INF10003: Business Information Systems & UMC Company Strategies

This report provides an analysis of United Milk Commodities (UMC) and their business strategies, including an Excel-based sales and milk production forecast. It highlights the importance of information in decision-making and problem-solving within organizations like UMC, focusing on SWOT analysis for strategic growth. The report details UMC's business processes using a swim lane diagram and discusses the role of business process modeling in aligning operations, improving communication, enhancing consistency, and increasing operational efficiency. Recommendations include network improvements with firewalls and backup servers, cloud service implementation for cost reduction and scalability, and the development of a native mobile app for a personalized customer ordering experience. Finally, the report differentiates between web analytics, social network analysis, and customer relationship management, emphasizing their distinct roles in information collection and business strategy.

Running head: INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS
INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Name of Student
Name of University
Course code

1INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Executive summary
This report provides the discussion of the UMC company and their business strategies. This
report provides an excel file to predict and calculate sales and milk produced for UMC.
Information acts as an important factor in the organisations like UMC as it provides the
guidance for every decision an organisation undertakes or expects to make. The business
process of the company is discussed extensively in this report. Therefore, the information is
vital in the process of decision-making and the problem-solving, and deprived of the right
information, the organisations are surely certain to make some inaccuracies in these vital
processes. The recommendations that are provided to the company are the implementation of
the improvements in the network of the company and implementation of the cloud services.
The improvements in the network of the company with the implementation of the firewall
and fast response and backup servers would help the organisation in enhancing the
information sharing in the organisation.

2INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Task A: EXCEL for business intelligence
In this question the excel analytics tools are used to predict and calculate sales and milk
produced for UMC. The excel file contains the milks product type and their corresponding
order details and the collected revenues. The sales data is collected on a cycle of 52 weeks.
At first the Equivalent litre/carton column, supplier price per unit and retail sale price per unit
is calculated in excel. The retail sellers are assumed to be doing 10% profit on the supplier
price per unit. The supplier price per unit is calculated in the milk products table also. Then
the milk production table is completed where the projected milk ordered in litres is calculated
by increasing the production in 2017 by 18.6%. The milk production table is shown below.
Milk production - Overall litres (past, present and projected
future)
Produ
ct
Code
Product
Description
Raw to
process
ed ratio
Litres
Ordere
d
(W32-
2016)
Litres
Ordered
(W32-
2017)
Projecte
d Litres
(W32-
2018)
WM Whole Milk 0.95 182.81 351.0 416.3
RF
Reduce Fat
Milk 0.8 140.63 270.0 320.2
A2 Special Milk 0.95 70.31 90.0 106.7
FM
Flavoured
Milk 0.9 101.25 151.2 179.3
SM Skim milk 0.7 37.50 96.0 113.9
UM UHT Milk 0.5 37.50 48.0 56.9
LF
Lactose Free
Milk 0.6 42.19 54.0 64.0
OM Organic Milk 0.75 28.13 36.0 42.7
Totals 640.31
1096.2
0 1300.09

3INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Total orders by customers for Week 32 for all 3 years (2016-2018) by column chart:
Woolworths Petrol Shell 7eleven Joe's milkbar
0
5
10
15
20
25
Total orders by different customers from 2016-18
Total Orders 2016 (W32) Total Orders 2017(W32) Total Orders 2018 (W32)
Milk production data by column chart:
Whole
Milk Reduce Fat
Milk Special
Milk Flavoured
Milk Skim milk UHT Milk Lactose
Free Milk Organic
Milk
0.00
50.00
100.00
150.00
200.00
250.00
300.00
350.00
400.00
450.00
Different types Milk produced in litres in three years
Litres Ordered (W32-2016) Litres Ordered (W32-2017) Projected Litres (W32-2018)

4INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Reflection of milk data table by column chart:
Whole Milk Reduce Fat
Milk Special
Milk Flavoured
Milk Skim milk UHT Milk Lactose
Free Milk Organic
Milk
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
Process ratio, litres ordered for different milks in three years
Raw to processed ratio Litres Ordered (W32-2016)
Litres Ordered (W32-2017) Projected Litres (W32-2018)
It can be observed from the charts that Wholeworths petrol orders the most milks from UMC
and the maximum ordered milk is in the year 2018.
Task B: Business process models
The business process model by Swim lane diagram of the UMC is given below.

5INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS

6INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Task C: Role of business process modelling
The role of the business process modelling can be understood by this following
discussion:
1. Aligning the operations with the new strategy of business: The implementation or the
modification of any business strategy commonly requires the changes to the people
and the operation who are performing the work. There is a nature of the people to
resist the changes. Therefore, there can be significant impact of the old strategy on the
new strategy. This feature is facilitated by the Business process modelling by:
 With ensuring the execution of the tasks and the activities by any team
members might help the organisation in implementing the strategy. If the
alignment of the strategies and the processes is not done properly, it might
lead to the failure in the execution. Even if the execution of the tasks is done
correctly, the complete goals of the organisations cannot be achieved.
2. Improve the communication of the process: Any one area using which the
distinguishing of the successful businesses and the teams is done for providing them
with any clear idea of what is being done, and the methods by which they are doing
the work and the exact role of any team member. The clear communication of all the
processes of the operations is vital for facilitating the smooth operation of any team.
3. Increase the consistency and the control: the companies and the organisations who
succeed are the ones who ensure that the business processes and the rules are designed
well and they are constantly functional the particular way each time. The key to the
organisations like UMC is the consistency and the process control.
4. Enhancement of the operational efficiency: In the present environment of the
businesses, each of the business and the managers like to ensure the achieving the
most preferred results with resources that are allocated to the businesses.

7INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS
5.

8INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Importance of information
Information acts as an important factor in the organisations like UMC as it provides
the guidance for every decision an organisation undertakes or expects to make. Therefore, the
information is vital in the process of decision-making and the problem-solving, and deprived
of the right information, the organisations are surely certain to make some inaccuracies in
these vital processes.
Any organisation like the UMC requires the information regarding the weaknesses, threats,
strengths, and the opportunities. The major intention of any SWOT analysis in any
organisation is conducted to provide the assurance that the organisation has the idea of the
internal and external position for securing and obtain growth of the business. The importance
of information in the organisations could be understood by the fact that the information
assists the organisations in devising the enhanced strategies for effective handling the
competitors. The recommendations that are provided to the company are the implementation
of the improvements in the network of the company and implementation of the cloud
services. The improvements in the network of the company with the implementation of the
firewall and fast response and backup servers would help the organisation in enhancing the
information sharing in the organisation. This would help the organisations to obtain the
enhancing the services than the competitors of the company. Moving to the cloud computing
might help in reducing the managing cost and the maintenance of the IT systems. Instead of
purchasing of the costly equipment and the systems, the cost can be reduced with the
utilisation of the services that are provided by the cloud service provider. Enhanced
scalability could be achieved by the organisations to manage the storage and the operations of
the business according to the situations, allowing the enhanced flexibility according to the
changes in the requirements.

9INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Recommendation about the mobile app or mobile webpage app
It is recommended to the company to develop a native mobile app for the ordering system
and provide the customers with the personalised shopping experience. There are several
advantages of the mobile apps over the webpage. The applications of the mobile app are
commonly 1.5 times faster than the mobile websites as the performance of the applications in
the mobile phones is considered to be easier. The data is required to be fetched from web
servers that can take significantly lower time to process the query on the basis of the packet
sizes and the speed of the network. The content on the mobile apps is extensively
personalised depending on the preferences of the consumers. The personalisation with the
enhanced user centric approach is vital for making the experience of the customers delightful.
The basis of the personalisation can be on the basis of the interest, location, behaviour and the
culture of the users. The availability of the instant and the offline access provides the users
with the ability of consuming the content easily and then offering the experience that is
seamless through the storing of the data, which can be accessed in the offline platform too.
The features of devices can be used for performing enhanced interaction with the users. The
updates of the applications can be provided to the customers easily for providing them with
the idea of any kind of modification in the ordering system or the addition of any new items
in the business of the company. Therefore, it is recommended to the company to implement
the mobile app for the new ordering system of the products.
Differences between web analytics, social network analysis and customer relationship
management:
Web Analytics: The web analytics is the process of collection, measurement and reporting of
the web related data for understanding the optimization of the web usage. However, it is not
only a process of the measuring the web traffic but also it can be used for market and the
business research. Web analytics is a typical type of application which can be used for the

10INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS
helping various types of organizations that includes measurement of the results of broadcast
advertising campaigns or the traditional printing. The application of the web analytics is
capable of estimating how the traffic to a website changes after creation of a new advertising
campaigns. Web analytics is also capable of counting the number of visitors to a particular
website and the number of pages that has been viewed.
Social Network Analysis: The social network analysis is a typical process of the
investigation of the social structures by the usage of the graph theory and networks. The
social network analysis characterizes the structure of the network in the terms of ties, nodes
and edges which interconnects them. The social structures are mainly visualised through the
social network analysis and this social network includes memes spread, social media network
and circulation of the information. It also includes the business networks, collaboration gaps
and the acquaintance network. For visualising this networks often the socigrams are used.
Customer Relationship Management: The CRM or the customer relationship management
is the process of managing the interaction of the company with the future potential and
current customers. In this process data analysis is used about the history of the customers
with the respective organization to bring improvements in the business relationships with the
customers by mainly focusing on the driving sales growth and retaining the old customers.
The main important aspect of the customer relationship management approach is compiling
data form various different types of communication channels which includes website of the
company or the organization, email, telephone, live chat and the marketing materials. By
using the CRM approach the system is capable of facilitating how to care about the needs of
the customers.
Thus the main differences between these threes concepts regarding the environment of the
information collection is that the web analytics collects information from a website about the

11INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS
number of visitors and to the website and number of pages viewed by the visitors. The main
benefit of collecting the data for web analytics is that it helps to gauge the traffic and the
types of popularity trends which is very much useful in the case of the market related
research.
The social network analysis gathers data from the various of resources which includes
social media networks, information circulation, memes spread, business networks and the
social networks. It this process of the data collection qualitative type of data is gathered.
There are various types of advantages are provided by the social network analysis which
includes wider applications, multiple uses and targeting responses.
The customer relationship management collects the data from different types of
communication channels and this channels includes website of the organization, email,
telephone calls, live chats and from the marketing medias. Also, one of the most important
source for collection of the customer relationship management data is the social media. In
this case mainly the customer related data is collected from the above discussed resources.
The collected data can provide various of benefits to the organization but before that the data
need to be analysed very much carefully. From the collection of those data, the organization
can use the data for driving the growth of the sales and for a better customer management by
the retention of the existing customers.
Privacy laws for safe and secure information:
In the current situation there are various types of privacy laws for achieving a safe and
a secure information but there are some common sets of privacy laws for the securing the
information properly. These privacy laws are the:
 There should be a valid reason behind the collection of the data from any kind of
source and this reason must be stated properly.