Marks & Spencer: Impact of Information Technology Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of Information Technology (IT) applications within Marks & Spencer (M&S), a prominent UK-based retail company. It begins by defining IT and its significance in the retail sector, including its role in data management, financial systems, and decision-making. The report then explores various types of software that M&S could utilize, such as Retail ERP systems, Retail CRM, E-commerce platforms, Point of Sale (POS) software, payment processing software, inventory management software, and retail management software, detailing their functions and benefits for the company. Furthermore, the report addresses ethical and social issues in the digital world, focusing on information privacy and security, the implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the challenges of lack of oversight. It also examines the impact of IT on M&S's ability to meet customer needs, including inventory management, and the role of IT in facilitating effective business management by managers. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and emphasizes the importance of IT in the retail industry and its specific applications within M&S. The report also provides references to support the information presented. The report emphasizes the role of IT in enhancing operational efficiency, improving customer relationships, and addressing ethical concerns within a large retail organization.

Introduction to
Information
Technology

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................3
Types of Application softwares that could be used by Marks & Spencer..................................3
Ethical and Social issues in the Digital world.............................................................................6
Impact of Information and Communication technology on Marks and Spencer in responding
to the customer' needs.................................................................................................................8
Role of IT in facilitating managers to manage business.............................................................9
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Information Technology is the use of information systems and computers that help in the
formation and processing of big data and information. It facilitates the storage and retrieval of
data and information contained in electronic form. It assists the big organizations in keeping
large information in an organised manner so as to ensure its retrieval as and when required. In
the retail industry, IT facilitates the businesses in managing the accounting and financial
systems, managing human resources and facilitating decision making (Devi and Rizvi, 2022). It
also helps in inventory management, distribution & warehouse management. The following
report will cover the description about use of information technology in context with Marks and
Spencer. It is a UK based multinational public limited company headquartered in London,
England and engaging in offering the products like clothing, home and food products. The report
will cover the types of softwares that could be used by Marks & Spencer. It will also explain the
ethical & social issues in digital world and the impact of IT in responding to the customers'
needs. Further, the report will also explain the role of IT in helping managers.
TASK
Types of Application softwares that could be used by Marks & Spencer
The businesses are required to use various types of softwares to facilitate the business
functions such as finance and accounting. This assists the big companies like Marks and Spencer
in efficiently storing, processing and accessing the information. IT plays a great role in the retail
industry as its supports various functions like invoice billing, digital marketing and other
automation processes that bring innovation in the organization that helps them to increase their
customer base by adding to the customers' experience that eventually increase their market share
in the retail industry (Malik, 2022). Through the adoption of IT, retail organizations bring
innovation such as virtual reality that impacts consumer behaviour and make them switched to
the products of company. In context with M & S, the application softwares will assist the
company in automating the tasks like inventory management , pricing regulations, warehouse
management etc.
The real time visualization will provide the company in controlling and managing the
warehouses and shop floors in online mode and in identifying the situation of out of stock to
ensure availability of stock all the time or as and when required. Marks and Spencer can use the

