Introduction
The use of modern technology in business, the famous e-Business, or e-commerce is the key to organizational success. It entails the use of modern technology like Internet to improve production (Meier & Stormer, 2009, p.2). It refers to conducting the business operations through the electronic network using modern technologies like ‘fax, e-mail, voicemail, electronic funds transfer, the Internet, Intranet, image processing, barcode, and EDI’ (Geunes, 2005, p.122).
Essentially, it is the basic building block behind the success of many modern business organizations. Most organizations have adopted the modern technology in order to enhance business operations and customer satisfaction. These are the main issues addressed in the report. The report will integrate the topic questions and cases, and the bulk of the report will focus on the cases that reflect on supply Chain Management. It will also integrate the benefits of gaining customers.
Most valuable lessons learned from the cases
One of the most valuable lessons that have been learned in the cases is the positive effects of e-business on the satisfaction of the needs of the customers. A customer would consider a number of features of a given service us desirable, and that make a service to be termed successful.
Firstly, a customer would always want to obtain a service within the shortest possible time. The use of modern technology in business improves the efficiency of the operations and the customers can be served at the right time (Geunes, 2005, p.123). Besides, a client to some organization would always want to develop some confidence in the transparency and accountability of the business organizations they deal with.
The accuracy of information that is passed across a supply chain does not only improve the business operations but also builds on the company’s reputations by the clients. The use of modern technology reduces transactional errors that are bound to occur while using the manual means in the process (Geunes, 2005, p.123).
Secondly, a customer would easily be satisfied by a given service if it can be obtained cheaply. E-business adopts a system of online purchasing where the customers can be reached online. Web shops enable the customers to buy goods and services or arrange for their delivery online (Meier & Stormer, 2009, p.4). In this way, wholesalers, retailers, and even consumers can order for the goods and services, thereby cutting down some costs.
The other lesson learned is how the technology helps in accelerating operations in a given organization to the advantage of the management of the organization. It is also important to understand that its integration into the operations of an organization is stepwise as was noticed at Tesco (case study 6.2). It is first tried out with simple applications and the success triggers its use in other areas. The technology has been observed to be applicable across several activities within the operations of a business.
It has been observed to be applicable in the supply chain management by ensuring a proper inventory management and keeping in touch with all the stakeholders within a given supply chain This has been seen to improve operations at all the cases namely, Shell chemicals (case study 6.1), Tesco (case study 6.2) and lastminute.com (case study 2.2). Internet has proved to be very useful in the logistics and distribution of goods in a supply chain (Geunes, 2005, p.122).
E-commerce enables an efficient communication between the suppliers, the manufactures, wholesalers, distributors and the consumers in a given supply network (Wen-zhi, 2009, p.3).
In the proper management of a supply chain, it is required that the correct amount of goods be available at the correct place and at the right time. The diverse requirements of the customers can be easily recorded and matched with the available goods and services that can be given by the suppliers. In this way, it ensures that the needs of the customers are actually met by the suppliers.
The technology is also observed to be handy in the cases where a quick sales service is required. The goods and services that need to be sold out quickly and that are bound to be wasted are often sold online. The clients can be contacted within the required period and this restores the value of the goods or services that would otherwise be wasted.
Advertisements and sales promotion are yet other important applications of modern technology in business. The business organizations are able provide the information on the kinds of goods and services they offer, the locations of their retail stores and warehouses, the prices of their products, and the possible ways of obtaining the products. The portal developed by Shell Chemicals enables the organization to communicate to customers at a reduced cost (case study 6.1).
The merger of Tesco with another organization (GEIS) and the combined technology use improved their sales promotion strategies (case study, 6.2). This widens the expanse of the market of a given business. A supplier is therefore able to reach several international clients who are in turn able to make appropriate decision on which suppliers to deal with. However, there is need to ensure security when designing the promotions and advertisements (Fusilier & Penrod, 2009, p.2).
Application of the lessons learned to own experience at work
The working conditions that prevail at a given workplace are true determinants of the possible excellence by the employees of a given organization. If an environment is created that favors the creativity of the employees then a system can be developed that helps improve the overall performance of the organization.
The atmosphere that was created at lastminute.com (Case study 2.2) favored the experimentation of the creative ideas by the employees that saw the organization improve its operations significantly. It also emerges that it is necessary to involve the other stakeholders of an organization in the processes as is witnessed at Shell Chemicals (Case study 6.1) that developed a vendor managed inventory.
The application of modern technology has had both advantages and associated disadvantages witnessed at various work places. In as much as E-commerce can enhance business operations like online purchasing, it can also cause transaction errors leading to loss of trust by the customers (Geunes, 2005, p.196).
The organization needs to understand the applications they are to use in the operations (Wen-zhi, 2009, p.4). The technology world is dynamic and much research continues to be done. The management at Tesco (Case study 6.2) is portrayed to be committed to developing and adopting new systems periodically into their operations.
The use of automated systems in carrying out transactions has been preferred to the ancient manual system due to their efficiency and agility. It is perceived to be accurate and reliable. However, this is not always the case. There have been cases of online crimes that affect e-business, thus necessitating consumers’ requirement for enough security when carrying out online purchasing (Fusilier & Penrod, 2009, p.2).
