Managing Information and Technology: A Case Study of Matalan Retail Limited

This report provides a case study of Matalan Retail Limited, analyzing the use of information technology in managing different types of information and operations. It includes a Porter's five force analysis, Porter value chain analysis, and discussion of support activities and value adding activities.

MANAGING
INFORMATION AND
TECHNOLOGY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................3
Porter's five force Analysis of Matalan..............................................................................5
Porter value chain analysis of Matalan...............................................................................7
Support activities in Porter's Value Chain..........................................................................9
Key value adding activities................................................................................................9
Reflection and recommendation.......................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Information technology is explained as the use of computer systems in the in order to
collect, store, process, analyse and distribution of information. The role of Information
technology is most important for organizations in current time. Information Technology can
be used in organization in different manner (Lloyd, 2017). Information technology can help
organization to managing different type of information, Monitoring on organization operation
and preparing reports for the collected data. This report is providing brief of Matalan Retail
Limited. Matalan Retail Limited is the Matalan Retail Limited is a British fashion and home
ware retailer based company in United Kingdom. Headquarter of the company is in Knowsley.
It was established in year 1985 by Mr Jason Hargreaves in Preston, England, United Kingdom.
In this report brief information to the products and services of Matalan Retail Limited
will be provided including the background information of Company. Competitive environment
for the Matalan Retail Limited will be analysed in the report using Porter Five Forces model.
Proper justification for the market competitor evaluation also will be provided in the study.
The Inbound logistic and outbound logistic also will be discussed in study. The two different
support activities related to organization will be discussed for the Porter's value chain model.
Different value adding activities will be discussed in report. Detailed analysis of Porter Five
force analysis and Porter Value Chain will be mentioned in study (Lewis, 2017). Different
innovative and creative ideas will be discussed in study that can be used by the organization to
implement Information Technology in organization.
The growth of Matalan Retail Limited much faster in UK. It was established in year 1985
and in year 1995 they have opened 50 stores in UK. This company is subsidiary of Missouri
Topco Limited. Missouri Topco Limited is a holding company that is guernsey based
company and controlled by Hargreaves Family. This company was floated on London Stock
Exchange in 1998 but later in 2006 but it was again taken privately by Hargreaves family.

This company was intended to sold by its owners but failed to find buyer and later this
remained unsold. At present company have 230 stores in UK and 32 stores as Franchise in
Europe and Middle East and have employed around 13000 employees. The growth of
Matalan is because of variety of channels and Matalan understand trends of consumers and
their changing behaviour. This has led Matalan to sell its products through variety of channels.
Their omni channel strategy is very effective, and they use both online and offline channels for
distribution of its products. This is organization is operating at limited place but its success is
most in UK and through its online channel Matalan have managed to grow by more than 30%.
This growth boosted sales by 3.8% and pre-tax profit by 50%. Through this growth Matalan
ave managed to outperform its competitors and some big retail companies operating in UK.
Some competitors of Matalan are Boden, La Redoute, New Look and Asos. along with it has
to compete with other big multinationals like Marks and Spenser and Sainsbury's.
Porter's five force Analysis of Matalan
Threat of new entrants-
The economies of scale is not easy to achieve in the industry of retail. Companies such
as Matalan has an advantage of cost as they are producing in large quantities. Companies who
are entering new into the market has to face high cost of production. This reduces the threat of
new entrants in the market. The factor of differentiation of product is high as firms in the
industry sells products which are differentiated according to the demand made by consumers.
This industry also requires high level of advertising and services of customers. The
requirement of capital in this industry is high which makes it difficult for the new companies
to enter into the market. Also high level of expenses are involved in this industry such as
research and development so that company can remain updated with the new trends. There are
lot of legal regulations that the company needs to follow before they enter into the market.
These aspects makes it difficult for new companies to join the market and the level of threat is
reduced (Bytheway, Cronje and Branch, 2017).
Bargaining Power of Suppliers-
There are too many suppliers in the industry of retail which states that they do not have
control over the prices. The cost of switching is low and the products which are offered by the
suppliers are standardized instead of differentiated which gives the control to Matalan. They
do not have the power to create a threat which is credible which stops the company from

