BUSINESS PROCESSES AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS

UNIT I
Introduction – Definition of a Business Process, Understanding Business Processes, Common
business processes in an organization, Need for Business process improvement. Introduction to
Information Systems - definition - features - steps in implementation of MIS - Need for
information-information system for decision making
UNIT II
Supply-side business processes, Sourcing, Procurement planning and processing, Supplier and
procurement analysis, Supply Chain Management Systems (SCM)
UNIT III
Demand-side processes, Customer account management, Customer Relationship Management
Systems (CRM), marketing and sales Order fulfillment
UNIT IV
Support-side processes, Services, Customer project planning, Customer project execution,
Accounting and Financial Processes and their integration with other business processes
UNIT V:
Integration of all processes in an organization - Apply business process innovations introduced
by latest technologies – cloud computing ("Software-as-a-service") and mobile technologies -hands on experience on commercially available enterprise system.
REFENCE BOOKS

1. Kenneth C. Laudon, Jane P. Laudon, Management Information Systems – Managing the
Digital Firm, 12
th
 Edition, Printice Hall, 2012
2. R. Radhakrishnan and S. Baasubramanian, Business Process Reengineering, PHI
Learning, 2010.
3. Rahul V Alterkar-Supply Chain Management-Concepts and Cases, Prentice Hall of
India, 2005.
4. Paul Green Berg-Customer Relationship Management -Tata Mc Graw Hill, 2002 

Ten Differences between Marketing and Selling

Every interview I have attended has some variation of this question “What is the difference between Marketing and Selling” so here is the ten differences from various books.

S. No	Marketing	Selling
1	Marketing starts with the buyer and focuses constantly on the needs of the buyer.	Selling starts with the seller, and is preoccupied with the needs of the seller
2	Emphasises on identification of a market opportunity	Emphasises on saleable surplus available within the corporation.
3	Buyer is the centre of the business universe ; activities follow the buyer and his needs	Seller is the centre of the business universe; activities start with the sellers existing products.
4	Seeks to convert customer needs into products	Seeks to quickly convert products into cash
5	Emphasises on fulfilling the needs of the customers	Concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of getting the customers to part with their cash.
6	Buyer determines the marketing mix	Sellers preference dominates the formulation of the marketing mix.
7	Consumer determines the price	Cost determines the price
8	Emphasis on innovation in every sphere to provide better value to customer by adopting newer technologies	Emphasis on staying with the existing technology and reducing costs.
9	Marketing communication is looked upon as the tool for communicating the benefits provided by the product	Seller’s motives dominate marketing communications.
10	In firms practising marketing, marketing is the central function of the business.	In firms practising selling, production is the central function of the business.

Implementation of ISO 9001:2000

The flow chart below gives a procedural step of ISO 9001 implementation. It consists of 12 steps which culminates in registering the company as ISO certified.

Internet of Things IoT an Introduction

We have heard a lot of Internet of Things, and have seen a lot of futuristic animations of how world can be if IoT is implemented. this post is to look at what is IoT , what are the key drivers, which technologies enable it and what is the future scope of it.

What is IoT?

when talking about Internet of Things (IoT), I would like to borrow the quote of  Arthur . C. Clarke "Any sufficiently advanced technology is Indistinguishable from magic". Yes when we watch the videos on IoT by Intel, Cisco, Microsoft etc. it feels like magic. But there is a large amount of technology behind it. lets see what it is.

What if everything you could see, from your coffee mug to your light fitting to a milk carton in the fridge, was connected in some way?

What if the door or window could report on whether it was open or the heater’s thermostat could be set from your Smartphone?

Even as we ask such questions, a future in which physical objects of all kinds and sizes can be connected draws ever closer.

 Internet-connected objects, devices, and other “things” are proliferating in every domain

Farmers’ gates can be fitted with SIM cards to monitor whether they have been left open or allow farmers to close them remotely.

Buses, trains, and cars can be fit with monitoring devices so they can provide accurate information to both control rooms and customers.

Extending the current Internet and providing connection, communication, and inter-networking between devices and physical objects, or "Things," is a growing trend that is often referred to as the Internet of Things.

“The technologies and solutions that enable integration of real world data and services into the current information networking technologies are often described under the umbrella term of the Internet of Things (IoT)”

How is it Feasible

Ø  Wireless sensor n/w

Ø   Low cost sensors

Ø   Inter- connectivity b/w people, n/w's, devices

Ø   Connectivity b/w people, things

Ø   Common protocols

 

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN)

-      The networks typically run Low Power Devices

-       Consist of one or more sensors, could be different type of sensors (or actuators)

Sensor devices are becoming widely available

- Programmable devices

- Off-the-shelf gadgets/tools

People Connecting to Things

Things Connecting to Things

How are the networks changing?

