Means of communication
Within the organisation the company mainly communicate by using the companies intranet but not many means of communication are used to communicate to customers.
Internal
- E-mail
used to communicate with Head Office in Stoke-on Trent and other stores to distribute information on stock control and general store and staff information, such as the where about of lorries and when orders are due to arrive ect.
- Company Intranet
is used to keep information sent by e-mail personally to the selected branches. It is constantly updated to supply a brilliant resource. It is good because it is always on and is there if anyone from any other store needs help.
- Mobile Phone
Is used particularly between the supervisors and managers of stores to contact the Area Manager, for help and important information.
4) Diary
Notes are scribbled down in an ordinary diary. The messages are directed towards the three supervisors and the managers. This is their way of communicating with each other. I think that this is not very sufficient and notes could be recorded in a different way using ICT. Personal organisers could be used and information could be e-mailed. This would be expensive but would be more organised.
4) Notice board
Information concerning all staff is pinned upon a notice board in the staff room most of it is word processed on Microsoft Word but some of it is hand written. A timetable of workers weekly hours is displayed upon the notice board in a diagram, but this is hand written and would have to completely re-done if somebody changed their shift.
External
1) E-mail
Most of the Co-ops communication is to other people within the company but communication between the organisation and customer can happen by e-mail. E-mail is good because it is almost instant and is quite formal (not as formal as a letter) it can be printed off and is easy to read as it is word processed. An employee of the Co-op may want to get in touch with a customer to give them information about when they will receive their delivery.
2) Telephone
It is used quite a bit to communicate with the customers. It may not be as handy as sending an e-mail but not everyone has the internet. Where an e-mail is written confirmation a telephone call is more personal, but the customer would not have any paperwork.
3) Mobile Phone
The Late Shop that I studied in Chapel-en-le-Frith is difficult to access in bad weather conditions. The customers still want to see food on the shelves so the lorry drivers may sometimes have to phone or ‘text’ a member of the Co-op staff so they can prepare for the order arriving.
- Sales
ICT is used to evaluate and to record sales. The electronic till terminals or EPOS (electronic point of sale) in store record information after the product has been scanned. They record the price of the product; they deduct any money off the price if it is on sale or if it’s on by one get one free ect and information can be stored of how many of each product has been sold.
Scanning the products barcodes using infrared is easier than typing the product code manually because it allows the till operator to get more customers though the checkout. This method is better than typing in the product number in by hand because there is less chance that a mistake will be made.
Information is sent by e-mail to head office and information on how well products are selling is stored at head office. This allows managers and stock controllers to study how well, or how badly a product is selling so they can determine if it needs to go on sale or not, if they need more of a product or if they would like to give the shop similar or the same product. If one shop is not selling many of a product, the information in the database can be used to decide whether they need to send the stock to another store where in which it is more popular. E-mail is good because e-mails can be saved and re-read when the information is needed, it is almost instant too.
Customers can use credit cards to pay for their goods. The magnetic strip is scanned and read at the terminal and information from the card is read to get authorization from the bank to see if they can accept the payment. This is good for the customer because they don’t have to carry cash around and there is not a risk of it being stolen.
There is also a customer loyalty card. This adds credits to your own Co-op store account, each month when you have a certain amount of credits you receive vouchers for different products and services to spend at the Co-op. The Co-op used to be popular for having a stamp saving scheme, this method has become less popular because having your card swiped is easier and stamps don’t get lost.
Sales were disturbed in store when locally, another supermarket opened. The Co-op needed to find ways to help keep in business. They tried new ways of attracting customers like, introducing a bakery in store, with traditional cakes, pastries and bread; also the homemade sandwiches have increasingly become popular with the offices in the area. The store also tried making an, Indian, take away type deli. This was not very popular because there are many restaurants in the town. New customers, such as office workers at lunchtime, have been attracted to the stores new ideas; I would say that their new products have worked quite effectively. When the other supermarket opened, electrical goods at the Co-op became more popular.
The customers can also make orders for electrical goods over the Internet. The Co-op has a web site where items can be purchased using credit cards, this is done is done in a similar way as in the till terminals- the card number and other bank details are processed and the bank decide whether the action is valid. This information is sent to head office, or the manufacturer.
The Co-op also began to advertise more. At the Head Office, in Stoke–on Trent, they send, by e-mail information on the Late shop, in Chapel-en-le-Frith, about what goods are on offer to the printers. These leaflets then would be printed on to paper using a laser printer. These leaflets are then delivered by hand.
When the company receive details of people’s bank details, they can find out from where the customers live of what kind of products reach their needs and the price band in which they are willing to spend. From this, products can be chosen to display in a store, to suit the region the shop is in.