integrating forward. Suppliers has to offer the pricing which is reasonable as this is the only
option which will help them to earn profits. Overall the bargaining power of suppliers in the
industry is low (Sato Kimura 2016). Suppliers only have control in the area of dealing with
the products as they deal with no other line of products. There are many ways in which
Matalan can reduce the bargaining power of suppliers such as switch to that supplier who
provides them the product at low cost. Other than that they also have the option to buy
materials from multiple suppliers on the basis of geographic locations. They can maintain a
close relationship with them so that both of them can benefit (Jenkins and Bezos, 2018).
Bargaining power of buyers-
The differentiation of product in the industry is very high which states that buyers do
not have many choices of alternatives in the category of product. This is why they face
difficulties in switching to another brand. Mostly there is high ratio that the level of income of
the buyer is low which is why they are price conscious which forces them to buy cheaper
products. Some of the buyers prefers quality over price and these type of buyers make
purchases frequently from the company. This states that some of the buyers are less conscious
for price. They do not have much control over the prices. In order to reduce the impact of this
aspect they needs to focus on differentiation and innovation so that they can attract more
people to buy their products. By offering differentiated products and quality of products they
can target large no. of people. They need to work on increasing the base of customers as the
power they have of bargaining is low which they can control by increasing the level of
marketing so that they can build the loyalty of the brand. They also have the option of selling
their products at low cost so that they can increase their share in the market and offer their
products to people whose income is lower (Ilmudeen and Bao, 2018).
Threat of Substitute Products-
There are not too many substitutes present available of Mataran in the market. There
are some industries but it does not operates on the scale of Matalan which keeps them out of
the league. This means that the company has the scope to earn as much profits they want to
earn. Some companies dealing in the same industry operates on a bigger level than Matalan
but the products offered by them are also expensive. This means that the audience targeted by
them is different. This states that the chances of people switching to other brands is less. In
order to tackle this aspect company needs to provide products with quality so that they can

make a point to the consumers that they will be getting quality products as less price as
compared to quality products at high price (Kruempelmann and Jacob, 2018 ).
Rivalry among existing buyers -
There are less companies who have a large share in the market which opens the
position for Matalan to increase their share. Other than this they have less competitors which
reduces the level of rivalry among competitors. The growth rate of the industry is positive
which is a beneficial factor for the company. The cost of maintaining the operations is fixed
which increases the production level of the company. When the demand of the products rises
they rivalry among the competitors will also increase. Other than this any competitor cannot
easily exit the market as huge amount of money is invested in the assets which makes it
difficult for them to leave and the level of rivalry remains the same.
Justification-
This analysis has helped to understand the five forces that affect the profitability of the
company. If the aspect has a strong force then it means that it will lead to lower level of
profitability and when the force and impact is weaker then it means that they have high
chances of profitability. On the basis of this aspect company plans their measures strategically.
Porter value chain analysis of Matalan
This analysis is highly famous within the business world . The value chain analysis needed
Mataln to realize all the actions that can be examined within the same level.
Primary activities – These are the activities that are directly involved within the selling and
production to the targeted consumers.
Inbound logistics
It is vital to develop the strong relationship with the suppliers. Firm focuses on various
challenges to focuses on each aspect of transforming the raw materials to the end products.
Various examples regarding inbound logistics are raw material as well as various components
regarding the start production.
Operations
The significance of evaluating the various operational activities that rises when the raw
material arises as Matalan is ready to process the raw materials into the finished products. It
involves both service and manufacturing operations. It increases the productivity that can
assist to achieve the increased profitability, economic growth. Equipment maintenance and

repairing are also comes under the operational category. It consistent growth of the firm
helps to achieve the Firm to increase its profitability and also stand out from the other
competitors within the market (Li and Lewbel, 2017).
Outbound logistics
These include the activities that can deliver the products to the consumers through passing by
various middle persons. Some activities regarding outbound logistics are warehousing,
material handling ,order processing, delivering and transporting. Firms optimizes and analyses
the logistics so that it can easily describe the competitive advantages sources as well as
achieves the growth of its business objectives. Due to the outbound logistics activities
accompanied by the product delivery and timely manage with the cost that is optimal cost puts
a negligible effects on the quality. If this can maximizes the satisfaction of the costumers as
well as enhance the growth opportunities for the organization. Firm must pay particular
attention regarding its outbound logistics activities that can be offered as when ti can be
offered products that can be consider as perishable as well as needed fast delivery to the end
consumers.
Marketing and Sales
Matalan will highlight the differentiation and benefits points that can be offered products to
the consumers as it can offers better than its rivalries. Only goods that have the high quality
as well as affordable ,also unique features unable to create the Value of Matalan on the sales
as well as marketing activities. Here the marketers and sales abets plays the most crucial role.
Examples of activities such as promotional, advertising, pricing, channel selection with
channel members. The firm uses the approach such as marketing funnel regarding its sales and
marketing actions.
These are the strategies that can be pull or push within nature that reply on the objectives of
the Firm's business. Effective as well as wisely actions can assists to develop the brand
equity of the Firm as well as it helps the firm to stand out from the competition (Evans and
Price, 2017 ).
Services
The pre as well as post sales services of the Mataln will play a crucial role within the
developing of the loyalty of the consumers. The modern consumers also thinks that post
sales services are also crucial as it can used for the promotional and marketing activities of the

