Enterprise Business Processes and Reporting (IS 6214) MBS MIMAS 9th Feb 2011 Fergal Carton Business Information Systems

Last week Key ERP modules Real time reporting Cucina exercise regarding reporting requirements Cucina deliverables 4th Feb

This week Arbutus breads feedback Feedback on Cucina deliverables 4th Feb Cucina exercise 2010 feedback Reporting skills Integration definitions Reporting example – Northwind Accounting and Finance Resource Center

Arbutus breads Cost of sales / distribution –€50 per day per vehicle Use slack capacity for par-baked products (blast frozen, then deep freeze) –distributed by Odeus Foods Dublin –sold in Roscommon! Giving the health inspector the willies Top-up and tweak orders during the day Make to order, no surplus, Big customer on sale or return basis, allows some flexibility for rush orders Country markets key to business (Mahon, Midleton) –Cash flow –Talk to customers, educate them –Revenue weather dependent Health aspect key selling point Using 2 tonnes of flour a week, keep 0.25 tonne in reserve per week Supplier orders passed manually, 3 calls a week 25% of costs are labour (Ireland average is 11%) Good Food Ireland co-op

Feedback on system design Show reporting benefit (analysis and control) Get more consistency in presentation Converge the technologies to a coherent solution: –Web-site / VB application / SmartPhone... Confusing? Use business arguments from analysis up front VAT rates?

Cucina 2010 presentations Presentation skills Selling yourselves Emphasis on benefits Team play Dealing with questions Emphasis on business model

Questions raised 2010 Integration with existing systems / workflow Project costing eg. outsourcing Functionality –Assisting drivers in cross selling products –Block customer orders if in debt –Print-out of receipts –Check on order anomalies: lights out processing –Basket pricing: dangers for profitability –How to work discount back into profitability –Selling the sizzle, not the sausage

Reporting skills Meaning behind numbers Importance of contextual information Link with strategy: volume versus margin Product profile Conclusions regarding system design? Flexibility over time is key = skills

Reporting Cucina Profitability versus contribution? Commission paid to drivers? Distribution costs? Overall costs too high?...

Integration is defined as the … … incorporation of information technologies into ways of working … sharing of information between people, processes or applications … implementation of virtual control (visibility) of physical processes and resources … connecting of applications and technologies such that data is shared … making visible to participants in a business process the information they require in a coherent fashion Databases ensure this coherency but at the cost of rigidity –Hence the need for flexibility and skills!

Integration downsides Response times Vulnerability: single point of failure Limitations on expansion Dependence on single vendor Flexibility to change system … Access to basic information is complicated

Reporting example Sales (both $ and volume) by product Sales (both $ and volume) by category of product Sales (both $ and volume) by customer Sales (both $ and volume) by country Sales (both $ and volume) by product isolating any discount given. Total expenditure on freight by shipping company and by country Average cost of a shipment per country Sales (both $ and volume) by supplier Sales (both $ and volume) by country of origin of product

Northwind Data : Customers

Northwind Data : Order headers

Northwind Data : Order details

In class exercise Pick a business idea Describe customer requirements How can these requirements be met? What performance criteria will be applied –Financial –Operational What type of control system will be used?