bandon group case study

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The Bandon Group is a Family Owned Distributor of Office Equipment

The Bandon Group, a family-owned distributor of copiers, electronic printers, faxes, and office equipment, has been providing high-quality equipment and excellent customer service at affordable prices since 1972. They expanded their services in 1994 to include information systems consulting, document outsourcing, and document management services. However, with the growing customer base and changing demands, it became evident that their current information systems were insufficient. Customers increasingly desired web-enabled services such as online meter readings and e-business solutions. Additionally, there were issues with integrating the sales prospecting database with the operations administrative database (OMD), resulting in difficulties addressing customer needs. Furthermore, the OMD lacked a relational database structure which made ad hoc querying and reporting challenging for managers.

Scope and Purpose

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The purpose of this study is to assess the possibility of implementing an ERP system or a CRM system at Bandon Group. The main goal is to align the company’s IT strategies with its future business plans. It also aims to create a framework for linking IT expenses with the overall direction of the business and assisting functional managers and MIS professionals in making informed decisions. Additionally, the study seeks to promote greater integration among similar systems and networks while distributing technology and operational activities.

Document the high-level business direction .

The Bandon group had three primary objectives: achieving growth from division to corporate level, expanding into the IT consulting field to increase market share, establishing improved relationships with customers and suppliers, and reducing administrative costs through enhanced technology utilization.

Key information needs and measures should be identified.

All divisions share a common goal – to grow in revenue and size. They have all invested in solutions to achieve this goal, including the suggestion of expanding into IT consulting and services. This expansion not only increases revenue from services, but also aims to increase market share in the IT industry, improve response time to service calls, and attract new clients. However, implementing this approach requires additional marketing strategies, enhanced technical expertise of employees, efficient knowledge management of products, and forecasting service upgrades. The proposed IT solution involves tracking service call history, facilitating sharing of service and product information among divisions, establishing an accounting and billing system for IT consulting services, and integrating the currently used databases (D&B, Pivotal, and iMarket) that cater to business needs.

The second objective was to enhance relationships with customers and suppliers. This would enable the company to utilize customer service information more effectively and also present opportunities to attract new customers. To better manage customer information, the company needs to focus on larger accounts, analyze trends within accounts to match suitable packages for each client, improve billing accuracy, and offer current customers additional value through new products. Enhancements in sales processing and acquisition of new accounts can be achieved by studying purchasing trends, identifying new leads through statistical analysis, and properly incentivizing sales personnel for bringing in new customers. The achievement of these goals can be measured by the number of high margin accounts, prompt receipt of customer payments, and the quantity of sales projected. The IT solutions required for these functionalities would involve meticulous tracking of accounts, monitoring sales progress, analyzing sales leads, and conducting overall trend analysis.

Specific business requirements

OMD was the primary system utilized by Bandon Group, but it lacked a relational database. As a result, generating reports and retrieving customized information from the system was challenging. This weakness hindered sales staff from fully understanding customer needs, which is crucial for growth. To address this, Bandon should consider implementing a system that enables improved sales prospecting, integration between divisional systems, and report generation.

In order to enhance customer service, the main focus should be on implementing web-based services for a better customer experience. Previously, customers used to submit their meter readings via fax. By introducing a web-enabled system for meter reading, Bandon Group could also incorporate an online customer service questionnaire to keep track of customer satisfaction.

The ultimate objective of the Bandon Group is to enhance administrative procedures with the aim of reducing administrative expenses. Certain customers encountered difficulties in comprehending invoices and essential statistical data was omitted, thereby failing to fulfill the requirements of the IT consulting business.

The current IT situation within the organization is being documented internally.

Bandon Group implemented several database applications using the Pivotal software, which served as a sales prospecting tool. The integration of Dun & Bradstreet and iMarket data with Pivotal software resulted in the duplication of effort due to the lack of integration between Pivotal and OMD. Different divisions within the company utilized Pivotal software for various purposes, including generating sales leads and sales prospecting. In response to licensing issues, sales representatives resorted to creating their own local prospect databases using Microsoft Access and Goldmine’s contact management tool. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications were developed to generate service alerts when a specific customer requested service more than three times in a month. Additionally, a report was created to alert sales representatives when copier volume units exceed 150% of the recommended volume. This report enables sales representatives to follow up with customers and assess appropriate upgrades. The Pivotal applications provide support for territory management, lead management, external market data integration, sales forecasting, customer retention, sales analysis, and sales compensation.

