Developing An Organizational System For Tesla Using Strategic Information System In An Essay.

1. Identify the company’s critical success factors and primary objectives. What types of information might be helpful in evaluating these objectives? Create a mission statement that would be appropriate for your client business.

2. Develop a formal organizational chart based on the information given.

3. Analyse the current system and identify specific control weaknesses that must be addressed by a new, improved system. As part of your analysis, prepare a document flowchart and a data flow diagram of the current system.

4. Describe the primary features of this new system and explain why this is the best solution for your client to pursue. Discuss the relevance of such advanced technologies as MRP, MRPII, and EDI as information system options.

5. The proposal should also contain the following items:

a. A description of the technology platform for the system.

b. A list of financial and nonfinancial data attributes for each entity in the ER diagram.

c. Four user views, which can be source documents or management reports. At least one view should support the needs of a non-accounting user.

d. Examine potential security risks, data breaches and provide discussion of the appropriate accounting controls for the new system

A piece of information or data that is managed and further utilized for assisting the crucial decision making process of a business organization is the mechanism which is termed as strategic information system. Information system can also be defined as the data which is used for supporting, changing or improving a corporate strategy (Gorla, Somers and Wong, 2010). Information system upgrades the current working system and also this alignment will be advancing the potential of responding to the various types of changes such as environmental, technological etc. and thus aids the business corporation in accomplishing competitive advantage. Moreover, this mechanism can also be defined as the guidelines r the roadmap which will be leading the business entity towards the attainment of the desired goals and objectives. The prime objective of integrating or incorporating this system is that it will enable the business entity in assessing the environmental changes and make utilization of the same in an advantageous direction. SIS can be segmented mainly in three types financial, operational and strategic which are inter-connected and can be employed as per the type of the organizational structure. SIS will be aiding the business firm on various grounds such as it will make the decision making process easier, with the supporting system that will aid in streamlining the desired and expected business objectives and goals. Alignment of information system wills the business strategies will be proven one of the biggest advantages for the organization.

The below demonstrated summary is a business proposal that is focused on the concept developing a new and improved organizational system for TESLA by making use of Strategic information System. Tesla Inc. was founded in 2003, and is an American multinational corporation which is located in Palo Alto, California (Tesla 2018). The business corporation is a manufacturing organization that specializes in electric vehicles, lithium-ion battery energy storage and solar panels and is one of the leading brand names in the sector. The prime objective of the proposal is to develop a better and improved organizational system by making the integration of information system.

Success factors are the boost or the motivating factors that stimulate the productivity and overall performance of the business corporation (Reuters 2018).  The critical success factors can be defined as the set of activities processes or the areas on which a business corporation depends for its continuous survival. These factors are distinct in nature for each business corporation and also reflect the current business and future objectives and targets. On the basis of the conducted detailed research it has been analyzed that there are 7 reasons which are considered as the critical success factors of Tesla (Steinbuch 2015). The presented are some of the significant factors of success:

Challenges and Strategies

Figure 1 Growth chart of Tesla Inc.

[Source: Critical success factors of Tesla Inc., 2018]

• Technology: Technology used by Tesla is so good that the other business corporations in the sector are relying on the same (Weber, 2010). There are many automobile manufacturers which rely on the technology of Tesla for instance, battery packs of Tesla are used by Daimler, Mercedes-Benz is making use of power-train, and Toyota uses a Tesla motor., and also General motors has developed a team for monitoring and tracking the new moves of Tesla.
• Monopoly: The journey of Tesla began with a tiny super-market that was easily dominated by the business entity. This was the market of high-end electric sports cars. Though the Roadster cannot be compared with the Ford F-150 in terms of volume, the Ford did not allow Tesla to generate fair amount of revenue from the mentioned product to move further down the chain (Steinbuch 2015). One more example of this is that the business entity is planning to expand business by launching the Model S as it goes to its 3^rd generation car which is believed that it will be a mass market car.
• Team: Tesla is one of the business corporations which have a huge team of professionals and hence it is not surprising as the CEO of is the consummate engineer and salesman. Workforce of a business corporation plays an empirical role in the growth and prosperity of the business corporation. As the teams or the staff of the business entity is the core element that is required for the execution of all the operations and functionalities. And hence team is considered as one of the critical success factor for a business corporation.

• One of the prime objective is to generate demand and drive sales for the Tesla’s Motors electric car
• Establishing long term brand recognition and managing high level corporate reputation is another objective that can be considered under the list (Cassidy, 2016)
• Management of the existing customer base of Tesla and thus developing loyalty referrals of customers

For a company like Tesla, in order to accomplish its objectives and goals, there is a prior need of data and information. The rivalry structure of the company needs to be revised to high standards such that the extra cost of vehicles gets reduced. The firm shall revise its policies and strategies; make significant changes to them, if required (Devadevan, 2013). In order to deal with rivalries in the international market, the company has to focus on the improvising the quality of its automobiles. Tesla should come up with a strategy which helps to reduce the cost of the products.

