CASE STUDY –

MARKET DOJO
SYSTEMS, STRUCTURES AND OPERATIONS

KAVERI MADANA MOHAN

UWE STUDENT ID 21031034

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................2
KEY COMPONENTS OF THE INFORMATION SYSTEMS INFRASTRUCTURE THAT ADD VALUE
TO MARKET DOJO’S EXISTING BUSINESS STRATEGY...........................................................2
GUIDELINES FOR E-COMMERCE AND INVESTMENT............................................................3
DEMAND-SIDE PRODUCT SIGNALLING................................................................................6
PRODUCT CUSTOMISATION AND CURATION OF EXPERIENCE.............................................6
CUSTOMIZATION OF THE PRODUCT...................................................................................7
ENCOURAGING ORGANIC GROWTH THROUGH OF MD’S EXISTING BUSINESS OPERATIONS
THROUGH CROWDFUNDING..............................................................................................7
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE..........................................................................................9
KNOWLEGDGE MANGEMENT STRATEGY............................................................................9
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................10
INTRODUCTION
Market Dojo is a procurement software provider headquartered in the United Kingdom that
leverages new technologies such as cloud computing to assist businesses and individuals in
negotiating and trading with other individuals or businesses providing a variety of products or
services located throughout the world.

This study is divided into three parts. The first segment of this study will discuss the essential
component of Market Dojo's information system infrastructure that contributes value to its
current business strategy. The second section of the study will discuss how could Market
Dojo modernise its online platform by incorporating new e-commerce trends. Additionally,
this segment also discusses how Market Dojo can achieve organic growth in its current
business model by leveraging crowdfunding. The final section will provide an organisational
structure for transitioning from simplistic cost-driven solutions to complex, customer-centric
and relationship-based solutions which would aid MD in growing into a Bristol-based MNC.

