Introduction
WidgetSupplies’ business is a distributor and supplier of medical equipment which in the recent past experienced rapid expansion. This ISO 9001:2000 certified distributor has got many departments managing various specific products in some locations of sales offices in different regions. The company has in the past ensured value addition in their products through proper packages and customer attractive discounts, besides offering after-sales services to ensure an increased customer base.
The need for the company to participate in social responsibility
Even though the company has not involved itself in social responsibility it is high time it did. Some of the social responsibility activities the company can participate in include; cleaning health centers, creating a foundation to support those who cannot meet their hospital bills, supporting campaigns to fight a specific ailment, organizing sporting activities for the hospital staff and the entire public among other activities.
As the company experienced expansion its requirements also evolved. The company’s growth requirements super ceded the existing off-the-shelf retail management software and basic Excel spreadsheets which were applied. And therefore the management was confused on whether to acquire new systems or improve existing ones. Before experiencing expansion the existing simple template was ideal and satisfied the company operations. Any complexity could easily be handled through spreadsheet tinkering and duplicate data entry, though this brought a lot of time and other resources wastage and therefore diverted the management’s attention from the existing core business activities to the system maintenance.
Explanation on some of the WidgetSupplies’ business intelligence requirements
One of the Widgetsupplies’ requirements was reports which were necessary for business planning and daily operations. As they experienced expansion the existing system could not easily access data in the time leading to a serious negative effect on sales and budgeting. The existing reports for instance could not readily calculate the profit margins. WidgetSupplies’ business needed a simple system to easily record sales and to compare the projected sales and the actual which the system could not provide. It forced the management to handle all these manually in spreadsheets which became too complex and difficult to update. Thirdly, the existing spreadsheet formulas were suspected due to the errors which existed in spreadsheet macros. The spreadsheet calculated the commission in terms of the sales value instead of the profit margin. Finally, the existing reports were complex and therefore difficult to create and maintain. As the company experienced expansion, the business requirements intelligence increased and could not be easily addressed by the existing software.
The detailed explanation of the solutions for the above problems
There was there a need to come up with the relevant solutions to address the above problems. A provision of an efficient data mining solution that is cost-effective can address some of these problems. The adoption of a simple database reporting with automated calculations for margins, markups, and commissions can help the company deal with the complaint of complexity and constant errors in calculations. The company can also develop spreadsheets in terms of region, product, customers department, and salesperson to make data retrieval easier. Finally Widgetsupplies’ can develop a system that makes it easier for the tracing of the original records with a validated data entry form to feed in budget and sales projection.
A brief conclusion showing the need for improved operation systems within companies
In a nutshell, it is important to acknowledge that as the company grows so do its internal and external requirements. The management must constantly adapt those specific solutions to address the fundamental issues that negatively affect company performance.