Abstract

Bill Gates: ―Information Technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don‘t
think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other.‖

Information technology is an essential partner in management of any business, regardless of the

kind of enterprise one operates. Whether one needs computers for storage, transfer, retrieval or
transmission of information, one can manage his/her business with greater accuracy and
efficiency with the assistance of information technology and computer applications. one may
already use a computer for data storage for her business. Inventory, sales, receivables and
payables stored in Excel, Open Office or a similar program keeps these figures at his /her
fingertips. Accounting software stores his/her payroll information, tax records and specialized
data for his/her business. Once he or she acquainted with a program, he/she won‘t know how
One functioned without it. One can eliminate much of the physical storage at the office by using
information technology to scan and store old personnel and payroll files, tax files or client files.
One may need less square footage with information technology. Communication by email is
faster and costs less than sending a paper letter in the mail. One can transform his/her business to
the 21st century with the use of email for communication with clients or customers. Information
technology allows his/her to organize email file folders by client or by type of communication,
such as orders or billing. One can drag and drop One‘s email files to closed folders as his/her
company completes projects. One‘s communication files become closed files, placed in storage
on CD or on a hard drive with a duplicate copy or backup automated by a program or service.

Whether one learned business management by the book or by practical experience, he/she‘ll need
updates all of your life. The Internet is a wealth of information to keep his/her current with
trends, techniques, software and human resources. One can draw on online databases and
websites to locate potential employees, compare insurance proposals, tackle employee issues or
check out the competition. Managing ones business with information gleaned from the Internet
keeps his/her knowledgeable and on the cutting edge.

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Table of Content

1. Acknowledegement……………………………………………………………………………(i)

2. Letter of Transmittals………………………………………………………………………….(ii)

3. Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………………(1)

4. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………(3)

5. Application of IT in different Department in business arena………………….(4)

6. IT using in Accounting…………………………………………………………………………….(5)

7. IT use in Marketing………………………………………………………………………………….(6- 8)

Online marketing

Corporate website

Geo demographic

Current trend in marketing

Disadvantages

8. Electronic Banking ………………………………………………………………………………..(9-10)

9. IT use in strategic decision making…………………………………………………………(11-13)

10. E-Commerce…………………………………………………………………………………………..(14-17)

11. IT in supply chain Industry…………………………..…………………………………………(18-19)

12. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………(20)

13. References………………………………………………………………………………………………(21)

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Introduction

Information Technology (IT) can be termed as a backbone to all the industries because of wide-
scale use of computers, internet and telecommunications systems. Information Technology helps
in managing, manipulating, storing, regaining, sharing/communicating and transmitting small as
well as large amount of information/data conveniently and effectively. Work that was done
manually in the past now can be done easily and efficiently with the help of computers. There‘s
no need to store paper files as all the important documents can be stored on computer and can be
accessed without much hassle. Better and faster communication online has led to globalization
and have immensely helped industries and businesses around the world. However, things were
not like this in 60s and 70s and IT sector was mostly limited areas such as banking sector, large
business houses, computer scientists and mathematical engineers. The emergence of personal
computers changed this scenario and suddenly IT was being used in almost every sector.
Big/small businesses, industries, education sector, government sector, defense, marketing,
fashion, security, journalism etc. These days there‘s hardly any arena that‘s not being positively
affected by information technology. Besides making work easier world over, IT sector has also
created lots of job opportunities for people.

In its practical sense, Information Technology involves the use of computer applications and
equipment to development, design, manipulate, and implement the storing and the transmission
of data. Basically every endeavor requires the storage and transmission of data. For instance,
before the use of the online public access catalog, school libraries use physical card catalogs as a
registry of all books and files stored in their archives. But with the internet, the previously
physical information was digitized, allowing for wireless data transmission.

This begs the question: what is the use of Information Technology in business? For one, it allows
businesses to break the boundaries of location and language. Take, for example, a retail store. If
the store sticks to merely doing physical transactions from its brick and mortar store, it limits the
possible clientele to the people within its location. But by using the internet, the store can be part
of a national—and even global—marketplace. This is the basic concept that makes websites such
as eBay and Amazon a success.

