Innovation in Organizations

This article discusses the importance of innovation in organizations and its impact on management decision making. It focuses on the use of automated billing devices as an innovation in retail sectors. The article also provides recommendations for further developments in this innovation.

Running head: INNOVATION IN ORGANIZATIONS
INNOVATION IN ORGANIZATIONS
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1. Introduction
Innovation helps organizations in maintaining the efficiency of the operations in
accordance to the changing business environment. The different technological innovations that
are made by the organizations helped in maximizing the innovativeness and the competitive edge
of the same while operating in diverse economies. The modifications in the processes an the
technological reforms that are undertaken by the organizations helps the same in gaining a
competitive edge over the other players in the market. On the other hand, the continuous
technological innovations help organizations in gaining a competitive edge over the other players
in the market. In this relation, the report will discuss the importance of automated billing device
as an innovation and the manner in which it affects the management’s decision making
capabilities taking examples of different organizations.
2. Background of the innovation and the sub- types
The automated billing device is an innovation that is being considered by most of the
retail sectors around the world. The type of the innovation is based on the principles of self-
service, which might be considered as a sub- part. The innovation is aimed at enhancing the
experience of the customers while avoiding long queues. The automated billing device acts as an
efficient tool while developing the bills for the commodities. It major features of the innovation
aims at reducing the billing errors and helps an organization in avoiding long queues of
customers. The eradication of the billing issues helps an organization in developing customer
satisfaction and loyalty. Baden-Fuller and Haefliger (2013) stated that the continuous
innovations in the line of billing has helped organizations in retaining the trust and loyalty of the

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customers. Therefore, the automated billing and self service mechanisms are being induced in
the innovation in order to avoid issues in billing.
For an example, Woolworths introduced the automated billing device in the different
outlets for minimizing the long waiting queues. The major issue that was faced by the concerned
organization was based on the errors in financial and sales data representation which affected the
inventory management capabilities of the business. Misinterpretation of the sales data due to
human based errors in calculations affected the capabilities of the concerned organization in
retrieving accurate data for managing the inventory (Boons and Lüdeke-Freund 2013). On the
other hand, the miscalculation sin the billings affected the interests of the customers which
challenged the brand name of the firm. Therefore, the implementation of the automated billing
device helped the concerned organization in maintaining the efficiency of the operations in
accordance to the needs of the customers and the concerns of undertaking proficient inventory
management systems.
3. Important Milestone for the innovation
One of the most important milestones for the innovation process is the organizational
understanding of urgency for implementing the process through market research. The milestone
evokes the organizational needs of assessing the current issues that are encountered by the same
while operating in diverse regions (Boons et al. 2013). The identification of the urgency will be
helping organizational managements in understanding the benefits from the implementation of
the automated billing device. The next milestone of the project will be the communication with
the stakeholders, which will be helping the organizations in developing a coherent system
through collaboration. The third most important milestone will be assessment of cost and

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resource capabilities of the organization. The assessment of costs and allocation of the resources
will be helping organizations in implementing the relative technologies. Importing the
technologies is one of the most important milestones, which is undertaken by the organizations
in order to implement the technological innovations and assembling functions. Testing the
technological potentiality and the benefits that will be derived by organizations through
implementation of the same will help in aligning the objective with the innovation. In this
relation, the testing and feedback gathering stage will support organizational managements in
understanding the potentiality of the innovation and thereby take steps to develop the processes
in accordance to the needs (Schaltegger, Lüdeke-Freund and Hansen 2012). The last milestone
of the activities will be based on the assessment of the performance changes through the
implementation of the technological innovations. It will be helping the organizations in
measuring the success factors of the innovation while operating in diverse markets. The
delineation of the milestone and the critical activities helps organizations in identifying the
systematic procedures that might be undertaken by the same for suitable technological
implementations.
4. Impact of the innovation on the organizational management approach
The continuous innovations in the line of the billing devices have helped the
organizations in maintaining the efficiency of the operations in support of the brand name (Trimi
and Berbegal-Mirabent 2012). On the other hand, the self service technologies has helped the
organizations in reducing the cost of operations through laying off employees who are imposed
with responsibilities related to billing. The Automated billing device that is being installed by
companies like Woolworths, Coles and the like consisted of partially attributed AI systems. The
implementation of the automated billing devices in organizations will support their needs of

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retrieving sales data for enhancing the inventory management functions. For an example, Coles
has undertaken collaboration with IBM in order to maintain the efficiency of the billing
operations. The enhancement in the billing operations through the application of the automated
technology has helped the organization in reducing the risk of misinterpretation of sales data.
The application of the automated billing device in the organizational framework will be
helping businesses in keeping an effective track of the demand faced in the different
checkpoints. On the other hand, the application of the automated billing devices in the
organizations will be helping the same in reducing the checkout time for the customers and
thereby avoid long queues (Ngo and O'cass 2013). The reduction of the checkout time will be
helping the concerned organizational management in acting in accordance to the needs of the
customers. Schneider and Spieth (2013) stated that the development of the automated billing
devices will support the organizational needs of managing the inventory of the same. In this
relation, the development of the technology will be helping the concerned organization in
maintaining the efficiency of the distribution, supplying and importing operations in order to
correlate to the demands that are faced by the business. Suitable inventory management
initiatives of organizations will be helping the same in facilitating the continuous availability of
the products and services in accordance to the needs of the customers.
The application of the automated billing devices will support organization in reducing the
rate of sales data interpretation issues. Onetti et al. (2012) stated that the automation processes
helps in reducing the data misinterpretation errors by 42%, which supports businesses in
maintaining the efficiency of the operations in accordance to the demand faced by the same. The
implementation of the automated billing device in the different checkpoints will be helping the
organizations in retrieving the correct figure of the sales data, which is utilized by the

