MIS500: Report on Information System for Fibre Fashion (Australia)

This MIS500 report addresses the information system challenges faced by Fibre Fashion, an Australian fashion company. The company struggles with data management due to its reliance on spreadsheets, hindering its ability to handle increasing customer demands and provide optimized services. The report analyzes the issue, reviews relevant literature, and recommends solutions including a Marketing Information System (MIS) and an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, specifically NetSuite. The MIS is proposed to improve data analysis and marketing decision-making, while the ERP system aims to integrate various business processes, enhance data accessibility, and improve overall efficiency. The report highlights the benefits of these systems in addressing the limitations of the current spreadsheet-based system and supporting the company's growth.

Running head: MIS500 FOUNDATIONS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
MIS500 FOUNDATIONS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Name of student
Name of university
Author’s note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................2
Issue................................................................................................................................2
Literature review............................................................................................................3
Recommended solution..................................................................................................5
Marketing information system...................................................................................5
Enterprise resource planning......................................................................................6
NetSuite ERP system.................................................................................................7
Challenges of ERP system.........................................................................................9
Conclusion....................................................................................................................10
References....................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
The fashion industry is considered to be among the most competitive industry with
various competitions among the brands and the companies. Among these companies, Fibre
Fashion in Australia has emerged as the unique organisation with the extensive knowledge
along with the abilities in the revolutionary alterations in the supply, management style,
processes as well as the implementation of information technology. In the present times, the
use of conventional business methods are proving to be quite inefficient in handling the
increased amount of customers and the customer demands. The need of the customers of
innovative products and fast services is causing significant issue in the company and
managing the data of customers is also becoming challenging. This report intends to suggest
a new information system to Fibre Fashion that would allow the company to manage their
business with extensive efficiency.
Issue
Presently, due to the significantly low amount of customers in the business, the
company has been using the spreadsheets for maintaining their business data. With gathering
all the data of the market and the customers, the organisation executed the analysis of the data
for gaining the intelligence of the customer preferences and then the customer demands are
handled. Presently, with the increase in the number of the customers in the organisation, the
company is not able to handle the increased amount of the customers and the spreadsheets are
growing to be a liability to the organisation. The company presently needs extensively
updated data for working properly and provide various products to the customers but with the
use of spreadsheet in the organisation, the IT department is not able to enter the data in the
spreadsheets in real time and huge amount of data is lost. The transactions made by the
customers is also stored in the spreadsheets and it is presently becoming troublesome to

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search the transaction of any particular customers from the spreadsheets. The IT department
cannot maintain the increased amount of spreadsheets that are stored in the storage of the
company. Due to the improper management of the data of customers, the company is not able
to provide the optimised services. The suppliers information is also stored in the spreadsheets
and if the spreadsheets are not updated daily, then there have been situations where there
have been significant discrepancy in the transactions made with the suppliers.
Literature review
It could be considered that several companies are extensively dependent on the
spreadsheets for running their organisation properly. Several businesses have become
extensively dependent on the spreadsheets for managing their crucial business processes that
includes the contracting, calculations of payment, the inventory, data management, as well as
the invoicing. The company frequently consider that there are not so much choices but only
to use the spreadsheets for managing their data. Frequently the organisations are required to
be utilise something for managing their business operations, but their prevailing system is
unable for handling the operations as required (Fredrick & Christopher, 2019). The fact that
the organisation have the needs beyond what the spreadsheets have to provide is not terribly
surprising as several businesses are distinct and they also possess the particular requirements.
The crucial aspects where the spreadsheets are lacking could be considered as:
Reporting: The spreadsheets are presently lacking the extensive ability of allowing the
organisation in viewing the data across the various spreadsheets. The sorting of the multiple
spreadsheets and the countless numbers for compiling the data could be extensively
confusing and extensively time consuming. It has been considered to be extensively
troublesome for providing the meaningful reporting deprived of being able to aggregate as
well as the properly determine what the data in the spreadsheet is conveying. Finally, it has

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been considered for any business to manage their business functioning without the complete
control over the data of the organisation. This has been considered to be specifically true for
the companies who are required to adhere to the state as well as for any federal compliance
regulations (Almajali & Tarhini, 2016).
Fraud: The manipulations of fraudulent nature in the Excel file have presently led to
the losses of million dollars for the companies. The most basic underlying reason behind the
extensive vulnerability of the spreadsheets in inherent lack of all the controls. It makes this
significantly easy in altering the formulas, the values or the dependencies and not be detected
while making the manipulations.
Human error: While the aspect of fraud could be considered to be the major problem
for spreadsheets, there is more pressing concern threat that is required to be considered and
eliminate the outdated systems. It could be considered that the spreadsheets are extensively
susceptible to the human errors and the various mistakes that are made by the humans while
entering the data in the company database. The missing of any kind of negative signs as well
as the misaligned rows might sound to be extensively harmless but these kinds of errors could
extensively damage the confidence of the investor or even cause the considerable loss of the
opportunities leading to the loss of extensive amount of money (Beskese, Corum & Anolay,
2019).
Difficulty in troubleshoot: What about the testing of spreadsheets for mitigating the
major risk of the human error? The spreadsheets are not the ideal solution for executing these
aspects. It has been found common that the business possesses the interrelated spreadsheets
data that has been scattered across the various folders, the workstations, the offices or even
the various locations worldwide. Although the company can track the locations of the stored

