Busniess Information system - Case Study Example

Business Information System A summary of the case Case: Kimberly-Clark Maps IT to Its Global Business Plan Kimberly-Clark, a multi-national manufacturer of hygiene and health consumer products has ardently been relying on and using innovation, and has thus become an indispensable business partner. In 2010, the company re-affirmed bottom-line and top-line business growth with a global business plan in which the company has decided to incorporate IT (Turban and Volonino 386). The aim was to enhance K-C’s major capabilities of marketing, customer development and innovation so as to sustain its rate of growth through partnership with large retail customers including Wal-Mart, Safeway, Kroger and Target; in so doing, K-C has managed to collaborate and share best practices and information on new product development, thus, strengthening relationships with key retail partners (387).

K-C’s CIO, Ramon Baez realized the importance of integrating IT in marketing and R&D departments so as to foster ongoing innovation and creation of business ideas; and improve K-C’s relationship with retailers. Additionally, it realized that data collection, analysis, effectiveness and efficiency can be improved through IT. For instance, the Innovation Design Studio K-C opened in Neenah, 2007, which included 3-D virtual reality IT system assisted K-C in collecting and analyzing data on consumers shopping experiences that is important for decision making on innovations and new product concepts.

The virtual reality system helped in simulating the looks of real retail store, such as Target and consumers shopping experience, behaviors, reactions, level of engagement, and factors influencing consumer’s purchase decisions; this helps K-C in gathering insights with regards to developing new product designs, in-store design and merchandising. In turn, K-C is able to reduce time required for marketing while at the same time ensuring that their retail customers are able to create display designs that are effective, thus, sell more K-C products.

Additional benefits to K-C include, K-C being seen by retailers as a technology-innovator in image building, giving retailers the urge to look to collaborate with K-C in initiatives that are IT intensive (Turban and Volonino 387).Case: Pep Boys Accelerates Its Planning ProcessThis case is about a publicly held company, an aftermarket service and retail chain, Pep Boys that is worth $2 billion and has the capability of offering replacement of tires, do-it-for-me, do-it-yourself, and buy-for-resale services.

The company having more than 500 stores in over 35 states depended on Excel spreadsheets to for its budget needs; it carried budget information which were sent to each of the 532 stores for changes, then for review by area directors and finally for to the headquarters for final review and consolidation. This turned out to be logistically and administratively a nightmare, in terms of delivery, follow-up and collection. In 2010, the firm opted for and selected the Adaptive Planning software for use in its budgeting because it was less sophisticated, and required less time for implementation, and lower operating costs.

Now, all the users in the firm are using and accessing a single system that is powered by a relational database enabling them to, in real-time, view updated information; this saves the firm more that 600-person hours per every budget cycle (Turban and Volonino 413).Works CitedTurban, Efraim, and Linda Volonino. Information Technology for Management: Improving Strategic and Operational Performance. 8th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2011. Print.