Managing Information and Technology

This document discusses the management of information and technology in business, focusing on Royal Mail PLC. It includes a brief history of the business, analysis of PESTEL factors, application of Porter's 5 Forces model, and the importance of value chain activities. It also explores the use of information technology for business improvement.

Managing Information
and Technology
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Describe your chosen business in detail and include a brief history of the business. Also,
briefly describe the products and services of your chosen business......................................3
Discuss any two (2) of the most relevant PESTEL factors affecting business......................4
Apply Porter’s 5 Force model by explaining the probable impact of any three (3) of the five
forces on your chosen business..............................................................................................5
Porter's Value Chain and explain the importance of these activities for your chosen business
................................................................................................................................................6
Application of information technology for improvement of business:..................................8
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
Management information system is an aspect that is related with using of people, information
technology and various business processes for the objective of recording, sorting and further
processing of data to produce information. This information is used for making daily decisions.
The full aspect is related to management information systems. The main objective is to derive
insights for the purpose of driving overall business growth. Present report is based on Royal mail
plc is a British multinational postal and courier service brand that was established in the year
1516 as part of English government (Aceto, Persico and Pescapé, 2018). It is a subsidiary of
royal mail group limited that is operating under the brand royal mail. It is an international
logistics brand that is owned subsidiary of royal mail group. There is analysis of different
products and services with relevant PESTEL factors that are affecting this business. Porters five
forces is used to analyse the probable impact of these factors on overall business functioning.
Further, there is analysis of the way business can deploy information technology for
improvement of business process so that there can be highlighting of earlier used issues and
concerns related to the overall functioning of the business.
Describe your chosen business in detail and include a brief history of the business. Also, briefly
describe the products and services of your chosen business
Royal mail group PLC is providing services related to meal collection and there is
delivering of services across different parts of UK. Parcels and letters are deposited in post boxes
that are collected in bulk from business so that it can be transported to royal mail sorting offices.
Royal mail maintains and owns the distinctive red colour boxes that have been introduced in the
year 1852 that is wearing the initials of reigning monarch. The deliveries are made at least once
each day except on the scenario of bank holidays and Sundays to uniform charges for different
UK destination. The different segment of royal mail includes the international and letters, UK
parcels, general logistics system and others (Chae, Koh and Park, 2018). It is operating in United
Kingdom by collecting and delivering of passes approximately through to main networks that
include the Parcel force worldwide and the royal mail core network. Parcel force worldwide is
an express parcel business that is assisting the royal mail core network for the purpose of
performing their operations in a more effective manner. UKPIL is providing the parcel services
and letter to and from countries across world under different reciprocal arrangements. They are
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also responsible for the production and design of United Kingdom’s philatelic products and
stamps. This brand is operating across a network of 50 sports across United Kingdom they are
also operating in continental Europe and republic of Ireland as a ground based parcel delivery
network across Europe.
History: royal mail was a public service operating as a part of public corporation and
government department they were following the postal services act 2011. Here the royal mail
possesses a majority of shares that were floated on the London stock exchange in the year 2013.
UK government has retained a 30% stake in royal mail but they have sold the remaining shares
in the year 2015 that lead to ending of for 499 years of state ownership. The history of royal mail
is at trace back in the year 1516 when there has been accession of throne of England at the union
of crowns. Royal mail services were first made available to public by charge in the year 9 16 35
on 31st July and since then it has been a positive that is being paid by the recipient. In 1653
parliament was set aside all previous grants for postal services that lead to foreign males and
inland develop a Monopoly on postal services.
Discuss any two of the most relevant PESTEL factors affecting business
PESTEL is a tool that is used by various business organisations for the purpose of making
a detailed evaluation of the external business environment. It is a very crucial aspect that is used
for the objective of making a derailed evaluation of the way business is getting affected by the
dynamic macro environment (de la Hoz-Correa and Muñoz-Leiva, 2019). For this purpose
presently there is analysis of the two most crucial aspects of external environment that is
affecting the present competitive strategy of Royal mail:
Political factors: Royal mail holding PLC is one of the major UK businesses having
annual turnover of 10 billion pounds and they are providing employment to 176,000 people.
