TRC System Implementation Accounting Information Systems Analysis & Design Essay

2 pages answer based on giving question, the outline of the answer and related supplementary reading

Over the past decade, The Retail Cooperative (TRC) successfully acquired a number of smaller retailers, enabling it to grow significantly. As a result, TRC is now one of the largest retailers in Europe, employing over 230,000 people in 25 countries. The company has three primary business units: department stores, hardware stores, and food stores. TRC has many cross-division service companies in both Europe and Asia to support the three primary business units. These support companies provide a variety of services, such as purchasing, information technology, advertising, and human resources. In early 2014, the CEO scheduled a full-day strategy session with the vice presidents of the business units. By the end of the day, these senior managers decided on a set of specific strategic objectives to continue the growth of the company. In particular, the CEO and vice presidents of TRC determined that the company needed to: (1) attract well-educated, skilled managers to lead future expansions and (2) optimize distribution channels so that managers at all levels of the organization would have immediate access to information for decision-making. The goal was to link TRC’s management expertise with the geographic area of operation so that the company would continue to be dynamic and responsive to customers 24/7. Essentially, the senior managers wanted TRC mid-level managers in each of the business units to have the ability to “Coordinate Globally—Act Locally.” The consensus was that the Human Resources support company would develop and implement appropriate procedures to find the quality of managers that TRC requires. However, the VPs of the business units wanted to be directly involved in the distribution channel optimization. As a result of TRC’s rapid growth, the VPs of the business units were encountering a number of recurring problems—such as lapses in customer service, an inability to respond to customer queries, and coordination problems with product availability and delivery dates. In addition, the manager for the travel department of the company noticed a significant increase in travel expenses for each of the business units and sent each of the VPs a memo. Based on these concerns, the VPs decide to meet with the Controller and Chief Information Officer (CIO) to discuss these problems and to identify possible options to resolve these issues. To prepare for the meeting, Robin Frost (the CIO) talked with several top-level managers to collect their ideas and suggestions of the features that might be required of any new technology solution the firm might purchase. Each of the managers agreed that TRC would need an e-business application(s) that would give its managers a detailed online view of the status of the purchasing process that is shared among TRC’s employees, suppliers, and customers. For example, each purchasing agent would like access to all the purchase prices, inventories, and selling prices that are in place in any store, no matter where it is located. He/she should also be able to see TRC’s manufacturing prices for its own brands, the bids made by TRC’s suppliers, and the comments or complaints made by TRC’s customers. In addition, the new technology would have to link TRC’s suppliers, distributors, and resellers with the company’s Logistic, Production, and Distribution Departments. The Accounting and Finance Departments would need access to information so they could track the status of TRC’s sales, inventory, shipping, and invoicing in any TRC store worldwide. And finally, the Marketing and Sales Departments would also need access to manage and update the company’s product catalogs, price lists, and promotional information for any TRC outlet, regardless of its geographic location. At the meeting with the VPs, Robin made a 10-minute presentation on Internet portals. Her research on this new technology leads her to believe this might help the VPs solve the problem of accessing information that has not been readily available to mid-level managers working with customers. At this point, Robin just knows that software packages exist that can make information available to company employees. She’s not able to articulate all the pros and cons of the technology and has not yet called any outside consultants for advice. Robin believes that the primary challenge for this new technology will be to create a real-time “retail connectivity” that will allow vendor collaboration, multichannel integration, and public and private trading exchanges across the globe.

Question?

You are required to research software implementation timelines and determine for a company such as TRC, what the components of a system implementation include and what is the timing by component and overall basis. Including a timeline would be suggested. NOTE: You will find some of the information in the textbook (Chapter 13). Please take advantage of the information contained in the textbook. Your objective is to not merely copy the steps however but to correlate them back to TRC.

Outline/Guide of the answer :

Surveys of companies who implemented EPs indicate that:

• Most firms were in the financial management, process manufacturing, and business/legal services industries
• Almost half had no performance metrics in place to measure the financial impact of their portal initiative
• The EP implementations were usually accomplished by a cross-functional team
• Implementations usually started with a specific department or departments and then expanded to the rest of the organization (providing time to focus on problems and issues with individuals, software, technology, etc.)

A variety of sources suggest useful steps that organizations might take to implement an EP. Not surprisingly, these steps are similar to any large project implementation that an organization might attempt. Accordingly, students should identify several of the following:

• Select a function or department in the organization to get started (don’t try to implement an EP for the entire organization immediately)
• As with any project, select a team of individuals (preferably from across the organization) and have them define the scope of the project and the information needs of the department
• The project team should next work with IT people (and perhaps consultants) to identify the systems requirements and determine what is feasible
• If possible, have the vendor do a prototype for individuals in the organization to use and test the features of the portal; evaluate and continue to work with the vendor until users are satisfied
• Implement the portal application, perhaps in parallel with existing systems so that employees and other stakeholders are comfortable with the new system before the old one is disabled