Analysis of IT System Uses in Business: A Comprehensive Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the application of Information Technology (IT) systems within a business context, using JS Supermarket as a case study. The report begins by exploring the diverse uses of IT systems across different organizational functions, such as inventory management, customer relationship management (CRM), marketing, and financial transactions. It then delves into the contributions of IT in achieving organizational objectives, including maintaining inventory, tracking employee performance, and enhancing customer experience through automated systems like scanners and card-accepting machines. Furthermore, the report examines how IT systems facilitate data storage and processing for customer relationship management, knowledge management, data management, and communication management. The report also discusses how IT supports value-added changes to improve business operations, sustainability, and overall performance. Finally, it offers practical IT solutions for common challenges faced by supermarkets, offering insights into optimizing operations, improving customer service, and driving business growth. This report is valuable for students studying business development.

BUSINESS INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 IT System Uses With Different Functions Of An Organization...........................................1
1.2 Contribution Of IT System In Achieving Objectives Of An Organization..........................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................2
2.1 Ways In Which IT System Can Store And Process Data......................................................2
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................4
3.1 Use Of IT Systems For Supporting Value Added Changes For Performance And
Sustainability, Business Operations.............................................................................................4
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................6
4.1 Practical IT Solutions............................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Technology systems are the systems which make functions in an organization easy, systems
like hardware’s, software’s, tools and machineries. IT systems can be enabled in
organizations to improve their functional areas and their business operations. In this
assignment different IT system uses will be explained with different functions of an
organizations, contribution of IT System will also be explained in achieving objective of an
organization, many ways through which Information technology system can process and
store data for customer relationship management, knowledge management, data
management and communication management will also be explained, uses of information
technology system to support changes in improving business operations, sustainability and
performance and at last practical IT system solution will be explained for all the problems
arises in an supermarket. All the task will be explained with the help of JS Supermarket as
an example which is a UK based supermarket( Audet, Squires and Doty., 2014 ).
TASK 1
1.1 IT System Uses With Different Functions Of An Organization
IT system can be used in different ways in an organization like JS Supermarket for
different functions such as:
 It can be used to managing inventories and sales of products and goods in supermarkets
like how many products are available, how many are required, sales done etc. all these
things can be done easily through software and IT systems in supermarkets.
 It can also be used to manage customer base and their details in retail organizations like
JS Supermarket which can help them to know and analysis their customers so that
whenever they visit next time they can provide them with different discount coupons,
offers etc. so that customers are motivated to visit next time( Christiansen and et.al.,
2014).
 Bar code scanner can also be used to ease their work of knowing all the details of the
products by scanning the barcode to know their price and details of the product and know
when those products are sold. This will also help them in managing their inventory
section.
 IT system can also be used in JS Supermarket by their managers to create a marketing
plan by analysing inventory data and analysing the market trend for the products present.
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These details allow marketing department to analyse all the details and make a marketing
plan for their products so that functions of marketing team are made easier.
 One of the major function of supermarket is to maintain temperature for the food items
according to their demand which is quite difficult as some products require cold
temperature some require moist temperature etc. This can be easily dealt with the help of
computer monitors which control and monitor temperature and conditions in these areas
and make adjustments required accordingly( Darnton and Giacoletto., 2018 ).
 IT systems can also help supermarkets to manage and analyse all of their financial
transactions done.
1.2 Contribution Of IT System In Achieving Objectives Of An Organization
 One of the major objective of supermarkets is to ensure that store is properly stocked,
merchandised to brand presentation, IT system can help in achieving this objective
through MIS system (Management information system). It is an information system
computerized, this system can help in generating yearly, monthly and daily reports, keep
check of their inventories, keep track of all the changes in an organization, also generate
reports if there is sudden drop in sales.
 Another objective of supermarket is to keep track of store employees. This can also be
done through ERP system, it keep track of all the employees, their work, schedule,
wedges and gives their performance report either by generating reports of their
performance daily, yearly or monthly. It can also help in comparing performance of other
employees with other( Dumais and et.al., 2016 ).
 Another objective of supermarkets is to provide high quality and trendy products to the
customers this can be done by installing automated computerized machinery which an
design and produce products with high quality and is trending.
 To automate their sales and their systems and this can be done by installing scanners and
card accepting machines. With scanners they can directly scan the product and generate
bill and with the help of card accepting machine they can provide cashless transactions to
the customers.
 To maintain their customer base and to increase their customer base is also one of their
objective and this can be achieved through maintaining their database and marketing
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through advertisement to thorough social media. Through this they can offer special
offers and discount coupons to customers to attract them( Eason., 2014 ).
