Introduction
This essay discusses information systems usage in Best Buy. It starts by introducing Best Buy, and then it proceeds to discussing its business process in general. Having identified key areas, it underlines the involvement of information systems in the business process as well as the improvements they bring.
The essay also identifies an issue Best Buy is currently facing, and describes the role that information systems can play in improving the situation.
Best Buy in brief
Best Buy is an American retailing company, operating in the North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. Richard M. Schulze and Gary Smoliak founded it in 1966. The company specializes in consumer electronic products and services. It is now “the world’s largest multi-channel consumer electronics retailer with stores in the United States, Canada, China, Europe, and Mexico” (Best Buy, par. 1).
With 1 billion visits to its websites annually, Best Buy is ranked the 11th biggest online retailer in the North America (Best Buy, par. 1). The revenue of the company in 2012 was $50.70 billion (Yahoo! Inc., par. 3). Its net income for the same year was $1.231 billion (Yahoo! Inc., par. 26).
The company is currently listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the S&P 500 stock market index. The total assets and equity of the company in 2012 were valued at $16.005 billion and $3.745 billion respectively.
Best Buy’s business process in general
Best Buy as mentioned above is a retailing company, as such its business process is centred on eight key areas. The first area, which is supply chain management, ensures that customers receive merchandise at the right time and in the proper condition. The second area is warehouse management, which ensures that the company’s inventory is properly controlled and managed.
The third area, order processing, ensures that orders made by customers are properly serviced. The fourth area is business intelligence, which ensures that the company uses existing raw data to improve its operations and service delivery. The fifth area, performance management, ensures that the company is achieving its short-, mid- and long-term goals in a cost and time efficient manner.
The sixth area is customer relationship management, which ensures that the company’s interaction with its current and future customers is modelled in such a way that it is in synchrony with sales, marketing, technical support as well as customer service.
The seventh area, business process automation, ensures that the company’s expenditure and operational costs are reduced through automation of certain manual tasks. The eighth key area is brand management, which ensures that there is brand awareness and recognition for its brand.
Map of business process
The map of Best Buy’s general business process is shown in figure 1 in Appendix A. The map is prepared using radial circles.
Involvement of information system in the business process
An information system (IS) is “a set of interrelated components that collect (or retrieve), process, store, and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization” (“Andragogy: Information Systems: Definitions and Components ” 24). The involvement of information systems in Best Buy’s business process is for two main reasons.
The first is to integrate information technology into the process as a means towards reducing operational costs, maximizing sales, and gaining a competitive advantage (Windnagle). The second reason is to encourage innovation, which facilitates the invention of better ways of doing the tasks, incorporated in the business process (Windnagle).
How could information system improve the business process
One way in which information systems can improve Best Buy’s business process is by means of decentralization. Decentralization frees up resources and creates time for departmental managers. As such, it facilitates them to take on more strategic level activities. Consequently, the strategic goals of the company have a better chance of being achieved in a time and cost efficient manner.
For a given information need, information systems provide in high speed the best available information. In this way, Best Buy’s business process benefits from better and faster decision-making.
For instance, a member of staff can provide the best response to a customer’s query without an unnecessary delay. As such, many queries can be handled satisfactorily. Better decision making, therefore, leads to the customer satisfaction, increased sales, and reduced operational costs.
Information systems can improve Best Buy’s business process by providing better security of the information that customers entrust with Best Buy. Poor information security and age can ultimately lead to heavy lawsuits, which have the potential to bankrupt the company even, such a big enterprise as Best Buy. Therefore, better information security is a vital component in improving Best Buy’s business process.
Identify a suggestion for improvement
One of the major problems Best Buy is facing is an unfriendly customer service in some of its stores (Loeb, par. 8). Though this problem can be solved through better employee ethics, information systems can also play a significant role.
Managing customer relationships through information systems can help Best Buy model its interaction with its existing and future customers in such a way that, the interaction is in line with the customer service as well as technical support.
This means that there is a working relation between staff, resources, and customers, allowing Best Buy to attend to customers’ queries on time, fully and satisfactorily. Therefore, information systems dedicated to customer relationship management is only one way in which the company can improve its business process.
Summary
Since information systems have the ability to provide quick access to information and to present it in a user-friendly way, they are a vital component for improving Best Buy’s business process, which involves eight key management areas.
Quick access to information and its presentation in a way which is easy to understand as is done by information systems, facilitates better decision-making, time and cost efficiency, being essential ingredients of any business success. If Best Buy is to maintain or improve its rankings, then its strategic management has to consider exploiting the full potential of information systems.
Works Cited
Andragogy: Information Systems: Definitions and Components. 2012. Web.
Best Buy. 2013. About Best Buy. Web.
Loeb, Walter. Best Buy in turmoil: Will it survive?2012. Web.
Windnagle C. Re: How information systems impact processes. 2012. Web.
Yahoo! Inc. 2013. Income statement. Web.
Appendix