The automated machines often exhibit some errors especially when several users are simultaneously using the system. In addition, when using online purchasing systems, there have been cases of one account being re-credited after purchasing a commodity online while another account is debited when no purchasing has been done as was witnessed in the online purchasing system of lastminute.com (case study 2.2).
It is, therefore, important that business organizations guarantee their customers a good service and provides an assurance in case of a poor transaction.
How the cases influence understanding of e-business management
At the first mention of E-business or E-commerce, I would figure it out as the passage of information across the business network as a way of coordinating business activities. However, it has emerged that it is not only a means of using information systems to coordinate the operations of an organization. The technology can also be used to make forecasts on the future trends.
Shell chemicals has developed customer’s inventory and uses this to forecast for future demands (case study 6.1). Similar situation is witnessed at lastminute.com (case study 2.2). The data pertaining to the demands and prices at different destinations and at different times can be recorded and used to provide a forecast for the future market conditions (Gattorna, 1998, p.214).
Thus, the modern technology becomes a basic component of a strategic business planning like strategic supply chain management (Gattorna, 1998, p.214). It was seen to be applicable in the supply chain management at Shell chemicals (Case 6.1). The company uses the technology to study the products that their clients would want and provides products that meet customer needs. The technology is also appropriate in brand development and management as was seen at lastminute.com (case study 2.2).
The other important point to note is that the use of modern technology in a business supply chain requires that every participant in the supply chain be conversant with the application and that every component be considered essential (Geunes, 2005, p.123). The understanding of the modern applications by the participants in a supply chain will influence the overall success in the chain.
In this respect, the E-Business serves two main purposes in the market. It acts as ‘a response to a better supply chain performance and as a source of pressure from the market to improve the performance of supply chains’ (Geunes, 2005, p.123). The Electronic Data Input (EDI) is portrayed to have played a significant role in the supply chain management at Tesco and is applied by the participants in the chain like retailers and the suppliers (Case study, 6.2).
It then becomes a necessity that the implementers like the motor carriers that help in the distribution process also employ the modern information technology in their usual activities. Those who will not be in a position to develop and adopt these techniques will not survive in the market (Geunes, 2005, p.124).
How the lesson can affect future career development.
The use of modern technology has proved to be of great help to the modern business due to the increasing use of the technology in other sectors of the economy as well. The e-commerce is still an evolving idea and constant research continues to be carried out in its improvement (Sarlak et al, 2008, p.1). Thus, it is still faced with certain challenges. Firstly, the adoption of such modern technology is not very obvious in all the organizations.
Some of the staff in the business organizations may not be conversant with the applications of the technology and this would call for further training of the staff. The use of EDI faced various challenges in its implementation by several small businesses due to lack of enough staff that are conversant with the applications (Geunes, 2005, p.123). Besides, the installation and the initial application of such technology in business are often not cost-friendly.
This is evident in the case of Tesco (Case study 6.2). There is also a need for the compatibility between the different systems in the organization (Garcia-Crespo et al, 2011, p.2). The technology to be adopted needs to be compatible with, and easily integrated into, the internal system that is already in place at the organization (Geunes, 2005, p.123). The applications also need to undergo further inventions and innovations in order to provide a complete package of applications.
This need for more expertise and research in the software development influences more individuals into this field of Computer Science and Information technology. How the applications have emerged to be successful in various businesses improves my ambitions to explore this field and help develop more efficient application software. It provides an inspiration towards innovative and inventive research work in this field.
The atmosphere that prevailed at lastminute.com (case study 2.2) that allowed for innovation and creativity by the founders is motivating and enables me develop positive attitudes towards the field. The effective application of E-commerce requires a thorough understanding of the business concepts before being developed into a scientific model (Garcia-Crespo et al, 201, p.14).
In general, the cases that have been cited provide me with an insight of engaging into web designed tools and their integrated applications in business and especially the inventory management of the supply chain as they are developed at Tesco and Shell Chemicals in the case studies. It also increases my interest into the general study of the fundamental principles of business operations like the issue of cost-effectiveness, timely production, and customer satisfaction that are essential in the success of a given business.
Reference List
Fusilier, M. and Penrod, C., 2009. E-Crime Prevention: An Investigation of the Preparation of e-Commerce Professionals. Journal of Internet Commerce, Vol.8, Pp.2–22. Web.
Garcia-Crespo, A. et al. 2011. Semantic model for knowledge representation in e-business. Knowledge based system, Vol.24 pp.252-296.
Gattorna, J., 1998. Strategic supply chain alignment: best practice in supply chain management. Sixth Edition. Hampshire: Gower Publishing, Ltd.
Geunes, J., 2005. Applications of supply chain management and E-commerce research. New York: Springer.
Meier, A. and Stormer, H., 2009. Ebusiness & eCommerce: managing the digital value chain. New York: Springer.
Sarlak, M. et al. 2008. E-Business Barriers in Iran’s Free Trade Zones. Journal of Social Sciences, Vol. 4, No4, pp.329-333. Web.
Wen-zhi, H., 2009. The innovation of E-commerce and enterprise’s management mode. Journal of US-China Public Administration, Vol.6, No.1 pp.62-65. Web.