Information Systems of TESCO

The report includes an analysis of the company major types of information systems, including a more detailed assessment of its Transaction Processing system, Decision Support System Enterprise systema and supply chain management. The company Decision Support System (DSS) is based on the effective collection of information through its Transaction Processing Systems.

Management Information System (MIS)

We are living in a time of great change and working in an information age. Managers in the big company now have to deal with masses of data, convert that data into information, analysis the information and making decisions leading to the achievement of business objectives. For an organization, information is as important resource as money, machinery and manpower. It is essential for the survival of the enterprise.

Before computers are widespread used in the world, many organizations found difficulties in gathering, storing, organizing and distributing large amount of data and information. Development in Management Information System made possible for managers to select the information they required, in the form best suited for their needs and in time they want. This information must be current and in many cases is needed by many people at the same time. So it has to be accurate, concise, timely, complete, well presented and storable. Most companies in nowadays depend on IT. But personal computers (PCs) themselves will not improve organisational productivity: this only comes out about if they are used efficiently and effectively.

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This information system is the mechanism to ensure that information is available to the managers in the form they want it and when they need it. It is designed to support their work through providing relevant information for their decision-making. Computer system can clearly help organization in the processing of data into accurate, well-presented, up-to-date, and cost-effective information. However, weather that information is also concise, relevant, timely, and complete will largely depends on the capabilities of the people involved in its processing and selection.

Management Information System Stages:

1. Problem identification
2. Implementation
3. Search information
4. System need
5. System design
6. Documentation
7. Testing

Definition:

Information Systems is the application which designed to help, managerial needs, direct business and organizational operations. An information system needs to be knowledgeable of what information technology can give to an organization and how to get that solving solution of a particular condition. The effectiveness of an information system lies in the potential to apply the knowledge of information systems and technology collectively to help organizations strive more successfully in the marketplace.

Introduction

The organization I have selected is world famous retail giant TESCO. TESCO is a British based company working in general merchandising and retail business. Its profit exceeds three billion pound a year and it is the third largest retailer in the world.

TESCO is working in more than 12 countries of the world. TESCO is the leading Superstore Company in UK with more than 2000 stores in the UK. It specializes in many items including food, drinks, clothing, electronics, financial services, home appliances, health care, insurance, dental care, music and telecommunication services etc.

TESCO is world-class retailer company and everyday more than 11 million people visit TESCO stores. TESCO has got actually one of the most sophisticated retail supply chain in the world which makes it possible for all the guests to get whatever they need for the last 10 years. TESCO is also one of the most successful on-line grocery shopping services in the world which has more than 750000 active customers across the world

Nature of Information system:

Largest global grocery retailers TESCO, has successfully put into use Oracle and SAP Business Objects Polestar applications, because it is the retailer preferred enterprise system. For implementations of these enterprise system TESCO work out on feasibility, how they can make out best of these applications.

TESCO, Oracle Retail Warehouse Management System, Oracle Marketing platform, Oracle accounting Hub, Oracle HR, Oracle BI, and SAP Business Objects Polestar has provided TESCO with a solution that is now a basis for common processes and operations locally and internationally.

Functional uses of MIS

Sales and marketing:

Company previously were using Linux system for digital marketing purpose, since switching to Oracle Marketing platform TESCO business is closer to their customer than ever because of the digital marketing services which is in its providing supports intelligently targeting about the consumer buying habits.

For example:

Oracle generates personalized incentive and discount scheme to encourage customer loyalty. For these customers all they need to do is, register to receive Oracle promotion with the swipe of a credit or debit card which is located nation wide. Every time the customer of an Oracle subscriber makes a purchase the transaction data electronically transmitted to oracle’s database. This is how company are identifying and learning about their shopping patter and with the help of these discount and incentive scheme they can understand their customer future purchases.

Accounting:

Oracle accounting Hub helping TESCO to do day to day firm activates such as;

• Invoices
• Inventory control
• Customer detail
• Supplier details
• All sales and purchases Ledgers
• Products details

Oracle financial Accounting Hub provides an internal control structure to ensure successful audit and compliance reviews.

TESCO accounting structure is not also bound of Oracle accounting Hub, company can quickly accommodated with effective changing according to the organisation requirement which mean Oracle providing flexible accounting and finance system to the organisation.

Human resources Management (HCM) and finance:

TESCO encourages and provides opportunities to its employees to participate in higher educational programmes to get professional skills.

TESCO has introduced two courses for its employees, these are training programmes and the once the workers complete these trainings they qualify for higher posts.

These two programmes are

1. Pre-Optional Test

2. Optional Test

These training programmes enhance the retail and customer service skills of the workers. In order to achieve that Oracle HR software are providing workforce information to the Managers. Through the software a manager can know starting and finishing time of a particular job. Human resources system (HRM) also helping in TESCO to manager regarding recruitment and retention objectives.

