Implementation of Information Technology in an Organisation

New Information Technology Systems Specification

Table of Contents

• 1- Introduction.
• 2- Business Overview.
  • 2.1- Products/services.
• 3- Mission Statement.
• 4- Goals and Objectives.
  • 4.1- Warehousing and distribution.
  • 4.2- Sales.
  • 4.3- Manufacturing.
  • 4.3- Finance.
• 5- Environmental Factors.
• 6- Business Analysis.
  • 6.1- Swot Analysis.
    • 6.1.1-Strengths.
    • 6.1.2-Weakness.
    • 6.1.3-Opportunities.
    • 6.1.4-Threats.
  • 6.2- Porters 5 forces.
    • Porter’s Five Forces.
• 7- Analysis of Information requirements.
  • 7.1- Current situation Analysis.
  • 7.2- New system Specifications.
• 8- Business Technology Based Transformation.
  • 8.1- Current Organization Structure.
  • 8.2-New Technology Based Organization.
• 9- IS for the Chosen Firm
  • 9.1- Database.
  • 9.2- Different components.
  • 9.3- Data storage.
  • 9.4- Management reports.
  • 9.5- Executive system.
  • 9.6- Suppliers.
  • 9.7- Customers.
• 10- Security for Information System.
  • 10.1- Security Measures.
• 11- Suitability of Cloud Computing.
• 12- Conclusion.
• 13- References.

Executive Summary

Today, the way people perform their daily tasks has been revolutionized by information technology. It has offered amazing tools and techniques to make these activities simple and convenient. At the present, almost all the organizations make use of information technology to carry out their business activities. To run their company efficiently, they use e-commerce and information systems. E-commerce is used in this situation to conduct business on the internet. On the other hand, information systems are used to make effective decisions and manage internal processes of the organizations. The basic aim of this report is to discuss the implementation of information technology for an organisation. This study addresses the process of implementing the fine food business for this purpose.

1-Introduction

This report presents a detailed analysis of the Fine Food Company (FFC) implementation of the information technology-based system. Fine Food Company (FFC) business is a well known and well established business in the food industry. The main structure of the company is based in London, England. However, the manufacturing facilities are situated throughout the UK on other sides of the head office. In this scenario, all the business clients use products delivery source from Ashville warehouse. Additionally, the business of The Fine Food Company is based on selling prepared and partly prepared food products. These products are obtained from the food products manufactures. Fine Food Company finishes and packages these products for resale (The Fine Food, 2011).

Moreover, The Fine Food Company offers premium quality food for events all through the UK. In addition, The Fine Food Company does not compromise on the quality, freshness and provenance of the food offered (The Fine Food, 2011). This report will discuss the implementation of information technology for managing its operations. This report will use different analysis techniques to determine the importance of this implementation for the business.

2- Business Overview

The business of the Fine Food Company has obtained a steady growth in the business and organizational structure. Despite the extensive improvements in currently operational paper based working structure, the performance of the business still lacks high performance. This makes the overall working structure less effective. Thus, in this scenario, the management of the business has decided to implement a new technology based structure that will improve the business performance and working capability. In addition, FFC management desired to implement the new information technology at four main departments which are listed below:

• Sales and marketing
• Warehousing and distribution
• Manufacturing
• Finance

2.1- Products/services

The Fine Food Company offers following products and services: (The Fine Food, 2011)

Rotisserie Chicken

• Quarter Chicken and Chips
• Half Chicken and Chips

Burgers

• Original Chicken Burger
• Barbeque Chicken Burger
• Chilli Chicken Burger

Breakfast

• Rashers Smoked back bacon
• Rashers Smoked back bacon and egg
• Sausage and egg
• Double egg and cheddar
• Rashers Smoked back bacon, 140g sausage and egg

Kids’ meal deal

• Smaller portions of above, for children

3- Mission Statement

The mission of The Fine Food Company is to improve the business status by reaching into the larger marketplace. At this point, business is focused on taking a better competitive edge by offering new and innovative products all through the country. Currently, the company’s web site presents only the overview of company. In this scenario, management wants to connect it with corporate working and offer live updates. The new technology based business will offer an excellent support for business working in following areas:

• Sales and marketing
• Warehousing and distribution
• Manufacturing
• Finance

The new technology will change and improve the overall organizational and market aspects in the above-mentioned areas.

