Lecture Outline 6 Marketing Systems ( ) Human Resource Systems ( )

The Marketing Function *X Marketing can be defined as “the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, sales and distribution of ideas, goods and / or services to create exchanges that satisfy individual (customer) and organizational (business ) goals.”

Marketing Mix *X Product Price Promotion Place (where and when product available to customers)

System co-ordination needed *MC To be successful, marketing systems must be coordinated with other organizational systems, e.g., –Order Entry –Manufacturing –Inventory –Credit management

Operational Systems Sales force automation: *L –Salesperson with laptop can demonstrate benefits of insurance policy alternatives in customer’s home –Information from calls on customer purchasing managers (eg. Quotations, Orders) can be entered on site

Operational systems (cont’d) Customer contact management systems *L –Provide information on past contacts with specific customers –Output: call report: No. of sales calls made by a salesperson No. and dollar amount of sales made by this person

Operational systems (cont’d) *MC Telemarketing systems –Identify customers and automatically call them –Use electronic phone directories –Can make notes about calls –In a LAN-based system, 200 telemarketers can use the same system at the same time Direct mail advertising systems –Create mailing labels Delivery tracking and routing systems –Help plan optimal delivery routes

Tactical Systems *L Data from operational systems, which now ‘sits’ in tables in a relational database on disk, is summarized in various ways for extra managerial insight Considerable ad hoc reporting is available here

Tactical systems (cont’d) *L Objective of tactical marketing managers: –To reach the sales goals set by top marketing executives –They must make tactical decisions such as: How sales territories should be shaped How to allocate salespersons to territories What products should be offered to what customers –Sales management systems help here

Tactical systems (cont’d) Sales management systems: *L Examples of output: –Effectiveness of different salespersons with different segments of the market –Assessment of the productivity of the sales force, and the fertileness of sales territories –Success of products by salesperson, territory and product type

Tactical systems (cont’d) Advertising and promotion systems *X –Help decide which advertising media and promotion system to use –Can produce tactical reports e.g., on effectiveness of advertising campaigns –Marketing research firms specialize in advertising and promotion data collection and analysis

Tactical systems (cont’d) Pricing systems *L –Help managers set prices for their products and services –Inputs may be: Costs of labour and materials Costs of advertising Expected competitive prices etc. –May employ pricing models that identify the best price for a product under a variety of conditions

Strategic Systems May contain both strategic and tactical elements Sales forecasting systems *L –Forecast sales for entire industry –For entire organization –For each product –For market segments for a product –Employ sophisticated statistical models and may produce considerable graphic output

Strategic systems (cont’d) Market research systems *MC –Process results of surveys and interviews –Provide analyses of statistical significance –Use considerable data from outside the company

Software used in Marketing *L General purpose software: –Database mgt, spreadsheets & graphics, statistical software Specific marketing systems (such as identified earlier) Recall also: data mining of data warehouses (to identify undiscovered relationships)

A related area Customer Relationship Management *L –using data on previous contacts with a specific customer to enhance future contacts with that customer –Enables customization of products / services –Will be covered later

Human Resource Systems Major activities in HR: *MC –Recruiting employees, evaluating applicants –Selecting, placing, promoting, transferring and terminating employees –Training employees –Managing employee wage and benefit plans –Analyzing and designing job positions Producing job descriptions –Producing government reports –Planning for workforce needs

Operational Systems Historically, payroll was the first *MC –But, we consider it to be part of the AIS Related to expenditure cycle Employee information systems *MC –Maintain information on every employee for various reporting purposes –Employee profile: basic personal data, education, previous experience, employment history in org., preferred location for work ….

Operational systems (cont’d) Employee Information System –May contain skills inventory component Employee’s work experience, work preferences, test scores, interests, special skills How could this be used Attendance recording systems *MC –May use negative reporting (only when absent) –Include overtime credits etc.

Operational systems (cont’d) Employee scheduling systems *MC – can get complex with shift work (e.g, nurses) –Must adhere to union regulations Performance management systems *MC –Appraisal data can be filled out on special screens –Performance measures (no. of purchase orders processed per day) may be included

Operational systems (cont’d) Performance management systems: –Collect and store textual data e.g., written comments of supervisor –Need careful documentation of employee performance and how performance was measured (e.g., for grievance hearings) –May have tactical components Which supervisors give high number of poor evals. Which labour sources provide unacceptable workers Government reporting systems *X –- Record of Employment

Tactical Systems Position control systems *MC –Keep data on each job position in the org. E.g. task content –Can be useful for job redesign Which job positions require data entry? Which require statistical analysis Recruiting systems *MC –Provide list of planned retirements –List skills, preferences of current employees –Analyze turnover rates among various classes of employees

Tactical systems (cont’d) Compensation and benefit systems *L –“cafeteria style benefits” for employees to choose from –Considerable data storage here –Tactical: how much to increase compensation plans to attract high quality employees What kind of benefits are different categories of employees choosing? –May be available on organizational intranet

Strategic Systems Long-term workforce planning *MC –What are the HR needs to meet organization’s strategic plan for next 5-10 years? –Forecasting supply and demand of required workforce Labour negotiation support systems *X –Must be timely and have ad hoc capacity –Assist in bargaining sessions with unions

HRIS software *MC HR systems store much more textual data than other functional systems There are specific HR systems for sale Use of HRIS is not as widespread in small to medium businesses

Need for Connectivity *MC Although we studied systems supporting each functional area separately, there is a dire need for connectivity among these systems How can systems “talk” to each other? –E.g. can share common database How might order entry, accounts receivable, finance, manufacturing systems need to be connected? How would this help?

Problems with Connectivity *L Various systems were developed at different times, in different languages, using different data sources and maybe different hardware technologies Legacy systems: “inherited” from the “good old days” of COBOL or RPG Read p Is it worth revamping such old systems?

Achieving system integration An option for system integration throughout most of the organization is to implement an enterprise resource planning system (ERP) p. 263