Abstract:
Sitting at her office, the CEO of Ideal Matunda Ms. Beth Mwangi was preparing for the next board meeting which was coming up the following week, 9th Thursday, September 2010. She was contemplating on issues she had discussed in meetings with the finance manager earlier that week and the operations manager that day. She needed to make a decision to present to the board, whether to invest in an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system or another production plant for refining oil. . The Operations Manager was passionately rooting for the oil refinery plant while the Finance Manager was convinced the ERP was the priority to improve on organizational operations and to manage costs. Having spent 4 years in the fruit business sub-sector, Ms. Mwangi looked back and realized she needed to move Ideal Matunda Ltd. to the next level. One option would be to diversify the business into refined avocado oils for local as well as international markets. The other would be to improve on operational efficiency of the company through the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The later would cut down costs, enhance its competitiveness and differentiate it from its competitors in the fruit sector. The company could not implement both options due to financial constraints. Ms. Mwangi wondered whether she should invest in another production system for refined oils to diversify, or in ICT to improve on operational efficiency.
Description:
A case study done on Ideal Matunda Ltd by Chege Gerald W. Assistant Professor of Information Systems & Machoka Phillip Gichaba Lecturer of Information Systems and Technology, school of Science and Technology in USIU – Africa.
