Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Conclusion
Blockbuster Inc. has had successful leadership over the years. They have been able to reinvent their strategy over the years to stay with the times and meet the needs of their customers. When NetFlix emerged Blockbuster countered with the end of late fees and Blockbuster Total Access. Initially NetFlix took a large portion of the market share, but Blockbuster with their deep pockets was able to advertise and offer more incentives to woe the customers back. They also ended their late fees to stay competitive and took a slight lose at the beginning of the end of late fees. They have bounced back since then and are now fighting strong to keep up their revenue. The company has had many internal changes and improvements over the years, and to their own admission they have become a new Blockbuster. As discussed in the technology section they have within the last year and a half introduced new application software called Compass that boosts the efficiency of the company, particularly on the store management level. It has also enabled the corporate offices to directly communicate with the store employees so their messages and intentions don’t get water down through a long link of contacts and intermediaries. The company has been successful over the years and is staying with the times by using up to date technology and business strategies.
Technology
Blockbuster Inc. currently uses personal computers in the stores. Their computers are connected through an Ethernet card and Ethernet Cat 5 cable which links all the stores to a centralized server in the corporate office, with all of the customers’ information. All computers come equipped with a monitor and mouse. Any store can connect using their computer with the customer’s unique identification number. Each store also has a laptop which is used for signing up customers to the recently introduced online program. They are connected to the Internet by a network interface card provided by Sprint. The connection used for the laptops are sprint broadband which operates at 600kbps - 1.4Mbps. The computers in the store also have a broadband connection, and they do not use a voice over IP.Databases that Blockbuster uses are composed of online transaction processing (OLTP) and online analytical processeing (OLAP). Their database that supports OLTP is also known in the business world as an operational database. The information stored in the operational database is very mathematical. For example it includes information such as financial information such as credit card information, customer Id number, and transaction informatin for videos rented. On the other hand, the database that supports the OLAP, the data warehouse, includes information such as what video was rented so they can suggest more videos the think you will like. Also, the data warehouse includes information on how often you rent so they may put you into their rewards program for example. As far as security issues Blockbuster uses confidentiality in that only authorized employees may access the information. They also have authenticity and integrity constraints meaning all their information comes form the source it claims to and the information has not been altered in the process. As far as the availability is concerned the web site or domain (http://www.blockbuster.com/) is up 24 hours and the stores are open 365 days a year within their time frames.
Blockbuster also other types of hardware. They use printers to get reports from the corporate offices and to print up membership cards. All stores also have laser bar code scanners that are used to scan customer membership cards and the bar codes on the products being purchased or rented at the stores. Verifone credit card machines are also used to scan credit cards and gift cards that are used for purchases. All the computers are IBM brand computers and their laptops are Dells. Some Blockbuster stores sell video game systems and system controllers.
Blockbuster has an IT department that stores can call whenever they have any computer issues. When a store experiences any problems with the Dell laptop or the store computer system they contact Computer Support who will then contact the IT department to send out a technician to resolve the issue. The IT department is responsible for gathering any hardware or software that the stores may need.
Blockbusters' operating system is a Point of Sales system which is used in the stores. It stores all the inventory and products that Blockbuster carries and ones that it doesn't. The system is used to look up products and members information. The POS system is very important to the stores because it helps to store all the members’ information and it keeps track of the stores inventory so that stores can know what products the stores currently have on hand. Blockbuster also uses system software called Compass. They use this to clock in and out of shifts. Managers use Compass to log on and get manager reports that tell them how the store is doing on sales and how many hours the store have already used up. Managers also get updates from corporate through Compass; managers get email updates on current updates on programs going on in the stores and if any changes need to be made in the stores. Compass uses Internet Explorer to open up its system, Blockbusters back room computers that are used to clock in are run by Microsoft XP which means Blockbuster does not use Linux. Blockbuster also has a program that they had made for their online program, stores that ship movies to online members use this program to access a list of movies that need to be sent to online customers. Then by using this program they can print labels with the customers name and address and then ship the movies out to the customers. The Dell laptops that are in the stores also use Internet Explorer. The Veriphone is linked up to a broadband satellite to transmit the credit card information but it also has a dial up backup service in case the satellite goes down so that credit cards can still be processed.
Blockbuster uses Microsoft Office and Microsoft Media players in there backroom computers. The laptops only use Internet Explorer and can only be used to access Blockbuster Online. The Media player is used to aid the managers during meetings when they must play video clips to the employees to help show them new promotions that are going on.
Some of the files used in Blockbuster are customer roster, employee roster, and inventory. Customer Roster includes pertinent information about the customers such as their names, addresses, videos rented, and financial information, for example any credit cards used. The employee roster includes the employees' names, addresses, social security number, position employed for, and wage. Inventory file includes important information about the videos such as the name of the video, product number, customers that rented it, price, and its category for example if it's a horror or comedy, etc.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Business Strategy
Which of the 4 Business Strategies is Blockbuster using?
