John Lewis Partnership: A History Of Equality, Profit Sharing, And Technology Innovations (essay).

1. Understand how and why database systems are specified, designed, implemented, tested, maintained and used.
2. Analyse an organisations’ requirements for data storage and information gathering and how managerial decisions are influenced.
3. Evaluate the concept of database management and the technical responsibilities of a database administrator.
 

Employee Equality and Profit Sharing

John Spedan Lewis was the founder of John Lewis Partnership at his shop of Peter Jones in the year 1920 after he got separated from his father’s shop of Oxford Street Shop (in 1914) (Knowledge 2018). John Lewis was set up with single motive in mind of introducing equality among the employees. The sharing of the profit was implied for supporting the growth of equal importance among the employees. John Lewis later formed collaboration with Waitrose Supermarket for developing their operations with the inclusion of the technological innovations. The technological innovations helped the combined venture of John Lewis and Waitrose Supermarket for expanding the concept of profit sharing on a global scale. The company had focused for providing best after sale services to the customers so that the customers can become the loyal client of the organization (Wager, Lee and Glaser 2017). The price match and competitive price match condition is the most probable strategy that would allow the extension of the services to the customers. 

The organization of John Lewis had been putting its core involvement on the development of the operations. The alignment of the strategic goals is based for the deployment of the successful business operation development, happiness of all the employees, employee satisfaction, trust in members, and reward scheme (Knowledge 2018). The responsibilities of the ownership have been transferred to the ownership for the development of the successive rewards and profit sharing. The employee ownership has been shared with the help of passion development for business model operation.

Equal Ownership: The offering of the insights and practical operation had been successful for advising the employees with rewards and profits (Power, Sharda and Burstein 2015). The power in organization had been shared between the 3 bodies of authority in John Lewis namely, Chairman, Partnership Board, and Partnership Council. The organization had been following employee owned business model so that the employees would get the equal share in profit.

Profit Sharing: The sharing of the profit among the employees of the organization is a major factor that had resulted in causing the equal division of power. The John Lewis Partnership has aligned the strategy for making sufficient profits generation from its trading operations and the formation of the effective operations for the development of the improved services.

Brand Recognition: The organization of John Lewis has also focused on the development of their brand name and making it globally popular (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta 2016). The improvement of the offers, customer satisfaction, new business development, and market share increment has been aligned with the operations of the organization. The website of John Lewis had used effective flash player configuration for demonstrating flash elements and making the site more attractive for its visitors.

Brand Recognition and Customer Service

Better Jobs: The improvement of the jobs would provide option for the development of the supportive operational development. The job satisfaction would form the better alignment of the employee performance appraisal and rewards (Wager, Lee and Glaser 2017). The increment of the performance, productivity rise, sales increment, profit generation, and achievement of higher job satisfaction. The partners of the organization of John Lewis receive above market pay as they get the benefit of market performance.

Financial Sustainability: The financial sustainability of the operations is aligned successfully for forming the stability of financial growth so that the operations can be aligned effectively. The sustainability of the financial conditions is aligned so that the operations can be formed cohesively. The financial sustainability of the operations had been supported with the alignment of the operations of organization.

The challenges of John Lewis Department Store had been influenced with the passage of time and technology implementation (Majchrzak, Markus and Wareham 2016). The formation of the supportive operations was as a result of the implementation of the operations and listing the functions for the deployment of the successive operations. The problems of John Lewis Department Store are,

Department Store 2.0: The sales of the stores have been constantly decreasing due to the advent of the internet facilities for e-commerce. Although the store has been using e-commerce platform too, its store sales have seen considerable amount of dip in figures. Even the number of footfalls in the store had decreased considerably.

Rebuild Profits: The profit division rebuilding has seen considerable amount of drop for the employee ownership retail store (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta 2016). The company saw a drop of 31.2% in the first six months of operation and the cost increased due to matching the promotions with the competitors. The drop in profits was another major problem that John Lewis Department Store had to face.

Bricks vs. Clicks: The online ecommerce has captured more than 30% of the overall sales of the John Lewis Department Store. The store has to be maintained and the overall profit of online sales is comparatively less due to the maintenance of a number of activities involved with it. Hence, the store had to face loss in management of the large retail store apart from the vast online services. 

