Strategic Management Of Information System - Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss about the Strategic Management Of Information System. Answer: Structure of the company It is opined by Arumugam (2016) that organizational structure is generally defined as a system that assists a company for assigning hierarchy which further helps in defining various roles as well as responsibilities. In addition to this, it is identified that organizational structure is a plan which outlines the responsibilities of the people and generally records as well as shares them as an organizational chart. The below figure reflects the organizational structure of the company Billabong. Figure 1: Organizational Structure (Source: Billabongbiz.com 2017, pp.1) Products and services The company Billabong which is one of the clothing retailers of Australia utilizes number of strategies which are quite helpful in meeting various requirements as well as needs of the clients at a very much reasonable price (Billabongbiz.com 2017). Billabong provides different types of product categories that mainly include watches, sunglasses, apparel; board shorts hardware, surfboards, skateboards as well as wetsuits. The services which are generally provided by the company are illustrated below: Home delivery services: Billabong generally helps in providing proper home delivery services to the consumers so that they can easily shop online by saving time (Turban et al. 2015). In addition to this, home delivery services of the company are helpful in providing excellent experience value to the customers. Catering requirements: The requirements as well as needs of the customers must be catered appropriately by giving them the opportunity to view products as well as services of the company as per their paying capacity. Online services: The Company Billabong helps in providing online services to the various customers so that they can shop different types of items online without wasting much time (Feigin 2016). Operations and functionality Current processes Billabong which is one the clothing retailers of Australia generally uses ERP system in order to manage various operations of the business. It is found that with appropriate utilization of ERP system, the company stores information as well as data which further helps the company in making proper decision regarding the organizational progress (Kilic, Zaim and Delen 2014). It is identified that ERP system is one of the tools that generally assist in processing as well as organizing various types of information as well as data in order to improve the development of different commercial activities in both long term and short term. In addition to this, the ERP system is quite helpful in providing the opportunity of integrating procedures of business so that appropriate quality of organizational performance must be maintained within the company. Challenges and Gaps The company Billabong manages its various operations as well as functions with the help of the ERP system. It is identified that in spite of the number of advantages of ERP system, there are number of challenges as well as gaps that ERP system creates (Nwankpa and Roumani 2014). The most significant problem that Billabong is facing due to the utilization of ERP system is that the company is not able to meet the requirements as well as needs of the customers due to improper categorization of customers preferences.. Moreover, the company faces number of other problems including competition, improper management of supply chain as well as inventory system (Shen, Chen and Wang 2016). All this problems needs to be resolved appropriately. Issues which will be fixed by the new system It is quite important to resolve the challenges as well as issues that the company is facing and therefore the higher authority of the company decided to develop cloud based ERP system. The issues or problem that will be fixed due to the utilization of cloud based ERP systems are as follows: Improper supply chain management: According to Tenhiala and Helkio (2015), the issues that are associated with the supply chain as well as inventory of the organization can be resolved properly by developing cloud based ERP system within the organization Unable to meet the requirements of the customer: The Company is not able to track the preferences of the customers properly and as a result they are unable to meet their requirements (Kilic, Zaim and Delen 2014). However with the development of cloud based ERP, the company is able to track the preferences as well as needs of the customers properly which helps in resolving the issues that is related with the needs of the requirement. Huge competition: According to Efe (2016), with the development of cloud based ERP, the company Billabong can easily compete with other retailers of the market as due to the use of cloud the company can easily manage its operations as well as functions without facing much problem. Criteria which is utilized for proving that the proposed system is helpful in meeting requirements The criterion that helps in proving that the developed cloud based ERP system is quite helpful in meeting various needs as well as requirements of the company are provided below: Inventory management: The use of cloud based ERP assists in managing the functions and operations of the companys inventory system which further helps in delivering the products as well as services properly to the customers. Demand foresting: It is opined by Efe (2016), the cloud based ERP system is able to