Strategic Information Systems Assignment: Developing Business Strategy for Morrisons

Question

Task: You are required to develop a properly referenced strategic information systems assignment of 3000 words in length for senior management that will address both parts A & B below.

Consider an organisation or an industry with which you are familiar. This may be somewhere you have worked full-time, been on a placement or worked part-time in. It may even be an industry you are particularly interested in or have read a lot about recently. The organisation can be large, private, public (but NOT education based), an SME or even from the third sector (charity).

It is from this organisation that senior management will consider your report which should have a structure similar to the demand and supply elements.

Part A: Demand Side
1. You should evaluate the challenges, issues and potential disruptors facing the organisation/industry as well as contemplating the development of an appropriate business strategy along with the supporting IS/IT elements.

2. To do this you will need to apply some of the tools and techniques.You should consider the application of at least TWO of these techniques and PESTEL cannot be one of them but it can be included additionally if appropriate. You will have to select & apply the most appropriate tools & techniques because, just as in a game of golf, your choice of tools will depend on where you stand and what your objectives are.

Part B: Supply Side
3. Using the framework and tools suggested by Ward &Peppard, discuss the appropriate elements for justification & assessment of IS/IT systems that you have identified.

4. A key aspect of the supply side of IS/IT investments is ensuring that appropriate attention has been given to structural, organisational & governance aspects of strategic IS/IT systems. Where appropriate discuss how these elements might impact your selected organisation/industry.

Answer

Introduction
There has been an increasing trend and demand for the integration of IS/IT systems in the business for competitive advantage. In this report, the analysis regarding the integration of business and the IS/IT system of Morrisons will be done. For this, the report will be divided into two sections one section will discuss the demand side, and the other section will discuss the supply side Morrisons. On the demand side, discussions and analysis of the challenges, issues, and potential disruptors of Morrisons will be evaluated using different tools and techniques. The most appropriate tools and techniques that can be applied for the evaluation are the Five Forces Model and Value Chain Analysis. After the analyses, an appropriate business strategy along with the supporting IS/IT elements will be developed. On the supply side, the framework and tools suggested by Ward and Peppard will be used to discuss the appropriate elements that will justify and assess the IS/IT system that has been identified. The key focus of the demand side will be to ensure appropriate consideration has been made for the selection of the strategic IS/IT system. The impact of structural, organizational, and governance on the selection of the strategic IS/IT system will be discussed.

Part A: Demand Side
Evaluation of Challenges, Issues, and Potential Disruptors of Morrisons
The Five Forces Model and Value Chain Analysis will be used to evaluate the challenges, issues, and potential disruptors faced by Morrisons.

Five Force Model
Through the Five Force Model, the challenges, issues, and possible disruptors of Morrisons will be evaluated based on its industrial rivalry, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining powers of buyers, threats of new entrants, and the threats of substitutes(Bruijl, 2018). Industrial Rivalry: With the growing competition in the retail sector, the lack of multi-channel outlets has proven to be a significant issue for Morrisons (Lauchlan, 2014). This has created a challenge for Morrisons to improve their sales solely through online sources. This is because since Morrisons do not have a physical store everywhere, it has to reach its consumers through online sources. At the same time, the rivals are also implementing digital transformation, which can disrupt the online operations of Morrisons(Decter, 2019).

Bargaining Power of Suppliers: The bargaining power of suppliers of Morrisons is very low, and this causes the threat of low forward integration. Morrisons can avail substitutes easily with the lower bargaining power of the supplier. Morrisons can face the challenges of selecting an appropriate substitute supplier, which will affect its business process. If the supplier delays the delivery, then Morrisons can face problems in meeting the demand of their consumers.

Bargaining Power of the Consumers: Conversely, the bargaining power of Morrison's consumers is very high. Due to the high bargaining power, Morrison's consumers can easily switch between Morrisons and its substitutes. It is very challenging for Morrisons to retain its consumers due to the high bargaining power of its consumers. The possible disruption that can occur is the loss of sales due to the switching of consumers to other retailers. Since there are many substitutes for Morrisons, there are possibilities that the consumer may go to other retailers.

