Benefits of online booking system to FastCabs

Discuss about the Image Processing and Pattern Recognition.

FastCabs is a company that deals with taxies. It is a newly created company and wants to offer services for online booking. The management are considering implementing a website for online booking system. This system is expected to simplify work, enhance the growth of the company and improve the satisfaction of the customer. The following are some of the advantages of developing a website that will help the management adopt the idea. The project scope, cost and schedule analysis of the development is also outlined.

A website for online booking system should be developed by FastCabs company due to the following reasons; The company will gain credibility- most people nowadays use internet to look for services they need. If the FastCabs does not have a website, the customers will move to its competitors who own one. The website should be professionally structured that will display an image that is professional. As such the company will gain credibility and inspire great confidence.

A website saves you money- FastCabs will save expenses for advertising their services in newspapers and television since development of a website will include all the services carried out in the company.

Websites keeps customers informed- it is quicker and easier for FastCabs to update information about their services on their website than in print material. As such, customers are made aware of things such as upcoming events, special offers, or introduction of any new service. (Papadongonas and Doxaras 2010)

 Website is always accessible- availability of website to both potential and regular customer is 24/7/365. Therefore, clients can still review FastCabs services even if their office is closed. A website focuses on a wider market-by developing a website FastCabs can provide an alternative location for their services. Services can be made available worldwide. A website is a medium for showcasing the company’s work- FastCabs can demonstrate their services through the website describing why their services is better than others. They can include testimonials, portfolios or images.

 A website saves you time- giving information to clients either through phone calls, emails, face to face or brochure is time consuming. A website saves time by offering all information to customers at the same time. Customer service is improved- FastCabs can improve customer service by offering information on their website such as the process of booking a vehicle, pay methods among others. (McCann and Coldiron 2012)

Project scope

Less Expensive- owning a website will promote FastCabs company at a cheaper cost than advertising their services through other forms like television, newspaper, radio, among others. Advertising- owning a website will help the company advertise and market their services. The company can use Facebook, and other social media platform to advertise and create awareness of their services to the customers connected to the internet.

Satisfaction- a website brings convenience to clients and leads. It makes it easy for customers to look for the services offered by the company. Most customers will prefer to visit the website than driving to the physical location to seek for the services. (Gansky 2014)

Increase Customers- a website will help the company gain local popularity and also outside the city. As such more customers are generated both in the locality and globally. Owning a website makes the company become known worldwide.

Accessibility- having a website will help customers access company’s services at any time of the day or night. A company’s office can be closed but a website is available 24/7 every day.

Access to Info-FastCabs is able to track down everything happening in their website. They can be able to view the number of customers that visited their site at a given time, or the number of clients that contacted them either through email or messaging. In addition, the company, can be able to see the progress of their websites and access all its pages. Updates can also be made at any time. (Button 2014)

Links- links are very essential to viral marketing. A website having several sites linking to it, will enhance advertisement about the company globally. If FastCabs have a website that consist of good content of the services they provide, other people or companies are likely to connect their website to yours. Therefore, portraying that your company is valuable and they recognize it.

Better Relationship- owning a website helps enhance good relationship between the company and the customers. Messages can be sent quickly to the customers through emails. Clients can view services and leave comments and feedback. Additional information can also be added through messaging and emails.

Increase Sales- promoting and updating contents consistently will drive many people to the website. As such, FastCabs will increase their profits through the services they provide since more people visits the website and eventually become potential customers.

Opportunity-A website provides the company a chance to prove their credibility. The company should gain customers trust by demonstrating their services through testimonials. This enhances positive responses for the service provided. Investor can also explore what the company is all about and what it intends to do in future.

Long Term Clients- having a website will help the company gain more customers. If the customer is happy on the services provided to him or her on the first day, he or she will become a regular client to the company. As such the growth of the company is enhanced.

The key goal of FastCabs company is to develop a website for online booking system that will do the following; add and create a new customer, check taxis that are available, drivers available in the requested area, calculation of cost of the trip, issuance of online ticket or receipts, processing transactions of all boking, tax ticket cancellation, advance bookings, and get feedbacks. (Brown 2010)

A simple website takes approximately 14 weeks (3 months) from start to launch. This approximation involves 4 weeks of discovery, 4 weeks of design, 2 weeks of development, and modifications which take around 4 weeks. The timeline can be cut down to 10- 12 weeks by operating on the content earlier and setting time for testing the website. This involves design and discovery deliverables review which can be cut down to 1 week each if the preparation is carried out well. In addition, the time taken when choosing the designer or the developer should be included. Services provider should be hired 3-6 month before setting the launch date that is desired by the company.

