Enterprise Applications

 Three Companies that used Enterprise Applications successfully

Hey everyone, welcome back to my blog! I hope you enjoyed my blog from last week.

This week I will be explaining how three companies utilise enterprise applications successfully to support their business strategy and model.Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is used in a business to organise and manage the day to day operations in the business for optimal performance. 

The first company I will be talking about is Amazon who are an e-commerce business, where companies large or small can sell their products on their website.Amazons business strategy is very customer focused, as they are determined to make the customers experience enjoyable and satisfactory. They encourage their customers to leave reviews so they can improve their business. 

Amazon uses a system called SAP for lots of elements in  their company Eg "Amazon Business". Amazon could see that a lot of businesses and organisations were buying items from Amazon in bulk, so Amazon decided to create a website dedicated to businesses. Amazon Business uses SAP ERP and SAP Ariba to enable businesses to buy from Amazon or with 3rd party Amazon sellers easily with their own procurement application. By migrating SAP, it has simplified the procurement process and it has also helped create procurement policies, maintain control over the purchasing process and invoices reconciliation.Sales have also increased due to the convenience  of it all for their customers!!

The second company I will be discussing today is Starbucks who are an American coffee company and are the worlds largest coffeehouse chain!Starbucks business model is through their operational stores and also the sale of their packaged coffee, tea and other products.Starbucks business strategy is based around both customers and product differentiation. Like Amazon, Starbucks are always striving for giving their customers the best quality as possible.They also have a unique menu,  apart from coffee which has help attracted more customers (as seen in the picture on the left). 

Here is a video explaining how Starbucks differentiates itself from its competitors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4fygyMo1GI

Starbucks use a ERP system called Oracle E - Business Suite.They use the system for ERP, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Supply Chain Management (SCM). Starbucks have felt the benefits from using Oracles ERP system as they have a clear breakdown of Expenses, Revenues and Sales data.Starbucks can utilize this information to improve and expand their business with this information.

The last company I will talk about is Cadburys, who are a loved chocolate brand here in Ireland, but are a British multinational company. Cadburys business model is to provide delicious chocolate to their customers , with a business strategy of having promotions like sales and discounts to increase their sales and to attract new customers to their products.The company was bought by Mondelez International in 2010, were they ran into trouble with their manufacturing and distribution requirements, so they implemented the ERP system SAP to help their issues.The implementation took longer than anticipated, but the benefits have paid off for Cadburys. The ERP system was carried into the warehouse management system which solved their issues with production and distribution which made the company more efficient. Cadbury's standardised the ERP system in 16 locations where the entire process was automated. 

Here is a video of Cadburys iconic advert from 2009.I hope you have a laugh at it !!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIJD93Z2C_8 

I hope you have enjoyed my blog today.I am sorry if all the talking about chocolate has made you hungry!As always I would love to hear your opinions on the blog and any suggestions or comments are always appreciated!

Chat soon, Hannah