Evaluation of IT Systems in British Home Plc Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the value of effective IT systems within the context of British Home Plc, a medium-sized group of companies with subsidiaries in various industries. The report begins by outlining the role of IT systems across different functions, such as marketing, human resources, finance, and accounting, and how they contribute to the achievement of organizational objectives. It then delves into the efficient processing and storage of data using IT systems, including knowledge management, customer relationship management, data management, and communication management. Furthermore, the report evaluates how IT systems improve business operations, sustainability, and overall performance, highlighting aspects like accelerating business operations, fostering collaboration, and increasing productivity. Finally, it addresses potential solutions for common problems faced by the business organization, offering insights into leveraging IT systems for enhanced efficiency and effectiveness.

VALUE OF
EFFECTIVE IT
SYSTEMS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Role of IT systems within different functions of an organisation and how IT systems
contribute....................................................................................................................................1
to the accomplishment of objectives in the organisation ...........................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
Different ways through which IT systems process and store data efficiently:- .........................3
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................4
Evaluation of IT system in the improvement of operations, sustainability and performance of
the business.................................................................................................................................4
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................6
Solutions for the common problems faced by the business organisation...................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
IT Systems play an important role in the organisation. IT systems gain their relevance by
processing the data from organisation's inputs to achieve information that is useful for organising
and managing the operations of the organisation. The British Home Plc is a leading medium
sized group of companies which has subsidiaries in various industries that provide travelling
services, consultancy services and renting services of properties. The British Home Plc also have
supermarkets in retail industry. This report includes the various uses of IT systems within
different functions or departments of British Home Plc and it also explains the contribution of IT
systems in accomplishment of goals of the company. This study also describes the various ways
for storing and processing data in these IT systems. It also determines the ways that IT systems
can use to support value added change for enhancing the performance sustainability and
operations of the business. This report also ascertains the various IT systems solutions that cover
business problems that may occur in the organisation.
TASK 1
Role of IT systems within different functions of an organisation and how IT systems contribute
to the accomplishment of objectives in the organisation
These days the role of IT Systems is increasing in the organisation as it helps in boosting
the performance and productivity of the organisation. By using IT systems, the British Home Plc
can save money and time while making efficient decisions. With the proper use of IT systems,
the internal departments or functions of British Home Plc can be performed effectively and
efficiently like sales and marketing department can share and communicate information more
easily(Cassidy, 2016). So IT systems can play a major role in various functions of British Home
Plc which has been analysed below:-
Role of IT systems in Marketing:-The marketing department of British Home Plc can use IT
systems in various ways. Since the social media is becoming more important for advertising so
IT department may try to improve sales and revenue of British Home Plc by launching various
social media marketing campaigns on other platforms like Google AdWords. IT system also play
an important role in Marketing research as with the increasing use of search engines it has
become possible to conduct online research about the most profitable opportunities as well as
about consumer trends(Wu and et.al., 2015). So the British Home Plc can use IT system for
marketing research. IT department is becoming more instrumental in placing and processing of
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orders made on the online stores as the use of computer and digital technologies have been
increased to sell the products and services.
Role of IT systems in Human Resource Department:-The IT system may also help the Human
resource department of British Home Plc in innumerable ways(Kavanagh and Johnson, 2017).
With the help of IT systems the human resource department becomes more effective and
efficient as communication with employees can be done quickly and even the training sessions
can be provided online without the need of papers which will ultimately help in saving cost and
time of British Home Plc.
Role of IT systems in Finance Department:- The British Home Plc may use IT systems in
conducting the functions of finance(Omotayo, 2015). These systems can be used for generating
financial reports and statements. IT systems can be used to support planning, budgetary and
decision making process as these systems are credited with enhancing financial efficiency,
transparency and accountability.
Role of IT system in Accounts Department:-Since the accounting function includes various
types of complex information and data and such data also comes in various dimensions. So in
order to control and manage such data British Home Plc may use IT systems such as database.
This database helps British Home Plc to put the vast amounts of data in a storable format and
even in small space(Paré and et.al., 2015). With the help of IT systems British Home Plc may
store such type of data which is valuable and needs to be controlled so that the right people can
access the data at the right time. And if the data would be properly stored and managed the
management can make efficient decisions for the business.