retail softwares in the areas like customer relationships, inventory management, marketing
management and human resource management etc. It helps the organizations in improving
efficiency of different business areas and thereby ensuring offering of quality services to the
customer. It helps the businesses in saving time as well as efforts. In context with M & S, it can
utilise the following application softwares to improve the operations of its large business-
 Retail ERP systems – This is an Enterprise Resource Planning software that integrates
various components for managing and controlling all the areas or stages of business.
Those modules or components include Financial resource management, supply chain
management and customer & employee management etc. This software assists the
businesses in resource planning such as obtaining the customers' data like their needs and
preferences, purchase history and location to decide the target market. It also helps in
planning strategies for marketing, sales and pricing on the basis of collected information
and marketing research as well (Egerton-Doyle and Ford, 2022). ERP systems also
facilitate financial planning by supporting and providing the accurate money flows and
facilitate in commercial transactions as well. As this system supports in making balance
between the orders for stock and warehouses, it helps in inventory optimization that
facilitates effective Inventory management. It also facilitates in planning for inventory
requirement. The system supports project management module by categorising the
product and controlling their life cycles. It does so by keeping record of the expiry dates
of products of the company. In context with M & S, it has created a joint venture with
Ocado to deliver online efficient and fast delivery of its food products. Also, the company
has implemented SAP ERP for financials and has took partnership with Deloitte to bring
improvement in payment process.
 Retail CRM (Customer Relationship management) – This software helps the businesses
in managing company's relationships and managing interactions with existing as well as
potential customers. It basically improves the relationships of business with customers to
ensure growth and success of the organization. Businesses offer real time experience to
their customers by using this technology for improving customer interaction. It helps the
company in keeping track of the sales made by the customers. By this, companies can
store the information regarding existing and potential customers like their contact
information , service issues, reviews, shopping record etc. It helps the businesses in

planning marketing campaign management. In context with Marks and Spencer, it must
introduce an effective CRM that will facilitate the company in real time analytics and
statistics to manage the individual customers.
 E-Commerce Platforms – As the demand for online shopping of products is rising among
the customers, retailers have started to use the E-commerce retail. By using the E-
commerce platforms, businesses are able to interact with the customers more effectively
by the use of social media platforms that facilitates in obtaining and resolving the
customers' feedback quickly and ensure customer satisfaction and adds value to their
experience (Nica and et. al., 2022). The company's website i.e. marksandspencer.com
helps the customers in getting relevant information about the company and its products.
The company also have its official accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter where it
can observe the reviews of customers and can also get the feedback on it M & S mobile
app and resolve them quickly. It ensures the fast delivery of customers' products. The e-
Commerce services of the company consist of payment procession, product catalogue,
customer management, searching options etc.
 Point of Sale Software – These systems are installed at the physical stores of business to
help in management of discounts and in managing the returns of products as well. This
system also helps in financial processing. It also includes some hardware devices such as
barcode scanners, tablets etc. that facilitate the customers in making payments on their
own without the assistance of cashier. It helps in avoiding queues and ensures saving of
time by eliminating long queues at the stores. In context with M & S, it chose Fujitsu
vendor for POS that has capability, knowledge and experience regarding retail business.
Effective POSs help the company in scanning barcodes as well.
 Payment processing Software – It is a retail software that facilitates the interconnection
of businesses with the payment systems and banks. It facilitates the different functions of
retail stores such as online payments and credit card processing. It also assists the
business stores in managing the payment records of customers. The payment processing
software is primarily used for customizable invoice creation. Businesses also utilise this
system for creation of reports for the routine transactions of stores and for reconciling the
bank statements. In context with M & S, the ERP payment gateway of M & S provides

flexibility regarding payment acceptance by accepting ACH, credit and debit cards
payments. It facilitates the customer to take e-payments.
 Inventory management Software – These systems help the businesses in managing and
controlling the warehouse stocks and provides automation in the processes undertaken in
warehouses. It helps in saving time and labour efforts in the movement of stock by
implementing automation. With the technique of synchronization of stock, the inventory
is updated instantly that facilitates in supply chain decision making. The automation
processes provide real time visualization of procurement of inventory by observing the
warehouses through virtual mode (Rajaguru, Matanda and Zhang, 2022). It ensures
effective inventory optimization. The expiry tracking is also provided by this software
that helps in avoiding the issues of delivering inferior quality products. M & S also uses
inventory management software i.e. Quantum Retail's Software solution, Q that helps in
managing inventory forecasting and order planing for its food division. It helps in
inventory decision-making on real time basis.
 Retail management Software – These softwares serve as the big digital platforms for
retail businesses that integrate the tools for business functions. It basically serves the big
and multinational organizations that have different business areas that require technology
for smooth and timely conduct of business operations. It provides different services like
customer relationship management, marketing management, inventory management and
verification of stock etc. by managing the big data and information of every area. It helps
in transparency of important information of business like the customers and products etc.
As M & S is a multinational and large organization, it is recommended to the company to
to use this software as it is a single source that integrates many services and provides
convenience to the businesses for supporting different areas such as finance, marketing,
customer relationship management etc.
Ethical and Social issues in the Digital world
The digital world suffers from many ethical issues such as misconduct or misuse of
private information, loss to security of the private information, lack of confidentiality due to the
fear of hackers of data in electronic form etc. Businesses suffers from the access of information
in wrong hands. Social issues in the digital world are also increasing such as misconduct on
social media and bad reviews or comments on the official account of companies in social