They are having a nationwide delivery system and a network of outlets that is handling over 75
million outcomes each day. Also, delivering 28 million addresses 6 days a week. The labour
ability of royal PLC is to complete with other public sector organisations. The privatization of
Royal mail in the year 2015 has been one of the most ambitious privatisation. These have been
the recent political factor that has affected
Technology: with the changing trend of customer shifting towards online shopping there
has been a great appetite for parcels. There has been an announcement of 34 % rise in parcel
volumes in recent 5 months. Further there has been continuing automation of parcel sortation
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that is leading to meet the increasing demand for parcels. Royal mail PLC is making timely
investment towards installation and design of 20 parcel sorting machines in different 16 sites
across the country (de Beer, 2018). This type of automation technology has created a fully
operational process that is increasing the number of passes to be sorted automatically. There are
many additional machines that are built up to continue the number of passes that can be sorted
automatically in the network of parcel volumes. The use of technology in form of flexible
software and sorting solutions has been major assistance to Royal mail to meet the customers
growing demand.
Environment factors: There are many factors that are part of overall environmental and
are affecting the functioning of Royal mail. Such as, the present impact of covid pandemic has
affected the delivery of parcels and letters as one of the most crucial functions. For the purpose
of dealing with the impact of this situation there has been using of some of the measures such as
reducing the number of people in shared spaces, vehicles. Whether there have been
implementation of range of mitigations that includes the changing times are guarantee on special
delivery. Apart from this Royal mail PLC is also focusing on delivery operations as a key aspect
of keeping the country moving (Mikalef and Pateli, 2017). There have been use of additional
overtime provision and there has been significant investment in the protective equipment for
their colleagues (Contract management delivers sustainable results for Royal Mail, 2019).
From the above discussed different factors it can be said that there are various different
scenario of external micro environment that are affecting the functioning of a business. The use
of latest technology in terms of focusing on enhancing the flexibility of operation in royal mail
has been one of major differentiation factors of this brand.
Apply Porter’s 5 Force model by explaining the probable impact of any three (3) of the five
forces on your chosen business.
Porters five forces is a basic framework that is adopted for the purpose of making a analysis of
the competitive environment so that there can be detailed analysis of factors such as competitive
rivals, potential new entrants, suppliers, customers and presence of substitution of products that
is affecting the profitability of a company. In context royal mail presently there is discussion of
the three major factors that are affecting the functioning of this business.
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Threat of new entrants: there has been a very high threat of new entrants and high amount of
competition for Royal mail. The growth and competition in the parcel industry is a driver for
enhanced and new services that is leading to development of competitive pricing. One of the
major new developments that have taken place in recent changing environment is high amount of
competition in the retail brands to expand their process of supply chain. Many existing retail
brands like Amazon are also offering their own delivery services. So, it can be said that there is a
very high threat of new entrants for Royal mail PLC in the changing environment. As, different
organisations are becoming more self sufficient to develop their own logistic and supply network
as compared to other outsourcing organisations.
Bargaining power of customers: customers are able to generate profit from parcel delivery
services that may be innovative and offer new options to reflect their needs. But with the
changing time cost savings has become one of the most crucial tools that are used by Royal mail
PLC for the purpose of using competitive pricing as one of the major strategies. For this purpose
there is need to deal with the bargaining power of customers so that it can be managed according
to the specific requirements. There has been high bargaining power of customers for Royal mail
because of available of many different options and changing nature of technology resulting into
low demand of postal services (Altinay, Dagli and Altınay, 2017).
Competitive rivalry: royal mail plc has been facing high amount of competition from various
competitors. It includes UK mail group, Australia post, An post, Japan post holdings, Canada
Post. So, there is need to focus on use of some differentiation strategies in order to develop a
competitive advantage and survive in the changing environment for a longer time duration. For
Royal mail PLC, the organisation has to use information technology as a tool to create some
differentiation factor. Such as use of 3D printing, drones as a way to create some differentiation
capabilities (Gunasekaran, Subramanian and Papadopoulos, 2017).
Above mentioned are some of the relevant actors that are part of porter’s value chain for
royal mail plc and is affecting the overall functioning of this brand in long run. For which there
is need to form relevant strategies to deal with be high competitive rivalry, bargaining power of
customers and the high threat of new entrants.
