If a brick-and-mortar retailer were to use FBA, what information systems would it not need to develop? What costs would it save?
9. 2-12. If a brick-and-mortar retailer were to use FBA, how would it integrate its information systems with Amazon’s? (To add depth to your answer, Google the term Amazon MWS.)
Document requirements:
1. Your name must be placed in a header of the document (not the first line, but a header).
2. Case title is included after the student’s name in the header.
3. Authentic: This is an individual work; the thoughts and text in the document must be those of the student submitting the document.
4. Single-spaced with one extra space between paragraphs.
5. Times New Roman 12 font.
6. 1” left and right margins.
7. Pages must be numbered.
8. The document should include the following section headings:
a. Introduction: One paragraph summarizing the case.
b. Essence of the Case Statement: A one-sentence statement to describe the main issue or theme of the case.
c. Analysis: Answer the questions assigned in an essay format.
d. Final Thoughts: The student is to share any additional thoughts/ideas/suggestions he/she may have about the case.
9. The student needs to search, find, and list at least two external sources of information (references) on the subject of the case. Web addresses and links that include Google and Wikipedia are not effective and will not be considered
· Part 3: Customer Profitability Analysis (20 marks)
· Part 4: Probabilities(20 marks)
· Part 5: Nonprofits(10 marks)
Part 1: Case: Sustainability (30 marks)
Amazon is the largest internet-based retailer in North America. Amazon started as a book seller but quickly expanded into other household items such as electronics, entertainment, furniture, home décor, beauty, and other retail items. Amazon sells goods directly to consumers and, in Canada, ships itsproducts from warehouses across the country. In addition to direct sales, however, Amazon also offers its platform as a place where third-party retailers can list and sell their products. Shipping for these third-party sales may be handled by the external retailer, not Amazon. This means that items in a consumer’s shopping cart may be shipped by multiple shippers. It is not uncommon for an order of five items ordered throughAmazon at one time, for example, to arrive as five separate packages from five different locations.
Amazon Prime is a subscription service offered through Amazon that covers all shipping fees. Customers pay an annual fee that includes shipping and other customer perks like media streaming.
Required:
1. What are the “business cases” for implementing sustainability practices at Amazon? Your Lesson 6 reading (Whelan, T., & Fink, C. The comprehensive business case for sustainability) discusses the business cases for implementing sustainability practices. Describe at least five reasons why sustainability would be advantageous to Amazon’s business. Discuss why each reason would be beneficial for Amazon specifically. (10 marks)
2. Discuss five challenges that Amazon might encounter with implementing sustainability practices. (10 marks)
3. Looking at Amazon’s sustainability report for the most current year, answer the following:
a. Discuss three areas of sustainability that Amazon does well. (6 marks)
b. Discusstwo areas that Amazon could improve on in terms of itstriple bottom line. (4 marks)
*Do not forget to provide references and citations (using APA) if you cite external information.
Part 2: Performance Evaluation (20 marks)
Hightech Industries specializes in manufacturing medical equipment, a field that has become increasingly competitive. Last year, Pedro Rodriguez, president of Hightech, decided to revise the bonus plan (based entirely on operating income at the time) to encourage division managers to focus on areas that were important to customers and that added value without increasing cost. In addition to introducing a profitability incentive, the revised plan includes incentives for reduced rework costs, reduced sales returns, and on-time deliveries. The company’s new plan calculates and awards bonuses semi-annually on the following basis: a base bonus is calculated at 2% of operating income; this amount is then adjusted by the following factors related to rework, deliveries, and sales returns:
Rework
· The bonus is reduced by excess of rework costs above 2% of operating income
· No adjustment is made if rework costs are less than or equal to 2% of operating income.
Deliveries
· The bonus is increased by $4,000 if more than 98% of deliveries are on time and by $1,500 if 96–98% of deliveries are on time.
· No adjustment is made if on-time deliveries are below 96%.
Sales Returns
· The bonus is increased by $2,500 if sales returns are less than or equal to 1.5% of sales.
· The bonus is decreased by 50% if sales returns are over 1.5% of sales.
Note: If the calculation of the bonus results in a negative amount for a period, the manager simply receives no bonus, and the negative amount doesnot carry forward to the next period.
