Information Systems Essays Business Information Systems

Information Systems Essays Business Information Systems Business Information Systems (Technology, development and management for the e-business. Business Information Systems is business on the Internet for the benefit of all. It is essentially electronic business. The horizon of e-business encompasses the globe, free from the limited scope of customary bricks and mortar shops. It is the selling of products and services online, which is termed also as e-commerce.   Although the term â€Å"electronic commerce† is related more with business to consumer (B2C) applications IT has enabled this to cross over into the business-to-business (B2B) field as well. Through business information systems, purchasing processes are contoured to handle orders and their delivery, thus resulting in minimal paper work and labour required. Earlier, it was a practice to do business in hard copy for invoices and purchase orders. Now, documents in bulk, with particular format or data keying, are transferred electronically. A business can manage its Catalogue online by maintaining it up-to-date and current on its supplies, prices, discounts, without reprinting its catalogues. The Fine food Company, an established name in the food industry has finally made up its mind to run its business activities on the escalator of latest technology, to keep abreast with the changing times. Earlier, it was operating its business on a paper-based traditional set up. The company wants to increase its turnover by 10% and net profits to 9 per cent and hopes to be accredited for BS5750 within next 6 months. This decision of the management of the Fine Food Company (FFC) will certainly increase its reputation. A food conglomerate has to cater to a varied customer base through its shops and supermarkets, catering to standard and priority orders for quick delivery. A food company, working in a traditional set up has to handle its sales activities through its sales persons, who receive orders, payments, see through the orders to their fulfillment and answer routine questions. Customers are categorized geographically, depending on a customer’s type and product demand. A sales head can change his mindset to change a customer into a different category at any moment. The Fine Food Company has appointed an Information systems expert, to manage the affairs of the smooth running of its newly created IT department. In a paper-based communication, order processing can be quite a cumbersome procedure to follow. Order copies have to be retained by sales people and sent to the warehousing and distribution departments in date-wise format so that at the time of delivery, they are accompanied with an invoice and consignment note. The delivery man has to bring back a signed copy of the consignment. Warehousing involves keeping the produce in different temperature zones and shifting the goods to different locations, upkeep of raw products and finished goods. Card files have to be maintained manually whenever updating is required. David Jenkins has to see that all these complexities can be removed by opting for different solutions that go along with the FFC scheme to incorporate those software solutions with a range of proprietary software like Epicor eWarehouse. A food company’s manufacturing process involves simple repackaging to not so simple enlisting of detail of different recipes.   Keeping this in mind, software should integrate with the central system. To run a micro supply chain, different interfaces are required for the stability of the product. Otherwise, the finances of a food company that is still working on obsolete, labour intensive framework, could be quite complex to handle. Accounts payable are managed with a manual purchase ledger. Financial accounting has to be done by following the legal accounting requirements and Management accounting, which is must to know the inside of the food joint’s accounting information – essential to control a company’s finances. All this requires up-to-date maintenance of manual sales ledger and preparation of weekly reports on the customer’s financial records. Inventory was also checked against its distributor’s location. FFC has multiple distributors, having varied processes at their locations. An e-business food company like Fine Foods may want to know the details of their product’s price, name of the buyer and  Ã‚   the location. Software solutions like Epicor provide a mirror to adjustment transactions. â€Å"Epicor eWarehouse has enabled us to mirror our inventory in remote locations, and we have automated the process of the shipping and receiving of data,† says Cummings of B.C. Hot House. Working of a food house is complex in nature. Farmers sell their products to them; suppliers replenish the stock of packaging material. The entire process of managing the graded and semi-graded products of a range of growers is an uphill task. It involves putting the goods into bins, categorizing them into different packing material etc. To fulfill the demand, and gain a competitive edge over other players in the food industry, FFC has numerous options and tools to choose from like e-business software solution providers Movex B2B solutions. Core ERP solutions offer dialogue with the customers and add value to the business through information via the