TASK 2
2.1 Ways In Which IT System Can Store And Process Data
Different ways in which data can be processed for customer relationship management,
knowledge management and data management and communication management are:
 Knowledge Management: Knowledge management without IT systems has always been
a problem for organisations like supermarkets. It is basically sharing, creating, using and
management of information and knowledge in an organization. Knowledge management
is providing different approaches to organization for achieving organization goals by
making use of all the information available. Databases, data warehousing, datamining are
the basics which are used by many knowledge management software’s the Knowledge
management in retail organisation can be done by many tools like enterprise portals
which collects all the information across the organization for different projects, planning
and scheduling software’s which automates maintenance and automation of software’s
this can also be done by project management software’s. Knowledge management tools
basically first locates the knowledge source, then collaborates it search for hidden sources
and the extracts knowledge and uses it to enhance the process. There are many other
software’s used in organizations like artificial intelligence tools, content management
system or simulation tools and many more tools which can be used for knowledge
management( Kasemsap., 2018 ).
 Customer Relationship Management: Relationship with customers is important for all
the organizations especially retail organizations like JS Supermarkets. Customer
relationship management or CRM is a term used for technologies, strategies and practices
used be organizations to analyse and manage interactions with their customers with a
simple goal of improving relationship with customers to increase their sales. IT systems
has made customer relationship management easy for organizations. CRM software’s
compile all the details of customers weather it is their personal details or any purchase
details and stores it in its database and after that organizations can easily extract
customers purchase history, concerns, personal information or buying preference or can
analyse the data to know trending product liked by customers the most and enhances the
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customers experience. CRM software’s helps to assemble customers data at one place
with customer service representative which help employees to interact with their
customers to serve them and to make interaction with then more productive and efficient.
It reduces the time of an organisations as all the information is present at one place and
easily available. There are many CRM software’s available for organizations to use like
Microsoft Dynamics, SAP CRM, ODOO all these software are used by companies to
understand customers preferences and generate reports and graphs and make it easy for
organizations to understand customers preferences. In supermarkets it is important to
understand their customers to increase their organization business and to increase their
customer base as their whole business is dependent on customers only( Laudon and
Laudon., 2016 ). In short it can be said that it makes marketing automated which makes
marketing efforts easy for companies, sales automated which helps companies to track
customers interactions easy and make business decisions easy to for companies to
increase their sales, contact centre automation which helps to remain in contact with the
customers to serve then to handle their requests easily, through these software’s location
based services are also made easy through which popular locations where business is
running good can also be tracked.
 Data management: Data management is basically a concept of managing data and its
valuable resources. Data management in companies is really important as most of their
business is completely dependent on the data to be used. Initially data use to be stored in
storage devices like disk etc. but now a days there are many software and storage options
for data management like cloud storage or companies’ databases, software’s like content
management and data management which helps organizations to store and process the
data to be used. These processed data can be used for making favourable decisions for
organizations. Then these data can be used for communication management.
 Communication management: Communication management is basically planning,
monitoring, implementing all the channels of communication. It includes managing and
developing organizations strategies both external and internal and manage the
information flow which also includes online communications. IT system helps
organizations to store and process data for management and communications through
mobiles, emails, messages, electronic documents etc.
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TASK 3
3.1 Use Of IT Systems For Supporting Value Added Changes For Performance And
Sustainability, Business Operations
 Business operations: There are many business operations the can be improved by using
IT Systems out of which there are many operations used by retail organizations known as
retail business operations which are also done in supermarkets like JS Supermarket. All
the type of operations will be explained such as: Store management operations: IT
systems can help to enhance store management operations using ERP software which will
help store manager to keep track of inventories, ensure adequate stoke availability,
expenses made and update all the resources and also helps then to keep track of all the
stores present and availability of stock in those stores( Luo and et.al., 2015 ).
Merchandising operations: IT systems can help to improve merchandising operations by
ecommerce websites or shopping applications where users can easily shop for products
and opt home delivery as an option. This will increase their customer base as most of the
customers prefer online shopping as it is convenient and all the products are available at
one platform only. Visual merchandising operation: merchandising is not only selling
products but is also selling experience to customers by creating a display of products to
be sold in supermarket. Soothing display of products sends a message to customers and
enhances them to buy the product. Data management operation: in retail market like JS
supermarket management of customer data and inventory data is important, for this
software’s like CRM can be used which will not only store the data but also analyse the
data to be used for customer services( Marchewka., 2014 ). Receipt management
operation: It is nothing but mode of payment provided to customers. Receipt management
can be improved by providing customers facilities of e-wallets, credit and debit cards, gift
cards or coupon codes. These facilities can help JS supermarket to enhance their receipt
management system. Customer service operations: It is also an important operation for
retail organizations. This can be improved by providing customers e-helping option to
resolve customers queries.
 Performance: Performance of a company depends upon two factors one is financial and
another is non-financial. IT systems can help in increasing performance of their
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organization by maintaining both financial and non-financial factor. These factors can be
improved by using transactional software which will help the organization to keep a track
of their expenses, profit, revenue generated, sales growth, return of investment, interest
and taxes etc. This will help supermarkets to improve their performance(Moser and et.al.,
2015).
However, performance and sustainability are interconnected to each other.
