HI5019 T2 2018: Strategic Information System Report on Coca-Cola

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Coca-Cola's strategic information system. It begins by identifying the company's critical success factors, such as its strong global presence, licensed bottlers, brand recognition, and extensive retail network. The report then examines Coca-Cola's current environment, considering factors like technological advancements, government regulations, economic conditions, and social responsibility. A detailed organizational chart is presented, followed by an analysis of the current system, including control weaknesses, and the creation of a document flowchart and a data flow diagram. The core of the report proposes a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, outlining its primary features and benefits, such as improved customer service, faster delivery, and enhanced retailer and distributor connections. The new CRM system focuses on key principles such as customer focus, active listening, and resolving customer issues, which are crucial for enhancing brand loyalty and achieving long-term success. The report underscores how the proposed CRM system, incorporating the SAP CRM, will enable better data collection and analysis to provide insights for product improvements tailored to customer needs.

Running head: STRATEGIC INFORMETION SYSTEM
Strategic Information System
[Name of the Student]
[Name of the University]
[Author note]

2STRATEGIC INFORMETION SYSTEM
Introduction:
Strategic planning is the process which is associated with the analysis of the vision
that a particular organization is having. Besides this the implementation of strategic planning
also helps in analysing the goals and objectives that an organization is having. This report
discusses about the strategic planning of the Organization Coca-Cola. Besides this the report
is also associated with identifying the critical success factors as well as the primary objectives
of the organization Coca-Cola. Besides this a mission statement has been provided for
conducting business with the clients. Followed by the identification a formal organizational
chart has been prepared (Orser Jr 2016). Followed by the creation of the organization chart
the current system has been analysed so as to identify the specific control weakness which are
to be addressed by making use of new system. A document flowchart has been prepared
along with a data flow diagram of the existing system has also been prepared. The new
system that is going to be used has been described in brief along with its features.
Identification of the Critical success factors and primary objectives
Key Success factors or the KSFs are those factors which act as a very important
aspect for achieving future competitive success amongst the other players of the industry. The
key factors of Coca-Cola mainly includes the resources, products, attributes, market,
competencies achievements from the market and many more (Masterman 2014). Some of the
key success factors of Coca-Cola has been described in brief and this includes the following:
a. Strong global presence: Coca-Cola is one of the carbonated soft drink company and
its products are generally sold by using the vending machines, in stores and in
restaurants in almost more than 200 countries of the world. During the 20th century the
marketing tactics and the adopted global expansion strategies by Coke helped the
organization in dominating the world of soft-drink industry.

3STRATEGIC INFORMETION SYSTEM
b. Licensed Bottlers: The bottling structure of Coca-Cola was associated with permitting
this firm to gain an advantage related to the immeasurable growth opportunities
existing all over the world. In addition to this advantage, this particular approach has
also been associated with permitting the organization to gain an opportunity of
serving to diverse geographical areas. The bottles are first concentrated by the Coke
manufacturers which is then sold to the licensed Coca-Cola bottlers in order to sell the
products ll over the globe (Mikulewicz et al. 2015). For the bottlers having territory
limited contracts with the organization are associated with the manufacturing of
finished goods in the bottles or cans. And once the manufacturing finished goods is
completed they get distributed to the various Coca-Cola vending machines and to the
retail shops.
c. High utilization of the fixed assets: the bottling system that Coca-Cola is having
allows it to operate in a global scale associated with the preservation of the local
approach as well. The different bottling firms of the organization are generally
controlled locally along with being owned by autonomous business persons and they
are generally authorized to trade brand of Coca-Cola Corporation. Due to the reason
that the organization is not having control possession of the bottling system, so its
most of the revenue comes from the sales of the bottles.
d. Advertising and Differentiation: Coke is associated with competing upon the
advertisement as well as on differentiation rather than on the pricing. This has been
initially leading to receiving of more profit along with disallowing the massive
depression in the profits. A huge amount of money is required by the Soft drink
industry for advertisement and marketing (Taylor 2014). Approximately $1.3 billion
was invested by Coke and the associated bottlers in the year of 2000. Depending upon
the various situations the advertisements are decided.

