Analysis Of Information System Strategy For Woolworths - Essay.

1. Identification and discussion of the chosen company’s structure, products and services under consideration.

2. Operations and functionality: Identify and discuss
a. The current processes
b. Any gaps and what is not working properly
c. Which specific issues that the new system will fix
d. Criteria that will be used to prove the proposed system meets requirements

3. Discuss what constitutes an Information Systems (IS) Strategy and explain why such strategy is needed as part of the overall organisational strategy.

4. Discuss why the organisation may experience difficulties in developing an Information Systems Strategy. As part of your answer you should suggest solutions to the difficulties you discuss.

5. With reference to your studies on Information Systems failures:
a. Analyse the typical problems that might be expected to arise within Information Systems projects.
b. Illustrate your answer with reference to literature and any relevant examples.
c. Suggest remedies to the problems you have identified.

Identification and discussion of the chosen company’s structure, products and services

According to Hall and James (2014), organizational structure is one of the systems that mainly comprises of implicit as well as explicit institutional policies that are mainly designed in order to outline the roles and responsibilities of work that is delegated, controlled as well as coordinated. The structure of the company “Woolworths” is provided below.

                                                                             Figure 1: Structure of Woolworths

                                                                                  (Source: Biddle 2016, pp.3)

The company “Woolworths” is one of the major Australian companies with extensive retail interest in New Zealand as well as Australia. It is identified that the main strategy of the company is to meet the needs as well as requirements of the customers effectively at a reasonable price for making their brand value (Turban et al. 2015). The company supply number of different types of products that include fruits and vegetables, meat, seafood, bakery, dairy, eggs, pantry, freezer, liquor, baby as well as health and beauty products.

On the other, it is identified that Woolworths provides number of services that include:

Online services: The Company provides number of online services to its customers so that they can easily shop and get their delivery on proper time (Feigin 2016). In addition to this, the customers can get 24 hrs services from the company.

Financial services: Woolworths helps in allowing the customers to manage the money quite effectively. Woolworth’s money helps in providing value as well as rewards across number of financial services.

Home delivery services: The service of home delivery by the company is quite useful. The customers can get their product in their home and as a result they does not need to go out for shopping and thus the services is helpful in saving time (Arumugam 2016).

Catering needs and requirements of customers: The Company caters the requirements as well as needs of the customers by keeping proper view on the paying capacity.

The company “Woolworths utilizes ERP system” in order to manage its various business operations. This is mainly used by the company for managing as well as automating various business functions. This system helps in making the data accessible as well as more usable in context to file organization. It is identified that Woolworth helps in allowing accurate planning as well as engage in proper scheduling of daily activities for managing the records of the company (Kilic, Zaim and Delen 2014). With the help of the ERP system, the company integrates between sales, marketing, supply lines as well as to the human resource module. The company manages accounts, employee records, as well as other internal and external factors that generally affect the company.

Operation and functionality

It is identified that the company is managing its various business functions with the help of the ERP system however the company faces number of challenges as well as issues. It is identified that the quality of products that is delivered to the customers are not of proper quality and as a result the company is facing number of challenges (Nwankpa and Roumani 2014). The company is not able to meet the various needs as well as demands of the customers and as a result, Woolworths faces huge competition from other retailers in New Zealand (Shen, Chen and Wang 2016). In addition to this, the company is not able to manage the inventory, supply chain as well as the needs of customer management. Therefore it is quite important to implement a new system for resolving the issues.

It is identified that the company must implements cloud based ERP system for resolving the issues that the company faces. The problems that are fixed include:

Improper quality of products: The quality related issues that the organization faces will be resolved due to proper implementation of cloud based ERP (Tenhiala and Helkio 2015). It is identified that with the help of cloud based ERP, the inventory system can easily analyzes the quality of product.

Unable to meet the requirements of customers: The problems associated with meeting the needs of the customers can be solved with the help of cloud based ERP as with help of proper demand forecasting the problem can be easily resolved (Efe 2016)

Huge competition: With the help of cloud based ERP, Woolworths can easily resolve the problem that they face due to competition from other retailer. Proper demand forecasting as well as customer management assists in meeting the demands of the customer.

The criterion that reflects that the proposed system is helpful in meeting requirements is elaborated below:

Inventory management: With the help of cloud based ERP the retailer can easily manage as well as track the goods that not only helps in analyzing their quality but also assists in accounting for highest proportion of working capital as WIP, finished goods as well as raw materials.

Demand forecasting:  According to Kilic, Zaim and Delen (2014), tracking of the customer demand is considered advantageous as it helps in increasing satisfaction of customers and maximizes the sales that reduce competition from other retailers.

Customer management: With cloud based ERP, it becomes quite easy to capture customer data, activities as well as preferences which helps in increasing the sales of the company thus reducing competition risk from other retailers (Efe 2016).

The information system strategy is defined as a planning document that helps in explaining the utilization of information system as well as technology as a part of the overall business strategy of the organization and it is identified that it is mainly designed for supporting the overall business plan of the organization (Grant 2016). The main constituents of the information system strategy include:

• It mainly considers what type of information is mainly required at strategic, operational as well as tactical levels of an organization for meeting the objectives (Slack 2015).
• It generally involves interconnection off organizational activities that generally obtain, processes data as well as provides proper information (Grinblatt and Titman 2016).
• Information strategy uses various informational sources for creating proper business opportunities (Mendelberg 2017).
• It generally constitutes various types of informational resources for generating various business opportunities.