−    Extensions

−    More nodes, more connections, IPv6, 6LowPan,...

−    Any TIME, Any PLACE + Any THING

−    M2M, IoT

−    Billions of interconnected devices,

−    Everybody connected.

−    Expansions

−    Broadband

−    Enhancements

−    Smart networks

−    Data-centric and content-oriented networking

−    Context-aware (autonomous) systems

When did it start

IoT’s roots can be traced back to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), from work at the Auto-ID Center.

Founded in 1999, this group was working in the field of networked radio frequency identification (RFID) and emerging sensing technologies.

 The labs consisted of seven research universities located across four continents.

These institutions were chosen by the Auto-ID Center to design the architecture for IoT.

Technologies involved

Enabling technologies for the Internet of Things can be grouped into three categories:

(i) technologies that enable “things” to acquire contextual information,

(ii) technologies that enable “things” to process contextual information, and

(iii) technologies to improve security and privacy.

•      machine-to-machine (M2M) communications
• 
  
•     Passive and active radio frequency ID (RFID) 
• 
  
• Internet Protocol (IP) V6
• 
  
• (ADSL) broadband communications
• 
  
•  Wi-Fi, 4G mobile, low-power wireless standards such as Bluetooth and ZigBee
• 
  
•   micro-electromechanical systems, microcontroller units (MCUs)
• 
  
•    cloud computing, big data,  pervasive or wearable computing

USES of IoT

• Identification and tracking
• 
  
• Monitoring
• 
  
• Integrated control
• 
  
• Predictive business analysis
• 
  
• Early response
• 
  
• Efficient processes and service delivery

Applications

Health care is already making use of tele-health systems and services, an area likely to grow substantially over the coming years both inside hospitals and across community service delivery.

· Agriculture is looking to combine sensor data (such as soil analysis) with environmental data, satellite imaging, and so on.

· Physical retail is known to be struggling, particularly in light of lower-margin ecommerce. The future of physical retail lies in delivering improved experiences to customers, enabled by the internet of things.

· Public safety and defence can benefit from the increased use of sensors and monitoring, combined with information from broader sources (environmental, geospatial, and so on).

Examples

Health monitoring devices and associated online tools, such as Fitbit  for general health monitoring and Corvettes, a wireless cardiac monitor

Environmental monitoring tools such as the Netatmo weather station for meteorological data or the Nest intelligent thermostat, which learns the heating properties of a home and controls the boiler accordingly

Power management and control including Belkin’s WeMo, Ninja Blocks, and the Revolv (formerly Mobiplug) hub. These enable devices to be controlled from a central point

Potential inhibitors to the internet of things

ü  Security challenges

ü  Privacy and surveillance

ü  Meltdown

ü  IPv6 adoption

ü  Data storage investments

ü  Consumer needs

ü   Lack of a Shared Infrastructure

ü  Lack of Common Standards

ü   Battery Life

ü  Data Control

ü   Data Sharing

IoT describes a growing phenomenon in which every physical object can have some form of connection to the internet. The possibilities of what this enables are limitless.

However the IoT will not be without its challenges. Security, privacy, surveillance, and the potential for disruptive systems failure are all potential risks that will need to be mitigated as the market develops

Overview of Supply Chain Management

Supply Chain Management

What Is the Supply Chain?

•       A set of approaches used to efficiently integrate

–      Suppliers

–      Manufacturers

–      Warehouses

–      Distribution centers

•       So that the product is produced and distributed

–      In the right quantities

–      To the right locations

–      And at the right time

•       System-wide costs are minimized and Service level requirements are satisfied

 
History of Supply Chain Management

•       1960’s - Inventory Management Focus, Cost Control

•       1970’s - MRP & BOM  - Operations Planning

•       1980’s - MRPII, JIT - Materials Management, Logistics

•       1990’s - SCM - ERP - “Integrated” Purchasing, Financials, Manufacturing, Order Entry

•       2000’s - Optimized “Value Network” with Real-Time Decision Support; Synchronized & Collaborative Extended Network

The Importance of Supply Chain Management

•       Dealing with uncertain environments – matching supply and demand

–      Boeing announced a $2.6 billion write-off in 1997 due to “raw materials shortages, internal and supplier parts shortages and productivity inefficiencies”

