Red Energy Profile
Discuss about the Information Strategy of Red Energy for Snowy Hydro.
Red Energy is an energy provider business and Snowy Hydro owns the business completely. Snowy Hydro is a company that is involved in generation of electricity and retailing. Snowy Hydro is owned by the Federal government of Australia and hence, Red Energy is also an Australian business. Red Energy is business which is growing rapidly and had found a major place in Australian environment (Red Energy, 2018). The IT/IS related to Red Energy is discussed in this report to analyze their impact in the organization’s business. The report majorly focuses on IS/IT strategy of Red Energy to evaluate the business to identify the evolution, recent scenario, challenges and result of IS/IT strategy. This will help to understand the impact of IS/IT strategy of Red Energy for their business. The purpose of this report is to analyze and evaluate IS strategy of Australian business, Red Energy through various aspects discussed in this report.
The outline of this report is Red Energy profile, evolution of IT/IS strategy, MIS for managing and controlling organization system, recent scenario of IS/IT and major challenges. The inclusion in this report are role of IT/IS strategy in contemporary environment, formulation and execution of IT.IS strategy and result of the strategy and major contributors.
Red Energy launched in the market in the year 2004 under Snowy Hydro Limited, an electricity generation company, owned by the Federal Government of Australia. Red energy is a retail industry that provides electricity and gas both to small business and residential customers. Red Energy provides electricity in Victoria, South Australia, some parts of Queensland and New South Wales (Red Energy, 2018). Red Energy provides gas in Victoria and New South Wales. The strategy of Red Energy to generate sales is through telemarketing which is performed by the staff of Red Energy. Red Energy remunerate their telemarketing employees by basic salary and commission on the basis of sales generated. Red Energy is continuously growing in the current market and has shown strong capabilities to evolve in future. The company uses advanced technologies to improve their business and its operations. Red Energy has highly skilled workforce that contribute in generation of sales to sell electricity and gas to large section of people in Australia.
The evolution of IT/IS strategy in Red Energy has evolved in the current scenario and customers are satisfied with the evolution. The evolution has been driven from long due to growing requirement of customers. The evolution of IT/IS strategy in the organization includes different technologies, systems, suppliers, existing and current new energy sources (Hughes & Urpelainen, 2015). The evolution of IT/IS strategy has boost the organization and has transformed the business of the organization. The transformation of Red Energy company due to evolution of IT/IS strategy are as follows. The technology advances where storage technologies are the most important technology in the organization which stores the electrical energy and gas in a bulk amount (Cludius, Forrest & MacGill, 2014). This is done to minimize the risk of exhaustion of electricity energy and gas energy. The reduction in emission of harmful gases is the next IT/IS strategy for Red Energy. This reduction in emission of harmful gases provide decrease in global temperature and thus clean global environment is accomplished. This is done due to emission of harmful gases from electricity generation that decreases the quality of air. The globalization has been evolved and it has resulted in competition on International level (Pusnik et al., 2015). This results in major competitions that creates both challenges and opportunities for Red Energy organization.
Evolution of IT/IS strategy
The globalization through advanced technologies has also evolved the organization to grow globally and to reach the large section of people (Xie, Hong & Stroud, 2015). The demographic changes has led to rising demands for electrical energy and gas energy in the organization. This has evolved over the years in Red Energy organization to improve the living standards of small businesses and residential purposes (Brun, Combes & Kéré, 2016). This has changed the organization in a way that it can now accommodate changes related to demographic. The increased customer and engagement of community has been evolved through use of systems such as rooftop solar and wind farms (Chester, 2015). This results in improved efficiency and productivity of energy to suit the changing in customer expectations. Therefore, evolution of IT/IS strategy helps to drive Red Energy organization.
The management information system used for managing and controlling the system of Red Energy business is Energy Management Information System (EMIS). This is used to make visibility of energy performance to organizations at various levels. This system helps to manage and control organization system by providing ability to individuals and each departments to make decisions, plan and take proper action for managing energy (Azad et al., 2014). This helps to improve the productivity of energy performance, electricity and gas, by monitoring the energy performance and sustenance of energy for longer time. The Energy Management Information System supports various processes of businesses in Red Energy. They are management of people and procedures, data analysis and reporting, data capture and integration, metering and inputs and energy account centers management. The Energy Management Information System consists of three phases, EMIS audit, EMIS implementation plan and EMIS implementation (Hua, Oliphant & Hu, 2016). EMIS audit helps to assess present management practices of Red Energy organization.
