GURU ECOMMERCE

CMPT 641 VAN01 Spring 2020 Final Examination

Grade: 30%

Method: Students will answer 5 essay type questions on a given case to verify their key learnings and IT competence development throughout the course (Take-home exam).

Due Date: Friday, 8:00am to 12pm (4 hours), July 3, 2020 (A business case will be given one day before).

Length: Maximum 12 pages with double spaces (No table, charts) for your paper.

Submission: Submit your final exam paper to “Final Exam Submission Box” on the course portal under Week #11. Please submit your paper in .doc only, .ppt for Q5 (optional).

Further Instructions:

• Work on your exam file until you are done, save it frequently and submit only your final version. You

will have only one attempt to submit your answer. You must be sure you are submitting the version of

the document you wish to be submitting. Do not wait until the last minute.

• It is recommended you answer questions in order, with increasing effort on later questions because of

increasing weights on marks.

• Use an average two pages (double-spaced) per question, and you might write more pages for the

question #5 because of its complexity. There are no minimum requirements.

• Please use APA style format.

• Please use references such as course lecture notes, required course readings, your 6 teamwork’s PPTs

posted on your course portal, and other relevant articles to support/justify your arguments.

• Your paper will be checked by Turnitin for Similarity with the others. Thus, please do NOT share

your answers with the others to avoid Plagiarism academic misconduct.

• In case of an emergency, you may use your UCW email to contact me. I will be online the whole time

during the exam. You must remember that understanding the questions and topics is part of the

assessment.

• I recommend you log in to Moodle at least 15 minutes before the exam starts.

• Good Luck!

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CMT641 Exam Questions: Please read the provided eCommerence case: HOMEGROCER.COM, and then answer the following 5 exam questions (the last question Q5 has an option to develop a VC Pitching PPT): 1) Business Analysis using SOWT framework (15%)

Please conduct a SOWT (Strengths, Opportunities, Weaknesses, and Threats) analysis on the case based on current business situation, comparing with both online grocers mentioned in the case and traditional Brick & Mortar grocers.

2) IT Management Strategy: Buy or Build (15%)

According to The TECHNOLOGY (page 4) in this case, because the management team lacks IT expertise, Homegrocer currently outsourced all IT services, including software and backoffice systems development work. However, the management realized that effective in-house IT capability (Build) can be Homegrocer’s core competitive advantage, e.g., “a substantial barrier to entry, which served to keep traditional grocery stores out of the online delivery business”. Please assess Pros & Cons of these two IT management strategies: Outsource (Buy) vs. In-house Development (Build); Does the lack of IT expertise pose a real problem now? Down the road?

3) New Customer Acquisition using IT (e.g. CRM) (20%)

According to CEO Donald, the biggest challenge to acquire the necessary customer base for Homgrocer.com is that “Each new customer acquisition required a very ‘Deep Sell’ (page 6)”. Please read and understand his explanation using at least 5 key points of indication of his “Deep Sell”, and then apply what you have learnt relevant IT solutions such as Customer Relation Management (CRM) IT to address each of his key challenges and help Homegrocer.com to reach their new customer acquisition goal: “between 5,000 to 7,000 new customers” for significant profitability. Please also answer What is KSF in the case of your IT implementations? How would you measure success once the implementation is up and running?

4) Achieving Supply Chain and Operational Efficiency using IT (e.g. SCM) (20%)

The efficiency of supply chain management (SCM) is a key success factor for Homegrocer.com. Although Homegrocer archived 28% gross margin (page 3), which is the same as traditional grocery store chain. CEO Donald anticipated that “its (operation) efficient should allow it to achieve 7% the bottom line (net profit)”, while the traditional grocery only carried 1% net profit margin. Hence, “in theory, Homegrocer should be about six times as profitable as a conventional grocery store”. Please study the case and identify at least 5 Cost-Saving methods from its SCM and operation management aspects. And then, please apply what you have learnt relevant IT solutions such as SCM IT from this course to help Homegrocer to achieve their business goal: 7% net profit margin. Please also answer What is KSF

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in the case of your IT implementations? How would you measure success once the implementation is up and running?

5) During and Post COVID-19 Pandemic Period using IT (Option 1 or 2) (30%)

Suppose that the case time is now (2020): during and post COVID-19 Pandemic period, the coronavirus is still widely spreading; and the social distancing has become a local law and social norm in large global cities like Vancouver and Seattle. Thus, going to traditional grocery stores to buy your daily essentials has become a challenging task for us. Consequently, most of us have been gaining online shopping habits from Amazon delivery, Walmart pickup, and Uber Eat delivery (https://www.ucanwest.ca/blog/business- management/marketing-five-ways-covid-19-will-change-how-we-shop).

You have 2 options for this question, and please just choose only one based on your preference:

Option 1: Essay Question (MS Word Pages <= 3) If you are hired as a new CEO for Homegrocer.com starting today (July 3, 2020), please apply potential new IT which you just learnt from this course, including 5G, IoT, AR/VR, Cloud Computing, 3D printing, AI, Big Data, and Blockchain, to Homegrocer.com for the next 5 to 10 years, aimed to driving this IT startup rapid growth to become a next “game-changer” giant in the Grocery industry.

More specifically, you are required to identify minimum 5 new IT solutions and describe their potential applications in specific business areas such as Digital Transformation, ERP, CRM, SCM, BI, KMS, etc. for Homegrocer.com. Please note that I am not looking for a bullet list of technologies; rather, I am looking for a discussion of this potential IT and practical applications for business problem-solving. Please also explain How would you evaluate the success of the recommended initiatives; and How would you measure success once the implementation is up and running.

Option 2: Investor Pitch Presentation (PPT <= 12 pages)

As new CEO of Homegrcer.com starting July 3, 2020, you have gained a good understanding on the main issues and KSFs of this Homegrocer.com startup by analyzing the case and answering question 1 to 4 as above. Moreover, you have learnt more new IT tools, such as 5G, IoT, AR/VR, Cloud Computing, 3D printing, AI, Big Data, and Blockchain from CMPT641 (please refer to 6 teamwork PPTs and your two research papers).

Your immediate action is to attract more venture capital (VC) investment to implement the above new IT solutions to drive your business growth. Please develop a short PowerPoint presentation (<= 12 pages), including front page, agenda, and conclusion, as a Homegrocer Investor Pitch Presentation (PPT). Please use MS PowerPoint and submit it as PPT format to the Final Exam Submission Box” on the course site. Please also remember to submit your Q1-Q4 in MS Words in the first submission box.

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