Identify an organisation which has developed an e-business strategy Essay

Identify an organisation which has developed an e-business strategy and utilises ICT applications to deliver enhanced customer v - Essay Example Introduction General electric Inc. (GE) is a fleet management company with operations in United Kingdom and the US among other markets. GE has been using a platform computer based applications platform for fleet management over the years but over, better versions of the platform were developed were available in the market. E-Business strategies provide firms with growth opportunities (Hanna, 2010). GE adopted a growth e-business strategy in order to boost sales and avoid the risk of stagnating at the global market as Bhusry (2008) explains. To achieve success for its strategy GE decided, to adopt an ICT tool procured from Micro-strategies, an independent software vendor. The new tool is basically an upgrade on its existing fleet management software with additional functionality of supporting a Decision Support System(DSS). Theory and Analysis Evolution of the internet has enabled firms that embrace technology reap benefits related to better efficiency and effectiveness, increased sal es, better customer relations, new market discoveries as well as higher profitability in the event that the strategy was value driven(Cheung, 2007). Through the internet, GE has been able to access the global, targeting a larger potential market for its product offering. GE uses its ICT tools to provide information to the drivers of its fleet as well as the fleet managers with broken down easy to read reports. The reports assist in enabling a faster decision making process and response time to operational inefficiency encountered at the work place. The DSS systems provided the reports via email or text message service, thus regardless of location, a mobile phone is all a driver or fleet manager needs to have. Businesses can only realize benefits of adopting e-business strategies if they are keen enough to research, develop, and successfully execute these strategies (Kamel, 2006). In addition to this, (Kotleret al.2006) explain that only firms that adopt strategies that are relevant to the demand of clients and value driven can successfully reap the benefits of e-business. In order for the strategies to be relevant, a firm has to identify its value drivers and match this with the best e- business strategies it has, where possible merging the two with the internet, especially so for firms operating globally like GE in this case. Value drivers vary according to the different models of businesses different enterprises adopt. The drivers are key to operation of an enterprise and have a direct impact on how the business operates (Beynon, 2004) Opportunities Existent to GE GE, as at the time of adopting this e-business strategy was handling management of over a million commercial vehicles for its corporate clientele. According to Hitchcock & Willard (2006) a strategy drives the daily operations of a firm. GE, before adoption of the strategy, was using an e-commerce platform for fleet management that was functional and efficient in managing the fleet and relaying data back to the fleet managers. According to Hitchcock & Willard (2006), an ICT platform forms the foundation for the operations of an organization. GE has chosen the DSS platform to help in achieving success of their growth. The DSS system was to allow for faster decision making process to create value for customers by enhancing the quality of