DMU Business System and E-commerce: SWOT, Porter's Five Forces

This report analyzes De Montfort University's strategy to expand its services to overseas students. It includes a SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and Porter's Five Forces analysis to assess the external environment. The report examines the courses offered, resources available, and makes recommendations to overcome challenges. It identifies the university's objectives, competencies, competition, and necessary organizational changes. The report also suggests ways to address cultural and trust issues, and enhance online communication to reach the target audience, aiming to improve the university's global presence and attract more international students by offering diverse courses and distance learning options.

Running head: FOUNDATIONS OF BUSINESS SYSTEM AND ECOMMERCE
FOUNDATIONS OF BUSINESS SYSTEM AND ECOMMERCE
Student’s Name
University Name
Author note

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Executive summary
The purpose of this report is to analysis the university SWOT and determines the external
environment analysis using the porter’s five force analysis. It analysis the research on the
marketplace and examines the courses offered and its resources. It recommends the ways to
overcome the threats and weakness of the universities. It identifies the objectives of the university;
it determines the competencies, the existing competition in the market, the organization changes
that are required and the demand factor of the university. Lastly, it suggests ways to overcome the
issues of culture and trust and its online communication tools to reach its target audience.

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................................3
Discussion............................................................................................................................................3
Part 1....................................................................................................................................................3
Recommendation..................................................................................................................................5
Part 2....................................................................................................................................................5
Porters five force analysis of De Montfort University.........................................................................5
Objectives of De Montfort University.................................................................................................6
Part 3....................................................................................................................................................8
Recommendation..................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The De Montfort University develops a strategy to expand and diversify its service to the
overseas students (Ryan, et al., 2013). The University plans to develop strategy which enables a
distinct identity of the university globally and to increase the number of international students in De
Montfort University. The university plans to offer more courses at UG and PG level, and offer it
services to international students and provide them opportunity for learning mode education. De
Montfort University plans to expand its service to countries like India, China, Nigeria, Malaysia
and other countries as well. It plans to enhance the identity of the university and gain significant
market place internationally. They implement strategy will enables them to increase the awareness
of the university in global market place. The objective of this report is to analyze the SWOT
affecting the business and examine the external environment affecting the business using the porters
five force analysis. It also provides the competitive factors of De Montfort University and suggests
ways to overcome the factors affecting business.
Discussion
Part 1
As a part of De Montfort University life, it offers various services to the students such as,
internship, coaching and provides training opportunity to the students and research. De Montfort
University offers to its students various courses for under graduate and post graduates. It provides
opportunities of full time and part time training programs with an option to opt for foreign language
(Brooks, Heffner & Henderson, 2014). Moreover, De Montfort University offers to its student’s
foundations courses, development courses. In order to gain a competitive advance and enhance its
global presence in the market, the university proposes to offer more courses and enable the overseas

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students to opt for distance mode education. The university operates in a highly competitive market;
in order to incorporate sustainability of the university in enhances the career opportunities to the
students (Ryan, et al., 2013). To maintain its competitiveness in the market, the university takes the
advantage of technological improvements and offer to its student’s opportunities to build their
career. Moreover, the De Montfort University provides training and development programs in
foreign language for its international students and distance learning. The university proposes to
offer to its students opportunities to enable their skills and talents and provides them a platform to
socially interact with different students of different cultural background. Further, they provide
opportunity to students for cross cultural communication, and provide them placement opportunities
in local companies as well as foreign companies (Mathooko & Ogutu, 2015).
SWOT analysis of De Montfort University
Strengths: De Montfort University has strong internal attribute and resources which supports the
successful outcome of the university. The existence of database system helps to retain information
about the students and staff of the university. The university has a strong presence on the social
media platforms which helps to access the reviews of the students and implement necessary
changes.
Weakness: the university lacks financial supports. Implementing big data programs, training and
development programs, require strong financial support which the university lacks. There is a lack
of technical trainers and deficiency of prominent personnel and faculties (Parkes, Reading & Stein,
2013).
Opportunity: There is an increased popularity of e-learning and distance mode learning. Students
at large prefer distance mode education as most of them are engage in part time or full time jobs.

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Moreover, international students seek for foreign language which the university easily provides to
the students. There is an increasing need for cross cultural communication, which is also
encouraged by the institution.
Threat: Due to its increased presence in social media, there is a fear of exploitation of information.
Due to cultural diversity and expansion of the university overseas, there is a high risk of
discrimination. There is a high risk of reservation in the participation. There is a fear that the
students of other countries might be discriminated and reluctant to participate.
Recommendation
In order to overcome the threats and weakness of De Montfort University, the university
needs to find more resources to gain financial support. The university is required to maintain its
infrastructure and environment. Due to increased diversification and expansion, the university
encourages international students of different culture, therefore to reduce discrimination and
miscommunication, cross cultural communication needs to be encouraged.
Part 2
Porters five force analysis of De Montfort University
Utilizing the porters five force analysis, the external factors affecting the university is
determined. The external factors are determined to ensure that De Montfort University takes
necessary steps to overcome and handle the factors effectively (Kim, Moen & Warger, 2013).
Threat of entry of new competitors: This factor determines the extent to which new universities
can enter into the market. New universities may be attracted to enter into the market lured by the

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profitability of the existing institutions. There is a high possibility that new universities may enter
into the market, as the profitability of implementing various courses and offering distance mode
education is highly profitable for the institutions.
The bargaining power of the suppliers: this factor determines the bargaining power of the
suppliers. The suppliers of De Montfort University are publishers, database aggregators and other
software technicians. Since, the university has a goof brand name and recognition in the market,
and the university purchases supplies in large quality, the bargaining power of the suppliers are
weak. The suppliers acquire huge profitability from the university.
The bargaining power of the customers or students: The De Montfort University offers has a
goodwill and reputation in the market. Additionally, the university offers various opportunities to
the students and the international students training and development programs in foreign language
and distance mode education at a competitive price. Therefore, the customers or the student’s
bargaining power is low.
Threat of substitute services: The threat of substitute service is high, as there are many
universities in the market which offers the same courses. Therefore, De Montfort University is
forced to keep their prices at a lower rate in order to be competitive.
The competitive rivalry among existing Universities: There is increased competition in the
market, as there are emerging new universities in the market. De Montfort University also faces
stiff competition from the existing universities (Arinto, 2013). Therefore to gain competitive
advantage the institution the institution has to invest more in its promotional, advertising purposes
and bring necessary improvements in the organization which reduces the margin of profit.

