Business case

Discuss about the E-Portfolio for Information Communication and Technology.
 

In this report the business analyst has analysed the scenario of the Auto Accessories company were the owner of the company uses the Information Communication and Technology to provide quality services and technological solution to their business. The business owner wanted to stay competitive for the growth of their business and effectively retain their new and regular customers. The administrative staff has noticed the importance of ICT, but it was hard to market the products online. As the business administrative notice that other similar businesses that have also started to do the same. Another problem that has recognise was the service staff members were taking too much of time in helping the customer to locate their products. Thus, the report will give the business case and analyse the stakeholder and provide a form with Stakeholder Identity process that can easily identify each stakeholder and finally provide a best solution to the business process and achieve success in the business competitive world. 

As per the scenario mention in the case study, the auto accessories company brings the accessories of their vehicle from the overseas supplier to sell and distribute their product. The company is specialised in useful, popular and attractive items to provide accessories for their vehicle owners. Some of the features they provide in their accessories are recording camera for traffic, car stickers that are colourful and decorative, and camera viewer for parking assistance. The warehousing, marketing, sales, purchasing, customer service and staff payroll are the business administrative and the activities of management. All of them keep using the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in little to carry out marketing, warehousing, sales, staff payroll, customer services, and purchasing by the current management activities and business administrative. Moreover, they find it hard to market the products online. So presently the company decided to put a price tag on each product that is for sales along with all aisles and keep it on the shelves.  The staff members of the service took too much of time to locate the product for the customer. They had even provided a price tag on each product for sales. If the customer wishes to know whether the items are available or not, they have to visit the store or else they can give a call directly to the staff of customer service and know about the availability. On the journal roll the sold products are recorded at the sales terminal and also a receipt was printed and given to the customer. The sales payroll teams then record the sold product on the journal roll and then print the receipt for the customer. Moreover, when the customer needs to reorder, the staff payroll team check the items manually that whether the stocktaking and reorder of items are remaining on the shelves that have to be ordered. The business owner considers the need for staying competitive for the growth of the business in the company. Hence, for this purpose ICT has been applied in certain ways to have a better performance and growth in the business. The company has to be customer oriented, and customer focused, this will ensure that the staff are versed in the customer services. The customer experience can be improved with the contribution of better technology that transforms the business. Some detailed list of improvement would be identified depending on the service provided by the companies’ staff members.    

Stakeholder analysis

The Business Analyst will identify the stakeholders and assess the source of knowledge to those stakeholders that have a direct impact on the company and conduct the business efficiently and productively (Zavyalova et al., 2016). For building a relationship with the stakeholders, the business analyst will identify the stakeholders with a positive attitude and provide documentation that includes data collection. Stakeholder analysis itself is a tool and technique to identify the stakeholders (Hueske & Guenther, 2015). In the stakeholder analysis, the information is gathered and assessed to determine the individual interest that has been taken into account for the business analyst for the collection of data. In the case study, the identified stakeholders are as follow:

Supplier: The supplier is a party that supplies the accessories of the vehicle to the Auto Accessories company. They are also called the vendors. It is mandatory to keep a good relationship with the suppliers. Thus, it can ensure that the company can get help anytime from the supplier when they are in need.

Warehousing Assistant: Warehouse is the essential part of the infrastructure of Auto Accessories. The flow of stock is in control of the warehouse assistants (Missonier and Loufrani-Fedida, 2014). They monitor the in and out of the goods, keeping records of the stocks which is available and which is not available and efficiently move and handle the items. The warehouse assistant makes sure that the process run smoothly by the warehouse staff and gets the goods from the manufacturer then to the distributor and finally to the consumer. Warehouse assistance is responsible for loading and unloading the goods from the delivery lorries or van. They will check whether the correct quantity and required type of goods have been received or not. The faulty, damaged or missing goods will be recorded. Once the checking has completed, and the warehouse assistant is satisfied that the goods are complete, it will then sign the delivery form. Then finally, the staff member of the warehouse will move the goods to the correct area by mechanical handling equipment or manually and then label all the goods. The assistant will then allocate the space of storage for the goods. For a new delivery, they will relocate and re-stack the goods to get a space. They will check the location and quality of goods and keep a record and if any of the levels of the stock falls too low, then they will re-order it. At the final stage, the ordered goods will be picked up and recorded then notes and labels will be prepared for despatch of the goods and move and stack the goods for delivery by hand or through machinery.

