000958762 aung pyae comp 1646_ism

Myanmar Computer Co., Ltd.

Course: COMP 1646

B.Sc. Top up Programme

Date: APRIL 2017

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the University of

Greenwich’s Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Information Technology.

INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

Word Count: 3828

Prepared by: AUNG PYAE

Student ID: 000958762

COMP 1646 – Strategic Evaluation Document for Japan Railways

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COURSE : BSc (Hons) Business IT

MODULE TITLE : INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

ASSIGNMENT TITLE : Strategic Evaluation Document for Japan Railways

EXAM CYCLE : JUNE 2017

CANDIDATE NAME : AUNG PYAE

CANDIDATE NO : 000958762

SUMMITED DATE : APRIL 2017

Marker’s Comment :

Moderator’s Comment :

Marks: Moderated marks: Final marks:


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Statement and Confirmation of Own Work

Student Declaration

I have read and understood GREENWICH Education’s Policy on Academic Dishonesty and

Plagiarism.

I am confirmed the following details:

Student ID/Registration Number : 000958762

Name : AUNG PYAE

Centre Name : MCC TRAINING INSTITUTE (YATANARPON)

Module Name : INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

Module Leader : DAW THUZAR HLAING

Title of Work : Strategic Evaluation Document for Japan Railways

Number of words : 3828

I confirm that this is my own work and that I have not plagiarized any part of it. I have also noted

the assessment criteria and pass mark for assignments.

Due Date : APRIL 2017

Student Signature : AUNGPYAE

Submitted Date : APRIL 22, 2017

All GREENWICH Education assessed assignments submitted by students must have this

statement as the cover page or it will not be accepted for marking. Please ensure that this

statement is either firmly attached to the cover of the assignment or electronically inserted

into the front of the assignment.


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COMP 1646 - INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

Strategic Evaluation Document for Japan Railways

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................5

CHAPTER 2: SITUATION ANALYSIS..............................................................................................7

2.1. SWOT analysis ........................................................................................................................7

2.2. PEST analysis ........................................................................................................................ 10

CHAPTER 3: E-MARKETING STRATEGY..................................................................................... 13

3.1. Marketing strategy.................................................................................................................. 13

3.2. Balancing online and offline promotions .................................................................................. 15

3.3. Impact upon business performance .......................................................................................... 15

CHAPTER 4: LEGAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES................................................................................ 17

4.1. Issues in gathering .................................................................................................................. 17

4.2. Issues in processing ................................................................................................................ 17

4.3. Avoiding from legal and ethical issues ..................................................................................... 17

4.4. Summary ............................................................................................................................... 18

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION........................................................................................................... 19

CHAPTER 6: REFERENCES ........................................................................................................... 20


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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Japanese National Railways (JNR)

Japanese National Railways (JNR) is the biggest railway company in Japan established on 1949.

The line connects Wakkanai Station, Hokkaido to the North and Nishi-Ooyama Station,

Kagoshima prefecture to the South. This project was made possible by none other than ultra-

stable state-owned enterprise operated by the country, with a dependence on the government.

Thus many people wish to find employment at the national railway, dreaming of a life in

tranquillity especially if they like railways.

Japan Railways Group (JR Group) is owned by Japanese National Railways (JNR) operated by

the government on April 1, 1987 and consists of seven for-profit companies to operate railways

all over the country. Japan Railways is one of the most common railway line services in railway

network of Japan with high speed train lines, commuter rails and tram rails. There are seven

private railway companies in Japan and Japan Railways is also one of the largest private railway

companies for full operating services with passenger trains. On April 1, 1987, the Japan

Railways Company is privately founded under the guidance of government and completed with

power of more than 73,017 employees and head office in Tokyo. The Japan Railways is

commonly served for passenger trains and trams.

Logo of Japan Railways

Financial performance

The financial performance of Japan Railways is powerful with the background supply of loyal

customers and partnership companies. As provided by government, the Japan Railways has

operational income from train services and customers. Most of income performance is get from

high speed travel services with bullet trains.

Operating income: ¥ 487,821 million (2016)

Net income: ¥ 245,310 million (2016)

Train lines

Bullet trains – operating speed at 300Km/h (186 mph) for high speed travel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_yen



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Limited express trains (daytime)

Limited express trains (overnight)

Express trains

Customer services

JR East travel service centre (7:30 - 20:30) for every day. Online bookings are also

available at Japan travelling websites for 24 hours.

