Zara Case Study Response: Analyzing Information Systems and Strategy

This case response analyzes Zara, a prominent Spanish apparel retailer, focusing on its information systems (IS) and their impact on business operations. The analysis highlights Zara's strengths, including product development and manufacturing expertise, while identifying weaknesses such as outdated POS terminals and the use of the DOS operating system. The response explores the role of IS in supporting Zara's strategies, emphasizing communication, data analysis, and decision-making. It suggests improvements to enhance competitiveness, including upgrading POS terminals and adopting a modern operating system. Key considerations for designing a new IS are discussed, emphasizing decision-making processes and updated operating systems. The case identifies the failure to upgrade POS terminals as a major challenge and recommends a decision support system to address this issue. Ultimately, the response advocates for modernizing Zara's IS to avoid operational failures and enhance its competitive edge.

Running head: CASE RESPONSE
Case Response: Zara
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

1
CASE RESPONSE
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Key Strengths and Competencies of Zara...................................................................................2
3. Role of Information System in supporting Operations, Strategies and Processes of Zara..........3
4. Identification of the Current Issues or Weaknesses in Zara........................................................4
5. Process of Improvement of the Information System for its Competitiveness for Zara...............4
6. Key Areas to be considered while designing a New Information System for Zara....................5
7. Approaching the Design of Similar New System for Zara..........................................................5
8. One Major Challenge faced by Zara............................................................................................5
9. Summary......................................................................................................................................5
10. References..................................................................................................................................7

2
CASE RESPONSE
1. Introduction
Zara is one of the most significant and popular apparel retailer of Spain. They have been
using upgraded and efficient technologies in their business for being sure that maximum
effectiveness as well as efficiency is being gained in the company. However recently, they have
been getting issues related to the POS terminals. According to the technical lead for the POS
system, Sanchez it was needed to upgrade the POS terminals (Mcafee, Dessain and Sjoman
2004). However, the IT Head of Inditex was not ready to allow such up gradation. The main
reason is that DOS was not being supported for several years and they were using DOS as the
operating system. Due to lack of up gradation of the POS terminals, they were unable to open
new stores of Zara as they did not have POS software, which works with the respective
hardware.
Sanchez thinks that it would be extremely effective and advantageous for Zara if they
upgrade the terminals and fix the issues properly. The respective issues were needed to be
resolved for ensuring that the services are uninterrupted. Several distinct information systems
were being used in Zara at La Coruna for supporting the regular operations. They have always
tried to maintain a balance between organizational demand and supply with these information
systems and terminals. Another issue that was being faced in Zara was that since the POS
terminals in every store was unchanged and ungraded for more than a decade, there was lack of
information for the PDAs and POS terminals. The PDAs also utilized the modem of the
terminals for receiving the respective offer as well as transmitting the order. As a result, the
systems should be upgraded for better and error free operations and processes.
2. Key Strengths and Competencies of Zara

3
CASE RESPONSE
The key strengths and competencies of the organization of Zara are provided in the
following paragraphs:
i) Product Development: They have always focused on the quality of their products and
hence high popularity is gained (Chan 2008).
ii) Manufacturing Expertise: There had been a major expertise in manufacturing of their
respective products and services. As a result, the products are excellent, as compared to the other
companies.
iii) Marketing Imagination: Although Zara does not spend much on marketing or
advertising, they have kept imagination on marketing and have ensured annual advertising.
iv) Executive Leadership: The leadership is yet another significant and distinct strength
and competency of Zara (Prahalad and Hamel 2006). As a result, they have gained maximum
popularity without much issue or complexity.
3. Role of Information System in supporting Operations, Strategies and Processes of Zara
Information system is responsible for playing a major role for supporting the procedures,
strategies and operations of Zara. They are able to gain competitive advantages with this system
and support the following key aspects:
i) Proper Communication.
ii) Record Keeping of Data.
iii) Decision Making Process.
iv) Data Analysis.