Sales Staff: The Sales Staff will sell the products to the customer who visits the Auto Accessories. The sales staff will help the customer to find what they want. The staff will then create a solution to ensure that the sales process runs smoothly. The sales staff also sometimes handles cold calls from new customers which is an inside sales and provide solutions as per the customers need. On the outside sales, the sales staff will visit the customer for delivery of their products.  

Staff Payroll: The Staff Payroll calculate, track and manage the processing of billing the products that the customer purchase. They will keep the record of the item in the journal roll and provide the customer with a receipt of the bill. The other section of the payroll processes the salaries that will be payable to the staff of the company. The payroll department will require to calculate the benefits, vacation, sick leave, deductions and taxes. They will check the timesheets and another pay accuracy. They are responsible for maintaining the payroll database and keep up-to-date knowledge about the allocated payrolls, systems development, payments and deduction of statutory.

Customer Services: The customer services staff has to set in their mind that the customer is always right. The staff needs to have a skill of friendly speaking with the customer, listening to what they need and helping them with an option to communicate. The staff need to provide every information regarding the features of the product and be ready to answer any questions that the customer has in their mind. For the customer service, the shift is flexible.

Assistant Manager: The Assistant Manager manages the whole staff and provides necessary information as per the business needs. The assistant manager will supervise and lead the employees or staff members to represent the company. They act as a role model for both the staff and customer who report to them. They handle all the queries, concerns and complaints of the customer which the staff are unable to handle. In that situation, they take the responsibility and initiative in their hand and address the issues with a happy smile on their face and possibly provide the best solution to the customer to gain a better experience on customer satisfaction.

Manager: Manager is directly responsible for serving customers. It produces and sell goods or services of the company and also provide with internal support to other groups. The manager translates the strategies and goals that are of higher-level into an operating plan to drive the business. The manager has a challenging role in providing guidance, motivation and support to the employees. The manager functions in hiring and staffing, training new employees, deals with the problems in the performance and terminations, giving a proper training to the staff members. It ensures the daily functioning of the members of the staff. The manager interview, hire and train the staff regarding the job role. They oversees a group of employees and effectively communicate with their boss to convey the necessary information to them. The administrative work and the department correspond to them are handled by the manager. The manager should motivate the staff in creating a working environment. If any system or new technologies have been introducing in the business, it is the responsibility of the manager to train the employees. In order to achieve a satisfactory work, the manager evaluate the data and performance of the employee. Manager take care of the business financials for their budget. As the business world is competitive with high pressure, the manager handles it effectively that thrives in a high stakes environment. There is a consistent change in the business sector that leads to adaptation of management structure, alternative technologies and communication. The manager takes the initiative to give direction to the staff without waiting for the boss. Managers give lot of time to employees and create an idea to bring a collaborative effort. The figure below are the two forms of documentation required for the stockholder for data collection. 

The above two documents are created to identify the process of Stakeholders that focuses on the importance of stakeholder to meet the project and organization, influence exerted, participation and expectations. The Stakeholder Expectations Questionnaire analyse the specific needs and influences of the stakeholder. The other document of Stakeholder Register is used for recording the general overview about the role of each stakeholder in the company. While identifying the process of Stakeholder, it has found that the particular process is a new process to PMBoK Guide. 

System solution for the problem identified:  As the problem is identified, it has been placed in a context that follows five-steps of solving the problem.