networking sites etc.(Sousa and et. al., 2022). The businesses need to take effective decisions for
ethical decision making to avoid the issues while utilising the information technology. Some of
the ethical as well as social issues of digital world are explained below in context with Marks
and Spencer :
Ethical Issues
 Information Privacy and Security – The companies use different online mediums to
collect the information regarding its potential customers to ensure effective contact with
them. The customers also provide the information regarding registration and provide
personal details like location , address etc. The company collects the information to hyper
personalize the customers' experiences. But there is a fear of privacy of that information.
Facebook had to face ethical issues because of selling the personal data of users that is
collected on this big platform. M & S uses terms and conditions for its website and gives
access to the private information only to authorised and registered people.
 Artificial Intelligence – Artificial Intelligence has contributed to many organizations in
terms of innovation and growth of business. Although the technology offers many
benefits to the business organizations but still it has some limitations in case of excess
use of AI in the businesses. As it provides facial recognition technique, it can be the
reason for misuse of confidential information of big companies and can cause the loss in
terms of finance as well . It has lack of privacy because of the ability to track movements
and activities (Parsons, Courpasson and Delbridge, 2022). The security challenges of
Artificial Intelligence include data corruption and poisoning, system manipulation , data
privacy etc. M & S is using ERP and CRM applications to ensure security but it should
also implement BOYD (Bring Your Own Device) policies to facilitate the security of
private information of the business.
 Lack of Oversight – The big companies conduct the business activities by outsourcing the
activities by involving the third parties. It sometimes lead to confusion regarding the
responsibility of the governance in whose hands i.e. either the third party or the company.
The use of big data by company creates concern for cyber security of information. To
overcome this issue, M & S and its third party must share the responsibility and ensure
accountability for the responsibilities.
Social Issues

 Human Dignity – As the technology serves the businesses by offering Robotics for care
taking tasks , it causes lack of human interaction due to the performance of tasks like
warehouse inventory movement etc. by the robotics. It poses threat to human dignity as
well due to the excess use of Robotics (Venter and Moolman, 2022).
 Communication breakdown – The business communication gets hindered and disrupted
due to some technical errors that sometimes give rise to conflicts in the organization due
to ineffective communication that leads to lack of transparency between management and
employees that cause unavailability of accurate information to the employees. Poor
communication system in the organization also make the employees frustrated when they
are from remote locations and unable to communicate with their families.
 Defamation of Characters – The digital technology facilitates interaction of individuals
with the big companies, their CEOs and other prominent personalities who have official
accounts on different social networking sites. It can cause misconduct of individuals on
the accounts and can bring defame to the company by the negative comments of some
users. As the comments are public and social media accounts are open to everyone, it is a
social issue in context with M & S as well regarding bad reviews of its products.
Impact of Information and Communication technology on Marks and Spencer in responding to
the customer' needs
Information and communication technology plays a significant role in improving the
performance of business by providing it many benefits in terms of effective communication
systems, and providing customers' services in technological way that helps in responding
effectively to the customers' needs. It helps the companies in developing customer loyalty by
adding value to their experience. It ensures better interaction of companies with their customers
through the app, website or any other online medium such as social networking platform by
which customers get informed about the new products and services of the company (Cakir and
Adiguzel, 2022). In context with M & S , some of the positive and negative impacts of
information and communication technology are explained below -
Positive Impact
In the retail industry, IT has been proved to be very useful in increasing the efficiency of
customers' interaction with the businesses. Many business organizations use Chatbots for
communicating with the customers and responding to their needs or resolving their feedbacks

