Impact of Information Technology on Sainsbury's Business Operations

Desklib provides solved assignments and past papers to help students succeed.

BABS Foundation UOS IIT Assignment
Assignment 2
Impact of Information Technology
on business operations of a
Sainsbury
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used from the published or unpublished works of other people.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.
1 | P a g e

BABS Foundation UOS IIT Assignment
Executive Summary
The present study deals with the different roles and responsibilities of the IT department of
the retail organisation. Apart from that, the study also highlights the proper strategies for the
IT business to adopt as they come to understand its value. Different kinds of networking
strategies in general have been highlighted. Ethical and social issues have been illustrated
effectively by way of composing this report. The importance of intranet and internet in the
business of retail has also been added for increased understanding of the subject matter.
2 | P a g e

BABS Foundation UOS IIT Assignment
Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................4
1.1 Purpose.............................................................................................................................4
1.2 Background.......................................................................................................................4
2. Literature Review...................................................................................................................5
2.2 Information Technology and its role in retail business in general...................................5
2.3 Networking Technology, different types in general.........................................................5
2.4 Ethics and Social Issues of using technology in general..................................................5
2.5 The importance of Intranet and Internet in business in general.......................................6
3. Analysis and Discussion........................................................................................................6
3.1 Role of Information Technology in the selected business................................................6
3.1.1 Types of different Information Systems that are used in selected business like
Management Information System, Decision Support Systems etc.....................................6
3.2 Types of Networking Technologies that used in the selected business............................7
3.3 Ethics and social issues in selected business....................................................................7
3.3 The importance of Intranet and Internet in the selected business....................................7
3.4 List and explain the different stage of system development life cycle.............................8
4. Conclusions............................................................................................................................8
5.References...............................................................................................................................9
3 | P a g e

BABS Foundation UOS IIT Assignment
1. Introduction
IT or Information technology plays an important role in the entire retail sector. It is the
responsibility of the IT department of an organization to provide the overall internal as well
as the external security. Moreover, the IT department of the organisation also makes a proper
business strategy, develop or establish a proper network connection. Solve all the hardware as
well as software related issues, supervise that data, process and analyze the data and many
more. Present study deals with the roles and responsibility of the IT department in Sainsbury.
Sainsbury is the third largest supermarket chain in the UK with 17% market share
(Sainsburys.co.uk, 2019) Moreover, Sainsbury also provides home and kitchen appliances,
foods, financial services and many more. IT department of Sainsbury plays a crucial role in
order to secure the confidential information.
1.1 Purpose
The main objective of the IT department of an organisation is to provide complete security.
Apart from that are many more objectives of the IT department in the Sainsbury are enhance
the marketing strategy of Sainsbury, improve the loyalty of the customers and many more.
The term that is directly associated with the IT department of Sainsbury is security. IT
department of Sainsbury secures the confidential data of the customers in its personal
database so that hackers cannot get that data. The documents of the customer includes bank
number, CVV number, credit or debit card number, phone number, residential address and
many more.
1.2 Background
One of the most popular and renowned retail sectors in the UK, Sainsbury was founded in
1869 by James. It is the first smallest dairy shop in the poorest sector of London, 173 Drury
Lane. After sometime, in 1973, the company becomes a public organisation and then in 1995
Tesco Plc overtook the company because of improper management techniques. After that, the
managers of the company have decided to make a strong IT department, which can analyze
the market status, customer’s requirements and provide internal security.
4 | P a g e

BABS Foundation UOS IIT Assignment
2. Literature Review
(You must provide citation to support your claims)
2.2 Information Technology and its role in retail business in general
There are various roles and responsibilities of the IT department of a retail sector include:
Manage the supply chain: The IT department of the retail sector used to provide a proper
supply chain after analysing the complete market.
Enhance the accuracy of the demand: after analyzing the whole market, it is the duty of the
IT department of the organisation to identify the basic needs of the customers and try to
accomplish it.
Provide overall security: One of the most important roles of the IT department of an
organisation is to provide security in order to protect all the confidential organisational data
from the hackers.
Market Study: Without a proper market research, the business cannot be possible. The IT
department of the company used its advanced management tools and analyses the present
market status. After analyzing the whole data, the IT cell used to send all the data to the
production team so that they can able to present it in a better way.
2.3 Networking Technology, different types in general
Networking technology can be defined by the technology that enables individuals to switch
and transfer information or data from a large to a small information system or vice versa
companies and institution for the purpose of education mainly utilize that. The various kinds
of networking technologies are illustrated below:
LAN or Local Area Network
A computer network traverses smaller areas or regions. Generally, LAN remains confined to
an individual room, a house or few houses or buildings. Radio waves or telephone lines can
be used to develop connections between more than one LAN.
WLAN or Wireless Local Area Network
It is a wireless method of distribution of data used by more than one computers or devices by
utilizing high-frequency radio waves (Chow et al, 2017). It enables individuals to move
around the area of coverage. It is not limited to one place and is able to connect more than
one device collectively.
WAN or Wide Area Network
It is comparatively more complex than LAN. It can unite various LAN’s. It is also unlimited
and capable of collectively connecting all the systems over a wide range.
VPN or Virtual Private Network
It is one of the private networks that are greatly secured. At the time of transmission of data,
with the help of VPN information and messages can be encrypted which ensures that data
would be secured even if they are hacked by hackers.
2.4 Ethics and Social Issues of using technology in general
In recent times, companies are driven by various factors of stress regarding ethics in business
and due to wrong directions. The different ethical and social issues that are faced are
illustrated below:
Social issues
5 | P a g e

