Case needs analysis
The aim of the report is to evaluate the needs of the information system within the company. Being working as an IT consultant for an Australian company Harvey Norman, it is essential to help the company with the best IT solution. The company is a retailer and deals in different products furniture, bedding, computers, communication and other consumer electrical product and the product that has been selected is computers.
The report includes the analysis related to the company and the overview of the issues faced by the company. According to the challenges, it has been found that the company needs an enterprise management system that will support the strategy of the company. In addition, the identification related to the two alternative information system has been done that can meet the needs of the company. Further, it includes the discussion related to the choice of in-house development and outsourcing components that suits best to the company. In the end, there is discussion related to the data analysis to the company revenue/success.
Harvey Norman is one of the large Australian-based multi-national retailers who perform their operations in Australia as well as in different countries. The retail company offer products like furniture, bedding, computers, communication and other consumer electrical products. The history of the company shows that the company came into existence in the year 1961 and was opened by Gerry Harvey and Ian Norman. This has been found that the major business strategy which is followed by the company is expansion through franchising. The company owned stores are operated by the independent franchisees. The franchisees of the company offer the same products which are offered in Australia stores. In addition, this has been found that with the large operations company is dealing with some or other issues which are related to the IT system.
Recently, it was found that the company faced the issue related to the supply of products. According to this, the company made use of the IT systems which helped to improve the supply chain system. This shows that the company follow the business strategy of change management in the company.
The operations of the company are increasing with the rise in the issues which can be resolved with the help of the IT system. The product on which the company focuses is computer. Harvey Norman deals in retailing of computers and sells them through their stores as it is one of the major products. They are currently facing the issues related to the retail of computer in stores. The major business challenges which are faced include: –
- The requirement of the replacement in the ageing infrastructure but retaining the existing functionality of the computer retails in stores.
- Bringing the rise in the capacity to the effective and efficient support extensive company services related to the computers.
- The company is looking for the rise in the future growth and increase in an online presence with the extra capacity and functionality.
- Harvey Norman is dealing with issues due to the rapidly changing technologies and future growth related to computers.
The company has the configuration information related to their network that is placed or stored in different locations. This majorly includes excel spreadsheets, hardcoded in software, in network design documentation. It include the centralisation of the all configuration data into one location that offer the benefit to Harvey Norman on different level which include reducing the overheads of maintaining the information at single location, maintaining data in the accurate and reliable level and to offer launching platform which contribute in developing the system tools that can reduce the network downtime.
Information Technology
This has been identified from the issues and needs of the Harvey Norman that there is need of the Enterprise Management System. The current system that is followed by the company is to reach the end-of-useful life and availability of the external support limited. Now, it is the time when there is a need to build the best design to infrastructure with the help of the IT system. Harvey Norman found on the e-commerce site that the New Enterprise management system is required to monitor the operations in real-time.
Enterprise management system is considered as the large-scale application software that provide the support to business process, reporting of activity, information flows and the data analytics in the complex organisation. The information technology system offers numerous benefits to the company which shows its importance. The effective information system within the Harvey Norman will improve the process by proper organising the data, making effective decisions for the company, controlling the data, storing the required information, analysing and planning for the business and their relevant operations. This impacts the company in a positive manner as they will be able to manage the retail of computers through stores. In addition to this, the management of the data through information and effective decision making will contribute in increasing the sales of the company. Further, the different departments of the company make use of the Information system for their operations and activities. These departments include marketing, finance, human resources and manufacturing. The major focus is done on the retail department of products.
Being the IT consultant, this has been found that the work will be performed effectively when the company will take the help from the expert with the home IT consultants. The company needs to decide to perform the connection with the DeployPartners who can support to take the steps to build the information system. Once the DeployPartners will be map out and assess the Harvey Norman’s infrastructure to offer a suitable real-time enterprise management system that can support the critical application. The key functional components of the solution that is built related to the information system. The department to which the system integrated includes the work of the environment system, uninterrupted power supply, monitoring the human resource and the temperature probes that are situated within the distributed storage network. The hub of the operational solution is designed by DeployPartner that is Tivoli Netcool OMNIbus. The system is the master event repository for the fault management system.
This enterprise management system integrates each of the Netcool components that contribute in delivering the real-time, centralised monitoring of the complex networks with the IT domains. This server helps the company in handling the events and data sources currently being experienced with approx. of 400-500 events per hour. This tool allows the company embedded the network. This infrastructure helps the company in improving the overhead of marinating the information which is a process followed by retail department. Ultimately, this tool helps the company in designing the new infrastructure. Though, on the other hand, Harvey Norman needs to spend the huge amount for managing the infrastructure which is considered as one of the weaknesses of the system.
