Beyond enterprise resource planning projects: innovative strategies for competitive advantage

ABSTRACT A rapidly changing business environment and legacy IT problems has resulted in many organisations implementing standard package solutions. This 'common systems' approach establishes a common IT and business process infrastructure within organisations and its increasing dominance raises several important strategic issues. These are to what extent do common systems impose common business processes and management systems on competing firms, and what is the source of competitive advantage if the majority of firms employ almost identical information systems and business processes? A theoretical framework based on research into legacy systems and earlier IT strategy literature is used to analyse three case studies in the manufacturing, chemical and IT industries. It is shown that the organisations are treating common systems as the core of their organisations' abilities to manage business transactions. To achieve competitive advantage they are clothing these common systems with information systems designed to capture information about competitors, customers and suppliers, and to provide a basis for sharing knowledge within the organisation and ultimately with economic partners. The importance of these approaches to other organisations and industries is analysed and an attempt is made at outlining the strategic options open to firms beyond the implementation of common business systems

Planning and implementation of effective collaboration in construction projects

The 21st century is now seen as the time for the construction industry to embrace new ways of working if it is to continue to be competitive and meet the needs of its ever demanding clients. Collaborative working is considered by many to be essential if design and construction teams are to consider the whole lifecycle of the construction product. Much of the recent work on collaborative working has focused on the delivery of technological solutions with a focus on web (extranets), CAD (visualisation), and knowledge management technologies. However, it is now recognised that good collaboration does not result from the implementation of information technology solutions alone. The organisational and people issues, which are not readily solved by pure technical systems, need to be resolved. However, approaches that exclusively focus on organisational and people issues will not reap the benefits derived from the use of technology, especially in the context of distributed teams which are the norm in construction. Work currently being undertaken at Loughborough University aims to bring together the benefits enabled by the technology, with the organisational, and its people issues to provide a framework enabling high level strategic decisions to be made to implement effective collaboration. This paper reports on the initial stages of the project: the background to the project, the methodology used, and findings from the literature survey and the requirements capture survey conducted as part of the project

An agile business process improvement methodology

Adoption of business process improvement strategies are now a concern of most organisations. Organisations are still facing challenges and finding transient solutions to immediate problems. The misalignment between IT solutions and organisational aspects evolves across space and time showing discrepancies. Unfortunately, existing business process approaches are not according with continuous business process improvement involving business stakeholders. Considering this limitation in well-known Business Process (BP) methodologies, this paper presents a comparative study of some approaches and introduces agility in the Business Process and Practice Alignment Methodology (BPPAM). Our intention is to present observed problems in existing approaches and introduce agility in our proposal to address features, like the alignment between daily work practices and business process descriptions, in a simple and agile way. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V

Investigating different strategies for increasing sales and customer base

The study primarily discusses about the different strategies that the management of the company can implement in order to boost their customer base and net sales. The main aim of the research is to evaluate different strategies for increasing sales and customer base. A qualitative method was taken for this research, and data was collected with the help of primary and secondary methods. In the primary method, a semi-structured interview was conducted on the organisation’s premises with the store manager and other staff members. The secondary data was collected from books and the internet. The study has an emphasised focus on laying down several goals and objectives that the study plans to achieve. In this study, the researcher has tried to formulate the latest data and information about the company in order to provide the management with the latest insights about customer preferences and techniques that can be used for improving their decision-making process. The study has laid down processes and procedures that were followed in order to prepare the entire study. The key findings of the research are to introduce the new product, give some rewards points and add some more options for customers. The foremost recommendations for the organisation will be to improve communication with their customers, and to use PayWave service and wi-fi facility. Moreover, they should use social media and other platforms to advertise their products and add more features and varieties to the existing product to attract the attention of customers

Small business preference for software package

Until late 2016, the majority of small business uses QuickBooks and Excel to do their accounting work. However, the functions of these accounting tools are insufficient, and also the demands of companies are increasing. It has become inefficient and antiquated to use the software. A small business looked for new accounting software, but found that choosing an accounting software system is not straightforward, as every software package consists of different functions for users. The aim of this research was to analyse small business’ perceptions and preferences for accounting software systems in New Zealand. This is followed by an analysis of why users might want to replace their previous accounting software systems. In addition, the requirements for selecting accounting software were analysed. The main method used was qualitative research. Three people were interviewed regarding the reason for replacing their previous accounting software system. The first interviewee had not changed their accounting software system previously, but their reason for replacing their current accounting software system was that their previous accounting software system lacked the functionality he wanted. The second interviewee said e she disliked that the system frequently crashed and that it lacked the features she wanted. The reason why the last interviewee changed her previous accounting software system was that MYOB system could not improve her work efficiency

