Managing Information and Technology - Grand Paints Limited - Assignment Example

Managing Information and Technology - Grand Paints Limited Executive Summary Over the last few decades, technological innovation has been the focal point in promoting the day-to-day business success of almost all organizations around the globe. For any company to be successful in the current ever-advancing business world, it must in touch with all technological innovations. In essence, businesses have nowadays progressed to a state where technological innovations act as the main driving factor in ensuring that a firm maintains a high competitive advantage in a particular firm. Technology plays a huge role in promoting a firm’s competitive advantage and this is through a number of ways such as enhancing day-to-day to business management processes and decision-making. In addition, key business subjects such as comparative and differential competitive advantage have hugely been promoted by being in touch with unique technological innovations in an industry. Furthermore, using well-designed online systems (e-commerce), businesses have been able to market their respective products and services to large customer base and be able to make online sales. This paper has therefore laid major emphasis on development of a report to assess the role of Information Technology in the generation of competitive advantage via an account of Grand Paints Limited, which is a small and medium sized organization focused on manufacturing of paints and coatings (Stair & Reynolds 2012). Introduction Grand Paints Limited, a company owned by an Old man is located in Nairobi (Kenya) and was founded in the year 2010. The company’s main business goal is to be globally recognized as the best producer of quality paints and coatings. Grand Paints Limited has a workforce that is led by the drive and ambition of its top management aiming to see the company become the most competitive paints production company globally and be able to attract and maintain the largest customer base. Due to this drive and ambition, the company’s top management has recently been emphasizing on investing a lot in technology, which is very fundamental in promoting its business goals (Passerini, El Tarabishy & Patten 2012). It is vital to note that the company has been fighting tooth and nail to ensure that it stabilize its base in the country by being as competitive as possible. This is due to the fact that it faces significant competition from other local and international companies such as Crown Paints Limited and Galaxy Paints and Coatings Limited. The company, with its headquarters in the country’s capital city, Nairobi, Grand Paints limited has six sub branches spread all over the country. The chief goal of all this is to ensure that it creates a stable base within the country, which acts as the building block for it to grow into becoming a globally recognized paints supplier. Although, it is very challenging for the company to become its goal, it is clear that with the drive and ambition in it, there are great chances that it can make huge progress through quality use the ever-advancing technological innovations (Shin 2003). The company’s main area of specialization is production of paints for walls and for automotives. To be precise, the company’s products are Wallstick paints, contractor paints and Automotive paints. Wallstick paints is a product the company produces specifically for customer use in making painting activities on walls of their buildings and other areas while automotive paints are mainly targeted for those customer use on motor vehicles and other automotives (Gottschalk 2007). The management of Grand Paints understand that for the company to achieve its set out business goal on competitiveness, investing more in technology is a very important prerequisite (Betz 2003). Through working closely with its information technology department, Grand Paints Limited has great chances of meeting its goal of becoming a globally competitive paints production company (Gottschalk 2007). It is important to make it clear that the term information technology refers to a branch of knowledge that principles of applied science to come up with technically innovative concepts necessary for streamlining day to day processes such as conducting daily business activities. On the other hand, competitive advantage entails the ability of a firm to have a large sales margin and able to attract and maintain many customers compared to its competitors (Passerini, El Tarabishy & Patten 2012). With these concepts in mind, the company has strategically been focusing on two key concepts of competitive advantage. These are comparative (cost) competitive advantage and differential competitive advantage. Comparative competitive advantage refers to the ability of a business organization to generate goods or services at a cost that is lower than that of its competitors. This gives a business the ability to generate a higher sales margin. Differential advantage is about the ability of an organization to deliver products or services that are different to those of competitors thus having a better view from a customer’s perspective (Shin 2003). Analysis It is clear that in the current constantly advancing business world, technology acts as one of the most crucial requirements in promoting the competitive advantage of an organization. In this sense, professionals, business owners and other stakeholders in the business industry try their best to ascertain that the right technology is put into use in ensuring that company succeeds in its goal of being very competitive in an industry (Passerini, El Tarabishy & Patten 2012). On this basis, and upon a thorough analysis of Grand Paints Limited, it is very important to acknowledge that porter’s primary and secondary activities of value chain, along with technological innovation (use of information systems) can play a very important role in ensuring that the company meets its set out gaining high competitive advantage (Stair & Reynolds 2012). Porter’s value chain entails a well analyzed set of business decision making principles, which are always very