Internet. Another important tool in the e-commerce arena is Data Synchronization. Leading food giant companies are pushing their suppliers to enlist for electronic data interchange (EDI). As there is a high risk of committing errors in maintaining data manually because different departments have no identical way to save product information. Labour intensive methods of compiling and reconciling the data are prone to human errors. The example of Wal-Mart in data synchronization is a prime example for the Industry to follow. Randy Salley, Vice President of Wal-Mart Information Systems has supported the industry standards set by the GSMP choosing UCCnet as their GS1 GDSN Certified recipient data pool. Implementation of this technology is going to result in exact purchase orders, better invoice matching, better than before replacement of stocks. The process has been made easier than before with the arrival of IBM, GXS and other players developing Product Information Management (PIM) systems. There is the example of Sun Valley Foods, a Division of Cargill, which has also opted for B2B to improvise on its food product’s development and distribution. It has gone for Supply Chain Management (SCM) as well. The software solution has facilitated a safe hosting extranet along with a personalized portal interface, allowing space for product packaging, marketing and research. It will result in better collaboration between different departments such as warehousing, distribution and sales, removing hindrances like determination of the status of an order, late delivery, incomplete orders and wrong products, which were faced earlier. Now, Warehousing would be prioritizing big orders to small ones to speed marketing and on the whole transaction flow. The information technology platform offers a centralized web-based repository of reporting tools, resulting in no manufacturing delays. The SCM technologies improve the grading of a product as well as its marketing timing. The Internet facilitates the booking of orders at once to all departments, to proceed to realize it without getting involved in lengthy phone calls. Websites are used as a marketing tool, to offer the retail customers a place to visit the gallery of products and a platform for wholesalers for ordering information, an online catalogue and online order forms. All this is not possible on a traditional platform of working through hard copy. Now, orders are placed with a user name and password and then forwarded to fill an online purchase form. In fact, it is a wonderful example of assimilation of technology – developed and managed efficiently. Intranets help sales people to know the current financial and sales effect. Real-time financial reports can be generated, eliminating the scope of incomplete sales returns, making Management Accounting an easy task, as accurate information can be accessed and forwarded to all departments. Late publishing of accounts, due to wrong information, is never an issue. Internet and intranet applications have resulted in solid savings and better efficiency. Within the company, the intranet financial report application gives the management sufficient time to go through information in the generated reports and work out a strategy/response accordingly. Future Benefits – The Fine Food Company is hopeful to benefit by the introduction of the latest technology. Benefits include online access to latest information on the inventory, customer contact, credit status, order position and online nets. It will offer to work on system-to-system basis with big clients who have their own ERP solutions, resulting in contouring of EDI process. XML will enable the swapping of invoices, buying orders and shipping notices straight to the clients, online. Smaller customers will also benefit through e-business solutions via the Internet. As they don’t have ERP systems, companies would be able to offer additional customer service through their reach to accounts and sales statistics information over the Internet. Big retailers would be able to forecast their demands through the Internet. Once this becomes possible allover the supply line, the company’s e-business infrastructure will be in a position to forecast their stock needs according to their actual demands, resulting in optimization of stocks. Companies can march towards appreciable consumer response and Vendor Managed Inventory, enjoying the benefits of technology and development processes. Future forecasting for large retailers is quite bright, as e-business infrastructure will enable them to place their orders straight to the supplier, through the Internet. Conclusion: The trend of opting for e-business is catching speed. Businesses are using different forms of Internet-supported services like e-procurement, e-mailing and websites, saving a great deal of time and cost. A business can solve its customer’s technical hardware and software problems by working on virtual computer systems. This trend is going to continue with the advent of latest technologies like Internet enabled cell phones and PDAs. Bibliography: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-ebusiness.htmhttp://www.istart.co.nz/b2b-ecommerce.htm#OV)http://www.istart.co.nz/index/HM20/PC0/PV21902/EX245/AR27992http://www.opentext.com/news/pr.html?id=1143)http://www.istart.co.nz/index/HM20/PC0/PV21872/EX232/CS2161

