For this case study, assume you are BeeKeep Supplies new CIO (Chief Information Officer).

From an IT point of view, you need to:

1. Decompose the following data re Beekeep Supplies into SWOT categories (as described in workshops)

1. Assign each item to a segment of Porter's Value Chain Model

1. Assign each Weakness and Threat to a segment of Porter's Competitive Forces Model

1. Assign each Strength or Opportunity to a segment of Ansoff's Matrix

1. Identify how each Weakness and Threat may be addressed by a Strength or Opportunity.

Beekeep Supplies

BeeKeep Supplies is a national company supplying bee keeping equipment to commercial and hobbyist apiarists (bee keepers). BeeKeep Supplies began as a family run business in the late 1970's and has grown to the national prominence it has today. It has stores, each with their own workshop and warehouse, in 30 regional cities where it deems it market is.Customers are serviced through those stores and it has moved cautiously into mail delivered products where it considers about 10% of its trade is now derived from. BeeKeep Supplies will take telephone and mail orders from known customers otherwise goods need to be purchased in store. This is done as BeeKeep believes that as the major supplier of beekeeping equipment it is responsible for how its products are used and supports the effort to improve biosecurity in the beekeeping industry.

BeeKeep prides itself not only on the products it sells but on the fact that it is the "Friendly" BeeKeep supplier, knowing their customers' demands and as a source of knowledge and information to the local bee keeping fraternity.

The current Managing Director of the company is John Beare. He took over the company then known as Beare and Son Ltd. on the death of his Father, Philip Beare, some 35 years previously.John, as part of the succession planning for the company, recently announced his retirement naming the new CEO and COO of the company, his daughter Pippa Beare and her younger brother Arthur Beare respectively.

Both Pippa and Arthur have extensive knowledge of their bee keeping business and of beekeeping in general with Pippa also having gained recent experience working overseas in the organic foods area.

The leadership succession of the family owned company has proved to be an excellent opportunity for the company to reorganise its trading operations.Also, their current operating model has recently been significantly disrupted, with store closures and other business impacts brought about by Covid-19 quarantine restrictions.

The company has significant financial assets tied up in the 30 regional stores that they own. Pippa and Arthur have decided that due to the ever increasing public interest in beekeeping that, as a company, they want to open several new metropolitan stores across Australia. These stores will be retail only and be leased rather than owned. On top of their current apiary supplies, the new look Beekeep Supplies will be expanding their business to the retail sale of Organic Honey and other bee products such as beeswax balms, pollen and propolis products. This new product range will be marketed under the new "BeePure Organics" brand. This transition they hope will make BeeKeep Supplies and BeePure Organics household names, known nationally for high quality organic goods attractive to the environmentally conscious younger generation. They also wish to make these new stores a focal point of local beekeeping fraternity offering educational apiary services etc. Part of the planned reorganisation is the centralisation of their workshops to one per state with an associated single central warehouse servicing all their retail stores and all of their online commercial and retail customers, using post and courier companies to handle the short and long distance freight.

Pippa and Arthur are aware of the heavy competition they face from online only companies like BeeBest Supplies, who have increasingly gaining a larger part of the market since they started operating in BeeKeep's trading territory some 2 years ago.

BeeBest Supplies, like much of BeeKeep's competition, operates a mail only service and considerably and continually undercuts BeeKeep on prices of its goods. It offers little or no advice to customers and just sells apiarist products through an online selling portal which are shipped via mail or courier.

The potential for large price variances in the bee keeping products that both companies sell does not exist and consequently it is the cost of servicing and delivering the product that allows BeeBest to undercut BeeKeep in the market.

To assist in the transition from a regional only company to a national "High Street" brand, both Pippa and Arthur are aware that they business will need to be modernised so that the logistics and online sales are all handled electronically. They are looking to invest heavily in new and innovative IT systems to assist in the transition and operation of their new business model. They are also aware that their new business model will need to be as sustainable as possible considering potential on going disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

They have hired a new CIO to assist in the planning, roll out and later, the operations of the new look company.