Sumner, M. (1998). Enterprise resource planning. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

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Integrated Case Study: Bandon Group, Inc.

Filed Under: Research papers Tagged With: Sales

1 – Purpose and Scope of the Study

The Bandon Group intends to have an information system study conducted to determine how they can best use Information Technology (IT) to meet the overall mission, goals and objectives of the organization over the next 3-5 years. The purpose of a Management Information System is to collect, store and process business information and to deliver it to decision makers in a format they can use. Information systems have gone through many changes. Experts currently refer to the current era as the “Customer-Focused Era” of modern computing (Petter & Mclean, 2012).

Users expect to receive customized experiences based on their unique requirements. Currently Bandon has decentralized divisions around the country supported by a centralized IT infrastructure. The purpose of the study is to identify how Bandon Group can build a more integrated information system structure that ensures the following business goals: * Standardize business processes and reduce redundancy

* Reduce IT expenses and maximize outcomes associated with IT dollars * Improve data migration and data sharing techniques  * Implement e-business solutions to remain competitive with other copier dealers upgrading to ERP solutions The study will identify the business direction of the organization over the next 3-5 years. It will also identify the collective information needs and business requirements of its regional divisions. Finally the study will identify the current IT situation to help determine the way forward.

The Business plan on Education and Business Studies

1.0 Background to the study: The impact of Information Communication Technology (ICT) on learning business studies is currently in relation to use of digital media, primarily computers and internet to facilitate teaching and learning. These are the technologies used in conveying, manipulation, and storage of data by electronic means. They provide an array of powerful tools that may help in ...

2 – Document High Level Business Direction

The goal of management in this study is to clarify the direction and current vision of the organization and identify what IT investments are needed to improve the performance of the entire Bandon Group. It is very difficult to calculate the business value of an IT investment (Masli & Sanchez, 2011).

Bandon’s leaders have identified specific data needs that their IT systems should deliver. The organization has commissioned a consulting group to sit down with key manager and identify the vision for the future. In order to continue to be successful and competitive the Bandon Group must unify its regional divisions with a clear business direction and a foundational set of business principles and practices. There is broad agreement on the basic business direction. The Bandon Group wants to target the office equipment market by catering to the needs of businesses with fewer than 25 employees. They want to grow their market share and revenue by $7 million over the next 3-5 years.

To accomplish these goals managers have identified several key business initiatives that they believe will lead to expanded business success. First, the group wants to increase it information technology consulting capabilities. The market is moving towards selling information and network based services. A big part of the future lies in being able to help customers come up with solutions that allow them to run their organizations more efficiently and at a lower cost. Second, the group wants to establish better Customer Relationship Management (CRM) capabilities. Loyal customers equal future dollars. The organizations information systems need to give a holistic view of each customer. This will allow sales, support and marketing to take advantage of opportunities in real time. This has always been a philosophy of the Bandon Group.

They have focused on building loyalty through superior service to the customer. CRM will build this idea into every piece of data the organizations collets and will allow them to meet the customer’s needs at every turn. Third, the group needs to improve the accuracy and efficiency of billing and collections. An automated, integrated solution that feeds information about system usage directly to a financial system will ensure the organization maximizes its profits while providing sales and support staff with critical information on the use patterns and needs of their customers.

The Term Paper on Information Systems in Business

... and any data information is retrieved and the group team of the organization develops extraction ... reason of the happenings •executive information system extracts information on the users who want to ... particularly unstructured content to deliver better business. ECM technologies cover a broad set ... that the organization is able to communicate effectively with employees and customers. Web content ...

Finally, the group invested heavily in 1994 in Office Machines Dealership (OMD) a commercial systems designed to support the administrative information system at Bandon Group. This system is dated and a solution is required to overcome the current limitations of the system and allow for the seamless flow of information in and out of the system. The leaders and managers at Bandon Group have articulated a clear business direction for the organization. The consulting group must put into place clear solutions to address the growing problems.

3 – Identify Key Information Needs and Measures

Information needs should be the driving force behind information systems. An information need is a business’s requirement to capture a specific piece of information or set of information points to meet a business necessity. The ability to manage information plays a critical role in developing a firm’s capabilities in customer relationship management, process management and performance management (Mithas, 2011).