Out of the four possibilities: Cost, Differentiation, Global, and Niche it seems that Blockbuster is implementing a niche strategy. The reason being exactly what the definition of niche is. It is a specialization, and in this case, targeting a specialized market which includes a specific type of customer and providing a specified product to that customer. That is, Blockbuster focuses primarily on renting out movies (and games) to people who like movies (and games). That is their business strategy.
How much power do the five forces have in Blockbuster's industry?
Blockbuster's industry, the video and gaming world, has many different aspects to it when considering the dimensions of its industry, five of which essentially cover everything you need to know about Blockbuster and where it stands in its market. These five corners are known as the Five Forces.
The first of the Five forces is Buyer Power which is high when buyers have many choices. Hollywood Video is Blockbuster's main competitor when you consider a company that rents both movies and games. However Netflix has become a video rental giant and customer's can easily go online and rent. Remaining buyer options include renting a movie "pay-per-view" from their satellite dish or if they have cable they can rent "on-demand." Also, its safe to say that most towns have a local video rental store that buyers can choose from. Buyer Power is relatively high as far as renting movies is concerned. But Hollywood Video isthe only one really giving Blockbuster competition in renting games.Second of the five forces is Supplier Power which is high when buyers dont have many alternative choices.Blockbuster's supplier power used to be high unitl netflix entered the market a couple years ago and amazoned them. Blockbuster still has much power in its game rental corner.Third is the threat of substitute products. Substitute products include Hollywood Video, Satellite, Cable, and Netflix. The only thing about Satellite and cable is that they dont offer as high as a selection as Blockbuster, Netflix, and Hollywood Video. Netflix lets you rent without going to a store, all you do is click your mouse to rent and then leave the video in a mailbox when its time to return. While Netflix is easy, Satellite and Cable are even easier, all you have to do is click your remote and you can view your movie for up to 24 hours. Satellite and Cable mostly offer new releases but its conventient because you never have to leave your couch.Fourth is the threat of new entrants. In order for a new entrant to enter the market they would have to be ready to compete with the thousands of stores that Blockbuster has in place and they would need to warehouse some how the huge product selection they would need to compete. Not only in videos but in games they would need a presence because Blockbuster is generating revenue from both angles.Finally there is Rivalry Among Competitors. This is high when competition among existing competitors is fierce. Competition among Blockbuster and its competitors is high as they battle it out in their their market fearlessly. Blockbuster offers over 2,600 stores outside the US and is still growing.
Which Business initiatives are eing used by Blockbuter?
Blockbuster is using Provia's ViaWare for supply chain management. This includes: packagin, sorting, and distributing rental and retail products. This is a bottomo-line IT as it is a method of keeping costs down.
Out of the four possibilities: Cost, Differentiation, Global, and Niche it seems that Blockbuster is implementing a niche strategy. The reason being exactly what the definition of niche is. It is a specialization, and in this case, targeting a specialized market which includes a specific type of customer and providing a specified product to that customer. That is, Blockbuster focuses primarily on renting out movies (and games) to people who like movies (and games). That is their business strategy.
How much power do the five forces have in Blockbuster's industry?
Blockbuster's industry, the video and gaming world, has many different aspects to it when considering the dimensions of its industry, five of which essentially cover everything you need to know about Blockbuster and where it stands in its market. These five corners are known as the Five Forces.
The first of the Five forces is Buyer Power which is high when buyers have many choices. Hollywood Video is Blockbuster's main competitor when you consider a company that rents both movies and games. However Netflix has become a video rental giant and customer's can easily go online and rent. Remaining buyer options include renting a movie "pay-per-view" from their satellite dish or if they have cable they can rent "on-demand." Also, its safe to say that most towns have a local video rental store that buyers can choose from. Buyer Power is relatively high as far as renting movies is concerned. But Hollywood Video isthe only one really giving Blockbuster competition in renting games.Second of the five forces is Supplier Power which is high when buyers dont have many alternative choices.Blockbuster's supplier power used to be high unitl netflix entered the market a couple years ago and amazoned them. Blockbuster still has much power in its game rental corner.Third is the threat of substitute products. Substitute products include Hollywood Video, Satellite, Cable, and Netflix. The only thing about Satellite and cable is that they dont offer as high as a selection as Blockbuster, Netflix, and Hollywood Video. Netflix lets you rent without going to a store, all you do is click your mouse to rent and then leave the video in a mailbox when its time to return. While Netflix is easy, Satellite and Cable are even easier, all you have to do is click your remote and you can view your movie for up to 24 hours. Satellite and Cable mostly offer new releases but its conventient because you never have to leave your couch.Fourth is the threat of new entrants. In order for a new entrant to enter the market they would have to be ready to compete with the thousands of stores that Blockbuster has in place and they would need to warehouse some how the huge product selection they would need to compete. Not only in videos but in games they would need a presence because Blockbuster is generating revenue from both angles.Finally there is Rivalry Among Competitors. This is high when competition among existing competitors is fierce. Competition among Blockbuster and its competitors is high as they battle it out in their their market fearlessly. Blockbuster offers over 2,600 stores outside the US and is still growing.