Contribution of IT systems in accomplishment of objectives:-
IT systems may allow the British Home Plc to reduce transaction and implementation
costs as from word processing to email IT based solutions have allowed the companies to save
the costs of postage and duplication while improving and maintaining customer service and
product quality(Dwivedi and et.al., 2015). Therefore, with the help of IT systems the British
Home Plc can minimise the cost which ultimately lead to higher profits.
The British Home Plc can also witness product requirements by gathering market
intelligence from sales and customers representatives and also from proprietary databases which
will lead to effective product development. From innovations in microprocessors to effective
drug delivery systems IT systems may help British Home Plc to satisfy all the customers
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requirements and if British Home Plc will be able to fulfil the needs and wants of the consumers
then all the objectives of British Home Plc can be achieved effectively.
The British Home Plc may also use software simulations, rapid prototyping and various
IT based systems to improve the process of the product and to launch a product to market cost
quickly and efficiently(Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta, 2016). So cost saving, process
improvement and rapid product development will help British Home Plc to accomplish its
objectives and to earn and maintain the competitive advantage in the industry.
TASK 2
Different ways through which IT systems process and store data efficiently:-
IT systems can process and store data in innumerable ways which are described as
below:-
Knowledge Management:-A knowledge management system is an organized collection of
software, people, procedures, databases and devices to share, utilize and create the experience
and knowledge of the organisation. This system refers to any type of IT system that retrieves and
stores knowledge, locates knowledge sources, extracts repositories for unseen knowledge,
improves collaborations, uses and captures knowledge or in some other way improves the
knowledge management process. However according to James Robertson the focus should be
ascertaining the functionality of IT systems that are needed for the specific initiatives and
activities within the organisation(Laudon and Traver, 2016). Therefore, with proper
implementation and execution, IT systems have become a critical and crucial component of
knowledge management process.
Customer Relationship Management:-The IT department may store the data for customer
relationship management (CRM) which is an approach to organize a company's interactions with
potential and current customers. CRM uses data analysis for knowing the customer's history with
the organisation to enhance business relationships with the customers. So specifically, CRM
concentrates on customer retention which ultimately lead to higher revenue and achievement of
objectives of the organisation. Even CRM compiles the data from a range of various
communication channels which includes company's website, email, telephone, live chat, social
media and marketing essentials(Soltani and Navimipour, 2016). So IT systems can store data for
CRM.
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Data Management:-The IT system may store the data for Data management as it is the process
of maintaining and organizing the data to meet or satisfy ongoing information life-cycle
requirements. It is an approach in which numerous business applications access the similar
database and even the updates can be made in such database which ultimately helps in enhancing
data integrity and excluding redundancy. This database approach offers the opportunity to share
data for which an additional software is also required that is known as Database Management
System. This system consists of various programs that are used in the and analysed in an
interface between the user and the database or between the application program and the database.
Communication Management:-Communication management is the systematic monitoring,
planning, implementing and revision of various channels of communication within the
organisation(Vercic and Zerfass, 2016). It also includes the dissemination and organisation of
new communication derivatives related with network or communication strategies and with an
organisation. IT may store and process the data for communication management as it includes
designing external and internal communication derivatives, developing communication strategies
and organising flow of information. So It helps IT system ins storing and processing data
effectively and efficiently for communication management.
However, storing all this data is an obstacle itself as querying it in proper time is very
difficult. Even an unoptimized system may take hours to retrieve the needed information. So IT
department stores and process data in such system that optimizes retrieval and data
storage(Zhang and et.al., 2015). So IT systems can stores the data in these ways as ultimately all
IT systems help in saving time and cost so that smart and appropriate decisions can be taken by
the management. The Organisations rely on these IT system to develop and search new ways to
attract more customers and generate high revenues as modern technology of these systems
significantly enhances an organisation's performance and productivity so that organisation can
survive and grow in the competitive market.
TASK 3
Evaluation of IT system in the improvement of operations, sustainability and performance of the
business.
Information Technology system is plays very important role in business sector. It
becomes essential for the rapid growth of business organizations. As it provides safety and
security of data of the business activities(Kavanagh and Johnson, 2017). IT systems also provide
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support to the added value of change in the organizational performance, operations and its
sustainability of British Home Plc as well. By the implementation of effective IT system in the
operational areas of organisation make it more competent and ensures its benefits to the
organization. Application of IT system in all the sector of business concern will generate more
profits and ensures rapid growth of the organisation British Home Plc.
