Assignment Content
- Phoenix Fine Electronics would like more information about their system options and your recommendation. They are interested in learning how the strengths of the system can be turned into measurable values for the business upon implementation.
Modify the chart from the Week 2 assignment by adding the following:
Strengths and weaknesses of each system
The impact of the strength and weakness
Cite at least two sources in the additional columns in your chartWrite a business case for your recommendation. This business case will be revisited in Week 6. As a guideline, this section of the business case should be approximately 3 to 4 pages in length. Use the information from your executive summary and add the following information:
At least three measurable organizational values the new system will bring
The benefits of the value to the business
How these values will differentiate the business to customers
Risks of doing the project
Risks of not doing the project
The modified comparison chart (from above)
References
Phoenix Fine Electronics (PFE) is a medium or mid-sized company but growing rapidly each year selling technology products to retail consumers. They have an annual revenue of $15 million in sales. PFE started with one store but has grown to 25 stores and has expanded into a second state.
PFE has one store in a town with a population of 100,000, and three stores in towns with populations exceeding 200,000. The goal of the company is to continue expansion into an additional 3 neighboring states within the next 5 years. PFE wants to utilize the same population numbers to determine the number of stores it should open. It would also like a marketing firm to do an analysis of each town that meets the population criteria to determine the best cites in which to open new stores.
Each store employs a store manager and an IT manager who both directly report to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
The current IT plan for each store is to utilize technology to support the store; increase sales; track inventory; secure store customer data; perform payroll; and report all sales, inventory, and payroll data to the main office. The IT manager is responsible for managing the IT systems, making decisions on what technology and software are needed, and implementing the systems while ensuring accurate reporting to the main office. The store manager is responsible for all staffing, inventory, and sales functions within the store.
With expansion and the acquisition of smaller independent stores, the CEO is worried about how department and customer data can be aggregated to allow the company to make better, timely business decisions. Even with such a wide footprint the company must ensure unique, outstanding customer service and provide value to the consumer base. The CEO lacks IT experience and has been hesitant to adopt the suggestions of the store and IT managers, which is to give the company an online presence and advance the company into national competition with other consumer electronics stores.
The CEO hired a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief Information Officer/Chief Technology Officer (CIO/CTO). The CFO will oversee the company finances for the expansion. The CIO/CTO will oversee the consolidation of the disparate systems and technologies that exist between the stores, streamline the information gathering and reporting to the main office, and develop an online presence that will catapult the company into a competitive position on a national level.
Your job is to help the new CIO/CTO move PFE toward the future.
Running head: PHOENIX FINE ELECTRONICS
1
PHOENIX FINE ELECTRONICS 4
In the sphere of business, there is a lot of confusion among Business Intelligence (BI),
Enterprise Resource Planning (
ERP
) and Customer Relationship Management (
CRM
) systems with
the major one being that most people think BI is the same as ERP. In contrast, BI is a more evolved
technology which, even though it relies on ERP, is also based on back-office data. Moreover, not
everyone is aware that most CRM functionality can be embedded in ERP and BI solutions. To fully use
the potential of the BI and CRM systems, they should be integrated into a central system supporting
the management of the organization, which is usually an essential element of companies’ internal IT
infrastructure. In this paper, the authors are committed to describing and explaining the significant
differences existing among BI, ERP, and CRM systems in various aspects. Also, the authors aim to
explain the advantages and disadvantages of those solutions and future trends. The methods
used in this study are analysis, observation and the review of literature
Phoenix Fine Electronics
Name
Institution
The chart on how ERP, CRM, and BI can assist the business
BI (Business intelligence)
Suppliers
Customers
ERP
CRM
Fig 1. A chart showing how ERP, CRM, and BI assist the business
How the system support management
Overall, managers are the primary decision-makers within an organization. They possess an in-depth acquaintance of the whole business operations. Business Intelligence (BI) systems offer managers with platforms in which they can make, visualize, do analysis as well as enhance business pronouncements. The complex decisions can be anchored on different information subjects, for instance, sales, employees, customers, among others. This information is gathered from various departments in a company then stored within a data warehouse. BI systems then grab such information as of the data warehouse in which sophisticated algorithms are applied for data analysis to produce a report. The reports generated assist managers in making effective strategic decisions as well as planning the subsequent move, which a company undertakes (Taylor et al. 2015).
Creation of successful relationship by the business and IT through the system
The vast amount of data id gathered analyzed then used through the methods which a bit complex. For that matter, a team that is dedicated to technical and analytic experts are needed in customizing and handling such systems. The system creates a successful relationship with the business and IT through improving efficiency in the operations executed. BI systems enable sophisticated IT techniques that are used in making data easier to comprehend by the management. The association makes operations of the business run smoothly, particularly when it comes to decision-making techniques. The relationship between the IT system and BI makes the management to make clever business strategies in moving the company forward.
Executive Summary
Phoenix Fine Electronic (PFE) needs a systematic solution that will rectify its current condition, toward expansion, acquisition of smaller independent stores, along with the CEO’s thoughts about how department and customer data can be aggregated to allow the company to make better, timely business decisions. The information below will supply the organization with pertinent information to help guide the organization to its mission.
As a recommendation to PFE, this organization should be aware of their options. Through thorough research of organization desires it has been found there are other possibilities such as enterprise resource planning (ERP); as indicated by Mehta (2016), ERP offers management together with integrating business operations for the firm that incorporates sales and promotions, engineering, human resources in addition to product development. Because the organization’s goal is to continue expansion into an additional three neighboring states within the next five years. The belief is that this is not feasible due to the cost and time constraints.
There is also the business intelligence/ decision support system (BI/DSS) option, which offers a degree of choice, which provides users with competition among themselves, while also familiarizing them with the business intelligence (BI) system, through training. The opinion is if the organization has an idea of expansion within the next five years, this is not a feasible option; however, it still is left open as an option.
As a vibrant alternative, the ideal solution would be utilizing the customer relationship management (CRM) platform, which is ideally the procedure that makes PFE towards gathering client data, while examining customer favorites, promotions, and alternative for customer services as well as supporting strategies that attain organizational needs toward reaching desired clients timely — besides, having capacity to analyze results of strategies through overall customer data collected.
Through reading the above-explained options, it would seem viable that the benefits to the organization following the latter most idea of CRM are a clear choice. Included is a diagram of the comparison of items, this should convince the organization that CRM would be the proper channel to follow.
References
Mehta, A. (2016). BI, SCM, CRM, and ERP in a Nutshell and their Relationship. Retrieved from;
https://medium.com/@metankit/bi-scm-crm-and-erp-in-a-nutshell-and-their-relationship-32630230cde9
Taylor, J., Roberts, J., Oram, C., Gupta, A., Itani, M., Baroudi, S., & Smith, R. (2015). U.S. Patent No. 8,972,876. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.