Information Technology in business can also open up opportunities for low cost business
operations. Many companies and entrepreneurs, for instance, go into telecommuting when
looking for workers and employees. Not only does telecommuting (obviously possible with the
use of Information Technology) allow institutions to outsource work, it also widens the talent
pool search, giving entrepreneurs to more choices when it comes to workers and employees. Of
course, Information Technology also works in the physical business set-up. Information
Technology in business allow companies to store product information on virtual databases
(rather than physical ones), allowing for easier retrieval of data when needed. It makes internal
communication easier, thanks to email, telephone linking, and other similar methods of
communication.

All of these examples can be summed up as such: basically, Information Technology makes
business easier.

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Application of IT in different Department in business arena

Without using Information Technology we cannot think about the organization progress.
Almost all types of organizations whose gain success the use of technology is must. Now
days, orga izatio use the lio ’s share of its budget to implement IT in their
organization. This paper we will show the different departments of organization whose
use the IT. Organization has generally following department:

 Management
 Accounting
 Marketing
 Electronic Banking
 Planning department
 Electronic Commerce
 Database Management
 Human Resource Management
 Customer relation management
 Information Securities Management Systems
 Networking for corporate Management systems

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Accounting

Information technology has impacted accounting processes in a very good way. It is difficult to
find anybody doing manual accounting with paper and pencil these days. Since accounting is
about dealing with information-- business information--any advances in this area will have a
positive impact in the accounting department, from the old days of the battery operated
calculator to the fast computers of today. Besides the equipment, accountants appreciate the
software. For example, spreadsheet programs are highly efficient at helping accountants with
calculations and reporting. There are accounting programs in the market that are easy to use and
affordable, making them very popular with small businesses. Software can help accountants in
their daily tasks, such as paying bills, recording transactions and reporting. The program keeps
all data organized and in a centralized location.

List of accounting tools

1 SAGE 50 COMPLETE ACCOUNTING

2 BOOKKEEPER
3 DACEASY
4 KASHOO ]
5 Tally etc.
Disadvantages: There are some disadvantages in accounting software:

 Cost: Although some small business accounting packages are reasonably priced, the
cost of the software is not the only cost of using the software. Accounting software
requires minimum standards for computer use in regards to RAM, processor speed
and hard drive memory. Making a backup of your accounting data may also require
more storage space than an Excel spreadsheet, which is easily copied to a flash drive.
Technical support for the software may cost extra, and you can incur annual
licensing fees in order to receive upgrades.

 Difficulty: Some accounting software packages are designed specifically for non-
accountants, but you will still experience a learning curve when converting to any
software package. If you have never used accounting software before, learning the
accounting terms, layouts and determining a proper setup may be more difficult than
the benefits received from utilizing the software.

 Maintenance: Maintaining accounting software not only includes performing

upgrades to the accounting software package, but also maintaining and upgrading all
the necessary equipment to utilize the accounting software as new versions
canrequire upgraded equipment. That equipment often includes your PC or laptop,
monitor, printer, Internet connection and modem, backup drive and operating system.

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Marketing
Customer databases (see notes on applications of ICT – Customer Service) also a useful mine of
information for marketing and operational purposes – NB this would be a form of secondary
market research, as the data has not been gathered for the purpose of market research. In fact,
sophisticated analysis of these databases is often known as data mining. Customer data can
provide marketing with a very powerful means of closely targeting.

 Direct mail
 Email and
 Telemarketing

On-line advertising
Many businesses advertise through ‗banners‘ and similar advertisements on other websites. This
offers potential customers a quick and easy way to respond to an advertising message. Of course
there is so much on-line advertising that careful targeting is essential, otherwise effort is wasted.
The good news is that large popular websites such as Google (and Tutor2U!!) have very
sophisticated systems to help ensure that advertisements on their websites are presented
according to what the particular ‗surfer‘ seems to be looking for on that website. Payment for
web advertising tends to include an element linked to the number of ‗click-throughs‘ – in other
words the number of surfers who actually click on the advertiser‘s link.

Corporate websites
Most medium to large business, and many small businesses, maintain a website. This would
usually include basic contact information as well as key marketing messages about the business
and its products. The website offers a good place to keep public relations information such as
press releases and other announcements. Of course, many websites are also an electronic store –
see also the revision notes about applications of ICT in electronic commerce.