The Bandon Group has identified several specific sets of information needs. First they must have the ability to analyze existing customer accounts for profitability. The have a need to understand which account they are making money off of and which account represent high volume profits.

Second, they must have an effective sales prospecting system. The ability to measure the effectiveness of sales and marketing efforts is critical. Third, they need an integrated accounting system. To be successful and competitive they must have an accurate web-based billing, use tracking and reporting capability. This will produce a better billing, invoice and collection system. Finally, they need an integrated service management system. The small market companies the group targets expect prompt, specialized service. The organization must be able to track and correct or improve any issues related to servicing customers and keeping their systems up and active.

The Term Paper on Business Requirements Report

This purpose of this report is to provide an analysis of the business and user requirements for the Bazaar Ceramics website. Bazaar Ceramics has been operating for 20 years and have grown to a point where they need to reach a wider audience in both a sales aspect and an advertising one. The website will provide an avenue for exposure to the international world for advertising purposes and also ...

4 – Document Details Business Requirements

Business requirements should describe exactly what the Bandon Group’s divisions expect from the information system. The requirements should be expressed in terms that can be easily discussed and understood by the stakeholders. Requirement (1): An effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. CRM must be an organization wide effort to build customer satisfaction and loyalty. An effective CRM program brings together information from every area of the organization. It provides actionable data to sales representatives, customer support, and marketing personnel who directly or indirectly interface with the customer every day. Requirement (2): Effective e-Business Solutions. Bandon needs to utilize existing internet technologies to improve its productivity and profitability.

E-Business will extend Bandon’s capabilities beyond the reach of their offices and even beyond the reach of their technicians. By integrating their model with online services the company will be able to monitor and interact with customers in real time. Requirement (3): Effective Sales Prospecting solutions. The first rule of sales prospecting is to identify as many legitimate potential customers as possible for sales representatives to contact. Experienced sales personnel will explain that quality supersedes quantity.

Bandon want to be able to exploit its access to current customers to identify future needs and make the sales pitch just as the company begins to understand that they need more support. Requirement (4): Overcoming the shortfalls of OMD. There comes a time in the life of every legacy system where it fails to meet the growing needs of the organization. Bandon’s objective has to be to build on the core functions of the OMD system and augment it with enterprise wide supplemental technology that bridges the gap between the current capabilities and the company’s future needs.

5 – Document Current IT Situation – Internal

Bandon’s current infrastructure is outdated and doesn’t meet the needs of the organization. Support systems have been developed separately at the various divisions and interoperability is a significant issue. The information needs of the organization are not being met. The company’s leadership need to build an integrated system that delivers the data needed to make strategic decision. To accomplish this they have to design an end-to-end system that integrates their vision of future business requirements with the existing technology.

The Term Paper on Management Information System in Marketing Information System

Market information system may be defined as factual knowledge about the action, antecedents or consequences of social actors outside or inside the firm and the environment in which they operate. Social actors are as consumers, completions, employee, institutions, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, govt. bodies and NGO’s. The environment actors are physical, technological, economic, legal and ...

Masli, A., Richardson, V. J., Sanchez, J., & Smith, R. E. (2011).

The Business Value of IT: A Synthesis and Framework of Archival Research. Journal Of Information Systems, 25(2), 81-116. doi:10.2308/isys-10117

Mithas, S., Ramasubbu, N., & Sambamurthy, V. V. (2011).

HOW INFORMATION MANAGEMENT CAPABILITY INFLUENCES FIRM PERFORMANCE. MIS

Quarterly, 35(1), 137-A15.

Petter, S., DeLone, W., & McLean, E. R. (2012).

The Past, Present, and Future of “IS Success”. Journal Of The Association For Information Systems, 13(5), 341-362.

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Bandon Group Inc.’s Enterprise Resource Planning Coursework

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Feasibility of an ERP system

Design of an erp system, reference list.

In order to assess the feasibility of an ERP system the management of Bandon Group Inc should focus on the following criteria: cost-effectiveness of this project, operational performance, and timelines of implementation (Musaji, 2002, p 2). First, they need to determine whether the expenses that the company will incur could be avoided or justified in any way. It should be noted that the average price of an ERP system is $ 20.000. This application will have all capabilities, required by Bandon Group, namely ad hoc query, web-based invoice system, customer website, electronic purchase interface, and so forth (Sumner, 2005, p 175).