Role of IT systems in the improvement of business operation:-
Accelerate Business Operations-
Implementation of IT system in overall sectors of retail industry of British Home Plc
accelerate the operations of the organisations for its further growth. Transfer of money through
the means of online, sharing of several files online, web purchasing all are tends to stimulate the
operational activities of British Home Plc, such as; cycle of production, capital formation,
production, distribution and sale of goods all has been accelerated because of the use of IT
system. This system also forces the organisation to move rapidly to fulfil the demands of its
customers and also come up with the tools for the rapid and faster movement of the business
concern(Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta, 2016).
Collaboration among Personnel-
IT system ensures the better collaboration among the staff members or the personnel of
British Home Plc. As the staff are trained to use the new technology which makes their work
easy and fast. The retail sector of British Home Plc has been developed IT system make their
employees to work with more concentration with their increased productivity. All employees
will work with the centralised motive to fulfil the demand of the customers and to increase the
pace of growth of the organisation. Updated technology motivates the employees to work in
collaboration to achieve the goals and objectives of the organisation(Avgerou and Walsham,
2017).
Increase the productivity-
Technology assists in development of skills of employees and development of the
product of British Home Plc, which tends increment in productivity in the operational activities
of the organisation. Implementation of IT system provides the better clients service through
online and the pages to support the clients with the motive of reduction in the need of giving
personal attention because of this the investments' productivity get increase in the retail industry
of British Home Plc without compromising the experience of the clients of the organization. IT
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systems permits the business to speed up its operational activities and also to process of
production with more efficiency, as because of the use of updated technology the time incurred
in the operational activities get reduced and increase the speed of the employees in completion of
the given tasks(Hislop, Bosua and Helms, 2018).
Use of IT systems in improvement of business performance and sustainability:-
Diminishes the costs and increment in revenue-
With the introduction of IT system in the retail industry of British Home Plc, it becomes
easy to identify the waste spendings and helps in the reduction of bloated expenditures, which
further simultaneously contributes to the increment of business revenues. The use of
technologies will enable the employees to spend less time to carry out the production, sale and
distributional activities, which makes the organisation to earn more revenue and boost the
security as the use of technology helps to maintain the balance in costs of production(Zhang and
et.al., 2015). Reduction in the production cost and increment in revenue of the organisation will
contribute in the improvement of the performance as well as the sustainability of British Home
Plc.
Effectiveness in the completion of work-
With the growth of the organisation, it becomes necessary to give priority to the
improvement of overall business performance(Vercic and Zerfass, 2016). Now-a-days the
completion of given task is become easier than before, now communication among the co-
workers happens more rapidly as they don't need to wait and can communicate to each other with
various means of internet such as messaging through different applications, by e-mailing and
through video conference which ensure improvement in the performance as well as sustainability
of British Home Plc.
TASK 4
Solutions for the common problems faced by the business organisation.
Use of innovated technologies will impose the positive impact on a business
organization. IT system helps every business concern to solve the critical and common problems
when the human power is not being enough to find the solutions of such kind of
problems(Soltani and Navimipour, 2016). There are so many problems which are commonly
faced by British Home Plc because of less use of the updated technology in the system of the
business organisation and these problems can be solved easily with the effective use of new
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technologies and by applying the innovational techniques at the workplace to achieve the
organisational goals of an organisation. Some common problems and there solutions are
discussed as under:-
Task Completion-
It is noticed that, before the introduction of technology the completion of targeted task
was not so easy, there were lots of complexity which an organisation has to face to complete the
tasks in assigned time. But when IT system has been introduced in the organizations, the
complex task also become easy and can be completed within the set time. For example:-
previously an entrepreneur preferred the manual techniques to prepare the accounting statements,
which make the procedure lengthy and complex too, in contrast, with introduction of new and
innovated technology the complexity of preparation of financial statements becomes easy,
accurate and fast. Now-a-days the accountant of British Home Plc prefers the computer
accounting and prepare the statements with of Excel spreadsheets or accounting software such
as; Xero, Zoho books, QuickBooks etc(Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta, 2016).