Geo-demographics
This is a software package that overlays demographic data over a map. For example, a retailer
might choose its location partly on the basis of the demographic make-up of the local population.
This could help them to place their store in the most convenient place for a suitable size of target
market.

Demographics is all about measuring and classifying populations according to criteria such as;
age, sex, income, level of education, household composition, car ownership and so on.

Current Marketing Trends:

Here are the top five application marketing trends impacting digital marketers:

 Phenomenal growth in mobile apps. Over 3 billion downloads in less than 18 months
from Apple's App Store has caught the attention of marketers. Morgan Stanley predicts

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 that mobile app growth will be 10-fold (from the desktop Internet), from 1 billion to over
10 billion units in the next decade.

 Leading device manufacturers mimicking the success of Apple's App Store.

Consumers want information where and when they desire. Apps are popping up
everywhere:

o Apps in television set-top boxes: Samsung announced the launch of Samsung

Apps, a multi-device application store with content partners, including
Blockbuster, USA Today, and others. Samsung plans to make apps available for a
range of devices from mobile phones to HDTVs.

o Apps in car electronics: Ford recognizes that consumers want information on

demand. Ford's Sync feature uses an 8-inch touch screen in the dashboard as well
as voice commands. You can catch up on Twitter, listen to Internet radio, check
movie times, and get free online maps with turn-by-turn directions.

o Apps for netbooks: Intel launched a beta version of its app store, called the Intel
AppUp center for netbooks. It is currently offering about 100 apps.

 It will become even easier to develop apps. Some 2 million Adobe Flash developers
will be enlisted to develop apps along with some 125,000 iPhone developers. The next
release of the Adobe Flash Platform, Flash Professional CS5, includes the Packager for
iPhone, allowing developers to use Flash technologies to convert content developed in
Flash to be compatible with the iPhone and iPod touch automatically. Already, Adobe
AIR, a cross-operating system, gives developers the ability to combine HTML, Ajax,
Adobe Flash, and Adobe Flex technologies to deploy rich Internet applications on the
desktop. Microsoft Silverlight is also available, as well as Appcelerator Titanium, which
offers complete control over mobile and desktop app development.

 App discovery has emerged as a major problem for app marketers and developers.
App galleries, stores, and directories are effective distribution vehicles if you are in the
top tier. In the Apple App Store, featured categories promote about 179 apps. Since over
100,000 apps are available, less than 0.2 percent are easily found by consumers. Apps
need a marketing strategy behind them to succeed. Watch for expanding application
discovery models.

 Browser add-ons drove Firefox to a 25 percent market share; Google Chrome is

responding. Firefox's Add-on site gets over 2 million unique visitors each month
searching for browser add-ons, resulting in 1.7 billion downloads to date, with 182
million apps in use. The popularity of Firefox's browser add-ons allowed Mozilla to grab
market share from Internet Explorer. Google is now responding with its Chrome
extensions.

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Disadvantages:

1. Slow internet connections can cause difficulties. If the companies build too complex or
too large websites, it will take too long for users to check them or download them and
they will get bored eventually..
2. The e-commerce doesn‘t allow the user ―to touch‖ the merchandise before purchasing it.
Because of this, some salesmen are starting to guarantee the possibility of returning the
product. In Germany, where a law that regulates e-commerce and guarantees the
customers the total refund of the money exists since 2000, the electronic commerce is
very popular.
3. Other factor is the payment: many users still don‘t trust in the electronic methods of
paying and give up buying online because of this.
4. One of the major disadvantages may be the lack of trust of the users because of the
constant virtual promotions that appear to be frauds. This is an aspect that deteriorates the
image and reputation of quality and honest companies.
5. Other disadvantage is the cash on delivery system, since it doesn‘t guarantee the 100%
purchase of the product. This is also the case of thousands of users that dedicate
themselves to daily mock big companies by ordering on the internet using false identities.