4STRATEGIC INFORMETION SYSTEM
e. Cherished brand name along with being well recognized: Cokes competitive spot is
greatly affected by the Brand recognition. The brand name of Coca-Cola is almost
known to about 90% of the world. The products of Coca-Cola are generally sold
globally by the main brand name which makes it the best known brand name of the
globe.
f. Retail and distributed network: A significant margin of 15-20% is provided to the
retailers by the Coke and all this margins are sufficient enough to make the retailers
work with the products of Coke (Pagani and Pardo 2017). Besides this there also
exists a strong network of convenience stores, vending, restaurants, fast food
fountains and many more.
g. Capabilities of the product innovations: Coca-Cola is associated with providing of
offers at the product line and this is done in accordance to the specific needs,
preferences and tastes of the customers and this includes various products like Coca-
Cola Zero, Coca-Cola Vanilla and many more.
Current situation of the Organization:
The current environment of Coca-Cola is changing in a continuous manner. Some of
the major factors that are responsible for making the organization think strategically includes
the advance in the technology and competition. According to the Food and Drug
Administration FDA Coca-Cola is a non-alcoholic beverage in the food industry (Liebowitz
2016). Besides this the government is also associated with regulating the manufacturing
procedures and in case if it is seen that the companies are not meeting the government
standards then they are fined. Besides this the organization has also been impacted due to
some political factors. . Besides this in many countries this organization has been subjected to
Occupational Safety as well as the Health Act as well as to some state, local, and foreign
environmental regulations (Pansari and Kumar 2017). So whenever the organization starts to

5STRATEGIC INFORMETION SYSTEM
distribute any product in a specific country then they need to meet all the terms of products
that they supply. By meeting the standards they would become capable of avoiding the
conflicts. Besides this it is necessary for the organization to consider the beliefs that the
peoples of a specific region are having (Ling 2017). Changes taking place in the laws and in
the regulations along with the changes taking place in the political regulations and civil wars
are considered to be most important political factors that are having a huge impact upon the
organization.
Depletion of the water is generally considered to one of the biggest environmental
factor affecting the business of the organization. The major reason lying behind this is
because of the reason that water acts as the major resource of the organization. Besides this
there are also certain set of ecological factors which are responsible for effecting the
performance of the organization and this mainly includes the pollution of air, global warming
and many more. Along with this certain environmental factors like he earthquakes floods and
more are also likely to have a direct impact upon the performance of the organization. Coca-
Cola is a huge organization and it is generally expected by the Stakeholders as well as the
general public and the other non-governmental organizations that Coca-Cola would be
behaving in a social responsible manner ad would also be associated with illustrating the
commitment while dealing with a wide range of environmental issues (Kumar and Reinartz
2018). Negligence in meeting this expectation might lead to damaging of the brand image.
The issues are generally addressed in accordance to the CSR policy and this policy is mainly
aimed at dealing with the various type of problems related to excessive consumption of
energy and water, problems due to depletion of natural resources, labour and human rights
and many more.
Technology is generally considered to be one of eh major and most important factor
responsible for analysing any of the industry. Some of the prominent technological factors