The management may consider alternative approaches to their IT problems, for example, they may develop separate software solutions. Such a strategy can prove to be less expensive; however, these separate elements will not function as a single entity; more importantly, they will not insure effective data migration among users. This is why we can argue that the costs, associated with this project, are indispensable. If this application speeds up the internal operations of Bandon Group, the purchase of this tool will be quite justified.

The management of this company should also consider the challenges, associated with the implementation of this system. It should be borne in mind that the divisions of Bandon Group Inc. use different software and hardware (Sumner, 2005). This lack of uniformity will present a significant challenge to the designers. Still, this challenge can be overcome because the increasing number of software developers can now produce cross-platform ERP systems (Xu et al, 2007, p 1152).

Finally, one should consider the timelines for implementation. Even if the company chooses to procure an ERP system, they will have to spend at least six months to customize this application. This process will be based on continuous interaction between the designers and the end-users (the employees and customers of Bandon Group Inc.). The key issue is whether the company has this time. If they do, they may consider the implementation of an ERP solution, but they do not, they should purchase or develop separate programs. So, these are the main steps of feasibility analysis that the management should take.

The designers of an ERP system should primarily pay attention to developmental constraints or the requirements set by the customer. First, they need to determine the functionality of this application. It has to contain an invoicing system, and sales prospecting tools. Although these tools are traditionally included in ERP systems, the developers will need to reconfigure or customize them. As has been noted in the previous section, this application has to be made compatible with different operating systems, like Windows, Mac OS, or Linux. At this point, we do not know which of these operating systems Bandon Group will use in the future, and it would be quite prudent to make this ERP system cross-platform.

The second issue is that this system must have several user interfaces. Judging from the case study, we can single out three types of users: 1) top management; 2) employees, and 3) customers. These users will have access to different kinds of information.

When speaking about the user interface, one should not forget about security requirements. This system will incorporate some highly confidential data, for instance, bank accounts, information about the company’s financial performance, names, addresses, and telephone numbers of customers and employees. This information can turn into a powerful weapon against Bandon Group Inc. This is why the designers should make sure that an unauthorized person cannot access or destroy it. These are the key issues that developers of this application should consider prior to starting the project.

Musaji. Y. (2002). Integrated auditing of ERP systems. NY: John Wiley and Sons.

Sumner, M. (2005). Enterprise resource planning . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Xu. L. Tjoa A. & Chaudhry S. (2007). Research and Practical Issues of Enterprise Inform ation Systems . Cambridge: Springer.

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Integrated Case Study Bandon Group Inc

• Harvard Case Studies

Harvard Business Case Studies Solutions – Assignment Help

In most courses studied at Harvard Business schools, students are provided with a case study. Major HBR cases concerns on a whole industry, a whole organization or some part of organization; profitable or non-profitable organizations. Student’s role is to analyze the case and diagnose the situation, identify the problem and then give appropriate recommendations and steps to be taken.

To make a detailed case analysis, student should follow these steps:

STEP 1: Reading Up Harvard Case Study Method Guide:

Case study method guide is provided to students which determine the aspects of problem needed to be considered while analyzing a case study. It is very important to have a thorough reading and understanding of guidelines provided. However, poor guide reading will lead to misunderstanding of case and failure of analyses. It is recommended to read guidelines before and after reading the case to understand what is asked and how the questions are to be answered. Therefore, in-depth understanding f case guidelines is very important.

Harvard Case Study Solutions

STEP 2: Reading The Integrated Case Study Bandon Group Inc Harvard Case Study:

To have a complete understanding of the case, one should focus on case reading. It is said that case should be read two times. Initially, fast reading without taking notes and underlines should be done. Initial reading is to get a rough idea of what information is provided for the analyses. Then, a very careful reading should be done at second time reading of the case. This time, highlighting the important point and mark the necessary information provided in the case. In addition, the quantitative data in case, and its relations with other quantitative or qualitative variables should be given more importance. Also, manipulating different data and combining with other information available will give a new insight. However, all of the information provided is not reliable and relevant.

When having a fast reading, following points should be noted:

• Nature of organization
• Nature if industry in which organization operates.
• External environment that is effecting organization
• Problems being faced by management
• Identification of communication strategies.
• Any relevant strategy that can be added.
• Control and out-of-control situations.

