Azzaz Report: Operations and Information Management for Azzaz Company

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Azzaz, a retail company, focusing on its operations and information management (OIM) strategies. It begins with an examination of the current and proposed business process models, highlighting the integration of e-business after the acquisition of PhoneBits. A strategic analysis is conducted, considering political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors in England and Norway. The report then compares open-source software solutions, recommending Opentags for its e-commerce capabilities and scalability. An OIM report follows, detailing the company's current situation, external factors, and suggested technologies. The report concludes with a reflection on the findings and recommendations, offering valuable insights into Azzaz's business development and operational strategies. The assignment is designed to provide students with a practical understanding of business process modeling, strategic analysis, and software implementation within a retail context.

Running Head: AZZAZ REPORT – OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
Azzaz Report
Operations and Information Management
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Table of Contents
Part A: Business Process Models and Strategy Analysis................................................................2
Business Process Model..............................................................................................................2
Existing Business Process........................................................................................................2
Proposed Business Process......................................................................................................2
Strategic Analysis........................................................................................................................2
Political....................................................................................................................................2
Economic.................................................................................................................................2
Social.......................................................................................................................................2
Technological..........................................................................................................................2
Legal........................................................................................................................................2
Environmental..........................................................................................................................2
References....................................................................................................................................2
Part B: Open Source Software Comparison....................................................................................3
Part C: OIM Report.........................................................................................................................4
Introduction..................................................................................................................................4
Overview of Current Situation.....................................................................................................4
Roadmap Outline.........................................................................................................................4
Conclusions and Recommendations............................................................................................4
References....................................................................................................................................4
Part D: Reflection............................................................................................................................5

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Part A: Business Process Models and Strategy Analysis
Azzaz has acquired PhoneBits and the operation of the company has increased in size. The
induction of e-business module requires some improvement in the current business process. The
first section is concerned with understanding the current business process model and making
revised business process model.
Business Process Model
The business process model refers to the diagram that shows the flow of the activities that are
present within an organization (Chiosi and Trombetta, 2012). These process or list of activities
provides a bird’s eye view of entire organizational processes.
Existing Business Process
The diagram below shows the business process model of Azzaz that is currently being followed
by the company. There are five aspects in the model, namely, plan, buy, move, sell, and
corporate. The plan is concerned with the planning processes of various activities. Buy is
concerned with the development of relationship with various suppliers. Move is concerned with
management of various middle activities such as management of warehouse, transporting the
product to the actual destinations. Sell is concerned with activities such as marketing, managing
the store, and others. The corporate aspect looks after the areas such as finance, HR, real estate
and information technology.

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Proposed Business Process
The diagram given below shows the extension of the current business process to include the e-
business activities after the purchase of PhoneBits. There will be no major change except the
inclusion of the E-store module along with the move and sell aspect. The customers can use the
offline stores to drop the product for return which then can be transferred to the warehouse.
Strategic Analysis
The strategic analysis is concerned with understanding the factors that are external to the
environment and are imperative for the success of the company. Mentioned below are the six
external factors that are closely related to the growth of the company:
Political
If the current situation of the Europe is taken into consideration, and particularly England, then it
can be stated that the due to the ongoing exit process of Britain from the Europe, there are some
political challenges being faced by the whole economy. At present, both the economy, Britain
and that of Europe is facing difficulty at larger scale. However, if the impact on the policies are
taken into consideration, then it can be said that there no major changes that can impact the
activity of Azzaz in England and Norway (Martin et al, 2016). The company can make effective
move with its new partner in Norway and can expect no political interference in doing the
business.