To provide customers with products of high value and world class services is the main focus of Tesla; which will further attract customers (Rowland 2018). The mission is to retain the customers with satisfying ownership experience in various countries.

Tesla has managed to build an effective and unique system that it can face any amount of rivalries in the market across the globe. The company always encourages improvement and enhancement into its system. From time to time, the company has adopted new information processing technologies. There has been evolution and growth in the recent years into the system. This is done in order to cope with the fast paced changes in the industry (macro environmental changes) (Abawajy, 2014). These macro environmental changes comprises of changes in manufacturing operations, sales, economic changes, varying environmental standards, fast paced globalization, electronic technologies. Tesla works on a lean production system and it has brought drastic changes in the manufacturing industry. It is said that one has to adapt with the changes in order to survive. The system of Tesla is a fine example of this. Many give the credit to the spirit of the company for continuous improvement and enhancement. The laborers and the members of management all work together as a unit and create an effective work culture. The set of rules for the entire company is same. At the end, the company has to meet the requirements of the costumers, thus it has to keep on revising the rules and regulations of the system. The other name which is given to Tesla Corporation is lean manufacturing system. The production system is an asset for the company and most probably; the best part of it. It has been 15 years of its tremendous journey, and it has managed to beat so many rivalries in the system. The production system has undergone many changes during all this time.

Implementation of Technology in Tesla's System

In the recent times, the manufacturing industry is at its peak and its growth helps the companies to achieve a good brand image in the market with such immense competition. Recalls car has proven to be a huge failure for Tesla which is not profitable and has affected the image of Tesla in market. Not only is this, in the international market, the company facing several threats regarding its weakness to meet the set standards and policies (Bhunia, Hsiao, Banga and Narasimhan, 2014). Thus there are conflicts while producing the products in international market. Another failure which the company encounters is the failure in management. In the production of automobile cars, Tesla is unable to control its weak management. When the management is meeting such lows, the company has not been successful in hiring employees having potential and skills to run the production successfully. There is another threat i.e. the lack of suppliers, which is affecting the growth and objectives of the firm. During the manufacturing of ample of auto mobile products; the company comes across with various issues like fraud, authentication problems, issues with suppliers, third party issues, informed permission and confidentiality of costumers. Tesla has come up with various strategies to solve all the above issues and its own weakness in management in the market. Initially, the company was known for its rapid measures and the display of genuine interest in correcting mistakes.

Figure 2 Document flowchart of Tesla

[Source: Document flow chart diagram for a car manufacturer, 2018].

Figure 3 Data flow diagram

[Source: Data flow diagram for a car manufacturer, 2018].

Technology is playing a major role within the industry to enhance the overall performance and effectiveness of the workers. It provides them with smarter ways to the same work in lesser time. Technology can prove to be an asset for the growth of any company.  It can be noted that TESLA has laid great emphasis on the implementation of technology over the recent years. The firm is moving with time by addition of new factors and has become innovative and advanced. Apple car play and android auto are the recent examples of this evolution in industry. Now there are in-car Smartphone applications. In order to cope up with these latest innovations, Tesla is working towards expansion and exploring to integrate Smart device link technology in their already effective and dynamic Tesla entune system. As this technology is new to the company, Tesla has decided to outline the pros of its own smart device link technology; this will lead to a better understanding and analyzing this new innovation in technology. The company has also decided to work on smart driving and environmental effectiveness. For this the company shall build advance engines, which is already under process. This has led to evolution of hybrid system. The firm will install these latest innovations and applications in the upcoming models of vehicles’. Below are some of the features of this new system.

• Ensures a world class thermal efficiency and effectiveness.
• The engine provides strong power and swift response and feedback.
• Enhances fuel efficiency
• Handling of stability
• Permits fully electronic motor only operation when engine effectiveness and efficiency would be low.
• An excellent performance hybrid battery and the effective placement of the motor rotor’s permanent magnet.
• There is efficient advancement in the engine, which provides efficiency and effectiveness.
• Eliminates the CO2 emissions.
• Improves engine torque.

The implementation of this new system has managed to ensure a high level of satisfaction in the costumers. Tesla is always known for its hybrid vehicles, which can lead to development of automobiles in the upcoming years. Once this new system is installed, then the firm can revise its breaking system and make significant changes to it (Schlagwein, Thorogood and Willcocks, 2014). New breaking system should be devised in such a manner that it enhances the battery performance which minimizes the energy loss during energy transmission such that energy can be regenerated at a faster pace. This will help to meet the long awaited desires of the customers.

Electronic data interchange is the process of transfer of information from one firm to another digitally in an electronic form in a standardized format. The information is transferred in an electronic form rather than use of paper (Bott and Milkau, 2014). Hence this process is hassle free. The companies which transfer information to each other through this electronic process are known as trading partners. This process has put paper out of the system and all the information is handled electronically. This system allows the data and information to process or flow in a standardized format (Edibasics 2018). With the implementation of this EDI system, the losses can be tracked which helps in dealing with the competition in the market. In fact MRP (manufacturing resource planning) has proven as an effective tool for the planning of resources within the organization. This system not only helps in resource planning bur it is of great use in operational planning and financial planning. Tesla is using this MRP system in a right manner and has been using various kind of innovative material in the manufacturing of vehicles (Admin 2015). MRP system has also helped in solving the problem of delays in the delivery process. It reduces the cost of capital. A better planning or analysis of the data and information can be done within the organization with the help of this MRP system. This also helps in putting a check to the excess use of resources (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta, 2016). This tool has a significant role to play in the overall growth of the company.