Which Business initiatives are eing used by Blockbuter?
Blockbuster is using Provia's ViaWare for supply chain management. This includes: packagin, sorting, and distributing rental and retail products. This is a bottomo-line IT as it is a method of keeping costs down.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Business Strategy
Blockbuster Video uses its supply chain management to increase the top line initiatives and support bottom line initiatives. Blockbuster uses the just in time system to try and always have the new and popular movies on hand for sale and rent, so they don’t have to turn any customers away. At the same time all orders for movies are automatic. The inventory is updated with every transaction and sent to the corporate offices. If the individual stores need a shipment all that is done is the corporate offices O.K. the order and the distributors send the movies to the store.
Blockbuster Video has different strategies to stay competitive in Porter’s Five Forces Model. To limit buyer power, which is a customer having many choices of where to buy a product, Blockbuster offers a rewards program. The program allows the customer to earn benefits for shopping at the stores. This increases the loyalty of the customers and gets return business. To increase supplier power Blockbuster sometimes has contracts to have Blockbuster Only Exclusive movies. They also offer programs that allow the customer to rent unlimited movies for a low monthly fee. The threat of substitute products is rather low. The company is beginning to offer HD-DVD’s and Blue Ray DVD’s which is the newest high definition technology. Keeping up with the times, having the most rental stores in the country, and having a huge marketing budget makes it extremely hard for new companies to enter the industry.
The Supply Chain Management system works as a support system. The mission statement of the company focuses on the store giving the customers a unique and enjoyable experience in the store to increase repeat customers. The majority of the revenue of Blockbuster is in movie rentals not movie sales. To the company they try and increase the loyalty of the customers, so the supply chain management is used to help the customers have a better experience and return on a more frequent basis.
Blockbuster Video has different strategies to stay competitive in Porter’s Five Forces Model. To limit buyer power, which is a customer having many choices of where to buy a product, Blockbuster offers a rewards program. The program allows the customer to earn benefits for shopping at the stores. This increases the loyalty of the customers and gets return business. To increase supplier power Blockbuster sometimes has contracts to have Blockbuster Only Exclusive movies. They also offer programs that allow the customer to rent unlimited movies for a low monthly fee. The threat of substitute products is rather low. The company is beginning to offer HD-DVD’s and Blue Ray DVD’s which is the newest high definition technology. Keeping up with the times, having the most rental stores in the country, and having a huge marketing budget makes it extremely hard for new companies to enter the industry.
The Supply Chain Management system works as a support system. The mission statement of the company focuses on the store giving the customers a unique and enjoyable experience in the store to increase repeat customers. The majority of the revenue of Blockbuster is in movie rentals not movie sales. To the company they try and increase the loyalty of the customers, so the supply chain management is used to help the customers have a better experience and return on a more frequent basis.
Business Strategy
Blockbuster E-Commerce
Blockbuster Video uses many forms of e-commerce they have a website so that customers can purchase and rent movies online at their own convenience. Their website is mostly business to consumer in that customers can purchase things on the website if they don’t want to go to the stores to buy it. They also offer companies to go online to purchase large amounts of gift cards; companies can use these as gifts for their employees. When things are purchased on Blockbusters site you can use your credit card to purchase these things. So far that is the only way to pay for merchandise on their sites. When a customer signs up for the Blockbuster online program they also use a credit card and the card is automatically charge at the beginning of the billing period for the program.
Blockbuster also uses an intranet inside its stores. Employees must use a program called Compass in order to clock in and out for their shifts. This program also grants access to company information and promotions that they have going on. Blockbuster also has a system that tracks when products are sold in the store like movies and candy. When a movie is sold it gets tracked in the system and gets sent to our distribution center and lets them know that they have sold out of a product so that they can send us more. This is also true with candy orders, the associates in the stores do not place candy orders it is all done through the computer system they have, and inventory is replenished when they are running low on certain candy.