Another example of effective Oracle HR system

Retailers are well versed in the reality of store theft. Losses aren’t just about simple shop-lifting, however. They’re also about fraud and poor information management. Containing such losses requires a disciplined approach, starting with smart point of sale (POS) systems and travelling all the way up the chain to human resources.

As an example, POS systems can be used to help cut back on fraudulent returns by allowing sales staff to quickly tap into customer, financial and inventory information to instantly show if a return is likely to be genuine or not. Sales staff should not be expected to distinguish between genuine and fraudulent returns without information, help and support.

TESCO currently a system that allows personnel and finance department remain up to date with changes in employees preferences for work and their personal contact details i.e. bank account information, and tax contributions. Each time one of the employees clocks in and out of work it is processed electronically enabling personnel department to work out their wages and any tax contribution they owe, these are worked out automatically.

Manufacturing and Production:

Business circumstances demand immediate attention. Oracle BI Applications provide TESCO proactive, event-based, and scheduled alerts that are delivered directly to users via email, handheld,

and other portable devices or to a personalized dashboard. Powerful, timely, and actionable information help prevent issues from becoming problems.

Production planning:

For example

When overtime levels at a production facility are in danger of exceeding budgeted levels, Oracle BI Analytics sends an alert to the plant manager and company controller. Armed with this information, they can quickly correct the deviation, preserve profit margins and examine alternatives to paying overtime such as hiring contractors or more full-time workers.

System from a constituency perspective:

Transactional processing system:

A Transaction Processing System also referred to as TPS is an information system used to collect, retrieve, store, and modify transactions within an organization. For a computer to be considered a transaction processing system it must pass the ACID test

• Atomicity
• Consistency
• Isolating
• Durability

Each transaction process is standardized to increase competence, TESCO require a custom made TPS which works with TESCO business strategy and processes. This is why there are 2 types of transactions.

Batch Processing:

Batch processing stores data for processing at pre-defined times. Batch processing is useful to an organization because it needs to process large amounts of data using limited resources.

Real Time Processing

Real time processing systems are in place to react to an event within a prearranged time. These types of operating systems are found within organization i.e. banks.

TESCO rely on their TPS because of the fact all there transaction made to there suppliers and customers and any middle parties involved are done by TPS also all the products have a bar code which the TPS uses to figure out how many products have been sold and needs ordering etc

Key features of TPS

• Rapid Response
• Reliability
• Inflexibility
• Control processing

Management information systems:

Management information system also referred to as MIS and management information services, this is a computer based system which provides TESCO managers with essential tools for managing, evaluating and efficiently running their departments this enables them to provide past, present and prediction information, an MIS can also include software that helps managers in decision making, Within organizations the department which is usually responsible for computer systems is called the MIS department however other names such as IS (Information Services) and IT (Information Technology).

For example TESCO can use this system to find out how many hours the employees have worked over a period of time, and get monthly reports of expenses compared to the costs. TESCO also use this system in Replenishment, Pricing Analysis i.e. Markdowns and Sales Management.

Decision support systems (DSS)

With the help of SAP Business Objects Polestar provided as part of SAP Business Objects Edge BI, TESCO guided data navigation application that helps TESCO to easily explore information and quickly answer important business question via simple search on daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. Moreover, it helps to analyze the salary trend on regular basis.

Furthermore, with the help of SAP TESCO is able to analyze recruitment success rate, applicant statistics and dropout reasons. Moreover, provide to TESCO accurate data from the HRMS application and provide the tools to make better, more strategic decisions.

Executive support systems (ESS)

A ESS (or DSS more in general) is a software system under control of one of many decision-makers that assists in their activity of decision making by providing and organised set of tools intended to impart structure to portions of the decision making situation and to improve the ultimate effectiveness of the decision outcome” for the executives.

Organizations should focus improving their ESS after it has been implemented to maximize its usage. The decisions the executive makes should be tracked with the use of cause & effect relationships. The system can produce graphs, statistics, and etc. to show the effect of the decision and depending on the time frame of when the decision was made; it’s very much possible to turn a negative, decisional outcome into a plus for the organization. Executives should consistently monitor the system for opportunities to improve their decision-making.

Improve Cash Flow and Increase Efficiencies

Streamlined credit decision; flexible invoice presentment; configurable collections strategies & activity prioritization; customer self-service account management; automated receipts & revenue processing

Balance Growth with Financial Stability and Control

Dynamic credit decision based on risk/revenue optimization rules; flexible role-based security, time, event, and rules-based revenue recognition

For minute to minute Oracle Credit-to-Cash Software solution enables TESCO mangers to drive working capital efficiency with integrated business processes that lower DSO, increase customer satisfaction, and maintain fiscal discipline. Credit-to-Cash is defined as the business process flow comprised;

• Cash flow
• Revenue recognition
• Working Capital
• Closing and opening Inventory etc

Interrelationship between the systems:

The various types of systems in TESCO exchange data with one another. Transactional Processing system (TPS) is a Main source of information data for different systems, particularly Management Information System (MIS) and Decision Support System (DSS). TPS works in TESCO as, operational level systems that compile transaction data.