BABS Foundation UOS IIT Assignment
Maintenance of a healthy relationship with the customers and the employees is of greater
importance for any firm. Hence, it is the responsibility of the companies to build a strong
relationship with them, or there would be a greater scope of a generation of ethical issues.
This can be achieved through effective communication with these stakeholders.
Ethical Issues
Businesses investigate and examine the interest area of the consumers, internet usage and
thereby accumulate confidential and relevant data of the consumers. If organizations are
failed to protect the confidential information then various ethical issues can be encountered.
Ethical issues also transpire when the team of management tracks and analyzes the activity of
the employees constantly and take their pictures with the help of the CCTV cameras
(Gotterbarn, 2017).
2.5 The importance of Intranet and Internet in business in general
Intranet
It is adopted to combine or unite various systems collectively. The importance of Intranet is
that the different system can be distinguished with the help of an IP address that is unique for
every device (Dijkman et al., 2015).
Internet
It is linked with the networks of system. It is also termed as the World Wide Web (WWW).
Various TCP/IP protocols are used by the internet.
Intranet and internet have greater importance in the context of business. There are several
protocols in the intranet including File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Simple Mail Transfer
Protocol (SMTP). SMTP is utilised for sending email from one employee to another within a
company and outside the company. On the other hand, FTP is applied for sending files.
However, the FTP highly requires internet for a successful transfer of files.
3. Analysis and Discussion
3.1 Role of Information Technology in the selected business
The company of Sainsbury’s has utilized the system of information technology in its
production and the services. The main objective of the Department of Information
Technology is to find specific information from the different resources and provide to the
management. The company has managed to maintain their stocks and inventory by utilizing
several management tools. In every activity, the management has found the benefits of
having information technology. It has executed the IT tools for analysing the cost of
purchasing, labour, taxes and other insurances. Another objective of implementing the IT is
to maintain the interaction with the customers, clients and suppliers.
3.1.1 Types of different Information Systems that are used in selected business like
Management Information System, Decision Support Systems etc.
Various systems of information technology have been used by the company of Sainsbury’s
for improving its operational performance.
Management Information System
Sainsbury’s has utilised this system by making the collection of confidential information
from a web server and storing into their own database. After that, IT specialists have the
responsibility to update the clients’ data for the reason of security (Ogiela and Ogiela, 2015).
Decision Support System
6 | P a g e

