2009/03/15

Response to Group Assignment Post #5

Q1 & Q2

With the fast growing of internet population, organisations always target in getting more personal information or contact details for doing internet or interaction marketing on internet, sometimes it may violet the privacy and ethical rights, and we are noting some of the areas which the organisation may have violated the data privacy without noticing it, and we are suggesting what the organisation could do to enhance better information security.

1)
Physical records containing personal data are not securely stored in systems or database, leads to a accidental disclosure of information and data of customers to unauthorized personnel, such as the customer details of CSL were leaked out, which could be downloaded from the internet in 2006.

In order to prevent this, organisations need to ensure that all customers’ information are kept confidentail and for own record usage, and not leaking the information out regardless of any other purposes. Also, organisations should restrict the access of the sensitive information, and only authorised person could access, and proper compliance procedures in handling the private data are in place.

2)
Most organisation such as banks, telecommunication companie or beauty companies will keep the customers data even their contracts are over, and they will send unwanted advertising post to customers, as well as sharing the information to their affliate or subsidiary companies.

To prevent this, organisation should have practices in updating and deleting the expired record, and before sharing the information, they should have got the customers' consent for any information disclosure

3)
Some of the Internet searching enginee or public email domain such as MSN, Yahoo, Google will keep users data when they create or login to the account, and advertising emails will be sent to users' email without getting customers' consent, and customers should be carefully reading the terms and conditions for blocking the advertising emails.

They should first understand preference and filter which advertisements should be shared to different users. Without making any arguements, inconvenience to the customers, they should have done the preference understanding from users' prepective, instead of unchecking the unwanted boxes while sign-up, customers should be asked to check the boxes of categories about the information they would like to receive.

Response to Group Assignment Post #4

1)

FedEx provides various tools supporting their customers in supply chain management processes, they are:

- Inventory management
FedEx EC-Inventory Visibility provides updated inventory and warehouse management information for pocurement processes to customer on internet. Customer could access, maintian and track the status of their goods online, which streamline the supply chain process.
http://www.fedex.com/hk_english/ebusiness/ebiztoolsecinventory.html

- Fullfilment management / Order Management
FedEx EC-Manufacturing Visibility for monitoring and controlling the inbound supply chain. Inbound shipment of components and raw materials could be tracked online, more accurate prediction and forecasts on lead time help better production planning for the customers. http://www.fedex.com/hk_english/ebusiness/ebiztoolsecmanufact.html)

- After-sale distribution management
FedEx EC-Return Management handles returns, repairs and replacements with a superior level of after-sale service. It helps in budgeting, costing, warehouse record planning accordingly.
http://www.fedex.com/hk_english/ebusiness/ebiztoolsecreturn.html

- Warehouse management
FedEx EC-Warehouse Management satisfies the demands for inventory and warehouse management. It builds customer confidence and satisfaction by providing an Internet-based post-sales system for handling returns, repairs and replacements with a superior level of after-sale service.
http://www.fedex.com/hk_english/ebusiness/ebiztoolsecwaremgmt.html

- Transport management
FedEx Logistics Solutions with the combination of air ground and IT networks, which together provide logistics and distribution solution. http://www.fedex.com/hk_english/ebusiness/ebizlogdistr.html)

2.

The above mentioned tools are mainly internet-based systems, and would have to be customized. But FedEx do provide web-based systems for their customers using the website for handling supply management process.
Customers can create an online account (http://www.fedex.com/hk_english/registration/account.html) for preparing and placing shipments, tracking shipments and processing the bills online. Also, FedEx provides FedEx Ship Manager® which is a web-based system for processing shipping adminstration online. It gives the customers centralized control and administration over the decentralized and global shipping.
(http://www.fedex.com/us/shippingadmin/index.html) / (http://images.fedex.com/us/fsm/passkey/documents/FSM_ShpAdmin_Lvbh_US_030708.pdf)

2009/03/03

Response to Group Assignment Post #3

1.
Online Customer Lifetime Value Calculator (CLTV), can be used to determine the value of a customer and understand the impact may bring if customers spending pattern has changed. Different decisions for different level of management teams could be made by using CLTV calculator:

Senior Management
- brand positioning decision, targeting the more profitable segments by evaluating the lifetime value and spending patterns.


Middle management
- planning suitable marketing campaign, marketing budget for selected segment,
- making price setting decision, as revenues and profits could be estimated for acquiring or retaining customers.


2.

After studying the OpenBravo ERP demo, different modules within the ERP could handle the following steps within the Order-to-Cash business process.

a) Accept/ Enter Order
Order details will be recorded in the "Sales Order" module of Sales Management and the "Sales Dimension Report" and "Sales Order" Report of Sales Management could reflect the volumn of Order taken.


b) Order Acknowledgement
After the order is recorded, invoices could be generated from "create invoices from order" & "Generate Invoices" modules under Sales Management


c) Purchase Materials

After taken the order, the organization should create the PO for purchasing materials from suppliers and record the details under the "Purchase Order" module under the Procurement Management, and Purchase Order Report could be generated for review.


d) Receive Materials

"Purchase Invoice" and "Goods Receipt" modules of Procurement Management capture the details for materials received and Material Receipt Report shows the figure of material received.


e) Production
The "Process Plan", "Work Requirement", "Work Effort", "Periodic Quality Control Data", "Maintenance Plan" modules under Production management could be used to record and calculate the materials for production. The cost of the production, both the fix cost and total costs could be calculated from the "Calculate Standard Cost" and "Calculate Product Cost"respectively. Related status reports, costs reports, requirements reports could be generated under the analysis tools of Production Management as well. After production, the Warehouse Management could help maintaining the inventory record.

f) Packing
Packing requirement could be logged under the "Work Requirement" module under Production Management.


