A New Computer System for Staples - Essay Example

Foreign markets and conditions Supermarkets obtain big retail market share all over the world. There are three foreign markets for supermarket software that offer great opportunities to software vendor: Asian & Australian, Western European and Eastern European markets. In spite of the fact that the new computer system was designed for office superstore, it can be used by every supermarket with wide range of products. However, the computer system can’t be applied for food supermarkets, because it does not provide support for use-by dates. Key findings from the research of the Top 30 grocers (Planet Retail, 2004 cited in Supermarket& Retailer, 2004) show that: Hypermarkets and superstores have experienced strong growth over the past five years, with numbers increasing by 20% to more than 23,000 outlets. Discount stores saw their store numbers increase by 37% between 1999 and 2004, rising to nearly 29,000 outlets. Discount stores are forecast to grow by 22% between 2005 and 2009, increasing numbers to 37,000 by 2009, up from 30,500 in 2005. The number of convenience stores developed by the Top 30 grocery retailers increased by 40% to 33,500 units between 1999 and 2004. They are forecast to grow by a further 15% to 39,500 units by 2009. Store numbers for international retailers in Asia & Australasia have grown by 66% over the past five years. In the forecast period of 2005-2009, store numbers are expected to grow by 26%, with all formats apart from convenience stores experiencing strong growth. Globally store numbers for the Top 30 overall are set to rise by 13% between 2005 and 2009, from 140,700 to 159,000. The large majority of these stores will be opened in Asia & Australasia, Central & Eastern Europe and Latin America. Western European market is stable and highly competitive. There are a number of players that have finance enough and are ready to innovations: METRO, IKEA and so on. According to METRO Group website, METRO Group was created in 1996 in a merger of several important retail companies. Based on its successful performance in the domestic market the group soon expanded into foreign markets as well. METRO has more than 2,400 locations in 30 countries. It uses intelligent, sophisticated logistics systems that guarantee that a large selection of high quality merchandise is always available both in the food and nonfood areas. So METRO is open to new technologies and will be a prospective customer of the computer system. There are a grand total of 220 IKEA stores in 33 countries/territories. The IKEA Group itself owns 196 stores in 24 countries and the other 24 stores are owned and run by franchisees outside the IKEA Group in 15 countries/ territories. The top 5 purchase countries of IKEA are China 19 %, Poland 12 %, Sweden 8 %, Italy 7 % and Germany 6 %. Asian & Australian market is also very prospective, because Asian and Australian supermarkets get funding from US and EU. Although Australian market is preferable because of English language and less intercultural differences, it does not grow. Eastern European market is quickly developing. East European salaries are about 30-40% of EU average levels, and even when the greater local purchasing power of local population, consumers are still only half as rich as their Western counterparts. But while less than one-third of East Europeans can afford an annual holiday, they continue to spend bewildering amounts of money on consumer goods, and retail sales figures simply do not tally with the amount of money people ought to have in their pockets. Almost two-thirds of Czechs - the region's keenest shoppers - visit a hypermarket or supermarket at least weekly, not far behind the sort of levels seen in the West, according to GfK, a market research firm cited in Arnold (2002) Tesco, for instance, has more than 144 stores in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, and employs almost 40,000 staff around the region. Tesco faces strong competition elsewhere from the likes of French Carrefour and Auchan, Germany's METRO, Austrian Billa and Dutch Ahold. (Arnold 2002) However Eastern European region is not computerized well, so difficulties can occur with computer system implementation and support. Superstores in Eastern Europe get good profits without innovations, so Eastern European market is not developed enough for computer system selling. From the other side, Western European market and Australian market are ready to accept innovations, because this way their players increase their competitiveness. The supermarket and superstore industry there is highly competitive, there are many companies in the market, but it is the key players that are making huge efforts to gain a greater market share in a market that is mature and slowing down. Changes in System Development There is a difference between developing a system for in-house use and one that will be sold to third parties. A computer system should be mature enough and ready for international market. Changes for selling the product for use outside of the organization As computer system is produced for Staples superstore, a lot of specialists occupied in its creation could be engaged in maintenance and support in site. But if the computer system is sold to third parties, it must be highly reliable and need minimum of technical support. Software reliability is one of a number of aspects of computer software which can be taken into consideration when determining the quality of the software. Software reliability is generally meant to be measured using objective criteria. These measured criteria are typically called metrics. Common software metrics include: source lines of code computational complexity function points bugs per line of code code coverage number of lines of customer requirements. number of classes and interfaces (Wikipedia) So software metrics of the computer system should be calculated and reliability of the system can be improved if necessary. Also there is a critical need to ensure that the computer system can be supported and maintained by people who are not familiar with it very well. That’s why the computer system must be well-documented. Common types of computer hardware/software documentation include online help, FAQs, HowTos, and user guides. Full set of computer system documentation must include: Code Documentation User Documentation Design Documentation Architecture Documentation Trade Study Documentation Marketing Documentation (Wikipedia) Also installation process of the computer system and its further configuration must be facilitated as much as possible. Therefore an installation program or installer should be developed. A currently popular format for Microsoft Windows is the MSI installation package, which is installed by Windows Installer. Companies making tools for creating installers for Windows include InstallShield, SetupBuilder, Wise, MaSaI Solutions, InstallAware, BitRock, and OnDemand. Most of these tools