A swipe ‘billing machine’ is used so customers can pay for their bills such as telephone, gas and electricity bills while they do their shopping. The magnetic strip on the card is read and information of how much they need to pay or how much they have credited their card is processed and printed out on a receipt as in a similar way in which mobile phones are credited. All the cards are scanned using infra red and information is sent down the phone line to the company in which the customers receive gas or electric from. This is also good for the Co-op because it is introducing a different service to the customers. If a customer comes in store to pay their bills, it is very likely that they will buy something else while they are there.
b) Purchasing
ICT is used at the Co-op to order goods to sell and for the employees to use. Each of the Co-op branches communicate with head office, and head office contacts the suppliers of goods to order sufficient amounts of products to put in their warehouses so they can be distributed to the shops.
A HHT is used or a hand held terminal to record how much stock is needed to be ordered. The barcode of the product is scanned or the product number can manually be typed into the machine. The person using the terminal determines how much stock is ordered. The order from the HHT is sent by radio waves to the computer in the stores office and is then sent by e-mail to Head office. This helps the workers at the Co-op because it is quick. Writing down in a table what stock is needed would make it difficult for it to be read by others, and the paper could get lost.
The company intranet is always up-dated to provide a source of information about promotions that the store may be interested in and of the quality and popularity of a product.
The prices of goods are stored in a piece of software that is also connected up to the company intranet called STREAM. It is in a spreadsheet like Microsoft Excel, this is practical because it can be used in conjunction with GRADE which is also on the company intranet. GRADE allows you to put the product number of something, of STREAM, and to put the quantity you need in and to find out how much the retail price would be. This is good because you want to have products in store that are going to produce a good profit for you. In GRADE, invoices are listed by using supplier names and cost of prices to input information and to work out automatically the retail value of suppliers delivered to the store.
GLOBAL, keeps track of stock and reorders automatically any items that need replenishing, orders are then transmitted by telephone line to the warehouse and its then delivered to store. This is good because products that the shop have every week/day like milk, can be reordered without anyone in store having to worry about it.
d) Finance
Every companies aim is to be a success, this means to make money. It is important to keep bank details of employees and customers safe, and also the financial details of any customers that have bought anything through the Co-op. ICT is used to protect important data and to keep it well organised.
Wages are recorded on Electronic Form Ten which is like Microsoft Access but specializes in money. Queries have been produced to relate to the workers
- Clock card number
- Hours contracted
- Extra time
- Sick time
- Double pay
Having this information is a good source to have on Electronic form ten, similar to because the accountant at the wages office can easily pick out the people who get paid the most ect. When the Head offices accountants receive the details of hours worked by each individual, an instruction of how much money the employee has earned is sent to the employee’s bank account. These details are sent by electronic data interchange (EDI). The bank can then relocate money from the company bank account to each employees account via the computerised Banks automated clearing system (BACS). The employees also have to pay the government Income Tax and National insurance; the company deduct this money from the employee’s wage. Therefore, the employee receives their wage after tax has been deducted. Each employee will also receive a payslip containing how many hours they have worked, their hourly rate along with how much money has been deducted. It is also a good way of the manager of looking to see predominantly those of which do not always come to work. Electronic Form Ten ‘wages’ file is protected by the password for who in which only a few people hold the password to. It also is easy to be corrected; if somebody changed their shift, it can be easily be corrected.
It is very important that finance is recorded accurately as well as making sure that there is enough money to pay wages, bills and to make sure there is a profit to ensure that taxes can be paid to the government. The organisation also needs to also have evidence of what the money made has been used for (wages, bills)
c) Operations
A supermarkets main aim is to make money, but to do this there are certain core activities that a store has to do; else the business will not run smoothly. For example, the Co-op needs to purchase goods from the suppliers, distribute the products and sell them to the customers.
In order to purchase goods they have to predict how many they will sell, they do this by studying how many have been sold in previous weeks and sending the information by e-mail. The order is processed and sent to the shop by lorry. Some products that don’t sell very well need to be put on sale, this is important because otherwise the Co-op will not meet its targets to make money. There needs to be a correct balance and a system to unsure that the company runs smoothly.
Providing Information for the Organisation
It is important that the Head Office can observe how much money a shop is making so they can resolve any problems that a shop maybe having.
At the Late Shop, information is collected by two methods.
Throughout the day, information of sales is recorded by audit rolls on the tills and also on the computer in the office. At the end of the day the computer in the office gives information for that day of how much money has been taken on each individual and how much has been taken on each section eg. Electrical, grocery. This information is then collected and at the end of the week, all of the information is sent via e-mail to the Head office.
Report b
The Investigation
The company I investigated: Co-operative Group
Where I went: Co-op, Late Shop
Chapel-en-le-Frith
High Peak
Derbyshire
When I went: 17th February 2003
Who I interviewed: Mrs LM Spencer
Supervisor
Mr P Jepson
Manager
The Hardware or physical devices the Co-op need to carry out processes are;
Hardware needed to enter data to the computers system
The hardware which carries out the main processes in the computers system, it’s like the ‘brain’
The Hardware in which software can be used and read
Hardware that allows access to the data and that allows data to leave the computer system
The area of hardware that allows data to be transferred and to attach with other data
Input Devises
Many input devises are used around store and in the office.