6STRATEGIC INFORMETION SYSTEM
that has been associated with having a huge impact upon the organization includes some
industry specific technological innovations and breakthroughs, decrease in the life cycle of
the technology and many more. Coca-Cola is seen to be very proactive while taking
advantages from the technology so as to gain a competitive advantage in the market. This is
generally done by making use of certain technologies like the vending machines connected to
the internet so as to track the sales, and also to report any kind of inventory or service related
issues to the nearby distributing centre (Sheth 2017). Besides this for the purpose of
promoting its products the organization has also been associated with the utilization of social
media so as to run the different kind of advertisements and get connected to more customers.
There exists various type of rules and regulations that are related to the health and
safety of the employees, employment laws, competitive rules, protection laws and other
regulations. All this factors needs to be adhered fully by the organization. Changes occurring
in all this rules and regulations are likely to have a huge impact upon the performance of the
organization in direct as well in indirect ways and this ways are totally unpredictable. Dealing
with the legal issues is a regular problem faced by the organization due to the size of the
organization and the scope it is having (Baah and Bohaker 2015).
Besides this the sales of Coca-Cola has also been hugely impacted due to certain
economic factors and all this factors re beyond the control of company. Some of the
economic factors includes the level of economic growth in a specific country or in the
industry, rate of tax and currency, the rate of exchange, cost of labour, rate of interest and
many more. The Global Economic and Financial Crisis that occurred in the year of 2007-
2009 is considered to be a relevant example of the economic factor which effected the
organization. Besides this when compared with the other business it was seen that the crisis
had been associated with impacting the organization to a very less amount (Kuo and Rice
2015). The fluctuations taking place in the exchange rate is generally considered to be one of

7STRATEGIC INFORMETION SYSTEM
the most important economic factor which effected the organizations performance in an
adverse way. One such instance occurded due to the devaluation of the Venezuela currency
which lead to the reduction in profit of the organization by 55%.
Primary Features of the New System
Customer’s acts as the real source of the sales and profits so it is essential to improve
the consumer brand loyalty along with satisfaction and acceptance. All this acts as the
fundamental for long term action of the organization Coca-Cola. It is better to say that the
organization is just a partner of the business and not a simple product supplier (Hastings and
de Andrade 2016). Below are the main five principles of the CRM that is to be used by the
organization Coca-Cola:
 Focusing upon the customers
 Gaining of advantage from the listening skills
 Overcoming of the various objections, problems and the complaints made by the
customers
 Maintenance and improvements in the self-esteem
 Making the angry customers to calm down and making initiative so as to change the
mind and views that the customers are having.
Several new things are to be included in the new CRM system. Some of this includes
the speed of delivery, and the ability of getting connected to the retailers and distributors all
through the globe as quickly as possible. It is possible to improve the customer service and
satisfaction by making use of the better CRM (Paniagua and Sapena 2014). The usage of the
CRM would be helping in getting the information that are required from the customers. The
IT system would be associated with the collection of the data and which would be followed

8STRATEGIC INFORMETION SYSTEM
by the analysis of the data so as to provide information. This information would be helping in
getting a better product that would be suiting the needs of the customers.
The usage of the SAP CRM, the organization, Coca-Cola would also become of
capable of handling the customer service support and this would help them in directly talking
with the person of eh company for certain problems faced regarding a particular product.
Besides this there exists various kind of services all around the world and customer service is
not only provided by means of feedback, emails or telephones but also by means of
monitoring and different kind of analysis (Rawal and Upadhayay 2017). For this reason the
use of the collaborative CRM would be helping the organization in providing a customer
service which is more efficient and would help in gaining of more customer satisfaction.
According to the reports this organization has been capable of growing along with the
demands as they are capable of providing solutions according to the needs of the customers.
Coca-Cola has always been associated with focusing upon the ways needed for satisfying the
customers by adaptation of the new infrastructure of CRM along with the ERP and a well
maintained SCM system. This adaptations has been associated with helping them in
achievements of the goals that are required for satisfying the customers. In this way they have
been capable of remaining at the top of the beverage industry (Bajwa 2013).
Some other strategies that are to be included in the CRM from the environmental and
external environment of Coca-Cola are listed below which would also be helping in effective
customer acquisition strategies and retention of the customers in a positive way.
Customer Acquisition strategies:
The major reason for the organization to retain its old customers along with
development of the customer value is entirely dependent upon the acquisition of new
customers. Some of the major customer acquisition strategies has been listed below:

