Systems in Organizations

Systems in Organizations

Project I - Present

Business

This project will focus on the business needs of a Wal-Mart in United States. The company has developed its business model with a customer centric focus. All the activities and processes are designed to deliver the best quality product and after sales service to the customer. Following are the objectives of the company

To provide customers with best value for per dollar spent

Meet customer expectations by continuously seeking, collecting and taking action based on the feedback collected from customers.

To provide shareholders with healthy return on their investment by improving the profitability through technological and infrastructural initiatives

To provide customers with highest levels of after sales service

To provide the employees with opportunities to build their skills and rewarding them fairly

Information Needs

In order to meet the above objectives, the company needs to have an effective and productive sales and marketing department. Company needs to have customer data in order to identify its target audience and improve the effectiveness of its marketing communication. Furthermore, it needs information regarding the strategies of its competitors. Moreover, there is a huge amount of data that can be collected from the Point-of-Sales to provide useful insight into the buying behavior of the customers. Company needs to store, analyze and interpret the data in order to generate more effective marketing campaigns and offers.

System in Organization

The computer system should be able to collect information generated from the Point-of-Sales (POS) and the online website. Currently Wal-Mart is relying on ERP solutions from a variety of software vendors. For example, it uses SAP ERP for managing its financials internationally (Barlas 2008). However, it uses DWS Consulting LLC Retail Estate ERP (DWS 2011, p1). There is a lack of integration between the two ERP system which results in an inconsistency in the business strategy development and implementation.

Project II - Past

Introduction

Wal-Mart is among the largest and most profitable retail store in the world with its operations spanning outside America. The large scales of its business operations require pose several challenges to effective decision making due. The corporate head require real-time information that provides insight into the operational and marketing effectiveness of the company. They aim to provide high quality at affordable price point and that is achieved by efficiencies in the supply chain. The supply chain department's needs real-time data that helps them to making decisions regarding the forecasting, procurement and warehousing of the goods. Moreover, the data collected from POS is essential for marketing department to devise creative and attractive marketing campaigns.

Description of Context

Wal-Mart was established in 1962, and has turned into a giant in the retail industry due to its highly effective supply chain. This efficiency is due to the collaboration between the suppliers and Wal-Mart achieved through innovative technological software. Computer software is being extensively used at Wal-Mart to automate most of the time consuming tasks involved in the procurement, warehousing and finance departments. The success of Wal-Mart was a result of continuous commitment to investing in information technology ...