WEBGUI
WebGUI is considered as one of the effective user-interface that is mainly used by the Harvey Norman to view the events and network topology graphically. This information system works like a dashboard to reflects the health of sites throughout a company with the use of traffic light colour system to help in problem areas. This will help the operator to detect the services or the areas where the fault can take place.
The major strength of this system is that it supports the company in identifying the faults and errors in the operations. This will help the company to process their business processes effectively in support of the competitive strategies. Along with this, the major weakness of the IT system is that it doesn’t include detecting and acquiring data that can help the company to take the steps for the betterment of computers retail.
The approach of the cost-benefit analysis is used majorly as a systematic approach to analysing the strengths and weaknesses of the alternative. Harvey Norman makes use of this analysis for evaluating the decisions, system and values. Considering the strengths and weakness of the company, this has been found that the benefits which are offered by the Omnibus system are effective rather than the WebGUI. In the comparison of the cost, this can be said that the cost of OMNIbus and WebGUI is high. This shows that the company should select for the IT system that offers more service at less cost.
- It is suggested to the company to select the OMBIbus IT system as it offers high advantages to Harvey Norman and meets the needs of the company. In addition, this system helps the company to get the value of the amount paid by them.
In the current era, it is considered as one of the biggest decision to decide between the hiring in-house developers or outsourcing the web developments. It is essential for the Harvey Norman to compare and then decide the best for them. These factors include risks, advantages and costs which are discussed below: –
In the in-house and outsourcing risks, in the outsourcing risk, the company need to trust the folks who share different advantages. In addition, there will be confirmation related to the product quality. On the other hand, in-house requires you to hire viable talent, management of employees and the turnover of employees.
The company has the ability to form the culture around the product for the development. The teams can easily focus on the product with the common goal. Along with this, in-house development can be flexible due to which the changes can take place according to the needs of the company. This will make the company aware of every bit of progress, every need of the product and many other. Though, on the other hand, the advantage that outsourcing offer includes skills related to the data science, design, programming with the experience of the person. Along with this, the company will get numerous benefits like installation, evaluation, expert opinion and efficient implementation of the tool that meet the needs of the company and reduce the issues.
The company need to spend a good amount for the employees to whom they are hiring for performing the operations within the company. The team of web development will be able to manage the resources of the company effectively. The employees who are hired by the company for the current issues will remain in the organisation for long. Though, on the other hand, outsourcing remains a lot less expensive than owning an IT department. The company just need to pay the amount for the project that they are willing to get it complete by outsourced web developers.
Harvey Norman should select the outsourcing by forming the contacts through the DeployPartner that can offer the benefit by resolving the issues faced by the company. The company can include their IT consultant with the deploy team so that this can become cost effective and helps the team to understand the exact needs of the company. Along with this, this will be onetime payment for the company. In addition, they will get the Information system from the expert that will contribute to the success of the company. There is less risk involved because the DeployPartner are known in the market that offers fair value to the company.
Data analysis is the process through which the proper applying of the statistical and techniques to define and illustrate, condense and evaluate data. In other words, the data analysis is a process of inspecting, transforming and cleansing data with the goal of discovering the useful information and support the decisions that are taken by the company.
The analysis of data permits the company in determining the essential trends which can use by them to meet the goals. In addition, the data analysis assists the business in determining the problems that are majorly faced by the company so that the company can take relevant actions to solve the problems. The analysis of the data offers the competitive advantage to the Harvey Norman with the help of which they can compete with the competitors in the market. Harvey Norman can make use of the data analysis in the market for understanding the habits of potential customers so that they can meet their expectations by offering them appropriate products.
The data analysis of Harvey Norman helps in analysing the change in the preference of the existing customers from which they are earning high revenue. This will help the company to meet the needs of the existing customers. Thus, the company will be able to earn the profit from the existing customers. In addition, the data analysis helps in understanding the preferred items and their details which can use by them again when the customer visits. Thus, the company can welcome them with their names and offer them the most preferable item with the discounts. This will help the company to increase goodwill and ultimately leads to the rise in revenue. The effective use of data analysis in the supply chain management of the company helps in easy availability of products which leads to revenue from existing customers. The future plan includes the need for data analysis for evaluating the actual faults and achievement of needs of the company. This reflects that data analysis plays a vital role in IT.
Conclusion
In the end, it can be concluded that the issues and needs of the Harvey Norman product is reflected related to the information system. This is clear that the company need an Information system which helps them in understanding the best solution for computer retails and can help the business for increasing revenue and improving operations. The two IT systems that are designed by DeployPartners are recommended to the company which include OMNIbus and WebGUI with the proper analysis. Further, there is analysis related to the in-house development and outsourcing that helps the company to make the choice. In the end, the report includes the discussion of data analysis and its need.
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