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Key Topics
Requirement
Azzaz is a mobile phone and accessories retailer based in England, owned by Lewis. The business started with a single shop, which Lewis has grown into a chain of eleven. The first four shops were opened from scratch but in January 2014 Lewis bought ‘PhoneBits,’ a group of three outlets, which he intends to operate under the Azzaz brand. The recent acquisition is a significant expansion in the operation of the business, not least because two of the new outlets are in Norway. Lewis is hoping that this will help him to gain a foothold in the European market. As a result of the expansion Lewis has identified a need to open a new warehouse in the East of England, and he has decided that this would be an excellent opportunity to launch an eCommerce arm to the business, capitalising on the success of the Azzaz brand, but with a relatively small additional overhead.
Azzaz and PhoneBits have different IT systems, and in addition to integrating the two parts of the business there is the need to add ‘b2c’ eCommerce functionality. Lewis would like this to be fully integrated with the retail stores, allowing customers to collect and return stock via the stores, as well as via courier.
The case study requires you to work with incomplete information, an important skill. You are free to make assumptions about aspects of Lewis’s situation or operation where these are relevant to your work – please ensure that any assumptions made are clearly stated in your report.
Part A: Analysis – Business Process Models and strategy analysis In this section you should develop
1. A series of at least two Business Process Models, which capture the existing and your proposed business processes for Azzaz. The models should follow the BPMN notation shown in the lecture slides. It is recommended that you use Microsoft Visio to create the models although you may if you prefer use Word, PowerPoint or appropriate alternatives.
2. Strategic analysis for Azzaz. You should use at least one recognised analysis technique such as SWOT, PESTLE etc
Solution
Answer Part A : Business Process Models and Strategy Analysis
Azzaz has acquired PhoneBits and the operation of the company has increased in size. The induction of e-business module requires some improvement in the current business process. The first section is concerned with understanding the current business process model and making a revised business process model.
Business Process Model
The business process model refers to the diagram that shows the flow of the activities that are present within an organization (Chiosi and Trombetta, 2012). These process or list of activities provides a bird’s eye view of entire organizational processes.
Existing Business Process
The diagram below shows the business process model of Azzaz that is currently being followed by the company. There are five aspects in the model, namely, plan, buy, move, sell, and corporate. The plan is concerned with the planning processes of various activities. Buy is concerned with the development of relationship with various suppliers. Move is concerned with management of various middle activities such as management of warehouse, transporting the product to the actual destinations. Sell is concerned with activities such as marketing, managing the store, and others. The corporate aspect looks after the areas such as finance, HR, real estate and information technology.
The diagram given below shows the extension of the current business process to include the e-business activities after the purchase of PhoneBits. There will be no major change except the inclusion of the E-store module along with the move and sell aspect. The customers can use the offline stores to drop the product for return which then can be transferred to the warehouse.
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Strategic Analysis
The strategic analysis is concerned with understanding the factors that are external to the environment and are imperative for the success of the company. Mentioned below are the six external factors that are closely related to the growth of the company:
Political
If the current situation of the Europe is taken into consideration, and particularly England, then it can be stated that the due to the ongoing exit process of Britain from the Europe, there are some political challenges being faced by the whole economy. At present, both the economy, Britain and that of Europe is facing difficulty at larger scale. However, if the impact on the policies are taken into consideration, then it can be said that there no major changes that can impact the activity of Azzaz in England and Norway (Martin et al, 2016). The company can make effective move with its new partner in Norway and can expect no political interference in doing the business.
Economic
The economic situation of England, Norway and whole Europe is at the level where the retail firms like Azzaz can survive. The people living in England and Norway has appreciable amount of disposable income at present It can be expected that to be spent of various shopping activities related to electronic items such as mobile phones and its accessories. The economic situation of United Kingdom might get impacted if it witnesses reduction in the companies that preferred UK as the launching ground for the European market.
Social
The people of England and Norway are open towards the electronic items. The use of technologies in the day to day of lives of people living in these places is at good levels. Moreover, the people living in these places are well educated and adapt faster to the changes. The advancements in the technologies and the adoption rate of the same in these places are appreciable. Overall population of United Kingdom is more than 65 million and due to the increased migration from abroad, the country witness large number of cheap labor. The standard of living of these people is well above the countries of the Asian countries.
