Business Process Improvement - Essay Example

Competitive Strategy Name Institution Date Competition is an influencing factor in the market. A large count of producers competes to meet the expectations of their large number of clients. Consumers can reject a product or a service if the producer does not respond to their need. The manufacturer must apply all possible strategies regarding marketing and service quality to satisfy the client’s need to keep them. For a producer to succeed in the market, there cannot be information failure hindering the decision of the customers. This paper looks into the use of information system research theory as a competitive strategy. Information system research is an international journal dealing with research, theory, and generation of information systems in organizations, institutions and the industrial society. It is created to further knowledge and understanding in the use of information technologies to organization and management in improving the economy and social welfare. The system serves to provide an efficient, timely spread of information on research and addresses relevant issues that affect management practices (Stone, B., Jacobs, R., & Greco, J. A., 2011). Information technology is highly endorsed in the current market. Digital technology creates new opportunities for market expansion, growth, and improved general performance. The management information database is programmed and organized in a way that it produces reports on day-to-day organization’s operations for various management levels in a company. It makes it possible to obtain reports from the database and gives managers a summary of the business’s performance. It also helps the top managerial staffs to monitor the operations and performance of the enterprise. The system is used to measure progress against the set goals and objectives. Data is keyed in or received from the company’s functional units. Some of the data is obtained from the computer-linked counters. For the advanced system, display of the company’s general performance is possible (James E, 2014). Michael Porter, in his book Competitive Strategy, he identified several factors that drive competition in the market. Some of the factors exist while others emerge on a daily basis. The actual competition between the suppliers plays a role in the market operations. The existing providers face competition from the new entrants in the market. The market competitors fight for to bargain for the power of buyers. Every producer works to secure clients. They face a threat the of substitute products example technology change that can outdo them in the market. In his work, he suggested competitive strategies equip the market competitors to gain the competitive advantage. Low cost and differentiation are the two basic competitive strategies a company can possess. The basic competitive advantages linked with the scope of activities a firm works to achieve, result to three strategies to achieve a high performance of a company: cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. Cost focus and differentiation focus are two variants of the focus strategy. In cost leadership strategy, a company focuses on being the low-cost producer (Michael E, 2014). The structure of the enterprise determines the source of the cost advantage. Low-cost producer exploits all available sources of cost advantage. If the company achieves cost leadership, it becomes an above average performer in the market. In the differentiation strategy, a firm operates to achieve uniqueness in the market in dimensions that are valued by the clients. It identifies several aspects that buyers perceives as necessary and positions itself to satisfy those needs. The firm is rewarded for the uniqueness of the service or product with a higher price of the product (Ibrahim Bakr, 2015). The focus strategy narrows the ambitious scope. The strategists choose a group in the industry and serve them excluding others. The focus strategy concentrates on differences between its target and other target segments in the market. Digital technology is creating new opportunities for development and highly improved performance. In the modern world, many businesses are the digital business. The use of social media and websites to market products and services is highly endorsed as a marketing tool to reach a high number of target consumers. Twitter is widely relied upon as a marketing platform as it reports news and events as the happen. By using Twitter, advertising becomes accessible, and a high number of people get to see the adverts. Facebook, with the scores of users across the world, it becomes the most powerful network of marketing products (John Willey & Sons, 2014). With the advanced technology, it is easy to monitor the supply of goods and services by use of location-aware technologies to track commodities from the production to delivery, reducing time wastage and inefficiency in supply chains and business production. The use of smartphones, other touch devices, and their apps have redefined how organizations interact with their clients and customer have the opportunity to give their opinion on how the business should interact with them to meet their needs. The technology has made it possible for IT services to be delivered online and accessible via the internet through a computing style known as cloud computing. The development of the digital business model gives the customers an incredible experience in the delivery of services turning a profit to the company. It makes it possible to meet the expectation of employees, customers and business partners allowing quick response to change in usage patterns as they emerge. It boosts the market share and engagement of the employees in the service delivery and supply of the commodity. This strengthens the relationship between the company and their clients promoting the brand loyalty and in turn, the revenue increases. Business process improvement This is process by which the inputs are converted to output. It is comprised of people, technology, and information. Inputs include raw materials, data and knowledge. The activities change the information and work on data and knowledge resulting in products and services. The business process is the formal process that is documented and has established steps (James & Mona, 2013). The informal process is knowledge intensive and is neither defined nor documented. The process ranges from slow to fast moving. The process