Chapter 14: Ebusiness

Hello :)
 i have found a video that would very much explain the whole chapter....do enjoy! :D

chapter 12: Integrating the Organization from End to End--ERP.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

·         It serves as the organization’s backbone in providing fundamental decision making support.

·         The heart of an ERP system is a central database that collects information from and feeds information into all the ERP system’s individual application components (called modules), supporting diverse business function such as accounting, manufacturing, marketing, and human resources.

·         ERP automates business processes such as order fulfillment- taking an order from a customer, shipping the purchase, and then billing for it.

ERP Integration Data Flow

Bringing the Organization Together

·  ERP enables employees across the organization to share information across a single, centralized database.

·  With extended portal capabilities, an organization can also involve its suppliers and customers to participate in the workflow process, allowing ERP to penetrate the entire value chain, and help the organization achieve greater operational efficiency.

 Organization before ERP

 ERP- Bringing the Organization Together

The Evolution of ERP

·      Although ERP solutions were developed to deliver automation across multiple units of an organization, to help facilitate the manufacturing process and address issues such as raw materials, inventory, order entry, and distribution, ERP was unable to extend to other functional areas of the company such as sales, marketing, and shipping. It could not tie to any CRM capabilities that would allow organizations to capture customer-specific information, nor did it work with websites or portals used for customer service or order fulfillment.

Integrating SCM, CRM, and ERP

·      Integration of SCM, CRM, and ERP is the key to success for many companies.

·      Integration allows the unlocking of information to make it available to any user, anywhere, anytime.

·      2 main competitors in ERP market:

§         Oracle

§         Sap

 Primary Users and Business Benefits of Strategic Initiatives.

Integration Tools

·         An integrated enterprise infuses support areas, such as finance and human resources, with a strong customer orientation.

·         Integration are achieved using:

§   Middleware- several different types of software that sit in the middle of and provide connectivity between two or more software applications. It translates information between disparate systems

·         Enterprise application integration (EAI) middleware- represents a new approach to middleware by packaging together commonly used functionality, such as providing prebuilt links to popular enterprise applications, which reduces the time necessary to develop solutions that integrate applications from multiple vendors.

 Integration between SCM, CRM, and ERP Applications.

·         Companies run on independent applications, such as SCM, CRM, and ERP. If one application performs poorly, the entire customer value delivery system is affected.

Enterprise Resource Planning’s Explosive Growth:

Reasons of ERP being proven to be such a powerful force:

·         ERP is a logical solution to the mess of incompatible applications that had sprung up in most businesses.

·         ERP addresses the need for global information sharing and reporting.

·         ERP is used to avoid the pain and expense of fixing legacy systems

To qualify as a true ERP solution, the system not only must integrate various organization processes, but also must be:

·         Flexible- an ERP system should be flexible in order to respond to the changing needs of an enterprise.

·         Modular and open- an ERP system has to have open system architecture, meaning that any module can be interfaced with or detached whenever required without affecting the other modules. The system should support multiple hardware platforms for organizations that have a heterogeneous collection of systems. It must also support third- party add-on components.

·         Comprehensive- an ERP system should be able to support a variety of organizational functions and must be suitable for a wide range of business organizations.

·         Beyond the company- an ERP system must not be confined to organizational boundaries but rather support online connectivity to business partners or customers.

Everyone involved in sourcing, producing, delivering the company’s product works with the same information, which eliminates redundancies, cuts wasted time, and removes misinformation.

chapter 11: Building a Customer-centric Organization- CRM

Hello :)

So before we start... here is a short video to brief you in to what is CRM...enjoy :)

Recently, Frequency, and Monetary Value

An organization can find its most valuable customers by using a formula that industry insiders call RFM-recency, frequency, and monetary value. In other words, an organization must track:

- How recently a customer purchased items (recently)

- How frequently a customer purchases an item (frequently

- How much a customer spends on each purchase (monetary value)

The evolution of CRM

Knowing the customer, especially knowing the profitability of individual customers, is highly lucrative in the financial service industry.

There are three phases in the evolution of CRM:

1.                               CRM Reporting technology help organizations identify their customers across other applicants

2.                               CRM analysis technology helps organizations segment their customers into categories such as best and worst customers.

3.                               CRM predicts technological help organizations make predictions regarding customer behavior such as which customers are at risk of leaving.

 

Using Analytical CRM to Enhance Decisions

The two components of a CRM strategy are:

- Operational CRM supports traditional transactional processing for day-to-day front-office operations or systems that deal directly with the customers.

- Analytical CRM supports back-office operations and strategic analysis and includes all systems that do not deal directly with the customers.

