SWOT+Analysis

=SWOT Analysis= SWOT is the acronym of strength, weakness, opportunity and threat. It is an auditing tool to measure the internal and external environment of an organization. Below are the listing of each part and some are based on assumptions.

Strength

 * Offers services that are tailored to smaller and medium sized companies as well as individual because they are not in position to challenge the market leaders like Parcelforce and TNT.
 * Has their own fleet of vehicles for transportation of documents and this ensures efficiency because Hermes has full control of their shipments.
 * A numbering system that differentiates between ad-hoc and contract customers. For ad-hoc, number is assigned based on regional and customer information while contract customers are assigned based on driver details as stated in the contract.
 * Hermes recently bought a GIS system to help routing of shipments by drivers to reduce traveling time required to ship a document.

Weakness

 * Shipping of documents outside regional coverage maybe inefficient because Hermes employs small subcontractors to assist them and sometimes controlling power may lack leading to further delay in shipment.
 * Poor integration because Hermes grows by amalgamation of several regional companies leading to variance of system between regions.
 * Cancellation or requesting additional pickups is slow in reaching the depot team when contract customers makes the request.
 * Lack of technology investment because Hermes still uses a sticky label whereby customers are responsible to address the package personally and manually.
 * Information system lacks a vehicle maintenance facility and the vehicle fleet record facility lacks user-friendliness even after extensive training given to operational staffs.
 * Each region uses a different financial package standard making the compiling of report financial information difficult for the head office.

Opportunity

 * Due to current low interest rates, Hermes can try to enhance the usability of the custom designed integrated system running in Glasgow and install it in all regions as it covers all the core operations.
 * Hermes can try to tap into the individual customer market to expand their market share because population growth has been steadily increasing and is forecasted to be 4.4million in year 2016.
 * Hermes may want to reconsider conducting business online because UK citizens show good signs of e-commerce acceptability.
 * Hermes may decide to take advantage of RFID technology that is becoming popular in the logistics industry to replace the sticky label for all their shipments due to its advantages.
 * Since customers now can send documents through email with signature attached, Hermes may consider offering this service with improvements to ensure integrity like hardbound with proper formatting.

Threat

 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">UK’s GDP has contracted by 1.9%, this means that imports and exports are declining resulting in less shipment and this indirectly affects Hermes because internal shipment will likely to be reduced as well.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Hermes faces stiff competition because rivalry is intense and even though their targeted market is different, chances of competitors market overlapping with Hermes still arises.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">UK’s inflation rate may have been decreasing, but prices for fuel and lubricant continues to surface thus affecting Hermes due to their business operations.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Due to government’s concern regarding the environment, stricter rules pertaining to CO2 emission are likely to be implement in the future that endangers Hermes’s business.