can create MSI packages as well as their own proprietary executables. Changes for use of the system by diverse cultures The most important change of the computer system that helps it to enter international market is multi-language support. Specialists in linguistics should be engaged to translate computer system software in Chinese, Japanese, and main European languages. Architecture of the computer system must be changed so that at the step of installation user may select a language from the list, and then installed system application will have interface with selected language. Also documentation must be provided in multiple languages. One of the simplest ways to support more than one language is to provide a set of HTML pages for each language that is supposed to support. Every HTML page should have a link for each language (for example, "Click here to view this section in German"). Human Resources Use Before use of employees from foreign countries, it’s necessary to decide what staff is needed and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs. Also such questions as recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers and dealing with performance issues are essential. It’s effective to use local human resources within the respective foreign countries for system’s support. I plan to have representatives in each of foreign markets that provide computer system installation, consultation and support. I’ll seek college graduates who have majored in human resources, personnel administration, with a technical or business background for local representatives’ positions. These employees should get training in the development office, and then they will hire and train other personnel of local offices. For other staff of local offices on the job training methods will be used: Job instruction training (JIT) Coaching and mentoring Job rotation Apprenticeship training The JIT method is four-step instructional process involving preparation, presentation, performance try out and follow up. It is used primarily to teach workers how to do their current jobs. A trainer, supervisor or co-worker acts as a coach. The four steps are as follows: 1. The trainee receives an overview of the job, its purpose and its desired outcomes, with a clear focus on the training. 2. The trainer demonstrates the job to give the employee a model to copy. The trainer shows a right way to handle it. 3. The employee then is permitted to copy the trainer's way. Demonstration by the trainer and practice by the trainee are repeated until the trainee masters the right way to handle the job. 4. Finally, the employee does the job independently without supervision. Coaching is a one-on-one relationship between trainees and supervisors, which offers workers continued guidance and feedback on how well they are handling their tasks. Mentoring is a particular form of coaching used by experienced executives to groom junior employees. Job rotation involves the movement of trainee form one job to another. It helps him to have a general understanding of how the organization functions. Apart from releasing job monotony, it allows workers to build rapport with a wide range of individuals within the organization, facilitating future cooperation among departments. The cross-trained personnel offer a great amount of flexibility for organizations when, transfers, promotions or replacements become inevitable. The drawback being that it does not give enough room to integrate resources properly and trainees get confused when exposed to rotating managers, with contrasting styles of operation. Apprentices are trainees who spend a prescribed amount of time working with an experienced guide. An internship is a kind of on the job training that usually combines job training with the classroom instruction in different institutions. The drawback of this method is that the slow learners may find it difficult to complete training within the specified time. Employees should be hired in local offices and some benefits should be offered to them. Employee benefits typically refers to retirement plans, health life insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, vacation, employee stock ownership plans, etc. Benefits are increasingly expensive for businesses to provide to employees, so flexible benefit plans should be developed. Technology Transfer Problems and Opportunities Technology transfer is the process by which basic science research and fundamental discoveries are developed into practical and commercially relevant applications and products. It’s always better when professionals do their jobs, so I plan to engage a Technology Transfer Specialist for international distribution of the new computer system. Technology Transfer Specialist will evaluate and manage invention portfolios, oversee patent prosecution, negotiate licensing agreements and periodically review cooperative research agreements already in place. Part of the technology transfer process involves the prosecution of patents which is overseen by the national Patent and Trademark Office. The computer system is innovative technology that has been field-tested and applied to a real business problem at a site, but lacks a long history of full-scale use. Information about its cost and how well it works may be insufficient to support prediction of its performance under a wide variety of operating conditions. To eliminate common problems, technology transfer of the new computer system should provide following issues: Coordinating between technology users and developers is an important element of technology transfer. Access to relevant internal and external development resources has to be enabled to third-party users of the computer system. A main ingredient for moving technology from a research to a new business enterprise successfully is an environment that is supportive of entrepreneurship. This needs to be encouraged by providing supermarkets guidance, counseling and resources. Cataloging resources related to the computer system implementation and support can help in the process of starting the computer system at new places. Such linkages provide referrals for individual business counseling, or the individuals who can help with particular problems with the system. The result of these activities will be new computer system implementations, expanded market penetration and more high-quality jobs for diverse countries. References 1. Arnold, J. (2002). ‘Hungary's very free markets’. Retrieved September 5, 2005, from BBC Website 2. METRO Group (2005). Retrieved September 5, 2005, from METRO Group Website 3. ‘Notes on Technology Transfer’ (n.d.). Retrieved September 5, 2005, from The Global Development Research Center Website 4. ‘Staples, The Scoop’. (2000) Retrieved August 5, 2005, from Excite.com Website 5. Top 30 Global Retail Structures (2004). Retrieved September 5, 2005, from Supermarket& Retailer 6. ‘Training / Education’. 2005. Retrieved September 5, 2005, from Indiaco.com Website Read More