EMIS audit also helps to measure energy for developing business case and scope for EMIS in Red Energy organization. EMIS implementation plan helps to provide details of project scope, accurate costs to implement and required resources by Red Energy organization for management of Energy Management Information System. EMIS implementation plan also provides timeline for to manage the schedule of implementation (Fan, MacGill & Sproul, 2015). EMIS implementation helps to provide spanning of procurement and installation of EMIS. This phase is achieved after the completion of EMIS audit and EMIS implementation plan. Energy Management Information System helps to gather information related to energy consumption and valuable output derived from energy consumption (Wu et al., 2015). The other benefits are analysis of energy consumption to build, develop and display reports on energy performance.
Management Information System for managing and controlling organization system
The recent scenario of IS/IT for Red Energy was misleading customers in telemarketing sales calls. The scenarios is described as misinterpretations made by telemarketer of Red Energy. The telemarketer of Red Energy made misinterpretations and misleading conduct while unsolicited calling to a customer. According to Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), (2013), the false claims made by telemarketer that he was calling to the customer regarding energy bill of the customer. In addition to this, the telemarketer also falsely claim that he was selling anything to the customer on call. Thus the misleading representation was reported to Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, and they took quick action against the misleading representation under Australian Consumer Law. Finally, Red Energy was forced to publish a notice regarding the scenario and fined with a hefty amount of $26,400 for false telemarketing. Red Energy was also forced to provide payment for customer rectification, who were affected from the false telemarketing. This was the major blow to Red Energy and they were fined for hefty amount and this scenario was dragged to the court. Thus, this scenario shows that Red Energy has sales generation through telemarketing and improper handling of this type of situations causes major penalty for the organization. Proper steps should be taken to minimize the risks of frauds and misleading related to telemarketing in Red Energy.
The prior section described the identification of IS, its evolution, management of organization system and current scenarios. This shows that Red Energy is a growing company and it has evolved in the recent scenario with use of advanced technologies. However, Red Energy organization has challenges related to it and they are given as follows.
- Climatic change-The climatic challenge is the major challenge in Red Energy organization. This is because electricity is basically comprised of carbon emissions and this emission has decreased the air quality. The climatic changes affect the generation of electricity as it requires massive emission of harmful gases (Gelenbe & Caseau, 2015). There are existing technologies such as electric motors, solar powered heaters and others that has empowered generation of electricity and gas. The increasing temperature and unreasonable weather events will affect production of energy, electricity and gas. However, these technologies too comes with some challenges and these technologies are competitive.
- Technology changes-The technologies changing in current scenario and in future scenario will pose a big threat in Red Energy. This is due to concerns regarding issues related to technology licensing and technological change results in restructuring of electric requirements (Huenteler et al., 2016). The technology changes comes with cyber security which may be familiar to the Red Energy organization or may not. The cyber security poses various challenges if technology change is not managed and maintained properly (Baker, 2015). The technology changes poses challenges that can affect the business of Red Energy because adapting to technology change can result in acquiring knowledge of the new technologies.
- Massive urbanization-The massive urbanization in developing countries is seen as a major challenge. This is because the growth rates of urban has reached to an unprecedented levels and there is huge demand of electricity and gas energy for every single residential and small business buildings (Sodenkamp, Kozlovskiy & Staake, 2015). Thus, people are using energy rigorously for their use or for other usage and thus this has generated massive amount of pollution in the environment. This threat is human generated as huge demands of people for energy requirements are increasing day by day. The urbanization will make difficult for Red Energy organization to provide valuable services to the customers.
The role of IT/IS strategy in contemporary environment impacts Red Energy organization in various ways and they are given as follows.
- Setting Direction for organization-The role of IT/IS strategy is that it helps to set directions for organization as it helps to develop effective goals and objectives for the system (Pasqual et al., 2016). This helps organization to make proper decision for the functioning of the organization which will help the organization to make efficient decision.
- Concentration for effort-The concentration for effort helps to prioritize the resources and this helps to develop valuable decisions which will lead to various outcomes (Okoro & Chikuni, 2017). A set of guidelines with clear focus helps organization to develop clear planning for future purposes.
