Managing Business Document Design and Development - Tesco Superstores - Case Study Example

Running head: MANAGE BUSINESS DOCUMENT DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT Manage Business Document Design and Development Name Institution Introduction Business documents are an important tool in many business conducting companies in the current business arena. These documents usually play a major role in managing matters of the business internally. They also give a platform to provide interface between different segments of any particular business organization and also with other categories of groups that do business with them such as the government, customers, suppliers and others. Different organizations have different sorts of business documents they produce. This is entirely based on the organizations’ needs and various requirements. The company to be used in this case study is Tesco, a leading superstore in the Britain. First of all, details about Tesco are going to be discussed, after which the strategies of document designing and development will be laid down and a sample drafted. Tesco Tesco, Britain’s leading superstore chain is the darling of the metropolis. However, behind the façade; one roof on the outskirts, Tesco superfluous, or the friendly elevated street Tesco Metro, lays a billion pound maneuver. In recent times, Tesco and its prime superstore competitors have faced antagonism for abusing their monopoly ranks and contributing to some of the social and ecological anomalies plaguing community today. These encompass abusing small farmers in the UK; stepping up their substitutions with manufacturing monoculture agricultural estates, where remuneration are low and labor rights are negligible; crossing over every retailer and hence portraying our own centers as neglected towns; co-operating with environment wrongs, Esso; and myriad other corporate felonies. Tesco, in the recent past has been taking a very aggressive approach in the expansion of its operations both vertically and horizontally. Horizontally, it has been opening branches in many different countries to carry on with what it was first constituted to carry out as its business. While vertically it has been involved in the expansion of its business to different areas which were not in the original document with which it was constituted. These involve the insurance business, the banking business, clothing, electronics, telecoms, health and car insurance, dental plans, multi media vending and renting, internet services and software. The Organizational Details Number of personnel Tesco, being an enormous business organization, has many employees and other personnel that fall under its umbrella. The numbers, if put in approximations may reach around five hundred, a huge number for some business organization. Organizational Structure Business organizations usually carry four major internal functions that come under them, which in order for the smooth flow of the business, must be controlled and managed. These are: The production group that has the major functions of producing of goods and/or services The Sales and Marketing group that has the function of selling the products produced by the production crew. Personnel, sometimes called the Human Resources group that specializes in the hiring, training and even firing of workers. Finance and accounting crew, whose major purpose is keeping track of accounts and the seeking and management of funds that run all the above activities The organizational structure of the Tesco Company is in a pyramid form encompassing the Managing Director, who supervises; Production Head, Sales and Marketing head, The Personnel head and the Finance and accounting head. The head of production and the finance and accounting head in turn have juniors below their jurisdiction. The production head has line manager 1 and line manager 2 under his/her jurisdiction while the finance and accounting manager has the invoice supervisor and the accounts supervisor under his/her jurisdiction. All these are co-related, that is work closely and they form the interface between their supervisors and the workers. This implies that the juniors under the line manager 1 and the accounts supervisor are the workers. In summary, the organizational structure of the Tesco superstores can be summarized under a pyramid like structure as below: Key: 1-Production head 2- Sales and Marketing, 3-Personnel head 4-Finance and Accounting 5-Line Manager 1 6-Line Manager 2 7-Invoice Supervisor 8-Accounts Supervisor Blank-Workers This is a chart representation of Tesco organization structure. It resembles those of many companies that have been a success in the market, thus it is a proven structure. Documents being used The Tesco administration has ensured the availability of documents at each level of the organizational structure. This is due to the unique functions that each of these levels perform in the running of the organization. Business documents vital in the Management docket are: Sales reports Production reports Meeting memos The segment of Sales and Marketing also requires documents that assist it in promoting its business and the products to its customers. The Tesco Company Sales and Marketing has several documents that assist it in its day to day activities. These documents are: Sales reports Ordering forms Price lists Product catalogs or brochures Customer letters The human resource segment at the Tesco superstores, one that deals with matters usually concerned with the employees has a wide range of documents in its chores. With a large populace of employees, the segment would not run smoothly without these documents meaning that with the absent of these, chaos would be the order of the day at the segment. Being the most delicate sections dealing with employees, it would thus disable the whole system The documents it uses thus include: Job description documents: these documents may come as a performance management analysis that carry detailed information that concerns the job a person in a particular position. Such a description can be presented in a format of a “Guidelines Oriented Job Analysis (GOJA)”, a document that gives details on the job’s domain, task expectations and so on and so forth. Forms for employment Guides for job training Job procedures’ documents The production segment in Tesco superstores requires documents that help it in the production of services and goods according to the schedule and in the most economically cost effective method they can manage. In this context, the segment thus has the following documents that assist it in carrying out its services: Reports on production Price lists for the suppliers and related forms Specifications and the procedures for the different products. The Finance and Accounting segment, responsible for