9STRATEGIC INFORMETION SYSTEM
A. Promotion of sales: Promotion of sales can be stated to be any of the behaviour that
is associated with triggering of the temporary incentives which is generally aimed at
the prospects of the customers, channel partners on the sales persons. Despite of the
promotion of the sales might be directed at salesperson and the members of the
channel but the main concern is regarding the promotion of saes at different prospects.
The promotion of the sales is associated with offering a temporary as well as
immediate inducement so as to buy a particular product. Consumer sales promotion
can be categorized into different kinds and this mainly includes the following:
a. Sampling: This is a process in which free samples are provided to the consumers.
b. Free trails: The organization is associated with offering products depending upon the
approval to their customers and this might be including providing of free tasting in the
supermarkets and many more.
c. Discounts: This includes the deduction in the price for a certain time.
d. Coupons: This is one type of money that is to be provided to the customers and can
be redeemed during the purchase at the POS.
B. Advertising: This is the process which is generally considered to be the primary
method of generating new customers in a Business to Customer environment. This is
generally defined as the creation and delivery of the messages to some targeted
audience by making use of the purchase of time or space in the media which are
generally owned by others (Laswai 2013). Advertisement is generally not sufficient
for generating the behavioural outcomes but it can predispose the audience so as to
make sure that the audience are having the intension of buying the products
depending upon the things that they have learned or felt about a particular product.

10STRATEGIC INFORMETION SYSTEM
Potential Security Risks
The organization, Coca-Cola has not been capable of understanding the customer
information on a timely manner. For this reason the organization has been facing a lot of
problems while trying to be in the top position of the market. There are many reports which
depicts the fact that some customers wanted to sue the Organization as the organization
entirely ignored certain aspects. The aspects mainly included ignorance of the feelings of the
customers, ignorance or delay while responding to the feedbacks of the customers and
besides this there were also many customers whose legitimated rights and interests were not
guaranteed at all. Besides this whenever a customer complaint is received the different and
numerous complex communication network would be leading to delays in solving the
problems. This in tur would be affecting the efficiency of the CRM (Mutua 2016).
The CRM strategy can be enhanced by different ways. The organization must reach
out to the end users and should try to convince them regarding the value they can get from the
products of the organization. For doing so the organization needs to produce much more
healthy products. Besides this there is also a need of approaching the HR department in order
to establish new processes for the employees of the organization. The major aim of
developing the new objectives is to make the employees aware of the products that the
organization is having and show them that the products are much healthier than the previous
products. Employees in turn would be associated with reflecting their impressions to the
customers in case in the organization considers the employees as good marketers for the
company (Rawal and Upadhayay 2017).
In addition to this it is also necessary for the organization to stay away from the usage
of text messages. Coca-Cola is a multinational company and for that reason it is necessary for
the organization to get in touch with the sympathy strip in accordance to the case of each
company or in accordance to the case of each region or country (Mulu 2015).

11STRATEGIC INFORMETION SYSTEM
Additionally, the organization is highly dependent upon certain external resources and
this mainly includes the human resource activities in each country where the organization is
operating. CRM would be helping in setting an ideal process for different countries and also
for the purpose of promoting the performance that the different operations in various
countries and this is done so as to prioritize the different operations of the organization in
different regions.
Besides this there is also a need of knowing the various culture in various sections of
the world where the company is operating. This would be helping the organization in the
creation of new communication channels so as to accommodate with the different culture of
different countries not only by translating the language but also by other means. Besides this
there also exists different taste of the product and this varies from country to country one
such example is the difference in taste in between the can products and glass products. For
this the organization must be associated with showing a responsible and clear fact as many of
the customers think that there is no transparency in this type of issue (Laswai 2013). Besides
thins another thing that is to be done by the company so as to have an effective CRM is that
unlike the other companies it could also includes a written warning in the products. This
warning would be mainly regarding the danger and the effects that might occur due to the
usage of high calorie products. It is also essential to mention if it proper for the usage by all
age groups along with the health circumstances.
Conclusion:
Coca Cola has been associated with taking a lot of steps that are needed for winning
back of the customers trust and also for the retention of the exiting customers as well. The
organization had been associated with the creation of new fan pages in various social media
sited which has seen to become very popular amongst the customers. Besides this usage of

