Digital Transformation: Management System Analysis for Marks & Spencer

This report assesses the business profile of Marks and Spencer, focusing on the role of management systems in facilitating digital transformation. It details a planning meeting between a system developer and Marks and Spencer representatives, highlighting the company's requirements and expectations for digitization. The report suggests Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Product Management Systems as potential solutions, outlining their key features, benefits, and vendors like Microsoft and Oracle. It identifies administrative requirements, discusses applicable legislative requirements such as The Privacy Act 1988, and concludes that management systems are crucial for supporting digitalization and improving business efficiency. Desklib offers a platform for students to access this and other solved assignments.

Assignment
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Business Profile of Client.......................................................................................................3
Planning Meeting....................................................................................................................4
Identification of Administrative requirements.......................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Management systems are being utilized by businesses across industries to improve
organization efficiency and enhance business processes. Commonly used management systems
include enterprise resource planning system information technology network accounting system
employee management system etc (Al Jabri, Al-Badi and Ali, 2017). This report looks at
business profile of Marks and Spencer and provides role play about meeting between client and
system developer in order to recommend appropriate management system to solve the problems
of the company. This report provides information about planning meeting including notes from
the meeting along with identification of administrative requirements at marks and spencer.
Discussion on suggested administrative systems including key features vendors and benefits of
the system is included in this report along with the main legislative requirements applicable to
the system or business process.
TASK 1
Business Profile of Client
Marks and Spencer is considered a leading retailer in United Kingdom with history of 130 years.
The company has core presence in United Kingdom and through the years has remained a
quintessential British traditional physical retail store. The COVID-19 pandemic and increasing
preference of consumers towards online shopping has affected sales of Marks and Spencer. The
company was late in entering the digital retail landscape and developed an own brand digital
website in the year 2014. Recently Marks and Spencer has invested in going through a digital
transformation in order to remain competitive in the continuously changing retail industry and
offer consumers better experience. The digitalization initiatives implemented by Marks and
Spencer include implementing browse an order in store kiosks in physical stores to promote
contactless shopping and support digital consumer experience.
Marks and Spencer is focusing on expanding its digital initiatives to more than 100 stores
in order to accommodate changing consumer preferences and demand and offer them better
consumer experience while through shopping physical stores. In addition to this the company has
also created a new venture called Marks and Spencer venture lab which aims to promote digital
start ups associated with the company in order to enhance digital retail image. Marks and
Spencer has also partnered with digital retailer Ocado in order to provide consumer faster
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delivery options and expand their digital presence. In addition to facilitate digitization in physical
stores of the company Marks and Spencer requires the usage of appropriate technologies and
software to handle management activities in changing environment of its physical outlets.
Successful digital transformation at Marks and Spencer can only be accomplished by using
appropriate software technologies which support the company in improving business processes
by leveraging advanced technology.
Planning Meeting
Introduction of the client
Marks and Spencer is a global retailer which is headquartered in United Kingdom. The
company offers wide range of own brand products including fashion homeware grocery and
daily use products. The company is considered a leading retailer in United Kingdom but has
faced fierce competition from E commerce companies and shift in digital retail landscape.
Discussion on current business operations
Currently the company has physical stores in 1463 locations along with digital presence
through an own brand company website and Digital application of the company. the company
has taken up various initiatives to ensure smooth digital transformation so that sale and
profitability of the company can increase. In addition to this the focus of Marks and Spencer with
dictation is to ensure that the changing competitive landscape and consumer behavior can be
managed to support future growth and survival of the company. The digitization initiatives taken
up by Marks and Spencer include introduction of browse and order in store kiosks in physical
stores partnering with E commerce retailers suggest ocado to expand digital presence and
investing in digital straight up to offer consumers better digital services and online shopping
experience.
Discussion on requirements and expectations
The current requirements and expectations of Marks and Spencer revolve around
implementing technology and software which support the digitization efforts of the company.
The company requires software solutions which help the firm ensure that various business
functions and processes are smoothly distaste in order to compete in a increasingly digital future
of the retail industry.
Discussion on possible solutions
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The possible solution which can help Marks and Spencer in supporting digital initiatives
at the company include usage of administrative management system. The application of
administrative management systems in a company is critical to digitization because
administrative management system support managerial workforce of the company in or opting
with digital technology and supports shift of workflow from mainly physical channels to digital
channels (Delen and Zolbanin, 2018). The usage of appropriate management systems can help
the respective organization gain authoring administrating an collaborative tools to manage daily
operations of the company without negatively affecting the on-going effort to digitize physical
stores.
Management systems can be utilized by Marks and Spencer in order to enhance
processes operations intelligence and information technology infrastructure. Marks and Spencer
requires management systems which are able to help the company facilitate digitalization in
various physical stores without burdening the company with financial or cyber security risks.
Identifying requirements
The main requirements of Marks and Spencer include finding a management system
which is able to support management of large workforce spread across various international
markets. In addition to this another requirement of the company is to gain a secure management
system which helps the company facilitate digital flow of information and helps introduce
digital business processes in the company. Another requirement of Marks and Spencer is that the
management system which is offered to the company supports the current digital initiatives of
the organization such as browsing click kiosk in physical outlets of the company.
