How the Business Requirements Drove the Systems Initial Development - Essay Example

Data and information are critical components of information systems that are utilized by firms. The innovation of information systems has enabled commerce to thrive since it allows organizations to be cost-effective, gain a competitive edge, and be efficient in their industry. This paper will discuss the usage of Salesforce that has driven many organizations to be successful in e-commerce.
The advent of cloud computing has truly enhanced services in the e-commerce world. they are ubiquitous, meaning Services or data are available from anywhere. When it comes to cloud computing, many flavors are present. For instance, a public cloud is one based on the standard cloud computing model, in which the service provider makes applications and services open to the public. Private cloud is the phrase used to describe a cloud computing platform that is implemented within the corporate firewall.

One of the best advents is SALESFORCE, a system that has revolutionized e-commerce in many ways. As a CRM system, Salesforce allows organizations to embed different models within the same physical infrastructure and can be embedded in many different models of the cloud.

In the PaaS model, cloud providers deliver a computing platform typically including operating systems and programming language. MVC framework is a prime example of this service. Moreover, Infrastructure as Service (IaaS) or IaaS clouds often offer additional resources such as virtual machines, storage capacity, security, and end-to-end logical network model. Lastly, Software as a Service (SaaS) can be beneficial because of a software deployment where an application is hosted as a service. A great example of this is Salesforce 2.0 in the e-commerce realm. Users can access information publicly, but payment information per user is not shared publicly.

Current companies that utilize Salesforce at the moment are FTD, ATT, Sakonent, and Google. Salesforce allows companies to have dynamic SALESFORCE reporting. Although the intelligence behind Salesforce has been enhanced, good business analysts still understand the gravity of analyzing data to report to management. Skiba (2011) extends to just simply reading graphs but benchmarking these results via thresholds. A centralized information from all the sources (e.g. point-of-sale (POS) system, equipment monitoring, etc) where all sorts of information, real-time feeds, and legacy information, can be monitored and analyzed in the most efficient and precise way via data warehousing.

Skiba's (2011) Salesforce ERP system, which can handle most day-to-day business functions, would serve as the hub. POS and other devices use business intelligence software to gather sales information and marketing data, which is then transferred to a Salesforce database for analysis., which would help organizations have robust information on their business processes and assist them in monitoring the progress of their business in the terms of sales, revenues, inventory management, staff allocation, location of the business in terms of which is profitable or unprofitable and also gives them the head start to mitigate any risk. The utilization of Salesforce is to supplement the work of Business Analysts and cultivate their thinking into making better and faster decisions.

So how has Salesforce revolutionized commerce? Sommer (2012) has allowed organizations to create a framework that is dynamic and robust. The framework allows businesses to be headfirst as the leader in technology as synchronization of software and data management of customer information. In addition, the IS framework allows businesses to communicate the whole supply management that is heavily associated with the customers’ demands. For instance, the order-to-cash process in a business requires several steps. When the customer places the order, the sales order department requires credit approval from the credit department.

The credit department then informs the sales order department disposition of the credit request. At these stages, the use of technology is extensive. Additionally, Sommer (2012) states that the credit and sales department can use point-of-sale technologies to scan the barcode of products. In addition, the innovation of technologies can use barcodes to process the order. Next, the sales order department acknowledges customer orders and notifies the warehouse, revenue collection process, and payroll process. In essence, it each step of the horizontal information flow consists of heavy utilization of technology. Salesforce has allowed organizations to be smarter, more effective, and more productive in all facets. Read More