Bullwhip effect (or whip effect) is a condition that occurs in the supply chain where demand from customers experiencing change (distortion). These changes resulted in a series of effects that would disrupt the supply chain. The uncertainty of customer demand which is the major cause of bullwhip effect.
Distorted information from one end of a supply chain to the other can lead to tremendous inefficiencies: excessive inventory investment, poor customer service, lost revenues, misguided capacity plans, ineffective transportation, and missed production schedules
A classic example of the effect is baby nappies or diapers. Babies are fairly regular in their use of nappies - they have a new nappy (almost) every time they feed. Sure, there is seasonal variation in the birth rates as more babies are conceived in spring (when male sperm count is significantly higher than in any other season; however this is not globally consistent and the there is some debate over the role of both temperature and the day length. Neither-the-less, this seasonal variation is small compared to the widely fluctuating and erratic production rates experienced by the diaper manufacturer after the orders have passed through the supermarkets and distribution centres.
Else example is at Hewlett-Packard (HP) company. When Hewlett-Packard (HP) executives examined the sales of one of its printers at a major reseller, they found that there were, as expected, some fluctuations over time. However, when they examined the orders from the reseller, they observed much bigger swings. Also, to their surprise, they discovered that the orders from the printer division to the company’s integrated circuit division had even greater fluctuations.
What happens when a supply chain is plagued with a bullwhip effect that distorts its demand information as it is transmitted up the chain? In the past, without being able to see the sales of its products at the distribution channel stage, HP had to rely on the sales orders from the resellers to make product forecasts, plan capacity, control inventory, and schedule production. Big variations in demand were a major problem for HP’s management. The common symptoms of such variations could be excessive inventory, poor product forecasts, insufficient or excessive capacities, poor customer service due to unavailable products or long backlogs, uncertain production planning (i.e., excessive revisions), and high costs for corrections, such as for expedited shipments and overtime. HP’s product division was a victim of order swings that were exaggerated by the resellers relative to their sales; it, in turn, created additional exaggerations of order swings to suppliers.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a way of using technology to give serve to customer. Customer relationship management (CRM) is a widely-implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support. The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former clients back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and client service
Many benefit of CRM are :
·Improve customer satisfaction
·Share customer information more easily
·Increase sales by up selling and cross selling other products
·Identify most profitable and unprofitable customers
There are many pieces of software available that offer customer relationship management features, but in reality, CRM goes beyond software implementation. It's a business strategy that often involves using multiple pieces of software, as well as implementing policies that promote (1) the collection of customer information, and (2) the use of that information by individuals throughout the company in order to maximize customer service and increase sales.
The customer relationship management system is an enterprise system, which means that it spans multiple departments. Virtually all departments within a corporation have at least some indirect access to customers, or customer information; the goal of CRM is to collect that information in a central repository, analyze it, and make it available to all departments. For example, a company's call center may have a "screen pop," a small application that is connected to the phone system. This application, which is a type of CRM, automatically senses who is calling, and by the time the agent answers the phone, produces a screen on the computer that lists important information about the caller, such as what they have purchased in the past, what they are likely to buy in the future, and what products the company may have available that would go well with what the customer has already bought. This "screen pop" is made up of several bits of information from different databases; it may draw on information from the accounting department to show the agent what their current balance may be; it may draw on information from the sales department to show what has been purchased recently, and it may draw on information from the credit department to show the agent what terms can be offered.
Because a customer relationship management system is so complex, often involving multiple silos of information and multiple pieces of software, all tied together in a single interface, it's often hard to set up. Some larger companies use an integrator to put the CRM system together. Because of the complexity of CRM, smaller companies often see it as too expensive. However, even the smallest company can implement a CRM strategy. While a Fortune 500 company may spend hundreds of thousands of dollars annually on customer relationship management, a small one-man shop may even handle CRM with a box of index cards and a ball point pen. Midsize companies may use simple, off-the-shelf software such as contact managers and spreadsheets, and still have a very effective CRM system that can help them to serve customers in the best possible way, and to make the most advantageous use of information that has been collected.
One of example company that use CRM is “samsung”. Samsung is a market leader in Consumer Electronics and Cell Phones. For more than 70 years, Samsung has been at the forefront of innovation. Our discoveries, inventions and breakthrough products have helped shape the history of the digital revolution.
