Importance of Information System

Ques: Evaluate information relating to the business scenario, review the current situation regarding the business information systems and determine the most appropriate e-business solution. Based on the feedback received from the various business stakeholders, how would you advise the client to remove the few ‘gripes’ using Information Systems and fulfil the requirements set by the management team? You will produce a 2000 word report highlighting your vision and present your findings to the management team?

Introduction

Importance of information system in the organization

Website

Online Catalogue

Implementation of ERP

Role of ERP in process of purchasing

Role of ERP in human resources

Conclusion 

Total Time of the Project

References

“Hire it, style it Wear it” offers dresses to partygoers on hire basis. The customers are provided royal treatment. The business has been growing for the past five years. They are planning for expansion. The branches of the organization are regularly monitored and there is a branch manager at each store. The organization offers membership to the customers. This is used as a tool of marketing. The membership can be obtained by payment of a small annual membership fee. But there are certain grievances faced by the stakeholders of the store. The members of the various stores have shown grievances as the fee paid by them is more that the fee charged by other stores. The members have also complained that all the stores do not have the same quality of product. The staff complains that they face difficulty in booking the VIP lounges for the customers. An online system is necessary to keep a track booking of the customers. An online system is necessary to keep a track of the employees of the organization, the leave taken by the employees so that they can prepare themselves in advance. Thus they will not have to struggle if one of the staff remains absent.

The business process of the organization has to be reexamined and innovated in order to deliver goods of high quality to the customers. The competition in the industry is increasing and the company has to sell quality products to their customers in order to strengthen their business. Thus use of information system has become crucial in the organization. Thus it is very important for the organization to integrate itself with their business. The organizations have to improve their business in order to sustain in the competitive scenario. They have taken proactive steps to improve their business operations. Every business house is looking for new opportunities to innovate themselves and become competitive.  This will enhance the profitability of the organization.

The website will feature the following items.

 The organization should have an innovative website. The website must display all the information regarding the organization. There should be an online catalogue in the website that will display the items that are available for hire. The clothes available at the various stores should be displayed in the catalogue. The prices of the products should be displayed in the online catalogue.

1. The accessories sold along with the garments will be featured in the website. The other products in the range from designer hats, handbags, wigs and wands will be displayed in the website.
2. The website will also provide information regarding the seasonal sales offer of the organization. There will be discounts during the lean periods. This will attract customers even during lean periods. The website will provide a platform to convey the information of the organization to the customers. This will enhance the popularity of the organization.

Website

 ERP can be implemented in the organization in order to integrate the entire process. The information of the various stores can be integrated to a central system by the use of ERP. Instead of keeping separate software for different activities of the organization, single software can be used to integrate the entire business. Various activities of the business like planning, costing, finance and human resource can be integrated to a single platform by implementing ERP.  The ERP system can be used to track the data of the employees of the various stores. The information regarding the leave, salary of the employees can be tracked using the integrated system. The purchasing process of the organization can be integrated using the ERP system. Information regarding the training and recruitment of the employees can be processed centrally(Mathur, 2011; p-109-110).

ERP can be used to make the purchase decisions of the organizations. The information enters at a single point and the information is processed. The software suit will integrate the entire business of the organization. The supply chain of the organization can be integrated by the use of ERP. Information technology will be used to optimize the entire process of supply chain. Information system will integrate the entire business process. It will provide a synergy between the important resources of the organization like men, material, machine and money. The Information technology will be used for processing the data in the organization. ERP can be used for accounting and processing the various transactions of the business. The ERP system can also track the sales of the organization (Prouty, 2011; p-1-6). The marketing, production and sales strategy can be implemented by using the ERP system. The organization can take its decisions in a strategic manner. This is essential for the future growth of the organization. The purchase by the customers in the various stores can be tracked by a single system. The modern MIS system will be helpful in managing the sales of the various stores. The organization can make decisions according to the sales of the various stores. The ERP system can be used by the organization to standardize the supply chain. They will have a centralized control over procurement. They will be well connected with the suppliers. They can access to any kind of requirement of dresses by communicating with the suppliers. Various customers issue related to selection of the appropriate dress of their choice can be solved by implementing the online system. The ERP system can provide the customers regarding information of the previous purchases. The customers that are members of the organization can keep a track of their purchases. The central processing system can implement a uniform membership fee for all the customers across the various stores. They can keep a track of any kind of discretionary issues across the various stores. This will remove the dissatisfaction among the customers. The service to the customers will be automated. This will increase the competitive advantage of the organization. The profitability of the organization will grow (Hodge and Cagle, 2004;p-211-220).