Porter's Value Chain and explain the importance of these activities for your chosen business
Value chain analysis is a basic strategic tool that is used for the purpose of analysing the various
internal firm activities of an organisation. The major goal of such actives is to recognize the
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resulted that can be used for achievement of high competitive advantage. It is related to the way
of looking in internal activities that reveals the firms competitive advantages and disadvantages.
In present scenario of royal mail there is analysis of the way different primary activities and
the supporting activities are affecting the functioning of this business in long run. For this
purpose there is need to make detailed evaluation of analysing the value of various functions:
Inbound logistics: It represents the way raw materials are being arranged in an organisation
The organisation is working towards slowing down of better supplier relationship management
scenario. For this there are laying foundations of organisation with supplier relationship
management program. Many organisations are working towards application of SRM for the
purpose of gaining value. This strategy is based on process improvement innovation and savings
but in case of Royal mail there has been a high amount of challenges to deal with the limited
number of suppliers. So, the main objective is to build a stronger foundation and for the
improvement of the way supplier performance can be managed (Lee, Lanting and
Rojdamrongratana, 2017). In present situation of Royal mail, CPO has represented the proposal
of dealing with organisations risk management strategies so that there can be development of
better contract management in order to ensure higher compliance with the corporate social
responsibility and regulatory obligations.
The risk committee has been involved in the program of go ahead 2016 where there is
procurement of managing the operating model of daily management contracts. There is also
collection of data related to business units. The procurement team in Royal mail is also working
to set out the training program. There have been contract management essentials to ensure that
contract owners are working at the same level of knowledge.
Operations: In Royal mail PLC after there has been extraction of raw materials and there is final
focus on processing so that finally product can be developed. Some of the activities that are
associated with operational process include the machining assembling, packing and testing of the
product. Maintenance and equipment repair are also the aspect of operations that is part of
value chain analysis (Roztocki, Soja and Weistroffer, 2019). In royal mail PLC, there is both
service operations and manufacturing as an analysis of operational activities that is crucial for the
purpose of improving the overall productivity and maximization of efficiency to ensure
competitive success.
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Outbound logistics: outbound logistics is another aspect that is part of delivering the product to
customers by passing it through various processes. Different aspects of outbound logistics
include material handling scheduling warehousing transporting order processing and for the final
delivering to the destination. In Royal mail, there is optimisation of outbound logistics and
analysis to explore the competitive advantage sources. Outbound logistics have to be timely
managed in order to manage the cost and enhance the product delivery process with minimum
negative impact on the overall quality.
Marketing and sales: Android mobile PLC there is highlighting of the differentiation points and
benefits of the products that are offered in order to persuade customers. Royal mail is using
some of the promotion strategies that include parcel sorting systems in their mail centres so that
they are able to adopt a transformation strategy of parcel LED business.
Application of information technology for improvement of business:
In Royal mail there can be use of latest technology for the purpose of transforming the
overall business process in such a manner that it can lead to increasing in effectiveness and
efficiency for the present target market of customers (Chae, Koh and Park, 2018). The position
of postal operators is high pressure because of the changing global scenario. There is
requirement to focus on core offering last mile delivery and into a commodity that is highly
value added to deal with the intense competition. There are many different types of information
technologies that can enable the parcel carriers and postal deliveries to enable the operations in a
more efficient manner. The main objective of using of information technology in this process is
to increase the handling processes and also enhance the sorting capacity by use of high quality
differentiation. Bar codes are aspect that speed up the parcel sorting process as there can be
automatically scanning of the codes (Park, El Sawy and Fiss, 2017). Many careers have
introduced the data rich 2D codes that include additional information such as routing of
instructions for the purpose of enable tracking. In Royal mail postal services there can be high
amount of value added by using of these codes for the purpose of personalized special offers and
discounts that can be redeemed at various local shops.
As part of advanced information technology robots are also a key aspect that can be used
for the purpose of parcel sorting operations that can be used as the testing phase by
organisations. Robotic technology can be used by Royal mail for the purpose of enhancing the
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speed of their functions and reducing the dependence of their functioning on high amount of
manpower.
