ABDULLAH TELI

MAL 14068

Assignment 2
1.
Any large organization attempting to implement a large scale
technology based project faces significant problems and challenges
that need to be addressed and resolved. Assess how did Shell
address these problems and challenges. Would you have done it
differently? Justify your approach.
Most of the large organization faced significant problems and challenges
when embarking on inventive technology are the costs involved in
developing the technology, bringing different organizational groups together,
securing the technology through patents, integrating different departments
during implementation, having a customer-friendly user interface, etc.
In 2003, Shell Canada Limited build up an e-Store developed from eCATS.
The purpose was save cost and increase market share. However, it was not
achieve the organizations goal. The key issues are how to proving front and
back end application, as well as promotion customer usage in e-Store.
In this case, the problems of Shell were more specific like the project cost,
the platform of system or technology to be used and language. Shell wanted
to develop a web based self service for its agricultural segment customers. It
was projected that Shells market share would increase by 2 per cent in that
segment. But, initial cost estimates showed that developing such an
application would be very costly. Shell dealt with this problem by
incorporating an application (eCATS) which was already in use. This helped in
reducing the development costs significantly.
Secondly the issue that came up was regarding the platform to be used for
developing this application. Shell already had a platform which was outdated.
Shells Information Technology vendor was in the process of introducing a

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MAL 14068

new platform based on the latest technology. Shell Canada had already
chosen the new platform for the development of eBusiness. It was finalized
that the outdated platform would be used initially and the new platform
would be introduced later on.
The final product which came out was not as effective as it was perceived to
be. There were several reasons for the product having such low popularity:
Not customer friendly user interface
No proper revalidation by marketing department in checking the successful
orders through eStore
Shell was unsuccessful in projecting eStore as a better product than other
applications like telephone, EDI and fax.
The problems where that the implementation of eStore from both a technical
and marketing perspective where less the desirable. Several technical
problems included the interface and the web sites accessibility, as well as
problems such as targeted customer based having reduced internet access
capabilities. While adaptive problems included both staff (Shells sales reps)
and customers not knowing how to use or not be familiar with the new selfservice solution.
Key Issues
As determined by the report from the consultant firm, RareMethod, technical
issues and user interface problems are causing the low utilization of the
eStore. They realized that customers who tried to sign up and potentially
make purchases online encounter a few problems, increasing reluctance in
using the service. Some customers did not remember the link or just
mistyped it while some had difficulty remembering their automatically
generated passwords. Some user interface issues of the website include
confusing login page, multiple applications available in the menu, and long
delays in the process of placing orders. In addition, there were some issues

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MAL 14068

related to back-end eBusiness system which resulted in confusing and

irrelevant notification messages sent to customers. Collaboratively, these
issues fall into the technical category and are ranked as the most important
and the most urgent to address.
The second issue is related to the customers adaptability to this self-serve
system. Although the number of people who have signed up for eStore is
high, the proportion that actually uses it to make purchases has stayed low
since eStore was launched. This shows that many customers are reluctant to
use this new service. They either preferred to deal with their local sales
representative with whom they have developed personal relationships or
they found the already available phone/fax service more convenient than the
online counterpart. This issue is ranked as high importance but low urgency
since it requires long term plans to make customers adapt to this change.
Lastly, based on the feedback that Wright received from Shells customers,
many were simply unaware of the existence of eStore. This issue implies the
need to market this new service to current and potential customers. While
marketing the website will increase the number of people who sign up for
eStore, it may not increase online sales revenues. Therefore, this issue is
ranked as low importance and high urgency
In my opinion, to address technical issues of the online store (eStore), a
skilled team of IT professionals must study the problems and come up with
solutions and action plans to correct them. It must be noted that next time,
the group should be relatively small and work in one location. The team
involved in developing eStore consisted of a few groups in different regions
and was simply too large for effective coordination and organization which
could in fact be the cause of so many technical errors in the application. The
goal is to eliminate all the technical errors, make eStore as user friendly
possibly in as short a period of time as possible, and significantly reduce the
number of sales representatives.

ABDULLAH TELI
MAL 14068

Due to implementing these recommendation may result in:

Increased online user (UX) satisfaction.
Well-functioning of Online store results in cost savings due to less number
of sales reps needed.
Allows Shell Canada to offer lower prices to users.

Reference
Pasha (2000), The Energy Report, Pasha Publications, Incorporated.