Train tickets can buy with Japanese currency or international payment system, e.g. credit

cards.

Foreign current exchange services are available at railway stations for foreigners.

Package tour sales are allowed for group trip and company, school or group excursions.


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CHAPTER 2: SITUATION ANALYSIS

In this chapter, the analysis for the case of JR-East railway networks problems and challenges are

documented. With the use of modern business analysis techniques, SWOT and PEST analysis

are used to consider the network problems of JR-East.

2.1. SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis means for Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats of a process, an

organisation or company. SWOT is used as framework for organizing and using data information

from analysis of internal and external environment.

I. Strengths

JR railway line uses networked centralised control from headquarters and these have greater

strengths on controlling all railway lines.

JR East is the largest railway road company in Japan with a long railway network of 4,677 miles.

Trains carrying 17 million of passengers per day and about 12,761 trains arrive/departure per day.

Japan Railways has a long railway network of more than 7,500 km in length, has about 1,700

stations, retail outlets and restaurants in the lifestyle business and line side areas, and has many

attractive features.

The case study of Japan Railways uses Software-Defined Networking (SDN) solution produced

by NEC Corporation from virtualization of networks, with quickly and smart for independent

virtual private network.

Network Rail is investing £ 800 million on rail tracks to improve and maintain current tracks.

The company also uses the lots of money to acquire cutting-edge technology and invest a lot of

money in machinery for ballast cleaners, high-output trains and track-based trains. Using this

amount on railways will help to identify the current and potential passengers who are committed

to maintaining and improving rail and service delivery.

Railways are the safest means of transportation. The likelihood of a traffic accident and rail

failure is less when compared to other means of transportation. Traffic volume can also be

protected from sun and snow hazards. As the transportation capacity of railways is very large,

the capacity is also flexible and more wagons can be added easily. Railway is the largest local

transportation project in the country and performs many public services for transportation of


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people and things. Fares for railway services are keeping upon the traffic but it is national

necessity.

II. Weakness

The network has been built separately on basic needs and created with complicated infrastructure,

jumbled wiring, and heavy workloads when adding or modifying a network.

The network system need to protect from external attackers as it is the most important of the

network rail.

Many preparations for new rail line improvement was need to plan as the complexity of railway

system.

Rail transport is tied to a specific track, so the trains cannot provide door-to-door service. The

time cost depending upon the travel is the major disadvantage of rail transport.

III. Opportunities

The Japan Railway is improving their services and processes with new services, some of great

improvement are passenger congestion detecting and display on train platforms by using IP

cameras, and displaying the train times and service information at required locations.

When improving the railway networks and train lines, many job opportunities created for people.

Hotels, stores and advertisements are placed near and around parts of the railway station and

increase jobs for people and also perfect for passengers. Common economic effects of railway

roads are increasing job opportunities from banks, construction, hotels, office buildings,

shopping centres and real estate.


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The time and problems occurred in adding networks system or rearrange the equipment in the

past and changing of construction project configurations inside the stations are eliminated.

After network rail improvement, opportunities in engineering - civil, mechanical and electrical or

electronic - graduates can apply for jobs in general management, finance, property, strategic

planning, supply chain, business technology and project management, with positions available in

the company.

IV. Threats

For other private railway companies like Japan Railways, maintaining the social infrastructure

and reliability is the most importance.

Local people are accusing Network rail improvements. The destruction of trees and wildlife for

new railway tracks has negative effects on other side and people who live near the railway tracks

are also worry about their environment. Using networked railway system may insensitive to

natural environment and wildlife, and has threats on trees, vegetation and people’s lives in the

railway environment.


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2.2. PEST analysis

The word “PEST” stands for factors of Political, Economic, Social and Technological that

generally affect business activities and outcomes created in 1967. The PEST method can be used

to determine the outlook of an organization by combining other tools such as SWOT analysis.

I. Political factors

Political stability is the durability and integrity of the present governmental system. It is based on

the amount of violence and terror associated with the nation and people. A stable society is

content with the ruling party and the operations of system and is not interested in revolutionary

or autocratic ideas. Japan's political position to create good business in Japan can have an

opportunity. Japan Railway is private railway company but some of company’s processes are

related with government.

