Smoothie King
Case Study: Smoothie King
Summary
Smoothie King is the original nutritional smoothie bar and health marketplace since 1987 and within one year realized the key to their success and growth would be to develop a franchise system. The Smoothie King brand has been recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine as being # 1 in the juice bar category for 15 consecutive years and has seen steady growth with approximately 610 franchised units in over 35 US states (www.worldfranchising.com). As with every franchise system there are series of steps from the initial interest in the franchise to the opening of a new location. Each step encompasses some form of information technology such as; the franchises support software used to translate the information on the request form to a excel spreadsheet that sends notification to the marketing team to mail out a physical packet to the interested party. Everything from the various electronic communication (email) to the training software used by the human resources team to train all members of management on Smoothie King’s hiring, training, reference/background checks, and etc for new team members all uses some form of information technology. In this case you are asked to examine the various information technology systems used by Smoothie King in their franchise system.
1. Identify safe ways to send important documents through the e-mail
As technology touches every aspect of a business finding ways to safely and securely send documents of a sensitive nature containing confidential information via the internet or a company’s intranet is becoming increasingly important. There are people out in the world who make it there business to sneak into company’s systems just to learn what they are “up to”. These hackers are the reason that many organizations have invested several thousands of dollars to ensure that all electronic communication sent on their company server is safe and secure. However, no matter how much money, time, and
Summary
Smoothie King is the original nutritional smoothie bar and health marketplace since 1987 and within one year realized the key to their success and growth would be to develop a franchise system. The Smoothie King brand has been recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine as being # 1 in the juice bar category for 15 consecutive years and has seen steady growth with approximately 610 franchised units in over 35 US states (www.worldfranchising.com). As with every franchise system there are series of steps from the initial interest in the franchise to the opening of a new location. Each step encompasses some form of information technology such as; the franchises support software used to translate the information on the request form to a excel spreadsheet that sends notification to the marketing team to mail out a physical packet to the interested party. Everything from the various electronic communication (email) to the training software used by the human resources team to train all members of management on Smoothie King’s hiring, training, reference/background checks, and etc for new team members all uses some form of information technology. In this case you are asked to examine the various information technology systems used by Smoothie King in their franchise system.
1. Identify safe ways to send important documents through the e-mail
As technology touches every aspect of a business finding ways to safely and securely send documents of a sensitive nature containing confidential information via the internet or a company’s intranet is becoming increasingly important. There are people out in the world who make it there business to sneak into company’s systems just to learn what they are “up to”. These hackers are the reason that many organizations have invested several thousands of dollars to ensure that all electronic communication sent on their company server is safe and secure. However, no matter how much money, time, and