The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) was incepted in 1971 in UAE with a single aim of provision of fuel and energy. The main fuel supply at the time was crude oil. The company later upgraded in the 1980s and started marketing and supplying oil based energy products. The company has experienced constant growth over the years and has become one of the leading oil and lubricant vendor across the globe. The company has formed numerous partnerships with other similar enterprises and has also merged and acquired many companies in the energy industry. The company has got a strong management team that ensures smooth running of the organization’s business operations. ADNOC has more than ten subsidiaries in UAE and overseas working in gas and oil industry. The company is constantly expanding its services to meet the increasing demand of its products (ADNOC, 2014).
3.1 ADNOC Vision
ADNOC looks forward at being the most dependable provider of energy services across the globe (ADNOC, 2014).
3.2 ADNOC Mission
ADNOC has got the mission of providing value to their customers and their shareholders as well as caring for their workers. The company further looks forward at being socially responsible, showing high concern for the environment and in maintenance of high health and safety standard (ADNOC, 2014).
4. BUSINESS CASE ANALYSIS STRUCTURE
The business case will be analyzed through a process flow structure. The structure has four stages which help in problem definition and identification to solution identification and implementation. The first phase of the analysis involves defining and analyzing the problem. This also entails identification of problem causes, solution and the information systems required. The second phase involves development of alternative solutions. This is where the different solutions for the problems are weighed. The next phase involves selection of the best solution among the already established alternatives. The last phase entails implementation of the highlighted solution. The implementation phase is a detailed process that enables execution of the solution and integration with the organization’s operations. Figure 1 and 2 in the appendices indicates the process flow structure which is the most suitable model for information system problem resolution.
5. BUSINESS PROBLEM CASE ANALYSIS
Constant expansion of ADNOC’s operations increased the complexity of the company’s business activities. Management of the numerous tasks became a daunting task for ADNOC’s management. Confusion on which operations to pay attention to started arising. Allocation of resources was also another factor as the company had to come up with the most articulate way to allocate resources to the many departments. One of the areas that were hard hit by the problem was the sales and distribution department as well as the human resource department. Demand for an inclusive information technology (IT) approach in the management of the company’s operations was high. The organization’s IT department was under pressure as the systems available were not up to task and needed urgent upgrading and standardization. The IT department faced scores of challenges in an attempt to solve the underlying problems. Another problem was that the company did not have a well established IT team hence lacked effective and efficient IT services. Moreover, the company lacked qualified professionals who would use the information systems to conduct business operations.
According to Hebaichi (2012), the information systems operations for the company were assigned informally at random which eliminated accountability while at the same time reducing standardization. Under this scenario it was difficult for the management to establish control procedures to ensure that the processes were carried out in the required manner. To make the matters worse, the IT systems of the company were not aligned to its goals hence creating gaps in the realization of those goals. The main problem in the sales and distribution department was establishment of the sales and distribution trends which is crucial in determination of expected sales revenue. Distributions problems arose due to lack of customer knowledge hence limited scope in estimation of demand and supply in order to maintain adequate inventory. The company sought to implement a new Electronic Resource Planning (ERP) system that would articulate all operations and eliminate these problems. Data management was another problem that ADNOC was experiencing…