Strategic Information Systems: Company Analysis and Strategy Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of a company's strategic information systems. It begins with an overview of the company's structure, products, and services. The report then delves into the company's operations and functionality, including current processes, challenges, and gaps, particularly focusing on the limitations of its existing ERP system. The analysis identifies issues that a new cloud-based ERP system could resolve, such as improving supply chain management, enhancing customer relationship management, and addressing competitive pressures. The report outlines the criteria for proving the effectiveness of the proposed system. It then explores the constituents of an information system strategy and explains its importance within the organization, while also examining the difficulties in developing such a strategy. The report concludes by discussing potential failures of information systems, including user training, customization challenges, and change management issues. The report uses literature review to support the analysis and suggests remedies for the identified problems, offering valuable insights into the strategic use of information systems for business improvement.

Running head: STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
Strategic Information Systems
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
Table of Contents
1. Discussion about company’s structure, products as well as services.........................................2
2. Operations and functionality........................................................................................................4
2.1 Current processes...................................................................................................................4
2.2 Challenges and Gaps..............................................................................................................4
2.3 Issues which will be fixed by the new system.......................................................................5
2.4 Criteria which is utilized for proving that the proposed system is helpful in meeting
requirements................................................................................................................................5
3. Information system strategy constituents and description about the requirement of the strategy
within the organization....................................................................................................................6
4. Reasons of experiencing difficulty while developing information system strategy....................7
5. Failures of information System..................................................................................................9
a. Typical problems that may arise in the projects of information system..................................9
b. Illustration of the answer with the help of literature review..................................................10
c. Suggestion of the remedies or problems which x4is identified.............................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12

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1. Discussion about company’s structure, products as well as services
Structure of the company
It is opined by Arumugam (2016) that organizational structure is generally defined as a
system that assists a company for assigning hierarchy which further helps in defining various
roles as well as responsibilities. In addition to this, it is identified that organizational structure is
a plan which outlines the responsibilities of the people and generally records as well as shares
them as an organizational chart. The below figure reflects the organizational structure of the
company “Billabong”.
Figure 1: Organizational Structure
(Source: Billabongbiz.com 2017, pp.1)

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Products and services
The company “Billabong” which is one of the clothing retailers of Australia utilizes
number of strategies which are quite helpful in meeting various requirements as well as needs of
the clients at a very much reasonable price (Billabongbiz.com 2017). Billabong provides
different types of product categories that mainly include watches, sunglasses, apparel; board
shorts hardware, surfboards, skateboards as well as wetsuits.
The services which are generally provided by the company are illustrated below:
Home delivery services: Billabong generally helps in providing proper home delivery
services to the consumers so that they can easily shop online by saving time (Turban et al. 2015).
In addition to this, home delivery services of the company are helpful in providing excellent
experience value to the customers.
Catering requirements: The requirements as well as needs of the customers must be
catered appropriately by giving them the opportunity to view products as well as services of the
company as per their paying capacity.
Online services: The Company “Billabong” helps in providing online services to the
various customers so that they can shop different types of items online without wasting much
time (Feigin 2016).

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2. Operations and functionality
2.1 Current processes
Billabong which is one the clothing retailers of Australia generally uses ERP system in
order to manage various operations of the business. It is found that with appropriate utilization of
ERP system, the company stores information as well as data which further helps the company in
making proper decision regarding the organizational progress (Kilic, Zaim and Delen 2014). It
is identified that ERP system is one of the tools that generally assist in processing as well as
organizing various types of information as well as data in order to improve the development of
different commercial activities in both long term and short term. In addition to this, the ERP
system is quite helpful in providing the opportunity of integrating procedures of business so that
appropriate quality of organizational performance must be maintained within the company.
2.2 Challenges and Gaps
The company “Billabong” manages its various operations as well as functions with the
help of the ERP system. It is identified that in spite of the number of advantages of ERP system,
there are number of challenges as well as gaps that ERP system creates (Nwankpa and Roumani
2014). The most significant problem that Billabong is facing due to the utilization of ERP
system is that the company is not able to meet the requirements as well as needs of the customers
due to improper categorization of customers preferences.. Moreover, the company faces number
of other problems including competition, improper management of supply chain as well as
inventory system (Shen, Chen and Wang 2016). All this problems needs to be resolved
appropriately.

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2.3 Issues which will be fixed by the new system
It is quite important to resolve the challenges as well as issues that the company is facing
and therefore the higher authority of the company decided to develop cloud based ERP system.
The issues or problem that will be fixed due to the utilization of cloud based ERP systems are as
follows:
Improper supply chain management: According to Tenhiala and Helkio (2015), the
issues that are associated with the supply chain as well as inventory of the organization can be
resolved properly by developing cloud based ERP system within the organization
Unable to meet the requirements of the customer: The Company is not able to track
the preferences of the customers properly and as a result they are unable to meet their
requirements (Kilic, Zaim and Delen 2014). However with the development of cloud based
ERP, the company is able to track the preferences as well as needs of the customers properly
which helps in resolving the issues that is related with the needs of the requirement.
Huge competition: According to Efe (2016), with the development of cloud based ERP,
the company “Billabong” can easily compete with other retailers of the market as due to the use
of cloud the company can easily manage its operations as well as functions without facing much
problem.
2.4 Criteria which is utilized for proving that the proposed system is helpful in meeting
requirements
The criterion that helps in proving that the developed cloud based ERP system is quite
helpful in meeting various needs as well as requirements of the company are provided below:

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Inventory management: The use of cloud based ERP assists in managing the functions
and operations of the company’s inventory system which further helps in delivering the products
as well as services properly to the customers.
Demand foresting: It is opined by Efe (2016), the cloud based ERP system is able to
track the needs as well as demands of the customers by categorizing their preferences. Thus, it is
analyzed that the developed cloud based ERP system is helpful in meeting the customers
demand.
Customer management: It is stated by Tenhiala and Helkio (2015) that use of cloud
based ERP helps in capturing the activities as well as preferences of the customers properly for
attracting the customers. Proper customer service not only enhances the number of customers but
also helps in increasing the sales of the company.
3. Information system strategy constituents and description about the
requirement of the strategy within the organization
The various constituents of information strategy are:
 It mainly includes various types of information as well as data which are generally
required at strategic, tactical as well as operational levels of the organization for
meeting various goals as well as objectives (Grinblatt and Titman 2016).
 Various sources of information are generally utilized by the information strategy so
that appropriate business opportunities must be developed.