is improved by a regular review to identify whether some of the steps are still helpful in the operation. If a step is not necessary, it is eliminated. The process of step elimination is called Business Process Reengineering. Digital technology facilitates operations by enhancing data exchange to reach some activities. It converts the manual processes to automated ones and creates an advanced business process and models. Business Process Management (BPM) is vast process made of methods, necessary tools and supporting technology to continue improving the process. It is a computer-based software used to track manual processes or plan a new process. The process requires the right selection of technology and an efficient change of management for it to be successful ( John Willey & Sons, 2014). Competitive advantage It is a dream of every entrepreneur to gain the competitive edge over other investors in the hunt of customers. The competitive advantage is defined by the ability respond to clients needs and the use of knowledge in information technology as required. It is also characterized by the capacity to adapt to the changing business functions and techniques quickly. The structure of an industry influences the profitability of the competitors (Michael E, 2014). With a competitive advantage, a company can outperform the rivals and enjoy maximum profits. The competitive edge does not last for long. There is a need for continued pursue of new competing strategies. SWOT Analysis: Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, is the most efficient way of identifying the gaps in the market and taking advantage of it to develop a competitive edge over other competitors. Developing a competent workforce and reliable process defines the strength of the company. Identifying weaknesses of the opponent such as lack of a reliable information technology Avenue and experts helps developing ideas to outcompete the rivals. Having identified strengths and weaknesses in the market, the investor can take advantage by bringing a new product to the market or develop a new market at large (Barney, J. B., & Clark, D. N., 2011). Porter’s competitive forces model According to Porter, some factors bring competition in the market. New entrants threaten the existing business by their unique product resulting to the division of the customers. The rivalry between the company and the competing companies results to competition to gain more clients and outcompete the rival (Michael E, 2014). The emergence of substitute products or services poses a threat to the existing companies in the market. The current customers may turn to the substitute product or service leaving the primary product or service, and this is a huge blow to the companies in the market resulting in counting losses and losing the competitive force. For a business to be successful, it requires primary activities and supporting activities. The main activities are the activities in the goods and services production, turning raw materials to products and supplying to the customers. This includes logistics, day-in-day-out operations, marketing, and sales. Support activities include any primary activity that may help the process. Such activities include infrastructure involved, finance management, human resource management, research, technology development and the procurement process (Michael E, 2014). McDonald's is a large multinational known company that serve millions of people with fast food such as chicken, hamburgers, soft drinks and French fries. Their customers come from different classes but mostly middle class and of all ages. Due to their large number of clients every day, McDonald’s struggle to serve as many customers as they can within a short of time. The customers may take time on the line and at the counter (Benoit & Lenos, 2011). Customers enjoy fast services where no time is wasted neither in front nor on the counter. The issue of time wasting may have an adverse impact on the industry. Customers may turn to the restaurants that offer quick services and in the right way that the clients desire. To solve the problem of spending much on the line and the counter, McDonald’s should apply the absorptive capacity theory. Cohen and Levinthal developed the theory in 1990. The method improves the firm capability to identify, absorb and apply knowledge from external sources. Absorptive capacity limits the rate at which a company can absorb the technological information. When a limit in absorption exists, the theory proposes that there is a need for the firm to develop departments to carry out development in the areas of specialization. Training and external professionalism can make it easy to absorb and apply external technical knowledge in the firm (Lane et al. 2006). McDonald’s is large company comprised of many areas of specialization based on the kind of fast food dealt with. Example include soft drinks, French fries, hamburgers and chicken areas. The company sells all these items under one counter, and this is one contributing factor to time wastage in the service line and stands. If the company can adopt and apply the absorptive capacity theory and introduce different department to deal with particular fast food per unit, this can significantly reduce the time spent in the service lines. This could also help the company reach a higher number of the customer at a time (Todorova & Durisin, 2007). Business intelligence Business intelligence abbreviated as BI, is a term that refers to some software applications used by firms to analyze raw data. It is comprised of some linked activities such as data retrieval, analysis, querying, and reporting. Businesses use business intelligence to improve sound decision-making and identifying opportunities new investment opportunities. (John Willey & Sons, 2015). Business intelligence is not only used to give reports but also used to manipulate data in the system. It is used to identify the less efficient process in the business operations that needs re-engineering. With the recent Business Intelligence tools, it is easy for anyone in business to analyze data without necessarily getting help from the IT experts to do the multiple reports. BI has the data backup feature that enhances data security in case data is lost. The Business Intelligence is faced with the problem of data selection and the quality of data. Aligning the business strategy with the Business Intelligence strategy is the primary challenge. It helps