When reading the case for second time, following points should be considered:

• Decisions needed to be made and the responsible Person to make decision.
• Objectives of the organization and key players in this case.
• The compatibility of objectives. if not, their reconciliations and necessary redefinition.
• Sources and constraints of organization from meeting its objectives.

After reading the case and guidelines thoroughly, reader should go forward and start the analyses of the case.

STEP 3: Doing The Case Analysis Of Integrated Case Study Bandon Group Inc:

To make an appropriate case analyses, firstly, reader should mark the important problems that are happening in the organization. There may be multiple problems that can be faced by any organization. Secondly, after identifying problems in the company, identify the most concerned and important problem that needed to be focused.

Firstly, the introduction is written. After having a clear idea of what is defined in the case, we deliver it to the reader. It is better to start the introduction from any historical or social context. The challenging diagnosis for Integrated Case Study Bandon Group Inc and the management of information is needed to be provided. However, introduction should not be longer than 6-7 lines in a paragraph. As the most important objective is to convey the most important message for to the reader.

After introduction, problem statement is defined. In the problem statement, the company’s most important problem and constraints to solve these problems should be define clearly. However, the problem should be concisely define in no more than a paragraph. After defining the problems and constraints, analysis of the case study is begin.

STEP 4: SWOT Analysis of the Integrated Case Study Bandon Group Inc HBR Case Solution:

SWOT analysis helps the business to identify its strengths and weaknesses, as well as understanding of opportunity that can be availed and the threat that the company is facing. SWOT for Integrated Case Study Bandon Group Inc is a powerful tool of analysis as it provide a thought to uncover and exploit the opportunities that can be used to increase and enhance company’s operations. In addition, it also identifies the weaknesses of the organization that will help to be eliminated and manage the threats that would catch the attention of the management.

This strategy helps the company to make any strategy that would differentiate the company from competitors, so that the organization can compete successfully in the industry. The strengths and weaknesses are obtained from internal organization. Whereas, the opportunities and threats are generally related from external environment of organization. Moreover, it is also called Internal-External Analysis.

In the strengths, management should identify the following points exists in the organization:

• Advantages of the organization
• Activities of the company better than competitors.
• Unique resources and low cost resources company have.
• Activities and resources market sees as the company’s strength.
• Unique selling proposition of the company.

WEAKNESSES:

• Improvement that could be done.
• Activities that can be avoided for Integrated Case Study Bandon Group Inc.
• Activities that can be determined as your weakness in the market.
• Factors that can reduce the sales.
• Competitor’s activities that can be seen as your weakness.

OPPORTUNITIES:

• Good opportunities that can be spotted.
• Interesting trends of industry.
• Change in technology and market strategies
• Government policy changes that is related to the company’s field
• Changes in social patterns and lifestyles.
• Local events.

Following points can be identified as a threat to company:

• Company’s facing obstacles.
• Activities of competitors.
• Product and services quality standards
• Threat from changing technologies
• Financial/cash flow problems
• Weakness that threaten the business.

Following points should be considered when applying SWOT to the analysis:

• Precise and verifiable phrases should be sued.
• Prioritize the points under each head, so that management can identify which step has to be taken first.
• Apply the analyses at proposed level. Clear yourself first that on what basis you have to apply SWOT matrix.
• Make sure that points identified should carry itself with strategy formulation process.
• Use particular terms (like USP, Core Competencies Analyses etc.) to get a comprehensive picture of analyses.

STEP 5: PESTEL/ PEST Analysis of Integrated Case Study Bandon Group Inc Case Solution:

Pest analyses is a widely used tool to analyze the Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, Technological, Environmental and legal situations which can provide great and new opportunities to the company as well as these factors can also threat the company, to be dangerous in future.

Pest analysis is very important and informative.  It is used for the purpose of identifying business opportunities and advance threat warning. Moreover, it also helps to the extent to which change is useful for the company and also guide the direction for the change. In addition, it also helps to avoid activities and actions that will be harmful for the company in future, including projects and strategies.

To analyze the business objective and its opportunities and threats, following steps should be followed:

• Brainstorm and assumption the changes that should be made to organization. Answer the necessary questions that are related to specific needs of organization
• Analyze the opportunities that would be happen due to the change.
• Analyze the threats and issues that would be caused due to change.
• Perform cost benefit analyses and take the appropriate action.

