Estore at Shell Canada Limited

Some of the unique challenges usually faced by large organizations when embarking on innovative technology are the costs involved in developing the technology, bringing different organizational groups together, securing the technology through patents, integrating different departments during implementation, having a customer-friendly user interface, etc. In the case of shell the problems were more specific like the project cost, what platform to use, and language. Shell wanted to develop a web-based self-service for its agricultural customers. It was projected that Shell’s market share would increase by 2 per cent in that segment. But, initial cost estimates showed that developing such an application would be very expensive. Shell dealt with this problem by incorporating an application (eCATS) which was already in use. This helped in reducing the development costs considerably. The second issue that came up was regarding the platform to be used for developing this application. Shell already had a platform which was outdated. Shell’s IT vendor was in the process of introducing a new platform based on the latest technology. Shell Canada had already chosen the new platform for the development of eBusiness. It was finalized that the outdated platform would be used initially and the new platform would be introduced later on. The final product which came out was not as effective as it was perceived to be. There were several reasons for the product having such low popularity: Not customer friendly user interface No proper revalidation by marketing department in checking the successful orders through eStore Shell was unsuccessful in projecting eStore as a better product than other applications like telephone, EDI and