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Objectives of De Montfort University
The objectives of De Montfort University are to diversify and expand its services to
overseas students in order to enhance its global presence in the market. Their objective is to provide
to its students a platform of cultural diversity and encourage participation of all the community
students of different cultural background and inspire them to have full freedom to learn and grow
their career with the institution. The institution aims to provide a discrimination free environment
by encouraging cross cultural communication. They set objectives for ensuring equality (Parkes,
Reading & Stein, 2013).
The critical success factors of De Montfort University are providing opportunity to the
international students for distance mode education with training and development programs with an
option for foreign language. They encourage diverse perspectives, while encouraging students to
participate in social programs without discrimination (Arinto, 2013).
The key performance indicators to measure the objectives are overall growth of the
intuition, and student population along with international students. The headcount of international
students, the total annual income and profitability will measure the performance of De Montfort
University.
The core competencies of De Montfort University is adaptability, inter cultural
communication, anticipation and monitoring the needs and requirements of the students and staff.
The resources required the highly skilled trainers, financial support and capable faculties. There is
stiff competition faced from other universities like Fashion College London, Manchester
Metropolitan University (Parkes, Reading & Stein, 2013). The changes required in DMU are to
boost the mobility and diversity of the students, provide them with moral and mental support.

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Advanced technology has to be implemented. The demand for the university is high as it offers the
best courses with an option for foreign language for its international students at a competitive price.
Part 3
Recommendation
It is recommended that the university must enhance its website; it must provide the
details and information about the courses offered. The mission and vision of the university must be
provided which helps the website visitors to access the objectives of the university and reflects its
commitment of offering the best courses to the students. By enhancing the website of the university,
the students will gain trust and confidence (Parkes, Reading & Stein, 2013). Moreover, the
university requires providing online assistance to the students and the website visitors, by providing
facility of dropping the query, online assistance and contact information, so that the students are
able to get assistance when required.
Conclusion
Therefore from the above analysis it can be concluded that the university proposes to
offer more courses to the students. It plans to gain its position in the global market by offering more
courses and enabling the international students to opt for distance mode education of foreign
language. The report has determined the SWOT analysis and recommends way to overcome the
weakness and threats of the organization. It has determined the porter’s five force analysis and its
effects on the university. It has suggested ways to enhance its operations and online communication
with the students.

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References
Ryan, S., Scott, B., Freeman, H., & Patel, D. (2013). The virtual university: The internet and
resource-based learning. Routledge.
Brooks, G., Heffner, A., & Henderson, D. (2014). A SWOT analysis of competitive knowledge
from social media for a small start-up business. The review of Business information systems
(Online), 18(1), 23.
Mathooko, F. M., & Ogutu, M. (2015). Porter’s five competitive forces framework and other
factors that influence the choice of response strategies adopted by public universities. International
Journal of Educational Management, 29(3), 334-354.
De Medeiros, J. F., Ribeiro, J. L. D., & Cortimiglia, M. N. (2014). Success factors for
environmentally sustainable product innovation: a systematic literature review. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 65, 76-86.
Kim, J., Moen, W., & Warger, E. (2013). Competencies required for digital curation: An analysis of
job advertisements.
Yamanaka, Y., & Shimamura, M. (2016, July). A trans-graduate-school education program
awaking competencies to graduate students in Research University: The concept of Nitobe School
program in DMU In 2016 5th IIAI International Congress on Advanced Applied Informatics (IIAI-
AAI) (pp. 533-536). IEEE.
Arinto, P. B. (2013). A framework for developing competencies in open and distance e-
learning. The International review of research in Open and distributed learning, 14(1), 167-185.

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Parkes, M., Reading, C., & Stein, S. (2013). The competencies required for effective performance
in a university e-learning environment. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 29(6).
Silvius, A. G., & Schipper, R. P. (2014). Sustainability in project management competencies:
analyzing the competence gap of project managers. Journal of Human Resource and Sustainability
Studies, 2(02), 40.
Martin-Sardesai, A., Irvine, H., Tooley, S., & Guthrie, J. (2017). Organizational change in an
Australian university: Responses to a research assessment exercise. The British Accounting
Review, 49(4), 399-412.

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Appendices
Porter’s competitive forces model of DMU

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Competitive advantage of DMU

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T Strengths
 The existence of technological affairs department.
 The existence of automated systems for all university
Process.
 The existence of Databases Systems.
 The existence of a website and social media for the
University.
 Well qualified teaching staff
 Well designed course work
 Excellent management

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T The weakness
 Lack of professional programs
 Lack of highly skilled technical staff
 Lack of financial support
 Lack of high technical training

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Opportunities
 Advanced and high quality analysis
 Reliable visualization of the decision related opportunity
 Predictive analytics: Better decisions and actionable insights
 Analytics help to find financial support

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T Threats
 High cost of equipment
 Reservation of participation due to cultural difference
 Increased competition
 Fear of discrimination by individuals