the day to day procedures of the organization’s business such as bills payment and other accounts verifications need also to work with certain documents for its smooth flow of procedures. It has the following documents that compliment it in implementing its purposes in the organization: Internal memos, facsimile and varied types of letters. Reports on accounting that incase of auditing, can ensure a smooth operation Reports on the sales, a reason for the segment to work hand in hand with the sales and marketing section. These are the documents currently being used in the Tesco business organization. Business documents usually require specific standards and specifications that are based on in the process of their set up and production. The variation of these guidelines for the documents production varies from one organization to another in the cases of formality and the quality. However, the preparation and the final production of the business documents should portray professionalism, especially for a recognized business organization such as Tesco, which is the chosen business organization for this case study. This is why the recommendations below are for the purpose of better documentation and their better productions for the efficient running of the organization: Documents such as the product brochures need a high level of sophistication due to their main purpose of wooing customers to purchase their services and products. This document, whose main purpose is for the marketing of the business’s products is a very delicate responsibility that will determine the profits made. Its production should thus be done by applications such as word processing and applications for desktop publishing. This will ensure the production of high standard documents that would portray professionalism in the implementation of the sales and marketing segment of the organization. The job description document is another vital document that the business organization should put a consideration in ensuring that is perfect in its production. This is a responsibility of the Human resources segment which is directly concerned with the employees. A better outlook of the document will determine the type and quality of employees, or rather job applicants the organization will attract. Though the recommended application for their preparation is word processing, it should be done to the extreme bits of professionalism due to its delicate function of attracting workers. The document for product specifications is another vital document based on the nature of the business Tesco superstores is concerned with: Selling of services and products. This document is used in the specific purpose of helping potential buyers to purchase their products and services. The software to be used in the preparation of these documents is any quality accounting software and applications of word processing and database creation, which can be done exclusively by software developers in order to come up with a unique customized product specifications document. To cap this all up, all the documentation not mentioned among the above should be prepared in their most professional manner. In addition, the assigning of the job of production of these business documents should be done selectively. First of all, the different segments of the organizations should be responsible in the determining of the format of their respective documents. The designation of the production job should then be done basing on the qualifications of the producers. The choice of the group to produce these documents is a great determinant on the quality of the documents to be produced. Survey In the conduction of the survey, interviews and questionnaires were the major choice of information collection from a chosen populace of the management and other employees. Another element used is that of observation and analysis, raising conclusions out of observable results or outcomes. The following sub-topics thus got there results from their corresponding interviews, questionnaires and analytical observations from both the sub-ordinate staff and the managers. Information entry Information entry is usually done by the supervisors who in order to get the right information, have to lias with the junior staff. The collection of information is mainly computerized. The daily information entered then undergoes the hierarchical steps to reach the top most post in the organizational structure in order to implement different business activities in the entire organization. Storage The storage of company documents is an essential element that any business organization should always consider if at all the information management should be efficient. Storage in this organization is mainly computerized though there are some documents that are in hard copy. Tesco has implemented storage criteria that suit it in order for it to operate flawlessly. One, each segment in the organization is responsible for the information under it. This means that each supervisor in his/her own portfolio is concerned directly with the particular documents. Cabinets for files in respective supervisors’ offices are used in the storage of documents under their particular dockets. The file arrangement is done in the order according to the date of the usage of the particular documents. The majority of the information is usually stored by computer systems. This is because most of the information is also computer processed after being fed in to the system. The management of accounts by the finance and accounting segment finds invaluable use in this method of storage. The use of computers to store information in softcopy form offers an advantage of quick reference and retrieval by using “database management systems (DBMS)”. Types, quality and standards of the documents The types of the documents being used by the different segments in Tesco have already been previously mentioned. On the standards of the documents, all aspects were met in considering that the standards of the documents reached the required expectations. To come up with quality-produced documents, different aspects are usually considered. These are: Storage of the documents: this is whether in network servers in a system for general information or in personal computers for classified information for an organization. Most of the documents in Tesco are computer-stored and shared throughout the organization via networking. Templates available for production: These are the different models that can be used in the designing and production of these business documents. Standard file and folder naming: This determines future efficiency when a document has to be referred to. The company thus has its own system and standards of naming. The documents style and output: The style refers to the general outlook of the business