Meting Notes
The following members attended the meeting held on: ____20 March 2022_______
Attendees Non-Attendees
· 1 Operations manager Consumer service manager
· 2 Store manager Chief manager, IT
Meeting chaired by: Operations manager
Minute’s taker:
The following agenda points were discussed:
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Agenda Item Explanation Respons
ible
person
Action Due
date
Completed/
not
completed
To
understand
client
problem
This part of
the meeting
focusing on
understandin
g the past and
current
situation of
the client.
Project
Manger
In depth analysis of the
company will be
completed using
appropriate tool to
understand client
problems.
21
March
2022
Completed
To identify
client’s
current
expectations
This part
highlights the
current
expectation
of the client
Project
Manger
In this part of the
meeting the viewpoints
and perspectives of the
client regarding digital
transformations will be
noted in order to cover
client expectations.
21
March
2022
Completed
To evaluate
possible
options
The main
alternatives
to the client
are evaluated
here
IT
manager
Risk analysis tools will
be used to evaluate
possible options as
solutions for the client
problem.
22
March
2022
Completed
To determine
practical
solution
Here the
focus is on
reaching best
possible
solution.
IT
manager
The safest options a
solution for client
problems will be
discussed with the aim of
reaching a practical
solution.
23
March
2022
Completed
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Identification of Administrative requirements
Overview of the meetings
From the meetings conducted with the client it is determined at the best possible solution
for the respective organization is to adopt a range of different management systems in order to
support digitization at the company. The administrative systems at the company will support
Marks and Spencer in facilitating digitalization of various functional departments.
Overview of current operations
Currently Marks and Spencer operates both digitally and physically and has taken various
actions to improve digital operations. This includes introducing digital chaos at physical retail
chains and partnering with digital businesses too increase sale from online channels.
Suggested management system
Enterprises resource planning is a suitable management system for digital transformation
at the company (Fahey, 2020). This is because of well configured enterprise resource planning
software supports businesses in driving strategic change including digital transformation and
integrating advanced technologies to various functional departments of the company. Marks and
Spencer will be able to gain accelerated digitization through the usage of enterprise resource
planning administrative system as it supports improvement in various business processes by
leveraging cutting edge technologies.
Product management system is another suggested management system which can help
Marks and Spencer attain requirements of digitization and support current as well as future
digital initiatives at the company (Ghasemaghaei and Calic, 2019). The usage of product
management system is crucial for digital transformation at Marks and Spencer because it will
help the respective organization integrated digital technologies in the core of its business
practices which is manufacturing own brand retail products.
Key features
The main features of an enterprise resource planning system our automation data analysis
reporting tracking and visibility digital accounting and consumer relationship management. In
context of a product management system the main features are Inventory management bar
coding and tracking inventory tracking reporting tools and integration of Internet of Things
technology (He, Wang and Akula, 2017).
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Enterprises whose planning system provides various advantages such as faster response times,
Improved on time delivery improved order accuracy and creation of a powered data hub which
can support this decision.
The main advantages of product management system which can help Marks and Spencer in
achieving this decision are automated inventory management reduction in E commerce business
costs and better inventory planning and forecasting using digital technologies.
Key Vendors
Microsoft and Oracle are he suppliers of product management system as well as enterprise
resource planning systems. Administrative systems can be purchased at high quality from these
vendors (King, Churchill and Tan, 2017).
Perceived Benefits
Marks and Spencer will be able to gain various benefit by adopting a project management system
and enterprise resource planning system as the company will be able to utilize physical resources
more effectively by using digital technology in various business processes (Luturlean and et. al.,
2021).
Applicable legislative requirements
The applicable legislative requirement in case of usage of product management meant system
and enterprise source planning system is The privacy act 1988 which focuses on protecting and
handling of personal information about individuals. both of these management system utilise
personal information about employees at the company and need to be used in compliance with
the privacy act 1988 in order to avoid legal trouble.
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CONCLUSION
From the above report it is determined that management systems play an important role
in supporting digitalization in businesses. This is because the usage of management system
introduces application of digital technologies and tools in daily business activities. In addition to
this the usage of management systems can also help the company improve efficiency in other
areas.
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REFRENCES
Books and Journals
Al Jabri, H. A., Al-Badi, A. H. and Ali, O., 2017. Exploring the usage of big data analytical tools
in telecommunication industry in Oman. Information Resources Management Journal
(IRMJ), 30(1). pp.1-14.
Delen, D. and Zolbanin, H.M., 2018. The analytics paradigm in business research. Journal of
Business Research, 90. pp.186-195.
Fahey, L., 2020. The Insight Discipline: Crafting New Marketplace Understanding that Makes a
Difference. Emerald Group Publishing.
Ghasemaghaei, M. and Calic, G., 2019. Does big data enhance firm innovation competency? The
mediating role of data-driven insights. Journal of Business Research, 104. pp.69-84.
He, W., Wang, F. K. and Akula, V., 2017. Managing extracted knowledge from big social media
data for business decision making. Journal of Knowledge Management.
King, R., Churchill, E. F. and Tan, C., 2017. Designing with data: Improving the user
experience with A/B testing. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".
Luturlean and et. al., 2021. Does work-life balance mediate the relationship between HR
practices and affective organisational commitment? Perspective of a telecommunication
industry in Indonesia. International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital, 18(2).
pp.154-172.
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