Information Technology in Retail: A Case Study of Marks & Spencer

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BABS Foundation UOS IIT Assignment
Assignment 2
Impact of Information Technology
on business operations of Marks &
Spencer’s
Student ID :< Your Student ID>
BA in Business Studies (Foundation Year)
University of Suffolk
Date of Submission :< Date of Submission>
I declare that this assignment is all my own work and that I have acknowledged all materials
used from the published or unpublished works of other people. All references have been duly
cited.
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BABS Foundation UOS IIT Assignment
Executive Summary
This study is based on identification of the information technology (IT) in the management of
several disciplines of a retail store. The present study is focused on the Marks & Spencer’s,
which is a well-known multinational retail store, having their business globally. The role of
IT in assisting and managing the business at different levels are evaluated in the study, along
with their benefits. Besides, an overview of different types of IT and networking is also
analysed in the study. Lastly, the stages required for developing the system and its life span is
included in the study.
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Table of Contents
1.Introduction.............................................................................................................................6
1.1 Purpose.............................................................................................................................6
1.2 Background.......................................................................................................................6
2. Literature Review...................................................................................................................7
2.2 Information Technology and its role in retail business in general...................................7
2.3 Networking Technology, different types in general.........................................................7
2.4 Ethics and Social Issues of using technology in general..................................................8
2.5 The importance of Intranet and Internet in business in general.......................................8
3. Analysis and Discussion........................................................................................................9
3.1 Role of Information Technology in the selected business................................................9
3.1.1 Types of different Information Systems that are used in selected business like
Management Information System, Decision Support Systems etc.....................................9
3.2 Types of Networking Technologies that used in the selected business..........................10
3.3 Ethics and social issues in selected business..................................................................10
3.3 The importance of Intranet and Internet in the selected business..................................10
3.4 List and explain the different stage of system development life cycle...........................11
4. Conclusions..........................................................................................................................11
5.References.............................................................................................................................13
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BABS Foundation UOS IIT Assignment
1. Introduction
The information technology is the way to gather the market knowledge, which helps in
having competitive advantage in the business. This plays a vital role, mainly in the retail
sectors, where it increases the speed of the entire processes, and helps in saving the costs
associated with the services, which provides benefits to the company (Lee et al. 2013). In this
study, the role of information technologies or IT is evaluated on several activities performed
in Marks & Spencer’s, which is a famous British multinational retail store, having several
outlets all over the world. In this context, how the IT helps the organisation in withstanding
with the highly competitive world is described.
1.1 Purpose
The purpose of the study is to evaluate the role of IT in different disciplines of a retail sector.
Besides, the different purposes of introducing the technology in the retail store are identified
(Parry et al. 2011). It has been found that the information technology, mainly used in the
retail sector is little different from others and the management of such technologies
successfully inside the organisation is the key of achieving success.
1.2 Background
It has been found that the present stage of the market for a retail sector is highly competitive,
and adapting an effective marketing system is highly required for the company in getting
competitive advantage in the market. On the other hand, it has also been observed that the
retail sectors are dealing with multiple disciplines, and the management of these disciplines
and maintaining coordination among them are highly required in the recent time. Besides, it
is further identified that the information technology plays the most central role in this purpose
(Pous et al. 2013). The practice and implementing this technology in the companies, mainly
in the retail sectors are increased in the recent times, which suggest their effectiveness in this
discipline. Therefore, the study is focused on the identification of the role of IT in a selected
retail sector. In this study, the retail sector selected for performing the study is Marks &
Spencer’s, which is a famous British multinational retail sector.
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2. Literature Review
2.2 Information Technology and its role in retail business in general
As mentioned by Parry et al. (2011), the retail industries in the recent time are facing some
factors, which are controlling the business of these companies. One of the most important
factors is the increased impact of globalization, which is the driv9ing force of such
organisation in the present time. On the other hand, Edvardsson et al. (2011) commented on
the use of constant connectivity among different disciplines of the retail sectors, which
improves the overall performances of the business of the organisation. In this case, it has
been found that the information technology or the IT plays the most important role in
managing such disciplines in a retail sector. It is also observed in several studies that the
information technology is helpful in managing the complex operations of the retail business.
The principle target of the retail management is to make the services easily acceptable to the
customers, so that the customer can easily locate their desire objects. Besides, there is a
recent trend of increased online shopping, and e-commerce activities by the customers
(Ramcharran, 2013). This can be managed by implementing this information technology in
the retail sector. However, the information technology can further be implemented by the
retail sectors to eliminated unwanted chaos within the store.
2.3 Networking Technology, different types in general
As mentioned by Oh et al. (2012), the networking refers to a series of interconnected
computer systems, performing similar of different tasks. However, based on the activities and
the way they are connected. Besides, Condea et al. (2012) also mentioned the categorizing of
the networks according to the size of interconnected systems or the area covered. However,
broadly, the networks are categorizes in four broad classes. These are as follows:
 Personal area network or PAN: As mentioned by Pous et al. (2013), this type of
networking refers to the individual system connected, mainly within a single
construction. This can be a network serving for an office or a residence. However, it
can connect multiple devices, such as computers, telephones, video games and so on.
