E-Business Applications Hertz Global Holdings

Question: Discuss about theE-Business Applicationsfor Hertz Global Holdings. Answer: Introduction Hertz Rental is a division of Hertz Global Holdings which specializes in car rental. The company is located in Estero, Florida, United States of America. It was founded in 1918 by Walter Jacobs who started companys business operations in Chicago with a fleet of 12 Ford cars. The business was sold to John. D. Hertz who transformed it into a subsidiary of Yellow Truck and Coach Manufacturing Company and rebranded it as Hertz Drive Yourself System (Hertz.com 2016). The controlling stake of the company was sold to General Motors in 1925 who bought remaining shares in 1943. Hertz bought back the business from General Motors in 1953. In 1987 Hertz was sold Park Ridge Corporation which was a subsidiary of Ford Motors. In 2005 Ford Motors announced that Hertz will become a public limited company. In the same year it was declare that the business will be sold to private equity firm Merrill Lynch, Clayton, Carlyle Group and Dublin Rice for a sum of $15 billion. Hertz became a public limited company in 2006 (Hertz.com 2016). Hertz Business Operations Currently it operates in more than 150 international locations worldwide. Hertz has company managed locations in 18 countries while the rest is being franchised. It operates its car rental business under four brand names i.e. Hertz, Thrifty, Dollar and Firefly. It is the largest U.S car rental company by sales (hertz.com 2016) The company has more than 10,000 commercial and franchised locations in Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. Hertz is one of the principal global players in airport common use car rental companies. The company has widespread network of car rental locations in the United States and Europe (hertz.com 2016). It maintains a leading market share in car rental services by inclusive accounted revenues through its company managed location in the United States and more than 130 leading airports in the European market. Its equipment rental business is managed under its Hertz Equipment Rental brand for sale and renting of heavy tools and equipments for industrial and construction needs which has more than 300 branches located in the United States, China, Qatar, France, Canada, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom and Spain. It also operates its equipment rental business through its global franchises. Apart from its car and equipment rental business, it also operates management and leasing services through its Donlen subsidiary (hertz.com 2016). Ease of Use of E-Commerce Site Benefits to Consumers The website of Hertz gives a detailed information about the various products and services that it offers to its customers like vehicle guide (sedan, hatchback, MUV or SUV), location by providing location directory, special offers and rewards available in the specific country or territory, facility of online check-in. It further provides details related to the company, its initiatives, press releases, and career opportunities, list of authorized travel agents, partners, and customers support services (Huang and Benyoucef 2013). Benefits to Customers The website further provides business to business services through which various small and medium scale business units can look for franchise opportunities to grow with their business and contribute in expansion of Hertz (Victor Chen et al. 2013). Benefits to Company The usage of e-commerce site provides a wide variety of benefits to the business. The e-commerce has helped in rebranding the image of the company. E-commerce site has enabled the company to attract new customers through web based visibility and helps it keep a watch on the customers buying behavior. Web-based management system has helped the company in reducing its inventory management cost and further assisted it to gain competitiveness. Moreover, e-commerce site has helped the company in business analytics through which they are able to evaluate customer effectiveness, sales effectiveness, product mix and marketing campaign (Strauss 2016). E-Business Applications Used by Hertz Collaboration: Hertz emphasizes on maintaining and upgrading its collaboration with its investors, business partners, franchisee agencies and its employees. Customer Service: The Company always emphasizes on delivering high quality customer services by meeting customers demand at reasonable and affordable price. Customization: Hertz has adopted responsive web design technology that customizes the website of the company based on the device used by the user. Streamlining: It has streamlined its online portal by integrating its website with back office, customization of website, search engine optimization and purchasing made easy (Turban et al. 2015). E-Commerce Marketing Strategies Search Engine Optimization: Hertz seeks to develop innovative techniques to give its customers a memorable experience that would meet their demands appropriately. Content Creation to Increase Attractiveness: It has deployed publicly sourced matter to make the site more attractive for prospective buyers. Tailored Browsing Experience: The company has tailored its website to provide a well-structured navigation system for attracting the customers over the internet. Channel Integration: Hertz have created multiple channels to enable its consumers to experience their brand consistently irrespective of the mode of shopping. Omni-Channel: Hertz has invested in developing their own mobile based applications to make their omni-channel presence stronger Roberts and Zahay 2012). Membership: The company through its website encourages the