Company Overview
Alain limited is one of the largest retailers in the world specializing in the sale of home appliances. It has been in operation for the last forty years and its products are distributed in major continents including Asia and Africa serving more than four hundred thousand consumers.
Alain marketing strategy is aimed at putting buyers and sellers in touch with each others. Alain Limited is a complex organization, vibrant and goal oriented and therefore there is need to understand its structures, and strategies that make it different from other organizations.
It is among the largest retailers in United Kingdom which handles operations through super centers, and discount stores. It operates in major countries such as China, Canada, Brazil, Japan, and Africa. It has been using information management systems (MIS) to save time on production thereby fostering growth. It also uses in performance evaluation, resource management among others. It has skilled IT experts who are responsible for introducing new strategies and implementing the same.
One of the structures used at Alain Limited is decentralized structure which is believed to improve performance. This paper will give an overview of the use of information management/system within the company, knowledge management strategy, risk management, systems development, and change management.
Information Management use in Alain Limited
A management information system (MIS) is a structure or process that provides the information required to manage a firm in the most effective way. MIS and the its generated information are essential components in running a business. New information and communications technologies are being applied successfully in the context of business development allowing for the provision or collection of critical data and imagery and also for the strengthening of communications in hard-to-reach areas.
Access to email and text available on the web over any phone line are some of the information systems used at Alain. It has new software that includes lightweight email and web via-email programs, coupled with dedicated email accounts for Alain workers and tools for the management of personal affairs and lateral communication across the developing world (Higuera & Haimes, 1996).
To attract many customers, the company ensures that, all its products are produced using the latest technology. To ensure maximum sales, most of its products are sold online so as to cover a larger geographical area. It is one of the most developed companies in the world using the advanced level of information system. The workers do have to move from one office to another or from one location to another. They use emails, and other software for communication which makes production easy and effective.
Knowledge Management Strategy
Knowledge Management has evolved in the last two decades from ideas based in artificial intelligence and the concepts that machines can learn to the more recent and accepted idea that knowledge is a combination of the data and information contained in databases with the heuristic applications of human thought (Anon. “Introduction to Knowledge Management“)
The head of the information technology (IT) department at the Alain Limited is responsible for developing the knowledge management strategy and its implementation throughout the global organization. Additionally, he provides project management services and expertise to clients in the development and integration of Utility Operations enterprise projects. Providing consulting services in the areas of data conversion, integration, and utility applications (including network tracing, work flow management, and mapping facilities).
The benefits of Knowledge Management (KM) applications are substantial. New KM tools and ideas focus on the ease with which information can be made available, improving search engines, and supporting the overall desire to manage and present the overwhelming amount of data available to the user in a manageable format.
In order to justify a business change program centered on knowledge management, an Approach needs to be developed with the needs of the business considered, and a business case and plan can then be developed with those needs in mind.
The knowledge management strategy at Alain limited is aimed at decreasing costs, saving time, improving quality, and increasing sales (Lewis, et al. 2003). It has improved its activities such as integration of new employees, innovation through quality methods, has reduced the redundancy rate as well as training costs. All these are aimed at ensuring maximum returns at the least possible cost.
Managing Risk
Risk is taken to be the product of the uncertainty (of future events) and is a part of all activities (Higuera & Haimes, 1996).
Successful companies are able to go back to the well again and again, replicating their success on new products and in new markets. To do so, they must have a template for dealing with risk that gives them an advantage over the competition.
We are currently faced with a set of critical employees with a set of knowledge all likely to retire within a set period of time. Closer at hand, the retirement of people who understand a utility’s infrastructure, unless captured properly and made available, can severely impact the businesses ability to effectively respond in a manner similar to its current abilities.
It may take longer and be more costly (Curtis & Cobham, 2008). At Alain Limited, a knowledge program focused on people interactions addresses this problem by actively pursuing ways to collaborate and share information in a way that makes the retiring staff receptive to sharing and informing the remaining staff. Any knowledge program must first lay out a strategy and objectives as to what the program is designed to do.
The first step in setting a strategy is to define the problem that the program is to solve and address it. The essence of risk management is not avoiding or eliminating risk but deciding which risks exploiting, which ones to let pass through to investors and which ones to avoid or evade (O’Brien, 1999).
Systems Development
A system development project encompasses all the activities undertaken from the time at which a potential requirement is identified until the resulting system is fully implemented and accepted by the end user.
The process can involve many stages over a long period. An information system acquired today must not only satisfy present business needs; it must also be flexible and capable of being enhanced to meet changing circumstances well into the future. Thus a pre-requisite to the introduction of a new system is for management to identify and understand their organization’s mission and its related information needs (Curtis & Cobham, 2008).
At Alain, the Information Systems Strategy is typically a high level management document. It serves to identify corporate information needs, the information systems required to satisfy those needs, the skills and resources required to develop and implement them, and the development timetable.
The Strategy also defines the general technical direction to be taken during development or procurement by stating the technical and managerial policies to be followed during the system life-cycle. Managers are familiar with their client’s Information Systems Strategy and especially with plans for new systems and technologies which are likely to affect their approach.