The following are some of the cost that should be budgeted to cater for the development of the online booking system; cost of interface design, graphics and images cost, responsive and mobile design expenses, and cost of generation and insertion of content. Unique features of programming normally cost more. A simple website will cost approximately $ 100 upper case a month and at least $20 lower case. If the FastCabs require it website to be the key element, then it need to spend a lot on design and development. The company should be willing to pay reasonable rates for the development of the online booking system.

Transmits Appointment Reminders that are Automatic – reminders through SMS text can minimize nonappearance at a high percentage, and also minimize the chances of cancellation at last minute. Decrease in cost is achieved and incidences of late coming is minimized.

Manage Client Information- FastCabs website will collect all the required information during the process of booking. The information includes; phone number, name, address, email, customer credit card details, and trip origin and destination. That data is kept in a customer database that is easy to use and permits you to send SMS or email directly to the customer to see they booking history. (Kim 2012)

Receives Booking Payments- website of FastCabs company will permit you to accept payments online during booking time. The website should be able to accept all currencies and payment can be integrated with providers of payment like SecurePay and PayPal.

Controls Daily Deals- the FastCabs website can have an additional functionality where it allows one to take online redemptions and improve the running day to day deals profitability. With implementation of FastCabs online booking systems, overhead are reduced, client satisfaction is increased.

Student Name	Student ID
Total Cost of Ownership
	Units
Software
Date		31/10/2017	30/062017	31/12/2017	Total
One time license- Design software	$	5000	6800	10000	21800
One time license- Database software	$	50000	75000	109000	234000
One time license- Admin software	$	20000	34000	50000	104000
Software maintenance	$	12500	18000	150000	180500
Set Up & Installation	$	10000	16520	200000	226520
Other	$	4000	7890	98084	109974
Subtotal Initial Cost	$	$101,500.00	$158,210.00	$617,084.00	$876,794.00
Hardware
Date		31/10/2017	30/062017	31/12/2017	Total
Server Purchase	$	15500	25000	83650	124150
PC System Purchase	$	50000	75000	120000	245000
Storage Devices	$	20000	34000	50000	104000
Hardware Maintenance	$	5000	4000	11000	20000
Other	$	2500	4000	4500	11000
Subtotal Initial Cost	$	$93,000.00	$142,000.00	$269,150.00	$504,150.00
Networking and Communication
Date		31/10/2017	30/062017	31/12/2017	Total
WAN	$	10000	8400	20000	38400
Hosting Services	$	5000	8000	50000	63000
Hardware and software operation Labor	$	5000	4300	14500	23800
Continuing Training-IT support	$	7000	4000	17000	28000
Other	$	2500	2780	5860	11140
Subtotal Initial Cost	$	$29,500.00	$27,480.00	$107,360.00	$164,340.00
Personnel Labor
Date		31/10/2017	30/062017	31/12/2017	Total
Initial Training- Designer	$	4300	2000	10000	16300
Initial Training- developer	$	6000	5700	19000	30700
Designer Labor	$	10000	5000	2500	17500
Developer Labor	$	5000	18000	50000	73000
Set Up & Installation	$	5000	3000	19500	27500
Other	$	500	1400	5862	7762
Subtotal Initial Cost	$	$30,800.00	$35,100.00	$106,862.00	$172,762.00
Summary
Date		31/10/2017	30/062017	31/12/2017	Total
Software	$	101,500	158,210	617,084	876,794
Hardware	$	93,000	142,000	269,150	504,150
Networking and communication	$	29,500	27,480	107,360	164,340
Personnel labor	$	30,800	35,100	106,862	172,762
Total Project Cost	$	$254,800.00	$362,790.00	$1,100,456.00	$1,718,046.00

Table 1: Total Cost of Ownership

Conclusions

Online system is associated with many benefits as discussed above. However, it has some limitations that FastCabs company should keep in mind. This include; the need for a reliable internet access, website requires adequate staff members and resources, a good designer is required to build a system that contains all features and include all the information needed, and the company should implement a system that meets all its objective. Meeting all those requirements may be costly but once it is completed it will be of great importance to the company.

Papadongonas, George, and Yiannis Doxaras. 2010. Drupal E-Commerce With Ubercart 2.X. Birmingham, U.K.: Packt Pub.

Button, James T. H. 2014. Button On Taxis. [Place of publication not identified]: Bloomsbury Professional.

Kim, Tai-hoon. 2012. Computer Applications For Web, Human Computer Interaction, Signal And Image Processing, And Pattern Recognition. Berlin: Springer.

Brown, Bruce C. 2010. How To Build Your Own Web Site With Little Or No Money. Ocala, FL: Atlantic Pub. Group.

McCann, Tyson, and Josh Coldiron. 2012. The Art Of The App Store. Indianapolis, Ind.: Wrox/John Wiley & Sons.

Gansky, Lisa. 2014. The Mesh. New York: Portfolio.