Study Case: Mashaweer

1.What Kinds of applications are described in this case? What business functions do they support?

a)Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) – are integrated enterprise-wide standard information systems that automate all aspect of an organization’s business process. An ERP systems that enables a company to manage the efficient use of its Resource. Among the most important ERP attributes are the ability to: (i)automated and integrated the majority of an organization’s business process Share common data and practices across the entire enterprise (ii)produce and asses information in real-time environment

b)CISCO – which supports up to 3001P phones, a reporting module and a module and a recording system made it much easier for Mashaweer to track its received calls and work on any problem that might face its customer service agents.

c)Mashaweer’s Server – a centralized application that manages the following elements: i)Orders (Placement, editing, pricing, review, tracking and reports) ii)Routes management and optimization

iii)Clients (Management, reports, discounts)
iv)Packages tracking
v)Contracts
vi)Call Center
vii)Satellite offices
viii)Representatives
ix)Cash transactions and expenses tracking or representatives and satellite offices
x)Asset tracking and satellite offices
xi)Asset tracking of vehicles, PDAs and mobile printers
xii)Management reports

d)Application Programmers’ Interface (API) – is a set of programming instructions and standards for accessing a web-based software application or web tool. The API is a method of integrating Mashaweer ordering system with third parties. This allows third parties to automate their delivery system and integrate Mashaweer into their existing CRM/dispatching systems, opening a wide opportunity for business expansion.

e)SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) – software application program for process control, the gathering of data in real time from remote locations in order to control equipment and condition. SCADA is used in power plants, as well as in oil and gas refining, telecommunications, transportation, and water and waste control.

2.What are the benefits from equipping their riders with PDAs?

Mashaweer invested in PDAs to enable the operation process to be monitored accurately since is provides date like GPS tracking to track each order and the location or stage the messenger is located. Through this technology, Mashaweer decreases the amount of errors due to the fact that the messenger is tied to an automated process where he receives his tasks through the PDA handheld.

3.Was it a good decision to expand the business to Cairo? What are the implications of information Systems?

Yes, we think it is a good decision to expand the business to Cairo.

a)At the beginning, people’s assumption is that using Mashaweer is too luxurious and costly. When they use it for the first couple of times, this perception changes and they begin to rely on this convenient service. As more and more people get accustomed with the service, it creates a cultural change that significantly affects the demand on the service.

b)They planned to enter Cairo with full force so that there would be a high barrier of entry for any competitor they decided that their competitive advantage would have to be in investing in technology. Mashaweer heavily depends on technological tools, and would benefit from the advancements and price reductions that continuously take place. As a result, Mashaweer’s total costs will decrease, enabling it to decrease its prices and further improve its quality to become even more convenient for a large number of people.

4.Do you think that Mashaweer will be able to accomplish their future strategy and sustain its market share?

a)Mashaweer Market: A solution to make this work would be not have 30 minutes delivery time in place and have the website generate how long the delivery would take based on what is ordered such as if under 10 items are ordered the half an hour delivery time could stay in place, but anything over may require a 45 minutes delivery time and so on and so forth

b)Call Centre: Mashaweer could automate a lot of their processes with fully utilizing the Mashaweer’s website to include online requests to be send straight to the PDA so as not fully rely on the call center to make orders. This will allows Mashaweer to save their cost by making their service more convenient and easily accessible online and allows workers to works on other project/tasks. This suggestion will generate profit to Mashaweer while being able to keep majority of their current clients. Another suggestion is that, Mashaweer could consider a mobile application to make direct requests straight from client smart phone.

c)Geographical Expansion: The challenge with geographical expansion into other locations is that it’s a costly process to fully capture the market. However, Mashaweer has already proven that is possible to expand into other regions through Egypt with their 2011 expansion from Alexandria to Cairo. The suggestion to this strategy would be to expand throughout Egypt and the Middle East with full force to fully capture the Egyptian and Middle Eastern market. Mashaweer need to plan strong strategy to facing local competitors.

d)These three strategies have the potential to success and will be able to accomplish their future strategy and sustain its market share if these strategies to be implemented and executed correctly. For example a 30 minute margin with the current 130 motorcycles and 10 cars would not work or would struggle to work and will putting stress on the works and this will decreasing performance and morale. Utilizing the call center for other business practices could greatly improve profits and sustain its market share because it is a small impact on current business if they move the operations online they can fully utilize call center for other business and market strategies. Expanding into the rest of Egyptian and the Middle East could prove to be success so expanding into the rest of Egypt and Middle East could huge profits and dominate the personal assistance business.

5.Do you think in near future, the competition between Mashaweer and Wassaly will be aggressive? Why?

a)No. Mashaweer has several other advantages that make it very hard for others to compete:Database of thousands of loyal clients.

i)Self-investment is manageable
ii)Highly qualified and carefully selected riders due to the high salaries compared to the delivery sector in the Egypt. iii)Various revenue streams – Being the owner of the IT company Innov8 fosters technology integration in Mashaweer. iv)Mashaweer also has several unique selling propositions. The main two aspects are being the first in the market, and the only of its kind. Also the most important differentiator is the flexibility of their service, which addresses all of their customer’s needs and requests.