(Joshi and et. al., 2022). It facilitates the customers in getting instant reply of the company by
ensuring live chats, and social media communication. When companies give quick response to
the concerns of customers through effective use of IT, customers feel valued and satisfied with
the service of company and develop loyalty towards the company. It helps the company in
switching the potential customers to its products.
IT impacts many aspects of the customers in positive manner like placing orders,
resolving queries by interacting online, facilitating payment processes, ensuring customer
relationship management etc. In context with M & S , the company provides many technological
advantages to the customers like payment processing softwares, ERP systems, CRM tool, social
media presence, M&S mobile app and its own website that help the company in responding to
the customer needs and thereby developing a large customer base in the target market.
Negative Impact
Although IT is serving the companies with responding to customer needs but still it has
some negative impacts in responding to customers ' needs as due to the technical errors or
problems, customer are not able to access the website of company and also face issues in
navigating the website. Due to the low running of mobile app of company, they face delays in
registering the products and placing orders that makes them feel frustrated and undervalued due
to the ineffective customer service offered by the company. It can cause loss of customers for the
company (Sharafuddin and Belik, 2022).
In context with M & S , although it uses effective technologies such as Microsoft tools
365 , teams and power apps etc. to facilitate the sustainability efforts of company but still some
of its customer-oriented technologies impact the company negatively in responding to customers'
needs. The website problems of Marks and Spencer also impacted its clothing and home-ware
sales due to poor navigation of website.
Role of IT in facilitating managers to manage business
Information Technology helps the managers in automating various processes in the
organization such as employee onboarding, performance management, reporting, approval
requests etc. that help in increasing productivity of the business (Sahu and Gutub, 2022). It
facilitates to improve quality of production while maintaining low cost. In context with M & S
IT helps the business managers in following ways -

 Increased productivity – IT helps in increasing productivity by automating various
processes of business such as approval requests, employee on boarding, reporting to the
top management etc. and help managers to achieve productivity targets. M & S uses AI
machinery at its food store sin UK and Ireland that helps in increased productivity of its
food business.
 Better decision making – With the help of technology, managers can collect data more
efficiently using different softwares like CRM, ERP etc. that help them in better decision
making (Allen, Fukami and Wittmer, 2022). Due to the network link between customers
and business's database, managers of M & S can collect current data and can take
decisions on the basis of new information.
 Employee Engagement – The technological tools such as virtual technology, online portal
and social networking etc. facilitate managers in employee engagement. At the
workplace, it helps managers in improving communication systems with the employees
(Zhu, Yu and Yang, 2022).
 Performance management – With effective technology, managers can monitor the
performance and can keep tracks of performance of individual employee. With the use of
technology, they ca virtually monitor the performance through network or mobile
technology.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it has been concluded that Information Technology plays a
crucial role in facilitating the businesses in many functional areas such as finance, marketing ,
inventory and customer relationship management etc. It facilitates the management in better
decision making by the use of automation and data analytics in the organization. The application
softwares used by the companies operating in retail industry have been discussed such as
Payment processing software, retail management and CRM software, ERP software and
inventory management system etc. The ethical and social issues in context with digital world
have been discussed that include misuse of private information, communication breakdown,
threat to human dignity respectively. Although technology has facilitated the businesses in
responding to customers' needs but still it has impacted them negatively in terms of poor website
navigation, low running of mobile app of company etc. There is a crucial role of IT in helping

managers in managing the business by facilitating them in decision making, project management
and in human resource management as well.

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