Results for Hightech’sWestand East divisions for 2021, the first year under the new bonus plan, follow. In 2020, under the old bonus plan, the WestDivision manager earned a bonus of $20,295 and the East division manager a bonus of $15,830 based on 2% of revenues. The old bonus plan did not adjust for rework, on-time deliveries, or sales returns.
West Division
East Division
Jan-Jun 2021
Jul-Dec 2021
Jan-Jun 2021
Jul-Dec 2021
Revenues
$3,150,000
$3,300,000
$2,137,500
$2,175,000
Operating income
$346,500
$330,000
$256,500
$304,500
On-time delivery
95.4%
97.3%
98.2%
94.6%
Rework costs
$8,625
$8,250
$4,500
$6,000
Sales returns
$63,000
$52,500
$33,560
$31,875
Required
1. Why is revenue alone not an ideal measure of performance? What specifically about the revised performance measures compels the managers of the East and West divisions to pursue the company’s goals? (6 marks)
2. Calculate the semi-annual bonuses earned by each manager for eachsix-month period and in total for the 2021 year. (10 marks)
3. The managers were not advised of the new plan until after their first bonus in June 2021. What effect did the change in the bonus plan have on each manager’s actual behaviour in the second half of 2021? What changes, if any, would you make to the new bonus plan? (4 marks)
Mark’s Comedy Emporium provides entertainment for birthday parties. Over the last year Mark’s has entertained at over 150 birthday parties and it seems the Mark’s business is booming! Customers generally must book six to eight months in advance to secure a spot, and the company has parties booked solid for the next six months. Business is busy, customers are extremely happy, and employees are happy, but Mark is barely breaking even. He cannot understand, with his business being so successful, why he is barely able to pay himself a wage. Mark has asked you to help him figure out what he is doing wrong.
The services provided at each party vary. Some customers only want a clown to perform, and they handle the other party details themselves. Other customers want a full package—clown, food, cake, entertainment, cleanup, party favours, decorations, and costumes for the kids. Mark’s can provide the following services at a party:
· Clown: Most parties include a clown who performs for one hour at the party. Mark pays a clown $40 per party.
· Food (excluding cake): When customers order food for their party through Mark’s, he outsources this service to Carl’s Catering. Carl charges an average of $12 per child for food.
· Cake: Mark sources birthday cakes through his sister, Sarah, who runs a small bakery and makes custom cakes for Mark’s. Her smallest cake is 8” in diameter (serves up to 10 kids) and costs $40. She also makes a 10” cake for $60 (serves up to 20 kids).
· Cleanup: Mark’s provides cleanup service. Cleaning staff are paid $15 per hour, and cleanup averages two hours per 20 kids. Cleanup is a variable cost based on number of kids attending the party.
· Party favours: Party favour bags can also be ordered through Mark’s. These cost $5 per bag to assemble.
· Decorations: Mark’s will also fully decorate a party. Decorating staff are paid $15 per hour, and it takesone hour to decorate a party for 20 kids. Decorations cost an average of $50 for party of 20 kids. Decorating staff and decorations are fully variable based on the number of kids.
· Costumes. Mark’s also provides costumes for parties so that kids can dress up based ona theme. On average, costumes cost $40 each and can be worn 25 times before they need to be replaced. Costumes are cleaned after eachuse at a cost of $5 each.
Mark has set up a fee schedule for each service as follows:
Service
Fee charged to customer
Clown
$60 per party
Food
$15 per child
Cake
$2 per child
Cleanup
$2 per child
Party favours
$6 per child
Decorations
$2 per child
Costumes
$6 per child
In atwo-week period, Mark catered six parties with the following services:
Customer
1
2
3
4
5
6
# of kids attended
20
25
45
15
5
12
Clown
Y
Y
Y
Y
N
Y
Food services
Y
Y
N
N
Y
N
Cake
Y
N
N
Y
Y
N
Cleanup
Y
Y
N
N
Y
N
Party favours
Y
Y
N
N
Y
N
Decorations
Y
Y
Y
N
Y
N
Costumes
N
N
Y
N
Y
N
Required
1. Calculate the customer-level operating income for each customer by preparing a customer profitability analysis. Rank the customers according to profitability. (10 marks)
2. Mark would like to earn a return of 50% on costs. What price should he have charged per child for each customer to earn a 50% return on costs? How does this compare the original fee he charged per child? What are the main reasons for this variance? Create a new fee schedule for Mark’s based on your analysis. (10 marks)
Rayna May, the principal, has compiled the following estimates for the new playground:
Cost for dismantling existing equipment
$22,000
Salvage value from selling the metal from existing equipment
$7,000
Soil testing
$18,000
New playground equipment
$45,000
Cost of installation
$16,000
Cost of resurfacing play area in rubber
$55,000
Cost of landscaping (including $5,000 for gravel)
$22,000
Cost of removing and replacing soil
$73,000
The costs for installation, resurfacing, landscaping, and soil removal are the costs quoted by professional contractors. Ms. May was approached by the president of the student council, JayWong, who has volunteered the council’s time for installing and landscaping the new playground. This will save the school approximately $25,000 in costs and Mayhas decided to accept this offer, as two of the council members who will be helping are journeymen carpenters.