 Local area network or LAN: Lee et al. (2013) commented that this type of network
is often found serving a particular community. In this case, similar type o resources
are shared among the users, which make this type of network services an easily
affordable system to the users. However, the smallest LAN unit can be comprised n
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BABS Foundation UOS IIT Assignment
only two computers, whereas the larger unit can accommodate about thousand
computers.
 Metropolitan area network or MAN: In this network, the network service is
provided to a wide range of are, such as a town or college premises. In this case, it
can accommodate several LANs together to form a complex and large network
system.
 Wide area network or WAN: Ramcharran (2013) mentioned that this type of
network are comprised of a large area, such as a serving country or the world.
However, it is developed with the collection of relatively smaller networks. Internet
can be the best example of this type of network.
2.4 Ethics and Social Issues of using technology in general
The ethics plays an important role in dealing with the information technology, mainly dealing
in several business purposes. According to Piotrowicz et al. (2014), it is the responsibility of
the user to ensure that the technology used in this purpose is not used in a wrong way. As the
information technology is mainly used for gather the data for serving different purposes, it
provides a professional access of information, which can be used in wrong way. Therefore, it
should be ensured by the users that the data collected by using the information technology
could not cause any damage to the society, environment or other people. On the other hand,
Pantano (2014) mentioned that the ethical and the social issues, which are often occurred in
dealing with the information technology, are interrelated or closely linked. However, it has
been also observed that the technological environment in the recent time are rapidly
changing, which are making the rise of several issues associated with this discipline. The
major issue found in this case is that the information technology is encompassing a large part
of the network system. Thus, implementing it within a sector and maintaining are problematic
tasks. Besides, there is a high chance of having issues related to the privacy of the user,
disclosing of information to others and so on.
2.5 The importance of Intranet and Internet in business in general
As mentioned by Kang et al. (2015), the intranet is presently used as a useful tool for
supporting and managing different tasks associated with the business. It is mainly used for
performing internal communication within a business or within an organisation. The main
purpose, for which it is used in the recent time by several companies in their business is
storing of information related to the business, which can be accessed by the employees at any
time. According to Lee (2015), the benefit of intranet in managing a business is that it
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provides a tool for sharing the business resources effectively. Besides, it provides an effective
way to perform collaborative activity within the organisation. In addition, it can also be used
for improving the customer services of the organisation, by providing uninterrupted and
accurate information to the employees to improve customer services. On the other hand, the
internet provides another opportunity for the individuals in managing the business. Schwalbe
(2015) commented that the internet could be used by the organisation to increase the
networking and improving communication. Besides, the marketing and sales are also
improved by using the internet services within the organisation. Collection and delivery of
information and selling of the products to the customers can be served easily by using the
internet.
3. Analysis and Discussion
3.1 Role of Information Technology in the selected business
It has been found from the above study that the IT plays a significant role in the selected
organisation M&S. The organisation is using this technology in several purposes, one of
which is managing the customers, who are trying to acquiring the online services. The online
services and e-commerce services are managed by this technology. Another use of this
technology, which helps in the improving of the overall services of the organisation, is to
deliver the information to the customers related to the products and services. Laudon et al.
(2016) mentioned that this is effectively used by the organisation in their marketing section,
which improves the customer satisfaction of the selected organisation.
3.1.1 Types of different Information Systems that are used in selected business
As mentioned by Chakraborty et al. (2016), the activites of the Marks & Spencer’s is done by
the collection of complex information system. However, the information systems, which are
mainly used within the organisation, are as follows:
 Management Information System (MIS): As mentioned by Krasyuk et al. (2017),
this information system is mainly used by the tactical managers of the organisation,
who are concerned in managing and monitoring the performance of the organisation.
For example, by using the input of the sales, it helps in identifying the present trend of
the customers.
 Decision Support Systems (DSS): This system is used by the senior of the
management team to make some decisions for the organisation. In other words, it can
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be used to evaluate the impacts of the organisation in different disciplines to make a
certain decision regarding that.
 Artificial intelligence techniques: These techniques are used by the organisation to
identify the pattern of services preferred or performed, from a large set of data.
 Online Analytical Processing (OLAP): This system is used for identifying a trend of
the services, by dealing with multiple set of data. In addition, in this system, the data
are analysed in a multidimensional ways.
3.2 Types of Networking Technologies that used in the selected business
The selected organisation Marks & Spencer’s is mainly using the PAN networking system
along with the WAN. As commented by Lloyd (2017), the organisation using the PAN,
which only serves the network or interconnected system for their organisation. For serving
the interconnectivity within a single retail store of the organisation, the PAN network is used.