The threat of New Entry: The challenges and issues that have to be faced by Morrisons due to the new entrants are innovation, lower pricing strategies, and reduction of cost. Due to this, the current business plan and process may need changes that can consume time and funds for Morrisons because they have to review their policies as per the competition. This is a great disruptor because reviewing and re-planning the whole business process can delay the sales of Morrisons.

The Threat of Substitutes: The presence of big retail giants like Tesco as a substitute for Morrisons, the main issue and challenges faced by Morrisons is the difficulty in the pricing of their products. There is a presence of high competition due to the presence of substitutes of Morrisons. This creates a challenge for Morrison to sell their products at a price lower or equal to their substitution and at the same time make enough profit to survive in the retail sector(Luenendonk, 2016).

Figure 1: Five-Force Model
Source: (Self-Created)

Value Chain Analysis
Value Chain Analysis is a strategic tool that can be used for analyzing the internal operation of Morrisons. Through this analysis, the issues and challenges can be evaluated that are caused due by the internal factor. However, this analysis can also be used to analyze external factors such as suppliers and customers. The Value Chain Analysis has two elements that can be analyzed, primary activities and support activities (Zucchi, 2019).

The primary activities of Morrisons are as follows:
Services: The main issues and challenges faced by Morrisons are associated with the online services of the company. They are facing some serious problems due to the crashing of their websites, which is creating a negative consumer experience (Murphy, 2020). This can result in consumer dissatisfaction, and the company can end up losing its reputation in the market. Outbound Logistics: The issues and challenges related to the outbound logistic of Morrisons are that it is responsible for issuing all the necessary and sufficient documents related to the sales and transportation of the products (Rodrigo, 2016). This can be a burdensome responsibility for Morrisons that and the failure to present all the appropriate documents can lead to some serious legal consequences.

Inbound Logistics: Finding a reliable and trustworthy supplier is the major challenge for Morrisons because timely delivery from the suppliers is crucial. Another challenge related to the inbound logistics of Morrisons is balancing the flow of sales and storage. If the inbounds logistic is not monitored efficiently, then it can disrupt the flow of sales due to lack of stock.

Marketing and Sales: In the marketing and sales of Morrisons, the main challenges and issues faced by Morrisons is the generation of traffic and leads and managing of the website. This has resulted in the crashing of the website when the consumers are ordering products from Morrison's website. If this issue is not solved, then it can create a bad reputation for the company, which could be a potential disruptor(Devlin, 2020).

Operation: The operation range of Morrisons is very wide, and it sells a wide variety of products to its consumers with the assistance of well-trained staff. However, the technological limitation of Morrisons proves to be a major issue for Morrisons (Fazal Haleem & Dr. Muhmmad Jehangir, 2017). This has made providing their non-exhaustive products to their consumers a challenge. The potential disruptor created by this is maintaining their competitive advantage over others.

The Secondary Activities of Morrisons are as follows:
Infrastructure: Morrisons is involved in various activities such as vertical integration, large-scale production, and maintaining positive relations with the suppliers and consumers. However, due to the issues related to online shopping, it has become a challenge for Morrisons to retain their consumer loyalty.

Human Resource Management: The major issue of human resource management is the outdated internal system of Morrisons. Morrisons often faced the challenge of delivering HR functionality to the HR department at the right time, which affected the productivity of the entire HR department. This lack of productivity can create a potential disruptor that would negatively affect the internal operations of Morrisons.

Development of Appropriate Business Strategy
The business strategy of Morrisons is to be competitive, serve their consumers better, seek local solutions for their supplier problem, develop popular as well as useful products, increase their service speed and make supermarkets strong. From the analysis of the issues, challenges, and potential disruptors of Morrisons, it is evident that the core problem of Morrisons is their technological limitation. This problem of Morrisons is retracting them for taking the competitive advantage in the retail sector.