Indian Middle Class And Shopping Essay

For the current generation of consumers, the meaning of shopping has changed. It is not just a mere necessity, as it was earlier, but much more than that. The factors that affect store choice and draw customers to the shopping centre include space, ambience, and convenience and moreover an array of choice under one roof. The growth of integrated shopping malls, retail chains and multi-brand outlets is evidence of consumer behaviour being favourable to the growing organized segment of the business. Space, ambience and convenience are beginning to play an important role in drawing customers. Malls, which are now anchored by large outlets such as Westside and Lifestyle and are resided by a lot of Indian and international brands, are also being seen as image benchmarks for communities. Today retailing in India is done through a vast number of unorganized retailers with over 12 million retails outlets spread across the country in various sizes and formats. India has the largest retail density with 9 stores available for every 1000 people. The Indian retail industry is providing 8% of the countries employment with its vast distribution of retail stores across the country. The retailing in India is undergoing a gradual change as market conditions and technological developments combined with affluent, highly mobile and time starved consumers are playing an important role in the changes happening in the retail sector in India. Marketplaces in urban demographic settings attract large number of buyers and sellers, which can be termed as market thickness. Co-existence of many shopping malls along with traditional markets in a marketplace causes market congestion. The co-existence of street markets and the rise of shopping malls have been major trends of retailing in developing countries for decades. However, the increasing emphasis on growing cities with contemporary marketplaces have induced shift of agglomeration format (AF) from a marketing perspective, including the consumer preferences on routes to market. There are some generic similarities and conceptual differences between street markets and shopping malls. The AF-specific characteristics perceived by consumers lead to the change in consumer behavior towards markets preferences for shopping. In centrally managed and enclosed shopping centers in the retailing sector, eight underlying factors of varying character that drive customer satisfaction are selection of market outlet, atmosphere, convenience, sales people, refreshments, location, promotional activities and merchandising policy. FACTORS THAT AFFECT / INFLUENCE CONSUMERS BEHAVIOUR TO BUY IN MALLS. A person is likely to be influenced in making his/ her purchase decisions if he/ she is accompanied by another individual while making a shopping trip. There are many factors that play a vital role in consumers â€Å"decision making†. Some of the prominent among the factors are the image of the store, risk associated with the consumers in purchasing the product and the price perception of consumers on the store or about the product category. Store image contain by many elements like the stores opening and closing time, the availability. The risk factor plays an important role in making the decisions for the product that are new or untried by the consumers so far. Perceived risk is the expected negative utility associated with the purchase of a particular brand.