document. The output in its part refers to the form in which the documented is presented; hardcopy or softcopy. If in hardcopy, the quality of the paper should also be standardized. Branding provided by the company: The organization of logos and other brands on the document should determined by the way in which the particular company or organization wants it. All these considerations were met to ensure the quality and standards of the business documents of Tesco march its standards. Quality Monitoring of the Documents’ Design and Production Tesco Superstores organization has within its ranks a special body that has the responsibility of Quality Monitoring and Assurance. This body, apart from the responsibility of checking on the quality of the products to be purchased by the customers, also shoulders the responsibility to check on the quality and standards of the documents produced for the organization and also their output. For these to pass this analysis before being used, this rank should establish that the products characters conform to the standards that were set by the different segments of the Tesco business organization. The qualities of the documents of the Tesco Superstores differ due to the different needs of the various segments. Documents such as the ones for product specifications, job descriptions, merge letters (communicating with customers), price lists and product brochures contain high quality due to the important roles they play in interfacing between the customers of Tesco and Tesco itself. The complexity in these particular documents is due to the addition of features such as the Tesco’s brand, logo and other signs for branding to identify the Superstore giants. This thus portrays the amount of color used in the preparation and the final production of these documents (Conney, 1999). The rest of the documents such as the internal memos, accounting reports and minutes for meetings require no much sophistication, a result of them being of modest quality and standards. Alteration recommendations on the business documents For the majority of Tesco’s business documents, the required quality and standards have been met to the later. However, after close scrutinizing of some of them and from employees opinions, some of them need a new face. The minutes used in cases of meetings need a major facelift. Because they are mostly used internally, they lack features that would attract any attention. Recommendations to include Tesco’s brands such as its logo and badge are to be highly considered. The documents containing job procedures also need to be presented mostly in their hard copy form. This would ensure their portability, especially with the new employees in order for the familiarization of these individuals to their new jobs. The accounts reports, very essential business documents in any business organization. Tesco, apart from ensuring that the accounting reports are in the computerized system should also make sure that they have back-up copies of the same. This is in case of any system failure that would hamper processes such as auditing; a procedure done to ensure that every activity has been done according to the way it was reported. This in an organization reduces any space for corruption cases. The Documents Effectiveness Tesco’s objective of the implementation of business documentation was to ensure effective management and running of the whole system and to ensure proper communications among different levels in the organizational structure. The business documents used by Tesco Superstores have increased efficiency in the flow of the business. They have done this by: Ensuring proper and immediate communications between the different segments of the Tesco Company. This in turn has ensured reactions and response to rising issues. Examples of documents that have done these are internal memos, production reports and sales reports. The feedback from the customers has also been improved with the use of business documents used in the organization such as merge letters and order forms. Proper insights into delicate issues like the organizations accounts have been achieved. The higher management has proper monitoring and incase of auditing, the references are readily accessible especially in the case where the accounts records are stored in the computer. Training/Implementation Before the employees get to know how to use the different business documents, some training is done by the company to ensure proper and reliable implementation of the documents. In cases of documents in softcopy form, workers concerned in the sections with these machines also undergo the organizations training for proper usage of these. Document Design and Production After these analysis and studies, we now want to design and produce a sample business document. A price list is the favored sample in this study. Software for design The applications and software to be used in the designing of this sample price list are : Word processing Any favorable accounting software A database Software for desktop publishing Spreadsheets Contents of the price list Our sample price list here will have the following components: The type of goods or services/product Description of the item The number of items of the same type The price per item discount The price per item after discounting The total price of the collective items Tesco’s brands, that is, logo and badge Extra comments such as appreciation notes. These components of the sample price list were proposed based on the interviews, questionnaires and observations made based on the case study carried out on Tesco Superstores. The sketch representing the sample described as above is outlined as below.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Key: 9 1. organization Logo and Brand 2. Product 3. Product/Item description 4. Number of items 5. Price per Item 6. Discount 7. Price per item after discount 8. Total price 9. Extra comment such as appreciation and a welcome note for another experience. This sample price list will provide the customer a proper understanding of the products s/he is purchasing by reading the details in it. The logo and the brand might be for aesthetic value and also an advertisement for the business organization, Tesco. The comments show courtesy to the customer. Conclusion From the case study of Tesco Superstores provided, it is evident that in order for a business to run smoothly, there should be the inclusion of business documents. Tesco itself provides a blueprint of a successful business organization. We have also learnt the characteristics that a good business document contain, therefore can sit down and design and develop any of the business documents stated in the case study. Reference Conney, Beth. (1999). Architecture of Designing Documents. San Diego: Apress. Read More