The school has two options for dealing with the potentially contaminated soil. The first option is to forgo the soil testing and simply resurface the play area with a poured-rubber matting that can cover the entire play surface. This will cost approximately $55,000—a significant portionof the playground budget. The other option is to perform the soil testing and address the outcome if needed. A municipal worker has estimated that there is a 40% chance that the soil is contaminated. If the soil proves to be contaminated, the school will either need to resurface the area with rubber matting for $55,000, or it can have the contaminated soil removed and replaced for $73,000 plus the cost of gravel. Rayna is wondering what they should do and has asked for your help.
Required
Prepare an analysis of the potential project costs for the following scenarios. Note: There is noneedfor gravelif the play area isresurfaced. However, if the soil is not contaminated or if they need to remove and replace the soil, the gravel will be needed.
1. Resurface the ground without testing the soil. (5 marks)
2. Complete the soil testing. In this case there are two options:
a. Complete the soil testing and remove/replace the soil if contaminated.
b. Complete the soil testing and resurface if contaminated.
Use the probabilities provided by the municipal worker to determine a weighted cost for each of these outcomes. (10 marks)
3. What option would you recommend for the school? Why? What other non-financial considerations mightyou need to include in your decision? (5 marks)
Part 5: Nonprofits (10 marks)
The Peachland Research Centre is an agricultural research facility that is funded through provincial and federal grants. Most of the centre’s work is focused on developing new innovations that help produce higher yields in crops and better quality of food products. Recently the centre has becomeinterested in biofuels. It plans to implement a new project that has the objective of growing switch grass, a crop that has potential to replace fossils and decrease dependence on them.
In January 2020, the government has committed a one-time grant of $800,000 to the centre that will be restricted to purchasing land that will be used to produce biofuels. With this grant, the centre is planning to purchase a 200-acre plot of land for growing switch grass. They have estimated that they will require three workers to clear, plant, maintain, and harvest the crop. They anticipate that they will need these additional staff for eight months of the year. The staffing costs will be approximately $15 per hour for approximately eight hours per day, 20 days per month. Other costs will include seeds, water, and utilities at $3 per tonne, while accumulated depreciation on the equipment will total $10,000.
Once the crop has been harvested, they will send the grass to a facility that will manufacture fuel pellets. This will cost the centre approximately $10 per tonne of grass. Each acre that is planted is expected to return two tonnes of switch grass. Once the fuel pellets are produced, the organization is planning to sell the pellets to local homeowners who have converted their standard gas furnaces to pellet furnaces. It is estimated that approximately two acres of switch grass will be required to heat an average-sized home for the winter. The cost to the homeowners will be $100 per tonne of grass.
Marty McGuire, the director of the Peachland Research Centre, has asked you to provide an overall budget for this venture. He is hoping that your report will support his belief that this project is viable and will be self-sustaining. He tells you that it is very important for the project to support itself through the sale of pellets.
Required
1. Prepare a budget for the project. Does this appear to be a viable venture for the Peachland Research Centre? What changes, if any, need to be made to improve the project’s viability? (7 marks)
2. Every project comes with a degree of risk. What are the specific risks associated with this venture, and how can the centre mitigate these risks? (3 marks)
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BATTLE OF THE TITANS: AMAZON ECHO VS. GOOGLE HOME (AND DON’T FORGET ABOUT APPLE)
The newest battleground for the tech giants is being fought over smart home devices. Amazon’s Echo was the first to hit the market in 2014; the smart speaker responds to voice commands and serves an ever-growing range of purposes, such as music streaming, news updates, Internet searches for information, grocery lists, joke telling, takeout orders from local restaurants, and answers to general questions. Furthermore, in homes with other smart features, Echo and its voice personification Alexa allow users to control compatible lights, fans, thermostats, garage doors, sprinklers, and locks with simple voice commands. By 2017, Alexa even gained the ability to call or send texts to the contacts in users’ linked smartphones through Echo.