Morrisons should implement an IS/IT system in their business process so that they can have a profitable business. The business strategy that can be implemented for Morrisons is the growth strategy. This is because Morrisons is a developed retailer that is facing issues in online sales and facing challenges due to technological limitations (Ilhan & Durmaz, 2015). The growth strategy can be implemented so that Morrisons can introduce innovative services to its consumers. In the current time, innovation is crucial for Morrisons because it lacks behind and facing problems in competing with other retailers. Through growth strategy, Morrisons can efficiently introduce new products or services that can expand their business.

With the integration of Gartner with the growth strategy, Morrisons can efficiently take a competitive advantage in the retail industry. Gartner will provide Morrison with elements such as hardware and software facilities so that Morrisons can improve their business operations. Telecommunication service within the organization so that Morrisons can have a smooth flow of communication in the organization (Czarniewski, 2015). Gartner will provide the element of Human recourse and procedure facilities so that Morrisons can improve the productivity of its human resource department. Another element of the IT system needed by Morrisons in its business is the element of database and data warehousing through which it can store its data safely.

Part B: Supply Side
Assessment of IS/IT System
IS/IT strategy model by Ward and Peppard is one of the finest model that can be used in information technology strategic planning. Therefore, the chosen IS/IT is Gartner that can be helpful in the business for their potential growth (Setiawan & Yulianto, 2017). As per the Ward and Peppard framework, the assessment of the IS/IT systems are as follows:

Figure 2: Ward and Peppard Framework
Source: (Setiawan & Yulianto, 2017)

Internal Business Environment- It is utilized to map the occupational environment of the business analysis of the business, the business goals, capitals, procedures and organizational culture. As per the investigation, the internal business environment of Morrisons has been going well presently; however, it is not up to the mark and is required to be improvised. As such, the company has been intending to enhance its internal business environment, for which the adoption of Gartner would be the best option for the business as it would help the business to improve its plan and policy in the business (Sampurna, Darmawan & Nugroho, 2021).

External Business Environment- In this section, the external business environment, such as financialsituations, environment of the industry and competitive environment of the company, will be analysed. However, the analysis of the Morrisons indicates that there is a high need for emphasis on their aims, purposes, marketing mix and segmentation as per the developed rules, guidelines, ethics and norms in a certain area to complete effectively(Lipaj, 2021). However, the implementation of Gartner will help the business to improve their external business environment in terms of legal, competitive, technological, social as well as global environments. Therefore, it can be said that the chosen IT system has the ability to change the external business environment of the company as it helps the company to enhance its financial stability, competitive advantages, and technologies in the business so as to improve the productivity in the firm. Also, it will help the firm to improve the process of globalization of the business and expand in as many countries as possible (Setiawan & Yulianto, 2021).

Internal IS/IT Environment- The main purpose of the chosen IS/IT system is to provide the best technologies to the business organizations so as to improve the business operation in the company. It ensures that it will help the business to introduce advancements in the technological factors.

External IS/IT Environment- With the implementation of Gartner technologies, the business organization will get an opportunity to enhance its communication strategies. The system will benefit the company external to the business that might have a positive influence on the survival of the organization.

Current Application Portfolio- Current portfolio of Gartner is that the technologies are that most of the business is more than 100 countries with about 16000 associates uses the Gartner technology. Hence, the technology has been benefiting and helping companies in different ways (Gartner.com, 2019).

The process output of IS/IT system describes as follows:
Business IS Strategies- the main strategy of the IS/IT system is to help the company to overcome the risk factors that the organization of Morrisons has been dealing with and the challenges that they are facing. Especially, the system will be helping the company to improve its digital market as it requires a higher level of technologies in the business. Thus, Gartner will help the firm to enhance its digital or online business by implementing effective IS strategies in the same (Sofyani, Riyadh, & Fahlevi, 2020).

Informative Technology Strategy- IT strategy of Gartner is to focus on the consumer orientation, and empowerment of the business wherein the system will enable the business to provide advanced products to their consumers and provide them more facilities in offline as well as an online business. The strategy also includes risk management plans in the business where the advanced technologies will help the business to avoid as much risk as possible and improve the sustainability of the business at the same time.

