Chapter 5: Strategic networks and platforms

Question 1

What is a strategic network?

Answer 1

Defined as a collection of different organisations that are seperate in legal terms but work collectively to try to achieve long term strategic advantage

Question 2

What is a strategic platform?

Answer 2

Means by which the transfer of goods or services between provider and consumer can take place

Question 3

What is a supply chain?

Answer 3

Encompasses all activities and information flows necessary for the transformation of goods from the origin of the raw material to when the product is finally consumed or discarded

Question 4

What is transations between business and suppliers referred to as?

Answer 4

Upstream supply chain

Question 5

What are the transactions between the business and its customers referred to as?

Answer 5

Downstream supply chain

Question 6

What activities are included when managing the supply chain and moving materials and products from node to node?

Answer 6

Production planning
Purchasing
Materials management
Distribution
Customer service
Forecasting

Question 7

What is the push and pull supply chain?

Answer 7

Raw material at one end of the supply chain.

They are connected to manufacturers and distibutors, who are in turn connected to a retailer and the end customer
Although customers are the source of the profits, they are at the end of the chain in the ‘push’ model

Question 8

What happens in the pull model?

Answer 8

Customers use electronic connections to pull whatever they need out of system.
Electronic connectivity gives end customers the opportunity to give direction to suppliers
Customers have a direct voice in the fuctioning of the supply chain

Question 9

What are some general issues that an organisation need to consider in relation to its suppliers?

Answer 9

Overall supplier strategy - take account of the sources, number of suppliers and cost, quality and speed of delivery, make or buy and outsourcing
Antagonism or partnership? - in the past the supply chain was defined as antagonistic relationships. It is now recognised that it is based upon partnership

Question 10

E-procurement gives rise to a number of specific applications that the organisation can use to manage its upstream supply chain. What do these include?

Answer 10

EDI (Electronic data interchange) - organisation linking its system to those of its suppliers
Use of the internet
Disintermediation - organisation may be able to buy its supplies online directly from an earlier stage in the supply chain

Question 11

What are the benefits of e-procurement?

Answer 11

Labour costs reduced
Inventory holding costs reduced
Production and sales should be higher
Firm may benefit from a wider choice of suppliers
Greater financial transparency and accountability
Greater control over inventories
Quicker ordering

Question 12

What are the potential risks of e-procurement?

Answer 12

System will not function correctly
Staff might be reluctant to accept new procurement methos
No cost savings realised

Question 13

What are some other uses of technologies within the upstream supply chain?

Answer 13

Communication
Information gathering
Extranets
Big data
Blockchain
Cloud computing

Question 14

What are the key activities of upstream supply chain network?

Answer 14

Procurement and upstream logistics

Question 15

What is e-procurement?

Answer 15

Electronic methods used in every stage of the procurement process

Question 16

What is e-sourcing?

Answer 16

Electronic methods for finding new suppliers and establishing contracts

Question 17

What is e-purchasing?

Answer 17

Covers product selection and ordering

Question 18

What is e-payment?

Answer 18

Tools such as electronic invoicing and electronic fund transfers

Question 19

What is downstream supply chain management?

Answer 19

Need for organisation to manage its transactions and relationships with its customers

Question 20

What is vital to effectively manage the organisations customers?

Answer 20

Needs and behaviour are analysed and understood

Question 21

What is the industrial segmentation to a customer analysis?

Answer 21

Geographic
Purchasing characteristics
Benefit
Company type
Company size

Question 22

What is a key aspect of managing the downstream supply chain?

Answer 22

Ensure effective marketing.
Help to attract customers and improve the image of the organisation with consumers

Question 23

What does the six markets model (Porter) help the organisation understand?

Answer 23

Who it needs to market to

Question 24

What are the six key markets in Payne model?

Answer 24

Customer markets
Referral markets
Supplier markets
Recruitment markets
Influence markets
Internal markets

Question 25

What does relationship marketing examine?