The main aim of the organization is to attract the maximum number of customers. N order to achieve this, they have to provide the automobiles at a very reasonable price. They also have to face various rivalries in the international market. From time to time the company has come up with various such measures like hybrid system. Tesla has used various new technologies and innovations to meet the needs of its customers in the international market. The use of technology has proven to be a helpful technique to cope up with the rivalries in the international market (Bicakci, Unal, Ascioglu and Adalier, 2014). It has proved to be commercially successful. This new technology generally comprises of various applications, software and hardware. The company also uses HTML5, JAVA script and CSS. This helps in the manufacturing of cars within the organization. Tesla uses open software. The new AGL (automobile grade Linux), this system helps in customization of software. With the help of this Apple Inc (Gill, Bunker and Seltsikas, 2015) and android auto can be accessed automatically by the automobile. The company has jointly developed the AGL system along with ten other companies, which has customized the code system. Tesla has brought such automobiles into the industry which has great aspects like navigation and music. It has opened a window for the new technological reforms in the near future.

Figure 4 Financial and Non-financial attributes

Tesla can make use of the ER model for describing the specific domain of knowledge. A basic and unique ER model is comprised of entity types and specifies relationships that may exist between instances of those entity types.

Figure 5 Entity Relation Diagram

The loyal customer base is an asset for growth of any company. There are customer who show genuine interest in TESLA, thus in response to that it becomes the responsibility of the company to further enhance this trust (Goodhart, Hartmann, Llewellyn, Suarez and Weisbrod, 2013). Then only it can come up as a global leader of the industry. The four points, on which company needs to focus, are given below:

It becomes important to any company that an audit shall be conducted within the organization, so that it can analyze the frauds occurring within the company. An effective audit is necessary to check the errors, frauds and various other malfunctions (Hill, Jones and Schilling, 2014). There should be proper analyses, and then only these wrongful and frequent activities can be identified and analyzed. This kind of audit is observed within Tesla. From time to time, Tesla conducts a physical audit to detect these activities and to manage the resources in the competitive market.

This committee is formed to tackle the acceptance level of risks. It is the responsibility of this committee to form such a system which manages risk taking. Another responsibility of the company is to handle the costumer and company relationship, which is vital for the growth of this firm (Jenkins and Williamson, 2015). The transferring of data also comes under this committee. The committee manages the flow of information.

Tesla has a control over the sales order (Laudon and Laudon, 2015). The control over sales order helps the company to meet the demands and preferences of the costumers in the international market.

Different teams and committees shall be assigned separate tasks to accomplish.

Potential security risks, data breaches and appropriate accounting controls for the new System

The security of the information is always the prior focus of any company because it is directly related to its brand image (Bodnar and Hopwood, 2012). There should be a strategy to manage these security risks to maintain its position in the international market. These risks are stealing of information like data breaches, manipulating the operation system of the vehicles and manipulation in the mobile application security. Some of those risks are discussed below:

Data breaches: Data breaches have proven to be effective threats for the growth of the company. These issues occur internally within the software or applications (Liu, 2015). Basically, a data breach is the process in which unintentionally there is an unauthorized flow of private information to the entrusted systems which can be misused for any purpose. They affect the system immensely. The profits of the company become less and it faces several losses. This new shall be controlled by the firm to avoid data breaches. This can be done by separation of duties. Different committees shall be assigned different tasks. There should be an accounting control over this new system (Denton, 2016). When we operate separation of duties, the work gets divided among the workers and they are able to work in a hassle-free manner. Expect separation of duties, there are also some other alternatives like Physical audit. Physical audit helps to mange or reduce frauds or errors within the organization. Thus the company moves closer toward growth and profits (Mocker, Weill and Woerner, 2014).

Conclusion

In the limelight of the above presented analysis it has been concluded that the information system plays a crucial role in developing and enhancing the overall performance and potential of the business corporation. In this paper, the conclusion is that in its history of 15 years, Tesla has established itself as one of the biggest brands of the automobile industry. So far, there has been ample emphasis on the mission statement, organizational structure and success factors of the company. Tesla has an effective current system and has managed to attract large number of customers. In this task, there has been a discussion over the latest technologies and their implementation in Tesla. Tesla shall accept the new business proposal which has been proposed in this task. All these new technologies shall be implemented with great care. We have also discussed in details about data breaches and various other threats.

Making provision for advanced training sessions for the staff regarding the changes in the working environment within the organizational structure is required to be recommended strictly. Bringing changes in the leadership style as per the new and improved organizational system should also be done. More and more use of automation and contemporary means and mechanisms for developing the organizational structure.

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