OPENTASTE BUSINESS OPERATIONS

OPENTASTE BUSINESS OPERATIONS

Introduction                                                                                    

OpenTaste is an online grocery company based in Singapore which offers foodstuffs right at its customer’s doorsteps. Since the company’s market entrance in Singapore, the firm has offered fresh products at competitive prices hence accruing a huge customer base in the southeast region in Asia. The company has developed strong relationships with over 200 farms in Singapore for the provision of fresh food products, which are later delivered to the customers within the shortest time possible. The company provides its grocery products at relatively low prices hence developing a unique online presence in the Singaporean markets. As such, customers can buy farm produce, meat, and dairy products at the click of a button. Therefore, the development of high-quality products and services has helped the firm develop a strong online presence.

Part 1

Continuous improvement of OpenTaste is an essential component that would result in customers wanting to try the new commodities and services provided by the company (Hoque & Kaplan, 2012). The management also plays a critical role in the components of activities since they monitor how services are conducted; thus, improvements are made in the essential segments: cost control and reduction results in the gaining of competitive advantage of the firm.

OpenTaste operations management components

Some of the key components utilized by OpenTaste in operations management include cost control, facility location, and product selection and design for is operations in Singapore. For instance, the company uses a disruptive sourcing process by directly collecting the foodstuffs from farmers in Singapore (Mayoza et al., 2018, pp. 938. As a result, the company has eliminated brokers who often hike products by creating a virtual scarcity. So, it is evident that OpenTaste is performing well in cost reduction and control to govern a huge online customer base in Singapore. Using a disruptive sourcing method has provided control over goods provided to its customers hence maintaining high-quality standards (Watrous, 2015, pp.1). The company’s cost reduction adheres to Slack’s five performance objectives in its quest to achieve sustainability in the competitive Singaporean grocery market. The provision of products at lower prices has helped the firm develop a competitive edge over competitors in the Southeast Asia region.

In addition, OpenTaste has utilized product selection and design as another key component of its operations management. As such, the company has continuously avoided groceries, which add costs and complexities to its business. For instance, the firm does not store grocery products that have high returns in warehouses. However, the enterprise has taken advantage of Singapore having strong internet connectivity to sell its products through online platforms (Watrous, 2015, pp.1). Therefore, the firm has developed a strong operating model to increase the efficiency of its operations by providing a satisfactory customer experience to its clients in Singapore. So, the company’s product selection and design have played a key role in developing a competent distribution process due to its strong online presence (OpenTaste, 2015, pp.1).

OpenTaste utilizes a strategic approach to offer high-quality grocery products sold online and delivered to customers at their convenience. The firm is committed to providing the products to its customers hence assumes transport costs to ensure they provide satisfactory client experiences (OpenTaste, 2015, pp.1). Therefore, the company is advantaged since it does not incur the cost to run chain stores hence developing a competitive edge over its competitors. Besides, OpenTaste has centralized picking stations that reduce warehousing costs. Therefore, the company has been able to accrue finances needed to pick, package, and deliver groceries to its customers in Singapore at no extra cost (Sek, 2017, pp.1). Consequently, the utilization of the operations management components has helped the firm to develop a competitive edge relative to other retail models used by digital marketing firms. The firm utilizes production planning as an operations management component to differentiate its products relative to competitors (Ritter & Geersbro, 2018, pp. 78). As such, the company has embarked on branding their grocery products to ensure they develop a competitive edge in Singapore’s market. As a matter of fact, the groceries spend minimal time in the storerooms relative to hypermarkets, hence fresher and nutritive.

Soft systems methodology

The soft systems methodology is a decision support tool developed to help shareholders solve problems present in the company’s systems. As such, the system is applicable by OpenTaste in its quest to solve problematic scenarios during its operation in Singapore (Checkland & Poulter, 2010, 201). OpenTaste has been operating as an online grocery retailer in Singapore; hence its sustainability depends on how well the firm solves barriers in its marketing systems. If the problem is bulk, the software systems methodology is the best approach since it effectively analyses and evaluates the different perceptions in a different situation (Checkland & Poulter, 2010, 205). Therefore, the method will be applied in assessing the main problems that OpenTaste may encounter when familiarizing various services aimed at enabling customers to order their commodities online and get them at their doorstep. Therefore, the methodology stands to outline problems likely to hamper operations in its identified components of management (Greenburg, 2019). The soft systems methodology stands to assess the issues the company stands to face if hybrid systems and facilities are introduced. As such, the operation strategy performance model outlines that the firm needs to provide initial awareness of the introduced concept but would be too costly

The problem situation

Consumer shopping habits are changing since clients are willing to buy products that enable them to save time. Therefore, the company needs to improve its online presence to increase customer convenience (Crawford, 2013). In Singapore, developing a strong online presence would make shopping easier since most individuals do not like traveling much to the stores to purchase their groceries. However, the company operations are hindered by the barriers posed while integrating new technologies to improve its delivery systems (Watrous, 2015, pp.1). For instance, the company is faced with an inability to integrate new technologies into older systems that have been in use. The company has faced the challenge from its internal staff and customers. For example, the workers were resistant to use services introduced by the company in the initial stages hence jeopardizing its ability to deliver foodstuffs at their customers’ convenience (OpenTaste, 2015, pp.1).