track the needs as well as demands of the customers by categorizing their preferences. Thus, it is analyzed that the developed cloud based ERP system is helpful in meeting the customers demand. Customer management: It is stated by Tenhiala and Helkio (2015) that use of cloud based ERP helps in capturing the activities as well as preferences of the customers properly for attracting the customers. Proper customer service not only enhances the number of customers but also helps in increasing the sales of the company. Information system strategy constituents and description about the requirement of the strategy within the organization The various constituents of information strategy are: It mainly includes various types of information as well as data which are generally required at strategic, tactical as well as operational levels of the organization for meeting various goals as well as objectives (Grinblatt and Titman 2016). Various sources of information are generally utilized by the information strategy so that appropriate business opportunities must be developed. It generally comprises of various types of interconnections which are mainly present in different types of activities of the organization for providing, processing as well as obtaining significant data (Mendelberg 2017). The information system strategy is utilized as the aprt of entire organizational strategy due to the reasons which are illustrated below: Creating problems in the entrance of the competitors: It is identified proper use of information system within the organization helps in providing unique services as well as products which further assists the company to gain proper competitive advantage (Grinblatt and Titman 2016). Reducing cost of product: Internal cost of the companies can be reduced due to the use of information system. It is analyzed that the use of information system helps in allowing the company to deliver proper services as well as products at very much cheaper costs. Database creation for improving marketing: According to Peppard and Ward (2016), the utilization of information system helps the organization in improving the business related strategies in context to sales and marketing which further assists in improving the brand value of the company within the competitive market. Reasons of experiencing difficulty while developing information system strategy The issues as well as challenges that the company mainly faces in developing proper strategy for the information system are illustrated below: Time related issues: If time analysis for the implementation of information system strategy is not done properly then it is considered as one of the significant obstacle which obstructs the development of information system strategies. It is opined by Mendelberg (2017) that improper time extension can create delay in the information system strategy development.. Technical problems: It is stated by Grant (2016) that various types of technical issues occur within the software as well as hardware of the system which needs to be resolved properly. In addition to this, barriers or a problem which are generally related with telecommunication also creates difficulties in implementing the strategies of information system properly. Human challenges: The problems that occur due to the development of information strategy include improper process of recruitment, improper facility of employment as well as improper management of resources. Issues related with management: The management of the company faces number of challenges in aligning the newly developed information system strategies with the organizational business. It is very much important to measure the IS gap before identifying the companys current position (Grinblatt and Titman 2016). Additionally, the other challenges that the company faces includes improper support, presence of inappropriate channel of communication as well as improper strategies. The issues as well as challenges of the company in developing proper information strategy can be mitigated after following the steps that are provided below: Executive management team support: Appropriate support from the management of the company is needed so that the development of information strategy would be helpful in meeting the objectives as well as goals of the company. Appropriate information: Proper flow of information is quite important in order to make the project successful and with the help of proper information the team members of the project will engage themselves in the development of information strategy (Peppard and Ward 2016). Proper relationship between top management and staff: Proper relationship is needed with various staffs of the organization so that both the top management as well as staff can discuss well on the project for developing it successfully (Grinblatt and Titman 2016). Participation of the employees: It is quite important for the management of the company that they must ask the team members to participate within the project so that the development of information strategy will become successful. Failures of information System Typical problems that may arise in the projects of information system The various types of problem which may occur in the project of information system are elaborated below: User boarding as well as training: The Company has to provide proper training facility to the workers as the newly developed system is cloud based and only with the help of training, the workers are able to work properly (Sudhendra, Ranganath and Nandan 2016). Providing