ELEMICA CASE STUDY

Elemica Case Study



Elemica Case Study

Introduction

International Data Corporation has estimated that information technology (IT) spending by the Australian industry has increase from US$1.89 billion in 2010 to US$2.16 billion by 2013. A significant proportion of these spending (US$603 million in 2010) by Australian organizations is likely to be spent on telecommunications (e.g. business-to-business (B2B) electronic commerce (e-commerce). B2B e-commerce technologies have gained prominence and strategic importance globally in the last decade and have outpaced all other forms of electronic commerce. It represents the largest growth industry, in terms of revenues, in electronic commerce. However, despite the increased spending and high expectations for the benefits from B2B e-commerce in the industry, its use remains poorly understood. In addition, the industry has not embraced the technology to the same extent as in other industries, particularly in the adoption of B2B e-commerce in the context of the procurement, supply chain, and distribution of goods and services. Little is known about why certain organizations within the industry have adopted and implemented IT such as B2B e-commerce successfully while many others have not. Moreover, very few B2B e-commerce studies have been conducted in the area and most of these studies deal with strategic marketing of e-online services and systems, customer relationship management, and initial designing stage of e-fulfillment systems. This highlights gaps in existing knowledge on the issues relating to B2B e-commerce adoption and implementation in the context of the procurement, supply chain, and distribution of goods and services among organizations.

A review of the relevant literature revealed that factors affecting the performance of B2B e-commerce in industries often relate to factors, among other things, such as formulation and implementation of organizational B2B e-commerce policy and strategy, effective adoption of IT investment evaluation methodology (IEM) and IT benefits realization methodology (BRM), and the level of organizational IT maturity. These factors need to be look at from both the strategic alignment and socio-technical perspectives. A well-coordinated formulation and implementation of organizational B2B ecommerce policy and strategy will allow an organization to direct its assets and competencies to develop capabilities to meet its corporate and e-commerce objectives.

These capabilities can assist the organization in manipulating and improving its identifiable and specific organizational processes and resources which in turn affects its level of organizational IT maturity. Organizational IT maturity refers to an organization's ability to effectively deploy IT infrastructure (e.g. organizational strategy and skills) towards the achievement of benefits such as competitive advantage in line with corporate objectives. Recent research has suggested that organizations at different stages of IT maturity may adopt different levels of IEM and BRM, reflecting the different value propositions and strategic focus of incremental B2B e-commerce systems. IEM is concerned with making decisions about IT/B2B e-commerce investments and it focuses on the selection and evaluation of projects that offer the greatest benefits against the required investment while BRM ensures expected benefits are identified and realized after a decision to invest has been taken. A review of the IT evaluation literature reveals that ...