Effective Usage of IT and Software in Morrison: An Analysis

This report evaluates the usage of IT and software in Morrison, a popular retailing company in the UK. It covers different types of software used by Morrison, ethical and social issues in the digital world, and their mitigation strategies. The report also covers the impact of the internet and intranet on business and the role of IT in helping managers manage the business.

Individual report

ABSTRACT
Information Technology is the study of using various electric tools and software. Companies use
various kinds of software and tools to manage their main operational activities effectively. The
main role of IT in organisations is to enhance the communication between company and their
employees and their customers. IT also have some disadvantages for the company like huge cost
is required to use them within the company. A threat of hacking is always a big challenge for
companies and many others. Beside this, companies use them due to their effective usage.
Morrison is the company which is chosen to evaluate effective usage of IT within this report.
The main purpose of this report is to analyse and evaluate the IT and software usage within
Morrison.

Contents
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Literature Review.........................................................................................................................1
Analysis and discussion...............................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
Online-.............................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Information technology is a wide concept which consist using computers and machines
for different kinds of tasks and activities (Akhmedov and Shuhkrat, 2020). It consist of collect,
store and use different kinds of data and information for organisational benefit. The company
need IT in almost every activity of their business. Morrison is one of the most popular retailing
company in UK which is founded in the year 1899 by William Morrison and it is headquartered
in Bradford, UK. The following report covers different types of software that is used by
Morrison, ethical and social issues in digital world and their mitigation strategies. This report
also covers impact of internet and intranet on business and role of IT in helping managers to
manage business.
MAIN BODY
Literature Review
According to Rosencrance (2020) software is the set of data, instructions and programme
which are used to run a computer effectively and perform specific tasks. There are mainly two
types of software, application software and system software where application software performs
specific task given by it's instructor. On the other hand, system software is used to run hardware
of computers (Rosencranes, 2020). There is also a kind of software which is called programming
software which is used for programming the tools and machines. In context of retail industry,
there are different kinds of software which is used by most of the supermarkets and
hypermarkets. Payment processing software, inventory management software, retail management
software and few others are commonly used by Morrison supermarkets.
As per the perspective of Royakkers, Timmer and Van Est (2018) there are various kinds
of issues and challenges which can be faced by companies while using digital tools and
technologies within their organisations. Misuse of personal information is one of the biggest
issue in case of digitalization (Szymkowiak and et. al., 2021). The hackers and unauthorized
users of data can collect confidential data from company and misuse them for their personal
benefit. Hence, the data and information which is stored in software can be hacked by
experienced hackers. Misinformation and collection of non-reliable data is the second issues
which can be faced by many companies especially retailing companies (Royakkers, Timmer and
van Est, 2018). Here, they feed wrong data in their data sheet which further impacts decision
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making process of an organisation. Lack of knowledge is another big issue in using software and
programmes within a company. The existing employees of the companies are unaware about the
software and they use the software in different ways which further reduce the productivity and
profitability of the organisation. They need to train their employees for effective usage of these
technology. Companies are also required to invest more for purchasing high quality tools and
software for their organisation.
As per the perspective of Moussa (2016) Information and communication technology
(ICT) are those activities which consist of collecting, storing and using data for organisational
benefit. It further help the company in communication activities. Internet and intranet are two
different concepts where internet consist of complete network of globally linked computers.
Here, the individual can share the information all across the world (Munn and et. al., 2019).
Various branches of an organisation within different location are linked by internet and they
share their information from one country to another. On the other hand, intranet is a part of
network where the authentication of using information is given to some selected users. Limited
data are required to share through intranet (Moussa, 2016). Commonly, this network is seen
within the specific building of organisation where they share data from one floor to another but
did not able to share data from one building to another. In context of retail industry, internet and
intranet played a important for the success of companies. It is the fact that internet is unsafe and
not protected due to global network connection and intranet is safe and protected due to limited
number of users and restrictions for others to use it.