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Economic
The economic situation of England, Norway and whole Europe is at the level where the retail
firms like Azzaz can survive. The people living in England and Norway has appreciable amount
of disposable income at present It can be expected that to be spent of various shopping activities
related to electronic items such as mobile phones and its accessories. The economic situation of
United Kingdom might get impacted if it witnesses reduction in the companies that preferred UK
as the launching ground for the European market.
Social
The people of England and Norway are open towards the electronic items. The use of
technologies in the day to day of lives of people living in these places is at good levels.
Moreover, the people living in these places are well educated and adapt faster to the changes.
The advancements in the technologies and the adoption rate of the same in these places are
appreciable. Overall population of United Kingdom is more than 65 million and due to the
increased migration from abroad, the country witness large number of cheap labor. The standard
of living of these people is well above the countries of the Asian countries.
Technological
The access to technology is at good level in the places like England and Norway. Moreover, the
overall technological development in whole Europe has been good in the past decades and
numerous innovations can be witnessed. There are laws that regulate the usage of intellectual
properties concerning technologies and other aspects. Therefore, the companies prefer to operate
in these places. In terms of technological market, the level of competition is plenty and which
provides ample opportunities for the companies to grow. There are numerous retail stores that
engage in sell and purchase of technological products.
Legal
There are no major hurdles that can be witnessed in terms operating the company effectively. In
the past, the companies gaining access to the market of the United Kingdom had the opportunity
to enjoy the larger chunk of new market, that is, other European countries. However, the current
political challenge has created virtual hurdle for the new companies. Though, United Kingdom
still has two years to go on with European, companies can keep operating effectively.
Environmental
There are no major environmental concern as per the operation of retail stores in the European
countries are concerned. The process of trading electronic items is of less concern to the
environmental regulations in comparison to the production of such items. However, it should of
kept into consideration that any type of companies, whether retail or others, should be making
efficient utilization of energy. There are various regulatory and suggestive considerations related
to energy consumption, audit and maintenance that can be utilized by the companies operating in
England, Norway, and other parts of European Union.

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References
Chinosi, M., & Trombetta, A. (2012). BPMN: An introduction to the standard. Computer
Standards & Interfaces, 34(1), 124-134.
Martin, R., Pike, A., Tyler, P., & Gardiner, B. (2016). Spatially Rebalancing the UK Economy:
Towards a New Policy Model?. Regional Studies, 50(2), 342-357.
Green, A. E., Atfield, G., Adam, D., & Staniewicz, T. (2013). Determinants of the composition
of the workforce in low skilled sectors of the UK economy: Lot 2: Qualitative research-final
report.
Korolija, I., Zhang, Y., Marjanovic-Halburd, L., & Hanby, V. I. (2013). Regression models for
predicting UK office building energy consumption from heating and cooling demands. Energy
and Buildings, 59, 214-227.
Demirel, P., & Kesidou, E. (2013). 6. The impact of environmental regulation frameworks and
firm-level factors on eco-innovations: evidence from DEFRA survey of UK manufacturing
firms. Governance, Regulation and Innovation, 149.
Dechezleprêtre, A., Neumayer, E., & Perkins, R. (2015). Environmental regulation and the cross-
border diffusion of new technology: Evidence from automobile patents. Research Policy, 44(1),
244-257.

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Part B: Open Source Software Comparison
There are various software solutions that can be implemented by Azzaz for the business process.
As the company is at smaller scale, therefore the use of open source software has been suggested.
The table below makes the comparison between the four open source enterprise resource
planning software that are free to use and modify as per the need.
Name Openbravo 3.0 Opentags Open ERP ERP5
Description and
Architecture
Ready to use
system, web
based. Can be
used from
anywhere. Better
for core business
process.
Supports e-
commerce,
CRM,
Warehouse,
SCM, and
Financial
Management.
Have 700
modules. MVC
architecture.
Separate client
and server
component. Web
interface.
Complicated
system.
Technical
understanding
required to
operate the
software
effectively.
Functionality Openbravo Core.
JSON REST web
service. Event
handling and
compression.
Other application
or server side
code can be
implemented.
e-Commerce
Online Store,
CRM Features,
All major
functions. POS,
VAT, Finance,
and others.
Accounting,
Application
builder, CRM,
HR, Invoicing,
Manufacturing,
Marketing, Point
of Sale, Project
Management,
Purchase,
Warehouse
Management
Product design
management,
supply chain
management,
movement
resource
planning, client
relation
management,
human resources,
general account
management,
ecommerce,
content
management
system
Advantages Function for
complex retail
process. POS
Integration. Free.
Continuous
update.
Zero license fees,
open source,
standards
support, High
Compatibility.
Downloadable
and can be used
in any
environment.
Full featured,
innovative design
technologically
advanced. Recent
and modern.
Disadvantages Frequent crash
issues. No admin
privilege to
bravo user.
Poor technical
documentation.
Dependence on
tester assurance.
Business can’t
depend on it
once expansion
comes into play.
Framework at
low level. Python
written
separately,
cumbersome for
user.