Pest analysis

PEST FACTORS:

• Next political elections and changes that will happen in the country due to these elections
• Strong and powerful political person, his point of view on business policies and their effect on the organization.
• Strength of property rights and law rules. And its ratio with corruption and organized crimes. Changes in these situation and its effects.
• Change in Legislation and taxation effects on the company
• Trend of regulations and deregulations. Effects of change in business regulations
• Timescale of legislative change.
• Other political factors likely to change for Integrated Case Study Bandon Group Inc.

ECONOMICAL:

• Position and current economy trend i.e. growing, stagnant or declining.
• Exchange rates fluctuations and its relation with company.
• Change in Level of customer’s disposable income and its effect.
• Fluctuation in unemployment rate and its effect on hiring of skilled employees
• Access to credit and loans. And its effects on company
• Effect of globalization on economic environment
• Considerations on other economic factors

SOCIO-CULTURAL:

• Change in population growth rate and age factors, and its impacts on organization.
• Effect on organization due to Change in attitudes and generational shifts.
• Standards of health, education and social mobility levels. Its changes and effects on company.
• Employment patterns, job market trend and attitude towards work according to different age groups.

• Social attitudes and social trends, change in socio culture an dits effects.
• Religious believers and life styles and its effects on organization
• Other socio culture factors and its impacts.

TECHNOLOGICAL:

• Any new technology that company is using
• Any new technology in market that could affect the work, organization or industry
• Access of competitors to the new technologies and its impact on their product development/better services.
• Research areas of government and education institutes in which the company can make any efforts
• Changes in infra-structure and its effects on work flow
• Existing technology that can facilitate the company
• Other technological factors and their impacts on company and industry

These headings and analyses would help the company to consider these factors and make a “big picture” of company’s characteristics. This will help the manager to take the decision and drawing conclusion about the forces that would create a big impact on company and its resources.

STEP 6: Porter’s Five Forces/ Strategic Analysis Of The Integrated Case Study Bandon Group Inc Case Study:

To analyze the structure of a company and its corporate strategy, Porter’s five forces model is used. In this model, five forces have been identified which play an important part in shaping the market and industry. These forces are used to measure competition intensity and profitability of an industry and market.

porter’s five forces model

These forces refers to micro environment and the company ability to serve its customers and make a profit. These five forces includes three forces from horizontal competition and two forces from vertical competition. The five forces are discussed below:

• THREAT OF NEW ENTRANTS:
• as the industry have high profits, many new entrants will try to enter into the market. However, the new entrants will eventually cause decrease in overall industry profits. Therefore, it is necessary to block the new entrants in the industry. following factors is describing the level of threat to new entrants:
• Barriers to entry that includes copy rights and patents.
• High capital requirement
• Government restricted policies
• Switching cost
• Access to suppliers and distributions
• Customer loyalty to established brands.
• THREAT OF SUBSTITUTES:
• this describes the threat to company. If the goods and services are not up to the standard, consumers can use substitutes and alternatives that do not need any extra effort and do not make a major difference. For example, using Aquafina in substitution of tap water, Pepsi in alternative of Coca Cola. The potential factors that made customer shift to substitutes are as follows:
• Price performance of substitute
• Switching costs of buyer
• Products substitute available in the market
• Reduction of quality
• Close substitution are available
• DEGREE OF INDUSTRY RIVALRY:
• the lesser money and resources are required to enter into any industry, the higher there will be new competitors and be an effective competitor. It will also weaken the company’s position. Following are the potential factors that will influence the company’s competition:
• Competitive advantage
• Continuous innovation
• Sustainable position in competitive advantage
• Level of advertising
• Competitive strategy
• BARGAINING POWER OF BUYERS:
• it deals with the ability of customers to take down the prices. It mainly consists the importance of a customer and the level of cost if a customer will switch from one product to another. The buyer power is high if there are too many alternatives available. And the buyer power is low if there are lesser options of alternatives and switching. Following factors will influence the buying power of customers:
• Bargaining leverage
• Switching cost of a buyer
• Buyer price sensitivity
• Competitive advantage of company’s product
• BARGAINING POWER OF SUPPLIERS:
• this refers to the supplier’s ability of increasing and decreasing prices. If there are few alternatives o supplier available, this will threat the company and it would have to purchase its raw material in supplier’s terms. However, if there are many suppliers alternative, suppliers have low bargaining power and company do not have to face high switching cost. The potential factors that effects bargaining power of suppliers are the following:
• Input differentiation
• Impact of cost on differentiation
• Strength of distribution centers
• Input substitute’s availability.