Information technology played a very important role to help managers to manage their
work and organisations appropriately. Managers main role is to manage their employees and
available resources for achieving organisational objectives (Ma and et. al., 2018). ERP software
and decision support system will help the managers to make effective decisions for
organisational growth. Various software and tools will also help the managers to measure the
performance of their employees so that they will analyse who are their high performers as well as
low performers so that they will focus more to retain their high performers and train well to their
low performing employees. The data which are stored through software will help managers to
identify the real time of data and exact information required by manager. IT and software will
also help the managers to communicate with their seniors and subordinates to share information.
Managers can also get to know about availability of their resources through software and internet
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usage. These technologies are also used for effective and quick communication within the
organisation. Different kinds of conflicts are also managed by mangers through IT. In context of
retailing industry, their inventory are also managed by IT tools and technology (McDonald and
et. al., 2021). Performance of employees are managed and evaluated through IT tools and this
will help them to analyse the need of training for their employees to enhance their skills and
knowledge.
Analysis and discussion
Types of software that could be used by retail businesses-
In context of retail sector, there are various kinds of software which will help the
companies to enhance their productivity and profitability. Retail Management Software is one of
the most important tool for supermarkets and hypermarkets to analyse their key performance in
satisfying their customers. It record the information from ordering a product in store to selling it
out to the customers. It consist of point-of-sale (POS) insights which means it record all kind of
transactions with real time. Most commonly used retail management software are Springboard
Retail, iQmetrix, Retalix, Dynamics RMS, Retail Pro and many others.
In context of Morrison, they use Retalix software to enhance their main operational
efficiency and increase the shopping experience of their targeted customers. They mainly focus
upon their IT department in the year 2007, they started working with various kinds of retail
management software to manage their daily routine effectively. At the initial stage, Morrison
used different kinds of software for their different services like in-store quick service restaurants,
the check-out lanes, dry cleaning service counters and fuelling sites. After a long time of
evaluation of store IT systems, Morrison used integrated system of Retalix software application
which further include self-checkout applications, quick-service restaurants and many others. This
software is also used by Morrison to manage their cash processes. Retalix further include retail
operations management, supply chain management, transportation management and many others.
POS system allows the business to accept payment from customers and keep tracking the sales of
the company. This will help Morrison to analyse the sales of particular product within their
supermarket so that they will analyse that which product is having high sales and which is having
lowest sale. This will further help in decision making for investing more upon those products
which are having high sale (Seino and et. al., 2022). The system used by Morrison is also helping
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them to recognize their loyal customers by face at the entrance. This system has the face
recognition programme and it recognizes those faces which appear regularly to the store.
Inventory management is one of the most important task of retail companies. There are
various kinds of inventory management software like Cin7Orderhive, Lightspeed retail and many
others (Fiske, Henningsen and Buyx, 2019). It can help Morrison to manage their inventory well
and analyse their inflows and outflows of stock within the stores as well as within the
warehouses. This software also help the Morrison employees to recognize that which product is
placed at which place in the huge warehouses by their QR codes feed in the software. This will
save the time to search for the products by the employees. This software will highlight the
products which are decreasing in the stores so that company will order them quickly and protect
their company to face the issue of lack of inventory at emergency situations.
Another important role of retail companies is to maintain good relationship with their
customers and for this there are various kinds of software which are used by retail companies.
These software are HubSpot CRM, Pipedrive, NetSuit CRM, Zoho CRM and many others.
These software will help the retail stores to record the person data of their customers like their
contact number, their feedbacks, their experiences and their complaints so that the company will
contact them and make sure that their complaints will get mitigate on time.
Importance of Ethical and social issues in running retail business-
Ethical and social issues are increasing as per the level of digitalization. More digital
tools and technology used by companies will occur more ethical and social issues. Few of the
examples of ethical and social issues in retail industry are misuse of data, late responding to
customers, ignoring customers issues and complaints, labour exploitation, conveying wrong
information about products and services to customers and many others (Urquizo and et. al.,
2019). In context of retail industry, these issues played a very important role for managing
business well. These issues can be mitigated well for effective management of company. In
context of Morrison, they assign supervisors and leaders who regularly keep on checking the
employees performance and solve their issues on regular basis so that they will become
successful in gaining employees satisfaction.