consumers to subscribe for its membership to gain access to special offers and perks like Hertz Gold Plus Rewards program. Discounts Coupons: The company through its website offers various discounts, coupons and offers like 3 for 2 on weekends offer, 20 percent off on 7 plus days, offers from its business partners like Rex Airlines (Mata and Quesada 2014). E-Commerce Supply Chain Strategy Increase Delivery Locations: Hertz consistently emphasizes on increasing its delivery locations i.e. pick up locations by expanding its geographical coverage because online customers expects faster service delivery (Hsin Chang Tsai and Hsu 2013). Omni-Channel Presence: Hertz fund it mandatory to make its omni-channel presence because businesses across all segments have taken a turnaround with growth in internet users and customers prefer to buy products and services online instead of doing traditional shopping to save time and energy. Business Process Integration: The company has adopted various methods to integrate various processes to strengthen its supply chain and to gain competitive advantage over its competitors (Christopher 2016). E-Commerce Security Strategies Security Layering: Hertz consistently reviews and strengthens its security system by making multiple layers to avoid breach of network by cyber criminals to gain access to critical information of the company and its customers. Providing Tracking Numbers: Order identification numbers are allotted by the company to each and every order that the company receive to enhance differentiation (Wei 2014). Security Training: The company provides regular training to its employees regarding the laws and policies of the company towards customer data privacy and methods to prevent them. Upgrading System and Network: Hertz always upgrades its system and network infrastructure to ensure protection of critical and important data of the company and the customers from vulnerability to hacking (Galliers and Leidner 2014). Information Technology Architecture Hertz is one of the globally renowned vehicle rental companies having its service location in more than 140 countries. Due to the nature of its business, the information technology is highly complex and scattered which puts a lot of pressure on its information technology system and their capability to keep escalating the IT costs in control while giving the technological support to the employees. The company runs an information services centre in Dublin, Ireland which is responsible for managing business functions including bookings, customer care, financial activities, human resources and insurance. The Dublin centre provides IT support to its business in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. It also offers its support to its business in Asia, Australia and New Zealand. To improve its operational productivity, the company had two options- relocating its IT infrastructure to some other European location at considerable cost or implementation of fresher technologies (hertz.com 2016). Therefore, the IT department was vested with the task of discovering a method through which they can simplify its infrastructure and reduce IT footprint without compromising with the expectations of its employees and customers. They primary objective of was to enhance payment card industry conformity and system, reduce IT support expenditures. The department chose to take a periodical method towards adoption of virtual desktop infrastructure. 1000 desktop were virtualized in their pilot programs in Italy, United Kingdom, Germany and France. Virtualizations of additional 3000 desktops are in the pipeline across various locations in the Europe which would enable the company in reducing the number of helpdesk call by 33 percent and electricity costs by 10 per cent (hertz.com 2016). Recommendations Hertz has a single IT support centre that caters to the demand of its customers and employees across various locations around various countries in different continents which is giving rise to its IT costs and making the operation more complicated in nature, therefore in order to reduce its IT costs, it can subcontract its IT services to an expert service provider for Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Although, Hertz has a considerable amount of market share in the vehicle rental segment, the company has ample opportunity to enhance its market share in developing economies by merging with its competitors or by acquisition of smaller competitors in the market. Avis is one of the major competitors of Hertz. Therefore it should come up with multiple branding strategies to attract the loyal set of customers to acquire greater market share and increase its revenues. Conclusion Hertz is one of the major vehicle rental company having its operations in more than 140 countries. It operates its vehicle business under four different brands i.e. Hertz, Thrifty, Dollar and Firefly. Some of the e-business applications used by Hertz are streamlining, customization, collaboration and customer service. Various marketing strategies used by search engine optimization, channel integration, omni-channel and many more. Its e-commerce strategies include security training and security layering. This report also gives description about the information technology architecture of the company and various recommendations. References hertz.com. (2016)./pdfs/Hertz-Living-Journey-Sustainability-Report-2014.pdf. [online] Available at: https://images.hertz.com/pdfs/Hertz-Living-Journey-Sustainability-Report-2014.pdf [Accessed 23 Sep. 2016]. Hertz.com. (2016).Hertz Rent a Car - Save More on your Next Rental. 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