Developing Business Information System Solutions - Coppers Brewery - Case Study Example

Cropper’s Brewery Name Course Title Date Introduction Copper’s brewery is established in Melbourne Australia. It began its operations in October 1992. The company managed to produce its first brew in January 1993, which was an English porter. The business encountered success in its operations forcing the management to relocate their operations to a new facility in North Melbourne in the year 2005. The company is able to brew 1 million liters of alcohol per year. The privately owned company is packing its products on 300ml, 500ml, and 50 liters of keg. The company takes an average of 5 weeks to produce an English Ale and 15 weeks for special Ales. The financial report for the year ending 2012 shows that the company made sales of over 10 million in excess. The company is currently producing four lines of beers. They include; Porter, Pale Ale, Pilsner, and English Ale. The company also produces special brews of the same four types listed above[Ben13]. Business Description The business is currently faced with the problem of producing profitable beers and meeting customers demand for the less profitable beers at the same time. Due to increased demand, Copper’s Company is facing a constraint of space in terms of warehouse and therefore requires a larger facility to expand its operations. Management is also a problem that the privately owned Cropper’s Breweries is facing. Currently the company is only able to employ 14 full time staff including several part timers. The company has currently reviewed its operations and it is planning to inject 5 million in order to boost its operations. For this reason, the company requires a good business information system that will support and handle its plans. The aim is to be able to maintain good operations records in addition to proper monitoring and control of financial records. The business is facing the challenge of keeping the four core lines and producing boutique lines because of the problem of space. The company has limited warehouse to successfully continue with its operations and meet the increasing customer demands. The information required to operate the business is the capacity that the business can fully produce which is 1 million liters per year. We also have the information about their core brands and the specials they produce. The staff is currently 14 employees employed on full time basis and a few part timers. Production takes place between 3 weeks and 15 weeks. The key information required to operate the business successfully The following are the key information about the business that can bring success. The decision making process is an important aspect that must be there to enable a business operate successfully. A good decision by a manager is likely to lead to success of the business while a poor decision will lead to the failure of the business. Decision-making takes place under circumstances when the company is facing challenges and therefore needs to review its operations. Internal and external environment are important aspects that require reviewing while making key decisions concerning Cropper’s Breweries. The internal business environment is under evaluation with the challenges of spacing ad staffing already identified. There is also the need for reviewing the internal data registry. Strategic management involves; analysis of both the external environment and organization, creation of a strategic guide, strategy formulation and strategy implementation. Organizations always need to start with proper strategic management. Good management works to determine the best strategy in accordance to the environment, human and technical factors. This does not mean that the Copper’s Breweries should submit to these factors but can develop their own environment, which can be achieved by involving the stakeholders, incorporation of new technology, publicity etc. Strategic management contains strategic planning and thinking i.e. development of a plan and creativity respectively Another key information necessary for complete and successfully operation of the brewery is all the financial data available in the websites. All financial information concerning competitors and government taxation is critical. Evaluation of the business consistency is also necessary. Consistency relates to business culture. We also need to establish the communication system at Cropper’s Breweries in order to come up with good management. Organization communication is the movement of knowledge and information amongst people in the organization in order for efficiency and effectiveness to be attained. Both the management and staff should share the goals of the organization. In the past, application aspects (writing and speaking) were the major concerns of communication but it later changed to character-based aspects. Since that time, organizational communication has developed and undergone various modifications. When changes or challenges occur in an organization, ways and means are identified to counter the changes effectively. Typically, for a very long time, the implementation of change has been through technical programs supported in organizations by individuals who prioritize reform. However, the importance of understanding the existing systems and working of pro-poor change has been recognized. In particular, it is the recognition of the formal, informal roles of the organizations and the existing structural features. The drivers of change incorporate all these components for recognition and base on the relationship between the components. Cropper’s culture of management is key information that is necessary for the success of the business. Organizational culture is a very influential and versatile factor that affects the success and failure of organizational change. Most of these cases relates to the technological changes within an organization. Cultures bases on the beliefs, norms, and values practiced by the leaders within the organization. An organizational culture creates standards of acceptable conduct and an understanding of the styles of operation. Leaders play a very important part in culture as they contribute greatly to the changing, directing and sustaining of a highly delivering organizational culture. Facilitation of a certain culture in an organization requires commitment (walking the talk) by linking policies and strategies to the day-to-day expectations and activities. Business information system Requirements Cropper’s Breweries is currently using the local area network as their internet connection for their accounting and warehousing operations. The network is usually slow and sometimes server is unavailable. There is need to upgrade this software to wide area network internet connection. Through expansion, the wide area network internet connection will facilitate the extranet connection and enable the company to access its network through an online portal. Through the network, the company is able to subscribe to a cloud, which is a viable area for the business to access real time suppliers to the company portal. The portal is safer by protection of firewalls and passwords. With these connections, suppliers and customers can make their requests online therefore expanding the business worldwide. Enterprise systems appear to be a dream comes true for many managers who have struggled at great expense and with great frustration, with incompatible formation systems and inconsistent operating practices; the promise of a quasi-solution to the problem of business integration is enticing. The system helps in reduction or losses through reduced communication process. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is a technology that has been widely adopted by many companies of late in order to integrate, solve, and help in management and production. The software is very important as it integrates many departments within an organization. ERP has replaced manufacturing resource planning which is unable to meet the ever-changing challenges provided by the international manufacturing world. ERP has led to reengineering of companies and has ultimately led to increased sales’ breweries. In order to manage the staff an Enterprise Management system (ERP) is required. Through ERP, many companies have also been able to save millions of dollars through communication and training. ERP has also been important in cultivating company culture, which is highly valued as a tool for success within any organization. Through ERP, barriers to communication are zeroing and complex communication issues are solved. Lack of organized information (lack of an integrated framework) in an organization is a potential drawback. Organizations have departments, which at most times cause distortion of information hence influencing the decisions made by the executives. Information in an organization can be organized in a process-based manner. The process-based manner ensures that the organization is viewed horizontally regardless of the departmental boundaries. In addition, intangible (making of decisions, leadership, and innovation) and tangible should be spread equally within the organization fraternity. All the information regarding the intangibles and tangibles should be properly analyzed and catalogued. The point of strategic critical processes identification and evaluation should be emphasized especially those affecting the development of these characteristics. Through ERP, flexibility is achievable while success in response is also achieved. However, in order for ERP to work, the management must put into account several issues that will ensure the systems attain its goals. Theorists researching organizations and their structure suggest that interdependence is the catalyst for inter-functional integration [DBr83]. Theorists also believe that interdependence relationship in any organization can be in two ways, which is either collective or individual. If the environment coordinates well with the organization, it is possible to achieve integration. Through ERP, many companies have integrated logistics and marketing hence resulting into increases in sales and achievement of targets within the organizations. However, [Bow08] argue that there are two catalysts which initiates logistics into the system of key strategic resources, time and competitiveness, which are based on quality, efficiency and success. In his respect Coyle argues that the integration of logistics and marketing functions co-operate with the objective to achieve results for the company [JCo03] . Typically, for a very long time, the implementation of change has been with technical programs supported in organizations by individuals who prioritize reform. However, the importance of understanding the existing systems and working of pro-poor changes needs recognition. In particular, it is the recognition of the formal, informal roles of the organizations and the existing structural features. The drivers of change incorporate all these components for recognition and base on the relationship between the components. Integration allows existing systems addition into a business process control system or workflow engine. Integrated systems have access to a broader array of data, programmatic business logic, and user interfaces than existing stand-alone silos, so the scope of workflow using that integration can be broad [AGu85]. Recommended Business Information Systems Identification of the appropriate strategic critical processes is not enough for an Cropper’s breweries as the management concerned still has the mandate of developing the processes. They have to evaluate the processes on efficiency and be certain. They also may have to restructure work in order to attain the leading trends. Execution is linked to the process maintenance as execution metric such as achievement of customer’s needs, are also utilized in creating performance ranges in this process of maintenance. The incorporation of decision trees will allow many decisions and outputs to be identified and appropriately examined based on the expected monetary value results. The company will know that the future uncertain. Therefore, flexibility in planning and investment is core achieved by the variety of decisions presented through the trees e.g. breaking of clauses during leases and options to increase operations. Partnership in business is effective because the company will share the risks and returns of the project hence reduction of losses. Therefore, it is economically efficient for the company’s proposal to focus on the discounting, expected monetary value, and partnership. In order for the ERP system to function, properly accurate data must be provided. As already mentioned above, poor data entry can result into significant losses, hence the integration is important since it helps in avoiding such losses. Use of ERP software requires a lot of commitment by the top management, which is very important in any company. While the top management needs to consider rethinking and setting of their goals, it is also important for them to consider the costs and demands that come with the implementation of ERP as a system. The proper management also incorporates the customers in their plans as they implement the ERP integration process. In order for this to take place effectively; there is also need for the ERP implementation team to competent and very skill full while undertaking this operation. Implementation of ERP is important in organizations since it help in education and training of staff. Many mangers think that with the installation of ERP then their problems are solved. Training helps in maintaining positive culture and efficiency within the organization. Many companies have adopted this type of training and it has proved successful in overcoming their top most competitors. Bibliography Ben13: , (Dusi, 2013), DBr83: , (Brown, 1983), Bow08: , (Bowersox, 2008), JCo03: , (Coyle, 2003), AGu85: , (Gupta, 1985), Read More