Benefits of Mobile Applications Over Web-Based Food Ordering Services

Picoso depicted in this report is the Mexican Restaurant franchise and they have planned to shift their business activities from the online-based food–ordering services to the mobile-based food ordering services (McWherter and Gowell 2012). They have also planned to involve the home delivery system along with the mobile-based food delivery system.

The report will focus on the various advantages that mobile platform can cater over the prevalent online website based system. The work breakdown structure will showcase all the aspects in more details as well in this report. The work breakdown structure will acknowledge us with the various activities and the phases which can be helpful to build the prototype based on which it will become easy to adopt the mobile application feature. The application has been planned to build in-house and report will highlight the features associated and functionalities of the mobile applications.

The mobile applications are used worldwide and al the users prefer these applications over the online web-based services. The applications have become more user-friendly and the users think them as more appropriate and convenient to use. The business organisations have been benefitted by the mobile applications approach are Dominos US and Starbucks and much more (Bharadwaj, et al. 2013). This approach has become successful in recent times due to the accessibility of the mobile applications and a well-designed interface that attracts the customers and clients. The researchers have highlighted that the mobile applications have greatly enhanced the business operations in recent times. This approach has proved to be fruitful to the enterprises as they have discovered their market size has greatly embellished (Wen, et al. 2014). The enterprises via mobile based applications can connect to the customers throughout day and night and thus the customers can get 24×7 services. The mobile applications which have the location-based facility can be utilized to track down the locations of the customers or better say the mobile applications can assist to target the specific customers those who are living in the specific region. The mobile applications help to connect to the customers all throughout day and night 24×7 that is impossible in case of web-based applications. The customers can order foods on the go, they can order food from any places with convenience, they can order food from the college, school and office premises (Zhao and Balague 2015). The customers can pay via these apps more conveniently. This makes the use of mobile-based applications more demanding and profitable. Picoso via these mobile applications can acknowledge the customers’ demands and the customers wish list. They can even keep track of the foods they ordered, thus Picoso can keep track of all the customer’s details of the foods they like. Picoso can provide discounts on particular foods based on the customers’ preference (Kim, et al. 2013). This can benefit all the customers and the clients of Picoso. Picoso can understand the current market scenario, can know which food item is hot favourite in the current market and the foods they are preferring. Picoso has decided to deliver the home delivery services besides the normal services. The home delivery services can give them the competitive edge that can add great value to the company besides the mobile applications. The scope of the business activities can greatly furnish due to the efficient use of the mobile applications. Picoso must keep in mind the agile and the effective services they can get due to the use of mobile applications.

Examples of Mobile Applications from Dominos and Starbucks

Starbucks, the leading coffee chain distributor offers the mobile application used for the smartphone users. The iPhone can make the entire business procedures simple and easy. Starbucks is the leading coffee chain restaurant all over the world, offers the mobile application for the iPhone users thus make the ordering of drinks and food products much easier. The customers and the clients can pay the bill with much ease. The customers will not have to visit the food store or the restaurant store and they do not have to stand in the long queue, so that can increase the productivity of the enterprise as a whole for the enterprise. The mobile applications have significantly change the food restaurant services and the entire industry can take the advantage, it can benefit Picoso as well. Picoso will have to develop the mobile application in such a way that can enrich their business activities. They have to develop the app first, then they have to showcase all the available items to the app, the customers will pick up the item according to their convenience, after the order has been placed Picoso will have to prepare the food within a given stipulated time and then they have to ship the product to the customers. Picoso will have to give them the time calculating both the food item preparation and the delivery time. The customers after the stipulated time will get the food item they order. The mobile application has the latest feature by which the customers can trace or track the processing of food or the delivery and in this way the progress of the restaurant store every move can be noticed. Picoso must apply this procedure in their premises that can enrich the overall business procedure and they can stay ahead of all other competitors.

Another example of the mobile marketing is the Dominos US. Dominos Pizza can be ordered both from the iPhone users and the android users. The mobile application developed by Dominos have been successful so far and about 1 million users have downloaded and are using the application. It shows that the mobile applications are quite useful and popular among the masses. The increasing use of the smartphone and the mobile applications have made the business very easy to carry out. The user-friendly app is bound to offer maximum productivity and the better customer satisfaction.  The in-house mobile app development must be made keeping in mind the customers’ preferences.