Google’s competing Google Home device did not even hit the shelves until April 2017.67 In some ways, Google Home is more advanced and “smarter” than Echo. For example, its web browsing capabilities are more advanced because it relies on Google’s stellar search engine, whereas Echo is limited to Wikipedia and Bing. Google Home also can sync its audio playback with other devices and Google Cast speakers, providing better playback and the option to insert linked devices throughout the house, such that even customers with big homes can engage in constant interactions with the central device. If a user moves from the downstairs family room, where a Google Home device is playing music, to the upstairs bedroom, as long as there is another device there those elements sync and the user does not miss a beat of the song. Amazon’s Echo does not have such a capability.
Overall, though, the two devices have similar functionalities, with some notable differences in the quality of the services they provide. Perhaps the biggest difference is how “smart” the devices really are when it comes to responding to users’ requests. In a study conducted by the digital agency 360i, Google Home was six times more likely to answer requests Page 205correctly than was Echo. In this study, the researchers asked each device a series of 3,000 questions. Although they did not publish the questions they asked, the superiority of Google Home likely stems from Google’s access to its advanced search engine. In addition, Google Home recognizes more colloquial command words. For example, if a consumer asks Google Home what movies are playing at the nearby theater, then asks how long it will take to get “there,” Google Home understands that “there” refers to the theater, whereas Echo would need the user to cite the specific theater name or location.
Yet in other areas, Amazon’s device takes the lead. Echo is compatible with more smart devices, including about a half a dozen other smart home devices, whereas Google Home is compatible with only three. Regardless of which brand of smart device people use in their homes to control things like lights or appliances, they thus can likely use Echo to help control those operations. Furthermore, when it comes to e-commerce, Google cannot come close to comparing with Amazon for product searches or purchases. The vast customer insights maintained by Amazon help it power Echo, such that it is much better at enabling consumers to search for, find, and purchase the precise products they want at the very moment they realize they need something.
With its earlier entrance, Amazon also has a leg up on the market already; Echo dominates, with an approximately 70 percent market share. Among people who already use voice assistants—such as Siri on their iPhones or Cortana on their personal computers—the three-year head start on Echo means that they likely have already made their purchase, and they are no longer in the market that might be served by Google Home. Moreover, almost half of all U.S. consumers do not currently use voice assistants and these customers do not seem interested in buying one for their homes.
Another hurdle in the market stems from customers’ privacy concerns. Such smart devices are always on and listening for commands. Some customers are uneasy with the presence of a device that is always listening to them. Although the companies offer assurances that customers are not being recorded if they are not directly giving commands, and it is possible to disable the microphone and delete past commands, customers remain wary.
As the first to market, Amazon was able to set the price level for this type of device. Echo currently costs about $180. When Google entered, it priced Google Home at $130.75 However, Amazon also has released a smaller, cheaper version, Echo Dot, that costs only $50. This new device was a huge hit on Amazon’s most recent Prime Day, sold at a special price of $35, which made it the top selling item on Amazon that day.76 In response, Google cut the cost of Google Home to $100.77
Even as this seeming head-to-head competition persists and intensifies, some other tech companies are starting to venture onto the battlefield. Apple introduced its smart speaker Page 206home device, HomePod, in January 2018.78 Along with the functions provided by Google Home and Echo, Apple’s entry features a special focus on music and sound quality. Even its name is evocative of the revolutionary iPod, which changed the way people listen to music. Priced around $349, it is the most expensive option. But for devoted Apple customers, a high price tag rarely turns the tide.
1. Trace how you might go through the steps in the consumer decision process if you were thinking of buying a smart home device.
2. Identify the four determinant attributes that set apart the Amazon, Google, and Apple smart home devices. Use those attributes to develop a compensatory purchasing model similar to the one in Exhibit 6.2. Based on your importance and performance ratings, which product would you buy?
3.Which device features examined in this chapter might have the greatest impact on consumers’ propensity to buy one of these products?
4.Which risk factors might impact consumers’ propensity to buy one of these products?