Norton Lilly International: Written Case Essay

​Norton Lilly is an international shipping agency. They have 37 regional offices, which provided service to ships in 70 ports located in North America, Caribbean, Pacific, and the Middle East. Their services consist of booking freight for export, clearing inbound cargo with U.S. customs, fueling vessels, restocking vessels with supplies and provisions, and arranging cargo-handling services. The company started way back in 1841, 150 years ago to this case’s time period, starting with John Norton. In 1907, the company expanded to include the Lilly family. In 1925, the company expanded to become international, with the opening of a Norton Lilly office in Panama. In 2010, Norton Lilly is the market share leader. 1. ​Norton Lilly has been successful as a company for their entire 150 years of existence. This is an achievement by itself. Most companies are not continually successful for more than a decade, with economies, struggle to compete, technology advancements, and leadership/ownership. The one thing that stands out about Norton Lilly is the overpowering emphasis on having successful leadership in the company. When Norton Lilly slowed and had a $2.6 million net loss in 2006, they looked at what had been successful, and because of outside acquisitions of agencies, a lack of focus on bottom-line performance, and a poor focus on operational performance, they began a turnaround. Starting with good leaders, Norton Lilly used an executive board of 9 to spread a new, focused strategy of overall performance, and utilized these committee members as the leaders for their regions. ​Norton Lilly, however, has some downfalls. Because of the new emphasis of a â€Å"balanced scorecardâ₠¬  and â€Å"KPI†, the performance needed to be tracked, and with there being over 37 regional offices and 70 ports, interference was prevalent. Tracking performance is one achievement, but utilizing the information and using it to improve future performance is another aspect in itself. Settling with good when you are market share leader is not a good game plan, and why Jim Burton told the company’s Vice President that he still had concern about the company’s ability to execute its strategy with the highest level of proficiency. The company’s compensation system had yet to be retooled to  closely link rewards for all employees at every level to the KPIs. There were also questions about to what extent the culture change had been fully ingrained in the managerial mind-set. The quote from Baldwin, the VP, stating, â€Å"knowing only one way to grow—sell, sell, sell. They now need to understand the tools of growth beyond simple expansion. Someone will need to provide that creativity and leadership.† 2.  Norton Lilly fell into a short fall in 2006. The series of acquisitions, joint ventures, and internal expansion initiatives led by Thurber and Rutherford had allowed the company to raise revenues to $41 million. This, however, was countered by acquisitions outside the company’s core business, failures to effectively integrate acquired shipping agencies, and inadequate attention to operational performance, and a low focus on bottom-line performance had put the company in a very dangerous position. The company ended up with a $2.6 million net loss. 3.  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Norton Lilly’s strategy involves segmenting their services into 3 different business units: Liner, Ship Services, and Overseas. By doing this, they were able to clearly identify the services of each unit, and they can more effectively analyze and run their overall business, Norton Lilly. ​The Liner Services, known as the â€Å"bus service†, provided various services to container ships that carried dry cargo in and out of U.S. ports of call. These ships were often referred to as the industry’s â€Å"bus service† since the oceangoing liners maintained regularly scheduled routes between ports and carried containers of whatever goods that had been booked for a specific date. Liner customers were typically foreign-based companies with established ocean trade routes to and from the U.S. that chose not to set up their own administrative offices within the U.S. It was frequently less expensive to foreign shipping firms to outsource support ser vices to Norton Lilly. Norton Lilly’s service to outbound liner customers includes booking freight, preparing and transmitting bills for lading, and completing shipping manifests for outgoing vessels. Norton Lilly also provided services for inbound ships, including notifying U.S. Customs and consignees of an  impending cargo arrival, collecting freight charges from consignees, and clearing all cargo with U.S. customs. Lastly, Norton Lilly prepares truck and/or rail services to move cargo inland. ​The Ship Service was known as the â€Å"taxi service†. The services operated on car carriers, tankers, and bulk cargo vessels that scheduled shipments to and from U.S. ports based on demand rather than a defined timetable. Services included fueling vessels, providing crew transport to and from vessels, arranging crew medical services, restocking vessels with supplies and provisions, handling cargo, and arranging tugs to navigate vessels in and out of port. Difference between Liner and Ship services is Liner focuses on cargo, whereas Ship focused more on vessel. ​Overseas division offered both liner and ship services to vessels entering and departing ports serviced b y Norton Lilly that were outside the U.S. Ports were located in the Caribbean, Panama, Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Dubai, Jordan, Basra, and Iraq. ​Norton Lilly’s strategy aligns closely with

