Executive Summary
This paper seeks to discuss Uber’s information systems concerning the context of the Australia including a view on the organization structure, value chain, competitors and efficiency measures. Uber, an international gig economy company that supports ride-hailing and delivery businesses, has dedicated high dependence on information systems that support efficiency and competitive advantage. This report presents Uber’s current systems, the opportunities and threats in its information systems environment, and recommendations for change through the adoption of IT.
Competitive factors affecting Uber are defined using the value chain and Porter’s Five Forces model analysis in the report. Further, the report also looks at issues of compliance and business functioning as it relates to Uber’s business in Australia – issues that include compliance, data privacy and issues of drivers. Some suggestions include more advanced artificial intelligence in data protection, regional models of compliance, and better ways of interacting with drivers. It is for these reasons and much more that these recommendations are deemed crucial for Uber’s profitable growth and dominance in the Australian market.
Uber started in 2009 and quickly became an innovator in the supply of transportation by making it much easier for drivers to find riders and vice versa at a convenient and ultramodern level. Uber was one of sample apps in ride hailing and increased its operations worldwide to over 900 cities. Apart from their primary service, Uber Eats, Uber Freight, and other Uber services all use the same technology as Uber’s core service in response to customer demand (Dudley et al., 2017).
This paper explores the context in which Uber Australia operates, and the factors such as intense competition, strict regulatory framework, and various buyer needs. Uber’s presence in Australia is anchored on sound information system architecture to support real-time transactions, dynamic pricing, and proper assignment of drivers. But in the same respect, Uber has similar issues of operation within the country as the regulatory compliance issues, issue with retaining drivers and security of data. This paper looks at Uber in relation to these questions by examining the organizational environment, information systems, and strategies it has adopted in response to market forces in Australia. In this context, the Dow’s strategic analysis takes into account Porter’s Five Forces, as well as value-chain tools to evaluate Uber’s competitive advantage, the company’s strong and weak points.
Uber operates in the context of an Internet platform that connects supply and demand in real-time involving drivers and riders. It adopts a decentralized structure of management where managers in different countries are fully responsible for business locally, making sure that all plans in regard to Uber are in compliance with the laws and conditions of the given country. Such structure is crucial to Australia since the legislation varies by state affecting uber services and driver conditions of employment.
The organizational culture of Uber can be described as innovative and customer-oriented and based on the use of the latest analytical data. It values flexibility, adaptability and quick decision making as a prerequisite that helps run successfully within the ride hailing environment(Šepeľová et al., 2021). The legal structure of operation in Australia poses somewhat of a challenge to Uber because the company has to deal with number of state laws related to classification of car owner/drivers, safety and privacy of data. Also, the form of relationship that Uber has with its drivers who are classified to be independent contractors poses some challenges in terms of maintaining a coherent quality service delivery as well as satisfying the drivers.
Primary and Supporting Activities
Uber’s operations are mainly in transportation and delivery services; ride hailing, delivery of foods through Uber Eats and transportation of freight through Uber Freight. All these are employed with the use of Uber’s fundamental technological framework that enables efficient communication between the supply and demand sides, proper matching and operation and optimization of a real-time pricing scheme. In Australia, supporting activities for the core services of Uber involve customer relations, technology advancement, and sourcing and retention of drivers (Lord et al., 2022).
Other logistic support services include information technology infrastructure for maintaining service standards such as customer support and sourcing of human resources. The Australian market is quite saturated, and consumers are quite picky, which is why the company needs a reliable support system. Real-time analytics, data management or processing and a variety of machine learning algorithms power Uber’s information systems that are critical for cutting costs, increasing efficiency and creating a competitive advantage.