KEY COMPONENTS OF THE INFORMATION SYSTEMS INFRASTRUCTURE

THAT ADD VALUE TO MARKET DOJO’S EXISTING BUSINESS STRATEGY. 
A thorough analysis of Market Dojo's existing business strategy shows that it’s greatly
supported by their information infrastructure.
Entering the e-auctions market as a commoditised software vendor and attempting to exploit
the niche they had identified in the market by offering a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model
that targeted the SME's and other smaller companies that couldn't afford the managed
auctions services was a rather smart decision because these smaller participants comprised a
large portion of the market. However, there were certain barriers for these market participants
especially with regards to Price, market experience and technical expertise, among many
other elements.
MD identified that if they could address these three issues, they would be able to access new
market opportunities in the e-auctions market. And subsequently, the key components that
MD envisaged in its information system infrastructure addressed these core challenges
effectively while opening the door to a whole new range of opportunities. Therefore the
company's Business strategy for using Software to improve the e-auction services offered to
companies or individuals to buy or sell services or commodities has enabled the company to
acquire several new clients and thereby enabling access to a bigger market share.
By the use of transparent pricing, MD has brought average purchasing professionals on board
by offering a much lower barrier to entry, in terms of cost. The search for a competitive
advantage for establishing a unique position for the company by giving users the freedom to
not make any payments before starting an auction; can also be seen as an essential element of
MD's business strategy to carry e-auction into the next stage of its development. These
components certainly contribute to the value of MD’s business strategy in terms of better
price competency. 
In addition, the aspect of professional processes allows the company to get the right solution
for its business, in particular by providing advice on the best practices and effective conducts
in the e-auction environment.
Market Dojo’s auction software was a very easy-to-use platform when compared to that of its
competitors. The software interface is user-friendly and rather simple for users to operate and
therefore eliminates the need for technical training. 
Moreover, the bidding process is centralised, and that makes it easier for the consumers to bid
resulting in a quicker and easier bidding experience. Therefore the usability element of MD’s
e-sourcing platform is another key component that adds significant value to the company’s
business strategy by becoming providing easy-to-use features for both the buyers and the
sellers/service providers involved in the auctioning process.
Market dojo also works on the improvement of its software processes such as category Dojo
that helps customers improve their business by using software to identify their business
needs. And this further adds value to their business strategy by being able to offer additional
options for companies and individuals to communicate with the relevant suppliers from
whom they can source the required products and services.
GUIDELINES FOR E-COMMERCE AND INVESTMENT
MODERNISING MARKET DOJO’S ONLINE PLATFORM TO STAY UP WITH
EMERGING E-COMMERCE TRENDS.                   
According to Senft, Gallegos, and Davis (2016), the world of information technology is
undergoing rapid change, with modern technologies supplanting older ones on a daily basis.
Market Dojo, being an information technology company that wishes to integrate e-auctions
into its business processes and compete with established businesses, is expected to modernize
the online e-commerce infrastructure through the adoption of the latest and newest
technologies. The use of modern technology would provide Market Dojo with a competitive
edge and also aids in the company's market share growth. These new technologies would also
significantly benefit market Dojo's request for proposal (RFP) and request for information
(RFI) processes. The innovations in information technology have had a significant impact on
the business world, resulting in companies embracing these inventions and developing
methods to succeed in this competitive world (Ramrathan and Sibanda, 2017).
While the use of technology has significantly improved the procurement process, there is a
high risk that new industry dynamics will emerge in the future, necessitating the
modernization of the online platform. When it comes to modernizing online platforms in
order to keep up with new industry developments, the "Process Technology" used must take
precedence. Process technology is concerned with the development and optimization of
modern production technologies for specific applications (Fraunhofer, 2019). This requires
MD to conduct a "Market Need Analysis" and an "operations resource assessment." This
enables MD to determine the effect of the process technologies on operations.
Since one of MD’s USPs is “easy to use”, the company can benefit from utilizing touch
commerce as it expands its operations. Therefore, the company has to focus on the quality,
speed, dependability, flexibility and cost when taking the online platform into consideration
(Business Minds, 2015). In order to do this, they must ensure that they excel in the 5 main e-
commerce trends. 
Innovation Dojo
With e-sourcing encouraging traders and clients to connect and work together literally from
across the globe, the growth and scope of the products and services offered by providers such
as MD are expanding every day. It also increases the significance of having a platform such
as the innovation dojo where both parties can collaborate and come up with new ideas of
collaboration. In order to aid this, MD can integrate buyer protection and supplier compliance
features such as proprietary payment methods and gateways that will ensure compliance from
both parties.
Market Dojo can modernize its online platform by incorporating the following emerging
trends in e-commerce.
TOUCH COMMERCE 
Market Dojo's structure must be modernized by developing touch commerce. Touch
commerce can aid market Dojo in promoting its e-auction offering and increasing consumer
loyalty. Touch commerce, according to Lee, Yang, and Johnson (2017), is a component of
advanced information technology that offers an interaction optimization solution that helps
all businesses improve consumer conversion.
Easiness of usage is one of the main USP’s of MD. And therefore, MD can profit from the
usage of touch-commerce while expanding its operations. The enterprise must also
concentrate on efficiency, pace, reliability, flexibility and costs while considering the online
platform (Business Minds, 2015). When MD expands its business further and leverages touch
commerce, the market for reliable, error-free goods and services is bound to increase, MD
thus needs to invest in facilitating features such as virtual demonstrations and augmented
reality to showcase features of products and services to potential clients. This will attract
more suppliers to come onboard on the MD platform and will add more value to MD’s
business strategy.
LOCATION-BASED COMMERCE
Market Dojo utilises location-based commerce, which stores internal information about
consumers such as their location and address; this information may also be utilised by
merchants to locate consumer locations and strategically place their offerings in the market.
Laudon and Traver (2016) characterised location-based commerce as an evolving information
technology that leverages mobile commerce and context-aware computing technologies to
concentrate on the localization of products and services. Thus, utilisation of the global
positioning system is significantly helpful in determining the location and managing the
supply chain in a smooth manner. It is often utilised by the customers for instant tracking,
reliable inventory control, and decision making.
MD can work on its automation options such as adding a location-based commerce feature to
refer nearby buyers to sellers or vice versa based on their location. This can also help in the
implementation of location-based offers and product specifications and customisations
relevant to a certain region or location. 
ONLINE TO OFFLINE INTEGRATION
Online to Offline integration is an emerging trend because it aids in significantly reducing the
procurement time by facilitating actions such as instant checkouts and virtual merchandising
etc. Online to offline integration is followed by Market Dojo and certainly extends the market
range of MD by attracting buyers or suppliers online to finalise their business agreement over
the internet even if their order needs to be executed offline. In this segment, MD should
invest in developing 2 of the following features for better user credibility in future.
1) A facility for Contract management - The clients whose orders need to be executed
offline, might encounter a lot of unforeseen challenges and problems until the order is
fulfilled completely and successfully. This feature comes as a part of compliance that the
suppliers and clients on the platform would follow after it has been agreed upon by both
parties. The contract set therefore can be used as a monitoring tool for MD to manage and
 assess the quality, customer satisfaction and history of business activities performed using
the MD suite, in order to rate the sellers which in turn will benefit both suppliers and
buyers in choosing the right people to collaborate with.