The John Lewis has been using many technology innovations for ensuring the seamless customer experience from the shopping process in the organization. The company had used much of its resources for front line as well as core systems that had been helpful for running the operational performance.

Challenges Faced by John Lewis Department Store

Oracle ERP system: The company had employed the use of Oracle for it enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform. The Oracle is the most widely used ERP software that is used by most of the large scale industries (Power, Sharda and Burstein 2015). The system integrators of John Lewis are Online Retail, Oracle Retail Consulting, and TCS consulting. The aim of using Oracle software is for effective management of stock control and delivering supply chain agility.

Order Management System: The implementation of the IBM Sterling Order Management platform is another most important feature for John Lewis. The software system is helpful for management of the customer’s orders so that effective alignment of the operations can be done (Lee, Thomas and Baskerville 2015). The implementation of the successive deployment management had been considered for the selling fulfilment of the customer’s orders.

Ecommerce System: Another important system that had been employed at John Lewis is the ecommerce platform that had been supplied by Oracle ATG and the Adobe CQ5’s web content management software. The integration of the these two systems had provided the platform for online business processes and enabled the business users for controlling large portions of customer experience.

PoS system: The John Lewis Company has also deployed a point of sale system that has been supplied by PCMS and it had been functioning very efficiently. The PoS system forms the major feature of supporting the operational development for the sales process.

The information system used at John Lewis Department Store was helpful for introducing the click and collect sales for the customers (Majchrzak, Markus and Wareham 2016). The time for shopping at retail store along with home deliveries had been shunted with the advent of the online e-commerce. The use of information system had been helpful for management of customer’s data, order process,

Customer Data Management: The organization had utilized the utilization of Oracle for it venture asset arranging (ERP) stage. The Oracle is the most generally utilized ERP programming that is utilized by the vast majority of the expansive scale businesses (Laudon and Laudon 2015). The point of utilizing Oracle programming is for compelling administration of stock control and conveying store network readiness. The information system had been helpful for managing effective data related to the customers. The use of the upgraded information system would allow John Lewis in the easing the access within the organization for faster and improved data processing.

Management of the order process: The usage of the IBM Sterling Order Management stage is another most imperative component for John Lewis. The product framework is useful for administration of the client's requests with the goal that viable arrangement of the tasks should be possible (Hashem et al. 2015). The usage of the progressive organization administration had been considered for the offering satisfaction of the client's requests. The information system had been helpful for managing data related to the order process. It had formed the benefit of increasing the speed of the sales or purchases by automatically detecting the client’s information from the database.

Technology Innovations

Ecommerce Information: Another vital framework that had been utilized at John Lewis is the internet business stage that had been provided by Oracle ATG and the Adobe CQ5's web content administration programming (Jones 2014). The combination of these two frameworks had given the stage to online business forms and empowered the business clients for controlling huge parts of client encounter. The security of the data on the e-commerce platform would be assisted by the implication of the security functions in the ecommerce platform.

PoS data management: The organization has likewise sent a state of offer framework that has been provided by PCMS and it had been working proficiently (Laudon and Laudon 2015). The PoS framework shapes the real element of supporting the operational improvement for the business procedure. The information system had been helpful for managing data related to the PoS process. The PoS data management is helpful for easing the invoice generation and operation development in the organization.

SWOT analysis of John Lewis’s Information System

The implementation of the information system would provide option for implementing effective decision making for John Lewis. The deployment of the effective decision making had been supported by the use of the improved information system (Hashem et al. 2015). The strengths of using information system for decision making are smarter information access, improved data collection, and correct interpretation and presentation and they have been explained in the points below,

Smarter Information Access: The effective decision making in the organization requires the use of information related to the implementation of the improved functional development (Jones 2014). The use of the information system would allow the users with the aspect of faster data processing and development. The smarter access of information would also provide ease for maintaining the functions of the successive development.

Improved Data Collection: The improved data collection would provide the ease of appropriate taking of decisions (Galliers and Leidner 2014). The collection of data would also provide ease in forming the correct analysis of the situation for making and decision for progress. The data collection had been supporting the analysis of the improved operation development.

Correct Interpretation and Presentation: The correct interpretation of the information had been supported by the use of the successive development factors. The evaluation of the operations had been supported by the interpretation and presentation of the information for the users. The analysis had supported the formation of the users with the successive deployment of the decision making process. 

