Logistics Management
Under this report, British Petroleum’s logistic management strategies will be covered and along with this, their strategies’ effectiveness will also be covered with the view to attain the competitive advantage in the international petroleum market. Under this report, relationship between the e-business and the e-commerce will be discussed and along with this, benefits attained from the recent developments and the innovations made in the e-commerce will be discussed.
Introduction of Organization
British Petroleum is a multinational company engaged in the production and the distribution of oil and gas across the global market. British Petroleum’s logistic management involves the activities of managing their goods and services in such a manner under which all their local as well as international clients’ demand could be fulfilled. BP P.L.C distributes its products amongst the 72 countries across the globe and their average production of oil is near to 3.3 million barrels. Logistics and supply chain management process involves the supply, control and manage of the raw materials to be used by one company and the transfer of those materials to the other business enterprise for making the finished goods. With the effective logistic management process, organization will be able to compete in the dynamic business environment easily.
Logistic management is the component of supply chain management and it includes the plans, methods and the implementation techniques for improving the flow of goods and the services. It also maintains the flow of information from the origin to the consumption point in order to enhance the customer satisfaction level.
Supply chain management is the process of the delivering the raw materials, information, products, and services to other business organizations for making the finished goods, to customers for the consumption purpose. British Petroleum is involved in both the processes i.e. upstream as well downstream activities of business. Logistics and supply chain management process includes various departments such as marketing, production and distribution. Under this process, customer’s demands needs to be fulfilled on priority basis because they plays crucial role in the success of the organization. As British Petroleum is involved in both upstream as well as downstream activities, they will be counted in the B2B type of business organizations. This is because they do not directly deal with the customers, they supply oil and gas products to distributors and wholesalers and then they distribute the same to the customers (Ahi & Searcy, 2013).
British Petroleum is engaged in the distribution of oil and gas products through offline mediums but with the introduction of the online mediums, organization will be able to enhance their revenues through selling their products with an extra channel. Today, online shopping is more preferred as comparing with the offline shopping modes because it allows the customers to purchase as per their requirements as well as it has various other benefits such as effective return facilities, etc. British Petroleum could be able to take orders for the supply of oil and gas through e-commerce mediums and along with this, it also enhances the expansion opportunities for the organization (Fawcett, et. al., 2011).
Efficiency of Logistics Management
E-commerce and e-business are the terms used to describe the trading activities over the internet. These are new terms which are used for enhancing the efficiency of the logistics management proves. Apart from this, supply chain management and the customer relationship management also gets improved with the help of advanced techniques of trading. Recent developments and innovations made in the e-business term have enhanced its efficiency as well as effectiveness. Following are some of the innovations made in the e-business activities through which British Petroleum could enhance its revenues as well as its expansion opportunities in the other countries across the globe
Generally, distribution network of business enterprise is known as the supply chain management process but both processes are quite different from each other. The main motive of distribution network is to deliver the products and the services manufactured by the organization to the customers for fulfilling their needs. While supply chain management’s main motive is to perform all the activities of the distribution network and along with this, this also consist the development of customer relationship management for retaining the customers for long run (Balocco, Perego & Perotti, 2010).
E-commerce
E-commerce is a term used to denote the purchase and sale transactions done on the internet platform. There are many other activities which are executed under the term e-commerce such as mobile commerce, instant money transfer, internet banking activities, etc. Online Shopping websites are the part of e-commerce industry.
E-business is the activity of purchasing and selling over the internet platforms. Any kind of trading activity executed over the internet platform will be counted as the e-business activity. In traditional times, people used to go to the markets for purchasing and selling the products as per their needs. While today, these activities can be performed over the small wireless device without devoting much time to go to the markets especially.
Digital mediums have developed their separate image in the business environment effectively and with the effect to this, various companies have adopted this strategy with the view to expand their business in the domestic as well as in international markets. With the introduction of digital mediums of trading, market share of the physical market have been reduced rapidly. Offline markets have also adopted the medium of e-commerce trading activities in order to attain their goals and the objectives.
Concepts of e-marketing are quite unique and every organization needs to perform their activities in an appropriate manner with regards to the e-commerce activities in order to attain its objectives in the same field. Disruptive use of these concepts could result in barriers for the organization. E-marketing and internet marketing are two different sides of a coin. E-marketing concept is a broader concept whereas internet marketing includes spreading awareness regarding the organization’s products through websites, email, wireless media, etc. While e-marketing activities includes a broad concept under which all the activities of internet marketing are included and along with these activities, major concept i.e. customer relationship management system is also being included. With the help of these concepts, British Petroleum will be able to commence its trading activities through e-commerce mediums which will lead them for attaining their goals and the objectives.
Relationship between E-Business and E-Commerce
E-commerce is the activity which defines the delivery of information, products, and services to the consumers over the telephone, internet mediums, etc. with the motive of earning certain amount of profits. E-business is a broader term than e-commerce because it also consist the activities of providing after sale services to the consumers along with the buying and the selling activities. E-business activities majorly performed for developing and for maintaining the customer relationship management (Christopher, 2016).
- Multichannel Approach: In traditional times, trading activities were used to be conducted through offline sources only i.e. selling and buying of products in the physical markets. Consumers were used to go in the markets for purchasing and consuming the products and services as per their needs and requirements. But after introduction of the e-business and e-commerce, opportunities for expansion have been increased rapidly.
- Mobile Commerce: It leads to the enhancement of the portable devices and the internet facilities in those devices. Mobile phone, tablets, laptop, are some of the examples for mobile commerce devices. Mobile internet users have also been increased with the increase in the mobile commerce. With the effect to this, various organizations have doubled their revenues through selling their products and services on both the platforms i.e. online as well as offline. Usage of mobile phones, tablets has been increased in the last years and these are the major sources through which online orders are being placed. In order to attain the growth and benefit of these devices, British Petroleum needs to launch their websites and appropriate digital media tools should be used in terms of promotion of the organizational websites and other e-business mediums (Gil, et. al., 2010).