Primary tax and issues that JR can face include;

Tax on income.

Taxation of capital gains and labour income.

Ecological taxation

The tax on the JR system is controlled by government. All tax on the services is identified and

passengers need to pay tax fee for their train rides.

The logo and trademark of Japan Railway is registered on Japan and other nations. Therefore,

other companies or organisations cannot take or copy to any forms, electronic, photocopying the

JR logos and trademarks without permission and these are protected under the copyright laws.

The Japanese railway network is operated and owned by public government, and since the first

railway was opened from 1872, the lines are operated by private sector. The sector is called

"railway manias" of the nineteenth century and 1906/7 is detailed in the Japanese railroad history

of 1872-1999, published by the EJRCF. The Japanese National Railway (JNR) was recognised

by ministry of public transportation, which almost completely monopolized civil railway and

railway transportation in 1949.

By the guidance of government, there are private railways and transportation companies in Japan

but only provide for local lines and services. Due to the underprivileged population in rural areas,

many private railways have focused on very profitable projects in large cities that have shut

down routes connecting rural areas since the 1970s and can burn a huge number of customers.

The private railway transportation plays an important role in public transportation of Japan and

Japan Railway is one of the railway transports.


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II. Economic factors

The Japan Railways is the largest railway company and train services are used by many local and

global passengers. For foreigners, payment services need to be easy for train ticket payments

with global payment systems such as PayPal, Visa or Master Card. For this case, the railway

stations at JR group area have cash machines and bank services for global travellers.

High speed rail runs fast, comfort and efficient so passengers can save time and energy. Train

lines operate at selects parts of country in all weather conditions and right time. For the

customers of JR, the company has services on the trains such as joining restaurant car on long

train routes, placing CCTV cameras at each car for security and other services, therefore many

customers happy to join JR trains for better services.

III. Social factors

Health and safety is the first important for the JR company. As the JR is only served for

passenger trains, customer safety is the first priority for the company to take loyal customers and

popularity. JR is leading high speed rail in the world and so people need fast and safe trains. For

this case, JR is designed their high speed railway tracks to safe and fast with no accidents.

Railway tracks of high speed trains are dedicated, closed passenger rail system with complete

separation of passenger and traffic. This is to protect people near the railway tracks and already

protected for children and animals playing or walking on railway tracks. All high speed tracks

are protected with fence or upward on bridges.

On running at high speed, the train need to be safe and JR is designed their railways tracks with

fixed concrete sleepers, the train can run at steady-state along the travel with safe and fast. When

crossing the rivers or something that need to pass, the tracks are placed over the viaduct bridges

with steel jacketing columns to protect from earthquakes and natural disasters.


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IV. Technological factors

As the railway networks are built separately based on the basics they need, there are cumbersome

wiring, complex infrastructure, and heavy workloads when adding or modifying networks.

Software-Defined Networking solutions enable network simplification, secure integration and

easy control. The Japan Railways Company has successfully built a common station network and

a solid IT infrastructure and has successfully improved the quality of service at Central Station

(Tokyo).

For global communication, JR group has official website to give customers their services and

train routes from online. JR train tickets can order from online in selected regions. For the

important parts on company data and information, networks need to be secure from attackers and

have recovery plans for disaster cases. All trains are running with networked railway guidance

and these are controlled from the centre station. Therefore the network of the JR need to secure

and protected.

Summary

For the main analysis part of JR, both SWOT and PEST analysis methods are used to improve

opportunities for company and strength. And also defining threats and weakness can consider

how to less/decrease these weak points in future. Factors are also defined for company services

and work flows with political, economic, social and environment views.


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CHAPTER 3: E-MARKETING STRATEGY

3.1. Marketing strategy

Web advertising method is one of the powerful online advertising methods to advertise the

brand or product to become more popular or increase rate. The Japan Railways uses web

advertising system for structured planning and expand the market area. Especially at Japan, the

Japan Railways has designed a website to process their web advertising to improve the online

advertising, show train routes from online and online customers’ services. From web adverting,

the Japan Railways can get more valuable and loyal customers with increase rate of popularity.