5.After purchasing one of these products, why might you experience postpurchase cognitive dissonance? What might the seller do to help you resolve this dissonance?
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BATTLE OF THE TITANS: AMAZON ECHO VS. GOOGLE HOME (AND DON’T FORGET ABOUT APPLE)
The newest battleground for the tech giants is being fought over smart home devices. Amazon’s Echo was the first to hit the market in 2014; the smart speaker responds to voice commands and serves an ever-growing range of purposes, such as music streaming, news updates, Internet searches for information, grocery lists, joke telling, takeout orders from local restaurants, and answers to general questions. Furthermore, in homes with other smart features, Echo and its voice personification Alexa allow users to control compatible lights, fans, thermostats, garage doors, sprinklers, and locks with simple voice commands. By 2017, Alexa even gained the ability to call or send texts to the contacts in users’ linked smartphones through Echo.
Google’s competing Google Home device did not even hit the shelves until April 2017.67 In some ways, Google Home is more advanced and “smarter” than Echo. For example, its web browsing capabilities are more advanced because it relies on Google’s stellar search engine, whereas Echo is limited to Wikipedia and Bing. Google Home also can sync its audio playback with other devices and Google Cast speakers, providing better playback and the option to insert linked devices throughout the house, such that even customers with big homes can engage in constant interactions with the central device. If a user moves from the downstairs family room, where a Google Home device is playing music, to the upstairs bedroom, as long as there is another device there those elements sync and the user does not miss a beat of the song. Amazon’s Echo does not have such a capability.
Overall, though, the two devices have similar functionalities, with some notable differences in the quality of the services they provide. Perhaps the biggest difference is how “smart” the devices really are when it comes to responding to users’ requests. In a study conducted by the digital agency 360i, Google Home was six times more likely to answer requests Page 205correctly than was Echo. In this study, the researchers asked each device a series of 3,000 questions. Although they did not publish the questions they asked, the superiority of Google Home likely stems from Google’s access to its advanced search engine. In addition, Google Home recognizes more colloquial command words. For example, if a consumer asks Google Home what movies are playing at the nearby theater, then asks how long it will take to get “there,” Google Home understands that “there” refers to the theater, whereas Echo would need the user to cite the specific theater name or location.
Yet in other areas, Amazon’s device takes the lead. Echo is compatible with more smart devices, including about a half a dozen other smart home devices, whereas Google Home is compatible with only three. Regardless of which brand of smart device people use in their homes to control things like lights or appliances, they thus can likely use Echo to help control those operations. Furthermore, when it comes to e-commerce, Google cannot come close to comparing with Amazon for product searches or purchases. The vast customer insights maintained by Amazon help it power Echo, such that it is much better at enabling consumers to search for, find, and purchase the precise products they want at the very moment they realize they need something.
With its earlier entrance, Amazon also has a leg up on the market already; Echo dominates, with an approximately 70 percent market share. Among people who already use voice assistants—such as Siri on their iPhones or Cortana on their personal computers—the three-year head start on Echo means that they likely have already made their purchase, and they are no longer in the market that might be served by Google Home. Moreover, almost half of all U.S. consumers do not currently use voice assistants and these customers do not seem interested in buying one for their homes.
Another hurdle in the market stems from customers’ privacy concerns. Such smart devices are always on and listening for commands. Some customers are uneasy with the presence of a device that is always listening to them. Although the companies offer assurances that customers are not being recorded if they are not directly giving commands, and it is possible to disable the microphone and delete past commands, customers remain wary.
As the first to market, Amazon was able to set the price level for this type of device. Echo currently costs about $180. When Google entered, it priced Google Home at $130.75 However, Amazon also has released a smaller, cheaper version, Echo Dot, that costs only $50. This new device was a huge hit on Amazon’s most recent Prime Day, sold at a special price of $35, which made it the top selling item on Amazon that day.76 In response, Google cut the cost of Google Home to $100.77
Even as this seeming head-to-head competition persists and intensifies, some other tech companies are starting to venture onto the battlefield. Apple introduced its smart speaker Page 206home device, HomePod, in January 2018.78 Along with the functions provided by Google Home and Echo, Apple’s entry features a special focus on music and sound quality. Even its name is evocative of the revolutionary iPod, which changed the way people listen to music. Priced around $349, it is the most expensive option. But for devoted Apple customers, a high price tag rarely turns the tide.