–      U.S Surgical Corporation announced a $22 million loss in 1993 due to “larger than anticipated inventories on the shelves of hospitals”

–      IBM sold out its supply of its new Aptiva PC in 1994 costing it millions in potential revenue

–      Hewlett-Packard and Dell found it difficult to obtain important components for its PC’s from Taiwanese suppliers in 1999 due to a massive earthquake

•       U.S. firms spent $898 billion (10% of GDP) on supply-chain related activities in 1998

•       Shorter product life cycles of high-technology products

–      Less opportunity to accumulate historical data on customer demand

–      Wide choice of competing products makes it difficult to predict demand

•       The growth of technologies such as the Internet enable greater collaboration between supply chain trading partners

–      If you don’t do it, your competitor will

–      Major buyers such as Wal-Mart demand a level of “supply chain maturity” of its suppliers

•       Availability of SCM technologies on the market

–      Firms have access to multiple products (e.g., SAP, Baan, Oracle, JD Edwards) with which to integrate internal processes

Supply Chain Management – Key Issues

•       Forecasts are never right

–      Very unlikely that actual demand will exactly equal forecast demand

–      The longer the forecast horizon, the worse the forecast

–      A forecast for a year from now will never be as accurate as a forecast for 3 months from now

–      Aggregate forecasts are more accurate

–      A demand forecast for all CV therapeutics will be more accurate than a forecast for a specific CV-related product

The Bullwhip Effect:

The bullwhip effect is a distribution channel phenomenon in which forecasts yield supply chain inefficiencies. It refers to increasing swings in inventory in response to shifts in customer demand as one moves further up the supply chain. The concept first appeared in Jay Forrester's Industrial Dynamics (1961) and thus it is also known as the Forrester effect. The bullwhip effect was named for the way the amplitude of a whip increases down its length. The further from the originating signal, the greater the distortion of the wave pattern. In a similar manner, forecast accuracy decreases as one moves upstream along the supply chain. For example, many consumer goods have fairly consistent consumption at retail but this signal becomes more chaotic and unpredictable as the focus moves away from consumer purchasing behavior.

Factors Contributing to the Bullwhip

•       Demand forecasting practices

–      Min-max inventory management (reorder points to bring inventory up to predicted levels)

•       Lead time

–      Longer lead times lead to greater variability in estimates of average demand, thus increasing variability and safety stock costs

•       Batch ordering

–      Peaks and valleys in orders

–      Fixed ordering costs

–      Impact of transportation costs (e.g., fuel costs)

–      Sales quotas

•       Price fluctuations

–      Promotion and discount policies

•       Lack of centralized information

EVOLUTION OF CRM

EVOLUTION OF CRM

•       The CRM movement is less than a decade old. The systems and software that are available help companies better understand and serve the existing customers, while enabling them to acquire new, profitable customers.

We can say CRM evolved in 5 stages which we can call as waves

•       1^st wave: single function client server systems:

                 - it began in the mid-,90’s, CRM solutions are designed to support particular group of employees- technical support personnel, the sales force, call centre agencies, or the marketing department.

•       2^nd wave:  integrated 360-degree client server systems:

       corporate customer began demanding more integrated solutions. CRM managers were seeking the blessed- to create a 360 degree view of their customers relationship. The integrated CRM solution enabled the employees to provide a single-face to the customer  by enabling employees to work from a common set of customer information and to use a set of loosely  coupled customer-facing applications.

•       3 rd wave: customers serve themselves via the web:

•       Customer self service and internet architectures became the next big hype in CRM. Many people referred to the suppliers that embraced this new wave as e-crm players. Customer touching   e-commerce  applications characterized the third wave of CRM catalyzed by the internet.EG: LIC premium calculator, premium paid through internet.

•       4^th wave: internet integrated with POS &ERP:

•           -CRM suppliers re-architect their integrated application suites to take further advantage of the internet.

•           - by using  web browsers and thin clients, these CRM solutions are able to offer much broader access to CRM functionality by integrating the CRM systems with back end ERP and legacy systems.

•           Fourth –wave solutions also begin to tie together customer self-service via the web with customer service through the contact customer. Eg Walmart- if one product has been sold it will be informed to backend though ERP.

•       5^th wave: Redesign business-” customer’s point of view”

•       CRM solutions further focus on “what matters most to the customers” when making decisions about application functionality and IT architectures.

•       It is the era in which customer portals abound and give the customer direct access to all of the information and application functionality they need in order to do business with companies.