Understanding the SQ3R Study Strategy

SQ3R is an  active reading  exercise that is designed to help you get a fuller understanding of your reading materials. You will need to keep a pen and some paper on hand to use this method.  SQ3R stands for: SurveyQuestionReadReciteReview Survey The first step of SQ3R is to survey the chapter.  Survey  means to observe the layout of something and get an idea of how it is constructed.  Skim  over the chapter and observe the titles and subtitles, take a look at the graphics, and make a mental note of the overall layout. The survey of the chapter gives you an idea of what the author considers most important. Once you have surveyed the chapter, you will have a mental framework of the reading assignment. Jot down any words that are in bold or italics. Question First, jot down questions that address the chapter titles and boldface (or italicized) words youve noted. Read Now that you have a framework in your mind, you can begin to read for deeper understanding. Start at the beginning and read the chapter, but stop and write down additional sample test questions for yourself as you go, fill-in-the-blank style. Why do this? Sometimes things make perfect sense as we read, but not so much sense later on, as we try to remember. The questions you form will help the information stick in your head. You may also find that the question you write matches the teacher€™s actual  test questions. Recite When you reach the end of a particular passage or section, quiz yourself on the questions you’ve written. Do you know the material well enough to answer your own questions? It’s a good idea to read and answer aloud to yourself. This can be a great learning strategy for auditory learners. Review For best results, the review step of SQ3R should take place a day after the other steps. Go back to review your questions, and see if you can answer them all easily. If not, go back and review the survey and the reading steps.

Understanding the SQ3R Study Strategy

SQ3R is an  active reading  exercise that is designed to help you get a fuller understanding of your reading materials. You will need to keep a pen and some paper on hand to use this method.  SQ3R stands for: SurveyQuestionReadReciteReview Survey The first step of SQ3R is to survey the chapter.  Survey  means to observe the layout of something and get an idea of how it is constructed.  Skim  over the chapter and observe the titles and subtitles, take a look at the graphics, and make a mental note of the overall layout. The survey of the chapter gives you an idea of what the author considers most important. Once you have surveyed the chapter, you will have a mental framework of the reading assignment. Jot down any words that are in bold or italics. Question First, jot down questions that address the chapter titles and boldface (or italicized) words youve noted. Read Now that you have a framework in your mind, you can begin to read for deeper understanding. Start at the beginning and read the chapter, but stop and write down additional sample test questions for yourself as you go, fill-in-the-blank style. Why do this? Sometimes things make perfect sense as we read, but not so much sense later on, as we try to remember. The questions you form will help the information stick in your head. You may also find that the question you write matches the teacher€™s actual  test questions. Recite When you reach the end of a particular passage or section, quiz yourself on the questions you’ve written. Do you know the material well enough to answer your own questions? It’s a good idea to read and answer aloud to yourself. This can be a great learning strategy for auditory learners. Review For best results, the review step of SQ3R should take place a day after the other steps. Go back to review your questions, and see if you can answer them all easily. If not, go back and review the survey and the reading steps.

Understanding the SQ3R Study Strategy

SQ3R is an  active reading  exercise that is designed to help you get a fuller understanding of your reading materials. You will need to keep a pen and some paper on hand to use this method.  SQ3R stands for: SurveyQuestionReadReciteReview Survey The first step of SQ3R is to survey the chapter.  Survey  means to observe the layout of something and get an idea of how it is constructed.  Skim  over the chapter and observe the titles and subtitles, take a look at the graphics, and make a mental note of the overall layout. The survey of the chapter gives you an idea of what the author considers most important. Once you have surveyed the chapter, you will have a mental framework of the reading assignment. Jot down any words that are in bold or italics. Question First, jot down questions that address the chapter titles and boldface (or italicized) words youve noted. Read Now that you have a framework in your mind, you can begin to read for deeper understanding. Start at the beginning and read the chapter, but stop and write down additional sample test questions for yourself as you go, fill-in-the-blank style. Why do this? Sometimes things make perfect sense as we read, but not so much sense later on, as we try to remember. The questions you form will help the information stick in your head. You may also find that the question you write matches the teacher€™s actual  test questions. Recite When you reach the end of a particular passage or section, quiz yourself on the questions you’ve written. Do you know the material well enough to answer your own questions? It’s a good idea to read and answer aloud to yourself. This can be a great learning strategy for auditory learners. Review For best results, the review step of SQ3R should take place a day after the other steps. Go back to review your questions, and see if you can answer them all easily. If not, go back and review the survey and the reading steps.