Online Catalogue

 ERP has become a useful tool for managing the various human resource activities across the organization. The cost of the labor can be tracked using ERP. The number of hours worked by each labor can be easily monitored by the ERP system. The other activities of the human resource like attendance and timing of the employees, leave of the employees, management of talent of the employees and other functions can be monitored by the ERP system. The company has to devise a suitable strategy to keep a track of the various HR functions across the organization. The employees have to be provided training during the implementation of ERP so that they can use the ERP system efficiently. The recruitment and training of the employees across the various stores can be unified by implementing ERP. The multiple HR functions across the organization can be integrated by using ERP system. The ERP system can be used to track the timing of the employees. The strategic decision related to the various HR functions can be taken by implementing ERP in the organization (Hodge and Cagle, 2014; p-24-27). The management of the recruitment and coordination among the various programs of the human resource can be easily done by using the ERP system. The automated process will drive the HR functions in the organization. The ERP system in the organization has to be implemented in such a manner so that it complies with the standard business process of the organization. The management of the structure of the organization is one of the major functions of the human resource department. The structure of the organization is divided according to the various functions of the HR department like division among the labor, hierarchy of the organization and the relationship between the employees and the managers. The ERP system is necessary to keep updated information of the various employees of the organization. The changes in the organization like internal transfer in the organization, rotation of job, hiring and the promotional activities can be easily updated using the ERP system. The ERP system provides a view of the structure of the entire organization. The future planning of the organization can be done using the ERP system. This is helpful in the process of decision making in the organization. The administration within the organization can be done effectively by the use of the ERP system. Since the employee joins the organization, information of the employee has to be updated by the HR department. The personal data of the employees, along with the educational details, salary can be updated easily by the use of the ERP system. The various administrative functions can be easily updated by the ERP system. The organization has to maintain a master data that consists of attrition reports, reports regarding the demography, age and gender of the employees can be easily maintained. Earlier the organization used to maintain a hardcopy of the files of the employees. It is very time consuming and laborious for the organization to maintain data using excel sheet. There is risk of loss of data. It takes manual effort to prepare the reports of the employees. There may be lots of error in the reports. By implementation of ERP, a master data can be maintained that will keep a track of the information regarding the various employees. The data regarding the administration of the organization can be easily maintained. The leave of the employees can be updated. Each store will have a track of the employees that are in leave. This will not lead to shortage of employees during peak seasons. There will be enough staff members to serve the employees. This will increase the satisfaction of the customers. The customers will be repeat buyers (Bansal and Narula, 2014; p-40-46). This will ensure long term sustainability of the organization. The information regarding the various functional areas of the HR department can be done using the ERP system. The data can be used in maintain the various functions across the organization like management of the payroll, decision making of the organization and the administration of the leave across the organization (Jain, 2014; p-150-170). The various policies of the organization regarding leave, salary can be automatically updated using the advanced system of information technology. Information regarding the time management of the organization can be done effectively. The process of planning in the organization will be supported by relevant information from the data system (Grant, 2003); (Chorafas, 2001).

Conclusion

The grievances of the various stakeholders of the organization like the employees, customers can be addressed by using of information technology. Information technology will serve as a tool for meeting the various functional and operational needs of the organization. The management teams will be able to monitor the various functions of the organization. One of the most important ways of connecting with a wide spectrum of customers is by the development of an innovative website. The website will serve as a tool for communicating directly with the customers. The customer can preview the wide range of offerings by the organization with the help of the online catalogue.The website will also feature the various accessory products sold by the organization. The various functions of the organizations can be integrated by the use of advanced information technology. This can be done by the use of ERP. The ERP system will integrate the process of purchase across the various stores. The membership fees of the customers will be uniform across the various stores. This will remove the grievances of the customers. Information regarding the employees can be easily tracked by the use of the information system. The leave of the employees, salary, recruitment and training of the employees can be managed by a central information system. Integration of the various systems will help in the future planning process of the organization.

 The total time of the project is 10 week. The critical path is shown below.

 Figure – Critical path of ERP installation

References

Bansal, V. and Narula, D. (2014). Enterprise Resource Planning: Driving Human Resource Management. 1st ed. [ebook] pp.40-46. Available at: 

Chorafas, D. (2001). Integrating ERP, CRM, supply chain management, and smart materials. Boca Raton, FL: Auerbach.

Grant, G. (2003). ERP & data warehousing in organizations. Hershey, PA: IRM Press.

Hodge, G. and Cagle, C. (2004). BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS E-BUSINESS MODELS: CLASSIFICATION  AND TEXTILE INDUSTRY IMPLICATIONS. 1st ed. 

Hodge, G. and Cagle, C. (2014). BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS E-BUSINESS MODELS: CLASSIFICATION  AND TEXTILE INDUSTRY IMPLICATIONS. 1st ed. 

Jain, V. (2014). A Framework for Sustainable ERP Value. pp.150-170.

Mathur, R. (2011). MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM  IN CLOTHING INDUSTRY. 1st ed. [ebook] pp.109-110. 

Prouty, K. (2011). ERP’s impact on Human Resources. 1st ed. [ebook] pp.1-6.