This strategy is mainly required as a part of overall organizational strategy due to the following reasons:

What constitutes an Information Systems (IS) Strategy and why it is needed as part of overall organisational strategy

Creating barriers in the entry of competitors: In this strategy, proper information system is used by the organization for providing proper services that is difficult to duplicate by other retailers.

Generating database for improving marketing:  According to Peppard and Ward (2016), the information system helps in providing companies an edge over competition for improving the strategies of sales and marketing.

Lowering cost of products: Information system strategy helps in organization to reduce their internal cost that helps in allowing them to deliver services as well as products at a lower price.

Leveraging technology in value chain:  It is opined by Grinblatt and Titman (2016) that the approach helps in pinpointing various activities of the business whenever the competitive strategies can be properly applied to have proper strategic impact.

The difficulties or problems that the organization faces in developing an information system strategy are as follows:

Management challenges: It is identified that the management of the company is facing issues in aligning the strategy of information system with business strategy. It is identified that proper identification of IS gap is required for analyzing position of the company (Grant 2016). In addition to this, the management of the company faces challenges due to most of the factors that mainly includes lack of proper communication channels, weakness of the managers to support the new information system.

Human challenges: The human challenges mainly include issues that are mainly related to various person of the company. It is identified that lack of resources,, improper recruitment, improper employment helps in creating issues while accomplishing information technology activities (Mendelberg 2017). Lack of proper computer skill is also considered as a challenge in developing proper information system strategy.

Technical challenges: Technical system challenges as generally considered as the challenges or issues that are generally related with the software as well as hardware aspect of information technology (Grinblatt and Titman 2016). It is identified that barriers are related with telecommunication is also considered as one of the difficulty in implementing the strategies of information system.

Time challenges: Improper analysis of time is also considered as one of the difficulty. It is identified that extension of time planning as well as presenting proper system leads to cancellation of the entire project due to strategies that might be modified in that period (Slack 2015).

The challenges that the company faces in implementing information system strategies can be resolved by using the methods that are as follows:

Robust relationship between top management and staff: Making proper robust relationship between staff as well as top management is quite important for successfully implementing the strategies of information system (Peppard and Ward 2016).

Proper support from the executive management: Proper executive management is required for creating as well as implementing the system for achieving the goals.

Proper participation of employees: Proper participation of employees is required for implementing the strategies of information system within the company.

Adequate information:  It is stated by Grinblatt and Titman (2016) that adequate information must be provided among employees so that they can participate for supporting the information system implementation.

The problems that arise within the information system projects are as follows:

Difficulties in developing an Information Systems Strategy and suggested solutions

Customization: The main problem is associated with moving existing customization to the new deployment (Beaulieu et al. 2014). It is identified that the change in business processes requires to be fit with the standard software corset which is also considered as a challenge.

Change management: It is identified that for cloud based ERP, proper investment in change management is needed. It is identified that the cultural change impact is underestimate that creates problems

Data security in cloud ERP: It is identified by Sudhendra, Ranganath and Nandan (2016) that cloud mainly conjures with the vision of high risk levels but however the chances of data risk is also present which must be resolved properly.

User on boarding and training: It is identified that delivering effective training is also an issue. Underinvestment in training by the organization is considered as one of the fatal mistakes as it creates number of challenges in implementing cloud based ERP.

 It is identified that the challenges that the company faces due to the implementation of cloud based ERP mainly differs on whether the implementation is from scratch or from cloud version to an existing solution of cloud. According to Duan, Fesak and Stuart (2013) it is identified that due to high availability over the cloud the security for cloud services mainly enhances. It is quite challenging as well as complex to handle the security risks that are associated with cloud ERP implementation. On the other hand, it is stated by Nguyen et al. (2014) that over the cloud, CSPs as well as clouds are generally separated from each other with the help of internet connection. It is identified that due to network failures and due to other types of connection problems, cloud ERP problems can be hampered. In addition to this, it is identified that in order to move towards cloud ERP, the company needs to move many activities from its IT department to the provider of ERP (Navaneethakrishnan 2013).The result of moving can be considered as IT competencies or it may faces resistance from the IT department of the organization.

The problems that the companies face can be resolved by implementing cloud ERP can be resolved by adopting strategies that include:

Proper customization: The customization must be done in conjunction with the licensing as well as architectural model feasibility study (Beaulieu et al. 2014). It is identified that the RFP procedure must include proper customizations that help in listing proper potential suppliers that generally responds to each of the functional requirement.

Appropriate change management: The change management for the organization must be developed before the ERP migration or before the procurement procedure in order to make the change management successful (Navaneethakrishnan 2013). It is identified that proper clear messages must be developed for engaging the users within the change management plan.

Proper training: Proper budget must be spent on   training in order to provide proper training facility to the employees (Nguyen, Nguyen and Misra 2014). It is identified that proper investment in durable on-boarding as well as various training toolsets helps in ensuring that that proper training capital is preserved.

References

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Beaulieu, T., Martin, T.C., Sarker, S. and Bjørn-Andersen, N., 2015. Confronting, Confirming, and Dispelling Myths Surrounding ERP-in-the-Cloud. Ais Transactions on Enterprise Systems, 1(1), pp.3-16.

Biddle, I., 2016. The Wesfarmers/Woolworths duopoly war: The Bunnings vs. Masters battle. Busidate, 24(3), p.3.

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.

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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.

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