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data of each of the associated files, there tracing of the logic of the formulas from one of the
associated cell to any other cell could be considered to be mainly impossible.
Scaling: With the extensive growth of the organisation, the data stored in the
spreadsheets based system gets vastly distributed all through the company and consequently,
it leads to the compounding of the major issues in the organisation (Jamal, 2017).
Recommended solution
Marketing information system
It could be considered that the organisation needs the effective data management
solution and improved data visualisations so that the accurate forecasts and analysis could be
executed. The recommended solution in the organisation for optimising their marketing and
the sales is the marketing information system and ERP system. The marketing information
system could be referred as the management information system that has been designed for
supporting the decision making in the marketing department. It has been defined as the
system in the marketing department that helps in the gathering, storing, analysing and finally
distributing the marketing data to the managers in the accordance with the informational
requirements on constant basis (Schlichter, Klyver & Haug, 2020). Additionally, the
marketing information system could be described as the system that helps with the analysis as
well as the assessment of the marketing information, collected constantly from the sources
outside and inside the organisation. The overall description of the marketing information
system could be provided as the set of proper structure of methods as well as the procedures
for regular, planned gathering, presentation with the analysis of the information for utilising
in the making of marketing decisions.
The development of MIS system in the organisation could be considered vital as
strength of the economies depends on the services as well as the improved understanding of

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the particular requirements of the customers (Miranda et al., 2016). As the company is
presently growing to be the major company in the sector of fashion, the economy mainly
emphasises on the services, the marketing is vital for monitoring the marketing surroundings
for the changes in the buyer preferences, the competition among the various companies, the
technologies, economic conditions as well as the policies of the government. In this particular
sense, the main role of the marketing is growing significant for the organisation with adapting
to the major changes in marketing environment. The major benefit of the marketing
information system in the organisation is that the company would gain the platform for
integrating the proper system for monitoring the market with the strategy development as
well as strategic implementation of various policies as well as the processes that would assist
the company in capturing as well as acting on the applications of customer management with
the decision support systems in the marketing (Attri & Panwar, 2018).
Enterprise resource planning
The other information system that is required to be implemented in the organisation is
the Enterprise Resource Planning or the ERP system. The enterprise resource planning could
be described as the procedures used by any company for managing as well as integrating the
major sectors of the business. Several ERP software applications are vital for the companies
due to the fact that is assists the companies in implementing the main resources planning by
the integration of all the processes required for executing the companies with the single
platform or system (Chen, Wang & Wang, 2019). The ERP software system could also help
in integrating the planning, purchase the inventories, the sales, the marketing, the finance, the
human resources and the supply chain management. As the present working environment of
the organisation, each of the department maintains their respective spreadsheets and the data
stores for storing the information that is processed in the organisation and all the main
information from the analysis of the spreadsheets is passed on to the manager. Without the

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proper ERP application, the companies in the present times, are needed to maintain their
respective data stores that are accessed by only the members of that department and access is
not provided to any other department (Simmonds, Tadesse & Murthy, 2018). With the
implementation of the proper ERP application in the company, the individual departments
would possess their respective system but along with this, the data that is stored in the
individual data stores could be accessed by the other department for making the accurate
business decisions because the ERP system provides the single platform for integrating all the
departments of the organisation (Zeng, Wang & Xu, 2017).
The ERP applications would also permit the various departments in communicating as
well as sharing the information with extensive simplicity with the rest of company. It helps in
gathering the information regarding the various activities of the business and then state of the
various divisions, making the information mainly available to the other parts where the data
could be utilised productively (Reitsma & Hilletofth, 2018). The ERP application could also
help the organisation in becoming significantly self-aware by the linking of information
regarding the finance, production, human resources as well as the distribution of the products.
As it helps in connecting the various technologies that are used by each section of the
business, the ERP application could help in eliminating the costly duplicate as well as the
incompatible technology. The procedure frequently helps in integrating the accounts payable,
the stock control systems, the order monitoring systems as well as the customer databases
into the one single system (Vasconcellos, Bezerra & Bianchini, 2018).
NetSuite ERP system
The most appropriate ERP system that could be implemented in the organisation is
the NetSuite ERP system. The NetSuite ERP system is the online service that allows the
companies in managing the crucial business processes in the sole system. This service
includes no kind of hardware, no upfront and large license fee, minimal maintenance costs