The primary difference between operational CRM and analytical CRM in the direct interaction between the organization and its customer
 

The Ugly Side of CRM: Why CRM Matters More Now than Ever Before

Now companies have no choice as the power of the customer grows exponentially as the internet grows. In every case, customers have become an integral part of the action as a member of the aggregated, interactive, self-organizing, auto-entertaining audience on businesses. However, this should no be a surprise, since it was the customers crazy passion and hobbies and obsessions-that build up the web in the first place.

                                                                                           - Have a good day-

chapter 10: Extending the Organization- SCM.

Goodmorning!

Supply Chain Management (SCM)? in a nutshell what SCM is the management of information flows and between and among stages in the supply chain to maximize effectiveness and profitability.

Information Technology's Role in the Supply Chain

- The notion of virtually seamless information links within and between organizations is an essential element of integrated supply chain.

- Information technology's primary role in SCM is creating the integration or tight process and information linkages between functions within a firm.

- Information technology integrates planning, decision -making processes, business operating processes, and information sharing for business performance management.

- Considerable evidence shows that this type of supply chain integration results in superior supply chain capabilities and profits.

+VISIBILITY

Supply chain visibility is the ability to view all areas up and down the supply chain.

Bullwhip effect occurs when distorted products demand information passes from one entity to the next through the supply chain.

*Information technology allows additional visibility in the supply chain.

+CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Demand planning software generates demand forecasts using statistical tools and forecasting techniques.

Ones an organization understand customer demand and its effect on the supply chain it can begging to estimate the impact that its supply chain will have on its customers and ultimately the organization's performance.

+ COMPETITION

Supply chain management can be broken down in"

Supply chain planning software: uses advanced mathematical algorithms to improve the flow and efficiency of the supply chain while reducing inventory. SCP depends entirely on information for its accuracy.

Supply chain executive (SCE) software automates the different stems and stages of the supply chain.

+SPEED

During the past decade, competition has focused on speed. New forms of severs, telecommunications enabling companies to perform activities that were once never thought possible.

Another aspect of speed is the company's ability to satisfy continually changing customer requirements efficiently, accurately, and quickly. 

Supply Chain Management Success Factors

To succeed in today's competitive markets, companies must align their supply chains with the demands of the markets key serve.

To achieve success such as reducing operation costs, improving asset productivity, and compressing order cycle time, and organization should follow the seven principles of SCM outlines.

One of the benefits is to know immediately what is being transacted at the customer and of the supply chain instead of waiting days or weeks for the information to flow.

Organizations should study industry best practices to improve their chances of successful implementation of SCM systems. The following are keys to SCM success.

+ MAKE THE SALE TO SUPPLIERS

The hardest part of any SCM system is its complexity because a large part of the system extends beyond the company's walls.

+ WEAN EMPLOYEES OF TRADITIONAL BUSINESS PRACTICES

Operations people typically deal with phone calls, faxes, and orders scrawled on paper and will most likely want to keep it that way.

+ENSURE THE SCM SYSTEM SUPPORTS THE ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS

It is important to select SCM software that give organizations and advantage in the areas most crucial to their business success.

+ DEPLOY IN INCREMENTAL PHASES AND MEASURE AND MOMMUNICATE SUCCESS

Design the deployment of the SCM system in incremental phases.

+ BE FUTURE ORIENTED

The supply chain design must anticipate the future state of the business

                                                                -goodbye-

Chapter 9 : Enabling the Organization Decision Making

Hello :) So before we great the weekends...i would first like to briefly explain a new chapter that is chapter 9 : Enabling the Organization Decision Making. Let get right to it!!

Making Business Decision:

The Decision- Making Process
It plays a crucial role in communication and leadership for operational, managerial, and strategic projects. There are numerous academic decision-making models....here is one example... 

 Decision-Making Process.....

Decision-Making Essentials
The structure of a typical organization is similar to a pyramid and the different levels require different types of information......

Support: Enhancing Decision Making with MIS

This is the models information to support managers and business professionals during the decision-making process.

 here is a video to explain this topic even clearer.. 

http://youtu.be/Z_edfVFV6yg 

Lastly is The Future: Artificial Intelligence (AI)....in a nutshell AI is a stimulation of human thinking and behavior in machines and systems.

 

There are 5 main types:

1. Expert systems
2. Neural networks
3. Genetic algorithms
4. Intelligent Agents
5. Virtual reality.

- THE END-

Chapter 8 : Accessing Organizational Information - Data Warehouse

Accessing Organizational Information

The company also uses data warehouse information to perform the following:

              ·         Base labor budgets on actual number or guests served per hour. 

·         Develop promotional sale item analysis to help avoid losses from overstocking or  under stocking inventory. 