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 It generally comprises of various types of interconnections which are mainly present
in different types of activities of the organization for providing, processing as well as
obtaining significant data (Mendelberg 2017).
The information system strategy is utilized as the aprt of entire organizational strategy due to
the reasons which are illustrated below:
Creating problems in the entrance of the competitors: It is identified proper use of
information system within the organization helps in providing unique services as well as
products which further assists the company to gain proper competitive advantage (Grinblatt
and Titman 2016).
Reducing cost of product: Internal cost of the companies can be reduced due to the use
of information system. It is analyzed that the use of information system helps in allowing the
company to deliver proper services as well as products at very much cheaper costs.
Database creation for improving marketing: According to Peppard and Ward (2016),
the utilization of information system helps the organization in improving the business related
strategies in context to sales and marketing which further assists in improving the brand value of
the company within the competitive market.
4. Reasons of experiencing difficulty while developing information system
strategy
The issues as well as challenges that the company mainly faces in developing proper
strategy for the information system are illustrated below:

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Time related issues: If time analysis for the implementation of information system
strategy is not done properly then it is considered as one of the significant obstacle which
obstructs the development of information system strategies. It is opined by Mendelberg (2017)
that improper time extension can create delay in the information system strategy development..
Technical problems: It is stated by Grant (2016) that various types of technical issues
occur within the software as well as hardware of the system which needs to be resolved properly.
In addition to this, barriers or a problem which are generally related with telecommunication also
creates difficulties in implementing the strategies of information system properly.
Human challenges: The problems that occur due to the development of information
strategy include improper process of recruitment, improper facility of employment as well as
improper management of resources.
Issues related with management: The management of the company faces number of
challenges in aligning the newly developed information system strategies with the organizational
business. It is very much important to measure the IS gap before identifying the company’s
current position (Grinblatt and Titman 2016). Additionally, the other challenges that the
company faces includes improper support, presence of inappropriate channel of communication
as well as improper strategies.
The issues as well as challenges of the company in developing proper information
strategy can be mitigated after following the steps that are provided below:
Executive management team support: Appropriate support from the management of
the company is needed so that the development of information strategy would be helpful in
meeting the objectives as well as goals of the company.

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Appropriate information: Proper flow of information is quite important in order to
make the project successful and with the help of proper information the team members of the
project will engage themselves in the development of information strategy (Peppard and Ward
2016).
Proper relationship between top management and staff: Proper relationship is needed
with various staffs of the organization so that both the top management as well as staff can
discuss well on the project for developing it successfully (Grinblatt and Titman 2016).
Participation of the employees: It is quite important for the management of the
company that they must ask the team members to participate within the project so that the
development of information strategy will become successful.
5. Failures of information System
a. Typical problems that may arise in the projects of information system
The various types of problem which may occur in the project of information system are
elaborated below:
User boarding as well as training: The Company has to provide proper training facility
to the workers as the newly developed system is cloud based and only with the help of training,
the workers are able to work properly (Sudhendra, Ranganath and Nandan 2016). Providing
proper facility of training needs huge amount of money and making arrangement of such an
amount is one of the significant challenge before the company.
Customization: The Company faces difficulty in moving to the new deployment due to
the development of Cloud ERP system. It is identified that appropriate change within the

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procedure of the business generally needed to be properly fit within the corset of standard
software that is considered as one of the most important challenges.
Change management: In order to implement cloud based ERP, it is quite important for
the company to invest huge amount of money in development which is found to be one of the
biggest challenge before Billabong (Beaulieu et al. 2014).
b. Illustration of the answer with the help of literature review
It is stated by Navaneethakrishnan (2013) that cloud ERP is one of the approach to
enterprise resource planning that helps in making the utilization of cloud computing platform as
well as services for providing flexible transformation of cloud services. However, the company
that uses cloud based ERP faces huge difficulty in managing the issues which are associated with
cloud. It is opined by Duan, Fesak and Stuart (2013) that any other connection related issue as
well as network failures are generally reflected within the performance of cloud based ERP. In
addition to this, it is quite important for the company to move its different activities to the ERP
provider and the outcome of moving activities are generally considered as one the important IT
competencies of the organization.
c. Suggestion of the remedies or problems which x4is identified
The challenges of the company can be easily mitigated by adopting proper strategies that
are elaborated below:
Proper training: The Company must spent proper amount of budget on training so that
the employees can be able to work properly with the newly developed cloud based ERP system
(Beaulieu et al. 2014). It is identified that appropriate amount of budget investment on training

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as well as boarding helps in ensuring the proper facility of training is preserved within the
company.
Proper customization: The procedure of customization must be done appropriately with
the help of architectural model (Nguyen, Nguyen and Misra 2014). Appropriate procedure
generally includes proper customization which further helps in listing the suppliers who
generally responds to each of the functional requirements of the company.