• Identifying the problem: it is necessary to identify the right problem instead of trying to solve the unimportant or low priority problem of the customer that they show. With correct observation and right question the problem needs to be identified. The customer problem can never be identified by presenting the product. Instead, find the problem that the customer feels. It is necessary to check whether the problem is specific or whether it is an intuitive sense.
• Analysing the problem: analysing whether the problem is severe or those it has any special circumstances that have occurs. Identifying the cause of the problem and ruling out the causes. Checking the time lost due to the problem and whether it has gone worst.
• Identifying the criteria of the decision: Taking of decisions by both the organisation and the customer and checking how much time it took to identify. A weigh has been given to the criteria and to identify the independent standards to be used.
• Developing multiple solutions: it is preferable not to stop in the first solution that has been identified by anyone. The solution provided may be good, but better solutions may still exist. Alternative scenarios need to be evaluated objectively and assess the pros and cons.
• Choosing the optimal solution: developing a criterion to identify the decision taken by the customer and the company and come to a conclusion with the best solution. The base of support is developing to ensure the implementation of the solution.

The systematical way of solving problem mostly saves time, achieve better solutions and increase the credibility with the customer to perceive the value of what has been done (Lacerda, Xambre & Alvelos, 2016). When the problem is being identified, it is better to sometime rely on known solutions. When there is no solution found then the business analyst will determine whether to develop a solution that is profitable for the company. This included time requires the process and asking for the developing solution for the growth of the company. An innovative approach is very much needed to drive the growth of the organisation to the top level. 

The stakeholder performs the series of steps that follow the business process to achieve the concrete goal. The process of the business can be automated or manual. For an automated business process, technology aid has put to assists the users to implement the process in a standardised, optimised or accurate manner (Metzger et al., 2015). The above figure is a workflow diagram of the Business Process. The company can include some of the types of business operation (Vanwersch et al., 2016):

Manufacturing- it should be quality assurance and preventive maintenance process

Finance- invoice, billing or risk management process

HR- a starter, leavers process, and request for vacation

Compliance- legal check and safety audit

Conclusion

The report finally concluded that the company has provided with certain business process that help the stakeholder to understand the plan, goals and objectives of the Auto Accessories Company. With the use of identifying Stakeholder process, many misdirections, time and resource misallocation could be saved and each stakeholder’s interest, participation, influence and expectations were determined. As the business process is the cross-industry, it is a better process of framework that creates a technology solution for the industry. The use of ICT has provided better solution to the Auto Accessories Company as it helps the staff members to work faster and safe time of the customer. Thus, providing an easy collaboration of the staff and customer that help, prevent the dissatisfaction of the customer. Therefore, the company owner can then stay competitive with other businesses and retain their regular and new customer which is a good thing about the company. 

Reference

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Hueske, A. K., & Guenther, E. (2015). What hampers innovation? External stakeholders, the organization, groups and individuals: a systematic review of empirical barrier research. Management Review Quarterly, 65(2), 113-148.

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Metzger, A., Leitner, P., Ivanovi?, D., Schmieders, E., Franklin, R., Carro, M., … & Pohl, K. (2015). Comparing and combining predictive business process monitoring techniques. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, 45(2), 276-290.

Missonier, S. and Loufrani-Fedida, S., 2014. Stakeholder analysis and engagement in projects: From stakeholder relational perspective to stakeholder relational ontology. International Journal of Project Management, 32(7), pp.1108-1122.

Vanwersch, R.J., Shahzad, K., Vanderfeesten, I., Vanhaecht, K., Grefen, P., Pintelon, L., Mendling, J., van Merode, G.G. and Reijers, H.A., 2016. A critical evaluation and framework of business process improvement methods. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 58(1), pp.43-53.

Zavyalova, A., Pfarrer, M. D., Reger, R. K., & Hubbard, T. D. (2016). Reputation as a benefit and a burden? How stakeholders’ organizational identification affects the role of reputation following a negative event. Academy of Management Journal, 59(1), 253-276.