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Electronic Banking

Online banking (or Internet banking or E-banking) allows customers of financial institution
to conduct financial transactions on a secured website operated by the institution, which can be a
retail bank,virtual bank, credit union or building society.To access a financial institution's online
banking facility, a customer having personal Internet access must register with the institution for
the service, and set up some password (under various names) for customer verification. The
password for online banking is normally not the same as for [telephone banking]. Financial
institutions now routinely allocate customers numbers (also under various names), whether or
not customers intend to access their online banking facility. Customers numbers are normally not
the same as account numbers, because number of accounts can be linked to the one customer
number. The customer will link to the customer number any of those accounts which the
customer controls, which may be cheque, savings, loan, credit card and other accounts. Customer
numbers will also not be the same as any debit or credit card issued by the financial institution to
the customer.

To access online banking, the customer would go to the financial institution's website, and enter
the online banking facility using the customer number and password. Some financial institutions
have set up additional security steps for access, but there is no consistency to the approach
adopted.

Benefits from the banks’ point of view

From the banks‘ point of view the first benefits for the banks offering e-banking services is
better branding and better responsiveness to the market .The other benefits are possible to
measure in monetary terms .The main goal of every company is to maximize profits for its
owners and banks are not any exception .Automated e-banking services offer a perfect
opportunity for maximizing profits.

Benefits from the customers’ point of view

 Quick and continuous access to information. Corporations will have easier access to


information as, they can check on multiple accounts at the click of a button.


Private customers seek slightly different kind of benefits from e-banking.
Reduced costs: This is in terms of the cost of availing and using the various banking


products and services.
Speed:The response of the medium is very fast ;therefore customers can actually wait till


the last minute before concluding a fund transfer.
Fund‘s management:customers can download their history of different accounts and do a
―what –if ―analysis on their own PC before affecting any transation on the web.

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E-Banking service available in Bangladesh:

 Core Banking
 Cluster Banking
 Phone Banking
 SMS Banking
 ATM Shared (VISA /MASTER)
 PC Banking
 Banking KIOSK
 Offline Branch computerization e-payment.

Some major reasons of customer dissatisfaction

 ATM’s fall short of o ey
 Slow bandwidth of internet may delay the transfer rate
 Bankers make delay to provide PIN number whenever client lose his password.
 Charges are higher for the card.

National Payment Switch Bangladesh (NPSB)

The Bangladesh Bank has introduced National Payment Switch Bangladesh (NPSB) in order to
facilitate interbank electronic payments originating from different channels like Automated
Teller Machines (ATM), Point of Sales (POS), Internet, Mobile Devices etc. The main objective
of NPSB is to create a common electronic platform for the switches in Bangladesh. NPSB is a
mother switch of of all other switches in the country. NPSB will facilitate the expansion of the
card based payment networks substantially and promote e-commerce throughout the country.
Online payment of Government dues, using cards and account number information through
Internet will greatly be enhanced using NPSB. Payment Systems Department (PSD) is concerned
to operate and settle the transactions regularly. NPSB was launched as ―go-live‖ on December
27, 2012 to route ATM transactions.

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IT use in Strategic Decision Making

Strategic decision making is an ongoing process that involves creating strategies to achieve goals
and altering strategies based on observed outcomes. For example, the managers of a pizza
restaurant might have the objective of increasing sales and decide to implement a strategy of
offering lower prices on certain products during off hours to attract more customers. After a
month of pursuing the new strategy, managers can look at sales data for the month and evaluate
whether the strategy resulted in increasing sales and then choose to keep the new price scheme or
alter their strategy.

Some of the tools that use in making strategic decision making

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is a common strategic planning tool that managers can use to examine internal
and external factors that may influence the ability to achieve goals. A SWOT analysis involves
creating a list of a businesses strengths and weaknesses and the external threats and opportunities
it faces. Identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats can help managers create
strategies to exploit strengths or minimize weaknesses to take advantage of opportunity and
avoid threats.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

A cost-benefit analysis is a strategic decision making tool that can help managers choose
between two or more different courses of action. In a cost-benefit analysis, managers estimate
the amount of revenue they expect a certain project to generate and the expected costs of
pursuing the project. By estimating the costs and benefits associated with several different
projects, managers can determine which project is expected to produce the greatest benefit.

