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Woolworths IT Challenges and Solutions

   

Added on  2020-03-02

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Subject Name Student NameStudent ID Ans1. Woolworths will let go 500 of its employees across its supply chain and support office andalso write down millions of dollars in IT assets (Coyne, 2016).Ans2. Woolworths was struggling with supplier relationships during the most recent quarter because of problems with the performance of the re-stocking and inventory systems (Woolworths Group). Ans3. The reasons that led Woolworths to take such strategic decisions were the combined impairment of assets from the upcoming closure of its Hume Distribution Centre and the $80 million that it would bear pertaining to the impairment of unspecified IT assets (Woolworths Group).Ans4. The strategic situation of Woolworths as per the Porter’s 5 forces model is as follows:a)Bargaining Power of Suppliers – Woolworths is a major player in the retail and online retail industry of Australia and has an abundance of suppliers. Therefore the dependence of Woolworths as a big organization in retail business is low on suppliers and there is a weak bargaining power of suppliers. This is a healthy situation for the company. b)Bargaining Power of Customers – In the highly competitive online retail market of Australia, the consumers have plethora of choices. Woolworths thus must be able to offerits products at prices lower than the competitor’s. c)Threat of new entrants – There is a considerably low threat of possible new entrants in this industry in Australia, since the big players such as Woolworths and Coles have solid grip on the retail market. Thus, any new entrant would find it very difficult to grow with its’ limited investment and resources. d)Threat of substitutes - Woolworths faces severe competition from competitors such as Dick Smith and it must come up with fresh and innovative tactics to attract customers andretain its market reputation. e)Competitive rivalry – Due to the presence of a lot of competitors such as Myer and Coles,the retail market remains highly concentrated. The company must constantly devise new policies and methods to stay ahead in the competition. The balance of Power in the highly concentrated online retail business in Australia is apparently against Woolworths (Ryan, 2017). Therefore, the company should strive to improve its IT/IS competency to overcome the key challenges and propel its growth. Ans5. Pros - Short Term:1.It would enable Woolworths to perform cost-cutting effectively (Business review weekly).2.It would help Woolworths to make better strategic decisions for its new IT policies. 3.It would help Woolworths to formulate strong IT policies since the taking over of new CEO Mr. Banducci. 4.The new strategic decisions would enable for better investment avenues.Long Term: 24 August 20171
Woolworths IT Challenges and Solutions_1

Subject Name Student NameStudent ID 5.The new strategic decisions would enable for greater devotion to financial and human resources. 6.The strategies would enable Woolworths for venturing into new and better opportunities pertaining to marketing and operational fronts. 7.Such new strategies would open new paths for maintaining the sustenance and longevity of the business. 8.Such new strategies would enable the organization to maintain a valuable and strong position in the current market scenario and also stay ahead of its competitors. Cons – Short Term:1.The new strategic decisions would make the process of strategic management more complex since they ask for considerable time for proper implementation. 2.The management of Woolworths would have an uphill task in preparing, researching and informing all the employees about the new decisions.3.There would be issues pertaining to greater attrition in the organization. Long Term: 4.Moreover, the new strategies would be difficult to implement since it needs proper two-way communication amongst management and employees. 5.The new strategic decisions would not be instigated in an effective way since no one from the management could be held accountable. 6.The lack of proper instigation of new strategies could have detrimental effects in the longrun on the overall performance of the organization (Eames, 2015). Ans6. In my personal opinion, Information Technology or IT has a big role to play in organizations such as Woolworths that are big names in the retail business. This is due to the factthat most of such big retail players have totally independent and computerized operations, marketing, human resource, finance and other departments. In the light of recent issues that the company had faced pertaining to failure in its IT competency, such as in its replenishment and inventory systems the role of IT as a performance enhancement tool has significantly increased. Now, companies such as Woolworths must do whatever they can to up their highly sophisticated IT structure especially its inventory systems and Data Centre. No, it’s not true that the new management underestimates the role of IT in Woolworths because the new CEO Mr. Banducci has cleared the path for the implementation of the new SAP softwarethat has already started to give positive results. Ans7. Yes, I completely agree with this decision of the new management to invest heavily in IT infrastructure. This is because big players in the retail business such as Woolworths need as much technical support and assistance from IT as they can to be able to survive and flourish in the market. IT is a vital and inseparable component of every business whether it is big or small and irrespective of its core domain. As we know that there have been several companies, that in the past despite having excellent technical know-how and resources were lagging behind only due to outdated IT infrastructure. For example, ANZ bank saw a splurge in customer attraction and retention after properly implementing IT. 24 August 20172
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