However, in coordinating the services among different disciplines of the retail stores of the
organisation are done by using the MAN. On the other hand, the entire task, which is
overspread in multiple countries are performed by the help of WAN services.
3.3 Ethics and social issues in selected business
As mentioned by Ramcharran (2013), the principle issue faced by the organisation in
information technology is that the organisation is overspread in several countries and the
management of this information are a tedious job. However, by using the IT, there is a chance
of accessing the information of the other stores. Besides, the access of the confidential data
can be done by this way, which may breach the security of the organisation.
3.3 The importance of Intranet and Internet in the selected business
The Marks & Spencer’s is using the intranet to improve their customer services and effective
sharing of resources. As the organisation is dealing with multiple retail stores, the
coordination among such stores must be maintained. This activity is performed by using the
intranet, which supports a collaborative performance. Lee (2015) commented that the internet
is used by the organisation to retrieve information and managing an effective communication.
Besides, the marketing and sales are also performed by this.
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3.4 List and explain the different stage of system development life cycle
According to Lloyd (2017), the system development life cycle (SDLC) refers to the different
ways, which are required to develop a software system, for serving a particular activity. The
stages of SDLC are as following:
 Planning: This step is performed to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the
project, which are focused while developing the software.
 Analysis: The performance and the activities at different stages are analysed by this
stage.
 Design: This step is the constructing of the overall architecture of the software.
 Development and implementation: This is the most important step, which refers to
the properly implementing the features within the system and make it ready for use.
 Testing: This step is associated with the analysis of the system for proper functioning.
 Maintenance: This stage only comes if the system installed is performing without
hassle. This step is to maintain this system for long-term use (Chakraborty et al.
2016).
4. Conclusions
In the above study, the use and functions of information technology in several disciplines of
Marks & Spencer’s is analysed. Firstly, the role of information technology and its several
uses are described. The types and the purposes of the information technology are described.
Later, the system used in the following organisation is described, which includes the
information system, role of information system and the type of networking performed within
the organisation. Lastly, an overview is made on the diverse stages of system growth lifecycle
for an organisation.
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5. References
Chakraborty, R., Lee, J., Bagchi-Sen, S., Upadhyaya, S. and Rao, H.R., 2016. Online
shopping intention in the context of data breach in online retail stores: An examination of
older and younger adults. Decision Support Systems, 83, pp.47-56.
Condea, C., Thiesse, F. and Fleisch, E., 2012. RFID-enabled shelf replenishment with
backroom monitoring in retail stores. Decision Support Systems, 52(4), pp.839-849.
Edvardsson, B., Tronvoll, B. and Gruber, T., 2011. Expanding understanding of service
exchange and value co-creation: a social construction approach. Journal of the academy of
marketing science, 39(2), pp.327-339.
Kang, J.Y.M., Mun, J.M. and Johnson, K.K., 2015. In-store mobile usage: Downloading and
usage intention toward mobile location-based retail apps. Computers in Human Behavior, 46,
pp.210-217.
Krasyuk, I.A., Kirillova, T.V. and Kozlova, N.A., 2017. Network technologies as innovative
solution in commodity circulation. In SHS Web of Conferences (Vol. 35, p. 01055). EDP
Sciences.
Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2016. Management information system. Pearson Education
India.
Lee, H.J. and Yang, K., 2013. Interpersonal service quality, self-service technology (SST)
service quality, and retail patronage. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 20(1),
pp.51-57.
Lee, H.J., 2015. Consumer-to-store employee and consumer-to-self-service technology (SST)
interactions in a retail setting. International Journal of Retail & Distribution
Management, 43(8), pp.676-692.
Lloyd, I.J., 2017. Information technology law. Oxford University Press.
Oh, L.B., Teo, H.H. and Sambamurthy, V., 2012. The effects of retail channel integration
through the use of information technologies on firm performance. Journal of operations
management, 30(5), pp.368-381.
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Pantano, E., 2014. Innovation drivers in retail industry. International Journal of Information
Management, 34(3), pp.344-350.
Parry, E. and Tyson, S., 2011. Desired goals and actual outcomes of e‐HRM. Human
Resource Management Journal, 21(3), pp.335-354.
Piotrowicz, W. and Cuthbertson, R., 2014. Introduction to the special issue information
technology in retail: Toward omnichannel retailing. International Journal of Electronic
Commerce, 18(4), pp.5-16.
Pous, R., Melià-Seguí, J., Carreras, A., Morenza-Cinos, M. and Rashid, Z., 2013, September.
Cricking: customer-product interaction in retail using pervasive technologies. In Proceedings
of the 2013 ACM conference on Pervasive and ubiquitous computing adjunct publication (pp.
1023-1028). ACM.
Ramcharran, H., 2013. E-commerce growth and the changing structure of the retail sales
Industry. International Journal of E-Business Research (IJEBR), 9(2), pp.46-60.
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
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