Technological
The access to technology is at good level in the places like England and Norway. Moreover, the overall technological development in whole Europe has been good in the past decades and numerous innovations can be witnessed. There are laws that regulate the usage of intellectual properties concerning technologies and other aspects. Therefore, the companies prefer to operate in these places. In terms of technological market, the level of competition is plenty and which provides ample opportunities for the companies to grow. There are numerous retail stores that engage in sell and purchase of technological products.
Legal
There are no major hurdles that can be witnessed in terms operating the company effectively. In the past, the companies gaining access to the market of the United Kingdom had the opportunity to enjoy the larger chunk of new market, that is, other European countries. However, the current political challenge has created virtual hurdle for the new companies. Though, United Kingdom still has two years to go on with European, companies can keep operating effectively.
Environmental
There are no major environmental concern as per the operation of retail stores in the European countries are concerned. The process of trading electronic items is of less concern to the environmental regulations in comparison to the production of such items. However, it should of kept into consideration that any type of companies, whether retail or others, should be making efficient utilization of energy. There are various regulatory and suggestive considerations related to energy consumption, audit and maintenance that can be utilized by the companies operating in England, Norway, and other parts of European Union.
References
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Chinosi, M., & Trombetta, A. (2012). BPMN: An introduction to the standard. Computer Standards & Interfaces, 34(1), 124-134.
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Martin, R., Pike, A., Tyler, P., & Gardiner, B. (2016). Spatially Rebalancing the UK Economy: Towards a New Policy Model?. Regional Studies, 50(2), 342-357.
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Green, A. E., Atfield, G., Adam, D., & Staniewicz, T. (2013). Determinants of the composition of the workforce in low skilled sectors of the UK economy: Lot 2: Qualitative research-final report.
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Korolija, I., Zhang, Y., Marjanovic-Halburd, L., & Hanby, V. I. (2013). Regression models for predicting UK office building energy consumption from heating and cooling demands. Energy and Buildings, 59, 214-227.
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Demirel, P., & Kesidou, E. (2013). 6. The impact of environmental regulation frameworks and firm-level factors on eco-innovations: evidence from DEFRA survey of UK manufacturing firms. Governance, Regulation and Innovation, 149.
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Dechezleprêtre, A., Neumayer, E., & Perkins, R. (2015). Environmental regulation and the cross-border diffusion of new technology: Evidence from automobile patents. Research Policy, 44(1), 244-257.
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Place Your OrderPart B: Open Source Software Comparison Table
In this section you should conduct research into a suitable software solution for Azzaz. You should decide on the set of characteristics which you will use to evaluate the software and your research should consider 4-5 alternatives in detail. This section should be presented as a table.
Answer Part B: Open Source Software Comparison
There are various software solutions that can be implemented by Azzaz for the business process. As the company is at smaller scale, therefore the use of open source software has been suggested. The table below makes the comparison between the four open source enterprise resource planning software that are free to use and modify as per the need.
Name Openbravo 3.0 Opentags Open ERP ERP5
Description and Architecture Ready to use system, web based. Can be used from anywhere. Better for core business process. Supports e-commerce, CRM, Warehouse, SCM, and Financial Management. Have 700 modules. MVC architecture. Separate client and server component. Web interface. Complicated system. Technical understanding required to operate the software effectively.
Functionality Openbravo Core. JSON REST web service. Event handling and compression. Other application or server side code can be implemented. e-Commerce Online Store, CRM Features, All major functions. POS, VAT, Finance, and others. Accounting, Application builder, CRM, HR, Invoicing, Manufacturing, Marketing, Point of Sale, Project Management, Purchase, Warehouse Management Product design management, supply chain management, movement resource planning, client relation management, human resources, general account management, ecommerce, content management system
Advantages Function for complex retail process. POS Integration. Free. Continuous update. Zero license fees, open source, standards support, High Compatibility. Downloadable and can be used in any environment. Full featured, innovative design technologically advanced. Recent and modern.
Disadvantages Frequent crash issues. No admin privilege to bravo user. Poor technical documentation. Dependence on tester assurance. Business can’t depend on it once expansion comes into play. Framework at low level. Python written separately, cumbersome for user.