Is used a lot to enter data and to give the computer commands. It is used to produce e-mails and other typed documents also.
A mouse is another important input device that most computers have. All mice have a system which determines how far and in which direction the mouse has travelled. This system sends a demand to instruct the location of the curser and to opt for an entity on the screen. In the Late shops office, a standard mouse is used with a ball mechanism underneath. When the ball rolls around, the ball affects the position of the curser on the screen. The mouse is connected with an electrical wire to the computer processor. The problems can be that if the mouse gets dirty, it can effect the use of the mouse and it can get difficult to use and it needs to be cleaned, the advantage is that they are cheap to buy.
Bar code reader uses light beams to read the data; the 12 bars on the back of a product. The bar code reader at the Co-op is connecting to the till. The series of black and white strips contain information of the product and its price. The computer connected to the scanner analyses the data and adds up the prices of the products. The advantage of bar code reader is that the till operator does not have to type in the product number manually, this would take more time and it would be easy to make mistakes.
This is like the bar code reader because it records, stores and uses the data that it processes. The magnetic strip on the back of a credit card is swiped and the data is read when it is swiped. At the Co-op this system is used to pay for goods and for the loyalty cards. This method is good because information the card holds, remains reasonably confidential.
This records information by scanning the information by using a similar method in which you do with the barcode scanner to read information on the product. Then, information on how many of the product is wanted by typing manually into the Hand held terminal. Then this information can be sent by radio waves and the information is stored in the office computer.
The stores burglar alarms use infra-red to help detect movement and the existence of any intruders. Similar devices on the automatic doors detect movement so they open when somebody is within distance. Temperature sensors are used to keep the refrigerators and freezers and a constant low temperature.
Processing
The Late Shop use a WAN (wide area network), to communicate with
Output devices
Output devices that are used include
The printer is used frequently. The laser printer is fast and effective, printing clearly and accurately. It is good as it prints both colour and black and white.
This is the output that is used mostly while the computer is on. At the Co-op, there is a monitor on the till computer system and on the HHT. So information going in can be seen to make sure that it is correct. If a monitor wasn’t used, jobs would take a lot longer as many mistakes would easily be made.
There is a photocopier in store for the use of the workers and for the workers so identical prints can be made for all members that require that information.
Communication devices
Here is the main communication devices used in the Co-op
E-mails are used a lot. To make stock orders and to receive information from Head office, but only information that is particular to that store.
Anything that may be useful to all the shops in the area is put on the company intranet so it can be accessed at anytime. The Late shop leave on their intranet all of the time so if anyone needs it, it is always there to be used. A WAN (wide area network) is the intranet that allows all the shops to communicate with each other and with Head office. The LAN (local area network) is used so the computer can communicate with the tills and the HHT. A local area network allows communication to take to place within a certain area whereas the WAN is has a bigger range.
Communication between the shop and the Area manager occurs in the means mainly of mobile phone because the Area manager is always on the move inspecting different stores but always needs to contact the stores. Mobile phones are very useful as more and more people own one so there is always some
Storage
The main way in which data is stored is the intranet. The company head office basically controls what is stored in each shops computer system. They clear weekly old information and update it with new and relevant information. Information will be cleared from the hard disk drive that operates inside the computer. The hard disk drive increases the time in which information is transferred. Information is also sometimes saved onto a floppy disk. This information is to do with the newspaper rounds. Floppy disks sometimes can only hold small files (1.44mb). The advantage is that because certain people cannot use the whole Co-op computer system because they are protected by a password, can use information from a floppy disk that is relevant. This is good in the case of the staff who do the paper rounds because there is not always many members of staff at the Co-op first thing in the morning as there is no reason for them to be there.
Software
Company software is stored on the company intranet for use
To produce letters and other important company documents
Is like a catalogue of products and is like a huge database of products. It also has invoices and confirmation in the form of invoices that the suppliers have received the order.
Software that keeps track of orders and stock. It automatically orders items which repeatedly need replenishing. This is connected to the company intranet and when an order has been made the order is instantly sent by e-mail.
Software invoices are listed by using the suppliers names and the cost input. This is used to but in the supplier’s price and to work out the retail price, plus it is a way of studying the profit of products.
I think that the Co-op I studied could organise the information systems a little better. For example, the system for the rota sheet that can be seen by everyone for that month is not very organised. It is a handwritten data sheet which indicates the length of the staff’s shifts, by using arrows. This has to redone every month from scratch unless the rota does not change. It would be a much better idea to do this on a program such as Microsoft Excel, this way, a record could be kept of the shifts people have done in previous months and it would be neater, easier to update and to read, plus it would be more easier to display to people such as the Area Manager. The Co-op is way off having a paperless office; there are files and files of paperwork and notes hanging around. At the Late Shop I went to, this system was effective to the people that use it everyday, but to someone that would come into the office, it may be difficult for them to get to grips with and to organise. To make things much more organised, I think ICT could be used more effectively.
Adapted- Folens GCSE Applied GCSE Text Book