OpenTaste has to contend with its rivals by understanding the buyers’ demands before being late in the presentation of an online platform. Additionally, the research offers information it’s more socially appropriate to buy at discounted vendors. Therefore, OpenTaste needs to use the discounted retailing dynamic to enhance its competitive advantage for its online shopping growth and doubling its discounted retailers (Sek, 2017, pp.1).  However, the execution of the online operations at OpenTaste exposes the company to various systems administration challenges as it can lead to messy and compound problems. Therefore, OpenTaste needs to consider all the elements that form the online operation framework for effective online management.

Introduction to hybrid facilities

OpenTaste has embarked on increasing the application of hybrid facilities to make good use of market inputs and outputs. Hence, the company would be capable of adopting different system dynamics in its operation to improve the delivery of groceries in real-time. The firm projects to continuously improve its hybrid systems in a bid to create a strong market presence in Singapore (Hoffman, 2019, pp.1). The hybrid system would ensure the company creates physical stores in Singapore to complement the online marketing of its groceries. Based on the customer value model, OpenTaste should improve its technologies to create a competitive edge in Singapore. Consequently, hybrid systems have necessitated the creation of an innovative online market for fresh foods in Singapore, although the systems must be continuously improved (Hoffman, 2019, pp.1).

Similarities and differences

OpenTaste utilizes models such as using stores together with warehouses and the dark store model (Benedictus, 2014, pp. 1). The models compare since they have allowed the company to develop strong online grocery services in Singapore. Also, the models have helped the firm use small investments compared to agencies that built warehouses specifically for online grocery services and delivery (Cheng, 2019, pp. 1). The models have been successful, hence leading competitors such as Food Assembly and Barnraiser to adopt similar strategic approaches. Also, it is easy to apply the decentralized model to both strategies adopted by Opentaste since they are key contributing factors to the success of the company.

On the other hand, the models differ because the dark store approach utilizes decentralized forms in introducing its online services. Hence, the dark store model has a greater potential of achieving performance objectives compared to the use of stores together with warehouses. Besides, the latter is cost-effective relative to the use of a dark store model approach as utilized by Opentaste (Benedictus, 2014, pp. 1). Hence, there have been huge disparities between the two models because OpenTaste has embarked on strategies to eliminate the middle man. Instead, the company has developed a community-centric approach, thus downplaying the role played by the online platform model.

Solutions

OpenTaste should devise methods to build its customer relationship management database by harnessing social media platforms (Ritter & Geersbro, 2018, pp. 76). Social media is important because it is a channel that helps an organization to have ideas of new products, services, and new ways sources of revenue (Crawford, 2013). As such, the company should observe how the consumers interact with products and services rendered by the company and listen to customer feedback. Also, social media is a channel that enhances communication between customers and the organization, increasing the organization’s great interaction and moment of truth (Sek, 2017, pp.1). Besides, the company should keep and maintain an excellent customer support service to acquire leads. A new customer is important, just like the existing customers. A satisfied customer is likely to inform at least three friends about the positive experiences and excellent consumer service leads, thus increasing company sales.

Response to Parcel Conundrum

The company should have an effective focus on the delivery system chain for its online operations. Thus, parcel conundrum is a developing problem that businesses should overcome to ensure that there are effective client service and satisfaction. In Singapore, about 11%of, the chain deliveries fail during their implementation, hence costing the industry one billion redeliveries (Bomford, 2012). Moreover, about fifty-nine percent of the shoppers online also had issues with their deliveries. The firm should develop effective external delivery company 3P logistics as they offer high-quality satisfaction services to online retailers. Hence, the clients should be rationalized through the specified order process. Therefore, the customer will make the order but will click on the store near the local area to ensure easy picking of the goods (Bomford, 2012). Therefore, communication through emails or texts will be made to avoid the customers from visiting the stores early to pick the commodities.

Organization of Customer Support System Project

The success of the customer support system adopted by an enterprise such as OpenTaste will depend on how well such a company organizes critical steps of the customer support system. Therefore, a good customer support system should have a series of steps in an organized manner. The organization should start by communicating the company’s vision to all employees to ensure they perform their duties in line with the set vision (Hoque & Kaplan, 2012). Also, Inter-dependent departments in the organization should have responsibilities that overlap to ensure proper coordination of all efforts. Such coordination results in the perfect customer process. Moreover, the company must ensure their employees have particular job goals that are in line with the business set goals of the entire organization.

