Question:
Discuss about the Investment In Information System.
In recent times, the conditions for business are changing very quickly due to advancement in information and technology system. This report is telling the procedure of choosing ERP/AIS to formulate the decision of investment in information system. To understand it more clearly the report focuses on various points like process and requirement of business, requirement of system, and choosing the correct retailer. The company, which is taken for this assignment, is Arnott’s biscuits. The company deals in biscuits and snacks food and it was founded in 1865. The company is one of the leading manufacturer of biscuits and second largest provider of snack food.
Business process for the organizations is set of linked task, which are interrelated to each other and achieve the objective of the organization by delivering the product or service to the consumer. The systematic process of business will improve the efficiency and performance of business and systematic process means less probability of error. ERP helps the organization in organizing a systematic business process.
There are five production lines at the Huntingwood factory that manufactures the Arnott’s biscuits:
Line 1 for the production of Jatz and Sao crackers biscuits.
Line 2 comes in use for the other crackers biscuits and for the making of crisp breads.
Line 3 produces plain and semi sweets biscuits like Scotch Finger and Milk Arrowroot.
Line 4 comes in use to shape the varieties of biscuits.
Line 5 produces only chocolate biscuits like Tim Tams and Mint Slice (Oxford, 2014).
With the help of ERP (enterprise resource planning), Company can estimate that in what quantity raw material will be required for the production of biscuits on daily basis. Enterprise resource planning explains itself, that it will help the company in planning their resources. It is software, which help the company in improving their performance by reducing the wastage materials. It provides almost correct estimation of required raw material. In addition ERP, also assist the company by providing correct planning of available resources and mentions the production of units in the available resources (Leon, 2014). It is a cost effective method, which reduces the extra expenses on production of the company.
Business requirements are related to the particular needs of the management, which assist the company in achieving their objectives and goals in an effectual way. Therefore, the requirement of the business must be clearly specify to the management by that management will fulfill all the requirements for the various departments because lack of any required demand can affect the production of the business. The requirement is not limited to internal factors like finance or availability of raw material, requirement can be related to external sources also as promotion activities, transportation etc. all the demands which help in improving the efficiency of workers and improve the performance of business that can be a requirement for the business (McFarlane, 2012).
There can be several requirements for Arnott’s biscuit to improve their performance that are as follows:
Requirement of system are different from the requirement of business. The requirements of system are explained in a means of explaining advanced plan to convey business requirement. ERP and AIS are the softwares, which helps the company to manage all their resources whether it is internal or external. AIS (Accounting information software) assists the company in maintaining the record of every financial related activities like resources of finance, salaries, details of assets, cash in hand, etc. Whereas, the work of ERP is to plan that how company can use every single resources, by that wastage can be minimized and production can be maximized. Every business requires a correct system, which helps the company in smooth running of operations (Slack, 2015). The requirement of system can be anything; by that, organization will not face any difficulty in achieving their goals and objectives.
There are various system requirements, which are as follows below:
Server hardware: for successfully installation of the ERP software company needs to upgrade their system according to the demand of the software because these software does not work on outdated system. Arnott’s biscuit was created in 1865, and the company knows the affect of up gradation because they have upgrade with new flavor and taste in their biscuit that is why they are still running in the market. Likewise, company needs new system with upgraded features, which help the system to run effectively.
High accounting features: When company is big in size, then it is mandatory for that company to have high level accounting softwares in their software, which are able to solve any problem and records, and keeps the data safe. Arnott’s biscuit is very big company, which supplies their product in various countries like New Zealand, USA, and Japan (Galliers, et. al., 2014). Therefore, company must have the advanced accounting softwares, which loaded with all the features and makes the work easy for the accounting department because there will be high amount transaction and there is no chance of any mistake in recording that. For that reason, these softwares assist the company.
It is very important for the organization to have correct software in their systems because all the information related to the company is stored in the systems. Now, the work of every organization is depending on the systems. Effective and advanced systems have made the work easy of the organizations. There are various software, which made the work easy for the companies, but most popularly software, which every company has, are ERP (Enterprise resource planning) and AIS (Accounting information system). ERP helps the organization by providing the correct planning and utilization of resources, whereas AIS software is the accounting softwares, which helps in calculating all the financial use. Like use of finance, sources of finance, storing the expenses of company and calculating the salary of the employees can be done with the help of AIS. Although there are, various accounting softwares are there in the market but most popular software among the organizations is MYOB (Romney, et. al., 2012).
Along with the correct software company must select the correct vendors which sale their product in the market. Arnott’s is very old company and still running in the market due to they have correct vendors in their hand. However, to expand their business company needs to increase their vendors by that sales and profit of the organization will increase. However, there are many vendors in the market but finding the correct and viable vendor is necessary for the company because ultimately vendor is selling the product of the company and if vendor is involve in some legal issue then it will hamper the sale of the product from the side of that vendor. Therefore, it is very much essential to choose correct software and correct vendor (Romney, et. al., 2012).
There are several ways, which helps the company to improve their business efficiency. These methods are as follows:
Communication: Communication plays an important role in achieving their goals and objectives. Proper communication is very much essential at the workplace and for the Arnott’s biscuit, it is mandatory to communicate each thing among the employees because company makes biscuit and lack of communication can hamper the production or taste. In today’s competitive market communication is not only required at the workplace but also company should communicate with their customers and must take feedback about the products and try to know what new their customer wants in the product like design, taste etc (Becker, et. al., 2013).
Motivation seminars: Company must conduct motivation seminars for the employees by which employees get motivated and increase their working efficiency. Along with this company can conduct role-play sessions by which employees get opportunity to show their ability.