g) Shipping
Shipping record can be recorded in the "Goods shipment" module of Sales Management, and Shipment Report and Shippment dimension Report could be generated from under Sales Management and also will be refected under each order taken under "Sales Order" module of Sales Management.


h) Invoicing and collection
Invoice will be generated from "Sales Invoice" module of Sales Management. Reports such as "Payment tracker", "Payment Report" or "Payment aging report" of Financial Management Module could reflect the status of invoicing and collection.
3.
Operation team has to coordinate from start to finish of the Order-to-cash Process, first they have to valid check the order taken by sales team and acknowledge the order, afterwards they have to make necessary plans for materials procurement for production. With the requirements provided, they have to send request for productions, once the goods are produced, stocking / inventory and shipping orders have to be sent to specific department for further process. As well as coordinating with the finance team for the invoicing and collection process, they should streamline the whole process which is profit making. On the other hand, they should have reviewed the process from time to time, in order to sustain a certain level of cost and time efficiency.
With the ERP system, all data are reflected on the same platform which helps them to check and monitor the whole process in a more easy, unique and efficient way. Together with the analysis report provided, back and forth processes could be avoid, meanwhile, the costing and forecasting reports could help planning and streamline the whole process.

2009/03/02

Response to Group Assignment Post 2

After reading and evaluating the Dundas OLAP Demo, we have designed 3 report templates and also giving some insights and implications for the company improving their performance.



Report 1 - Gross Profit Margin by Date by Product by Sales Channel




Measures: Gross Profit Margins
Dimensions: Date, Sales Channel, Products

Insights:
#1 Gross profit margins of accessories (product) is the highest across the product-lines, sales channels and the period FY02-04.
#2: Gross profit margins of selling bikes (product) through Resellers (channel) are low, but it is highly profitable selling through internet (Channel).
#3: It is highly profitable selling clothings (product) through internet (channel), and is a new product since FY2004
Implications: The company can improve its financial performance by using the right product line-sales channel mix, i.e. selling bikes through internet, but discontinue selling through resellers.



Report 2 - Discount Percentage, Average Unit Price and Gross Profit Margin by Product by Promotion


Screen shot on Dundas OLAP Services Online

Measures: Discount Percentage, Average Unit Prices and Gross Profit Margins
Dimensions: Promotion (sorted by promotions of Resellers), Product and Date

Insight: Company incurs substantial lost on clearing inventory for excess goods and discontinued products.
Implications: Review and optimized demand forecasting and /or supply chain planning toer on stock out instead of mark down.





Report 3: Internet Sales Amount by Customer by Sales Territory by Product

Screen shot on Dundas OLAP Services Online
Measures: Internet Sales Amount
Dimensions: Sales Territory, Product Category and Gender of customer demographics
Insights:
#1: North America region has bring largest sales amount to the company
#2: Bikes is the best selling category amongst the others, but sales performance for clothings are not impressive.
#3: Female and Male customers spending patterns are similar
Implications:
Company should continue all 3 regions for internet selling, but they should develope new marketing plan for targeting Asia Pacific. As the sales performance for clothings are low, probably due to the sizing problems, more pictures, indications or information about the sizing should be provided for the target customers, or appropriate aftersales services should be provided as well to increase the sales on clothings.

2009/02/24

Group Assignment: Response to Post # 1

Internet Marketing are getting more and more popular these days, and here are some examples which different companies using different internet marketing tools.



Example 1. - Canon


Canon is co-operating a Canon-blog with searching enginee Yahoo!, encouraging all Canon and photography fans to create their own Canon blogs sharing their own pictures and experiences with others. More interactive and objective information, messages will be shared to their target customers.


On the other hand, they have set up Canon club which offer auctions, consumerable lucky draws and other activities for the club members. Canon firstly could get the basic and contact information of the target customers when they sign up the club, afterwards Canon could update their club members by publishing interactive advertisment with different kinds of activities which arousing their interests and curiosity.


Besides they also providing some gadgets for downloading, such as screensaver, mini games from the Canon Wonderland, all these gadgets are actually helping the identifying the brand image.

Canon is also well utilizing the currently hottest social networking tools - Facebook for marketing, they have developed some applications, such as "Canon My Story", "Smile by Canon" on facebook, it could also bring awareness and provide effective communciations to their customers.



Links:
Blogs, Online Partnerships, searching enginee -
http://hk.blog.yahoo.com/canon
Interactive Advertisement - Canon Club
http://www.canon.com.hk/tc/CanonClub/Auction/Default_Public_Bid.aspx
Gadget - Canon wonderland
http://www.canon.com.hk/en/CanonClub/Wonderland.aspx
Social Networking: Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=canon&n=-1&k=400000010&sf=r&init=q&sid=f673b771ac570d8b7bfe1a329efed985#/apps/application.php?sid=f673b771ac570d8b7bfe1a329efed985&id=41642950758&ref=s








Example 2. - Microsoft

Microsoft, they also have community blogs sharing the updates of the industries and their news respectively, also they provide gadgets which facilitates their users to access different programmes.

RSS of Microsoft allows their followers and users stay up with the update information and their new products. MSN, one of the popular networking tools developed by Microsoft, which allows their users to chat online with their friends, as well as providing a platform to Microsoft to spread their update information. Last but not least, Microsoft also has developed a successful searching enginee which also helps their promotion activities.

Blog
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/blogs/PortalHome.mspx
Gadget
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/sidebar-gadgets.aspx
RSS
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/guide/RSS.mspx
Social Networking
http://www.msn.com/
Searching Enginee
http://www.microsoft.com/msn/default.mspx

Greetings~~

Hi Miss Lim, we are members of team 4, hope you enjoy reading our blog..... Have fun!!