Marketing in Specialist Literature - Essay Example

116816 There are a number of processes involved in the given case. The three processes which are identified and described are (i)Assembly, (ii)Marketing and (iii)Distribution. Assembly Process The assembly process in Milly's mopeds start with the parts which are not manufactured in their factory. The assembly process starts with the parts taken in along with the assembly guidelines and documents required to assemble the parts. The parts are assembled during the process and the final finished unit comes out as the output along with the assembly report which may be produced for a given time period. Marketing Process The second process chosen is Marketing. The marketing in Milly's case is done in specialist literature only. This means that the marketing target is the audience of that particular literature. The need assessment of that particular segment is done and based on the results, the appropriate offering is designed and/or an offer is made. If there are any documents as printed or physical output, they are outputs of this process too. Distribution Process Distribution or Logistics is another process found in the case. The distribution plans are used as inputs and the delivery schedule is used to plan deliveries to the whole sellers. As a result, the scheduled deliveries are matched with the completed orders and discrepancies are reported as an internal report. The information used by the processes and generated through the processes is very useful at various management levels. Information given as input and received as output serves the information needs of management at various levels. The three types of information needs being met by the information are (i) Strategic level, (ii) Tactical level and (iii) Operational level. Strategic level information is the information needed for strategic decisions. These decisions are made by top management and senior personnel of any organization. In the above processes, various types of information are to be used by the top management of Milly's Mopeds. The capacity shortfalls, bottlenecks in assembly, expansion decisions and changes in core competencies are the major information areas which are strategic in nature for Milly's top management. Tactical level information is meant for middle level management for managing and allocating resources for the organization. In this case, the information and inputs and outputs like selection of distributors, selecting channels, making delivery schedules and making budgets are all tactical level information. At the operational level, the very basics of operations are carried out. It involves the routine day-to-day activities that are carried out in the normal course of business. The information gathered from the inputs, outputs and reports of the business processes in this area are the feedback from operations, inventory and stock updates, operations reports and problem reports. The information systems and information technology has taken a new role over the past few years. The concept of Strategic Information systems is present today which was never existent before. This has huge application of Information Technology. (O'Brien, James A., (2002). Trends In Information Systems. McGraw-Hill) With the introduction to information technology, the information handling, storage and processing has become very efficient. Huge data repositories are now in place by almost all companies. Milly and Graham were also suggested and advised to use a database to solve their problems. Databases will provide them the data storage solutions. The interface and designing can be easily done to take data out from the database and use it for their needs. 2. Marketing in specialist literature The business process of marketing in specialist literature is focused on carrying out the task of marketing the mopeds by the use of specialist literature. Special literature may include the literature targeted to various levels of customers. The reason for selecting this process for detailed analysis was because it is a core process for Milly. The process of marketing is directly related to customers. Customers are the major driving forces for Milly. Second reason for its selection is the possibility of incorporating computer-based information system in it. Being a customer-centered process, its information needs require a fully functional data repository attached to it which can provide historical and present data for analysis and further review. Marketing process involves a lot of creative work too along with the routine monotonous tasks. This may become a hindrance to automation and computerization, but most of the things which are similar in nature are done with the use of computers and information technology. This makes the processes cost-effective and eliminates its dependence on employees. One of the reasons for choosing marketing process was that this involves tedious work by employees as well as creative input from them for particular areas. The organization follows different marketing strategies for different customers. The inputs to the process are the basis of classification which the company is using, target customers, budget details, constraints and the approved marketing plan. The outputs from the process are the physical or electronic form of advertising brochures, advertisement leaves and/or the soft copy of the ad file. The process of marketing using the specialist literature can be computerized to a great extent. The computerization and the use of electronic media as a facilitator can prove to be highly effective and cost-efficient, also reducing the time to reach the customer. Computerization in the process can be done at various levels of the process. At the very first stage, the inputs to the process can be taken by computerized systems which keep record of customers and their purchases. Along with the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems, budgeting and costing can be done using the accounting modules and sections of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. The system can then be integrated with the online systems to send promotional materials and newsletters to customers electronically. This will result in tremendous time and cost saving. The outputs generated can be designed in such a way that they can be of use for other systems and processes as inputs. This will create a chain of processes integrated and computerized. With the use of Enterprise-level systems, computerization has become possible. All this automation of inputs, outputs and the process comes under process automation which is now becoming a global trend. The reduced costs, quicker processing and delivery, increased accuracy and headcount reduction are the few major benefits that are reaped as a result of automation. "Business process automation (BPA) is the process of integrating enterprise applications, reducing human intervention wherever