NF701 Management Informatics Proof Reading Service

NF701 Management Informatics Proof Reading Service

Introduction:

Information and communication technology is very important for the companies these days. It helps in increasing the ability of the company to expand the business across the countries. This concept can be better understood my analyzing the use of ICT in the processes of P&G and identifying that how these technologies helps in supporting the open innovation and connect and develop strategies of the company. ICT helps in developing the infrastructure that supports the activities like securing and storing the data and information.(Bouwman, 2005)The case of P&G describes the importance of ICT technologies in the functioning of the organization. This also helps in identifying how these technologies support different departments of the company to function in alignment with the goals of the company. This report clearly describes the overall analysis on the use of ICT t9oolsin various functions of P&G and also describes the recommendation for the organization that needs to be implemented for better achievement of the organizational goals.

Presentation of P&G

P&G is the company that serves the consumers with different fast moving consumer goods. The company has covered almost all the area of the world by its customer base. It is the company that sell the products of very well-known brands such as tide, Ariel, Pringles etc. the company owns one of the largest and most effective R&D department. In patenting, the company compete with the organization like Intel and Microsoft as the company registers nearly eight patents in a day and spend around $5 million on R&D. as the company operates in an industry with high competitiveness, the company has to look or new and innovative techniques to compete and withstand the with the higher position in the market. Till late 1990’s. the company has faced less growth of sales as expected. It has been identified by the company that the main reason for this shortcoming is the inability of the company to implement new and innovative strategies and inability of the company to serve the customers with the innovative products. The company has later realized that it has to increase the innovation rate of the company in order to increase the sales growth. Innovation always act as the key for increasing the sales growth for P&G. analysis has been done by the company on its innovation processes and then it has been identified the P&G is using the closed innovation system by utilizing the existing knowledge they have in making innovations. It has also been realized by the company that closed innovation system would not lays help the company in making innovations thus, it is required to change the approach of innovation in the company.(Cartelli and Palma, 2009)

After all this analysis, the company has moved towards open innovations strategy. The strategy of P&G for increasing the sales growth was called as Organization 2005. The basis for this strategy was the concept of connect and develop. Innovation sis all about making new connections. This helps in developing the innovation with combining new knowledge extracted from the outside world. This knowledge to make the innovations can only be extracted from the outside world if company becomes successful in making connections. Now the question arises that what is basis of making these connections or implementing the strategy of own innovation.(Forbes.com, 2017)Many authors have suggested that Information and communication technologies helps in increase of firm’s ability to make connection and to work across boundaries. This also suggests that ICT is the foundation for the open innovation strategy by P&G. the company has not just uses the ICT technologies but extended the its focus of use of range of technologies including simulations, modelling, virtual reality, data mining etc. ICT helps in providing inexpensive digital infrastructure for secured storage and transfer of the data and the information. It also helps in exchanging the information and the ideas from one place to another that supports the company like P&G o implement the strategies of open innovation by connecting through the outside world. ICT infrastructure provides the company with various services such as web services, enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management etc.

Achieving objectives by applying classic themes of informatics:

One of the main aim of the strategy named Organization 2005 is to implement innovative practices in the organization by changing the internally focused communication of P&G to outward focused and cohesive communication.(Hendarti and Kurniawan, 2011)

Before connect and develop strategy the company was very much protective about the patents of the company and uses less than 10% of its technologies to make innovative products. The aim of implementing the strategy of connect and develop is to make use of technologies into products. After implementation of this technology, the first change that has come up in the process of the company was that the company has started involving external partners in the process of innovation making. A group has been created named Technology Acquisitions Group by the company that focuses on extracting the new technologies from outside sources. The connect and develop project of P&G is assisted by the technological advancement in the last decade that helps in transferring of organizational information and data from one place to another. Some of the techniques that have been used by the company under ICT were data mining, modelling, simulation etc.(Us.pgcareers.com, 2017)

The first technological change that has taken place in the company was connecting internal and external resources. This has been facilitated by corporate Intranet and ‘smart reporting systems’. This system allows the company to share the information from different sources. The internal employees of the company all over the world can be in contact with each other with the facility called InnovationNet. P&G says that this act as the technological Global Lunch Room for the people where they can share their knowledge and information with each other. The company has various communities of practice in different fields such as polymers, robotics etc. this internet bases system also facilitates these communities to communicate with each other at this online medium. One of the most important network that has been developed by the company with the use of ICT was Technology Entrepreneurs Network. This is the network that has around 70 individuals that facilitates linking the external innovation possibilities for the company.