SWOT Analysis of John Lewis's Information System

The information systems used at John Lewis works on a wide network that is connected for ensuring that the transfer of information can be done effectively. It would provide options for channelling their methods of communication to digitized process (Fuller et al. 2017). The implementation of the various systems had provided the option for clearing the possibility of system degeneration. The various weaknesses and vulnerabilities of system at John Lewis are increased data and information, exploitation from external, failure in quality assurance, and malfunction of PoS system. They have been explained below,

Increased Data and Information: The growth of the data is the primary reason for forming the threat to the existing system of John Lewis. The increased amount of data made it impossible for managing the workflow and maintaining the effective flow of operations. The development of the system had to face the issue of adapting better information capacity.

Exploitation from external: The exploitation of information stored in the information system of John Lewis is another major threat (Hashem et al. 2015). The external hackers and cyber criminals try to exploit the information for their benefits and it results in causing loss to the organization. The exploitation is a deliberate threat for John Lewis and it results in forming the financial loss for the organization.

Failure in quality assurance: The assurance of the quality of operations is a major factor that has impacted on the development of the operations for John Lewis. The failure to meet the expected quality of performance is a major setback threat for the organization as the customers expect some services from the organization (Fuller et al. 2017). The failure in meeting the expectations would tend to cause the major problems for the organization.

Malfunction of PoS system: The technological dependency is one of the primary vulnerabilities for most of the retail store and deployment of the PoS system is also dependent on the machines and functions (Galliers and Leidner 2014). The John Lewis organization had to face the same issue of malfunctioning of PoS and dependency on technology for their operations. It would result in causing delay in operations of the organization.

The various information systems at John Lewis are Oracle ERP system, Order Management System, Ecommerce System, and PoS system. The processes involved in the organization are purchasing, handling inventory, customer service, online ecommerce, accounting, delivery, and management. All these processes are managed for ensuring that the operations are managed successfully. The various person involved in these processes are partnership council, partnership board, chairman, Partners Counsellor (GA), Managing Director Waitrose (MG), Managing Director John Lewis (MG), Finance Director (MG), Group Development Director (MG), Director of Personnel (MG), Waitrose Management Board (MG), John Lewis Management Board (MG), and Internal Audit and Risk Management (GA).

The Benefits of Information System for Effective Decision-Making

Conclusion

The report had been made for analysing the case study of John Lewis Department Store and its development with the passage of time. The use of the profit sharing had helped John Lewis and Waitrose Supermarkets for the increasing the sense of equality among the employees. The use of technology had helped them for increasing their extent in the market for developing more effective operations. The report had provided in detail the existing information system technologies used by John Lewis. The implication of the advanced technology had resulted in developing some major problems within the organization like increased data and information, exploitation from external, failure in quality assurance, malfunction of PoS system. However, the use of the information system technologies like oracle ERP system, order management system, ecommerce system, and latest PoS system had helped them in providing major edge for the development of the operations. The technologies had assisted in providing the benefits of Customer Data Management, Management of the order process, Ecommerce Information, PoS data management, Smarter Information Access, Improved Data Collection, and Correct Interpretation and Presentation. The following section includes some recommendations for John Lewis so that they can overcome their vulnerabilities and develop more strong network in the current retail market.

Some recommendations had been given for John Lewis for implementing their market expansion and business development,

Integration of improved technology: The integration of the improved technology should be followed for improving their functions and operations.

Security Measures: The installation of data security measures would help in protecting their information from external infiltration.

Communication Development: The communication with the customers must be aligned so that the owners of the organization can get to know about the customer’s expectations. 

The study helped me in forming the knowledge of the successive implication of the operations for the development. I was able to study the organization of John Lewis for developing the final report of the assignment. I used various sources for gathering information about the influence of the effective information system on various retail stores. The alignment of the study has also being helpful for forming the analysis of the improved functional development for the alignment of the operations in the store. I did analysis on the benefits of implementation of the information system for John Lewis Organization. The study also provided an analysis of the different risks associated with the development processes. It also helped me in forming the deployment of the operations and it would also helped in forming the alignment of the improved activities. It would help in critically evaluating the existing information system and deploy successful formation of the reports.   

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