To cut the time in the supply chain, SAMSUNG Electronics stringing 4 processes, namely the process of customer management, process R & D management, and supply chain management processes. The process that will connect the R & D, production, marketing and customers. Also, to answer the needs of IT infrastructure in order to speed up 4 processes, They use the ERP system (Enterprise Resource Planning - Resources Action Plan) on the branches throughout the country and abroad. SAMSUNG Electronics will combine and make the system network SCM (Supply Chain Management-Procurement Interwoven Management), PDM (Product Data Management) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and develop management information systems appropriate world time.
One way of Samsung to run CRM is with use facebook. Samsung use facebook and create their self part in facebook to their activities especially sales, marketing and to give serve of customer. Samsung can promote their product using facebook. We know that facebook is one of succes social media with more than 2 millions follower in wolrd.
Samsung can promote their product using facebook. Can publish about new product to much people, with writing at the wall or etc. Example is when Samsung promote Nexus as a new product, they write in wall : Nexus S is here! Samsung has announced the release of the first smartphone to feature the new Google Android 2.3 OS. Nexus S will be available in the U.S. and U.K. later this month. Check out the details here: http://bit.ly/eteCXQ
Beside Samsung can give serve to customer. It is trough wall of facebook or through the board discussion. Samsung use facebook to as a place to talk about Samsung Mobile and all things mobile. Samsung hear abou suggest from customer, hear abou the advice, or about the complain from the customer. Then they respons it. It is one of act, that they care to customer. They love passionate conversation, but let's keep it clean and fun. They reserve the right to remove content we deem abusive, offensive, or off-topic and will block users from this page if repeated inappropriate behavior is observed. One more thing. If we need assistance with your Samsung product, the fastest and most effective way to reach it is at www.samsung.com/support. As we known Samsung Hava a filosofi is devote human resources and technology to create products and exceptional service, thereby contributing to a better global society.
SAMSUNG Electronics provide unique solutions to meet customer needs. For this, Samsung will expand marketing programs based on CRM (Customer Relationship Management - Customer Relationship Management) at the world level that can be applied to all products. Samsung also will develop a digital network by improving the compatibility between products with the best solutions to serve our customers. SAMSUNG Electronics place and will continue to place our consumers' needs as the main thing driving the market for a company who can be trusted.
CHAPTER OPENING CASE : CARS.COM’S INFRASTRUCTURE DRIVERS RAPID BUSINESS GROWTH
Cars.com is one of destination for online car shoppers . They give much information to the buyers, like pricing information, photo galleries, side by side comparison tools. Video, and a huge selection of new and used car inventory. These information, need to make confident buying decision by the buyers. That’s means Cars.com use information system and technology here to develop aggressive strategy and expansion. The core of this case is highlight the critical role that hardware and software investments can play in improving business performance.
IT INFRASTRUCTURE :COMPUTER HARDWARE
Business require a wide variety of computing equipment, software, and communication capabilities siply to operate and solve basic business problem. And related to all of that activities, it is need equipment, a computer. Employees need computer to do they work, they use Google to find many information. It is not just about employee, it is also about to all activities of people.
Each computerwill require an operating system and a wide range application software capable of dealing with spreadsheets, documents and data files. Unless you are single person business, you will most likely want to have a network to link all the people in your business together and perhaps your customers and suppliers. Finally, IT infrastructure provide foundation, or platform, for supporting all the information system in the business.
Infrastructure Components
IT infrastructure is composed of five major components, they are :
1)Computer Hardware : Consist of technology for computer processing, data storage , input, and output. This components include large mainframes, serves, desktop, keyboard, and etc.
2)Computer software : includes both system software ( manages the resources and activities) and application software( applies the computer to specific task for an end user).
3)Data management technology : organizes data and make them available to business users.
4)Networking and telecommunication technology : provides data, voice, and video connectivity to employees, customers, and suppliers.
5)Technology services : computer is one of tools to apply technology for work.
Types of computer
Computer hardware can be classified based on the nature of the business challenge, are :
·If you are working alone or with a few other people in small business, you will probably, be using a desktop or laptop personal computer (PC).
·If you are doing advanced design or engineering work requiring powerful graphics or computational capabilities, you might use a workstation.
