Juncos Information System - Assignment Example

Running Head: JENCOS INFORMATION SYSTEM Jencos Information System Partha Kar 6th May 2007 Jencos, a medium sized supermarket chain desires to expand its operations allover UK. It presently has several information systems which are insufficient to be a serious contender in the UK supermarket arena. An e-strategy is developed to cover all their present problems and support good customer/supplier relations. It also discusses the various policies and procedures needed to place the employees to follow ethical guidelines. Case study analysis: After closely studying the Jencos case, we can derive at the following: Company Overview: Jencos is a small to medium sized supermarket chain in UK. They have built their success on good customer relations. They desire to expand their operations in entire UK. Overview of the current system: It has several information systems namely point of sale terminals, internal stock systems and barcode scanners. Problems with the current system: The current system does not envelope the entire business operations, meaning no Enterprise Resource Planning Systems; it simply caters to the needful purposes. The system does not capture enough data about customer's to retain them or get new ones. Their Customer Relationship Management is quite poor. Their current system neither possesses automatic links for replenishment of their stock nor any integrated suite of office software programmes. They do not have any Management Information Systems. Proposed new system: The new system will be able to cover the customer base well by spreading the good word of the company over the internet. It will be able to spread the grocery business over a large domain of customers which may range from home users to bulk purchasers. The awareness of the company stands very important so that people get a chance to compare it with the competitors. The supply chain can be well managed. Jencos wants to implement a loyalty card which could be used for in-store, online and petrol stations. It gives the customer a lot of importance relating to the multiple services it caters. The customer information can be stored and managed well so that they are focused when catering repeat orders and services. The data will also serve as rich information to the degree of importance which a customer must obtain. Diversifications into other businesses are very important for business continuity and should be taken care really well to fetch more customers and provide them better and allied services for retention and indirect marketing. Most importantly the services can be rendered to a large variety of customers across a geographical region with B2B and B2C models. The feedback system can also be added so that future caterings can be handled better. The total sales and profit can be easily captured and produced to management with ease reducing a lot of manual operations. Why is it necessary for the organisation to become an e-business The reasons for converting 'bricks and mortars' into 'click and mortars' is as follows: 1. The visibility is improved which means more people get to know about it and often want to try it out for a change. Even if 10% of the people try it out in UK, it will generate huge sales. 2. The e-marketing helps to let people know about its various services it caters. 3. The business can spread in diverse fields so as to provide ancillary services to the customers along with grocery items so that they get served better. Helps for greater retention. 4. The supply chain management is better rendered through e-business. 5. People can access the online store at their convenience and make payment through loyalty card it wishes to introduce. What technology/systems can support good customer/supplier relations It is increasingly important to maintain good supplier and customer relations for business continuity and long term survival. Jencos have built their reputation from customers and need to continue doing the great job. The Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems could be used to track the production, procurement and logistics processes to supply goods and services from their source to final delivery to the customer. (Laudon, 2002) The following are the various penetrations which a SCM system could provide to Jencos: Integrate the internal supply chain processes with the business partners. It can track work orders, flag and manage product shortages and manage change orders. It can ensure increased on-time delivery of products and services. The customers get a unique feature to track their orders and use the loyalty card to shop. What considerations should there be in relation to business continuity planning Diversification into various other businesses as Jencos proposes to get into. It eyes on Tesco which is an online grocery store and delivery service selling computers and furniture's, house dcor, entertainment stuff like DVD's and others and books, finance and insurance, phones and broadband services, flowers and other accessories. Tesco also provides a Tesco Clubcard for earning points on purchases where Jencos wants to introduce loyalty card. It also desires to get close to Sainsburys another supermarket giant which caters a lot of services besides grocery. It also incorporates a forum which puts across many interesting blog which a customer can participate and also acts like feedback, precisely a business strategy by the company. Jencos spread out to other category of services similar to provided by Tesco and Sainsbury's would be ideal for long term survival and create a strong root in online marketplace. Creating a good market in other items than grocery will not be easier as others have already created the space really well. It needs to come up with innovative strategies such as gift on purchases, green or loyalty cards which earn points on every purchase and redeemable after a certain point of time. It must offer discount schemes and auctions on rare products and popular items. The webpage content must be rich to attract customers and spread the good word around. Secure payment techniques must be incorporated with strict policies on user's information and financial details. The forums further pave the way to feedbacks and promotions. What policies and procedures need to be in place to ensure Jencos employees follow ethical guidelines Information systems raise new ethical questions for both individuals and societies because they create opportunities for intense social change and thus threaten existing distributions of power, money, rights and obligations. (Laudon) Responsibility: The Jencos employees must take full responsibility with regard to the services they provide such as accepting the potential costs of products and services, duties and obligations for the decision they make on their behalf. Accountability and Liability: Jencos employees must take full credit or cause for any profit or loss to their products and services. A body of law must be in place that permits the employees to recover the damages done to them by external factors. Due process: It is a process where laws are well known and understood and there is an ability to appeal to higher authorities to ensure that business laws are applied correctly. (Laudon) What emerging technologies should they consider The emerging technologies are very many in number and ranges from small to large units catering to businesses of all lengths. Not all of them are suitable for exploitation and correct identification of it is very important for investment and business function coverage. The ERP systems can cover all the aspects of the Jencos business ranging from supplier chains to customer services and management objectives to capture present sales and plan for the future. But ERP systems are very costly to implement and requires better management for obtaining results. What we propose is an e-commerce website with client server technology to implement all the products and services it provides. Conclusion Jencos has dared to dream big at the age where technology is evolving newer dimensions to efficiently capture business functions and manage the flow of information to enhance customer base in creating a virtual market place to cater to a large section of customers. The E-commerce business strategies which it could use are B2B and B2C rendering better management of product distribution and services to masses. To stand out in the crowd it must come up with great graphics in their website, page layout and navigation must be well ordered and in correlation with usability. "The homepage is your company's face to the world." (Nielsen, 2002) The homepage must clearly depict the essential services which are provided and search options must be incorporated well. An appropriate tagline can add a lot to the glamour online. The homepage can have a white background with blue hyperlinks. "White in its nothingness acts as a wonderful balance between colours." (Singh, 2001.) Another challenging feature would be to implement region wise services and retail chains to cater it fast. All the regions of UK are to be present with retail locations at every site, could be more than one considering the area coverage. This helps to serve better. Online order tracking options can be implemented unlike Tesco and Sainsbury. The website must reinforce visual symbols such as "Jencos Best Buys", "Add to Basket" and instructions to "proceed to Basket and Checkout" which are reminders of physical store environments, "providing familiarity to customers." (Weick, 1995.) Bidding options and auctioneering can also be added in future to give it a close competition to EBay marketplace. Technologies can envelope almost all but efficient management of such systems needs to be done on periodic basis taking into consideration the feedbacks from the customers. References Laudon K C and Laudon J P.(2002) Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm Prentice Hall Nielsen, J. (2002) Top Ten Guidelines for Homepage Usability, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020512.html. Singh, V. (2001) Colour Design for the Web, http://coolhomepages.com/cda/color/. Weick, K. (1995) Sensemaking in Organisations. Read More