To start the web advertising system, the company need to have their official website to give all

information, services, advertisements and promotions for customers. As most of the customers

are finding most of information from web, the website of Japan Railways need to complete for

effective results. Choosing a domain name and web design are the most important for e-

marketing and Japan Railways also need to consider about their web management. Domain name

need to clear and easy to understand for users. Selecting web hosting is also important for

website to balancing income and benefits. There are two types of hosting, free and commercial.

Free hosts are benefits to look for save money, but there are more restrictions on using the free

hosts, limits of file size on hosting, limited bandwidth and other unwanted banner ads care

drawbacks of using free hosts. For this point of weakness, the Japan Railways need to use

commercial hosts for their web advertising system. Commercial hosting need to pay for host but

this have much benefits on the website. Fewer restrictions than free hosts and much more disk

space and bandwidth to access many customers at same time. Advertisements can run much

faster and whole web system is fast to satisfy customers and give information. Therefore, the

Japan Railways need to use commercial host for online advertisements and website.

Banner ads are graphical presentations placed on the webpage or applications to attract the users

to click the as link and visit the website. There are many standard banner ads sizes, shapes and

they can place every place on the webpage. The Japan Railways also need to use banner ad to

promote the website and their advertisements to get more customers. On ad servers, the company

need to create and register banner ads for customers to visit. When the users are using internet

from websites or on mobile applications, the banner advertisings of Japan Railways will show at

different places of the screen with registered poster images. If the users click the banner

advertising image, the ads will link to the website of the Japan Railways and show the

information. Users can view the website information of train timetables, information, online

bookings, seat prices, and other customer services from clicking the banner ads of the company.


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Standard web banner ad sizes on single webpage

Email marketing is one of the forms of internet marketing (e-marketing) and this method is the

using of mailing services to potential customers. Email marketing targets commonly to the

potential and loyal customers to reach or span the emails including the geographic locations, or

demographic profiles. This mailing is message to customer’s email and offer for products,

services, promotions or other information to target the customer’s interests. Email marketing has

higher response rate than direct mail or using banner ads, so the Japan Railways also need to use

email marketing for loyal and potential customers. For the people who are usually travelling by

Japan Railways trains, they need to get up to date information of services, promotions and other

information from online or offline. Therefore the Japan Railways need to use email marketing to

expand their information and promotions. If the services have promotions or some others to

know the customers, the company will email to the customers the promotion information on

email marketing system. When the customers open the mail and they can see or view the

information of promotions, new service and others send by Japan Railways on email easily.


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Example: spam mail income for email marketing

3.2. Balancing online and offline promotions

The Japan Railways has many online and offline advertisement especially in Japan. As the

company is run only on Japan, some of online advertisements are not effect to all customers. All

online and offline promotions are mainly target on local and services. So the main loyal customer

area is the local cities and offline promotions are also promote on local areas. Offline promotion

events are more effective and get more customer interest rather than online promotions for local

railway services. On crowded supermarkets and paces, the promotion events should place to get

more customers. Advertise or promote the services on TV boards or via local television network

can also get more customer interest.

On balancing the online and offline promotion systems, online promotions are easy and effective

to get customers from online. But need to register advertisements on ads server and also need a

website to promote. The company is a local company and online services are commonly target to

foreigners. The offline promotions are also more effective then online promotions as the

company is the local based company. Local promotions with offline can get more loyal and

potential customers over the country. Both online and offline promotion methods can get

customer interest but offline promotions can get more customer interest as the company serve for

local.

3.3. Impact upon business performance

Expanding the market on online and offline get more interest rates and good impact upon the

performance of company processes. As the company is serving for passenger railways, the


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railway income performance is greater than other financial incomes. From operating of train

services, the Japan Railways wins ¥ 487,821 million from operating services. The company is the

local train line company and it is target to local customers. Therefore expanding the market for

local people from online or offline methods get much greater potential customers and customer

trust. It is not a simple task to get potential between competitors as the Japan has private railway

companies. There are many advertising methods to promote but e-marketing is one of the best

online advertising. Online advertising can get many impact on the business for easy to advertise

and commonly known. The company should need to expand the market area from online

commonly and give the up to date services to customers for better improvement.



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CHAPTER 4: LEGAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES

Legal and ethical issues of Japan Railways need to consider for data policy and privacy.

Common legal and ethical issues are related from privacy, property, copyrights, laws and

censorship.

