Discuss about the Real Time Business Intelligence in Supply Chain Analytics.
I would like to pursue a career in marketing management. The marketing department is an integral part of every organization irrespective of the industry in which it operates. A marketing professional uses various tools to analyze the internal and external environment that impacts the business. It is important for an organization to gain a competitive advantage for sustaining its market position in a given industry. Innovation and differentiation can help an organization in achieving its long-term goals. This can be done by re-inventing product development, manufacturing, marketing, distribution and customer support activities (Tarantilis, 2008). A marketing professional analyzes the value chain, competitor strategies, and industry trends. Marketers conduct a competitor analysis by examining their resources, product portfolio, competencies, research activities and positioning strategy. This gives a fair understanding of their relative strengths and weaknesses (Gligor, 2016). Marketing professionals are required to conduct market research through surveys, focus groups, interviews and field tests. A market analysis helps to understand the customer needs, growth rate, pricing trends, technological advancements, bargaining power of suppliers and emerging distribution channels. Managers use this research for taking decisions related to the marketing mix. Value chain includes suppliers, a manufacturing firm, distributors, and customers. As the product passes from one link of the chain to the other, it gains some value. A value chain involves business operations, marketing, and sales (Modrak and Marton, 2012). The marketing managers should have an in-depth understanding of the value chain in order to achieve a competitive advantage with the help of information technologies. The upstream and downstream flow of information helps the managers in making informed decisions. Analysing a value chain gives meaningful insights about the competitors. Marketing professions use environmental scanning for strategic decision making. Information is acquired about the political, social, economic, legal and technological trends that impact the business (Modrak and Marton, 2012).
Marketing mix includes various tools that are used by an organization to influence the purchase decisions of consumers. The main areas of marketing decisions include product, place, price and promotion. The marketing strategies should be aligned with the organizational objectives. Marketing decisions are influenced by the PLC (Product Life Cycle) (O’Leary, 2008). Every product goes through different stages from the time it is launched in the market to the time it fades away or disappears from the market. The four stages of PLC are an introductory stage, growth stage, maturity stage, and decline stage. Sales and profits vary throughout the PLC. The product offered by a company may be a tangible good or an intangible service. The products offered by a company are aimed to satisfy the customer needs and preferences (O’Leary, 2008). A company keeps making changes in the product portfolio for increasing its customer base sustaining its position in the market. The marketing professions make decisions regarding the products offered by the company (Sahay and Ranjan, 2008). This includes their performance, quality, packaging, after-sales service, return procedure etc. Price is the amount of money charged by a company for a given product. There are several factors that are considered before setting a price. These factors include product category, the cost of raw materials, manufacturing cost, distribution cost, profit margin, target customers, market competition, demand level and advertising budget (Özer and Raz, 2011). The most commonly used pricing strategies are premium pricing, economy pricing, market skimming, market penetration and neutral pricing. Promotions are used to communicate with the customers. Companies rely on promotional activities for enhancing their sales (Park and Koh, 2014). Marketing professionals promote the products/ services through advertisements, public relations, social media, special offers, press releases, emails, event sponsorships, loyalty programs etc. Marketing managers generally prefer to use more than one promotional tool. It is the responsibility of the manager to ensure that different tools should convey a consistent message to the target customers. Products can be advertised through online (display ads and pop-up ads) or offline modes (television, newspapers, magazines, leaflets and billboards) (Park and Koh, 2014). Marketing professionals are required to make decisions regarding promotional mix, positioning statement, message design, medium selection and message frequency. The place is the point where the customers can have access to company products and services. A company may choose to provide its products/ services through offline or online modes. The point of sale can be a retail store or a shopping website. Marketing professionals are required to make decisions regarding the location of the retail outlet, warehousing, and transportation (Park and Koh, 2014).
The main issue in the organization is that the marketing managers miss out some critical information while formulating strategies. Incomplete or delayed information leads to flawed marketing strategies. If the information is unorganized or the volume is high, there are chances that some crucial information may be overlooked (Priem and Swink, 2012). Since the internal and external factors are constantly changing, it is important to get information from reliable sources in a timely manner.
Technology is being used in different departments (production, marketing, HR etc.) of an organization for the purpose of innovation. Digitalization of supply chain can help in gaining an edge over the rivals in the automotive industry. Through digitalization of supply chain, the managers will be able to collect data and analyse it in a better manner. This will also help the managers in connecting with the customers through a digital medium (Ekinci and Baykasoglu, 2016). The information collected through digitalization of supply chain will help the marketing managers in making quick decisions. The main aim of this project is to replace the manual capturing and analysis of information by digital methods. Sharing of information will become more efficient. All the financial and non-financial data will be captured digitally. Analysis of data on a daily basis will help to understand the position of the company in the market. Multiple sets of data will give a better understanding of business operations (Djelloul, Estampe and Lamouri, 2012). Digitalization of supply chain will give more visibility about the various links involved in the value chain. This will make the managers capable of responding to business challenges like inventory shortage, scarcity of resources, and drop in orders (Ekinci and Baykasoglu, 2016). Better data analysis capabilities will lead to better business planning in the automotive industry.