proper facility of training needs huge amount of money and making arrangement of such an amount is one of the significant challenge before the company. Customization: The Company faces difficulty in moving to the new deployment due to the development of Cloud ERP system. It is identified that appropriate change within the procedure of the business generally needed to be properly fit within the corset of standard software that is considered as one of the most important challenges. Change management: In order to implement cloud based ERP, it is quite important for the company to invest huge amount of money in development which is found to be one of the biggest challenge before Billabong (Beaulieu et al. 2014). Illustration of the answer with the help of literature review It is stated by Navaneethakrishnan (2013) that cloud ERP is one of the approach to enterprise resource planning that helps in making the utilization of cloud computing platform as well as services for providing flexible transformation of cloud services. However, the company that uses cloud based ERP faces huge difficulty in managing the issues which are associated with cloud. It is opined by Duan, Fesak and Stuart (2013) that any other connection related issue as well as network failures are generally reflected within the performance of cloud based ERP. In addition to this, it is quite important for the company to move its different activities to the ERP provider and the outcome of moving activities are generally considered as one the important IT competencies of the organization. Suggestion of the remedies or problems which x4is identified The challenges of the company can be easily mitigated by adopting proper strategies that are elaborated below: Proper training: The Company must spent proper amount of budget on training so that the employees can be able to work properly with the newly developed cloud based ERP system (Beaulieu et al. 2014). It is identified that appropriate amount of budget investment on training as well as boarding helps in ensuring the proper facility of training is preserved within the company. Proper customization: The procedure of customization must be done appropriately with the help of architectural model (Nguyen, Nguyen and Misra 2014). Appropriate procedure generally includes proper customization which further helps in listing the suppliers who generally responds to each of the functional requirements of the company. References Arumugam, S., 2016. Moral business practice arrives-part 1: feature-corporate citizenship.HR Future,2(Feb 2016), pp.20-23. Beaulieu, T., Martin, T.C., Sarker, S. and Bjrn-Andersen, N., 2015. Confronting, Confirming, and Dispelling Myths Surrounding ERP-in-the-Cloud.Ais Transactions on Enterprise Systems,1(1), pp.3-16. Billabongbiz.com., 2017.Billabong Biz : Behind the Brand - Investors - Investors Home.[online] Available at: https://www.billabongbiz.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=154279p=irol-irhome [Accessed 12 Dec. 2017]. Duan, J., Faker, P., Fesak, A. and Stuart, T., 2013. Benefits and drawbacks of cloud-based versus traditional ERP systems.Proceedings of the 2012-13 course on Advanced Resource Planning. Efe, B., 2016. An integrated fuzzy multi criteria group decision making approach for ERP system selection.Applied Soft Computing,38, pp.106-117. Feigin, L.M., 2016.The effects of protests and boycotts on a brand and its reputation: a case study on Woolworths and boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS)(Doctoral dissertation, The IIE). Grant, R.M., 2016.Contemporary Strategy Analysis Text Only. John Wiley Sons. Grinblatt, M. and Titman, S., 2016.Financial markets corporate strategy. Kilic, H.S., Zaim, S. and Delen, D., 2014. Development of a hybrid methodology for ERP system selection: The case of Turkish Airlines.Decision Support Systems,66, pp.82-92 Mendelberg, T., 2017.The race card: Campaign strategy, implicit messages, and the norm of equality. Princeton University Press. Navaneethakrishnan, C.M., 2013. A Comparative Study of Cloud based ERP systems with Traditional ERP and Analysis of Cloud ERP implementation.International Journal of Engineering and Computer Science,2(9), pp.2866-2869. Nguyen, T.D., Nguyen, T.T. and Misra, S., 2014. Cloud-based ERP solution for modern education in Vietnam. InFuture Data and Security Engineering(pp. 234-247). Springer, Cham. Nwankpa, J. and Roumani, Y., 2014. Understanding the link between organizational learning capability and ERP system usage: An empirical examination.Computers in Human Behavior,33, pp.224-234. Peppard, J. and Ward, J., 2016.The strategic management of information systems: Building a digital strategy. John Wiley Sons. Shen, Y.C., Chen, P.S. and Wang, C.H., 2016. A study of enterprise resource planning (ERP) system performance measurement using the quantitative balanced scorecard approach.Computers in Industry,75, pp.127-139. Slack, N., 2015.Operations strategy. John Wiley Sons, Ltd. Sudhendra, A.S., Ranganath, C.P. and Nandan, G.T., 2016. Web Based Application for Cashew Industry on Cloud.Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research,2(4). Tenhil, A. and Helki, P., 2015. Performance effects of using an ERP system for manufacturing planning and control under dynamic market requirements.Journal of Operations Management,36, pp.147-164. Turban, E., King, D., Lee, J.K., Liang, T.P. and Turban, D.C., 2015. Retailing in electronic commerce: Products and services. InElectronic Commerce(pp. 103-159). Springer International Publishing.