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linked with the software or the hardware and no kind of complex establishing base. The
company could use the NetSuite ERP system and effective manage the inventory, track all
the financial transactions, host any eCommerce website as well as maintain the customer
relationship management system. This particular system provides extensive flexibility and it
could be easily applied to the range of various business applications (Madapusi & Ortiz,
2019).
The company could shifting towards the cloud storage for the delivery of the business
system for lowering the operating costs as well as the strengthening their competitive
advantage. The cloud ERP in the company would provide the company with the suite of the
cloud based financials as well as the omnichannel software for the commercial purposes that
helps in executing the business with huge amount of customers. With the introduction of the
NetSuite ERP system in the company the company would gain the improved platform for
maintaining their CRM systems. The NetSuite ERP system provides the on-demand CRM
system that provides the complete view of the customers (Heinzelmann, 2017). The PSA of
NetSuite ERP system provides the company with the effective platform for planning, tracking
as well as executing the projects easily and with the minimum costs. The NetSuite ERP
system provides the company with the one data and one system.
The real time, unified global business management platform is provided by the
NetSuite ERP system for managing the operations that includes the business in various
countries, languages, currencies, as well as the subsidiaries. With the introduction of the
NetSuite ERP system in the company, the business could unify each of the stages of the web
stores from the point of sale as well as the order management to the merchandising,
marketing, support to the customers and the financials (Shim & Shim, 2020). The NetSuite
ERP system provides the powerful, cloud based system as the retail software solution that has
been designed for satisfying the omnichannel shoppers. The NetSuite ERP system provides

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the solution for the manufacturing and it permits in focussing on the delivery of the products
as well as the services while extensively gaining the proper agility for the scalable growth.
Challenges of ERP system
Even though the ERP system provides extensive benefits to the organisation, there are
some issues connected with the implementation of the technology that is required to be
considered. The ERP implementations have the adverse reputation of being extensively
challenging. The challenges could lead to the exceeding of the budget and the time if the
proper implementation process is not followed (Almahamid, 2019). The result of the
improper implementation process could denote that the system would not work appropriate as
intended. The most crucial challenges that are required to be considered are:
ERP integrations: The initial and the foremost challenge associated with the
implementation of the ERP software, is the knowledge that the processes or the systems
which are required to be extensively integrated and the which are the systems that are not
required to be integrated. It has been perceived to be extensively difficult in gaining the
proper knowledge where the integration of the system in the organisation could help in
gaining the competitive advantage and where it would lead to the hindering the workflow of
the organisation (Nasution & Mohamad, 2019). As the Fibre Fashion company is the small
business, the decision makers might not have the proper idea about the complete ERP system
and the capabilities of the ERP system and it could lead to the wrong implementation of the
ERP system.
Setting the implementation goals of ERP system: One more challenge for the
organisation could be the establishing of the well designed and measurable goals as well as
the objective for the ERP implementation. Without the proper goals in the organisation, the
implementation of the ERP system would be mainly directionless. It could lead to the

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extensive frustration as well as the challenges in the organisation. The goals are required in
the organisation for defining the main outset of project and what the intended system is
supposed to do. The appropriate process is required to be implemented in the organisation for
the addition or the changing of the goals. The designing of the implementation team has to be
done accordingly and then initiate the development of the information system (Jituri, Fleck &
Ahmad, 2018).
Customisation: The most common misinterpreted issue with the ERP system is the
consideration that the ERP system needs the extensive customisation. Frequently what the
company is procuring is not the packaged solution but the framework using which the
solution would be developed. When both the factors have not been considered by the
organisation, the decision makers have not been properly equipped with the accurate
questions.
Flexibility issues of ERP software: One more critical challenge that could cause
significant effect in the organisation is the flexibility issue of the ERP systems. The ERP
system implemented in the organisation might not be significantly flexible for changing the
business processes for fitting the system model of ERP. It needs the re-engineering of the
stages required for completing the business tasks as well as retraining the employees along
with the business partners and the customers in properly using the system and gain the most
advantage. As the organisational employees might have the tendency of not adopting any new
solution in the organisation, the implementation process of the ERP system might face the
issue of delays due to the resistance in changing.
Conclusion
Therefore, it could be concluded that the introduction of the ERP system and the
marketing information system in the organisation would be extensively beneficial in ensuring

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that all the issues of the business are eliminated. Several businesses have become extensively
dependent on the spreadsheets for managing their crucial business processes that includes the
contracting, calculations of payment, the inventory, data management, as well as the
invoicing. The spreadsheets are presently lacking the extensive ability of allowing the
organisation in viewing the data across the various spreadsheets. The recommended solution
in the organisation for optimising their marketing and the sales is the marketing information
system and ERP system. The marketing information system could be referred as the
management information system that has been designed for supporting the decision making
in the marketing department. It has been defined as the system in the marketing department
that helps in the gathering, storing, analysing and finally distributing the marketing data to the
managers in the accordance with the informational requirements on constant basis. The other
information system that is required to be implemented in the organisation is the Enterprise
Resource Planning or the ERP system. The enterprise resource planning could be described
as the procedures used by any company for managing as well as integrating the major sectors
of the business. The ERP applications would also permit the various departments in
communicating as well as sharing the information with extensive simplicity with the rest of
company.

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