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Based on the above analysis of the different software for the company, it has been concluded that
the company should use the Opentags software. However, based on the functionality, there were
two suitable software, namely, Opentags and, ERP5. The reason is that both the software allows
the eCommerce integration which is required by this company at present. The rest two of the
software packages are also suited for the business but they do not allow ecommerce integration.
The selection of Opentags over ERP5 is due to the fact that the ERP5 is complex to use than the
Opentags. Moreover, there is likely no change when the company scales further. The software is
capable enough to handle the increased pressure. Opentags is able to provide every possible
function Azzaz can think of at the moment. The software can easily handle the supply chain
management and other business functions. Moreover, the integration of ecommerce business to
the system will allow the company to track the online sale, purchase, and return in conjunction to
the offline sale, purchase, and return. The software easily integrates with the Point of Sale system
which can be successfully used to integrate with the overall available stock at the store. The
integration of online listing of the stocks, offline availability at the warehouse, and the
availability of the stock at the store can be coordinated and tracked effectively.

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Part C: OIM Report
This is the report for Azzaz concerning the operations and information management. The report
is concerned with the analysis of the company in relation to the current external factors analyzed
above and the software that has been suggested above.
Introduction
Azzaz is into retail business selling mobile phones and the accessories to the customers of
England. The company is owned by Lewis. The company incorporated in the year 2014 with
four stores at its helm has now acquired PhoneBits to enter to the larger part of the mobile phone
retail market. The acquisition of PhoneBits has allowed Azzaz to enter into Norway with two
already existing stores of the acquired company. The owner of the company is assuming that the
business will have increased opportunity to enter into the European market. Lewis has also
opened a warehouse in the East of England. The owner of the store chain is contemplating to
venture into the online retail business considering the current growth of the online market.
The company is using general business process model with no implemented technologies to
manage the various organizational functions. After the acquisition, Lewis has decided that the
company should have a system that can support the various business functions together.
Moreover, Lewis wants to handle the e-commerce arm with the same technology. The sections
ahead discuss the impact of various external factors on the functioning of the company, and it
has suggested technologies that can be implemented in the improved business process.
Overview of Current Situation
The company is currently operating in England and is expecting to operate successfully in
Norway. Considering the new acquisition of PhoneBits, the company is likely to face increased
breadth of external factors.
There are various external factors that have been analyzed in the previous sections considering
the environment of England and Norway. As stated earlier, the political environment of England
is less stable due to situations in relation to the exit process of Britain from Europe. At present,
Azzaz will face no major challenge from this as the exit process is likely to take two more years.
Moreover, there is less chances of change in policies in relation to the businesses operating in the
country. Therefore, Azzaz can operate successfully within the country with no major challenge
from this aspect and it can appreciably consider United Kingdom as the launch ground to enter
into the European market.
As per the economic aspect of the European countries, specifically, United Kingdom and
Norway is concerned, the company will not face major challenge in successfully managing the
business as the customers in these market have appreciable disposable income. The fall in the
economic activity can be evident if the United Kingdom completely exits the European Union
which might impact the sale of the company products. As stated earlier, the technology adoption