A life-cycle method supplements an Information Systems Strategy by defining in greater detail the roles and responsibilities of the Information System Department in planning, developing, testing, implementing and operating an organization’s information systems. It also describes the technical policies, standards, methods and procedures (Snowden, 2002). The complexity of most IT development projects is such that the client’s life-cycle method should define how they are to be planned and controlled.
The correct application of an IT project management methodology will help in this respect, although it will not provide a substitute for skill and experience, or the top management commitment that is an essential ingredient of a successful outcome. A life-cycle method defines the way in which large-scale change within the organization is to be managed. It also defines the way in which information on all aspects of a project are collected, recorded, and reported to all levels of management.
Change Management
Change is an inherent aspect of every business, especially healthy businesses that innovate and readily adapt to shifts in the market. So, for a business to remain healthy, its IT organization must be capable of effectively and efficiently handling change. It must be able to execute change with minimal cost and minimal risk of business disruption. IT must also be able to keep itself well-aligned with changing business goals and priorities.
A change management process defines the steps used to identify and make changes to a project including its scope. The elements included in a change management process include the purpose of the change management plan, change control procedures, roles and responsibilities for managing change, a change request form, and a change request log (O’Brien, 1999)
The new management team of ICT at Alain limited is responsible for change management, in doing so; they take stock of the historical performance of the organization, the changing business environment and the recommendations of the evaluation.
The most critical recommendations of the evaluation are that the company is relevant, had clear comparative advantages in the field of business publications and competitive advantage in a number of its products. However, needs of clients and a changing business environment require the company to develop a change management strategy to build common values among staff at all levels and to strengthen key management functions?
The recommendations called for an organization with more emphasis on country specific activities, a result based management (RBM) culture, and a performance management framework. The company has over the last one year drawn on the evaluation’s recommendations, and the recommendations of the previous evaluations of ICT dating back from 1980, to develop a change management program and implement a reform process.
A new structure, which is nearing completion at the end of 2010, will recognize this and will commit resources to meet the needs of ICT’s clients’ growing requests. ICT needs to focus its interventions based on systematic and thorough needs assessments at country, regional and global levels. Partnerships are essential.
The organization will have to strengthen its network of partnerships, and put in place action plans with well-defined responsibilities and commitments. ICT desk will also rely on this network of alliances to establish an efficient monitoring and evaluation system to track progress in its activities.
Integrated programs will be developed in countries that would most benefit from a holistic approach to identifying and focusing on their trade needs. These programs are being designed and implemented in close collaboration with the respective governments and private sectors (Lewis, et al. 2003). They encompass a customized, comprehensive array of planned technical assistance initiatives which, when implemented together, create capacity and improve a country’s overall export performance.
Conclusion
Alain limited is a retailer company located in the United Kingdom. It produces different type of home appliances that are distributed in major countries. The company uses information management systems in its production and this has resulted in an increase in its sales revenue.
The IT department is responsible for carrying out regular research before introducing new products in the markets. Since 2006, the company has been recording high levels of revenues and all this is owned to the IT department. The company has realized the benefits that result from knowledge management and is using it to cut on its training costs, redundancy rate, and to improve the quality of its products thereby increasing sales.
The aim of every business is to make profit and to satisfy the clients’ needs as well as the human resources. Alain Limited is not an exception; it is in the process of ensuring that, production is done at the fastest time possible in order to clear all outstanding orders and to give the employees time to rest.
This is only possible through the introduction of a system development project. A system development project encompasses all the activities undertaken from the time at which a potential requirement is identified until the resulting system is fully implemented and accepted by the end user. The process can involve many stages over a long period.
Change is an important aspect in every business. So, for a business to remain healthy, its IT organization must be capable of effectively and efficiently handling change. In simple terms, the underlying goal of Change Management is to protect the business, because any time we touch the production environment we put the business at risk. Failed changes are better than changes that are successfully implemented and cause failures later. But both are bad! It is not good enough to just have a good Change Management process.
Compliance is also required to make sure things are done as they should be and a full audit trail of everything that was done is easily accessible. Change management has been an ongoing process at Alain since 2006. This is done through the IT department which is responsible for establishing new strategies and implementing the same.
Reference List
Anon. Introduction to Knowledge Management. Web.
Curtis, G. & Cobham, D. (2008). Business information systems. Analysis, Design and practice. New York: Pearson Education.
Higuera, R. & Haimes, Y. (1996). Software Risk Management, Technical Report. Web.
Lewis, R. et al. (2003). The Complete IMS HALDB Guide All You Need to Know to Manage HALDBs. International Business Machines Corporation. Web.
O’Brien, J (1999). Management Information Systems – Managing Information Technology in the Internetworked Enterprise. Boston: Irwin McGraw-Hill.
Snowden, Dave (2002). “Complex Acts of Knowing – Paradox and Descriptive Self Awareness”. Journal of Knowledge Management, Special Issue 6 (2): 100 – 111.