Examples of these are payroll or order processing that leads the run of the daily happening transactions that are important to conduct business in TESCO. TPS make available data that are needed by office systems, KWS, MIS and DSS, regardless of the fact these systems may also avail other data in TESCO. KWS and office information systems not only conduct data from TPS but in addition from MIS. Decision Support System not only uses data from TPS but besides from Office systems, KWS and Management Information System. MIS depend upon heavily on data from Transaction process system but also avail data from Office systems and KWS. ESS gains most of their internal data from Decision support system and management Information system.

Enterprise applications

Enterprise Resource Planning systems form the ground units of building a complex information system of a company. The role of ERP systems within the wide portfolio of TESCO products is basically the same. Enterprise resource planning systems provide functionality for complex processing of all company internal economic agendas and allow for keeping up-to-date and true view of the company’s economical management. Based on a complex and up-to-date approach to managing the information flow in the company, present-day ERP systems are of modular, open and parameter-driven character to be easily customized according to the customer’s needs.
TESCO SW has wide experience in developing and implementing its own partial ERP system based on state-of-the-art technologies of Oracle. Prior to developing this solution, TESCO developed another, similar, system for keeping tally and processing of company internal economic data including assets management (the system was in the Turbo Pascal environment).

Supply chain management systems:

Oracle Retail Warehouse Management System provides TESCO to a standardization of supply chain pattern across the national and international business and is liable for a steep alteration in distribution centres productivity and potential. Oracle Retail Warehouse Management System is currently totally operational in Southeast Asia, and Europe and now in America.

TESCO first put into use Oracle Retail Warehouse Management System at its fresh ambient distribution centre in South Korea. With a requirement to supply more than to 1 million cases across 10,000 SKUs per week, the purpose were to strip out amount from the supply chain, make possible transport through large extent capabilities via one site, and maintain a “vanilla” to put into practically to get the basis for all further implementations nationally and internationally. A collection of strong base functionality and TESCO-specific growth by Oracle Retail has fixed up TESCO with an answer that is now a foundation for common processes as well as operations across the international distribution centres.

TESCO generated a set of centralized processes to convert, manage and join replenishment and distribution and take part with Oracle Retail to join these into the fresh warehouse management system. Where possible, TESCO tried to use a steady execution team to make easier to change management process.”

Customer relationship management systems:

Primarily, TESCO is using the customer relationship management system to chase customer interactions through Email and telephone from the contact centre, and to generate a knowledge base of the information on products such as, food, drinks, clothing, electronics, financial services and frequently asked questions.

TESCO Tech Support needs to widen the usage of the RightNow system to a web self service system for customers as well as for staff in TESCO stores.

TESCO will further investigate development of web chat so all the customers can connect with the contact centre staff while they are online.

Assessment of current used or MIS/Recommendation:

SAP and Oracle currently have been using in TESCO to identify their needs in administration area. Both the software’s are currently not fulfilling the required target because they need a system which they can implement worldwide because TESCO has 240,000 employees around the globe.

According to David Richardson, people insight director at TESCO, said in a statement. We looked at solutions from SAP and Oracle but felt that a combination of functionality and PeopleSoft’s culture matched our requirements best.

The browser-based system will replace the existing mainframe infrastructure and will help centralise TESCO HR admin.

Organizations who fail to upgrade their hardware in support of ESS face the possibility of experiencing slow response times especially when the system is conducting complicated and complex queries. Slow response times may be the result of the organizations unwillingness to spend money on new hardware

Furthermore, Oracle Business Intelligence solutions carry best in class technology for

• Reporting,
• Analysis,
• Packaging application system.
• Day to day Sales and purchases

Ground on an integrated, scalable, web-native architecture, Oracle’s unified and open BI foundation reduces cost of ownership, efficiently accesses information from heterogeneous sources, and provides an enterprise semantic layer with multiple channels of information delivery to support self-service, pervasive BI, and management excellence. Together with Oracle BI Applications – complete, pre-built BI solutions that help people understand how their business is performing – Oracle’s Business Intelligence Suite provides the most comprehensive, integrated solution available.

Conclusion

To Sum up, TESCO benefits from both the transaction processing systems and Management information systems. Using these automated systems helps TESCO to run efficiently by helping with stock replenishment and analyzing sales figures and help TESCO bringing in revenues Billions of Pounds.

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http://www.ameinfo.com/75391.html

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http://www.angelfire.com/rebellion2/jsmith/case_2.html

http://www.oracle.com/applications/financials/credit-to-cash.html

http://www.tescosw.eu/products/erp-systems/art_168/article.aspx

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