Expanding International Student Engagement Through E-commerce: A SWOT Analysis

De Montfort University is a thriving institution with a very distinct identity and clear strategic plan. Part of its strategy has been to develop and increase the number of international students who choose to come to the UK and study at DMU. Currently the University offers a range of courses at UG and PG level and recruits students from a number of countries, including India, China, Malaysia, etc. who come to the UK to study and complete their degrees. The University is considering extending and growing its International numbers by offering more courses to be delivered to overseas students in distance learning mode. This alternative channel has the basis for increasing the number of International students choosing to study at DMU and for increasing the number of countries that they could market their courses to, thus providing the potential for significant extra revenue and also increasing awareness of DMU in the global marketplace.

This assignment is in several parts and will require you to undertake research, use and apply the knowledge that you have gained on the course and your own personal knowledge and experience.

Part 1

In your role as an external consultant to the University you have been asked to undertake a SWOT analysis for the Universities proposal to offer more courses to overseas students through distance learning.  Your analysis needs to be detailed and will require you to research the DL marketplace, examine what the University currently offers, what its resources are etc. You need to then create and provide a SWOT diagram based on your analysis.

Based on this analysis, write a short report that includes a summary of your findings and a list of any specific recommendations that you have. These recommendations are likely to include how any weaknesses or threats identified in the SWOT analysis can be overcome.  

Part 2

Having completed your SWOT analysis, using any external situation analysis model for e- commerce that you have knowledge of, for example, Porters Competitive Forces Model, or Angherns’ ICDT model, undertake an analysis and use the outcomes from the analysis, to provide a set of objectives, identify some critical success factors and key performance indicators that could be used to measure if the objectives were being met. You need only set a maximum of 5 but a minimum of 3 objectives. These can be presented in either a report or tabular format Part of your analysis should focus on what competencies and resources are required, what competition exists, what organisation changes are required or forced, what is the demand?

NB In your submission you must include any documentation that supports your analysis in parts 1 &2

Part 3

What DMU could do on its website to address issues such as culture and trust and how it could use on line communication tools to reach out to its potential target audience.   

The operational activities and the functionalities which are furnished by utilizing the online mechanisms and tools and this can be considered as the process of e-commerce. Rapid developments have been observed in the concept of e-commerce and also most of the multinational corporations are getting associated with this concept for making accomplishments of the organizational goals and objectives (Dmu 2017). The below-furnished report has been summarized on De Montfort University and SWOT analysis has been executed for planning and strategizing the diversification in services.

Educational service offered, has been considered as the primary services of the university. UG and PG level and the other online programs offered can also be considered as the products and the service s of De Montfort University. The association has been providing educational services to the students all over the globe.

The available resources with the business corporation have been considered as the most empirical components in the success and growth (Laudon and Traver, 2013). The below described are the resources available the De Montfort University.

Tangible resources: The infrastructure, office and university premises, the furniture, the equipment’s and the technology and the apparatus used in the laboratory, the workforce, the faculties, the staff members and the other employees working in the university and also the students are considered as the human resource are the tangible resources available with the business corporation (Chaffey, 2015).

Intangible resources: Goodwill, patents and the copyrights are some of the intangible resources. Moreover, the financial resources are also included and considered as the intangible resource.

The above-furnished analysis has been focused on De Montfort University which is an Australian educational service provider. The analysis has been segmented into various parts which include the current service offered by the business organization to the students that are the courses and the online programs served by the university. The further explanation has been presented for the available resources with the business organization. And the last part of the business entity has been summarized on the SWOT analysis which should be developed so as to aid the business organization in planning and strategizing for future. The SWOT analysis enables the business corporation in determining the weakness and threats. Getting aware of the issues will enable the entity to make provisions and plans for the same. Moreover, identification of strength and opportunities will also be done which will allow the business organization to plan for further developments and growth. The below mentioned are some of the recommendations which can be implemented in the organizational structure:

• Modern and contemporary methodologies should be implemented for providing the services to the users, for instance, the classrooms should be modified to the digital one.
• The faculty should be provided with the advanced training sessions and enhancement in their skills and capabilities should be done in order to increase their efficiency.

Competitive rivalry: De Montfort University has been confronting an extraordinary level of rivalry from other universities in the area.

Supplier power: Providing the required things which are utilized in offering services and operating activities, for example, the gears and mechanical apparatus utilized in the laboratories, the stationary and the other requirements (Niranjanamurthyet al., 2013). The supply of these things ought to be smooth in order to work legitimately and for this great relations are required to be working with the suppliers.

Buyer’s power: The service users are the students and they have the power to stimulate the operations within the organization. So the university is required to develop some offers and schemes to satisfy the service users.

Threats of substitutions: The online programs and the courses offered by the private institutions can be considered as the substitutes which will be come-up as a threat.

The threat of new entrants: The new organizations can develop issues for the university and for that the business entity should have a provision.

• Developments in separate segments and web pages for solving the queries of the students.
• Special options can be offered so as to enhance the experience of accessing the web-portal (Sultanow, Chircu, and Chircu, 2016).
• Societal and cultural content can be proven helpful in stimulating the students from other regions and religion.

Reaching potential target

• Considering the religions and culture of the students who are from other provinces can be proven beneficial for the business entity as more crowd will be influenced by using this strategy (Boone and Kurtz, 2013).
• Designing and developing the content of the web-pages in the languages which are familiar to the students will offer them an ease in understanding the process and required formalities (Gangeshwer, 2013).

In the limelight of the above-executed analysis, it has been concluded that E-business and E-commerce are the two concepts which are broadly used by De Montfort University. The further focus of the report has been made focusing on the De Montfort University and the business operations which are executed by utilizing E-business and E-commerce.

Boone, L.E. and Kurtz, D.L., 2013. Contemporary marketing. Cengage learning. 

Chaffey, D., 2015. Digital business and E-commerce management. Pearson Education Limited.

Dmu, 2017, De Montfort university, Assessed on 28^th August 2017, https://www.dmu.ac.uk/home.aspx.

Gangeshwer, D.K., 2013. E-commerce or Internet Marketing: A business Review from Indian context. International Journal of u-and e-Service, Science and Technology, 6(6), pp.187-194.

Gangeshwer, D.K., 2013. E-commerce or Internet Marketing: A business Review from Indian context. International Journal of u-and e-Service, Science and Technology, 6(6), pp.187-194.

Laudon, K.C. and Traver, C.G., 2013. E-commerce. Pearson.

Niranjanamurthy, M., Kavyashree, N., Jagannath, S. and Chahar, D., 2013. Analysis of e-commerce and m-commerce: advantages, limitations and security issues. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer and Communication Engineering, 2(6).

Sultanow, E., Chircu, A. and Chircu, F., 2016. E-commerce Adoption: A Revelatory Case Study in the German Oncology Pharmaceutical Supply Chain. In Proceedings of the Conference on Information Systems Applied Research ISSN (Vol. 2167, p. 1508).