Club IT, is a downtown music store, managed by Ruben Keys and Lisa Tejada (Wiley.com). Even though the business is running as laid down in the organizational mission and vision, there are some issues, which Ruben and Lisa are facing with the conduct of the business and these problems hinder the progress of the company. An analysis of the problems reveals that
- The Company do not have advanced information systems due to which the company is facing lot of issues. While every other company in the industry is working with advanced information systems Club IT has not thought about instituting any advanced systems to provide the management with the information required for decision-making. This necessitates the company to introduce several advanced information systems to enable the company to manage its resources efficiently.
- The company also lacks in technological capabilities, which are vitally important for effective management of information resources. The company needs to invest in sophisticated hardware and software to improve its performance.
- Dealing with the suppliers and guests is another major area where the company needs improvement to be carried out forthwith. Presently the company uses the traditional methods of contacting the suppliers and guests through telephone which most of the times proves to be inefficient and does not produce the desired results. Managing supply chain is important for the success of any business (Wailgum, 2008).
Since Club IT currently is placed in a position to meet the challenges of competition from the other enterprises operating in the community, it has decided to take the support of information and communication technology to sustain its growth and profitability. Use of technology is most likely to increase the competitive ability of the Club and enhanced market share. It will also ensure customer loyalty. This paper looks at some of the technological tools, which Lisa and Ruben can employ to meet the challenges outlined.
The wireless order-taking system is one of the tools that Club IT can think of installing to its increase Return on Investment (ROI). The main advantage with the system is that the Club can manage its reservations more efficiently and it can ensure a proper ordering system.
Another advantage with the system is that there will be significant saving to the Club in the costs of operations, as installing the system implies that the Club IT can have lesser number of staff than earlier. The Club can discontinue to use the materials, it was using earlier for booking orders. This is expected to result in additional profit with a lesser payback period of less than 2 years.
ROI on any investment is calculated by dividing the gains realized/to be realized from the investments/proposed investments by investments/proposed investments. The installation of a wireless order-taking system will have a positive impact on the earnings of the Club IT, by reducing the number of waiters by one. Therefore, the investment in wireless order taking system will enable Club IT earn higher returns and increase the value to the stockholders.
NPV Net Profit Value (NPV) is one of the renowned methods to evaluate any investment in capital assets. NPV is the difference between the present value of the expected cash inflows from the capital investment and the present value of cash outflows because of investment in the project/machine. The purpose of using NPV is to assess the financial feasibility of a capital investment.
In the present scenario, Club IT while implementing wireless order-taking system has to incur additional expenses on installation of the system.
In addition, the Club has to spend money on to purchase the program applications and the cost of maintaining the system in the form of payments to the support staff. There will be cash outflows upon installation of the system and for maintaining and updating the system every year.
Correspondingly, there will be increase in the cash inflows, as the Club will expand and grow because of its efficient operation using the wireless order-taking system. The Club will be able to adopt effective and efficient strategies to achieve the desired growth and profitability. Therefore, it is considered safe for Liza to install the wireless order-taking system in Club IT.
Executive dashboards are another investment in technological capabilities by Club IT. These are data driven software products, installed with the main objective of the monitoring the progress of the business (Garrett, 2006; Public Works Online, 2010). Executive dashboards function to analyze the input data and produce key indicators for assessing the performance of the business.
The indicators include revenue, level of earnings and costs, which are vital information for enabling informed decision-making by the management. There are certain key factors, which need to be considered in the acquisition of a dashboard application. These factors include the type of monitoring and control needed and the efficiency and reliability in terms of accuracy of outputs.
Foundation Software’s Executive Dashboard and Ecora Auditor Professional Executive Dashboard are two of the executive dashboards the Club IT can consider to invest (Ecora, 2008). Both of the applications cater to several requirements of the clients and processing of varied data. With the use of these systems, Club IT can meet various requirements of legal compliance.
Foundation Software’s Executive Dashboard is equipped to provide complete financial information of the Club, which will enable Ruben and Lisa in the planning and allocation of available resources and to maintain liquidity to meet any exigencies.
System analysis is the process of examining business issues, which can be addressed by implementing IT solution. The suggested technological applications can solve the business issue of the sale of tickets by Club IT. The Club can track the information of the clients who purchased tickets and store such information for further processing.
Once the input information is presented in graphical method, it will be easier to observer trends, which will facilitate efficient business decision-making. The stakeholders involved are the employees, owners and the customers.
The system development cycle consists of 8 phases, which the project must go through. First, is the feasibility study to ascertain the economic and technical feasibility undertaken at the time of system investigation. In the next phase of the system analysis, the problems and possible solutions will be analyzed.
The system design phase involves working out the required functions of the new system, based on the expected deliverables. The next phase in the system development cycle is the programming where it is necessary to acquire and install correct software with the desired capabilities.
Testing is the next phase undertaken to ensure that the system works without any errors and output data is accurate. The Club will then proceed to install and use the new system. Maintenance of the system is the last phase, during which debugging and updating of system will be undertaken regularly.
References
Ecora, (2008). Ecora Auditor Professional Executive Dashboard. Web.
Garrett, Robert, (2006). Executive Dashboards, Smart Business Network Inc. Web.
Public Works Online, (2010). Executive Dashboard. Web.
Wailgum, T. (2008). Supply Chain Managment Definition and Solutions. Web.
Wiley.com. (n.d.). About Club IT. Wiley.com. Web.