crucial in aiding a business in coming up with strategies for achieving its competitive advantage (Shin 2003). The main idea in Porter’s value chain integrates well with business innovative concepts of implementing information systems. It is based on viewing an organization as a component composed of several sub components put together to form single coherent system (Gottschalk 2007). Additionally, the system at hand is also made up of inputs, processes that transform data and a set of outputs. In the organization sense, inputs, processes and outputs entail acquiring and consuming of company resources such as materials, money, labor and management. The way in which these key aspects of value chain are utilized hugely affects the costs incurred by a company and also the profits made. An organization has to engage a considerable number of activities as it thrives to convert inputs into outputs and these activities are classified into primary and secondary activities. The primary activities hereby include inbound logistics, service, operations, marketing and sales and outbound logistics. On the other hand, secondary activities are procurement, human resource management, technological development and Infrastructure (Stair & Reynolds 2012). A detailed scrutiny of Grand Paints Limited in terms of the key activities in Porter’s value chain reveals a diversified set of concepts and great ability for the company to meet its goal of achieving a significant gain in competitive advantage. As indicated earlier, the first primary activity in Porter’s value chain analysis is Inbound logistics. Inbound logistics entail the relationships of a company with its respective suppliers. This further includes all those activities that are always required by the company in order to receive, store and distribute inputs (Betz 2003). Grand Paints limited has applied an excellent set of inbound logistics. Its major suppliers are locally available and these supply the company essential raw materials for manufacturing of paints. The relationship of the company with the suppliers is of high quality to an extent where Grand Paints can be supplied with tonnes of raw materials on credit basis. It is also essential to note that the company imports some of its raw materials particularly the chemicals for mixing of colours from suppliers based in India. Due to the good relationship with its suppliers, Grand Paints limited enjoys significant discount rates, which are always very crucial on the pricing of its final products. In addition, the company has outsourced a number of its product storage materials such as the tins used in the storage of the paints. Upon receipt of all its raw materials, the company manufactures its paints at the headquarters and disseminates them to the sub branches. With the availability of a quality set of inbound logistics, the company can enjoy immense benefits through the integration of an information system in the implementation of this essential activity. To be precise, an information system can hereby play a huge role in promoting the company’s competitive advantage. The system can be used to capture and store information about all suppliers with details of the products they supply. In this sense, this would aid the management in getting timely updates or notifications on which products need to be supplied, their costs and also the exact timing on when the products should be available (Gottschalk 2007). This will ensure raw materials are provided in time, suppliers are also paid at the right time. Consequently, this will further enhance the relationship with these suppliers, which is a crucial requirement for getting better discount rates. When the discount rates for acquiring raw materials are high, then automatically the cost of production will go down. This means grand paints will be able to sell its products at lower prices, which are very crucial in attracting as many customers as possible thus promoting its competitive advantage (Stair & Reynolds 2012). In terms of application of the second primary activity, operations, Grand Paints Limited exhibits a considerable set of procedures or activities necessary for transforming its inputs (raw materials) into outputs (paint). Upon acquiring of the required raw materials for manufacturing of paints, the company’s analytical chemistry team takes up the responsibility of performing molecular calculations on what raw materials to be mixed together and come up with targeted final product. This team delivers these crucial services, which upon scrutiny by the top management an approval is made. With a total of around one five hundred-man power, the task of mixing the required volumes of raw materials in gallons takes place. This process takes around a week depending on the volume of paints to be produced as at that moment. In some circumstances, it appears that amount produced very much smaller than what the customers are willing and able to buy. A close analysis of the operations in the company reveals that a lot time is wasted as the analytical chemistry team performs manual calculations on molecular volumes of chemicals and also forwarding their solutions to the top management. Essentially, with the help of an information system, the team could have a readily available place to review their previous calculations, which can act as a readily reference point to making progress in their daily activities. Additionally, a module can be integrated in the information system to aid the analytical team in making right and faster calculations. Furthermore, an automatic mechanism of forwarding the solutions to the top management can be made available to aid in making faster approvals. This will play a huge role in the delivery of quality products within short time frames thus satisfying customer requirements. The information system can also be designed to study customer preferences and their significant rise in number over a certain period of time. This will then be vital in determining the right volumes of paints to be prepared within a certain timeframe. Consequently, this will guarantee customer satisfaction along with enhancing competitive gain for the company (Betz 2003). Application of outbound logistics entails the set of activities involved in collection, storage and distribution of the company outputs. At Grand Paints limited, there exists a quality mechanism for application of this crucial need. Upon completion of the manufacturing process, the outputs are collected into special cylinders of weights ranging from five to fifty kilograms. These cylinders are then perfectly closed to ensure that the paints are stored in a position where they cannot easily leak out. Then respective branches are contacted to verify the amounts remaining in their stores so that they can be reloaded. Finally, the paints are dispatched to the respective branches for selling. This analysis that Grand Paints limited has a relatively poor mechanism for monitoring the required amount of paint cylinders in its respective branches. In this regard, an information system can be very helpful in provision of virtual inventory modules for each branch. This will save a lot time wasted and resources used in confirming these details. Therefore, through an information system, he cost of distribution will be lowered and products delivered in time. In return, this will be very instrumental in promoting the company’s competitive gain (Shin 2003). It is very important to make it clear that although Grand Paints Limited has made significant set in marketing and sales, there are still a number of opportunities to be covered. In simple terms, the subject of marketing and sales involves all the activities employed to inform the company’s buyers about available products and services, persuade them to buy those products and also facilitation of their purchasing (Passerini, El Tarabishy & Patten 2012). It is a bit disappointing to stipulate that application of marketing in the company is very little. It only takes place by the company paying some fees to the local radio and television stations to advertise its products. This means, there is a very small group of people who are informed about this company’s products. Additionally, there is very little done to facilitate their purchase. This is because, only traditional sales activities are implemented in the company where a customer physically attends the company branches, make payments and waits for the goods to be delivered. Adoption of an information system can add great value to the marketing and sales activities at Grand Paints Limited. In essence, an information system can be implemented with an online module where a user can login, select the required into a cart and make a secure online payment. Upon approval of the sales transactions, Grand Paints Limited could then deliver these goods to the specific customer store. This will play a huge role in ensuring that a customer’s time is saved from wastage thus motivating a large customer base into going for the company’s products. In addition, creation of an online blog, with a specific employer recruited to interact with these customers can add great value into ensuring that more customers are enlightened about the availability of variety of products in the company. Furthermore, the available company products can be advertised on social sites such as facebook, facebook and the company website. With the integration of analytic system in the online information system, the company will be able to monitor the number of customers who view its products. This will further motivate the company’s Information Technology department to further enhance the advertisement activities thus promoting the company’s competitive gain. On the last primary activity, which is service, very little has been done in the application of this crucial requirement. Service entails all the key sets of activities needed to ensure that company products keep on working effectively for the respective buyers after they have been sold and delivered. On this perspective, the company misses a great opportunity for promoting its competitive advantage gain within and outside the country (Passerini, El Tarabishy & Patten 2012). This is because, once the goods have been sold and delivered, there is no service applied and everything ends there. With the utilization of an information system, a module can be added to ensure that service is perfectly applied by the company. This is by provision of a segment where each user can deliver timely updates and feedback on how the products works after sometime. This information can be very vital in determining and extending the products’ ability to offer same quality services to the customers for a very long time. Consequently, this will play a huge role in enhancing customer satisfaction thus aiding to ensure that there is an uplift the company’s competitive gain (Stair & Reynolds 2012). Application and integration of Porter’s secondary activities is another crucial building to ascertaining that a company does well in promoting its competitive advantage in an in industry. The first of these requirements is procurement. Procurement involves the process of acquiring inputs or production resources (raw materials) for a company. With the availability of fully working procurement department at the company, it is clear that Grand Paints Limited has a applied a quality mechanism for addressing the subject of procurement. Time after time, the procurement department comes up with a stock list of the raw materials to be bought. This list is always accompanied by the respective costs of the products, which are forwarded to the top management and for approval. Upon approval, finance department provides the required monetary values necessary for making the purchases. A lot of time is usually taken for the whole procurement process to conducted in the company. It is essential to note that integration of an information system into procurement can play a huge role in reducing the timeframe incurred. The information system can be configured to alert procurement on the list of products to be bought. Upon a thorough edit of the list, the procurement department can easily forward the updated figures to the respective figures for approval and facilitation of purchases. In essence, a lot of time will be saved