Corporate Information Strategy and Management: El-Alamein Case Study

This case study analysis examines El-Alamein, a printing and packaging company, and its digital transformation journey. The company implemented Oracle E-Business Suite to overcome information management issues and improve its operations. The analysis explores the benefits of the ERP system, including enhanced inventory management, reduced investment risks, and strengthened process integration. It also evaluates the risks El-Alamein faces using Porter's Five Forces, considering supplier power, customer power, new entrants, substitutes, and industry rivalry. The study highlights the value that IT/IS investments add to El-Alamein, aligning with a concentric diversification strategy to improve IS management. The analysis concludes that El-Alamein has successfully implemented its information management system, but future challenges related to competition and substitute options may arise. The case study's findings are based on provided course materials and external research, demonstrating the strategic importance of information systems in a competitive business environment.

Running head: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Management El-Alamein for Printing and Packaging Goes Digital
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1CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Case Study Questions......................................................................................................................2
1. Systems....................................................................................................................................2
2. Valuable information...............................................................................................................3
3. Risks facing El-Alamein..........................................................................................................4
4. The value that the IT/IS investment adds to El-Alamein........................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................8

2CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Introduction
Being able to store information at a safe place, access it perfectly as needed and avoid
any error to take its root in the information systems is basic to businesses nowadays. The need to
have good ‘information systems’ in place is something that is also being highlighted and
discussed in the ‘El-Alamein’ case study. El-Alamein founded in 1921 is one of the leading
printing and packaging companies in the Middle East. Headquartered in Alexandria, the
company employs more than 700 employees. As per the case study, it bags international quality
certificates like ISO 9001, ISO OHSAS 18001, ISO 14001 and BRC/IOP. The business is
conducted through two Strategic Business Units (SBUs) named offset factory and flexible
factory. El-Alamein is the approved supplier for the biggest international fast-food companies.
The company that once faced many issues related to information management such as lacking a
reliable infrastructure, servers, storage, etc., is now on its ways to overcome these issues. As El-
Alamein has worked intensively to improve its IT/IS infrastructure by implementing ‘Oracle E-
Business Suite’, it would be great to see whether they have managed to add value to the
company.
Case Study Questions
1. Systems
The case study discusses the journey of El-Alamein from having faced mismanagement
of information to establish an automated ERP system. With this ERP system in place, El-
Alamein was able to automate some of its most tricky tasks like Oracle Financials, Inventory
Management, order-management, manufacturing, sales and marketing, and procurement

3CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
(Pearlson, Saunders & Galletta, 2019). After having faced so many barriers such as the resistance
to change from departments’ heads while implementing the ERP system, El-Alamein has
managed to implement the technology. The use of ERP system has helped reduce the investment
risks, strengthen the process integration, and enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of
inventory management.
2. Valuable information
The utilization of ‘Oracle E-Business Suite’ generates much valuable information for El-
Alamein. The IS of El-Alamein as revealed in the case study has enhanced its efficiency in
inventory handling, reduced investment risks, improved productivity and strengthened process
integration (de Camargo Fiorini & Jabbour, 2017). Remembering those days when El-Alamein
had no IT/IS department in the company, there was no good connectivity between the functional
departments. The inventory reporting was notably inaccurate. Vital information could not be
stored for future reference. While on the other hand, its rivals had been doing exceedingly well in
regards to the digitalization of the “Information Systems’. El-Alamein now has better
information systems. There is robust connectivity between the functional departments. Inventory
management efficiency has improved. Overall, operations productivity has increased. Now, with
a bunch of information security to a system El-Alamein can analyze past transactions to
forecast its potential clients and be able to serve them on a priority basis (Laumer, Maier &
Weitzel, 2017). IT management skills have also improved as a variety of data is now accessible
in real-time. Since the IT team and the other functional departments can communicate in real-
time regarding an issue, the efficiency of the IT team to resolve a technical problem should
improve.

4CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
3. Risks facing El-Alamein
The findings of the case study suggest that IS at El-Alamein has been beneficial to the
company for many reasons like its efficiency to handle inventories has increased. However,
whether it still faces some issues can be a concern for the case company. “Porter’s Five Forces”
will indicate whether there will be any implementation issue in the future. ‘Porter’s Five Forces’
is a good way to analyse how the behaviors of suppliers, customers, industry rivalry, new
entrants and substitutes will affect the existing IS efficiency of El-Alamein (Baburaj &
Narayanan, 2016). Therefore;
Bargaining power of suppliers (high)
Not all vendors can fulfill the business needs of a company. It limits the count for
suppliers those who can meet the software needs of the business. Hence, the business will have
to restrict its outreach to a few suppliers in search of owning a technology that is suitable,
acceptable and feasible to the business (Alshibly, Chiong & Bao, 2016). For being limited to just
a few suppliers El-Alamein’s dependency on its suppliers will increase.
Bargaining power of customers (high)
If a system does not fulfill the target market needs, the technology will certainly lead to
many adverse consequences. This will result in a loss of money, loss of resources and reduced
operations’ productivity (Heilig & Voß, 2017). When applying these concepts to the El-
Alamein’s case, it can be said that market research and customer insights will affect their

5CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
software selection decision. Moreover, software upgrades will be key to meet the changing
customer demands.
The threat of new entrants (moderate)
There may be problems due to many implementation barriers such as employee turnover.
Implementation barriers can result in delayed operations, repetitive actions and troubled setup
phases (Alshibly, Chiong & Bao, 2016). There are case examples of implementation failures like
Austin Energy, Hershey Foods, etc., which suggest IS implementation can be a tricky job for
many. El-Alamein needs to look for the upgrade version of its ‘Information Systems’ to be able
to use the latest features of the software and improve its service efficiency. It is by implementing
software upgrades El-Alamein can reduce the threat of new entrants.
The threat of substitutes (high)
Web-based alternatives such as ‘Clear Channel Communications’ of IS can remove the
advantages of IS software (Karlinsky-Shichor & Zviran, 2016). Hence, there are significant
chances of El-Alamein losing its advantage to any new IS substitutes such as ‘Clear Channel
Communications’.
Industry rivalry (high)
The technology service industry is highly competitive. It is because of this the tendency
to offer the upgrade or better version of the technology is increasing. Any upgraded version of IS

6CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
will affect the performance of those who use the older version (Heilig & Voß, 2017). Now, there
will be possible competition between El-Alamein and its rivals for switching to the new and
upgraded versions of the IS software, Oracle E-Business Suite. Those with better tendency and
capacity to switch to the upgraded version will be at benefits.
4. The value that the IT/IS investment adds to El-Alamein
As per the case study and based on the essentials of ‘Corporate Strategy’, it can be said
that El-Alamein adopted a ‘Concentric Diversification’ strategy to increase its efficiency in IS
management. Concentric diversification strategy is adopted when a company expands into the
same market by taking advantage from using new technologies, growing its capacity in gaining
better customer insights, etc. El-Alamein by taking good use of “Oracle E-Business Suite” was
able to strengthened process integration, enhanced its efficiency in inventory handling and so
forth (Alshibly, Chiong & Bao, 2016).
According to Porter’s Value Chain Model, technology is an essential support activity for
organizations. A good use of technology as according to the value chain model can speed up the
operations’ work compared to those handled with manual works or outdated software. When
technology was not a part of El-Alamein, it had faced inaccurate inventory management, loss of
important information, etc. However, with the IT/IS system in place, El-Alamein is being able to
reduce investment risks, improve productivity and so forth (Karlinsky-Shichor & Zviran, 2016).
As per the case study, the establishment of IT/IS in El-Alamein has boosted up company’s value
by above EGP 10 million.

7CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Conclusion
Therefore, as per the case study it can be said that El-Alamein has managed to overcome
its implementation issues such as change resistance offered by its heads of departments. It is
evidenced from the El-Alamein’s case that the company has now an established information
management system in the form of ‘Oracle E-Business Suite’. As the case study suggests the
return on investment has increased for the company. The chunk of information that the system
provides includes Oracle Financials, Inventory Management, etc. El-Alamein has faced many
implementation barriers in the past such as the loss of its key project members. It may face more
others in the future as revealed through a ‘Porter’s Five Forces’ analysis of the case. The
concentric diversification strategy is working for El-Alamein as of now; however, the future
might not be the same. An increasing number of rivals and substitute options for IS may affect
El-Alamein's advantage with its current information systems.

8CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
References
Alshibly, H., Chiong, R., & Bao, Y. (2016). Investigating the critical success factors for
implementing electronic document management systems in governments: evidence from
Jordan. Information Systems Management, 33(4), 287-301.
Baburaj, Y., & Narayanan, V. K. (2016). Five Forces Framework.
de Camargo Fiorini, P., & Jabbour, C. J. C. (2017). Information systems and sustainable supply
chain management towards a more sustainable society: Where we are and where we are
going. International Journal of Information Management, 37(4), 241-249.
Heilig, L., & Voß, S. (2017). Information systems in seaports: a categorization and overview.
Information Technology and Management, 18(3), 179-201.
Karlinsky-Shichor, Y., & Zviran, M. (2016). Factors influencing perceived benefits and user
satisfaction in knowledge management systems. Information Systems Management,
33(1), 55-73.
Laumer, S., Maier, C., & Weitzel, T. (2017). Information quality, user satisfaction, and the
manifestation of workarounds: a qualitative and quantitative study of enterprise content
management system users. European Journal of Information Systems, 26(4), 333-360.
Pearlson, K. E., Saunders, C. S., & Galletta, D. F. (2019). Managing and using information
systems: A strategic approach. John Wiley & Sons.