ICT Report 2b: ICT in Organisations

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ICT Coursework                Haaziq Farook      11o

ICT Report 2b: ICT in Organisations

The following report is on how a particular company employs ICT in their everyday running.  The company that I am going to review is named Boots Plc. I will examine how Boots uses ICT in the four main functional areas of the company: sales, purchasing, finance and operations (logistics) and how ICT helps the business. I will be looking in detail at how ICT is used by Boots Retail to manage the operation of its stores in the UK. I have visited the Boots branch in Kilburn (on Kilburn High Road), and also gathered information from the web.

Boots has been established since 1849 when founder Mary Boot, selling herbal remedies to the cities, opened the first Boots store in Nottingham. In 1892 boots first “department” store opened, with an extensive new merchandise range, at Pelham St, Nottingham. Now with over 63000 employees and 1400 stores, Boots Plc is the UK’s leading provider of health and beauty products. As well as retailing, Boots Plc develops and manufactures products and markets many worldwide. On top of their range of health and beauty products, Boots Plc are now becoming a provider of complementary services and advice, offering customers a comprehensive mans of meeting their health and beauty needs.

Boots Plc is a retailing business, which consists of - Boots the Chemists, Boots Opticians, Boots Dental care, Boots Hearing care and Boots’ Health and Beauty Experience Stores. Boots Retail International operates as the international extension of Boots Plc UK. Boots Healthcare International continues to grow Boots’ share of the global self-mediation markets. Service management is fused into a central service organisation. Obviously, Halfords stands apart from this structure, and from Boots’ focus on health and beauty. Boots operates in the tertiary sector because they provide services.

Boots Plc is now focusing mainly on products, advice and services, which enhance personal ‘wellbeing’. That has allowed Boots Plc to take the complexity out of the business – simplifying management structure, types of store and types of offer. It has differentiated Boots Plc to from competitors such as Superdrug and Tesco. It has also helped Boots Plc to develop original, new products and services.

Boots Plc has many competitors in several different fields. Boots the Chemists’ (BTC) main competitors are Superdrug and Tesco. Its exemplar competitors are Wal Mart and The GAP. Boots opticians’ (BOL) competitors include other large multiple optical retail chains: Vision Express, Dolland & Aitchison, Specsavers and Optical Express.

Boots have developed a new strategy over the last 2 years with the introduction of new health and beauty services such as density, chiropody, homeopathy and new bars. Boots have brought in external candidates to operate management posts. This has lead to forward thinking from the outside. Boots opened 47 HearingCare centres, located within Boots Opticians. Boots opened a further 19 footcare practices during 2001/2.

The aims of Boots Plc are not just to take a bigger share of the mass market, but expand the whole ‘well-being’ market through more confident and ambitious invest. Last year Boots faced two urgent challenges: to stem out their growing losses, which had reached unacceptable levels, and to develop a feasible new business model. They’ve made good progress towards both objectives – cutting their operating loss and successfully training a new model that will enable them to grow internationally at a faster pace with much lower risk. They have quoted; “Boots aims to be the place for health and beauty customers. We want to secure market leadership in the UK and build on our brands' growing success internationally.”

In today’s society, technology is indispensable to Boots Plc – without it, Boots would not be as successful at all. They would not be able to conduct nearly as efficient Market Research, their stock control and sales would be nearly impossible to carry out without employing double the number of workers usually needed thus drastically increasing costs. In their sales department, they need EPOS systems to instantly catalogue the number of products on shelves as they’re being sold; in marketing, they need computers with high-speed internet connections and an office software package to carry out primary/secondary research. To promote new products and offers, Boots must advertise through a variety of media, one being television, meaning video-editing software must be used such as Adobe Premiere. Boots also have a website, which requires image-manipulating software such as Adobe Photoshop and HTML-code rendering web design software such as Macromedia Dreamweaver for it to be made and maintained. Boots essentially uses technology to aid them in their daily running of the business, using different aspects for internal communication between departments, external communications with customers and managerial offices.

I will proceed to discuss how Boots Plc employ ICT in their Sales department.

The sales department is responsible for selling and marketing the goods or services that a company produces (in this case, Boots doesn’t produce all the products it sells, though they do have own-brand products).

The sales role is very important. Without adequate sales, a company will not make a profit and could go out of business.

The sales department is responsible for:

  • Obtaining the best price for the product (and so maximising profit)
  • Justifying their products over those of any competitors
  • Discover what competitors are doing, so that the business can avoid losing sales
  • Customer care and satisfaction. Sales people represent the company in the public domain. They are responsible for ensuring that the company maintains a good reputation for service and quality.