Answer 25

Overall approach to marketing that the organisation can adopt

Question 26

What factors can a customer be lost by?

Answer 26

Unhelpful staff Poor quality of service Inappropriate prices Lack of customer care

Question 27

What is the concept of relationship marketing defined as?

Answer 27

Technique of maintaining and exploiting the firm's customer base as a means of developing new business opportunities

Question 28

What are the features of traditinal marketing?

Answer 28

Concentrates on products Little knowledge of customer Product quality a key issue Little effort on customer retention Focus on single sale Focus on product features

Question 29

What are the features of relationship marketing?

Answer 29

Concentrates on retention and loyalty Considerable customer commitment Considerable customer contact Emphasis on quality service Focus on building long-term relationships Importance of customer benefits

Question 30

What is some types of search engine marketing?

Answer 30

Search engine optimisation Pay per click Trusted feed

Question 31

What is search engine optimisation?

Answer 31

Improving the position of a company in a search engine listings for key terms or phrases

Question 32

What is pay per click?

Answer 32

Advert is displayed by search engines as a sponsored linke when particular phrases are entered

Question 33

What is a trusted feed?

Answer 33

Database driven sites such as travel, shopping and auctions are very difficult to optimise for search engines and consequently haven't enjoyed much visibility in the free listings

Question 34

What are some types of online PR?

Answer 34

Media alerting services Portal representation Busiensses blogs Community C2C portals Social media

Question 35

What is media alerting services?

Answer 35

Online media and journalists for press releases

Question 36

What is portal representation?

Answer 36

Portals are websites that act as gateways to information and services

Question 37

What is online partnerships?

Answer 37

Link-building Affiliate marketing Sponsorship Co-branding Aggregators

Question 38

What is link building?

Answer 38

Reciprocal links can be created by having quality content and linking to other sites with quality content

Question 39

What is affiliate marketing?

Answer 39

Commission based arrangement where and e-retailer pays sites that link to it for sales

Question 40

What is co-branding?

Answer 40

Lower cost form of sponsorship where products are labelled with two brand names

Question 41

What is sponsorship?

Answer 41

Web surfers are more likely to trust integrity of a firm sponsoring a website than those who use straight advertising

Question 42

What are aggregators?

Answer 42

Comparison sites allowing customers to compare different product features and prices

Question 43

What are interactive adverts?

Answer 43

Banners Rich-media

Question 44

What are the options for opt-in email?

Answer 44

Cold, rented lists - retailer buys an email list from a provider Co-branded 3rd party newsletters - retailer advertises itself in a 3rd partys newsletter House list emails - Lists built up in house from previous customers

Question 45

What is viral marketing?

Answer 45

Social media platforms used to transmit a promotional message from one person to another

Question 46

What is customer relationship management?

Answer 46

Culture, possibly supported by appropraite information systems, where emphasis is placed on the interfaces between the entity and its customers. Knowledge is shared with the entity to ensure that the customer recieves a consistently high service level.

Question 47

How can technology be used in downstream supply chain?

Answer 47

Electronic Data Interchange - business link its sales system to the purchasing system for the major customers Cloud computing - business able to keep customers updated in real time E-commerce - Sell online to customers Intelligence gathering - transactions monitored Communication User communitities

Question 48

What is an intranet?

Answer 48

Private network within a single company using internet standards to enable employees to share information using e-mail and web publishing

Question 49

What is an extranet?

Answer 49

Formed by extending an internet beyond a company to customers, suppliers and other collaborators

Question 50

What are the benefits of usines an extranet?

Answer 50

Information sharing in a secure environment Cost reduction Order processing and distribution Improved customer service

Question 51

What are the effects of technologies on the structure of the downstream supply chain?

Answer 51

Disintermediation - middlement can be taken out of supply chain. e.g. distributors, wholesalers and agents Reintermediation - business creates a new intermediary into the downstream supply chain Countermediation - established firms create their own new intermediaries to compete with establish intermediaries