IS/IT Management Strategy- The management strategies of Gartner is to reduce cost with the help of task automation as the technology aims to improve the automation process in the business. Also, the strategy includes systemizing the data management in the business, enhance employee collaboration, transfer data electronically and store as well as protect the information stored in the technology. As such, the management strategy of the chosen IS/IT system is to help the business to achieve growth and success with a higher level of profitability in the business (SCHECK, 2016).

Impact of IS/IT System
As per the fact that the common has been facing many issues and challenges, it is assumed that attention has to be given to the structural, organization and governance aspect of strategic IS/IT formulation. However, these elements will influence the business in the following ways:

Structural- The structure of Gartner equips the executive through the company to decide effectively and stay beyond the changes. The IT systems are identified to be one of the importantinvestigation and optional company that has been prolonged well outside the flagship technology research in order to deliver senior leaders through the enterprise with the crucialcommercial views, information as well as gears required by them to obtain their mission-critical urgencies and construct the administrations of future. Hence, for the organization of Morrisons, the adoption or implementation of this IT system would be fruitful as the company has been facing challenges because of the lack of advanced technologies in the company. Initially, the implementation of Gartner will help the firm to enhance its overall business as the technological aspect of the business will be improved with the help of Gartner. Further, the structure of the IT system will improve the business policies and the automation in the business. In addition to that, the system will help the business to reduce their cost of operation and save maximum time that can be used to emphasis on additionalresponsibilities, thus moving up industrialprocedures considerably (Tokareva, Vishnevskiy, & Chikhun, 2018).

Organizational- The organizational aspect of the chosen IT system ensures that the confidentiality of the Morrisons will be highly protected and secured. It is because the technology of Gartner will enable the data and information of the business to remain stored in the secured folder and make them available to the management whenever needed. It is the most important concern of Morrisons as the company lack in taking good care of the database because of the advancement in a technological factor. Therefore, the storage systems provided by the IT system of Gartner will keep the information related to the business,harmless by permitting a partialamount of operators to contact those data.

Augmentedguard for the database also guarantees that such technologies are not hacked and not rubbed off owing to some difficulties. In addition to that, the technology will also help the company to improve their consumer service as they will be able to bring innovations into the business. It will provide the finestimplements for collaborating with consumers and resolving their difficulties in an immediate basis. It will help the company to solve the inabilities of the company in terms of technological aspects (Gartner.com, 2019).

Governance- IT governance refers to the common framework that provides a structure for organizations to make sure that the IT investments support the goals as well as the aims of the business. Hence, it can be said that the technological governance aspect of Gartner ensures that its adoption in the organization of Morrisons will help the company to increase its competitive advantage as it is highly needed in the company. As there is higher competition in the market, therefore, it will be fruitful for the company to implement the IT system of Gartner as it will provide many advantages to the firm significantly. Also, the system will help the business to reduce the risk as the technology will act as the risk manager in the business and will enable the business to achieve growth and innovation to an extreme level (Alreemy et al., 2016).

Conclusion
This paper is divided into two parts that summarise the overall business environment of the chosen company, i.e. Morrisons. In the first part of the evaluation process, the assignment has involved the assessment of the challenges and issues faced by the company in which it has been identified that the company has been facing difficulties in dealing with the increased level of competition in the market and the clashes in their digital marketing. Also, the company has been facing challenges in having a maximum number of outlets. Further, the assignment has highlighted the possible disruptors faced by the organization and the anticipatingof the growth of a suitable business plan along with supporting thefactors of IS/IT. Further, the assignment has used analytical models such as Porter's Five Forces and Value Chain Analysis in order to analyze the business environment of the business in order to identify the business goals and strategies. In the second part, there has been an evaluation of the appropriate elements for justification and assessment of the chosen IS/IT system, i.e. Gartner, with the help of the Ward and Peppard framework. Lastly, the assignment has evaluated the structure, organization and governance aspect of the IS/IT system and its effects on the organization of Morrisons.

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Appendix
Appendix 1

Appendix 2