What might happen without good internal communication?

For instance;

  • The Sales department takes an order from a customer.
  • The Operations department receives the order from Sales and prepares to start making the product.
  • The customer cancels the order an hour later.
  • Sales department do not inform the Operations department of the cancelled order and a batch of the product is made.
  • The company loses money, because they cannot sell the product to anyone else, so it has to be scrapped.

This shows that internal communications are very important to the proper running of an organisation. Many organisations use ICT to make internal communications more efficient and effective.

So what ICT might they use?

An integrated sales/ordering and production system can be used to track the production and sales of goods. This type of system is often referred to as Electronic Data Interchange or EDI. Short for Electronic Data Interchange, it is the transfer of data between different companies using networks, such as the Internet. As more and more companies get connected to the Internet, EDI is becoming increasingly important as easy means for companies to buy, sell, and trade information. This may use computers with large storage capacity, because they will have to store large databases as part of the system.

For example, the previous example again, except with EDI implemented.

  • The Sales department operations department takes an order from a customer.
  • The Operations department receives the order via computer from Sales and prepares to start making the product.
  • The system can order the raw materials for the product from suppliers.
  • The customer cancels the order an hour later.
  • Sales cancel the order on the computer system. The system automatically sends the cancellation to Operations and the production run is stopped, before any product has been made.
  • The system cancels the raw materials order.
  • No product is wasted, so very little money is lost.

 

As mentioned, I have researched and found out the technologies used in a typical Boots Plc branch (Kilburn). The following sections will stipulate the input devices used in the Sales department, accompanied by the processors, output devices, ports/cables, storage devices, and software applications.

Input Devices

An input device: devices that are used for entering data into a machine, typically a computer.

Keyboard

Earlier computer keyboards had been based either on teletype machines or keypunches. There were many electromechanical steps in transmitting data between the keyboard and the computer that slowed things down. With VDT technology and electric keyboards, the keyboard's keys could now send electronic impulses directly to the computer  and save time. By the late 1970s and early ‘80s, all computers used electronic keyboards and VDTs. Nevertheless, the layout of the computer keyboard still owes its origin to the inventor of the first typewriter, Christopher Latham Sholes who also invented the QWERTY layout. However, the computer keyboard does have a few extra function keys.

Boots use conventional keyboard with the QWERTY layout. This layout is what most workers are familiar with. They have workstations for different tasks (at the particular branch, they had a pharmacy, and the chemist uses a computer to check stock behind the counter), all of which use QWERTY layout keyboards. Almost all these workstations are just used for a searching, so the keyboards are ideal for navigating around and refining searches (for products, etc.). In some cases, in the cases of the manager’s offices, the keyboard is used for a variety of jobs, such as emailing, creating reports, and also to maintain the networks (VAN – Value- Added Network for EDI; WAN – Wide Area Network).

In terms of the business as whole (not restricted to the individual branches), the QWERTY keyboard is used when conducting market research (on the internet), and to design and maintain the company website (to input coding i.e. HTML, Javascript, PHP).

I found that aside from one or two of the employees at the branch I visited, none knew any other keyboard layouts save the QWERTY layout. Some knew of the Concept keyboards, which are implemented usually in fast-food chains such as McDonalds, where each key is programmed to a specific product (i.e. burger) and so sends the preset price and item name to the computer’s CPU, where it is then processed and sent through the EPOS network to record the sale.

Some of the uses of the QWERTY Keyboard such as when writing emails and long reports could sometimes be tiring and strenuous, but the help from its facilities it makes it much easier and relaxing for the staff. The QWERTY keyboard does not have to sit on a desk or keyboard tray as it was designed to be used while positioned on the lap, allowing the person using it to be comfortable. Wireless keyboards are on the rise in the current market for keyboards; and I think this would prove to be an invaluable tool for managers writing reports and having to place the computer away from the desk to make more space. The wireless keyboard works by sending radio waves to a receiver connected to the workstation via PS/2 port or USB. The range of function is usually 2 metres.

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In addition, the QWERTY keyboard is the only keyboard layout that is available in various ergonomically-styled arrangements, that prevents the development of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Cumulative Trauma Disorders, Repetitive Motion Syndrome, Repetitive Strain Disorders and Repetitive Stress Injuries.

However, there some disadvantages to the QWERTY Keyboard. It might take a long time for a person to adapt to the keyboard and their rate at which they can type might vary as well. Some might find it easier and faster to type, others not so likely. Another problem is, since Boots Plc has branches worldwide, different countries require different keyboard layouts. ...

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