4.1. Issues in gathering

The online Japan Railways ticket boking website collects bio data of customer information

including their personal information. All personal information includes name, NRC or passport

numbers, physical addresses, interests, phone numbers, gender, birthday, email address, credit

card or payment information and some more for online or offline railway ticket registration. All

personal bio-data need to be private and have secured from many inside and outside attacks.

Some of the conditional data are collected from sessions and cookies on accessing the website

and they might be used between the business area and process of Japan Railways only. Without

permissions of the Japan Railways, no customer data need to access from other organisation of

people. There have an agreement between customers and Japan Railways for gathering

customers’ bio-data on train ticket registration and personal information of customers should not

share without permissions. Therefore there are ethical issues deals with information gathering

from customers.

4.2. Issues in processing

The employees of Japan Railways Company will need to use or access the customers’ personal

bio-data and information from website, form registrations, emails or telephone for train ticket

registration and other customer services. They need to protect customer data and information as

their own information. 80% of computer criminals or unauthorized access was performed by

non-outsiders as research by recent studies. The Japan Railways must consider how to securely

process customer confidential information within the company. Some of employees may waste

time of their job time on accessing non-work-related websites are also need to concern with

ethical issues.

4.3. Avoiding from legal and ethical issues

To prevent from using customer information from unauthorized access, the Japan Railways uses

data security technologies to prevent from all customer data and train networks. Train networks

are also need to secure to prevent from accidents. Some common protection methods are using

firewalls and VPN (Virtual Private Network) to prevent hackers, attackers, and some employees.

Access control levels for accessing data are also need to control employees for ethical issues.


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Database of customer and company data are needed to protect with access control levels such as

username, password or fingerprints to protect. The regulations on privacy, intellectual property

and censorship on the internet may differ from country to country. Japanese Railways must be

aware of the laws and regulations of the countries in which they are located and may have legal

or ethical problems. As a result, it affects the company's reputation and brand awareness.

4.4. Summary

This chapter discussed the legal and ethical issues of Japanese railways. Legal and ethical issues

are collected, handled, distributed and the use of information on the internet has been critically

discussed. And some advice avoids legal and ethical issues.


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CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION

The Japan Railways is one of the largest private railways in Japan with many local customers,

services and modern trains. The organisation is controlled by government for tax, railway tracks

all over the country and passenger trains.

The strengths of the Japan Railways are having a long length of railway tracks for largest travel,

centralised networking system for trains, and safest railway passenger transport. But there are

some weak points in railway system; separated network system and complexity of railway

system. On upgrading the railway systems with network control, new opportunities are occur

around the train stations and the cities. New job opportunities for people and related jobs such as

banks, stores, hotels and businesses are occurred. Railway travelling also improved and provide

for government. Japan Railways need to improve and maintain their services and processes for

better performance. At the same time, the analysis of political, ethical, social and legal factors

are also need to be aware of as mentioned above.

The e-marketing strategies that the Japan Railways uses are web advertising, banner ads and

email marketing. To get more loyal and potential customers, the Japan railways uses both online

and offline promotion methods to improve their performance. For financial stages, the company

also balanced the promotion systems for online and offline. More of the customers are local

people and thus the company is target for local customers commonly. But foreigners are also

interest in Japan trains and railway line and so both online and offline promotion methods are

needed.

The legal and ethical issues are also facing for the Japan railways on gathering, processing and

the use of data. All staffs need to have ethics for customers trust on their bio-data and

information. Some of the ways avoid from legal and ethical issues were also described on above

chapter.


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CHAPTER 6: REFERENCES

The contents of this coursework are referenced from the followings;

"East Japan Railway Company (JR-EAST): Case Studies L NEC". Nec.com. N.p., 2017.

Web. 20 Apr. 2017.

"East Japan Railway Company". En.wikipedia.org. N.p., 2017. Web. 20 Apr. 2017.

Strategy, Developing. "Developing An Internet Marketing Strategy". Bookboon.com.

N.p., 2017. Web. 20 Apr. 2017.

Ethics, Business. "Business Ethics Introduction To The Ethics Of Values".

Bookboon.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 20 Apr. 2017.

George, Clark. "Online Advertising's Impact On Business - The Adstage Blog". The

AdStage Blog. N.p., 2017. Web. 18 Apr. 2017.

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