- Data Driven and Personalization Marketing: This innovation is made on the basis of increasing and unique demands of the consumers. Under this strategy, consumers are asked to provide reviews and feedbacks in relation with the products and the services offered to them. On the basis of their reviews and feedbacks, organization develops or alters their existing products and services in order to fulfil their needs. This helps them to attain the highest level of satisfaction from the consumption of the products and the services. Along with the consumers, it builds up trust level amongst the consumers towards the company which helps the organization to survive effectively in the competitive and dynamic business environment. Under this strategy, customers are targeted and segmented on their requirements basis and then appropriate and effective products and designed and delivered to the consumers for the purpose of attaining the goals such as customer satisfaction, increase in the revenues, etc. (Lambert & Schwieterman, 2012).
Best practice is the standard performance which needs to be attained from the perception of attainment of organizational goals and the objectives. This practice is considered as the top performance and for every task; there will be a best practice. This also motivates the performers to attain to the level of the best practice.
British Petroleum is included in the business to business type of trading activities, they extracts the oil and gas from the core sources and then reforms them as the finished products. These are delivered to the consumers with the help of distributors and the wholesalers. In order to perform the activities, supplier relationship needs to be developed for providing the products to the consumers within the time as well as to fulfil their needs. Following are some of the benefits which could be attained from the implementation of strategies in e-business and e-commerce industries:
Maintaining good supply chain management relationship plays crucial role in attaining desired goals and the objectives for the organization. British Petroleum has the effective supply chain management techniques and strategies which are also organization’s strengths and it helps the organization to develop its separate image in the oil and gas industry (Leonard, 2012).
- Decreased Cost: For decreasing cost of the production, organization have various ways such as changing supplier, reducing profit margins, cutting unnecessary costs, etc. But all these techniques could generate negative results for the organization and in order to attain the effective results, targets set up by the management, organization needs to adopt the most adequate and effective strategies. For instance, British Petroleum moves towards the new supplier of workers and raw materials used for extraction purposes. This decision could generate positive as well as negative outcomes for the organization because it is not necessary that organization will get the same benefits as per the previous suppliers. Hence, it very necessary to enquire about the results and effectiveness before adopting strategy for enhancing the growth opportunities for the organization (Meng, 2012).
- Efficiency: British Petroleum will get adequate benefits from the adaptation of e-business activities. While to perform the activities of the e-business in an appropriate manner, organization needs to perform certain functionalities i.e. maintaining good and effective customer as well as suppler relationship. This will help them to generate positive outcomes which will enhance the chances of the growth and the opportunities in the international market.
- Reduce Price Changing: Adaptation of e-business and e-commerce activities will lead to the reduction in the prices of the products. This will lead to enhancement in the demand of the products at certain level. This is due to avoidance of the distributors and the suppliers from the process and customers will be able to get the products on priority basis. Apart from this, regular shifting of suppliers could also affect the demand of the products because it may affect the quality as well as the effectiveness of the products. Thus, appropriate decisions should be made while considering the effectiveness of the organization (Monczka, et. al., 2015).
Apart from this, organization could also attain various objectives and goals through effective supply chain management as well as through effective e-business activities. This will help them to attain their desired goals as well as it will also help them to gain competitive advantage in the international as well as oil and gas industry (Monteiro, Swatman & Tavares, 2013).
Conclusion
From the aforesaid information, it can be concluded that British Petroleum will get adequate and effective benefits from the adaptation of the e-business activities. It will help them to expand their trading activities as well as expansion opportunities in the international will also be increased. In order to conclude these things, supply chain management of the British Petroleum was discussed. Along with this, relationship between the e-business and the e-commerce was discussed for evaluating the benefits for the organization. In the last phase of the report, organizational best range of practices was covered.
References
Ahi, P., & Searcy, C., 2013, A comparative literature analysis of definitions for green and sustainable supply chain management, Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 52, pp. 329-341.
Balocco, R., Perego, A., & Perotti, S., 2010, B2b eMarketplaces: a classification framework to analyse business models and critical success factors, Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol. 110 (8), pp. 1117-1137.
Christopher, M., 2016, Logistics & supply chain management, Pearson UK.
Fawcett, S. E., Wallin, C., Allred, C., Fawcett, A. M., & Magnan, G. M., 2011, Information technology as an enabler of supply chain collaboration: a dynamic?capabilities perspective, Journal of Supply Chain Management, vol. 47 (1), pp. 38-59.
Gil, R., Gangopadhyay, D., Zhou, J., Gordon, S., & Nayak, S., 2010, U.S. Patent No. 7,761,319, Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Lambert, D. M., & Schwieterman, M. A., 2012, Supplier relationship management as a macro business process, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, vol. 17 (3), pp. 337-352.
Leonard, L. N., 2012, Attitude influencers in C2C e-commerce: Buying and selling, Journal of Computer Information Systems, vol. 52 (3), pp. 11-17.
Meng, X., 2012, The effect of relationship management on project performance in construction, International journal of project management, vol. 30 (2), pp. 188-198.
Monczka, R. M., Handfield, R. B., Giunipero, L. C., & Patterson, J. L., 2015, Purchasing and supply chain management, Cengage Learning.
Monteiro, J., Swatman, P. M., & Tavares, L. V. (Eds.)., 2013, Towards the Knowledge Society: ECommerce, EBusiness and EGovernment The Second IFIP Conference on E-Commerce, E-Business, E-Government (I3E 2002) October 7–9, 2002, Lisbon, Portugal (Vol. 105). Springer.
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