Various kinds of IT software and tools are used by Morrison to protect the data and
information of their customers and employees from getting hacked and misuse. They allow only
few employees for the access of their data privacy software and they choose only those
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employees whom they trust a lot. Hence, the management of data will get enhanced with this
strategy. Ethical and social issues are also important for an organisation because it help the
company to understand the issues and decide their mitigation strategies for smooth running of
business. One of the biggest social issue in retail industry is related to satisfying their customers.
Most of the supermarkets get failed to offer high quality of products to meet the
expectation of their customers (Joseph and Balachandra, 2020). The customers get attracted
toward a product of specific supermarket by seeing the advertisement of that product or brand.
Companies over show their brand reputation and product quality within their advertising. This
should be avoided by the companies. In context of Morrison, they make sure that they will
advertise true and actual information about the products in their advertisements. Secondly, they
also respond the quarries and issues of their customers quickly. This is done by their customer
service department and different kinds of software used by employees of this department to focus
on customers complains. Ethical and social businesses will also help the company to analyse the
performance of their existing policies and modify them as per the issues faced by companies.
Ethical and social issues in Morrison will help management team to become more active and
responsible toward their organisation and its growth.
Impact of Internet and Intranet on business-
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) consist of those tools and
technologies which are used to communicate with each other appropriately. These tools will help
the organisation to communicate with their customers and analyse their needs and wants
appropriately. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) makes a business more
efficient and effective in responding to customer needs. In context of Morrison, they mainly use
social media platforms, e-mails and phone calls to communicate with their customers. It is
essential for the company that they will communicate with both customers as well as with their
employees. Morrison is having mire than 450 supermarkets all across the world. Hence, they
need to communicate effectively with each other to analyse each other's performance and
requirements. Internet and intranet impacted upon the performance of Morrison. With the use of
internet they communicate with their customers and other branches of their company and with
the help of intranet the employees within a building get communicated with each other. For
example, they share pictures and videos of their supermarkets on social media networks to aware
customers about the products which they sell. They also share the information like discounts and
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offers to their customers through internet to attract them. Customers of Morrison mainly
complain on website and employees of the company is required to solve their quarries and issues
appropriately. Internet played a very important role in the success of Morrison. It mainly able to
attract customers at global level and help them to retain for longer period of time.
The informations from one location to another is also conveyed through internet. The
mails and messages are run through internet hence, in case any store which need additional
workforce can communicate to headquarter and convey their message and then the headquartered
will allow them to hire employees as per their requirement (Abbas, 2020). Therefore, internet is
the main medium of communication between branches of Morrison. They also share their
feedback forms to customers through mails and social media channels and the customers are
required to fill the form and send back to company. This will help the Morrison to analyse which
factors within their company bis helping them to gain customer satisfaction and which factors are
impacting bad outcomes for company. Hence, this will further help them to make decision to
invest more upon those factors which satisfy their customers and modify the factors which are
creating dissatisfaction of customers.
In context of social media channels like Instagram, Facebook and many other channels,
the customers also share their reviews and experience on these platforms and Morrison will
communicate with their customers promise them to solve their issues. Internet also help
Morrison to work appropriately through online mode. They can sell their products through online
mode and their delivery trucks deliver the products to customer's doorstep. The usage of GPS
system in the delivery vehicles will help the company top reach to customers doorstep within
minimum time period. GPS tracker will also help to deliver right product to right customer. On
the other hand, through the use of intranet, their employees within a supermarket get connected
with each other. Most of the supermarkets gave a tablet to their employees and ask them to
communicate through those tablets only so that their confidential information will not get leaked
by any employee.
