Competitive Business Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Competitive Business Environment - Essay Example Developed countries realized that emerging nations such as China had completely taken over light manufacturing operation and the best course of action is to import or outsource manufacturing to economies such as China to be able to compete (CultureGrams, 2007). In the agricultural sector, new technologies such as generic engineering have changed the way farmers operate and has introduced new products such as organic products into the marketplace. The economies of developed countries have moved from a manual to a knowledge economy in which the service industry is the backbone that creates job opportunities for the citizens of such a nation. A new tendency which is affecting the way organization the business environment and the service function within firm related to customer service and vendor relationship is being handled by companies in the 21st century. This essay discusses the change that has taken place in the way services are being rendered by enterprises in today and the tenden cies that will manifest themselves in the future. Customer service is an important function that adds value to the business. Companies realize that the service a firm provides to its customers is a critical success factor that allows customer retention and provides an edge in a competitive business environment. Service is an intrinsic variable that provides added value to a product that makes the goods offered by a particular company more attractive that than similar items sold by a competitor (Hadi, 1999). For example, a customer knows that the software items offered by Microsoft Corporation include an outstanding long-term implied service in form of updates, improvements, assistance from the company to the client that purchases their product. A small software firm may not have the capability to offer a high level of service, thus they are not able to compete at the same level with firms that provide superior service value in for their products.

Information systeams Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Information systeams - Essay Example More so, the bank offers offshore banking services for the UK expatriates and foreigners residing in the UK. On the other hand, Barclays bank traces its origin in 1690 through a gold smith banking business in London. Later in 1736, an investor named James Barclay joined the business, which expanded tremendously to become a nationwide bank under the name Barclays and Co. Currently, the bank is a British multinational banking as well as a financial service company whose headquarters are in London, UK (Jain, 2005:96). The bank serves millions of customers with its outstanding services like saving accounts, current accounts, loans, mortgages, and much more all over the globe. This paper will evaluate the process of the two named banks’ personal loan processes and compare the two bank processes, not forgetting to outline the type of information system the banks use to process the personal loans NatWest personal loan There are two types of personal loans, which are secure and unsecu red loans. Unsecured loan is that which is supported by the credit worthiness of the borrower without using collateral or property. On the other hand, the secured loan is the loan acquired after rendering property or any other collateral as security to stand in place of the loan acquired. Unsecured loan is the most common type of loan acquired by individuals of all categories. To begin with, NatWest bank offers unsecured personal loans at a rate of 8.9% APR typical and this loan is available to existing current account holders only. The other account holders like the Advantage Gold,  Advantage Private, and Black Current Account holders the APR or preferential representative rates at 6.4% for loans ranging between ?7,500 and ?14,950. In addition, the applicant must be eighteen years and above and should be UK residence. In order for a borrower to estimate or work out how much loan he would like to borrow, the rates, monthly repayments and total loan costs, the bank offers personal loan calculators online. More so, the bank offers Jargon Buster to clarify confusing terminologies that are commonly associated with loans. Prior to unsecured loans, the bank also offers secured personal loan. This is a type of loan granted by banks over security of one or more asset. These assets will belong to the bank after the customer defaults on his personal loan repayments. In most cases, this loan is offered to people who offer houses or even personal vehicles as their security or collateral, which means that customers with these assets are the only individuals entitled to the loan. Unlike the unsecured loans, secured loans are more flexible in a manner that the borrower chooses on the period of repayment and can borrow as much amount of cash as they need as long as it is of the same value with the asset offered. Nevertheless, secured and unsecured personal loans fall under the same department. NatWest secured personal loan interest rates are paid based on personal circumsta nces where loans extending to ?14,950 have a maximum term of five years, while loans ranging from ?14,950 to ?25,000 have a maximum period of seven years. More so, home improvement loans over ?15,000, the repayment period takes up to ten years. In addition, no matter how much the amount one borrows, NatWest offers a minimum term of one year, and the borrower can repay the credit earlier