Periodic review: It is mandatory for the organization to review the performance of the employees at regular intervals. This will help the company to review the performance of every employee. This review session is very much beneficial for both company and employee because if there is any employee who is not meeting up the target or facing any problem at workplace this session will provide opportunity to talk with their superior and overcome the problem.
Easy processes: It is essential for the organizations to focus on the easy processes of working at the workplace, by that employee can work easily and does not feel any pressure. The planning and process must be easily understandable to all the employees by that they can work with more efficiency and helps in increasing the company profit (Becker, et. al., 2013).
Monetary benefit: Company should give monetary benefits to the employees, who do their work with effectiveness and do fewer mistakes. This will motivate the other employees to work with more efficiency. If every employee start working with more efficiency and do fewer mistakes, that will increase the profit margin for the company because less mistakes means less expenses of the company.
In the modern era of business, it is the significant need of every organization to install new and advanced technologies at the work place, which will improve the work efficiency of employees and business. For small-scale organizations, it is necessary to upgrade their machinery to sustain in the market. Technology not only saves times but also improves the efficiency of the work and affect the quality of the product. Technology plays an important role in the profit of the organization because due to modern technology the production of units increases by that there is enough supply of the product in the market that will result in high sales, which will increase the profit for the company (Wheelen, et. al., 2011).
Arnott’s company deals in biscuit and snack food. Company produces thousands of biscuit daily with the help of technology. Technology like oven in which biscuits baked and robots, which give shape to the biscuits. With the help of technology or heavy machines has made the production work easy for the Arnott’s biscuit. The only problem occurs while working on technology is proper knowledge of the machine. Company should conduct a short training session for all the employees by which employees can learn how machine will be operate. It is necessary for the organizations because every organization wants to increase the production of the units and that can only be possible with the help of technology (Wheelen, et. al., 2011). Technology not only helps in increasing the production or makes work easy but also creates an automated work environment at the workplace.
There are several types of security risks and data breaches in the company. In this modern world, the security risk has increased by various reasons. Now, Companies are investing huge amount of money to protect their data. These security risks are as follows:
Theft: It is one of the common risks, which every organization face. Theft of any material or data can damage the status of the company. Like, if any employee of Arnott’s biscuit breaks the trust of company, and gives the confidential information to the competitors then it will put negative impact on the business of the company.
Electric item: This security breach arises due to carelessness of the responsible person. This reason has emerged in the recent times very often that person forgets their belongings like laptop, phone and pen drive in office, airports, restaurants or any other place by which the chances of leakage of data increased, which will not good for the company (Chakraborty, et. al., 2011).
Hacking: In the modern world, where everyone is online. Many businesses run online and sell their product online. The major risks with these businesses are hacking risk. Hackers can hack the official site of the company and can put wrong details on the site, which will be read by the consumers or any other user. Wrong details of the company or product will not only damage the image of the company but also shut down the company. In this advanced technological world, it is easy for the hacker to hack the site, which is why companies are spending huge amount of money to protect their systems from hackers
(Chakraborty, et. al., 2011).
It is very much important for the companies to protect their company’s data and other confidential information. To protect these high-level information or systems, companies must make a team of skilled and technological friendly people who are goods at technology and are able to adjust in any situation. Along with this company must install highly advanced anti hacking software in the system, which will help the company by stooping hackers in accessing company system. These software not only stops hackers but also save the data in any conditions like if system damages then these softwares has back up of data by that company can again access their data by following some steps.
Conclusion
The report concludes that Arnott’s biscuit company is making biscuit from 1865. The company is the largest manufacturer of various varieties of biscuits in Australia and second largest supplier of snack food. The company is the subsidiary company of the United States Campbell Soup Company. The report focuses on the business process of the company where how they make biscuit and their production lines are described in brief. Along with this, this report mentions the requirement of business as well system. Various requirements of both these are mention above. To be successful in the market it is essential to choose correct vendor and softwares and Arnott’s biscuits are very much conscious about this. In addition, this report explains the reason by which company can improve their efficiency (Slack, 2015). The report also concludes the various security risks and company is spending god amount of money to protect their systems and data.
References
Becker, J., Kugeler, M., and Rosemann, M. (2013) Process management: a guide for the design of business processes. USA: Springer Science & Business Media.
Chakraborty, S., and Newton, A. C. (2011) Climate change, plant diseases and food security: an overview, Plant Pathology, 60(1), pp. 2-14.
Galliers, R. D., and Leidner, D. E. (Eds.). (2014) Strategic information management: challenges and strategies in managing information systems. UK: Routledge.
Leon, A. (2014) Enterprise resource planning. USA: McGraw-Hill Education.
Manley, D. (Ed.). (2011) Manley’s technology of biscuits, crackers and cookies. Netherlands: Elsevier.
McFarlane, I. (2012) Automatic control of food manufacturing processes. Germany: Springer Science & Business Media.
Oxford, J. (2014) A sweet and savoury tour of Arnott’s Huntingwood factory. [Online]. Available at: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/west/a-sweet-and-savoury-tour-of-arnotts-huntingwood-factory/news-story/e46541423dfb158c1a83053098c72fc9 (Accessed: 06 October 2017).
Romney, M. B., and Steinbart, P. J. (2012) Accounting information systems. UK: Pearson.
Simatos, D., and Multon, J. L. (Eds.). (2012) Properties of Water in Foods: In Relation to Quality and Stability (Vol. 90). Germany: Springer Science & Business Media.
Slack, N. (2015) Operations strategy. USA: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Wheelen, T. L., and Hunger, J. D. (2011). Concepts in strategic management and business policy. UK: Pearson Education.
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