Trust between service provider and customer in online environments

Nowadays online shopping is getting more and more popular in China. However, opportunities and challenges are coexisting, and the growth of e-commerce is also inevitable. In e-commerce online, trust has become a significant factor hindering development. A New Zealand organisation faces a lot of competitors. In order to increase its market share and remain competitive in the market, the organisation needs to have more loyal customers who repeatedly purchase their products. Therefore, the organisation should find an appropriate way to form or create trust with customers, to retain them. This research investigates how trust has been created in an online environment between an organisation and its customers. A qualitative method was adopted in this research and data collected using semi-structured interviews. The collected data was analysed adopting a thematic analysis method. The research findings show that a two-way communication system is the core factor in forming trust in the online environment. This research suggests that the organisation should consider two-way communication seriously, and develop that as a useful tool to build trust between them and customers; not just as a communication tool but as a tool for trust formation

The impact of cloud accounting

The accounting industry has experienced a substantial transformation from manual bookkeeping of ledgers and trial balances to advanced accounting software. Many accounting firms, though, use accounting software with standalone packages which do not support the web. As a result, accounting firms demanded integrated software which could manage overall business management system. Accounting firms rely on software advancements in technology and specialised accounting software that can help financial activities like accounts, administrative tasks, payroll, tax and sales systems with fewer complexities. Real time information gave rise to the demand for accounting services which have higher accessibility of cloud-based software applications. The adoption of cloud accounting applications for accounting firms at accelerating speed leads to the question of considering the impact of cloud accounting software which has effects on the operational expenses of accounting firms. This research examines what encourages small accounting firms to grasp cloud accounting. The qualitative method of collecting data of small accounting firms was done through the distribution of questionnaires that use cloud accounting software. Findings from this research were used to understand the impact of employee training and IT costs which firms face by implementing cloud based accounting. The firms in this research have majorly agreed that they experienced overall increase in their operational costs. As a result, organisational efficiency was also increased. The recommendations provided by the researchers point to a similar study to find out the impact of profitability on firms from implementing cloud software and suggest to firms how to use cloud software to expand their client base

Facebook used as an active marketing channel to expand customer base at a restaurant

The selected restaurant provides Cantonese style Chinese food. However, there has been a significant decrease in customers after opening day. The owner spent on newspaper promotion before opening day. The reality is that only a few people came. Therefore, the owner is looking for advice on the way of increasing his customer base and awareness. The project aims to demonstrate the value of using Facebook as a marketing channel to help a new Chinese restaurant promote itself to the public to increase profit and its customer base. The project gathered a total of 93 questionnaires and one interview by using mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative), followed by a theoretical review to show the owner that Facebook is the most effective channel to increase customer base and awareness. The results show that more than 95% of participants have social media and almost 92% of them have Facebook. 80% of participants agree that the restaurant should have a Facebook account so they can receive promotion and news. In conclusion, Facebook is the most effective and efficient channel to help the business get more attention from the public under the situation

Internal control system in small businesses

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of the financial part of the internal control system in an organisation. This research is conducted to examine the effectiveness of the financial system. This study adopted qualitative methods by using semi-structured interviews. The primary data collection was by face-to-face interviews. The number of participants was five people, including the manager, owner and two employees working in the organisation. Thematic analysis was used for the primary textual data. The main findings revealed that inventory is not classified according to its types, e.g. food and beverages. There is no separate account used for the financial transaction of food from beverages. The inventory is consumed randomly. In the restaurant no computer system is used, all the transactions are done manually. No allowances are made for urgent cases. There is an inability to detect fraud due to inaccurate manual recording. The organisation does not adopt any strategy of pricing, the process is made randomly. They do not have any future plans. They only have records that relate to sales, which are calculated at the end of each day. It is recommended that the inventory needs to be classified according to its types. The consumption of inventory should be made systematically. A computer system should be used to prevent errors and fraud. A skilled employee who can guide current employees regarding the operations of financial system in the organisation is needed

Challenges of the multicultural workforce which effect business growth and service

This research is based on the multicultural workforce of a local cleaning organisation. The main question of the research is what are the challenges faced by this multicultural organisation for making good relationships between employer and employee? The aim of the research is based on the challenges and effects of multicultural organisations on the growth of business and quality of services. The research methodology used is qualitative and the data collection method was interviews. Results of the research are based on thematic analysis methods and direct toward communication barriers, teamwork, cultural values or thinking of diverse employees. The multicultural workforce helps in the growth of the business and improves the service quality of the business