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level of people in United Kingdom and other European countries such as Norway are at the level
where the company can expect the sale of mobile phones and its accessories at good pace
(Bolton and Foxon, 2013).
The aspects such as technological advancements, legal aspects, and environmental concern will
not act as the barrier to the operation of the company. The legal procedures relating to the
business operation are still controlled majorly by the European Union and, therefore compliance
to one law will ensure that all others are taken care of. The environmental concern is mainly with
the energy consumption which can be managed effectively with the help of various agencies
available in United Kingdom and Norway to manage this aspect.
Roadmap Outline
The implementation of the new software package is imperative for the success of the
organization. The suggested software package will allow the company to streamline most of its
process and keep track of all the activities effectively. The company is venturing further into the
European market and the situation looks conducive for such businesses. Therefore, it is suitable
that the company considers technologies that can increase its efficiency and fast track the
processes.
The software that has been suggested to the company is Opentags which also has the ecommerce
integration facility. This will allow the company to integrate the offline and online business
together. Moreover, the installation of this software in the entire organization, including the one
that has been acquired recently, the company will be able to track the activities of that company
also. The software will reduce the challenge of tracking and maintaining the activities.
The company can achieve the proposed changes by successfully implementing these through
effective change management. The initial step of the company should be to hire few technical
professionals. These technical professionals will interview the various department heads and take
a closer look at the operational activity of the current business and the one that has been
acquired. Moreover, the same technical professionals need to assess the ecommerce requirement
of the company. After the effective analysis of the entire requirement, these individuals can
move ahead in making changes to the newly identified open source software package to meet the
current business goals and objectives (Ahmad and Cuenca, 2013). The reason behind this is that
the Opentags software does not come prebuilt with functionalities exactly matching every
businesses and, therefore it is required that the changes are made based on the personal
requirement.
The next step in the process is implementation of the software into the entire organization. The
implementation should be in phased manner to ensure that it does not impact the current business
processes. The implementation of the software should start from the head office and move to the
regional stores. The implementation should be followed by the training processes (Chou et al,

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2014). As the individuals working will be unfamiliar from this technology, therefore they will
need some training to use it effectively.
The final step is opening an ecommerce division and hiring few individuals with ecommerce
experience and kick start the activity with their training on the new software (Ram et al, 2014).
The process of activating the ecommerce business will be in various phases. The initial step
would be to develop the online portal where the company can display the product for the
customers. The next step would be to integrate the online details to the new software so that all
the listings are done directly from the software and an integrated update is seen across the
organization.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The environment of the company has been analyzed in which it will be operating. The company
has been given different suggestions and suitable software has been suggested to integrate and
streamline the whole business processes. The Opentags will be used by the company at present
as it is easy to understand and use. Moreover, it allows the option to integrate the online
ecommerce business with that of the offline business. The company is recommended that it
should provide proper training to the employees in using the current software. The
implementation should be in phased manner.
References
Bolton, R., & Foxon, T. J. (2013). Urban infrastructure dynamics: market regulation and the
shaping of district energy in UK cities. Environment and Planning A, 45(9), 2194-2211.
Ahmad, M. M., & Cuenca, R. P. (2013). Critical success factors for ERP implementation in
SMEs. Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 29(3), 104-111.
Chou, H. W., Lin, Y. H., Lu, H. S., Chang, H. H., & Chou, S. B. (2014). Knowledge sharing and
ERP system usage in post-implementation stage. Computers in Human Behavior, 33, 16-22.
Ram, J., Wu, M. L., & Tagg, R. (2014). Competitive advantage from ERP projects: Examining
the role of key implementation drivers. International Journal of Project Management, 32(4),
663-675.

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Part D: Reflection
The major challenge in completing this paper was developing suitable assumptions at the right
places to ensure that the case looks near to the real world situation. I had previous understanding
of some open software related to other activities and due to easy availability of the information
on internet; I found enough information regarding the open source software that has been
compared in the Part B. The information regarding software specifications were available on the
company website. The assessment of external environment in which the company has been
shown operating is based on various literature assessment and current news assessment. For
example, the current ongoing exit process of Britain from European Union and the likely impact
of the same on the business have been shown in Part A. It was possible due to the availability of
the information on the various news portals.
Description
Quality of contributions
I have contributed well to the development of this paper. I
involved in extensive research to complete the various segments
such as the completion of business process module, external
environment analysis, and software suggestion.
Attribution of references
I have picked up high quality material for my assignment and
have been referenced well. The high quality denotes to the
published journals, books, and established new agencies (in
ascending order).
Evidence of collaboration/
facilitation skills The contribution has been done as per the requirement.
Reflection on
onlinecontributions (in
reflective summary)
The reflection has been appreciably well.