·         Determine theoretical and actual costs of food and the use of ingredients.

 History of Data Warehousing

Operational systems typically include accounting, order entry, customer service, and sales and are not appropriate for business analysis for the following reasons:

·         Information from other operational applications is not included.

·         Operational systems are not integrated, or not available in one place.

·         Operational information is mainly current—does not include the history that is required to make good decisions.

·         Operational information frequently has quality issues —the information needs to be cleansed

·         Without information history, it is difficult to tell how and why things change over time.

·         Operational systems are not designed for analysis and decision support.

Data Ware house Fundamentals

A data warehouse is a logical collection of information—gathered from many different operational databases—that supports business analysis activities and decision-making tasks.

Extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL), which is a process that extracts information form internal and external databases, transforms the information using a common set of enterprise definitions, and loads the information into a data warehouse.

 MULTIDIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS AND DATA MINING

A cube is the common term for the representation of multidimensional information.

 Data mining is the process of analyzing data to extract information not offered by the raw data alone.

Date-mining tools use a variety of techniques to find patterns and relationships in large volumes of information and infer rules from them that predict future behavior and guide decision making.

 INFORMATION CLEANSING OR SCRUBBING

Information cleansing or scrubbing is a process that weeds out and fixes or discards inconsistent, incorrect, or incomplete information.

 Business Intelligence

Business intelligence (BI) refers to applications and technologies that are used to gather, provide access to, and analyze data and information to support decision-making efforts.

A certain school of thought draws parallels between the challenges in business and those of war, specifically:

·         Collecting information.

·         Discerning patterns and meaning in the information.

·         Responding to the resultant information.

 

ENABLING BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Technology – the most significant enabler of business intelligence.

People – Understanding the role of people in BI allows organizations to systematically create insight and turn these insights into actions.

Culture – A key responsibility of executives is to shape and manage corporate culture.

Chapter 7: Storing Organizational Information- Databases

  Goodmorning !

 Hope everyone had a prosperous Chinese New Year. Today i shall be explaining briefly about storing information (database). Lets get started! :D 

Storing Organizational Information....

      The computer program used to manage and query a database is know as a database management system (DBMS). The basic concept of database is a collection of records, or pieces of information.

Relational Database Fundamentals......

From previous chapters we have conclude that information is every where, and they are stored in the formed of database.

Database: maintains information about various types of objects(inventory), events (transaction), people ( employees) and places (ware-house).

Database includes:

Hierarchical database model – information is organized into a tree-like structure (using parent/child relationships) in such a way that it cannot have too many relationships. 

 

Network database model – a flexible way of representing objects and their relationships.

 Relational database model – stores information in the form of logically related two-dimensional tables

Entities and Attributes...

 Entity is the relational database model is a person, place, thing, transaction, or event about which information is stored.    The rows in each table contains the entities 

 Attributes (or known as fields and columns) are characteristics or properties of an entity class. The columns in each table contain the attributes

Keys and Relationships.....

-    Primary keys and foreign keys identity the various entity classes (tables) in the database;

 Primary key – a fields (or group of fields) that uniquely identities a given entity in a table

  Foreign key – a primary key of one table that appears an attribute in another table and acts to provide a logical relationships among the two tables

 

Relational Database Advantages.....

INCREASED FLEXIBILITY

 

-     A well-designed database should;

1.  Handle changes quickly and easily

2.  Provide users with different views

            3.  Have only one physical views
                 (deals with the physical storage of information on a storage device
            4.  Have multiple logical views
                 (focuses on how users logically access information)

 

INCREASED SCALABILITY AND PERFORMANCE

-      A database must scale to meet increased demand, while maintaining acceptable performance levels

1.  Scalability – refers to how well a system can adapt to increased demands

2.  Performance – measures how quickly a system performs a certain process or transaction

REDUCED INFORMATION REDUNDANCY

-      Databases reduce information redundancy (the duplication of information or storing the same information in multiple places). However, inconsistency is one of the primary problems with redundant information.

INCREASED INFORMATION SECURITY

 

-      Information is an organization asset and must be protected.Databases offer several security features including;

  i.  Password – provides authentication of the user

 ii.  Access level – determines who has access to the different types of information

            iii. Access control – determines types of user access, such as read-only access

Database Management System....

 Database management systems (DBMS) – software through which users and application programs interact with a database

 

 Data-Driven website business Advantages

 

 Integrating Informational Among Multiple Databases ...

An integration  it allows separate systems to communicate directly with each other. There are two types of intergration.....  

1.   Forward integration – takes information entered into a given system and sends it automatically to all downstream systems and processes

          2.  Backward integration – takes information entered into a given system and sends it automatically to    all upstream systems and processes

 

- The End-