E Commerce in a Changing World - Case Study Example

Memorandum” Faculty January 31, 2006 Peter Neville Stephen Redfern Re: Seminar “E-Commerce in a Changing World” This memorandum is prepared to inform you about the seminar arranged on the weekend for the members of Stragthgammon Board. This is a two days program to discuss issues related to changing technology, day to day operations and practical problems related to that. The common agenda for all the business units are as follow: 1. To summarize the units current position. 2. To identify what demands will be made on the business unit internally and externally to use e-commerce in the short, medium and long terms. 3. To consider how best to respond to demands identified. 4. To draw up an outline action plan for the unit. There are expert invited in the seminar to share their expertise with the participants. The program has been structured in the following ways. Saturday: Introduction and aims: Thomas Neville Board Member Presentation: Commerce - past, present and e-future Dr Julian Sedrath Professor of Electronic Commerce, University of Pockrington Presentation: Future technology - developments and take-up Mr. Gregory Parsons: Managing director, Massachusetts Business Machines Presentation: The e-commerce explosion Dr Komichi Komasawa: Development Manager, Fura Computer Connections. Day 1 or Saturday will be more informational for the participants. They would understand the concept of e-commerce, technology and changing importance of e-commerce from past to future. This will educate the participants the impact of e commerce in the current business scenario. The seminar will be informational and initiate participants thinking process with respect to the current and future business requirements. This will also inform them about various technological advancements in the area of e-commerce and expected changes in near future. They will be informed about various perspectives of e commerce. Now the discussion session is arranged on next day so that they have time to think about the information speakers and experts have shared with them. The next day schedule will be as follows. Sunday Pre Lunch: Full group discussions with speakers Group working. Post Lunch: Presentation of conclusions by group leaders Full group discussion on conclusions, with speakers Separate meetings of business unit managements Meeting of Board of Directors of Strathgammon Estates Ltd to receive action plans from associated businesses. This will help them to understand business requirement to adopt new technology and address the issues related to that. It will help the identifying the areas where e-commerce is required in the short, medium and long run. All the members of the seminar are expected to share their view about the changing technology and issues related to pressures of day to day operations. The objectives of this seminar are to understand the need of changing role of technology in business environment, to prepare the organization to develop and adopt the strategy related to technology and address the issues related to range of business and business related problems. This would be helpful in developing policy related to technology for the organization. The reason why various speakers and presentations have been chosen is given below: Introduction and aims - Thomas Neville This will give an opportunity to introduce all the participants. This will also inform the participants about the objectives of the program, program brief and expected outcome. Presentation: Commerce - past, present and e-future Dr Julian Sedrath is a professor of Electronic Commerce, University of Pockrington. Expert presentation on the changing role and pace of the e-commerce will give participant overall idea of the technology related changing needs of business. This will also provide them material for thought process and introduce them to e-commerce. Presentation: Future technology - developments and take-up Mr. Gregory Parsons, is Managing director of Massachusetts Business Machines. His presentation is specifically focused on the future technology. The kind of developments to be expected from the technology in business would be discussed here. Presentation: The e-commerce explosion Dr Komichi Komasawa is Development Manager, Fura Computer Connections. Here the expert will discuss the fast changing e commerce scenario. E-commerce has grown fast in last few years and has become the basic need of almost all the industries. From simple informational website to the interactive websites, e-transactions, money transfer, order placing and enterprise resource planning are few examples of development in the e-business scenario. Everywhere in today’s business world we can see the influence of e-business. Speaker would be specifically talking about all these areas and how it can be useful in the industry like ours. Day 2 Sunday: Full group discussion on conclusions, with speakers Day 2 activity will start with the full group discussion with speakers. This will be very interactive session. The participants will be allowed to clarify their doubts and queries related to the e-commerce and business with the speaker. This will allow them to further develop their understanding of e-business and changing role of e-commerce. Group working. Four groups to consider implications of: e-commerce potential for business revenue expansion technology requirements and cost implications modifications to strategy and business plans needed. This will help the participant to come up with various new ideas. The knowledge regarding the e-commerce and their practical experiences will help them to associate their business requirements, understanding of stakeholders’ values with the changing technology. They will revitalize various skills like problem solving, team working and analyzing various solutions and others in this process. Presentation of conclusions by group leaders This will be presentation by the group leaders after working in a group, analyzing various business revenue expansion technology requirements and arriving to some important point. This will open more avenues to share the ideas among various groups and participants. Separate meetings of business unit managements The separate meetings of various business management units will give them an opportunity to discuss the operational issues and problems related to adaptation of e-commerce. They will incorporate the knowledge they have gained in the seminar and try to identify various e-commerce related need in the business. They will divide the demand of the business as short term requirements, medium and long term requirements. Once they have identified these requirements management can discuss these on the basis of various parameters like risk involve, investments required and impact of any decision for it.. Meeting of Board of Directors of Strathgammon Estates Ltd to receive action plans from associated businesses. Now the members of board of directors will be having the broader idea of the e-commerce and the business unit related issues. This will help them understanding the common problems and unit related specific issues. They can develop a common policy for the common issues across the business units and can