Thursday, July 16, 2009
Okay. I'm feeling bored.
So I'll.... Paste my work here! (haha most of you'all might be thinking: this is BS. Well.... IT IS)
1(a) What is supply-chain management? How do Internet technologies aid the supply chain coordination?
Supply chain management is the constant management of service and goods rendered to customers in such a way that it would maximize customer value and help achieve a competitive advantage. Based on two ideas, the first being that every product which reaches the end customer is from the combined effort of multiple organizations, this is known as the supply chain. And the second being that these supply chains is neglected by most companies. They only pay attention to what is going on in their area only and not many businesses manage the entire chain of activities that ultimately delivered products to the final customer. The results was often not up to expectation and ineffective.To be successful in supply chain management, the companies need to be connected through two types of flow. The physical flow and the information flow. Physical flow involve the movement, and storage of goods and materials. This is the most visible part of the entire operation. Information flow allow the various supply chain partners to coordinate their plans, and to control the day-to-day flow of goods and materials up and down the supply chain. Technology is able to aid greatly with the flow of information. And being the initial stage of the entire operation, it is most important that the information that flows between the partners be accurate, quick and on-time. Should any hiccups happen here, there would be a delay in the delivering of goods, supplies or materials. This would in turn; affect business of the partners, slowing or stopping in sales would be inevitable.
One example would be Wal-Mart’s satellite network; it can link together suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retail outlets, and ultimately, customers, regardless of location.
1(b) With examples, explain how customer relationship management systems help a company build and nurture strong, long-lasting relationships with customers.
Customer relationship management has always been an important part in a business. For a business to thrive and do well, it must maintain a good relationship between them and their customers. Even small stores like mini-marts do maintain a good customer relationship as the store owners may recognize regular customers, they might even remember what they like and not like and can even recommend better brands that might interest them. This way, the customer will not feel so threatened. However, for major companies and business, it would be impossible to remember and recognize every single one of their customers.One good example would be JCDecaux. The outdoor advertising leader did not know, at start, the profitability of its billboards and advertisements. So they worked with CSC, a company which provides customer relationship management solutions, and after that the French company had a global view on its billboard sales. It allowed them to study their existing situation and define the right sales indicators. They eventually became the world’s third largest supplier of poster boards and the top supplier to the poster advertising industry. They acquired many competitors but learnt that knowing what the customers like and do not like, how they feel about the company’s products would be vital for their survival in their area of expertise.
2(a) Why are databases so important to a company's profitability and competitive advantage?
A company’s profitability and competitive advantage is based mainly on good decisions that are made, and their ability to know what they need to do and not do. This would be impossible if they tried to memorize their sales records or things that would help in the decision making process. With databases, they are able to keep every single sales record in storage. And they would be able to pull that information out whenever needed. These would be vital and help the company maintain its competitive advantage. From these information, they would also be able to look at their past sales and predict trends in sales. It would enable them to stop the sale of a certain product once the company deems that it is not going to sell well.
2(b) Discuss the business intelligence (BI) tools available to managers and end users.
There are many Business Intelligence (BI) tools out there. They consist mainly of spreadsheets, reporting and querying software, Online analytical processing (OLAP), dashboards and data-mining.Spreadsheets are basically programs which are able to help the company in their financial area as they can quickly calculate and change all the necessary components once a single cell is edited. A set formula can be put in place to determine how the contents of those cells would be calculated. The most common form of spreadsheet programs these days would be Microsoft Excel.Reporting and querying software would enable the company to extract, sort, summarize, and present selected data from a database. This would help the company save time and resources in gathering information and compiling them into a presentable format. Some examples of these software would be Alchemex, Crystal Reports and LogiXML.OLAP consists of relational reporting and data-mining. The typical applications of OLAP are in business reporting for sales, marketing, management reporting, business process management (BPM), budgeting and forecasting, financial reporting and similar areas. Databases that are configured for OLAP mainly use a multidimensional data model, allowing for complex analytical and ad-hoc queries with a fast execution time. They borrow aspects of navigational databases and hierarchical databases that are faster than relational databases.
2(c) What are the elements of a good information policy? Explain why an information policy is necessary.
The main elements of a good information policy is Confidentiality and Privacy, access, accountability, authentication, availability and information technology system and network maintenance policy. Access defines rights, privileges, and mechanisms to protect assets from access or loss. Accountability defines the responsibilities of users, operations staff, and management. Authentication establishes password and authentication policy. Availability establishes hours of resource availability, redundancy and recovery, and maintenance downtime periods. Information technology system and network maintenance describes how both internal and external maintenance people are allowed to handle and access technology. Confidentiality refers to the obligations and desires to protect private, property and sensitive information from those who do not have the right and need to obtain it.All these would help protect privacy of information and reduce the risk of a company losing their information to others. Information is vital and a policy is needed to protect it.
; Think. Not talk.
1:11 AM