Besides, for the organization to achieve a good customer support system, it must train its employees to own the customer issues. Furthermore, the employees must be willing to improve their performance by use of customer feedback as the guidelines (Hoque & Kaplan, 2012). Also, keeping and maintaining excellent customer support service for OpenTaste Company can acquire leads. A new customer is important, just like the existing customers. It is a key thing to treat each customer with respect and take necessary action in meeting their needs. A satisfied customer is likely to inform at least three friends about the positive experiences and excellent consumer service leads, thus increasing company sales.

Part B

The Rich picture

The diagram displays an opinion of different developments, systems, and the problems associated with online operations at Opentaste. The household distribution deal is offered, then a click and collect service to convey the good value of commodities.

Root definition

Root definition for Opentaste is depicted as the online grocery shopping system which seeks to increase customer convenience through the timely delivery of fresh products. As such, the company must keep a close relationship with the over 200 farms in Singapore for a consistent supply of grocery products (Kestenbaum, 2018).

CATWOE Analysis

The following table represents the company’s CATWOE analysis that has been implemented to make sure that the root description comprises most of what is essential.

OpenTaste Business plan

As-Is

The business process plan of OpenTaste “AS IS” involves the clients observing the open proposals from the website and going to the acquisition of the commodities from the store directly. Therefore, the method is used to manage stock at the correct time. The homegrown sellers deliver commodities to the shops; thus, the global dealers dispense to the haylofts when orders are received (Kestenbaum, 2018). However, the requests are produced according to what the clients had preferred.

To-Be

OpenTaste business process plan “to be” validates the future procedure once the online service is hurled. The option of delivery could either be customer collection or home conveyance. Hence, the store notifies the customer on how they will get the commodity. The supply chain remains as it is currently once the customer has accessed the product.

Part 3

Effective enactment

OpenTaste should adopt the regionalized methodology where the company’s managers have control over the local supplies. For proper execution of the plans, the manager of the stores should factor the following. The cost includes the assets needed to have an effective scheme regarding the ordering process. The flexibility within the scheme can be effectively defined in the several techniques as well as the offered services.

The quality and dependability for OpenTaste products need to be considered for the effective delivery of services. Also, the store should deliver the right products to avoid rejection and complaints that would destroy the reputation of the firm. However, customer dependability will be achieved effectively. Effective management change plays an essential role in making priorities. The upper and lower levels of management are the options that exist for change. Hence, the lower levels include the attitudes, acceptance, and beliefs of customers due to commodities.

Consumer aspect

The main complaint from the customers is the company’s poor customer care services. Thus, achieving a fair percentage of the online vending market, acquiring customer satisfaction, and improving customers’ loyalty would cling on the ability of OpenTaste to attain better consumer ratings by enhancing the company’s service quality and customer care (Hoque & Kaplan, 2012).

Internal process characteristics

Since OpenTaste is a listed corporation, it is needed to improve its stock charges and deliver higher profits for the generation of the required investments to maintain the firm’s expansion strategies (Hayes, 2018). However, the goal for the expansion of the company’s plans cannot be successful without the extension of the thinking outside the industry’s operations and allowing other dealers to assume similar strategies within their operations.

Growth and learning aspect

As per OpenTaste’s yearly report of 2018, the company’s developmental goals involve training. The teaching requirements of individuals and departments are evaluated annually to offer the firm the needed development and growth opportunities (Hoque & Kaplan, 2012). However, the corporation’s yearly report gives no specific information about the training system and the percentage of workers that acquire the training every year.

Execution and management of the change

Crawford (2013) suggested that the accomplishment of large-scale IT ventures regularly poses numerous challenges to companies because of the significant changes that firms go through to ensure the project’s success. As such, IT projects become unsuccessful because of the organization’s inability to effectively handle the alteration in the process.

Identify and initiate

Hayes (2018) proposed a model which states that the beginning of an active management alteration involves the demand for the change and the initiation. Thus, the leadership/management at OpenTaste needs to acknowledge that the execution of such large-scale IT projects would result in considerable variation in the processing system (Greenburg, 2019). However, failure to recognize such facts and the inability to implement operative steps to start the variation process might lead to numerous adverse effects on the organization.

Balanced Scorecard

Financial aspect

The improvement of the online marketing approach is anticipated to augment the revenue of the company by 30%. Other companies that have executed online vending have experienced an increase in their sales to 30% per year.  However, OpenTaste’s sales expansion started indicating signs of declining in 2015, due to the fast escalation due to other sellers that provided similar services and goods.  Thus, the improvement of the company’s online retail platform could help in curbing the negative trend. Additionally, OpenTaste currently has a small market share, and thus attaining an increase of 1.5% in the market shares after the implementation of the website is very ambitious.