·A mainframe is a large capacity, high performance computer that can process large amounts of data very rapidly. One of example, mainframe use in airplane.
·A supercomputer is a specially designed and more sophisticated computer that used for task requiring extremely rapid and complex calculations with thousand of variables, millions of measurements, and thousands of equations.
·Grid computing involves connecting geographically remote computers into a single network to create a virtual supercomputer by combining the computational power of all computers on the grid.
Storage, Input, And Output Technology
The principal secondary storage technologies are magnetic disk, optical disk, and magnetic tape. Optical CD-ROM and DVD discs can store vast amounts of data compactly and some types are rewritable. Storage area networks connect multiple storage devices on separate high-speed network dedicated to storage.
·The principal input devices are keyboards, computer mice, touch screens, magnetic ink and optical characters recognition devices, pen based-instruments, digital scanners, sensors, audio input devices and radio-frequency identification devices.
·The principal output devices are display monitors, printers, and audio output devices.
Contemporary Hardware Trends
The exploding power of computer hardware and networking technology has dramatically changed how business organize their computing power, putting more of this power on the networks, The six trends are : the emerging mobile digital platform, nanotechnology, cloud computing, autonomic computing, virtualization, and multicore processors.
IT INFRASTRUCTURE : COMPUTER SOFTWARE
Computer software provides the detailed instructions that the direct the computer’s work. Computer software consist of :
1)System software : operating system, language translators , and utility programs.
2)Application software : programming languages and “fourth-generation” languages.
System software and application software are interrelated and can be thought as a set of nested boxes, each which must interact closely with the other boxes surrounding it. System software controls access to the hardware. Application software must work through the system to operate. The users interacts primaly with the application software.
System Software
Operating software is the system software that manages andcontrols the computer’s activities. The operating system is the computer system’s chief manager, enabling the system to handle many different task and users at the same time. The operating system allocates and assigns system resources, schedules the use of computer resources and computer jobs, and monitors computer system activities. The leading PC and server operating system includes Windows family of operating system ( Windows 7, Windows Vista. Windows Server 2008), UNIX, LINUX, and The Macintosh operating system.
Other system software consist of computer language translation programs that convert programming programming languages into machine language that can be understood by the computer and utility programs that perform common processing task such as copying, sorting, or computing a square root.
Application Software And Desktop Productivity Tools
The principal programming languages used in business application software include COBOL, C, C++, and Visual Basic. Fourth-generation languages are less procedural than conventional programming languages and enablw end users to perform many software tasks that previously required technical specialist. They include popular PC and cloud-based desktop productivity tools such as word processing, spreadsheet, data management, presentation graphics, and web browser software. Java is an operating-system and hardware-independent programming language that is the leading interactive programming environment for the web. HMTL is a page description language for creating Web pages.
Software Trends
Today there are many more sources for obtaining software and many more capabilities for users to create their own customized software applications. Expanding use of open source software and cloud-based software tools and services exemplify this trend.
MANAGING HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY
Selection and use of computer hardware and software technology has a profound impact onBusiness performance. Many important issues, will face when in managing hardware and software namely :
Capacity Planning And Scalability
From IT perspective, capacity planning is the process of predicting when a computer hardware systems become saturated. It considers factor such as the maximum numbers of users that the system can accommodate at one time, the impact of existing and the future software application and etc. Scalability refers the ability of a computer, product, or system to expand to serve a large number of users without breaking down.
Total Cost Of Ownership(TCO) of Technology Assets
The total cost model can be used to analyze these direct and indirect costs to help determine the actual costs of owning a specific technology.
Using Technology Service Provides
In the past,most companies ran their own computer facilities and develop their own source. Today, more and more companies are obtaining their hardware and software technology from external and service vendors.
Managing Mobile Platforms and Software Localization
Many Thousands of wireless devices to configure and monitor that firm have, will be challenge to integrate this new platform with the firm’s existing IT infrastructure and applications. Software localization is a entire process of converting software to operate in a second language.
HANDS-ON MIS PROJECT
Beside there is many way to developing solutions for managing IT infrastuctures an IT outsourching, using spreatsheet software to evaluate alternative desktop systems, and using Web reaseach to budget for a sales conference.