Based on the above analysis of the different software for the company, it has been concluded that the company should use the Opentags software. However, based on the functionality, there were two suitable software, namely, Opentags and, ERP5. The reason is that both the software allows the eCommerce integration which is required by this company at present. The rest two of the software packages are also suited for the business but they do not allow ecommerce integration.
The selection of Opentags over ERP5 is due to the fact that the ERP5 is complex to use than the Opentags. Moreover, there is likely no change when the company scales further. The software is capable enough to handle the increased pressure. Opentags is able to provide every possible function Azzaz can think of at the moment. The software can easily handle the supply chain management and other business functions. Moreover, the integration of ecommerce business to the system will allow the company to track the online sale, purchase, and return in conjunction to the offline sale, purchase, and return. The software easily integrates with the Point of Sale system which can be successfully used to integrate with the overall available stock at the store. The integration of online listing of the stocks, offline availability at the warehouse, and the availability of the stock at the store can be coordinated and tracked effectively.
Part C: Report In this section you should write a report which provides an overview of the current situation for Azzaz together with a roadmap outlining how the proposed changes to the business can be achieved to the benefit of the business. This should draw on your analysis in Part A, include your recommendation for software in Part B, and provide recommendations for ensuring that the strategy is effectively implemented, including consideration of the challenges ahead. This section should follow standard report structure: Title Page – Contents – Introduction - Main Section – Conclusions and Recommendations - References.
Answer Part C: OIM Report
This is the report for Azzaz concerning the operations and information management. The report is concerned with the analysis of the company in relation to the current external factors analyzed above and the software that has been suggested above.
Introduction
Azzaz is into retail business selling mobile phones and the accessories to the customers of England. The company is owned by Lewis. The company incorporated in the year 2014 with four stores at its helm has now acquired PhoneBits to enter to the larger part of the mobile phone retail market. The acquisition of PhoneBits has allowed Azzaz to enter into Norway with two already existing stores of the acquired company. The owner of the company is assuming that the business will have increased opportunity to enter into the European market. Lewis has also opened a warehouse in the East of England. The owner of the store chain is contemplating to venture into the online retail business considering the current growth of the online market.
The company is using general business process model with no implemented technologies to manage the various organizational functions. After the acquisition, Lewis has decided that the company should have a system that can support the various business functions together. Moreover, Lewis wants to handle the e-commerce arm with the same technology. The sections ahead discuss the impact of various external factors on the functioning of the company, and it has suggested technologies that can be implemented in the improved business process.
Overview of Current Situation
The company is currently operating in England and is expecting to operate successfully in Norway. Considering the new acquisition of PhoneBits, the company is likely to face increased breadth of external factors.
There are various external factors that have been analyzed in the previous sections considering the environment of England and Norway. As stated earlier, the political environment of England is less stable due to situations in relation to the exit process of Britain from Europe. At present, Azzaz will face no major challenge from this as the exit process is likely to take two more years. Moreover, there is less chances of change in policies in relation to the businesses operating in the country. Therefore, Azzaz can operate successfully within the country with no major challenge from this aspect and it can appreciably consider United Kingdom as the launch ground to enter into the European market.
As per the economic aspect of the European countries, specifically, United Kingdom and Norway is concerned, the company will not face major challenge in successfully managing the business as the customers in these market have appreciable disposable income. The fall in the economic activity can be evident if the United Kingdom completely exits the European Union which might impact the sale of the company products. As stated earlier, the technology adoption level of people in United Kingdom and other European countries such as Norway are at the level where the company can expect the sale of mobile phones and its accessories at good pace (Bolton and Foxon, 2013).
The aspects such as technological advancements, legal aspects, and environmental concern will not act as the barrier to the operation of the company. The legal procedures relating to the business operation are still controlled majorly by the European Union and, therefore compliance to one law will ensure that all others are taken care of. The environmental concern is mainly with the energy consumption which can be managed effectively with the help of various agencies available in United Kingdom and Norway to manage this aspect.
Roadmap Outline
The implementation of the new software package is imperative for the success of the organization. The suggested software package will allow the company to streamline most of its process and keep track of all the activities effectively. The company is venturing further into the European market and the situation looks conducive for such businesses. Therefore, it is suitable that the company considers technologies that can increase its efficiency and fast track the processes.
