- Report details: StarTel: A Case Study
StarTel is a mobile phone and accessories retailer based in Scotland, owned by Sharith. The
business started with a single shop, which Sharith has grown into a chain of five. The first
three shops were opened from scratch but in June 2016 Sharith bought ‘MobBitz’ a pair of
similar outlets, which she intends to operate under the StarTel brand. The recent acquisition
is a significant expansion in the operation of the business, not least because two of the new
outlets are in Norway. Sharith is hoping that this will help her to gain a foothold in the
European Free Trade Area market. As a result of the expansion Sharith has identified a
need to open a new warehouse in the North-East of England, and she has decided that this
would be an excellent opportunity to launch an eCommerce arm to the business, capitalising
on the success of the StarTel brand, but with a relatively small additional overhead.
StarTel and MobBitz have different IT systems, and in addition to integrating the two parts of
the business there is the need to add ‘b2c’ eCommerce functionality. Sharith would like this
to be fully integrated with the retail stores, allowing customers to collect and return stock via
the stores, as well as via courier.
Your Task
You are a member of the SBS Consultant Team employed by StarTel. You are required to
write a professional report which deals with the issues outlined above and presents your
analysis and recommendations.
Identify key business and technical challenges of StarTel acquisition of MobBitz and
transition to eCommerce.
Consider barriers to implementation and how these might be overcome.
Build an inclusive and persuasive argument that can be presented to Sharith.
The word count for the report is 2000.
Please structure your assignment as a report – include: Title Page – Contents – Introduction
- Main Section – Conclusions and Recommendations - References.
The case study requires you to work with incomplete information, an important skill. You are
free to make assumptions about aspects of Sharith’s situation or operation where these are
relevant to your work – please ensure that any assumptions made are clearly stated in your
report.
You must reference your report with a range of practitioner and academic publications
(Include at least 10 references. References will not be included in the word count).
The report should be be 2000 words in length (not including the references)