12STRATEGIC INFORMETION SYSTEM
the social media helps the customers in receiving updates regarding the different recent
actions taken by the organization. Besides this the organization is also associated with group
message in in different social networking sites so as to receive feedback from the customer
and provide them with solution online. Advertising in the social media sites by Coca Cola
helps a lot in gaining more customers along with gaining of all the details of the customer
from the social sites so as to provide them with some kind of appropriate personalized service
so as to have new customer along with retaining the existing customers.
The report helps in concluding to the fact the usage of the advance CRM strategy
would be associated with helping the organization, Coca Cola to achieve all the goals that
they are having without any loss in the market. Besides this it is also possible for them to
provide certain offers along with introduction of some online contest for the customers. In
which the customers would be capable of playing and winning exiting prizes. In addition to
all this the creation of the freestyle vending machine is also another technological innovation
where the customers are capable of making their own drinks by making use of different
combinations. Promotion in different top online social media can help in gaining the largest
number of fans. Besides this the CRM would also be associated with providing assistance in
the collection of data from the vending machine, mobile, Customer service, online network
and provide solution and give personalized service to the customer. Usage of the new
freestyle vending would be helping the organization Coca-Cola in winning back there
customer. The implementation of a proper CRM would be responsible for keeping the
organization Coca-Cola in the top of the list in the Beverage industry.

13STRATEGIC INFORMETION SYSTEM
References:
Baah, S. and Bohaker, L., 2015. The Coca-Cola Company. Culture, 16, p.17.
Bajwa, A.S., 2013. Importance of the ‘digital arena’in international business management.
Use of social media by Coca-Cola.
Hastings, G. and de Andrade, M., 2016. Stakeholder marketing and the subversion of public
health. Beyond Behaviour Change: Key Issues, Interdisciplinary Approaches and Future
Directions, p.181.
Kumar, V. and Reinartz, W., 2018. Future of CRM. In Customer Relationship
Management (pp. 385-404). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Kuo, A. and Rice, D.H., 2015. The impact of perceptual congruence on the effectiveness of
cause‐related marketing campaigns. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 25(1), pp.78-88.
Laswai, E.M., 2013. Assessment of the effectiveness of channels of distribution models in the
sales performance of an organization: the case of coca-cola Morogoro region (Doctoral
dissertation, Mzumbe University).
Liebowitz, J., 2016. Beyond knowledge management: What every leader should know.
Auerbach Publications.
Ling, X., 2017. Customer Relationship Management: Case study Coca-Cola Company.
Masterman, G., 2014. Strategic sports event management. Routledge.
Mikulewicz, M., Wołowiec, P., Loster, B.W. and Chojnacka, K., 2015. Do soft drinks affect
metal ions release from orthodontic appliances?. Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and
Biology, 31, pp.74-77.

14STRATEGIC INFORMETION SYSTEM
MULU, B., 2015. ASSESMENT OF SALES AND MARKETING INTGERATION PRACTICE;
IN THE CASE OF COCA-COLA ETHIOPIA (Doctoral dissertation, St. Mary's University).
Mutua, B., 2016. Effect of Experiential Marketing on Brand Perception A Case Study of
Coca Cola Kenya (Doctoral dissertation, United States International University-Africa).
Orser Jr, C.E., 2016. Historical archaeology. Routledge.
Pagani, M. and Pardo, C., 2017. The impact of digital technology on relationships in a
business network. Industrial Marketing Management, 67, pp.185-192.
Paniagua, J. and Sapena, J., 2014. Business performance and social media: Love or
hate?. Business horizons, 57(6), pp.719-728.
Pansari, A. and Kumar, V., 2017. Customer engagement: the construct, antecedents, and
consequences. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45(3), pp.294-311.
Rawal, P. and Upadhayay, S., 2017. CRM: Building Long Lasting Customer Relationships.
Sheth, J., 2017. Revitalizing relationship marketing. Journal of Services Marketing, 31(1),
pp.6-10.
Taylor, C.R., 2014. Corporate social responsibility and advertising: Does it extend to taking
stances on social issues?.