The software that has been suggested to the company is Opentags which also has the ecommerce integration facility. This will allow the company to integrate the offline and online business together. Moreover, the installation of this software in the entire organization, including the one that has been acquired recently, the company will be able to track the activities of that company also. The software will reduce the challenge of tracking and maintaining the activities.
The company can achieve the proposed changes by successfully implementing these through effective change management. The initial step of the company should be to hire few technical professionals. These technical professionals will interview the various department heads and take a closer look at the operational activity of the current business and the one that has been acquired. Moreover, the same technical professionals need to assess the ecommerce requirement of the company. After the effective analysis of the entire requirement, these individuals can move ahead in making changes to the newly identified open source software package to meet the current business goals and objectives (Ahmad and Cuenca, 2013). The reason behind this is that the Opentags software does not come prebuilt with functionalities exactly matching every businesses and, therefore it is required that the changes are made based on the personal requirement.
The next step in the process is implementation of the software into the entire organization. The implementation should be in phased manner to ensure that it does not impact the current business processes. The implementation of the software should start from the head office and move to the regional stores. The implementation should be followed by the training processes (Chou et al, 2014). As the individuals working will be unfamiliar from this technology, therefore they will need some training to use it effectively.
The final step is opening an ecommerce division and hiring few individuals with ecommerce experience and kick start the activity with their training on the new software (Ram et al, 2014). The process of activating the ecommerce business will be in various phases. The initial step would be to develop the online portal where the company can display the product for the customers. The next step would be to integrate the online details to the new software so that all the listings are done directly from the software and an integrated update is seen across the organization.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The environment of the company has been analyzed in which it will be operating. The company has been given different suggestions and suitable software has been suggested to integrate and streamline the whole business processes. The Opentags will be used by the company at present as it is easy to understand and use. Moreover, it allows the option to integrate the online ecommerce business with that of the offline business. The company is recommended that it should provide proper training to the employees in using the current software. The implementation should be in phased manner.
References
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Bolton, R., & Foxon, T. J. (2013). Urban infrastructure dynamics: market regulation and the shaping of district energy in UK cities. Environment and Planning A, 45(9), 2194-2211.
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Ahmad, M. M., & Cuenca, R. P. (2013). Critical success factors for ERP implementation in SMEs. Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 29(3), 104-111.
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Chou, H. W., Lin, Y. H., Lu, H. S., Chang, H. H., & Chou, S. B. (2014). Knowledge sharing and ERP system usage in post-implementation stage. Computers in Human Behavior, 33, 16-22.
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Ram, J., Wu, M. L., & Tagg, R. (2014). Competitive advantage from ERP projects: Examining the role of key implementation drivers. International Journal of Project Management, 32(4), 663-675.
Part D: Reflection on your contribution to the online discussion and wiki In this section you should submit a 250 word reflective summary, accompanied by your own self-assessment of your contribution to the online elements throughout the module, using the table labelled Reflection Self Assessment Proforma in Appendix A (copy and paste it into your assignment document). The reflective report should include your detailed reflection, supported with evidence (pasted URLs) from the online discussion and wiki, detailed below:You should use appropriate theories, frameworks, models, that we have covered in the module, to inform and justify your recommendations.
Answer Part D: Reflection
The major challenge in completing this paper was developing suitable assumptions at the right places to ensure that the case looks near to the real world situation. I had previous understanding of some open software related to other activities and due to easy availability of the information on internet; I found enough information regarding the open source software that has been compared in the Part B. The information regarding software specifications were available on the company website. The assessment of external environment in which the company has been shown operating is based on various literature assessment and current news assessment. For example, the current ongoing exit process of Britain from European Union and the likely impact of the same on the business have been shown in Part A. It was possible due to the availability of the information on the various news portals.
Description
Quality of contributions I have contributed well to the development of this paper. I involved in extensive research to complete the various segments such as the completion of business process module, external environment analysis, and software suggestion.
Attribution of references I have picked up high quality material for my assignment and have been referenced well. The high quality denotes to the published journals, books, and established new agencies (in ascending order).
Evidence of collaboration/ facilitation skills The contribution has been done as per the requirement.
Reflection on onlinecontributions (in reflective summary) The reflection has been appreciably well.
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