firm. The firm must analyses its supports as well as it actions that are require to avoid the
damaging the reputation of the firm. The organization must analyses its activities that can
damage its reputation and also spreads the quick, efficient and timely support activities. The
negative power of the services because of the poor support unable to determine the current
technology within the advanced era. The firm also supports the activities that are occurring
after he customer already purchased as it can be crucial regarding the terms of the promotional
of the firm and marketing its products.
Support activities in Porter's Value Chain
These activities helps to coordinate and facilitate the analysis of value chain. This helps
Matalan to have different benefits. These activities also vital to coordinate as well as
facilitates the primary values chain actions or activities.
Human Resource Management
Matalan needs to analyze the work of HR department of the company and evaluate
their measures such as training, recruiting, selecting, rewarding, management of performance
and managing the activities of employees. If the measures of HR are effective then it will help
them to reduce the pressure on the employees and relief them from their duties such as
motivation, commitment and other areas related with employees. They are also focusing on
minimizing the cost which is required in training and hiring and assess the return on it. This
will helps them to increase the importance of value chain activity (Byrne and Wolfson,
2017).
Firm Infrastructure-
These are the activities that can focuses on the number of the activities such a legal
matters, accounting,financing as well as strategic management and planning. These effective
structure can optimizes the value chain analysis. Different types of range of activities are
included such as management of quality, handling the legal matters, financing, accounting,
planning of operations and managing the requirements in the task strategically. If the
infrastructure of the company is managed effectively then they will be able to optimize the
value of the model. This way they will be able to control the activities of infrastructure so that

they can increase the strength which will help them to fight the competition in the market
(Shepherd and Lo, 2016).
Key value adding activities
The value adding activities in the stage of primary activities are inbound logistics and
marketing and sales of the company as it helps to increase the level of production and
distribution of the company and with the help of marketing and sales they will be able to
increase the awareness of the brand and increase their knowledge about the brand which helps
to increase the sales of the company. The two key value in the support activities of value chain
is development of infrastructure and management of human resources. As it will help the
company to fight the competition in the market and plan their task in an strategic manner and
the aspect of human resource management helps the company to increase the level of talent in
the company and if they are managed effectively then it will lower the burden of HR so that
they can focus on achieving the goals and objectives of the company (Busse, Meinlschmidt
and Foerstl, 2017 ).
Reflection and recommendation
On the basis of above study I can say that porter's five force model and value chain
analysis play an important role. The main aim of company of using these models is to identify
intensity of competition in the market and change their strategies accordingly. With the help of
value chain analysis model, they can analyse their strengths and those activities which are
important to perform and by which they can attract wider range of customers. But in this
regard to, I can suggest to Matalan Retail Limited that it should implement and make an
effective use of porter's generic strategies. This strategy consists of 2 main strategies such as
leadership and differentiation. By making an effective use of one of the main and the best
strategy as per the extent of competition, it can increase its sales. By making an effective use
of differentiation strategy it can make its products differ, unique and innovative than its
competitors. When customers get qualitative and unique features of product then they tend to
buy these types of products.
In addition, it can also be recommended to Matalan Retail Limited that with the help of
cost leadership strategy and using an effective pricing strategy as compare to competitors, it
can accomplish its goals as well as take competitive advantages. So, it can be said that cost
leadership or providing products at affordable price and differentiation like making products

different from competitors are some innovative ideas which can help Matalan Retail in getting
their objectives. Rather both strategies, it can also be recommended to the company that
making use of strategic analysis like pestle analysis and swot analysis. The main aim of using
swot analysis is to identify own strengths, weaknesses over competitors and improve them to
take competitive advantages. On the other hand, by analysing all external factors like political,
social, technological and environmental, company can know impacts of all factors on its
performance and growth. After identifying, it can make changes in the ways of performing
activities and attract customers. By more focusing on marketing activities and delivering
products via social media and online, it can increase morale of customers and their experience.
So, it can be said that by using all of these ways Matalan Retail Limited can accomplish its
pre-determined goals and take competitive advantages (Bryson, 2016).
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been summarized that porter's 5 force model played a vital
role in taking competitive advantages as well as making products innovative. With the help of
using creative ideas and innovation, company attract several customers and increase their
sales. Information technology is one of the main and important element which helps
companies to being in a competition and make themselves unique and differ than others.
Further, it has also shown importance of porter's value chain strategy which also helped
companies in identify its internal strengths and important activities. By analysing this model
and identifying important strategies, company can take advantages of competition and
improve their strengths.

REFERENCES
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