Office Depot, From a Bricks-and Mortar to a Clicks-and Mortar business model

Résumé du document

Within the global economy, e-business has become a powerful tool in enhancing productivity, customer relationship management (CRM), marketing campaigns, and financial operations. Companies have been able to understand that the web is not only the way to communicate but also the way to distribute products. Cisco and Dell with its Build-to-order process are the best examples of such companies. In the paper, we will analyse Office Depot, which is a less cited example but not less successful.

Extraits

[...] Opportunities With increasing users of Internet around the world and not only in the North American market, they will be able to serve more and more customers. Let's just think about China for example. Office Depot is already in China but at the moment they are not able to reach a large number of small business and individuals. However, in the next few years, their business model will be a powerful strength. Moreover while environmental concerns increase, Office Depot is seen as the good Implementing its e-business model reduced dramatically papers and wastes. [...]

[...] The company's e-business model brought high business value allowing them to become more effective and efficient. Part of their success has been based the infrastructure they built. Indeed, the Clicks-and-Mortar e-business model can be a source of channel conflicts but Office Depot took the advantages of both worlds: the online and offline world. Its online business increased its outlets traffic by providing customers with accurate information about stores location and inventory. At the same time, Office Depot's outlets were used to promote the online store. [...]

[...] From there was born their Clicks-and-Mortar e-business model. According to Bruce Nelson, Chief Executive Officer of Office Depot: “Through technology we can give our employees access to more comprehensive information more quickly than we could in the past. And we can deliver it at a lower cost. Technology provides the power to make better decisions more quickly and cost effectively by eliminating the steps and reducing the errors that are inevitable with all paper-based, manual processes. ultimate goal is to streamline our entire business and rededicate the savings to improve customer service.” Real-time data integration Cisco has been their partner to implement the new infrastructure by providing them useful components. [...]

[...] However, Office Depot couldn't reach small companies. “Purchase orders received from different customers differed in detail, format and standard, requiring complicated transformations and manual intervention to convert every order into formats compatible with Office Depot's internal systems. Moreover, transactions were not exchanged in realtime, thereby impeding Office Depot's ability to provide immediate details on product availability and pricing”[3]. In addition, Office Depot needed to find a way to manage information through its global employees, customers and suppliers. Part of their questions was: How to empower our workforce? [...]

[...] The issue faced by Office Depot was to allow information flow between its different channels. The integrated system ensured smooth information flow between its on-line and back-end system. The added value of Office Depot's e-Business application resulted in cost cutting, time saving and sales growth due to new and current customers. Moreover, the integration system provided them operational and financial excellence. In addition, as they have a better knowledge of their customers, they are more effective and efficient in the way they are targeting them. [...]