in the application of procurement thus ensuring that final products are made available at all times. This will further play a huge role in ensuring that many customers are satisfied with the timely availability of products. Human Resource Management is a very fundamental activity in promoting the competitive advantage a company. That is, application of a hardworking and productive workforce always acts as the foundation for timely delivery of best quality products, which is necessary in guaranteeing customer satisfaction. It consists of the whole set of activities involved in the process of recruiting, training, hiring, development, compensation and dismissal of an employee (Passerini, El Tarabishy & Patten 2012). As aforementioned earlier, Grand Paints Limited is made up of large customer base. However, the use of paper work in management of this human resource makes it very challenging for the company to be competitive enough in the current speedy advancing technological world (Stair & Reynolds 2012). An information system can be an integral part to gaining the best output from this large workforce. The system can be configured to monitor the time a worker attends job and the time he or she lives. This will ensure every employee perfectly utilizes the allocated time. It will also guarantee that the right number of employees are paid for services offered thus curbing any issues of having ghost workers. In turn, this will save the production costs in the company. In addition, an information system can be designed to monitor individual employee work rate, level of outputs and then come up with a rewarding system. This will play a huge role in ensuring that every employee gives the best for the company and thus aid in making the company more competitive in the industry. Technological development is globally recognized as the backbone to ensuring that a competitive enough in the in an industry. It engrosses hardware equipments, software, company production procedures and the technical knowledge applied a firm in conversion of the acquired inputs into outputs (Shin 2003). For the last few years, the company’s top management had neglected the importance of applying this vital secondary activity. However, in recent in years, a little investment has been done specifically in enhancing communication between company branches through the adoption of virtual local area networks. This ascertains that there is no clear platform for the company to grow in terms of technology. Application of a quality information system can be of great significance in promoting the idea of technological development. With the recent rise of enterprise resource planning systems, the company can enjoy huge benefits where all its day-to-day business activities are integrated into one coherent component. The enterprise resource planning system offers a flexible platform for all company management activities and future developments of missing modules. Consequently, this will be very influential in promoting easier management of the company and pave way for technological development (Stair & Reynolds 2012). Lastly but certainly not the least, application of a coherent infrastructure is a great requirement in the enhancement of a company’s competitive advantage. Infrastructure acts as a fundamental mechanism for serving company needs and tying together the respective company departments. These departments include finance, public relations, purchases, procurement, general management, accounting, quality assurance, manufacturing and planning. Grand Paints limited applies infrastructure of each department as an individual entity. The application of information systems into infrastructure such as the adoption of an enterprise resource planning system will aid in smooth management of the company’s infrastructure. An enterprise resource planning system provides a bird’s eye view of the whole organization thus making aiding in provision of an efficient platform for managing the company. Efficient company management is the basis for success in delivery of quality products and friendly selling prices, which is essential in promoting competitive gain of a company (Shin 2003). Conclusion It is vital to note that upon a thorough analysis of Grand Paints limited and its application of Porter’s primary and secondary value chain activities, a considerable set of vital deductions were made. To be precise, the analysis made it clear that adoption of information systems can play a huge role in streamlining its utilization of the primary and secondary value chain activities. The primary activities, which include inbound logistics, service, operations, marketing and sales and outbound logistics can hugely be promoted into being more successful through the implementation of an information system. On the other hand, secondary activities are procurement, human resource management, technological development and Infrastructure. The system will play a huge role in ensuring that the company benefits more by integration of information technology in the application of these activities. On this basis, it is hereby recommended that the management of Grand Paints limited lay major emphasis on investing more on technology. To be specific, the application of an enterprise resource planning system is considered as the best way forward in ensuring that the company perfectly utilizes the primary and secondary value chain activities and enjoys the best competitive advantage in the industry. References Betz, F 2003, Managing technological innovation: competitive advantage from change. Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley. Gottschalk, P 2007, Business dynamics in information technology. Hershey, Idea Group Pub. Passerini, K, El Tarabishy, A & Patten, K 2012, Information technology for small business managing the digital enterprise. New York, NY, Springer. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3040-7. Stair, M & Reynolds, W 2012, Principles of information systems. Australia, Course Technology Cengage Learning. Shin, N 2003, Creating business value with information technology: challenges and solutions. Hershey, PA, IRM Press. Read More