Role of IT in helping managers to manage businesses-
Information Technology also played a important role in managing a business for
managers. A business manager use different kinds of tools and software for managing the
employees and their available resources for the successful achievement of goal and objectives of
company. In context of Morrison, their managers use various software and tools to hire new and
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skilled employees within their organisation. They advertise on social media platforms to attract
new talents and then conduct their interview to hire them. They manage their employees and
their performance through software. The performance of employees are also measured by
software which further help to analyse most productive and least productive employees of the
company. IT will help the managers of Morrison to analyse the presence of their employees for
each sub-sections of their supermarkets. Decision making process of the company is also get
impacted by IT. The managers use the numerical and qualitative data to analyse the decisions of
their organisation. For example, total sales of any product is get to know by the software. Hence,
this data can represented in decision making meetings to take those decisions which will enhance
the productivity and profitability of the organisation. IT also help managers to communicate with
their employees and make them clear about their vision and mission to achieve organisational
objective. IT also help managers to gain the trust of their employees by keeping their personal
details safe and secure.
CONCLUSION
From the above information it is concluded that Information Technology plays a
important role in success of every organisation. IT helps to manage their day to day routines and
manage their employees appropriately. There are various kinds of software which are used by
retail industry to manage their employees, inventory, supply chain and many other operational
activities. Ethical and social issues are supposed to manage by organisations effectively so that
they will enhance their brand reputation. Internet and Intranet will well the companies to
maintain good relationship with their employees and customers. It also help to fulfil the needs
and wants of their customers effectively. IT also played a important role in managing the task of
managers. It helps to manage employees and available resources of the company.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Abbas, J., 2020. The role of interventions to manage and reduce Covid-19 mortality rate of the
COVID-19 patients worldwide. Foundation University Journal of Psychology, 4(2),
pp.33-36.
Akhmedov, B. and Shuhkrat, K., 2020. Cluster methods of learning english using information
technology. Scientific progress, 1(2), pp.40-43.
Fiske, A., Henningsen, P. and Buyx, A., 2019. Your robot therapist will see you now: ethical
implications of embodied artificial intelligence in psychiatry, psychology, and
psychotherapy. Journal of medical Internet research, 21(5), p.e13216.
Joseph, A. and Balachandra, P., 2020. Energy internet, the future electricity system: Overview,
concept, model structure, and mechanism. Energies, 13(16), p.4242.
Ma, Y. and et. al., 2018, May. Automatic classification of software artifacts in open-source
applications. In 2018 IEEE/ACM 15th International Conference on Mining Software
Repositories (MSR) (pp. 414-425). IEEE.
McDonald, K.E. and et. al., 2021. Legal, ethical, and social issues affecting the lives of people
with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Munn, Z. and et. al., 2019. The development of software to support multiple systematic review
types: the Joanna Briggs Institute System for the Unified Management, Assessment and
Review of Information (JBI SUMARI). JBI Evidence Implementation, 17(1), pp.36-43.
Seino, Y. and et. al., 2022. Ethical and Social Issues for Health Care Providers in the Intensive
Care Unit during the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan: a Questionnaire
Survey. Asian bioethics review, 14(2), pp.115-131.
Szymkowiak, A. and et. al., 2021. Information technology and Gen Z: The role of teachers, the
internet, and technology in the education of young people. Technology in Society, 65,
p.101565.
Urquizo, J. and et. al., 2019, October. Improving the quality of education on the galapagos
islands through a community intranet. In 2019 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology
Conference (GHTC) (pp. 1-8). IEEE.
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Online-
Rosencranes L., 2020, Software. Available through:
<https://www.techtarget.com/searchapparchitecture/definition/software/>
Royakkers L., Timmer J. and van Est R., 2018. Societal and ethical issues of digitization
[Online]. Available through:
<https://pure.tue.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/109482939/
Royakkers2018_Article_SocietalAndEthicalIssuesOfDigi.pdf/>
Moussa M., 2016. Internet, Intranets and Extranets in Organizations: An Integrative Literature
Review [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
306031154_Internet_Intranets_and_Extranets_in_Organizations_An_Integrative_Literature_Rev
iew/>
Morrisons Supermarket Deploys Integrated POS, Store and Fuel System, 2018 [Online].
Available through:
<https://risnews.com/morrisons-supermarkets-deploys-integrated-pos-store-and-fuel-
system#:~:text=Morrisons%2C%20a%20UK%2Dbased%20supermarket,stores%20and
%20285%20filling%20stations./>
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