1. Trace how you might go through the steps in the consumer decision process if you were thinking of buying a smart home device.
2. Identify the four determinant attributes that set apart the Amazon, Google, and Apple smart home devices. Use those attributes to develop a compensatory purchasing model similar to the one in Exhibit 6.2. Based on your importance and performance ratings, which product would you buy?
3.Which device features examined in this chapter might have the greatest impact on consumers’ propensity to buy one of these products?
4.Which risk factors might impact consumers’ propensity to buy one of these products?
5.After purchasing one of these products, why might you experience postpurchase cognitive dissonance? What might the seller do to help you resolve this dissonance?
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Amazon.com has become one of the most successful online merchants. Two measures of its success are sales and net income/loss figures. The data can be found in the file, Amazon.
Use Excel to complete the following:
Construct a scatter plot for Amazon’s net income/loss and sales figures for the period 1995–2015.
Determine a polynomial model, including its order (or degree), for Amazon’s net income/loss and sales figures.
Use Word to complete the following:
Explain your process of determining the polynomial model
Submit your work in a Word document and attach your Excel file.
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Enjoy Please Note-You have come to the most reliable academic writing site that will sort all assignments that that you could be having. We write essays, research papers, term papers, research proposals Construct a scatter plot for Amazon’s net income/loss and sales figures for the period 1995–2015.
Choose one of the following companies:Amazon, Apple, McDonald’s, Tesla, Facebook, Walmart, or Target.
Research your chosen company, and then briefly summarize the history of the company from start-up until the present time. Be sure to include some information about how much it has grown and why this growth has occurred. Then, develop and elaborate your own theories as to how boundaries and framing may have affected some of the decisions that led the company to where it is today. Be sure to include the following elements in your case study:
– how bounded awareness can improve the decision-making process, – at least one example of boundaries exhibited by the company, and – at least one example of framing concerning the company.
Your case study should be a minimum of two pages in length, and it should be formatted according to APA guidelines. Please include the following three headers in your case study: Introduction and History of the Company, Example of Boundaries, and Example of Framing. You must include at least two academic references to support your work (the textbook may be one of those references). Any information from these resources must be cited and referenced in APA format.
In the past 40 years, Apple Inc. has managed to defy the odds of success and repeatedly shunned the status quo in the way the company interacts with its customers. It is clear that Apple Inc. is not ready to follow and engage in unwritten rules of marketing, technology and business(Brockmann, et al., 2015).The persistent strength of Apple’s brand has made the company to break odds with other marketers that relies on Facebook, twitter and other social media networks without adverse consequence.
Analysis indicated that Apple use social media network different as compared to its competitors in the technology world. Recently, Apple integrated Twitter into Mac and mobile operating systems, which acknowledged their customers’ need for social apps(Bazerman & Moorie, 2013). In addition, the Apple acknowledges the value of social media by operating several Facebook and Twitter accounts for its various sub-brands such as iBooks, iTunes and App store.
Growth Apple App Store offer over 2 million mobile and computer application that consumers can choose to download on a pay basis. Cook has over 1.44 million followers in a period of two years after joining(Bergvall-Karebon & Howcroft, 2011). In the other hand, Apple Music has attracted over 7.5 million followers, the App Store has hit 4 million followers, the iTunes is slightly above 806,000 followers and Beats1 account which was recently launched has received more than 314,000 followers on twitter(Holzer & Ondrus, 2011).The Apple App Store provides developers with 23 categories to distribute the………..
Instructions: In 750-1,000 words, create an analysis of how a Christian worldview could impact Amazon’s Mission and Vision statements and its business practices. Include the following:
Review the company’s Mission and Vision statements.
Describe elements of your company’s Mission and Vision statements that reflect the organization’s commitment to the greater social good
Explain how the company’s commitment to the greater social good relates to elements of a Christian worldview.
Are the company’s practices consistent with a Christian worldview? Explain.
Be sure to cite three to five relevant and credible sources in support of your content. Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide. An abstract is not required.
Benchmark Information
This Benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies:
Master of Business Administration
4.1: Articulate an organization’s responsibilities to the greater social good from a Christian perspective.
Master of Business Administration & Master of Science in Nursing: Nursing Leadership in Health Care Systems
10.1: Articulate an organization’s responsibilities to the greater social good from a Christian perspective.
