Free Essays, Term Papers, Research Papers at Anti Essays

The organization I intend to discuss is a home appliance retail company that has been in business for over 20 years which is privately owned and operated. It started with one store and 12 employees now, but because of completive prices and good customer services, it has been able to grown to over 25 stores through out the United States and employs just over 700 workers. The Company sells major home appliances, including refrigerators, freezers, washers, dryers and ranges through out the United States. The company’s product line includes brands of appliances that range from the low to high end.

One of the most prominent IT problems that this company faces is the lack of any centralized data management system. The information system that is currently in place is not one that was designed and implemented for a control and management purpose but one that has evolved, evolved haphazardly and separately from the other functional areas of the company.

For example companies accounting shipping, human resources, finance, marketing, all rely on their own separate data systems and processes vary from one store to the next. Nothing is automated, integrated, or networked. Due to this inefficient data construct employees are forced to rely on the inefficient, inadequate, and time consuming use of email and voice request to conduct daily business transactions. Technology available today highlights this approach to business as one that hampers productivity as well as stunts company growth.

Another confining business aspect associated with this data divide is obstructing management’s ability to retrieve and aggregate data to make knowledgeable and cost effective business decisions. Time spent obtaining, complying, and validating data pooled from multiple software sources company wide makes impossible a timely and efficiently query data. These forces managers make decisions from an incomplete knowledge base because...