Outside Advice

While entrepreneurs and small business owners may be experts in their chosen industry, they are
often not experts in actually managing businesses. Business owners often seek outside help to
aide in the strategic decision making process. The U.S. Small Business Administration says that
mentors can be a vital source of advice for small business owners. Some businesses hire
professional consultants to help them make strategic decisions.

Real scenario of IT use in decision making

In 2013 we conducted a survey for Business statistics course that was conduct by Associate
Professor Anisur Rahman where we communicated with 30th renown organization.The
organization list is given below:

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 Organization Name
Organization type

Bata Shoe Company.

The Daily Jugantor Builders ,Spinning ,Rotor,

Jamuna group
Knitting etc

Dada group Engineering, Zipper, Bobbins, Accessories etc

GP Telecommunication

Walton Electronics apparatus

FLORA Limited IT

CENTURY group Real Estate,Air Line,Tourism,Agriculture etc

Pacific group Germants Fabric Manufacturing Group

MEL group Integrated Gypsteel Industries Ltd.

STYLO group Germants

UTAH group Garments Fabric, Knitting, Spinning etc

Powermann Bangladesh Ltd Substation & Generators

CREST Lifts Ltd Lifts

OSL Pharmaceutical

Osman Textiles Limited Garments

UCAS Advisory Services

PROSHIKA Human Development Organization

Beacon group Tourism, Auto solution, Health Care etc.

Bengal Indigo Limited Garments.

Bangladesh Sugar & Food Industries Corp. Government Organization

Mission group Developers , Properties etc

RDP group Properties, Agro, Foundation etc

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IKON group Property , Tree plantation etc

BASHUTI group Builders & Developers

Amin Mohammad Foundation Ltd Builders & Developers

ASSURE Properties Ltd Builders & Developers

RUPAYAN Housing Estate Ltd Builders & Developers

BSR Ltd Builders & Developers

RUHAMA group Builders & Developers

ASTHA Developments Ltd Builders & Developers

Garden Home Builders & Developers

Race Holdings Ltd Builders & Developers

AG Property Builders & Developers

Dotplot of preference ranking for decision making in all samples

0 1 2 3 4

Experience Experience

Software tools Software tools

Inner feeling Inner feeling

Expert advice Expert advice

0 1 2 3 4
Rank

Each symbol represents up to 2 observations.

13
Interpreting result: In all observations twenty six organizations out of thirty two that‘s mean
81.25% organizations prefer experience as their first choice during decision making and only
12.50% organizations prefer software tools as their first choice during decision making.

E-commerce

E-Commerce refers to the process of buying or selling products or service over an

electronic network. The most popular medium in which e-Commerce is conducted is the
internet.

It combines a range of process such as:

 Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

 Electronic mail (E-mail)
 World Wide Web (WWW)
 Internet Applications
 Network Applications.

The Internet has opened up a new horizon for commerce, namely electronic commerce(e-
commerce). The Internet, through advanced mechanisms of data transfer networks, establishes
global linkages between customers and suppliers regardless of geographic location. E-commerce
entails the use of the Internet in the marketing, identification, payment and delivery of goods and
services. It involves order processing at company Websites and securing Electronic Fund
Transfer (EFT) payment systems. Inflation is on a rising trend and unemployment rate is also
increasing in recent years which imply that the strategies and policies of the government to
achieve 8 percent GDP growth rate by FY 2014-15 need re-working to address these problems
for bringing the economy on track to achieve the target.

E-Commerce in Different Sector in Bangladesh:

The Facsimile in the 1980’s and mobile telephones in the 1990’s popularized modern
technology in the mass market. Personal computers and the Internet are also emerging
as day-to-day business tools. These positive indicators are favoring the prospects of e-
commerce in Bangladesh.