It is the responsibility of the marketing professionals to analyse the strategic issues and the company’s competitive position in the industry. The managers have to identify the business opportunities and threats on the basis of this analysis. Marketing professional identifies the business areas that need improvement for gaining competitive advantage. The major marketing objectives are to increase the Return on Investment (ROI) for the company and create a positive brand image (Bouzayani, 2013). A company can become an industry leader by means of innovation. Innovation is not restricted to the products and services offered to the customers. A company can exhibit innovation through organizational culture, promotional strategies, distribution strategies, and supply chain management. Supply chain takes into consideration the flow of the information, material, and finances from the supplier to the end consumer or from the consumer to the supplier through various intermediaries (Djelloul, Estampe and Lamouri, 2012). Marketing professionals have to coordinate with the operational managers and production managers for making business decisions. For example, pricing depends upon the total cost incurred by the company and cost optimization depends upon supply chain management. Marketing managers require all the important information about supply chain. It is very important for the marketing professional to acquire the right information at the right time for making business strategies. Information about the value chain or supply chain can be helpful in product improvement or new product development (Klein, 2007). Acquiring reliable information in a timely manner is a major challenge for marketing professionals.
Big Data will be used in the company. Big data will help to analyse large volumes of data. This will result in better analytical capabilities. The marketing managers will have access to crucial information on a real-time basis (Reimann and Ketchen, 2017). It will be possible to share information with the different players in the value chain on a real-time basis for planning purpose. This will help to integrate various organizational functions like production activities, data management, and planning. Internet of Things (IOT) will be used for establishing a connection between different sources of information. Internet of Things (IOT) will help the marketing professionals to make demand forecasts in an accurate manner (Priem and Swink, 2012). Internet of Things (IOT) will be useful for the managers in creating simulations and what-if scenarios. Portals will be designed for the effective flow of information with stakeholders on a real-time basis. EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) documents will be used by the company (Carter, Kosmol and Kaufmann, 2016). Through EDI, the processing of documents will become more efficient and no human intervention will be required (Bouzayani, 2013). All important business documents will be exchanged in a specific electronic format. This will increase the overall efficiency of the manufacturing process. The efficiency of supply chain after digitalization can be measured through profit growth, inventory levels, order-to-delivery time and order cycle time (Bag, 2016). Customer satisfaction level can be measured with the help of order-fulfil rate, stock-out rate, and on-time delivery rate. The company will use ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software. This software will be helpful in capturing, storing and interpreting business information (Bouzayani, 2013). ERP will be ideal for an automotive manufacturing company as it will integrate various organizational functions like production, marketing, and accounting. A common database will be available for all these functions. Managers can access information on a real-time basis. This software will facilitate the flow of information between different departments (Bouzayani, 2013). The independent variable for this study is “time”. The dependent variable is the “information required by marketing professionals” like inventory levels, order-to-delivery time, stock-out rate and production rate.
References
Bag, S. (2016). Flexible procurement systems is key to supply chain sustainability. Journal of Transport and Supply Chain Management, 10(1).
Bouzayani, W. (2013). Real Time Supply Chain Management Co-Modeling of Total Supply Chain Solutions. Science Journal of Business and Management, 1(1), p.8.
Carter, C., Kosmol, T. and Kaufmann, L. (2016). Toward a Supply Chain Practice View. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 53(1), pp.114-122.
Djelloul, S., Estampe, D. and Lamouri, S. (2012). Real-time information management in supply chain modelling tools. International Journal of Services Operations and Informatics, 7(4), p.294.
Ekinci, E. and Baykasoglu, A. (2016). Modelling complexity in retail supply chains. Kybernetes, 45(2), pp.297-322.
Gligor, D. (2016). The Role of Supply Chain Agility in Achieving Supply Chain Fit. Decision Sciences, 47(3), pp.524-553.
Klein, R. (2007). Customization and real time information access in integrated eBusiness supply chain relationships. Journal of Operations Management, 25(6), pp.1366-1381.
Modrak, V. and Marton, D. (2012). Complexity Metrics for Assembly Supply Chains: A Comparative Study. Advanced Materials Research, 629, pp.757-762.
O’Leary, D. (2008). Supporting decisions in real-time enterprises: autonomic supply chain systems. Information Systems and e-Business Management, 6(3), pp.239-255.
Özer, Ö. and Raz, G. (2011). Supply Chain Sourcing Under Asymmetric Information. Production and Operations Management, 20(1), pp.92-115.
Park, K. and Koh, C. (2014). Effect of change management capability in real-time environment: an information orientation perspective in supply chain management. Behaviour & Information Technology, 34(1), pp.94-104.
Priem, R. and Swink, M. (2012). A Demand-side Perspective on Supply Chain Management. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 48(2), pp.7-13.
Reimann, F. and Ketchen, D. (2017). Power in Supply Chain Management. Journal of Supply Chain Management.
Sahay, B. and Ranjan, J. (2008). Real time business intelligence in supply chain analytics. Information Management & Computer Security, 16(1), pp.28-48.
Tarantilis, C. (2008). Topics in Real-time Supply Chain Management. Computers & Operations Research, 35(11), pp.3393-3396.
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