The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment
This case focuses on the challenge of quantifying the return on investment (ROI) of a large technology project, enterprise resource planning (ERP), in the nonprofit environment of the San Diego City Schools. The school district does not generate a profit, so traditional revenue enhancement arguments do not work. Instead, the case discusses the internal processes re-design and system consolidation enabled by the new ERP system. The system ROI is composed of two major components: cost savings from removal of legacy applications and productivity improvements. The cost containment benefits are relatively straightforward to quantify, but do not justify the system. The productivity improvements are harder to quantify, and many can be categorized as soft benefits. Furthermore, many of the productivity and cost-saving benefits will not be realized without personnel reductions, which are especially difficult in school districts and government agencies. The case debrief therefore discusses the tradeoffs quantifying soft benefits and productivity improvements, best practices for management decision making, and the organizational change necessary to realize the ROI.
Authors :: Nancy Kulick, Mark Jeffery, Tim Riitters, Scott Abbott
Swot Analysis of "The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment" written by Nancy Kulick, Mark Jeffery, Tim Riitters, Scott Abbott includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Roi Productivity facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT, Operations management, Organizational culture and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices, there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Roi Productivity, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Roi Productivity operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Roi Productivity
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Technology & Operations field.
4. Making a Technology & Operations topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Roi Productivity
Strengths The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Roi Productivity in The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Roi Productivity in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Roi Productivity is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Roi Productivity in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Roi Productivity to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Roi Productivity to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Roi Productivity has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Strong track record of project management
– Roi Productivity is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Roi Productivity
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Roi Productivity does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Roi Productivity is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Roi Productivity are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Roi Productivity has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Roi Productivity in the sector have low bargaining power. The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Roi Productivity to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Roi Productivity has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Roi Productivity to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Roi Productivity has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Roi Productivity has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Weaknesses The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Roi Productivity has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Roi Productivity is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Roi Productivity needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Roi Productivity to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Technology & Operations strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Roi Productivity has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Roi Productivity has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Roi Productivity 's lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Roi Productivity, firm in the HBR case study The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Roi Productivity has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment, it seems that the employees of Roi Productivity don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment, is just above the industry average. Roi Productivity needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Roi Productivity is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment are -
Buying journey improvements
– Roi Productivity can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Roi Productivity has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Roi Productivity to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Roi Productivity in the consumer business. Now Roi Productivity can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Roi Productivity has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Roi Productivity to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment case study. Roi Productivity can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Roi Productivity can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Roi Productivity can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Roi Productivity can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Roi Productivity to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Roi Productivity to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Roi Productivity can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Roi Productivity can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Roi Productivity in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Technology & Operations segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Roi Productivity to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Roi Productivity can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Roi Productivity operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Threats The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment are -
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Roi Productivity will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Roi Productivity demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Roi Productivity business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Roi Productivity can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Roi Productivity high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment, Roi Productivity may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Technology & Operations .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Technology & Operations field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Roi Productivity can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Roi Productivity is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Roi Productivity in the Technology & Operations industry. The Technology & Operations industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Increasing wage structure of Roi Productivity
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Roi Productivity.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Roi Productivity needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of The San Diego City Schools: Enterprise Resource Planning Return on Investment is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Roi Productivity needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