Work Breakdown Structure Required for Developing In-House Mobile Applications

The work break down structure elaborates all the details of the enterprise operations in the premises. Thus the internal team management and the employees can get a better insight about the applications. The hierarchical decomposition of WBS caters a detailed overview of the various operations that are undertaken by the various workers and that can help in successful implementation of the products and the project. The WBS of the front-end development of the Picoso food application has been highlighted in the below-

WBS	Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish
0	Picoso Mobile Application Development	23 days	Thu 10/19/17	Mon 11/20/17
1	Initiation of Process Group	6 days	Thu 10/19/17	Thu 10/26/17
1.1	Identification of the project sponsor	2 days	Thu 10/19/17	Fri 10/20/17
1.2	Meeting conduction	4 days	Mon 10/23/17	Thu 10/26/17
2	Process Group Planning	5 days	Fri 10/27/17	Thu 11/2/17
2.1	Roadmap of the project	4 days	Fri 10/27/17	Wed 11/1/17
2.2	Risk Management	1 day	Thu 11/2/17	Thu 11/2/17
3	Execution of process group	4 days	Fri 11/3/17	Wed 11/8/17
3.1	Initiating the work	2 days	Fri 11/3/17	Mon 11/6/17
3.2	Team analysts’ hiring	2 days	Tue 11/7/17	Wed 11/8/17
4	Control and monitor of process group	4 days	Thu 11/9/17	Tue 11/14/17
4.1	Project work monitoring	2 days	Thu 11/9/17	Fri 11/10/17
4.2	Maintenance of scope creep	2 days	Mon 11/13/17	Tue 11/14/17
5	Process Group closing	4 days	Wed 11/15/17	Mon 11/20/17
5.1	Analysis of post-implementation	2 days	Wed 11/15/17	Thu 11/16/17
5.2	Documentation	2 days	Fri 11/17/17	Mon 11/20/17

Table 1: The WBS of Picoso

(Source: Created by author using MS Project) 

Only the front end development has been planned and designed thus an overview of the interface of the applications can be achieved. Thus the front-end development demonstrates the planning, design, development and the coding of the Picoso application. The various testing phases explained within the WBS and based on that the customization of the application can be done. The performance of the application can be achieved if WBS structure is followed accordingly.

 

Table 1: The WBS of Picoso

(Source: Created by author using WBS schedule pro)

The in-house application development has the following advantage, the in-house applications can be developed and can be modified in between the implementation procedures. The recommendations for the front-end application of the restaurant are-

1. The application can be improvised by showing the customers the food items they want to purchase, the big data concept and the data mining can provide the facility.
2. The application must be developed keeping in mind that it should be user-friendly, it must have an interface that has the capability to attract the customers. Thus the software developers develop the site must build a simple user interface.
3. A secured gateway must be developed and the payment must be done through that gateway so that the customers can make hassle-freesecured payment to the restaurant.

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the above discourse that Picoso should adopt the mobile application for good, that can enrich the business activities of Picoso and the Picoso customers can get advanced facilities. The advent of the smartphone along with the advanced network connectivity makes life simpler, the mobile applications can aid the customers of the company to enjoy the food services sitting at home. The customers do not have to go outside, they do not have to stand in the long queue and they do not have to pay by cash, instead they can order staying at home, can get the service all day long. They can even pay by online banking, moreover, the app will contain the secured tunnel for the secured transaction. The deliverables for the project, the phases of the project, the front end development has been highlighted. Thus from the discussion, it can be illustrated that the mobile application can make a huge impact and huge improvement to Picoso.

References

Bharadwaj, A., Sawy, O. E., Pavlou, P. and Venkatraman, N., 2013. Digital business strategy: towards a next generation of insight. s.l.:s.n.

Kim, E., Lin, J. and Sung, Y., 2013. To app or not to app: Engaging consumers via branded mobile apps. Journal of Interactive Advertising, Volume 13(1), pp. 53-65.

McWherter, J. and Gowell, S., 2012. Professional mobile application. s.l.:John Wiley and Sons. .Saarijarvi, H., Mitronen, L. and Yrjola , M., 2014. From selling to supporting-Leveraging mobile services in the context of food restauranting. Journal of restauranting and consumer services, Volume 21(1), pp. 26-36.

Wen, D. et al., 2014. In: June Gamification design for increase customer purchase intention in a mobile marketing campaign app.. s.l.:Springer,cham, pp. 440-448.

Zhao, Z. and Balague, C., 2015. Designing branded mobile apps. Fundamentals and recomendations, Volume 58(3), pp. 305-315.