Today I was asked to do a
competitor analysis for Programmed. Kate wanted me to focus on Programmed’s
competitor’s online presence and in particular noting what social tools they
were using and what online content they were creating.
It took me a while to gather all
the information but from my research I noticed that Programmed had a far larger
online presence, with social media tools, websites and articles far superior to
that of their competitors.
However, one thing that I noted was
rather detrimental to the whole searching process was the ability to source
this information due to their lagging internet.
The Programmed Burswood office
currently houses 60 to 70 staff, all using the one local internet. The company
has on-site numerous IT and ICT staff that help with computer problems and
technical issues. With this vast range of telecommunications staff catering to
only small group of staff, the company’s internet should not be running so
slowly. However, the main problem here is that they are still using such an old
system – Internet Explorer.
Internet Explorer is rather
out-dated in the 21st Century with the introduction of Google
Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. These internet browsers are recognised as being
far superior to Internet Explorer.
Programmed also uses an old version
of Microsoft Windows, which too, is disadvantageous to the computers user.
Programmed desperately needs to
update their computer technologies in order to keep up with the expansion of
computer technologies therefore make computing processes speedier. The company also needs to look at updating
their PCs. I spoke to Kate about this and she agreed completely, telling me
that she doesn’t know why we are still using PCs or Internet Explorer.
Programmed may be far ahead of their
competitors with websites, a regularly updated intranet, online presence and
social tools, but if none of our staff can access the sites, what’s the point?
Adios!
Becky