STEP 7: VRIO Analysis of Integrated Case Study Bandon Group Inc:

Vrio analysis for Integrated Case Study Bandon Group Inc case study identified the four main attributes which helps the organization to gain a competitive advantages. The author of this theory suggests that firm must be valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable and perfectly non sustainable. Therefore there must be some resources and capabilities in an organization that can facilitate the competitive advantage to company. The four components of VRIO analysis are described below: VALUABLE: the company must have some resources or strategies that can exploit opportunities and defend the company from major threats. If the company holds some value then answer is yes. Resources are also valuable if they provide customer satisfaction and increase customer value. This value may create by increasing differentiation in existing product or decrease its price. Is these conditions are not met, company may lead to competitive disadvantage. Therefore, it is necessary to continually review the Integrated Case Study Bandon Group Inc company’s activities and resources values. RARE: the resources of the Integrated Case Study Bandon Group Inc company that are not used by any other company are known as rare. Rare and valuable resources grant much competitive advantages to the firm. However, when more than one few companies uses the same resources and provide competitive parity are also known as rare resources. Even, the competitive parity is not desired position, but the company should not lose its valuable resources, even they are common. COSTLY TO IMITATE: the resources are costly to imitate, if other organizations cannot imitate it. However, imitation is done in two ways. One is duplicating that is direct imitation and the other one is substituting that is indirect imitation. Any firm who has valuable and rare resources, and these resources are costly to imitate, have achieved their competitive advantage. However, resources should also be perfectly non sustainable. The reasons that resource imitation is costly are historical conditions, casual ambiguity and social complexity. ORGANIZED TO CAPTURE VALUE: resources, itself, cannot provide advantages to organization until it is organized and exploit to do so. A firm (like Integrated Case Study Bandon Group Inc)  must organize its management systems, processes, policies and strategies to fully utilize the resource’s potential to be valuable, rare and costly to imitate.

STEP 8: Generating Alternatives For Integrated Case Study Bandon Group Inc Case Solution:

After completing the analyses of the company, its opportunities and threats, it is important to generate a solution of the problem and the alternatives a company can apply in order to solve its problems. To generate the alternative of problem, following things must to be kept in mind:

• Realistic solution should be identified that can be operated in the company, with all its constraints and opportunities.
• as the problem and its solution cannot occur at the same time, it should be described as mutually exclusive
• it is not possible for a company to not to take any action, therefore, the alternative of doing nothing is not viable.
• Student should provide more than one decent solution. Providing two undesirable alternatives to make the other one attractive is not acceptable.

Once the alternatives have been generated, student should evaluate the options and select the appropriate and viable solution for the company.

STEP 9: Selection Of Alternatives For Integrated Case Study Bandon Group Inc Case Solution:

It is very important to select the alternatives and then evaluate the best one as the company have limited choices and constraints. Therefore to select the best alternative, there are many factors that is needed to be kept in mind. The criteria’s on which business decisions are to be selected areas under:

• Improve profitability
• Increase sales, market shares, return on investments
• Customer satisfaction
• Brand image
• Corporate mission, vision and strategy
• Resources and capabilities

Alternatives should be measures that which alternative will perform better than other one and the valid reasons. In addition, alternatives should be related to the problem statements and issues described in the case study.

STEP 10: Evaluation Of Alternatives For Integrated Case Study Bandon Group Inc Case Solution:

If the selected alternative is fulfilling the above criteria, the decision should be taken straightforwardly. Best alternative should be selected must be the best when evaluating it on the decision criteria. Another method used to evaluate the alternatives are the list of pros and cons of each alternative and one who has more pros than cons and can be workable under organizational constraints.

STEP 11: Recommendations For Integrated Case Study Bandon Group Inc Case Study (Solution):

There should be only one recommendation to enhance the company’s operations and its growth or solving its problems. The decision that is being taken should be justified and viable for solving the problems.

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Assignment 3: Integrated Case Study: Bandon Group, Inc.

User Generated

Hesna Pubhquel

Computer Science

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Assignment 3: Integrated Case Study: Bandon Group, Inc.  

•Step 8: Determine feasibility of an ERP system (3 pages) , 40 points

•Step 9: Determine ERP design issues (2 pages), 40 points

Explanation & Answer

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