in developing a plan that prioritizes process over others and enhances checking progress against the set goals and objectives. It also facilitates reforms of business strategies into targets ( Robert G, 2014). Some factors have influenced the use of Business Intelligence in the stores today. Smartphones and other devices availability have greatly contributed to the endorsement of the BI. Every person can easily access insights on business at any time anywhere. Every business is going digital, and that means that many companies are dealing with significant data to provide insights during decision-making (James E, 2014). The advanced Business Intelligence and analytic tools help to query a feature that did not exist before. The recent Cloud feature, which provides less costly and quick solutions to some of the problems, encountered in the process of using the Business Intelligence. Database Management Systems The system is used to store sets of data or records in systemic ways. The data is generated from transactions processing systems or the business apps and key in data. The database varies from one company to another based on the size of the enterprise. Data warehouses merge data from several databases storage and arrange them for follow-up analysis for information generation that may assist in the company’s decision-making. The data stored in the database is accurate and of high quality to enhance production of accurate information to make a decision. Data warehouses have single functional units that hold the data before communicating it to the warehouse. The individual units are known as data marts. Several data marts make the data warehouse (Singh S, 2011). The Database Management System stores the data collected from the business applications. The data is stored in an organized manner in columns and rows similar to a spreadsheet. It comprises of features that enhance access and data management. It uses a structured query language that facilitates the acquisition of information from the database by using specific and straightforward declarative language, and the system can retrieve it for the user. The database has several functions that make it favorite for use by many enterprises across the world. It filters and profiles data for analysis purposes. It maintains the integrity of data and is fitted with a feature that prevents data redundancy: replica information in the same system. It has a backup feature that protects data from loss by deletion of system failure. Data can be easily and quickly retrieved from the database management system by use of the structured query language. The database enhances enhancement synchronization of the data, and the data is secure from any form of alterations. Many enterprises use the database management systems because it can support many users at the same time (John Lee & Sons, 2015). Information Management Sometimes the data collected is scattered and needs to be consolidated. Information management is the utilization of the IT tools and methodologies to collect, interpret, combine and store data from fragmented sources. Management of information is vital to the security of data and cooperation with the changing regulatory needs example the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Information management faces some challenges including data loss of bypassed data and poorly designed user interfaces that are not user-friendly (John Lee & Sons, 2014). Information management is important in every enterprise as it brings the following benefits: • It plays a roles sound decision-making in the business by providing a refined analysis of the data collected from various sources. • It improves data accuracy and reliability. Data is used in company predictions of the future investment opportunities. • With well-managed information, the risk of noncompliance is substantially reduced. • Information management saves time and unnecessary expenses by making the information ready for use at any time and by anyone in the company. • It makes it easy for a company to check progress against its set goals and objectives to ensure that the company operates within the set goals to be achieved over a specified period (Brien & Marakas, 2011). Project management The project should be well defined and reviewed before any action. It should have an excellent define scope and expected results. It is limited by a timeframe and schedule which is subject to uncertainty. An estimated budget that is also dictated by changes. For a project to be a successful one, the interaction between participants is encouraged to exchange ideas towards an achieving a shared interest. The communication between members eliminates the likelihood of emergence of conflicts with other business activities. Trading ideas help discover the underlying profit potentials (John Willey & Sons, 2015). Project success is determined by three factors namely scope, time and cost. The range defines the extent that the plan covers. It contributes to the estimation of the budget based on the resources available and the set deadline. A standard project utilizes a reduced scope that signifies efficiency (Thomas Lee, 2015). During the implementation of the project, monitoring and control come in handy. Integrated change control process helps to manage the progress by checking it against the set objective. Integrated change control helps update the project plan or scope, approve preventive action and defect repairs. A well-planned and managed project increases the chances of success and enhances competitiveness in the market regarding delivery of products and services to the customers (Elliott, D., Swartz, E., & Herbane, B. (2015, 2015). In conclusion, market performance is dictated by competition between the producers. Every producer in the market seeks to outperform the competitors. Producers should heavily invest in the use of information system research theories to become more competitive in the market as it serves to provide an efficient, timely spread of information on research and addresses relevant issues that affect management practices and technology creates new opportunities for market expansion, growth, and improved general performance. References Barney, J. B., & Clark, D. N. (2011). Resource-based theory: Creating and sustaining competitive advantage. OXFORD: Oxford University Press. Building, C. I. O., Wiley, J., & the Chartered Institute of Building (2011). 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