BABS Foundation UOS IIT Assignment
It has been executed by the company for collecting and making further analysis of essential
information. It helps to analyse the information of customer demands, stock situation,
inventory status and many more by using own software.
3.2 Types of Networking Technologies that used in the selected business
Local Area Network (LAN)
The company has used this network for making the connection between the various
departments and management buildings.
Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)
A router is always necessary equipment for the company to connect with the proper internet
(Aydalot and Keeble, 2018). The company has its own WLAN connection which has been
providing a strong network.
Virtual Private Network (VPN)
Sainsbury’s has used this technology for the protection of the data. It helps to encrypt the
files and the documents and mask IP address so that there cannot be any chance of
modification of the confidential data of the company.
Wide Area Network (WAN)
The company has used this system for connecting the systems and low voltage devices within
a wide area of the network.
3.3 Ethics and social issues in selected business
Ethical issues
Security
The management of the company has the habit of regulating every activity of the office staffs.
It can be said that it is unethical and it may have an effect on the relationship between the
staffs and the management.
Privacy
The company needs to secure the account number, payment details, and other bank details.
The management of the concerned company examine all the records related to the customers
and clients.
Social issues
The main issue that the company has faced in operating its business is lack of
communication. The management has been failing to maintain proper communication with its
staffs. They do not seek for the future suggestion for the betterment of the company. It has
made a negative impact on the business as the management team fails to make the interaction
with the employees. They also are not good at maintaining the connection with the customers
as well.
3.3 The importance of Intranet and Internet in the selected business
Intranet is used in within an organization to exchange organization oriented information
within the employees. In this case, they use a unique IP address between the official systems.
Internet on the other hand is the World Wide Web, which uses different TCP/IP protocol.
Therefore different systems have different IP addresses. To run Sainsbury UK, the company
uses both types of internet and intranet facility. They have their own intranet system through
which employers can communicate about the organizational information (Anderson and
Bolton, 2018). Also using internet facility they can remain communicated with the outside
world, such as customers, suppliers, other retailers etc. They can generate feedback from the
customers, promote new products in social networking site, and publish their company
success using the internet. The employees can also send FTP using the internet. Using SMTP
they can send each other official documents, information that are confidential and can
generate a business scope.
7 | P a g e

BABS Foundation UOS IIT Assignment
3.4 List and explain the different stage of system development life cycle
System developed life cycle is a step by step process through which a user can change a
newly developed project. It talks about the process of planning, creating, testing, and
deploying an information system (Ikhlayel, 2018). Traditionally it has five stages, but
recently it has modified to seven stages as shown below:
1. Planning: In this phase, the scope of the problem is found out and solutions are
generated using different resources, costs, benefits and other important things.
2. System analysis and requirements: The functional requirements are searched for the
possible solution. Also it is estimated that the new way can meet the expectations
3. System design: In this phase, the necessary specification, features and operations for
the functional criteria are laid down.
4. Development: The production starts in this phase. This phase has been characterised
by instillation and change.
5. Integration and testing: This phase consists of system testing and system integration.
This is done by quality assurance team of the company
6. Implementation: in this phase, the majority of the code has been written and the
production starts using a direct cutover.
7. Operations and maintenance: users can tune the system add or remove things as per
requirements (Koo et al., 2018).
4. Conclusions
In conclusion, it could be said that Information Technology is an important role on business
operations of Sainsbury, UK. It has a different type of role in retail business as IT helps to
develop a business using both internal and external sources that could be available and
transferred using World Wide Web. There are different types of networking technology that
helps in different regard and any retail sector needs to understand it completely to utilize it in
its full potential. It has its own ethical and Social Issues which need to be worked out to make
a full proof use of these technological boons. This work has discussed the role of IT in retail
sector and different types that are generally used. There are different stages of system
development life cycle which are important before working with the internet system. Using
these IT moves, Sainsbury, UK can make a good communication system.
8 | P a g e

BABS Foundation UOS IIT Assignment
5.References
Anderson, M. and Bolton, J., 2018. A service-oriented framework for collating retail
intelligence. Future Generation Computer Systems, 80, pp.400-408.
Aydalot, P. and Keeble, D., 2018. High technology industry and innovative environments: the
European experience. Routledge.
Ogiela, L. and Ogiela, M.R., 2015. Management information systems. In Ubiquitous
Computing Application and Wireless Sensor (pp. 449-456). Springer, Dordrecht.
Chow, P., Bhagavatula, R., Rhee, W., Tehrani, A.M., Cioffi, J., Galli, S., Yun, S., Kerpez, K.
and Goldburg, M., Assia Spe LLC, 2017. Systems and methods for traffic load balancing on
multiple WAN backhauls and multiple distinct LAN networks. U.S. Patent 9,847,944.
Dijkman, R.M., Sprenkels, B., Peeters, T. and Janssen, A., 2015. Business models for the
Internet of Things. International Journal of Information Management, 35(6), pp.672-678.
Gotterbarn, D., 2017. The use and abuse of computer ethics. In Computer Ethics (pp. 57-62).
Routledge.
Ikhlayel, M., 2018. Development of management systems for sustainable municipal solid
waste in developing countries: A systematic life cycle thinking approach. Journal of cleaner
production, 180, pp.571-586.
Koo, C., Hong, T. and Park, J., 2018. Development of the life-cycle economic and
environmental assessment model for establishing the optimal implementation strategy of the
rooftop photovoltaic system. Technological and Economic Development of Economy, 24(1),
pp.27-47.
Sainsburys.co.uk. 2019. Sainsbury's. Available at: https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/ [Accessed
10 Jun. 2019].
9 | P a g e