possible, and assembling software services into end-to-end process flows. As a significant part of business process reengineering, BPA improves operational efficiencies and reduces risks. BPA is made possible through enterprise application integration and service-oriented architecture solutions" (n.a.,Businesss Process Automation. Retreived March 20, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Process_Automation) . The automation and computerization will allow Milly to become more efficient and productive in Mopeds' marketing. Milly's information needs require a central repository of data they have from day-to-day operations and routine business activities. The idea of using a database is not a bad option as it meets the data storage needs of Milly, but at the same time, as the size of database increases, databases may reach their limits. If the data requirements are huge, they should consider implementing advanced and specialized databases or datawarehouse. In any case, their needs will be fulfilled by a database system. The database system should be capable of holding details about their customers, suppliers, distributors and should be capable of producing delivery notes and generating invoices. Milly's management wants to incorporate automatic order recording and processing into the system by allowing telephonic orders to be recorded directly into the system. All their needs require a full fledged working database system atleast. If they can afford, they may go for a higher level Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution which will not only incorporate database, but will also provide a central data storage, enterprise-wide connectivity and provide all business management support applications in one package. This will not only provide them a convinient and complete data storage solution, but a comprehensive business package. File storage in computer systems may be done in a variety of ways. The different ways have their pros and cons. The databases are a unique way of storing data where everything is stored in a structured manner. The data can be easily generated, stored, retrieved and formatted according to the requirements. In this way, databases are a better solution to store data than other ways to store as files on the hard disk. Saving files on hard disks may not be a viable option for enterprises with large setups and huge data storage needs. File storage mechanism may suffice their needs in the short run, but in the long run, they require a solution that is capable of handling and processing tremendous amount of data. If their data requirements are not very large, they should go for a database system which will be a cost-effective solution too. But if their data requirements are huge, they should setup a datawarehouse or an enterprise resource planning system which will cater to increasing data and communication needs of Milly's mopeds. 3. SDLC (System Development Life Cycle) "Acronym for system development life cycle, SDLC is the process of developing information systems through investigation, analysis, design, implementation and maintenance. SDLC is also known as information systems development or application development. SDLC is a systems approach to problem solving and is made up of several phases, each comprised of multiple steps: The software concept - identifies and defines a need for the new system A requirements analysis - analyzes the information needs of the end users The architectural design - creates a blueprint for the design with the necessary specifications for the hardware, software, people and data resources Coding and debugging - creates and programs the final system System testing - evaluates the system's actual functionality in relation to expected or intended functionality" (n.a., SDLC. Retreived March 20, 2006, from http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/SDLC.html). The SDLC approach is appropriate if the management is interested in easy project planning and management. This is useful for those who lack state-of-the-art technology. For those who have more time and want to increase user satisfaction, prototyping is a better alternative. (Mahmood, 1987) The SDLC for the process and computerization will have five stages as mentioned above. In the identification phase, the need is identified and defined for the particular system to be built for the purpose of marketing using special literature. The need identification forms the basis for the system and the implementation. Once the need is identified clearly and agreed upon by the stakeholders, the next task is to gather information about the need and to analyze it. The need analysis takes into account the users and stakeholders of the system. It allows the development and analysis team to work in close coordination with the users so that they can get a deeper insight of its uses and requirements. The analysis team will meet the users and marketing department and sales team and discuss the possibilities of its implementation. The architectural design is the next phase. In this phase, the system architects will make and propose a design of the system to their team and Milly's management for approval. This is the beginning of the system development and coding. The architectural design will be based on the analysis done by the analysts. Once the design is finalized, then come the coding and debugging. In coding, the architectural design is converted into a running system by programmers and coders. On completion, debugging is done where the errors and bugs are removed. As a result of this stage, a debugged system is ready for implementation. On the completion of debugging, the system is run on trial basis. This is referred to as test run. The functionality and requirements required are matched with the provided functionality of the system. The successful completion of Testing makes the system ready to be delivered to the customer. On passing the testing phase, the system has already gone through rigorous testing and checking. If at any stage, changes are required during SDLC, the stage is iterated and repeated as the requirement may be. The development of the system is done in the above five stages. After them, the development team delivers the system to the organization, Milly in this case, for implementation. Maintenance is a continuous process which goes on until the end of life cycle of the system. Maintenance of Information system includes solving problems, removing bugs, archiving data and making backups. Works Cited 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Process_Automation 2. http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/SDLC.html 3. Mahmood, Mo A. (1987). System Development Methods--A Comparative Investigation, MIS Quarterly, Sep87, Vol. 11 Issue 3, p292 http://search.epnet.com/login.aspxdirect=true&db=buh&an=4679573 4. O'Brien, James A., (2002). Trends In Information Systems. McGraw-Hill Read More