Blockbuster has uses different types of things to help promote their company and the products it offers. Blockbuster has banner ads for there online program when you go onto different websites like Myspace.com and Moviefone.com. They also have arrangements with Amazon.com they have banners on Amazons’ site that will take you to Blockbusters site if it is clicked on. Blockbusters website also appears at the top of the list when you search movie rentals at Google.com, they pay additional fees to make sure that their name is at the top of the list of sites that come up under that search. They also have commercials on TV to help promote the online program.
Links:
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
History of Blockbuster with Link
History of Blockbuster
Founded in 1985, blockbuster is a giant in the video and game rental world. This young company was given the breath of life by David Cook who actually started out as a computer software supplier to Texas’ oil and gas industry. When that industry went sour in the mid 80’s Cook’s company went down the drain with it and so he was left to brainstorm something new. His loved ones gave him many suggestions but the one that caught his eye was the idea of launching a video rental business and so David went to work on it and the first store opened up in Dallas in 1985. The company grew quickly as in only four short years Blockbuster stores were opened up in London and Canada although Cook had left the company in 1987. In 1992 Blockbuster bought out Sound Warehouse and Music Plus and two years later Blockbuster was obtained by Viacom. Needless to say Blockbuster has grown a little since then and has over 8,000 stores operating worldwide. Even with all this success brought about by their hard work and strategic operating Blockbuster was challenged by a brand new company that was established in 1998. The name of this bold and intimidating competitor is Netflix. Unfortunately for Blockbuster, in recent years a substantial portion of their revenues have been seized by Netflix, a purely online rental company. In response to this catastrophe, Blockbuster was forced to enter in the online rental business not only to compete but to maintain its very existence. The war between Blockbuster and Netflix is now fully engaged.
Links:
http://www.blockbuster.com/corporate/companyOverview
http://thomashawk.com/2005/11/netflix-presents-at-lehman-brothers.html
-Ronald M. Paraison
Founded in 1985, blockbuster is a giant in the video and game rental world. This young company was given the breath of life by David Cook who actually started out as a computer software supplier to Texas’ oil and gas industry. When that industry went sour in the mid 80’s Cook’s company went down the drain with it and so he was left to brainstorm something new. His loved ones gave him many suggestions but the one that caught his eye was the idea of launching a video rental business and so David went to work on it and the first store opened up in Dallas in 1985. The company grew quickly as in only four short years Blockbuster stores were opened up in London and Canada although Cook had left the company in 1987. In 1992 Blockbuster bought out Sound Warehouse and Music Plus and two years later Blockbuster was obtained by Viacom. Needless to say Blockbuster has grown a little since then and has over 8,000 stores operating worldwide. Even with all this success brought about by their hard work and strategic operating Blockbuster was challenged by a brand new company that was established in 1998. The name of this bold and intimidating competitor is Netflix. Unfortunately for Blockbuster, in recent years a substantial portion of their revenues have been seized by Netflix, a purely online rental company. In response to this catastrophe, Blockbuster was forced to enter in the online rental business not only to compete but to maintain its very existence. The war between Blockbuster and Netflix is now fully engaged.
Links:
http://www.blockbuster.com/corporate/companyOverview
http://thomashawk.com/2005/11/netflix-presents-at-lehman-brothers.html
-Ronald M. Paraison
Monday, February 5, 2007
John Antioco-CEO
John Antioco
John Antioco first started his career in 1970 as a management trainee for 7-Eleven convenience store chain. He spent 20 years with 7-Eleven and had several management positions in the company. He then became chief operating officer of Pearl Vision in 1990. He then got recruited to become chief operating officer for Circle K Corporations within 2 years of being with Pearl Vision. In 1996 he accepted a position as president and CEO of Taco Bell Corporation. While with Taco Bell he introduced new menus, new ad campaigns and a new franchising strategy and that help increase Taco Bells sales. And finally he joined the Blockbuster team in 1997 as chairman and CEO. He led the company into a financial turnaround by introducing different marketing and operational initiatives. He currently continues to introduce new programs and promotions to help the company to continue to make more money. His latest craze is the introduction of the new online experience, the BLOCKBUSTER TOTAL ACCESS experience. He hopes to get Netflix out of the running as leader of online renting, he has even extended an offer to Netflix by asking them to merge with Blockbuster but they turned down the offer.
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Introduction
Online renting has had a lot of publicity lately. It has been the war between
Recently both companies have filed law suites against each other trying to gain the majority market share of online renting. We chose Blockbuster online because we believe they are not getting a fair comparison against Netflix and will triumph in the end. We believe Blockbuster is offering more benefits as compared to Netflix. Both companies offer the same type of plans, from 1 to 3 movies at a time with no difference in price or number of movies mailed to the customer. But, Blockbuster gives you a coupon every month that allows you to rent a movie or games, and they also allow you to rent any movie free when you return the online rentals to a store. So in reality you get coupons and two Blockbuster rentals per Netflix Rental, for the same price.
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