4- Goals and Objectives

This section outlines the corporate objectives and goals for technology based system application. The main objectives those will be achieved through new technology based system implementation are discussed below:

4.1- Warehousing and Distribution

• Effective shelf management for each product
• Effective rotation of the stock products
• Better stock recording
• Offering stock priorities

4.2- Sales

• Offers the better order status
• Better order tracking
• Better ordering system
• Effective customer management
• Easy customer ordering arrangement
• Assigning priorities to warehousing orders
• On time delivery structure

4.3- Manufacturing

• Better raw martial and stock management
• Tracking each new order
• On time delivery of all orders
• Priority based product manufacturing

4.3- Finance

• Effective account handling
• Effective credit control procedures
• Recording each business transaction
• Customer record management
• Developing accurate information from other departments
• Wages recording and management

5- Environmental Factors

In case of current business practice The Fine Food Company there exist various environmental issues. Here the current business structure has evolved to a big business set-up that faces working space related issues and operational factors. One of the main environmental factors is chance of legal issues. In this scenario, for establishing store at any new place we need to have legal certifications and also legal paper work for wastes dumping. In case of such issues we can face delay and stoppage in store opening and new technology application at that store. Such issues can also stop the overall working of running stores and can cause possible issues and problems for the business arrangement.

6- Business Analysis

This section presents a detailed overview of some of the important factors those can influence or advantage the corporate in case of application of new technology based arrangement. I will use SWOT and Porter’s Model analysis techniques for this purpose to analyze the effect of this implementation:

6.1- SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analyses of the new technology system implementation will offer a detailed overview of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats:

• 6.1.1-Strengths

This system will standardize the overall business operations and management processes. Such systems can simplify the overall business processes and help manage business data and information easily.

• 6.1.2-Weaknesses

The main weakness behind this technology implementation is need for the effective human resource for implementing the new technology based platform. In addition, it will require huge investment in all the areas. It will require cost for human resource as well as physical resource (hardware, technology resource, new working platforms). This main weakness in this project is regarding the extensive business investment and long term infrastructure establishment.

• 6.1.3-Opportunities

The new technology implementation will offer the opportunity of getting a better competitive edge in the overall business market. Through this technology infrastructure implementation business will gain more customers. Business management and operational management will be more effective and efficient.

• 6.1.4-Threats

The main threat in this technology implementation is regarding successful completion and implementation of the new system implementation. In case of huge investment, implementation of the high quality resource and spending hundreds of man hours in project completion if project fails then the business will be in very critical condition.

6.2- Porters 5 forces

Porter’s Five Forces

This section will analyze different aspects of system implementation using Porter’s Five Forces:

Figure 1- Five Forces: Source[articles.bplans.com/business/porters-five-forces/119]

The discussion of five force model for FFC is outlined below: (Berry, 2011; Turban et al., 2005)

• Existing Competitive Rivalry Between Suppliers

In this scenario we can assess the present competition in present business originations in the market. In addition, we can compete with them by establishing a better business strategy. Moreover, information technology allows us to compete with our competitors.

• Threat of New Market Entrants

In this scenario there is need to access a new market place and we require a better business policy and effective business support through new technology based structure implementation at Fine Food Company business. In this regard we need to analyze how business arrangement will be effective for handling and surviving in business market place.

• Bargaining Power of Buyers

Buyers always require some bargaining from the business. In this scenario we need to establish goods cost at affordable level as compared to business competitors. This can happen due to new business structure implementation that effectively reduces the cost of overall product development, delivery, better management and handling. In this way Fine Food Company business will be more capable to reduce the products cost and development delivery time that will offer the customer to have considerable less product cost.

• Power of Suppliers

We also need to view the supplier power regarding business products manufacturing and handling. In this way we would be able to improve business performance and maintain an effective demand and production cycle.

• Threat of Substitute Products (including technology change)

For the implementation of new business system we need to analyze the overall competitive technology. Here we need to assess that if our business is offering a better business system as compared to market place. We need to develop our products by using state of the art technology that could attract and satisfy the customers as compared to business competitors.

7- Analysis of Information Requirements

This section presents the analysis of the requirements for information at each management level. In this case, I will analyze the business processes and data requirements at each management level and propose information systems to support the organization’s major business functions in order to provide it with the required competitive edge:

7.1- Current Situation Analysis

Currently The Fine Food Company is running its business through paper based approach. All the departments are operational through the paper based working structures. In this scenario, the main objective of new information system implementation is to enhance and make better each working area of the business operations. The basic purpose is to offer a better working environment for each area of the business setup. The main strength of new information system implementation is that it improves the overall business revenue and makes the overall working of the business much better and easier. However, the huge investment and need for the new specialized human resource is main weakness of this project. In case of less effective human resource the overall system operations and business management can be unsuccessful:

• Business Inbound Logistics: This factor is about receiving new business system and its implementation in business environment. In this scenario new information system and its contracting and implementation in business framework will improve the corporate working and operational aspects.
• Business Normal Operations: After the implementation of new information system in the organization structure the main business information inputs are transformed into the completed business services for business profits.
• Business Outbound Logistics: By efficiently managing warehousing and distribution of finished goods through the new information based system FFC will be able to attain a much higher competitive edge.
• Business Marketing and Sales: The identification of customer requirements as well as the generation of sales will also be a main aspect of the new information system. Thus, the new system of Fine Food Company will effectively manage the marketing and sales setup.
• Business outdoor Service: The new technology based system information at Fine Food Company will effectively support and uphold the customers’ products and services which are sold to them.

