Worlducation Case Study Based Assessment

Background information

Worlducation is a social startup that manufactures tablet computers for primary school students. They not only focus on the hardware, but they also have a competitive team creating software, content and activities to better engage and educate the students.

Worlducation aims to change the way children learn at school by implementing artificial intelligence technology that can follow up on each child’s progress and adjust to their needs as they learn, creating the optimal path learning experience.

So far, Worlducation only sells their tablet computers business to business (B2B) as they realised that their content and hardware proved most effective when a whole classroom was using it, and a teacher was coordinating the activities. Also, this helped the sales team focus on larger sales, and minimised the potential number of problems that could arise from individual customers. However, the long-term plan is to also tackle a business to consumer strategy (B2C).

What makes Worlducation completely different from their competition is that they envision a world in which every child learns how to read and write – a world without illiteracy. Given this vision, for every classroom that buys their products, they donate and train a classroom somewhere around the world that can’t afford the same technology. Furthermore, they connect the two classrooms (those who bought the products and services and those who received the donation) so that they can grow together and collaborate throughout their learning cycle.

Worlducation was founded in 2016, and by the end of 2019 they had sold over 35,000 tablets to over 550 schools in 23 countries, generating revenue in hardware sales and software subscriptions.

Worlducation headquarters are in Sydney’s CBD but they have a development team in Bulgaria, a manufacturing team in Hong Kong, and operation and marketing staff in Colombia, Egypt, Iceland, Russia and the Philippines.

Worldcation has a complex supply chain that begins when a sale is made usually via a sales representative or through and online enquiry that is handled by the sales team. Sales are recorded in an internal Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP System) which notifies the operations team that an order needs to be delivered. The operations team verify the sales order and authorise the delivery of a manufacturing request to the factory in Hong Kong.

Manufacturing team in Hong Kong notes the order specifications and delivery details and incorporates this within its production schedule. The order is manufactured and the operations team arrange freight and shipping directly to the customer.

Information specific to this project

At a recent board meeting, the Board of directors approved the development of a cloud-based solution where customers can access the software remotely on their own devices.

The CEO asked every manager to create an operational plan to implement this model in their department.

The Sales manager has decided to address the objectives “increase sales to increase donations to needy classrooms” and “strengthen the skills of our people, to better support customers”.

Activities that need to be implemented that relate to the first objective include:

• Activity 1: Create an online advert for the new product (quoted price of $25,000)
• Activity 2: Arrange a live demonstration for existing customers
• Activity 3: Create rewards program to reward school based on number of downloads Activities related to the second objective include:

1. Train sales staff to use new product
2.  Organise school visits
3.  Sponsorship program to develop personal relationships between less fortunate children and sales staff

A dedicated new in-house trainer will be required to provide training on the new product to staff and clients and an advertising consultant is needed to create a multi-media advert.