3D printing is also aspect of innovative information technology that is increasing with the
changing external environment (Aceto, Persico and Pescapé, 2018). It can be used for the
purpose of creating demand for relevance consumer deliveries. This technology can assist Royal
mail for the purpose of increasing the speedy delivery.
Shared or crowd sourced delivery is also one of the fastest growing phenomena that is spreading
across US and UK. In this many technology organisations are operating through websites and
applications that are leading to signing up of customers to work flexibly as a part of self
employed delivery couriers (Salam, 2017). This type of advanced technology is also very helpful
in developing of potential delivery solutions it is to deal with the major disparity between rural
and urban areas. The target segment of customers can become more self-sufficient as they are
able to use the self-employed delivery couriers by their own vehicle and payment is usually done
according to the per hour delivery system. Royal mail can make use of this courier system when
there is large number of couriers available at a particular point of time. It will be used mostly in
case of same day deliveries or urgent deliveries.
Delivery by drones: parcel delivery by drones is also an innovative application of information
technology that can be used after dealing with all types of technical issues. It will lead to Royal
mail to make use of long-term potential for the nice market segment.
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Conclusion
From the above discussed scenario it can be said that technology is playing a very crucial
role for developing a overall positive result for different postal services. It acts as a major enabler
and a driver for better customer growth. It is also one of the aspects that is becoming more
important in case of all industries but is very crucial for positive benefits according to customer
expectations. With the changing dynamic environment customers in remote areas are looking for
more delivery options. It is one of the crucial changing requirements that can be used as a
opportunity for the purpose of expanding by organisations belonging to postal industry.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journal
Aceto, G., Persico, V. and Pescapé, A., 2018. The role of Information and Communication
Technologies in healthcare: taxonomies, perspectives, and challenges. Journal of
Network and Computer Applications, 107, pp.125-154.
Aceto, G., Persico, V. and Pescapé, A., 2018. The role of Information and Communication
Technologies in healthcare: taxonomies, perspectives, and challenges. Journal of
Network and Computer Applications, 107, pp.125-154.
Altinay, F., Dagli, G. and Altınay, Z., 2017. Role of technology and management in tolerance
and reconciliation education. Quality & Quantity, 51(6), pp.2725-2736.
Chae, H.C., Koh, C.E. and Park, K.O., 2018. Information technology capability and firm
performance: Role of industry. Information & Management, 55(5), pp.525-546.
Chae, H.C., Koh, C.E. and Park, K.O., 2018. Information technology capability and firm
performance: Role of industry. Information & Management, 55(5), pp.525-546.
de Beer, M.N., 2018. A new role for the principle of legality in administrative law: State
Information Technology Agency Soc Ltd v Gijima Holdings (Pty) Ltd. South African
Law Journal, 135(4), pp.613-630.
de la Hoz-Correa, A. and Muñoz-Leiva, F., 2019. The role of information sources and image on
the intention to visit a medical tourism destination: a cross-cultural analysis. Journal of
Travel & Tourism Marketing, 36(2), pp.204-219.
Gunasekaran, A., Subramanian, N. and Papadopoulos, T., 2017. Information technology for
competitive advantage within logistics and supply chains: A review. Transportation
Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 99, pp.14-33.
Lee, K.W., Lanting, M.C.L. and Rojdamrongratana, M., 2017. Managing customer life cycle
through knowledge management capability: a contextual role of information
technology. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 28(13-14), pp.1559-1583.
Mikalef, P. and Pateli, A., 2017. Information technology-enabled dynamic capabilities and their
indirect effect on competitive performance: Findings from PLS-SEM and
fsQCA. Journal of Business Research, 70, pp.1-16.
Park, Y., El Sawy, O.A. and Fiss, P., 2017. The role of business intelligence and communication
technologies in organizational agility: a configurational approach. Journal of the
association for information systems, 18(9), p.1.
Roztocki, N., Soja, P. and Weistroffer, H.R., 2019. The role of information and communication
technologies in socioeconomic development: towards a multi-dimensional framework.
Salam, M.A., 2017. The mediating role of supply chain collaboration on the relationship between
technology, trust and operational performance. Benchmarking: An International Journal.
online
Contract management delivers sustainable results for Royal Mail, 2019[online], Available
through<https://www.stateofflux.co.uk/ideas-insights/case-studies/royal-mail>
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