The important E-commerce sectors in Bangladesh are:

14
 1. RMG Sector
2. Banking on the Web (Online Banking)
3. Online Shopping
4. Web Hosting, Domain
5. Online cards, gifts
6. Pay Bill
7. Education etc

How E-commerce decreases unemployment rate:

Prothomalojobs.com, bdjobs.com, jobsA1.com etc. have the mission to connect the job seekers
directly with employers by shortening the job seeker's employment search and lowering the
employer's cost per hire, through the application of pioneering technology. These sites allow job
seekers to find and apply for jobs with the leading companies of the country. Employers are able
to advertise on profession specific categories to leverage focused advertising in finding qualified
candidates for employment. They aim to provide cost effective employment advertising to
companies. Moreover, prothomalojobs.com, bdjobs.com, jobsA1.com etc. offers seminars,
training sessions, job market awareness programs and job fairs to provide full knowledge about
the current career market among the job seekers and the employers.These site are also committed
to build a rich career resource center to set the bestguidelines for the aspiring job seekers, thus
helping them to become productive and skilled workforce as well as responsible citizens of our
nation. Bdjobs.com Ltd. is the first and leading career management site in the country.
Eight young businesses and IT professional backed by strong command over e-
business and in depth understanding of the needs of job seekers and employers in the
country’s context started this venture on July 2000. The vision of the company is to try
bringing Internet technology in the mainstream business and economic life of the
society. Their website aims to explore maximum benefits of the Internet.

15
Bdjobs.com Ltd. is the first and leading career management site in the country. Eight young
businesses and IT professional backed by strong command over e-business and in depth
understanding of the needs of job seekers and employers in the country‘s context started this
venture on July 2000. The vision of the company is to try bringing Internet technology in the
mainstream business and economic life of the society. Their website aims to explore maximum
benefits of the Internet.

 Till now, more than 2500 employers in the country have recruited more than 35,000
professionals at different levels for their organizations through Bdjobs.com service.

 Unique Daily Visitors is 14,000 (on average)

 Monthly Page View: 800,000 (0.8 million)

 Number of Resumes posted on the site: 140,000+

 Number of Corporate Accounts: 2,500+

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JobsA1is the one of the largest job site in Bangladesh and also the institute to provide high
standard career building courses. JobsA1.com is one of the leading job portals in Bangladesh. It
is one of the top browsed websites in Bangladesh according to Alexa ranking. It has:

 Brand image as one of the largest job site in Bangladesh.

 Expert IT professionals with education qualification and experience with database

programming, systems integration, website design and development and networking
through LAN/WAN, dial up network access connectivity.(www.jobsa1.com)

 The company has its own training division for HR department in the IT sector.

 It allows employment of a lot of professionals.

17
IT in Supply chain Industry

The main elements of a supply chain include purchasing, operations, distribution, and
integration. The supply chain begins with purchasing. Purchasing managers or buyers are
typically responsible for determining which products their company will sell, sourcing product
suppliers and vendors, and procuring products from vendors at prices and terms that meets
profitability goals.Supply chain operations focus on demand planning, forecasting, and inventory
management. Forecasts estimate customer demand for a particular product during a specific
period of time based on historical data, external drivers such as upcoming sales and promotions,
and any changes in trends or competition. Using demand planning to develop accurate forecasts
is critical to effective inventory management. Forecasts are compared to inventory levels to
ensure that distribution centers have enough, but not too much, inventory to supply stores with a
sufficient amount of product to meet demand. This allows companies to reduce inventory
carrying costs while still meeting customer needs.

Walmart’s Method of Managing the Supply Chain

Good supply chain management help walmart to reach the world‘s largest retailer with annual
revenues exceeding $218 billion .The company directly communicate with 3000 suppliers all
over the world by using their IT. The company with 1.3 million employees worldwide has more
than 3200 facilities in the USA and more than 1200 units in maxico.Wal –mart is considered one
of the world‘s best supply chain industry all over the world.

Wal-Mart is one of the early adopters of collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment
(CPFR) a hokistic approach to managing a network of trading partners in the supply chain. CPFR
enabled Wal-Mart to develop a single ,short-term forecast for each item sold, which is then
frozen. CPFR program implementation enabled Wal-Mart to move tor just –in-time system that
resulted in significant savings in inventory carrying costs for Wal-Mart ,as well as its suppliers.

Wal-mart initiated a data warehouse program to enable it to accumulate historical data initiate
central computer ,anlyze the data ,have a better understanding of the business environment and
consequently make better decisions. Initially only point of sales and shipment data were
collected .Subsequently the data warehouse was expanded to include sixty five weeks of data on
inventory ,forecast, demographics ,markdowns ,returns and market baskets by item.