Controls costs of administration-
Organisational administration may incur high costs but always be an important function
to perform. IT system had gigantic impact in the administrative department of British Home Plc.
It can be said that now all the paper work of administration has been done digitally, digitalise
invoices has been issued to the customers and many of the time taking tasks are managed
digitally with the help of IT system. The costs have been reduced and controlled with use of
updated technology, which further increase the profit margins of British Home Plc. The use of IT
system helps the organisation to catch the errors and mistakes of the employees while completing
the task, and also the mistakes become less frequent, and easy to solve the problems(Paré and
et.al., 2015).
Convenient for remote working-
During previous years, the candidates who can't reach the office or the premise of the
organisation were not recruited as the employees. This was considered as a common problem of
which is faced by British Home Plc as because of inconvenience of the candidates they had to
compromise with less competent applicants. But now with the implementation of IT system in
the organisation make it easy for the organisation as well as for the candidates to pursue the work
and completion of assigned task from outside the office or business premises. Advancement of
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technologies is an important driver for the growth of remote working and the file has been stored
online or in the clouds(Omotayo, 2015). The employees who are pursuing there work from
outside the business premise, can report to the authorities through conferencing and also can use
the applications of team-building, which will be profitable for British Home Plc.
Analysis of Business-
IT system make it easier to analyse the progress of the organisation with the passage of
time. The procedure of analysing the organisational growth become very complex without using
IT system, but if the technological tools have been used to analyse the growth and progress of the
business concern then it becomes easy to inspect the problems and hindrances in the process of
organisational growth(Cassidy, 2016). British Home Plc has failed to meet out the expectations
of customers because of weak strategy of attracting the youth because it does not implement IT
system in the operations of the organisation, the reason of the failure of British Home Plc is also
noticed that the organisation was not concerned with analysis of organisational growth and due
to lack of use of technology it suffers loss and need to sale the organisation to an American
company.
IT system provide effective solutions for the common problem faced by any business
organisation. For achieving the organisational goals effectively and efficiently, the organisations
need to follow and implement IT system so that the organisation can survive in this competitive
market and can gain the competitive advantages(Wu and et.al., 2015).
CONCLUSION
From the above study it can be concluded that IT systems play a major role in achieving
the objectives of the organisation. IT systems may help in boosting the operations and functions
of all the departments of British Home Plc. It also concludes that IT systems lead to efficient
storing and processing of data. The effective IT systems also lead to cost saving, products
development and accomplishment of all the goals of the company. This report also concludes
that IT systems can be used to promote value added changes for increasing efficiency, and
performance of British Home Plc so that it can sustain and grow in the competitive market. Apart
from that It also recommends IT based solutions for solving the common business problems so
that British Home Plc can take competitive advantage.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
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perspective of developing countries: Studies from the perspective of developing
countries. Routledge.
Cassidy, A., 2016. A practical guide to information systems strategic planning. Auerbach
Publications.
Dwivedi, Y. K and et.al., 2015. Research on information systems failures and successes: Status
update and future directions. Information Systems Frontiers. 17(1). pp.143-157.
Hislop, D., Bosua, R. and Helms, R., 2018. Knowledge management in organizations: A critical
introduction. Oxford University Press.
Kavanagh, M. J. and Johnson, R. D. eds., 2017. Human resource information systems: Basics,
applications, and future directions. Sage Publications.
Laudon, K. C. and Traver, C. G., 2016. E-commerce: business, technology, society.
Omotayo, F. O., 2015. Knowledge Management as an important tool in Organisational
Management: A Review of Literature. Library Philosophy and Practice. 1(2015). pp.1-
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Paré, G and et.al., 2015. Synthesizing information systems knowledge: A typology of literature
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Pearlson, K. E., Saunders, C. S. and Galletta, D. F., 2016. Managing and using information
systems, binder ready version: a strategic approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Soltani, Z and Navimipour, N. J., 2016. Customer relationship management mechanisms: A
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Vercic, D and Zerfass, A., 2016. A comparative excellence framework for communication
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Wu, Y. C. J and et.al., 2015. A collaborative learning lesson from using effective information
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Zhang, H and et.al., 2015. In-memory big data management and processing: A survey. IEEE
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