In conclusion, the perspectives discussed above are significant in the growth of the firm. Therefore, the website should be user-friendly to ensure the clients make their orders effectively. The customers play an essential role in the business; thus, their input is required in the effective gaining of returns. The internal process needs to incorporate the needs of the workers to ensure they are retained. The pick service should also be implemented to reduce unnecessary costs. Besides, the company’s financial aspects must be improved to ensure Opentaste achieves its set financial goals in Singapore and global markets. From a customer perspective, strong customer relationships must be developed to increase customer loyalty while purchasing products from the firm in Singapore and its other markets globally.

References

Benedictus, L., 2014. The Supermarkets’ Dark Stores. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/business/shortcuts/2014/jan/07/inside-supermarkets-dark-stores-online-shopping> [Accessed 29 May 2020].

Bomford, A., 2012. The Parcel Conundrum. [online] BBC News. Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18709348> [Accessed 20 May 2020].

Checkland, P., and Poulter, J., 2010. Soft systems methodology. Systems approach to managing change: A practical guide (pp. 191-242). Springer, London. Link: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-84882-809-4_5

Cheng, R., 2019. Opentaste Is A 24-Hour Online Marketplace That Delivers Farm Fresh Food Within 36 Hours. [online] TheSmartLocal – Singapore’s Leading Travel and Lifestyle Portal. Available at: <https://thesmartlocal.com/read/opentaste/> [Accessed 29 May 2020].

Crawford, J., 2013. Strategy for change management. Focuses on formulating a strategy link: https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/white-papers/strategy-for-change-management.pdf

Greenburg, A., 2019. How You Can Save On Your Fresh-Food Groceries. [online] Expat Living Singapore. Available at: <https://expatliving.sg/affordable-fresh-food-online-groceries-farm-fresh-produce/> [Accessed 29 May 2020].

Hayes, J., 2018. The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave. Link: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=sbZIDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR2&dq=Hayes,+J.+2012.+The+theory+and+practice+of+change+management.+Palgrave+Macmillan:+New+York.&ots=hD0BHrjdzS&sig=q67Wx2BMKpRXCInaUIgty3YQYDg

Hoffman, A., 2019. How A Hybrid Approach Eases Catering Delivery Challenges | QSR Magazine. [online] QSR magazine. Available at: <https://www.qsrmagazine.com/outside-insights/how-hybrid-approach-eases-catering-delivery-challenges> [Accessed 20 May 2020].

Hoque, Z., and Kaplan, R.S., 2012. The balanced scorecard: comments on balanced scorecard commentaries. Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change. Link: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/18325911211273527/full/html

Kestenbaum, R., 2018. In Online Groceries, This Company Does What Even Amazon Can’t: Make Money. [online] Forbes. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardkestenbaum/2017/07/05/in-online-grocery-this-company-does-what-even-amazon-cant-make-money/#2b1aad57d58d> [Accessed 29 May 2020].

Mayoza, L., Agus, A., Lili, W., and Rizal, A., 2018. ANALYTICAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT ON NEON TETRA (PARACHEIRODON INNESI) ORNAMENTAL FISH CULTIVATION. GSJ, 6(7), p.938. link: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Achmad_Rizal7/publication/328289283_Analytical_Business_Development_On_Neon_Tetra_Paracheirodon_innesi_Ornamental_Fish_Cultivation/links/5bc49ec092851c88fd6a79ca/Analytical-Business-Development-On-Neon-Tetra-Paracheirodon-innesi-Ornamental-Fish-Cultivation.pdf

OpenTaste, 2015. OpenTaste Launches An Online Platform That Reinvents The Food Supply Chain To Bring The Freshest, Highest Quality Produce Directly To Consumers. [online] Prnewswire.com. Available at: <https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/OpenTaste-launches-an-online-platform-that-reinvents-the-food-supply-chain-to-bring-the-freshest-highest-quality-produce-directly-to-consumers-300098214.html> [Accessed 20 May 2020].

Ritter, T., and Geersbro, J., 2018. Multidexterity in customer relationship management: Managerial implications and a research agenda. Industrial Marketing Management, 69, pp.74-79. Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019850118300336

Sek, V., 2017. This 29-Year-Old Invested $200K Of His Savings To Create The Honestbee Of Organic Food. [online] Vulcan Post. Available at: <https://vulcanpost.com/617633/sproutfore-singapore-organic-food-delivery/> [Accessed 20 May 2020].

Watrous, M., 2015. How Consumers Will Shop In 2015. [online] Foodbusinessnews.net. Available at: <https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/5009-how-consumers-will-shop-in-2015> [Accessed 29 May 2020].