look at the specific issues from different point of views. The Predicted E –commerce issues The e-commerce issues related to various participants would be as follows: Finance: The issues of e-commerce in the finance department can be related to the data entry, sharing, security and training or user friendliness of the e-commerce tools. Finance department have various functions like payments, bills, receivables, financial statements and others. The technological adaptability will be possible if the users are trained properly about the financial modules. Data entry, possible errors and various other issues can be discussed here. Operations: Operations requires various information regarding the raw materials, shifts of workers and personnel’s, inventories, work in process, warehouse status, suppliers list, finished goods and various other factors. They can also raise various automation and technological requirement of operations processes. Property Services E-commerce has important role in the property services today. There can be various issues and information available to various stakeholders, value added services, easy and fast calculations of the rentals, taxes or cost. There are other issues regarding government regulations. The data entry and updating it on regular basis is another issue in the same area. Construction: Construction department will also having various operational issues related to the government rules and regulations, various suppliers, deadlines, services offered and other operational issues to be discussed. Personnel: Personnel department can utilize e-commerce tools in various ways. This department can have auto database of the applicants which can help it to organize interviews. It can also support personnel department in keeping record of all the employees, salary calculations, leaves and vacations management, training details and others. In short it can support the information management of personnel department and increase its efficiency. The issues raised here can be related to day to day operations, training and technology handling. Procurement This department can have issues related to the support and handling of e-commerce tools specific to their department. The issues raised here will be training, information sharing, technological support to meet the flexibility required for the procurement processes and others. The seminar will help to identify the key issues of each business units. Once the key issues are identified the required course of actions can be chosen to respond to that particular issue. These issues can be related to growing business demands of the units. It will help the business unit members to understand the e-commerce issues involved in that. Together both types of information can support to develop a feasible action plan for the business unit. This will also include the alternative course of actions. The developed outlined action plan will help the business unit heads to implement e-commerce and technology in their respective branches. The discussed outline plan will definitely have the support from the business heads. This will develop leaders to manage change in their branches. One of the crucial factors in the change management is the leadership or change agent. The management will be developing effective change agent through this seminar. Practical/logistical problems: The seminar is conducted on the weekends. People usually have their own programs for their family and personal purpose. Hence the communication for the weekend seminar should be started as early as possible so that people can reschedule any other commitment for some other time. The other issue related to the weekend seminar is arrangement of the participants from various other locations. There would be requirement of transportation and lodging for them. Arrangements would be required to be done for the speakers and guest. The criteria for the group formation should be such that a group represents people from various locations and various businesses. This will help them sharing views regarding the subject from various perspectives. The other challenge will be communication of the concerns of management regarding changing technologies and understanding the views of the participants for the same issues. This understanding will help the management to devise policy on the basis of the readiness of the participants and the business need. This will also help the management to devise a policy which addresses the exact challenge issue with the participation of the concerned people whose works are getting influenced by the policy. There would be requirement of a good program coordinator who can handle the seminar in an effective way, request and inform people about the changes in the schedules and work on other coordination issues. SEMINAR WEEKEND: SCHEDULE Saturday 11.00 am Coach departs from Edinburgh airport 01.00 pm Lunch 02.00 pm Welcome by Duke of Strathgammon 02.15 pm Introduction and aims - Thomas Neville 02.30 pm Presentation: Commerce - past, present and e-future Dr Julian Sedrath, Professor of Electronic Commerce, University of Pockrington 03.30 pm Tea 03.50 pm Presentation: Future technology - developments and take-up Mr. Gregory Parsons, Managing director, Massachusetts Business Machines 04.50 pm Break 05.00 pm Presentation: The e-commerce explosion Dr Komichi Komasawa, Development Manager, Fura Computer Connections. 06.00 pm Break 07.30 pm Dinner and informal discussions Sunday 10 .00 am Full group discussions with speakers 11.00am Coffee 11. 20 am Group working. Four groups to consider implications of: e-commerce potential for business revenue expansion technology requirements and cost implications modifications to strategy and business plans needed 01.00pm Lunch 02.00 pm Presentation of conclusions by group leaders 03.00 pm Full group discussion on conclusions, with speakers 03.45 pm Tea 04.00 pm Separate meetings of business unit managements (to follow agenda attached) 05.30 pm Break 06.30 pm Coach departs for Edinburgh airport 06.30 pm Meeting of Board of Directors of Strathgammon Estates Ltd to receive action plans from associated businesses. 08.00 pm Dinner. SEMINAR WEEKEND: PARTICIPANTS Strathgammon board: Peter Neville - Chairman Claudia Neville Thomas Neville Lydia Neville Richard Neville Stephen Neville Reginald Hilditch - Secretary Strathgammon head office: Hugh Craven - Financial Controller Alan Smith - Pensions and Investment Controller Wallace James - Operations Controller Stephen Redfern - PA to DOS Lyden Property Services: Dennis Bell-Smith-partner Phillip Deakin-Partner Neville Construction Ltd: George Cromby - Finance Director Colin Rington - Personnel Director Terry Maddox - Procurement Director Bill Davies - Contracts Director PNJ Ltd: John Preston - Managing Director Harry Soames - Works Manager Gerry Street - Marketing Director Bruce Harvey - Accountant Kessner Waldproduct GmbH : Rudi Schmidt - Mill Manager Glen Gory House Hotel Ltd: Alison Macnee - Resident Manager Speakers by invitation: Julian Sedrath - Professor of Information, University of Prockrington Gregory Parsons - Managing Director, MBM Komichi Komasawa - Development Manager, FCC Corp. 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