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management in planning the future course of actions that might be undertaken by organization in
maintaining the efficiency of the operations.
5. Recommended developments of the innovation
Developing hand held scanners- Bringing forth developments in the hand held scanners and
integrating the same with the automated billing device would help organizations in implementing
complete automation. The hand held scanners will be provided to the customers and will enable
the same in scanning the bar codes of the products as they walk down the aisles of the
supermarket. The integration of the hand held scanners with the automated billing devices would
help organizations in minimizing the rate of activities by the cashier. The development of the
technology will be helping the organizations in minimizing the checkout time for the customers
along with suitable retrieval of the sales data (Saebi and Foss 2015). The hand held scanners will
be helping the concerned organization in fulfilling the long term goals of the same related to the
smooth functioning of the systems in accordance to the needs of the business. The
implementation of the technological process will be helping organizations in developing a
coherent structure for operations in accordance to the needs of the same while focusing on the
long term benefits and sustainablity. On the other hand, the developments of the hand held
scanners will be helping the organizations in reducing the queue and enhance the customer
experience while making a buy from the supermarkets.
Development of radio tags- The developments in the radio tags, which are attached to the
commodities will be helping t the organizations in facilitating the smooth functioning of the bar
code scanners. For an example, Coles has taken steps to collaborate with IBM in order to
develop the radio tags, which has helped the same in providing the customers with an exclusive

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shopping experience (Spieth, Schneckenberg and Ricart 2014). The development of the radio
tags will be helping organizations to achieve the short term aspirations of developing resources
and inventory management systems in accordance read the total purchases. Therefore, the
development of the radio tags will be helping the organization in achieving the shgort term
objectives of the business. The credential of the data is based on making the company aware of
the total sales volume from the different checkpoints, which will support the inventory
management needs of businesses.
6. Conclusion
Therefore, from the above assessment it might be stated that the different innovations that
are undertaken by businesses helps the same in maintaining the strategic position of the same in
competitive markets. The innovation that is being discussed in the research is development of the
automated billing device, which will help organizations in avoiding different issues relating to
misinterpretation of sales data. On the other hand, the innovation is also aimed at reducing the
checkout time for enhancing the rate of customer satisfaction.

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References
Baden-Fuller, C. and Haefliger, S., 2013. Business models and technological innovation. Long
range planning, 46(6), pp.419-426.
Boons, F. and Lüdeke-Freund, F., 2013. Business models for sustainable innovation: state-of-
the-art and steps towards a research agenda. Journal of Cleaner production, 45, pp.9-19.
Boons, F., Montalvo, C., Quist, J. and Wagner, M., 2013. Sustainable innovation, business
models and economic performance: an overview. Journal of Cleaner Production, 45, pp.1-8.
Ngo, L.V. and O'cass, A., 2013. Innovation and business success: The mediating role of
customer participation. Journal of Business Research, 66(8), pp.1134-1142.
Onetti, A., Zucchella, A., Jones, M.V. and McDougall-Covin, P.P., 2012. Internationalization,
innovation and entrepreneurship: business models for new technology-based firms. Journal of
Management & Governance, 16(3), pp.337-368.
Saebi, T. and Foss, N.J., 2015. Business models for open innovation: Matching heterogeneous
open innovation strategies with business model dimensions. European Management
Journal, 33(3), pp.201-213.
Schaltegger, S., Lüdeke-Freund, F. and Hansen, E.G., 2012. Business cases for sustainability: the
role of business model innovation for corporate sustainability. International Journal of
Innovation and Sustainable Development, 6(2), pp.95-119.
Schneider, S. and Spieth, P., 2013. Business model innovation: Towards an integrated future
research agenda. International Journal of Innovation Management, 17(01), p.1340001.

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Spieth, P., Schneckenberg, D. and Ricart, J.E., 2014. Business model innovation–state of the art
and future challenges for the field. R&d Management, 44(3), pp.237-247.
Trimi, S. and Berbegal-Mirabent, J., 2012. Business model innovation in
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Appendix: Timeline, costs
The timeline and cost signifies the manner in which the operations will be undertaken for
implementing the innovation and the costs that might be incurred by the organization in the
different steps. The entire process is divided into different parts in order to signify the systematic
functioning of the process in accordance to the needs of implementing the innovation. On the

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other hand, the4 costs that are segregated in the different units has helped in identifying the
investments that might be undertaken by the organization in the different steps.