2) A facility for Supplier profile management  - It is also important for businesses as well
as private individuals to maintain a steady and smooth supply management system for an
easy and convenient sourcing experience and to build a long term business relationship
with their suppliers/service providers. All the activities required to update the details such
as supplier status, stock, recent transactions, product or service updates/upgrades can all
be automated and made easily available using various data visualisation tools and
dashboards. This considerably reduces the delay in initiating a purchase decision
especially in businesses that require ceratin vendor statistics as part of their procurement
procedures.
DEMAND-SIDE PRODUCT SIGNALLING 
Market Dojo will significantly profit from Demand Side Product Signalling because every
supplier who uses the MD suit will get to leverage in multiple ways from the cutting edge
data analytics that goes into implementing Demand Side Product Signalling in the MD
platform. This data can be used by the suppliers to predict future demand and plan new
products or services accordingly which can result in tremendous revenue savings in terms of
market research, product innovation, and prevent loss due to inaccurate demand forecast.
This could even serve as the basis of fundamental operations decisions such as increasing or
decreasing warehouse capacity, decide on logistics option etc. According to Warren-Myers
and Heywood (2016), demand-side product signalling aids in harmonising demand details so
that the product can be planned for the future. 
PRODUCT CUSTOMISATION AND CURATION OF EXPERIENCE
CUSTOMIZATION OF THE PRODUCT 
Customers are given the opportunity to personalise their product so they will get an
idea about how their ideas would look after they are applied. Further use of this
application allows consumers to personalise their item configuration according to
their individual needs. Despite the latest developments in the market (such as the
offering of laser engraving alternatives on Apple's online store and similar options
provided by other tech companies), personalised solutions have continued to be more
common because the customer wants products and services rendered quickly and in a
fully branded fashion. This will also provide users with the ability to use the MD
platform to source fully customised products or services. Moreover, so as to ensure
that retailers keep their confidential records, the app empowers them to configure
their own shop profiles whilst still retaining all the required data.
Curation of Experience
Curation of Experience is a viable choice in this age of increasing pricing
technologies. It allows consumers to make informed purchase selections and
alleviates the tension associated with shopping for goods and services. Market Dojo is
expected to incorporate experience curation into its operations in order to improve
them. According to Lupfer et al. (2015), businesses curate experiences for customers
depending on their specifications. Since Market Dojo aspires to be the market leader
in the online auction sector, It's a must-have feature for Market Dojo. Market Dojo
brings value to consumers by personalising customer experience according to the
demands of each customer procuring through MD’s online platform.
Many people are attracted to projects that earn attention, so it's not unusual for interested
investors to contribute sizable sums of money to back a venture. For instance, in the case of
MD, a direct and online customer investment from backers will lead to significant
development. Crowdfunding is the process by which a vast number of people contribute
limited sums of money to support a new business venture (Smith, 2020).