4
CASE RESPONSE
v) Increment in Production.
These above mentioned key aspects have ensured that Zara is able to use information
systems in their business for incrementing business sales as well (Laudon and Laudon 2015).
4. Identification of the Current Issues or Weaknesses in Zara
The current issues or weaknesses of Zara are provided in the following paragraphs:
i) They have not upgraded their POS terminals and personal digital assistants for several
years and as a result, they are unable to get maximum advantages or benefits. Moreover, the
information might also be lost for this purpose (Stair and Reynolds 2015).
ii) The current operating system, DOS is outdated for them and as a result, they are not
being able to update their systems.
5. Process of Improvement of the Information System for its Competitiveness for Zara
The existing information system of Zara should be improved for ensuring that high
competitiveness is gained without much complexity or issue (Porter and Millar 1985). It would
be providing them with subsequent competitive advantages and encompass the information,
which business requires for increasing convergent and linked technologies. As a result, the
industry structures would be changes and competition rules would be altered. It is required to
develop a technology usage agreement for the employees of Zara and ensure that it includes all
types of compliance issues like data confidentiality. A comprehensive technology plan is also
needed to be created for successfully addressing the systematic replacement of the system and
evaluate different emerging technologies (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta 2019). ISP

5
CASE RESPONSE
redundancy is also needed to be considered for repeated downtime and reduction of the
application hang-ups.
6. Key Areas to be considered while designing a New Information System for Zara
A new information system is needed to be designed for Zara. The major areas that are
needed to be considered for this particular new information system are provided below:
i) Proper decision making process should be taken into consideration for proper execution
of the business procedures or operations (Paré et al. 2015).
ii) The information system should comprises of an updated operating system, so that it is
being used for all types of operations related to information sharing (Porter and Millar 1985).
7. Approaching the Design of Similar New System for Zara
The design of similar new system should be approached to the management of Zara, so
that all the existing issues and complexities to management of information and up gradation of
point of sale systems are eradicated on top priority (Dwivedi et al. 2015). The new information
system can be decision support system, which would be supporting their business operations and
processes and hence improve the business quality.
8. One Major Challenge faced by Zara
The most significant challenge that is being faced by the organization of Zara is that they
have not upgraded the POS terminal in their business due to the ineffective DOS operating
system used by them. As a result, it is needed to upgrade the existing information system of the
company.
9. Summary

6
CASE RESPONSE
Therefore, from the above discussion, a conclusion can be drawn that implementation of
decision making system as the new information system would be extremely effective and
significant for the organization of Zara to ensure that all distinct types of issues or complexities
are avoided successfully. The POS terminals are needed to be upgraded in Zara and as a result,
information loss and operation failure would be permanently avoided in the business. Moreover,
since DOS is outdated operating system, using other operating system like Windows or Linux
would be advantageous for the organization of Zara.

7
CASE RESPONSE
10. References
Chan, Y.E., 2008. Why haven't we mastered alignment? The importance of the informal
organization structure. MIS Quarterly executive, 1(2), p.2.
Dwivedi, Y.K., Wastell, D., Laumer, S., Henriksen, H.Z., Myers, M.D., Bunker, D., Elbanna, A.,
Ravishankar, M.N. and Srivastava, S.C., 2015. Research on information systems failures and
successes: Status update and future directions. Information Systems Frontiers, 17(1), pp.143-157.
Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2015. Management information systems (p. 143). Upper Saddle
River: Pearson.
Mcafee, A., Dessain, V. and Sjoman. A., 2004. Zara: IT for Fast Fashion. Harvard Business
School.
Paré, G., Trudel, M.C., Jaana, M. and Kitsiou, S., 2015. Synthesizing information systems
knowledge: A typology of literature reviews. Information & Management, 52(2), pp.183-199.
Pearlson, K.E., Saunders, C.S. and Galletta, D.F., 2019. Managing and using information
systems: A strategic approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Porter, M.E. and Millar, V.E., 1985. How information gives you competitive advantage.
Prahalad, C.K. and Hamel, G., 2006. The core competence of the corporation. In Strategische
unternehmungsplanung—strategische unternehmungsführung (pp. 275-292). Springer, Berlin,
Heidelberg.
Stair, R. and Reynolds, G., 2015. Principles of information systems. Cengage Learning.