Enterprise Architecture and Governance in Blue Parcel Logistics Company

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Enterprise Architecture and Governance
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Background of the company
The company under evaluation in this case is Blue Parcel. The company is the provider of
B2C logistics working on international basis. The company involves in sending and receiving the
parcels or packages on the global basis. The organization receives shipments from the customers
more especially the retailers and service providers. This can be done through big bundles as well
as sending parcels for individuals to the end users in the world. Blueparcel maintains the points
of distribution of parcels in different countries and ‘metropolitan areas’. The various points of
distribution of parcels are used to receive shipments in containers, handling the parcels over the
partners and parcel sorting to the logistic customers around the globe (Lofti et al, 2018).
However, the company does not possess networks of delivery bust instead have distribution
centers of parcels that are near to the consumers and logistic providers with long term contracts.
Besides, shipments are distributed through airlines up to their destination points and later given
to the postal organization in their locality. The parcels such as the Last-mile delivery are
distributed by the postal organization on the National perspective.
1. Governance Structure
Governance is termed as a process where the organization’s board follows up all the rules and
legal constitutions, compiles strategic direction and priorities, amends favorable policies and
makes management forecasts for better performance (Buckow & Rey, 2010). The estimates of
the risks that may be faced by the organization and finally monitors and evaluates the
performance of the organization with the major reason of practicing the account stability of the
company (Askenas et al, 2010). However, there is no globally agreed definition of governance
but the definition above includes all the relevant terms used in governance. Governance structure
is composed of all the members under several departments represented by the ‘board of

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directors’. It is the responsibilities of the board to set policies, procedures, the aims and values
for the existence of the organization to meet its targeted mission (Askenas et al, 2010). The board
of BlueParcel organization does this preparations by help of a governance structure. For any
company to perform well in all its operations, there is need to communicate the needs of
customers and so an organization design is a requirement. An organization design is referred to
as a ‘process’ of making an alignment in the structure of an organization under its mission (Ali &
Green, 2009). In BlueParcel company, the executives based on both vertical and horizontal
linkages to develop a structure that is likely to resolve the needs for the strategy of the firm
(Butler & Butler, 2010). The executives of BlueParcel therefore employed four types of structure
and these included; simple organization structure, functional organizational structure,
multidivisional organizational structure and the matrix organizational structure (Arraj, 2010).
However, in the all these organizational structure are totally different. While amending the
BlueParcel organization structure, the executives had to come up with one out of these four
structure types and implement it to meet the firm’s expectations. In the process of choosing the
most effective structure, the executive of the organization were warned that the chosen structure
will further influence the performance and strategic plans of the organization (Badenhorst, 2009).
The moment the structure is developed, then it shows the firm where it stands and also provides
support to other strategies. If a firm’s organization structure is designed to maximize efficiency,
for example, the firm may lack the flexibility needed to react quickly to exploit new
opportunities then it is relevant to take on that structure (Bart & Turel, 2010).
Although its very important for any company to develop a structure, it is very difficult to
determine the most suitable structure and thus the type and number of members, their hierarchy
in the organization and also time it has spent in the field (Braxton, 2011). Minus considering the

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type of structure an organization would wish to form, it should be having three basic elements
and their absence does not make a structure complete. These elements include the following;
Governance: This should be the very first particular of the structure. Decisions have to be made
by either an individual or a group of individuals in the organization.
Rules and regulations that govern members of the organization: Setting rules and procedures on
which the organization operates is a very important element top consider. Some rules may not be
stated and implicit well as others may be read and explicit although these rules should be
powerful (Broadbent, et al, 2009).
Work distribution among employees: Distribution of work in an organization is an essential
issue. It can be formal or informal, temporary or permanent depending on organizational
management. However, there should be at least a form of labour division in every organization.
Below are the different types of organizational structures that were adapted by BlueParcel
organization from the time of developing the company to the current structure
Simple structure
The ‘simple structure’ is the commonest ns simplest structure for up-coming organizations. Here,
there is no need for drawing an ‘organization chart’ since simple structure do not base on labour
division as a formal system. There is no need for different people to perform all the activities at
the firm that need to be completed more so if the business is a sole proprietorship, therefore, one
person may be able to work on each task. Most of the businesses that require this kind of
structure is professional such as doctors, architects, teachers and many more. Also, small scale
business individual owners say those on TV series for example ‘
The Simpsons, both bar
owner Moe Szyslak and Comic Book Guy’ are seen handling all aspects of their respective

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businesses. If a small organization has more than one worker, activities then have to be
distributed in an informal way limiting specialization of individuals in each activity. For instance
in a restaurant operated by a family, each person will have to perform his/her own
responsibilities say preparing food, cleaning the restaurant, welcoming visitors, servicing guests
and many more though these activities can be done by anyone (Boshoff, W. 2010). The business
owner alone usually centralizes making strategic decisions in a simple structure where he/she
decides for the business. This is because hierarchy is not considered while making decisions.
Functional structure
When an organization develops, the business owner then finds it better to adapt the functional
structure since the simple structure can no longer satisfy the needs of the organization. Many
organizations become hard to manage as they develop and this calls for a better and formal
labour division (Bolognese, 2012). More emphasis has to be made on the hierarchy and links that
are vertical. The firms therefore resort to functional structure from simple structure. In the
functional structure, several employees are distributed and divided into different departments
whereby every department is attached responsibilities related to a single business functional area
for example Information technology, health, human resource, production, social or customer
service, marketing, planning and many more (Bovey & Hede, 2011). All the departments
mentioned above would be allocated to managers who take all the responsibilities under that
functional area. For example whoever has information on the marketing department is free to
report to the ‘manager ’marketing department. Also, people in the organization having
information would report it to managers of responsible departments say planning, production,
customer service, Information technology among others. The responsible managers can then
transfer the information to the ‘chief executive officer’.

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Figure 1: Example of a Functional structure of an organization
Multidivisional structure
Just as BlueParcel, several organizations provide a wide range of services and products. Some
organizations do sell of their products across boundaries that is to say globally (Branch, 2012).
However, for a firm to successfully operate in such a manner there is need to respond rapidly to
the needs of their customers (Brandt, 2011). Under functional structure, it is observed that there
is a slow rate of change and so as firms continue expanding and growing they will have to
abandon functional structure type and resort to multidivisional structure (Cisco Systems
Inc, 2014). This is due to the reason that these organizations become too large for the functional
structure. In the multidivisional structure, employees are distributed in different departments
according to products produced, services provided and the geographical area. Under the
multidivisional structure, the firm is broken down into small divisions known as ‘semi-
autonomous divisions’ having their own corporate and are grouped in several divisions where
each division has a separate production function and maximizing its own profits (Elliott, 2011).