- Understanding of areas of organization- The understanding of different areas of organization is important as it will help to evaluate the areas where IS/IT strategy is important (Gelenbe & Caseau, 2015). These areas will help to evaluate the different IS/IT strategy to fulfill the overall business operation of Red Energy organization.
- Understanding of external environment-The understanding of external environment helps to know the areas which impacts Red Energy organization positively and negatively. The external environment impacts the organization in different ways such as competitive nature of different companies (Team & Baffert, 2015). The other external environment impacts are related to external resources, suppliers, customers and others.
- Keeper, disseminator and seeker of information-The information and valuable feedback are stored and analyzed to understand the communities in Red Energy organization. This will help to develop communities within Red Energy organization.
- Action of springboard-The IT/IS strategy provides different platforms to introduce and develop new products and services (Brun, Combes & Kéré, 2016). This helps to support the base of Red Energy organization.
The IT/IS strategy formulation and execution impacts the industries in many ways and they are given as follows.
- Clarifying the strategy-The IS strategy is formulated and executed in ways through which the strategy can be clarified. The clarification will help to provide better understanding and presentation to the end users (Pfenninger, Hawkes & Keirstead, 2014). The understanding of strategy is useful in various ways. It helps to develop valuable goals and objectives for Red Energy organization. This will help to determine the organization nature and its direction for managing business.
- Communicating the strategy-The communication strategy comes after clarification and it is based on it. A strong communication helps to build a strong bond between Red Energy organization and its customers (Gibon et al., 2015). The communication helps to present any scenario whether big or small on a large scale. This helps to discuss strategy with focusing on each and every aspect of it.
- Cascading the strategy-The cascading of strategy is done through various practical and tactical aspects of organization and this helps Red Energy organization to improve their business. The functional areas of Red Energy organization is analyzed to be cascaded for better improvement (Abanda & Byers, 2016). The team meetings, customer meetings and responses to the market are the ways through which cascading of strategy is done in Red Energy organization.
The result of IT strategy for Red Energy organization is that there is huge impact of IT in improving business performance of Red Energy. The IT strategy has provided benefits such as high production and generation of electricity and gas satisfy the need of larger community (Zhou & Yang, 2016). Red Energy organization has evolved through the years due to use of IT strategy. The trends that determine the business performance of Red Energy organization are changing patterns of energy consumption, new and improved ways of assets optimization, industrial platforms used satisfactorily and partnership in terms of cross-industry (Wu et al., 2015). The technologies are not limited to physical component, they are also online to provide better opportunity to utilize the online world to better the business performance. It will help to pay bills electronically and without any hassle. However, there are challenges such as technology failure, but with proper strategies these challenges can be mitigated. The major contributor of Red Energy is Snowy Hydro Limited which is also its parent company. The Snowy Hydro Company fully owns Red Energy.
Recent scenario of IS/IT for organization
Conclusion
Thus, Red Energy organization is a growing company which will be impacted with the use of IT/IS strategy. The report discusses the Red Energy organization and it is analyzed through various aspects. The report majorly focuses on IT strategy for Red Energy organization which is fully owned by Snowy Hydro Limited. The evolution of IT in the organization has impacted its business performance and generation of electricity and gas energy. The recent scenario discusses negative impact that Red Energy organization faced due to misleading done by its employee. Despite, the major blow due to false misleading Red Energy emerged as a successful energy retailer in Australia. There are challenges related to Red Energy organization which can be mitigated through possible strategies provided in the report. Therefore, from above discussions it can be concluded that although Red Energy organization is evolving through the use of IT strategy, there are still opportunities to use. This opportunities will help red Energy organization to grow economically as well as environmentally.
The above conclusion shows that there is need of possible strategies of energy industry and the recommendations are given as follows.
- Energy awareness- The energy awareness is necessary to aware people about its efficiency, usage and consumption as it will help to conserve energy and boost the organization’s performance.
- Facility monitoring-The facilitation of monitoring IT and systems in the organization to improve the processes of electricity and gas generation. This will help to provide efficient and effective energy to the customers.
- Energy Efficiency-The energy efficiency will help to identify and assess real time analysis of energy generation that will result in corporate objective, satisfaction of customer demands and energy expenditures.
- Controlling production- The production and generation of electricity and gas should be limited as it will help to improve the business performance of the organization. This is helpful in providing various better energy without compromising the environmental factors.
- Energy Optimization- The management and optimization of energy is necessary to simulate and analyze the energy for improved energy generation that will benefit the organization economically.
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