Performance of retail organizations can be improved by using various IT systems
appropriately in their required business operation. Sustainability in an organization is a
major concern as competition In the market is growing continuously. Level of
sustainability in an organization also decides the level of performance in that industry. If
sustainability in an organization increases then it also affects the performance of an
organization.
 Sustainability: Sustainability in an organization can be improved using reward systems
to encourage the employees to step towards effective sustainable programs, so that
employees get encouraged to use sustainable programs.
TASK 4
4.1 Practical IT Solutions
One of the major problems faced by retail sector is customer loyalty as there are many
substitutes available in the market with almost same quality. This is a major mistake made by
companies i.e. they let their customers go and think they can be replaced but its opposite in fact
companies should think of ways to attract more customers. This can be done by CRM systems
which helps organizations to keep track of all the details of the customers and can send emails to
customers about the stock availability of the products required by them or any offers or discounts
available which can be availed by customers. This will customers to remain loyal towards the
supermarket in fact more customers will get attracted towards them. Organizations can also
provide customers voucher cards in which every time a customer shops from that store points
will be added to that voucher cards and can be redeemed afterwads. Managing internal
communications in an organization has always been a problem specially organizations like JS
supermarkets which have many branches. Inefficient communication in an organization like JS
supermarket can disturb their business operations. This problem can be solved with the help of
ERP system through which internal communication can be managed in retail organization. This
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software can analyse and centralize all the business operations of JS supermarket like generating
comprehensive and real-time reports, distribute task automatically all across the divisions and
also make sure that system is running smoothly and properly.
Major problem faced by retail industry is that employee turnover rate in this industry is very
high so to retain employees in this industry is a tough task and replacing then requires money
and energy. This problem can be solved by employee engagement in retail organization. Through
automated competency management system or HR management system maximise employee’s
potential and also provide them training for optimizing their competencies. Due to availability of
products online behaviour of customers is changing rapidly. This problem can be solved by
making a digital website and application of the store where customers can find all the products of
the store online and can buy it.
To reach wider audience omnichannel marketing strategy can be used. Retail industry
mostly faces a problem of providing price benefits to the customers this problem can be solved
by using POS systems or barcode scanners which helps the organization to integrate their
products and best price of products can be provided to the customers. There is also one more
problem faced by retail organizations is their billing system, if billing of products take time by
manually entering products for billing then it can result in loss of customers. This problem can
be solved by using automated billing systems which can directly can the product by reading its
barcode and enter it for billing and bill can be generated. This automated billing system can
reduce time consumed by manual billing. This system can further be automated by installing
different modes of payment like reading card machines through which billing can be done by
both debit and credit cards or by accepting e-wallets. Nowadays as online shopping is increasing
cyber crimes are also increasing which has caused big problems to retail organizations like JS
Supermarkets. This problem can be solved by installing protection systems like anti-theft
systems and anti-virus system which will enhance their security and decrease these cyber crime.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been summarized that IT System can be used in different ways
with different functions in different operations of an organization. There are many different ways
Information technology systems can contribute in achieving objects of JS Super market. Data
processing and data storage can be done in an organization in many ways by using IT System for
performance, sustainability and business operations. There are many business operations in JS
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Super markets and all these operations can be improved by using different IT Systems and
performance and sustainability of an organization like JS supermarket can also be achieved by
using different IT Systems in many ways( Sellers and et.al., Cisco Technology Inc, 2014 ). There
are many business problems faced by an organization specially retail organization like JS
supermarket all the solutions of these problems using IT system had been discussed in the above
assignment.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Audet, A.M., Squires, D. and Doty, M.M., 2014. Where are we on the diffusion curve? Trends
and drivers of primary care physicians' use of health information technology. Health
services research. 49(1pt2). pp.347-360.
Christiansen and et.al., 2014. Method and system for assessing, managing, and monitoring
information technology risk. U.S. Patent 8,744,894.
Darnton, G. and Giacoletto, S., 2018. Information in the Enterprise: it's more than technology.
Durotriges Press.
Dumais and et.al., 2016, January. Stuff I've seen: a system for personal information retrieval and
re-use. In ACM SIGIR Forum (Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 28-35). ACM.
Eason, K.D., 2014. Information technology and organisational change. CRC Press.
Kasemsap, K., 2018. The role of information system within enterprise architecture and their
impact on business performance. In Global Business Expansion: Concepts, Methodologies,
Tools, and Applications (pp. 1078-1102). IGI Global.
Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2016. Management information system. Pearson Education
India.
Luo and et.al., 2015. Overview of current development in electrical energy storage technologies
and the application potential in power system operation. Applied energy. 137. pp.511-536.
Marchewka, J.T., 2014. Information technology project management. John Wiley & Sons.
Moser and et.al., 2015. Casino patron tracking and information use. U.S. Patent 8,979,646.
Sellers and et.al., Cisco Technology Inc, 2014. Agile information technology infrastructure
management system. U.S. Patent 8,725,853.
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