ENCOURAGING ORGANIC GROWTH THROUGH OF MD’S EXISTING

BUSINESS OPERATIONS THROUGH CROWDFUNDING
Crowdfunding will add a significant sum of capital to a business; Market Dojo will use this
money to invest in creativity and research and development techniques, eventually creating a
revolutionary product that meets the needs of the consumer. This, in particular, increases the
company's productivity, increases its revenue, broadens its client base, and therefore elevates
customer loyalty to a new degree. Additionally, through recessions, the majority of
businesses struggle to sustain their market share due to money evaporating. However,
crowdfunding can be utilised in that situation as well, assisting businesses such as Market
Dojo in achieving organic development while avoiding the challenges caused by the
recession. Additionally, Meyskens and Bird (2015) noted that there are several forms of
crowdfunding, such as reward-based crowdfunding, peer-to-peer financing, and equity
crowdfunding, among others, that organisations can use to achieve organic development.
The current Operations of Market Dojo are primarily focused on targeting specialised
markets by offering prospective consumers exceptional value for money at a reasonable
price. This particular niche segment, which the organization is attempting to penetrate, was
discovered after MD recognised the existence of a sizable market with unmet needs.
According to the case study, LinkedIn is apparently the biggest social networking platform.
Utilizing this forum to attract the appropriate prospective consumers to invest in MD would
result in a significant increase in long-term performance. As a result, the right crowdfunding
strategy that emphasises Market Dojo's unique selling points would undoubtedly fuel organic
development. Additionally, this would raise MD's profile and result in increased consumer
penetration, as well as long-term revenue opportunities and potential client base.
Additionally, it is critical to note that by crowdfunding, the business would gain professional
advice and suggestions on the product. This would also allow MD to analyse unmet demand
requirements that are consistent with current business operations, thus growing the likelihood
of new product growth. Expanding on the argument of unmet target consumer needs, MD
may use crowdfunding to gauge public response to the service. If there is ample proof that
buyers/suppliers are extremely involved in the commodity as a result of the MD's unique
selling propositions, this is a positive indication that the product would be a hit (Gorecki,
2020). Highlighting MD's Unique Selling Points and explaining how MD can bring options
to buyers/sellers is an absolutely positive way to build a potential revenue funnel. This would
also boost the average performance of the MD's activities. This is how crowdfunding will be
used to help Market Dojo's current company expand organically.

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
The organisation structure of the company, according to  (2017), defines the organization's
function and tasks by coordination and supervision. The organisational structure of a
company has an effect on its operations, and the majority of organisations are organised
accordingly in order to accomplish organisational objectives. There are several different
kinds of organisational structures, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages.
Market Dojo's organisational framework was determined by the organization's goal of being
cost efficient, and Market Dojo's structure was hierarchical in nature. The organisation in the
hierarchical form is divided into different levels, according to Lee, , Kozlenkovaand
Palmatier (2015).
MD's day-to-day activities would be inefficiently managed under the current operational
framework. Implementation of a new organisational structure would reorganise workflows,
significantly expand flexibility, and redefine organisational boundaries. Additionally, it must
support strategic expansion as MD expands towards new markets.
However, as Market Dojo decided to launch an e-commerce programme to provide its clients
with a reverse base e-auction service. It made the decision to shift its corporate focus from
cost-effectiveness to relationship-based solutions. In that case, a flat organisational structure
will meet the needs of Market Dojo, which is primarily concerned with consumer satisfaction
and it would also aid in knowledge management as discussed later in this study. The flat
structure, according to Lee and Yang (2011), is a type of structure that is ideally suited to
consumer relationship-oriented organisations. Since there are fewer levels of this system,
knowledge can better hit upper management, and lower-level employees who are directly in
touch with clients can easily communicate the expectations and requests of customers to
management. As a result, managers will make fast decisions and
KNOWLEGDGE MANGEMENT STRATEGY
address consumer issues. Market Dojo will use this framework to efficiently please their
customers and create an efficient relationship-based approach from their headquarters in
Bristol, allowing them to expand their global scope.
Given the Market Dojo's primary objective is customer satisfaction, it makes sense to collect
as much information and data as possible about user demands and specifications.
Implementing a  revised knowledge management system will benefit all employees and the
company at the same time. Additionally, If the company adopts a flat organisational structure,
there are no barriers or restrictions on access to the information, since this contributes to the
company's philosophy of collaboration and knowledge sharing. The final step toward
successfully controlling Market Dojo business knowledge is to store it using technology.
Market Dojo is an information technology organisation and that makes it easier to implement
a dependable storage and search system. Additionally, since the proposed flat organisational
structure enables everyone to access knowledge, it would be wise to implement it in MD's
corporate strategy. This way, the business will build customer loyalty and organic growth.
CONCLUSION
Market Dojo is an information technology firm that provides E-sourcing platform and a
variety of services including software creation, manufacturing, and consulting. Market Dojo
wishes to grow its market share and, in order to do so, a flat corporate framework is
advocated in order to develop relationships with customers, stay customer-oriented, and
extend the business globally or to become a multinational corporation with headquarters in
Bristol. The business is expected to integrate cutting-edge technology such as touch
commerce, location-based commerce, online-to-offline integration, demand-side integration,
and experience curation into its infrastructure in order to improve consumer loyalty and
capitalise on these advances. The organization's current hierarchical framework necessitates
the creation of a knowledge-management approach.
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