7.2- New System Specifications

This section suggests some of the new technologies for each department of Fine Food business. These new technology based systems are specified to deal with overall needs and requirements of the business: (Boddy et al., 2004)

The Sales Department

• Order Processing
• Order processing system

Warehousing and Distribution

• Supply chain management system

Marketing

• CRM (customer relation management system), online website

Manufacturing

• CAM system- Computer added manufacturing system

Finance

• ERP system (Enterprise resource planning system)

Management

• MSS (management support system)

8- Business Technology Based Transformation 

Each segment will demonstrate the graphic representation of current and new technology-based systems in the Fine Food sector:

8.1- Current Organization Structure

I illustrated below the new Fine Food Company’s overall structure:

8.2-New Technology Based Organization

The image below shows the Fine Food Company’s new technology-based business arrangement:

9- IS for the Chosen Firm

This section presents a detailed analysis of the information system and business databases structures for the FFC:

9.1- Database

For the development of new business information system we need to implement a centralized database system. This business database need to be developed in a way that it could accommodate the data of all business customers, sales, orders, client, deals and other related information. This centralized business database will store and handle the whole business data and information and will offer a centralized platform to the entire information system regarding storage of business and corporate information (Ward, 2008; Laudon & Laudon, 2006).

9.2- Different Components

This centralized database will combine all the business data and will effectively process operational details of the system. This will be composed of the following components of business information:

• Customer record
• Orders record
• Employee’s record
• Products information
• Finical details
• Raw material data
• Marketing detailed
• New promotions

9.3- Data Storage

The data storage will be done on the physical hard disks.

9.4- Management Reports

The new system will also offer the detailed and periodical management reports those will facilitate the management to intelligently take business related decisions.

9.5- Executive System

There will be an executive decision support system that will support the business management and will allow them to take on time and effective business decisions.

9.6- Suppliers

This new technology based system will also be more effective in managing the supplier records. This will allow them to effectively maintain and update the supplier related information for the business.

9.7- Customers

Every business ‘ biggest concern is successful customer information management. In case of FFC we need to effectively manage the customer information.

10- Security for Information System

The new e-business system will include improved security and stability. Though, information security cannot be proficiently assessed in the way of old business practice which is paper based or manual. On the other hand, in case of new information technology based business practice the business transactions, products and financial data will be saved in form of digital data. In addition, this data can be saved, supported or backed up and recovered. Thus, in case of any possible incident the FFC would be able to retrieve its data as a result it will not affect the business of FFC. Furthermore, the factor of stability definitely offers better business management in form of constant business orders processing and 24×7 business working.

However, there exist several critical issues regarding business systems security. In this scenario, any person with wrong intentions can damage the system and can cause a huge damage to the business. In this scenario, there is a dire need for proper establishment of business system authentication that can save the business system from such kind of attacks. In addition, the development of the proper log-in system will lead to enhanced security of business processes and operations.

10.1- Security Measures

For FFC we will implement following security measures in order to ensure information security:

• Network Firewall: for network and department information security
• Antivirus Systems: for individual system security
• Password Protection: for security of each system
• Data Backups: For protection against any attack
• Physical Security: Avoiding flash and data travel devices attachment to stop possible data theft

11- Suitability of Cloud Computing

The use of cloud computing for the Fine Food Company business can play a significant role in its business development. In this scenario, the new technology of cloud computing will offer the FFC hard disks, application software and computing power without paying extra for hardware, software or network needs. In case of Fine Food Company the application of cloud computing will improve the business working and operational aspects. The new technology based capabilities will offer a great deal of freedom from network management, business information and technical issues handling. These all aspects will improve the business performance of Fine Food Company.

12- Conclusion

At present, the way people execute their daily tasks has been revolutionized by information technology. It has offered amazing tools and techniques to make these tasks quick and simple. In addition, almost all the organizations currently make use of information technology to carry out their business activities. To run their business efficiently, they use e-commerce and information systems. E-commerce is used in this situation to conduct business on the Internet. On the other hand, information systems are used to make effective decisions and manage internal processes of the organizations. This report has presented a detailed analysis of information technology based system implementation for the Fine Food Company (FFC). Fine Food Company (FFC) business is a well known and well established business in the food industry. The company’s main setup is established in London, UK. Furthermore, the manufacturing setups are located across the UK on other sides of the head office. Moreover, The Fine Food Company offers premium quality food for events all through the UK. In addition, The Fine Food Company does not compromise on the quality, freshness and provenance of the food offered (The Fine Food, 2011). This report has discussed the implementation of information technology for managing its operations. This report has used different analysis techniques to determine the importance of this implementation for the business.

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