18
Mickey D’s method of managing the supply chain

McDonald‘s is the largest food –service company in the world operating more than 31000
retaurants in over 119 countiries. his Quick Serving Restaurant chain promises its customers a
one-minute guarantee of service. According to the senior management, their work
is characterized by the speed of operation. Being accurate in the speed would have not been
possible, if they did not have an efficient planning for the supply and demand chain.

Considering India, there are 217 outlets of McDonald's and it serves in total approximately
650,000 customers daily. Including the restaurant staff, the total staff in India is around 9000
people. But the supply chain network is managed only by 5 people across the country ! Even
though it is famous for beef items across the world, keeping in mind the customers in India it
designed a new menu with more vegeterian items and non-beef items shows how they forecast
demands based on customers.

The success can be attributed to it's complete outsourcing approach. They just supervise the work
to keep a check on all KPIs(Key Performance Indicators). The supply planning is like a three-
legged stool, which is based on principles of trust and collaboration between the brand, the
operators and the suppliers. The senior director says the 100% transparency with the suppliers
plays a important role in smooth flow of the supply chain. They have a set of tier-1 and tier-2
suppliers. "Most of my employees are 12th standard pass, they know nothing about food,so I
expect my suppliers to be absolutely accountable to ensure that the quality that I‘m selling to my
customer is perfect as that is very critical.‖ Suppliers like Coca Cola which is McDonald‘s
beverage partner also, for instance, take water management classes in its restaurants to ensure
potable quality of drinking water. This shows how they care about the customers' review and
involve the suppliers in the process of satisfying customer's demands.

uses only one forecasting application , JDA Manugistics 7. Daily POS(point-of-sale) data at item
level, product list, stock levels at restaurant, inventory and shipments at the distribution center
are used as inputs for forecasting. Also the marketing plan (data corresponds to standard plan or
promotion), are taken into considerations. The forecast's output is then verified by the forecast
accuracy measures. The restaurant gives 3 days to one week forecast to the Distribution
Center(DC). The DC, has 3 month rolling forecast with the suppliers, which enables suppliers in
turn to plan their production schedules.
Even for budget planning, the suppliers are involved. The schedules and performances are
monitored every quarter, once the forecast and budget are closed and fixed. The article also
mentions about the lead time and the taste checks performed by the company over supplier's
production. It also delivers the food to the doorstep of the customers and that too within the
guaranteed minimum time of 30 minutes ! But the head says, it does not add more load to their
supply chain network !

19
Conclusion
Information Technology in business can also open up opportunities for low cost business
operations. Many companies and entrepreneurs, for instance, go into telecommuting when
looking for workers and employees. Not only does telecommuting (obviously possible with the
use of Information Technology) allow institutions to outsource work, it also widens the talent
pool search, giving entrepreneurs to more choices when it comes to workers and employees.

Of course, Information Technology also works in the physical business set-up. Information
Technology in business allow companies to store product information on virtual databases
(rather than physical ones), allowing for easier retrieval of data when needed. It makes internal
communication easier, thanks to email, telephone linking, and other similar methods of
communication.All of these examples can be summed up as such: basically, Information
Technology makes business easier.

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References

Online references



http://www.presentsoft.co.in


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_banking


https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0218-electronic-banking


http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/business-theory/operations
http://www.tutor2u.net/business/production/applications-of-IT-


operations.htm
http://www.walmartstores.com/sites/responsibility-


report/2012/supplierDevelopmentProgram.aspx
http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/sustainability/our_focus_areas/s


ustainable_supply_chain.html
http://cmuscm.blogspot.com/2013/09/demand-and-supply-planning-in-


mcdonalds.html


http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=460260


Economist.com
http://businessdayonline.com/2014/04/nesg-ungc-stress-role-of-supply-


chain-transparency-to-business-success/#.Uzpf7FNqngk
https://www.globalreporting.org/information/news-and-press-


center/Pages/Sustainable-supply


http://corporate.walmart.com/suppliers/


http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/222395
brackbank.net

Book References

 Understanding business by Nickels

 Supply chain management by wisner

Case study

 The sun never stes on Mickey D‘s

 Walmart histoy

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