Project Mangement

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT

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                                    Builders Warehouse  

Helen Macfarlane

Table of Contents

Executive Summary        2

Part 1        3

Q1. Identify, compare and evaluate the nature of information in decision making at strategic level        4

Identify, compare and evaluate the nature of information in decision making at tactical level        4

Identify  compare and evaluate the nature of information in decision making at  the operational level………………………………………………………………………. 4        

Q2 Information systems        4

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP        4

Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)        5

Q3. Current legislation and how it may affect the business        6

GDPR 2018        6

Computer Misuse Act 1990         6

Part 2  Q1 and Q2        7

WANs        8

The internet        8

Q3 Three threats to security        8

Malicious use        8

Data theft        8

Hacking        8

Q4. Identify and evaluate three ICT innovation        9

Tablets        9

Videoconferencing        9

Conclusion.        10

References        10

Executive Summary


Builders Warehouse was founded in 1984 by brothers James and Peter Stewart. The company has undergone rapid expansion. Due to the expansion there are now disjointed, and mismatched set of systems’ current ICT must be assessed and are posing a real threat to the company’s growth objective. A study of the current systems will follow and a new design for a single integrated system throughout the organisation will be implement according to the findings. The new system should also follow current IT legislation and correct user training established.

Part 1 Identify and evaluate the of business information in decision making

Q1. Identify, compare and evaluate the nature of information in decision making at strategic level

At the strategic level of decision making the Directors James and Peter are responsible for the long-term planning, goals and objectives for Builders Warehouse. Their long-term plan is to grow the company through opening new stores and to expand growth in the existing stores. Strategic decisions are unstructured as they done by judgement and evaluation of the situation.  The decisions made at this level affect the whole company. One internal level of information required at this level of decision making is financial information the budget would be assessed. This would be assessed to ensure that the company can afford to open new stores and improve existing stores. Would the long-term plan be profitable and making changes to technology be potentially the way forward to improve processes and systems? All this information is needed to ensure that I have the right information to make the correct decisions. One external level of information is that of government information ensuring that the business is ran successfully and legally. Finding out how much staff should be earning according to government statistics and keeping the staff wages in line with other businesses and above the minimum wage if necessary. If technology is to be improved, then staff would need to be trained and by doing this they might have to also improve their wages and be in line to reflect the staff’s skills.

Identify, compare and evaluate the nature of information in decision making at tactical level

At the tactical level of decision making are Jackie Spence and the branch managers and regional managers. The goals that are set by James and Peter are achieved at this level. These are achieved by deciding which tactics are used in order to achieve the company’s objectives. Decision making by tactical managers is semi structured as some of the decisions made are based on statistics, facts and information from the past. Managers party use their judgement in the decisions. One internal source of information is sales to find out the productivity in BW. The number of sales from the stores can be analysed and this can determine whether the company will be stable in the future. The external source is technology this is to be used to improve the processes and procedures in BW. The new technology and systems to analysed first before a new integrated system has been implemented.

Identify and compare and evaluate the nature of information in decision making at tactical level.        

At the operational level of decision making are the line managers and supervisors. They are concerned with the day to day running for the company. The decisions made are directed by policies and procedures of the company. The decisions are structured.as no judgement is made by the manager. One internal source of information is that staff are monitored for any problems in motivation due to the changes that are to be implemented. New technology and change of routine create anxiety and stress. One external source of information is customers. They also must be kept informed of the changes in the company and that the changes will benefit customer experience and speed up the processes throughout the stores.

Q2 Information systems

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP

ERP can be used at the strategic level of decision-making Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) can be used for strategic planning. This information system integrates all departments and function across a company into one single computer system that can serve all those departments’ needs. It runs off a single database so that various departments can share information more efficiently and communicate with each other. You can install some modules without buying the whole package. EPR can analysis future trends which is helpful in the Marketing Department.

A customer places an order that order could start off as a paper order and journey from in-basket to in-basket around the company this may be keyed and rekeyed into different departments’ and computer systems along the way. Paper orders and computer orders can go missing and keyed in incorrect instructions can cause delays and lost orders and all the keying into different computer systems invites errors.

ERP replaces the standalone computer systems in finance, HR, manufacturing and the warehouse, and replaces them with a single unified software program divided into software modules that roughly approximate the old standalone systems. Finance, manufacturing and the warehouse all still get their own software except now the software is linked together so that someone in finance can investigate the warehouse software to see if an order has been shipped. Most vendors’ ERP software is flexible enough that you can install some modules without buying the whole package. Many companies, for example, will just install an ERP finance or HR module and leave the rest of the functions for another day.

Decision Support Systems (DSS)

Decision Support Systems would be helpful in the tactical decision in the project planning. The system is a support to assist managers in the decision making. It supports planning and analysing decisions It compiles useful information from data, documents and solves problems and makes business decisions.” In 1990 DSS was expanded to include data warehousing and online analytical processing”.” Information gathered from DSS is projected revenue and sales figures, some based on new product sales projection”. “Comparative sales figures between selected time periods”. “Inventory data organised into relational database for timely analysis.”

Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)

Transaction processing systems would be used in the operational level of decisions making. This type of information system collects, stores and retrieves the data transactions of a company. Fast processing of transactions are vital to the success of the company. Due to technology progressing and customer demand for quick action processes. TPS systems are made to process transactions instantly allowing the customer data to be available when required. TPS has incorporate safety guards they ensure the failure rate is well within tolerance-controlled access to only levels authorised users. TPS are designed to ensure identical data is processed for each customer.