Logistic is another field in which ICT has played its role in making innovations or the company. P&G has adopted another concept of ‘Ultimate Supply System’. This system facilitates the suppliers to communicate with each other to integrate the information that needs to be shared between them. As the company is dealing with around 300 brands and 120 manufacturers, it is important for the company to innovate and implement the technological aspects into the information sharing in the field. The main objectives that has been identified to implement this system is to increase the sales, revenue and to reduce the cost of production.

Virtual and rapid prototyping is another technology that has been used by the company in order to determine the cost effective methods. The virtual shopping malls techniques are used to determine the customer’s reaction on the products of the company in comparison to its competitors. These tools help in testing the strategies or the innovation that has been made by the company. The testing results determines the errors that can be corrected or the alternative can be planned before implementing it on the practical ground. CreateInnovate is the group in the company that use these tools of ICT in order to bring out the innovation in the processes and functions of the company. This group majorly focusses on the packaging of the products that is the main source to attract the customers and sell the products.(Us.pgcareers.com, 2017)

Assessment of communication technologies:

SWOT analysis summary:

SWOT analysis of the company in terms of ICT suggests that the company is using innovation as the key element to increase the growth of sales. In the above section, it has been discussed that the major aim of connect and development concept was to implement innovative practices in the organization by changing the internally focused communication of P&G to outward focused and cohesive communication. Most of the innovate technological use by the company compliments the major aim of the strategy but these tools of technological advancement of ICT that has majorly focused on developing connection strategy has not done justice to the objective of the organization.(Wahlgren, 2010)Strength of the company suggests that the company has powerful R&D team and also spend much of its capital in research and development field for ICT. The weakness of the company suggests that the company fails in providing training to the employees of the organization so that they can use these ICT tools effectively. As far as opportunity for the company is considered, it has been identified that the company still lacks in usage of ICT tools in some of the fields like sales and marketing. The company has the main objective of increasing the sales growth but has not implemented the technological use in the main stream of sales and marketing to increase the growth of sales. Threats for the company are generally its competitors and the biggest threat for P&G is also its competitors like HUL. HUL uses ICT for its marketing and sales purposes and hence helps the company to increase its sales.

Porter’s Five Forces analysis summary:

As far as threat of new entry is considered, P&G is the company dealing with so many brands that it is very difficult for any other company to enter the industry of such a kind. Bargaining power of supplier and buyer is moderate in nature. This is because suppliers are looking for the clients with good reputation like P&G and the company is looking for the supplier that provide good quality material to them. In case of buyers bargaining power, the company is dealing with the products that are required by the buyers on daily basis and also has a quality while buyer also wants to buy the products with a particular quality at competitive prices so power of bargaining remains moderate.(Bouwman, 2005)According to the analysis of Porter’s five forces, it has been recommended that the company should consider the buyers at the time of making or developing any of the strategy. To deal with the substitutes, it is important for the company to maintain its reputation by providing quality products to the customers. This is the only key approach to compete with the substitute products. The strategy should not be limited to continuation of serving the people with quality products but the company also has to develop new and feasible products in order to retain the customer base of the company. Another recommendation is given on the basis of prices. The company needs to serve the customers with controlled prices so as to retain the customers.

Recommendations:

After analysis of the company’s ICT usage, it has been identified that the company is making enough efforts in using the technological advancement and Information and communication technology in its functions so as to achieve its objectives. As far as the objective of the company is concerned, the main objective of the company was to increase the growth of sales of the company. For achieving this objective that company has realized to involve ICT and use of technology to develop its functions. The strategies that has been used by the company is connect to develop and open innovation. The company has used ICT technologies like simulation modelling, virtual technology, online medium to communicate etc. for implementing the developed strategies. It has also been analyzed that the objective of the company is not much aligned with the strategies that have been made. They indirectly contribute in achievement of the objective but the company has involved any of the direct strategy to achieve the objectives.(Cartelli and Palma, 2009)P&G can use ICT as the marketing tool is the following ways:

Internet medium to advertise: Internet is one of the best medium to advertise about the products sold by the company. This medium can be used to target the customers with the particular type of advertisement for the products of their choice. Pop-up windows and other methods can be used to advertise the products online. One of the medium to reach the customer through internet is the social networking sites. These sites help in contacting the customized customers with the relevancy of the product choices they have.

Direct mailing is the method that can be used by the companies like P&G to target the customers. Direct mailing helps the company to provide the relevant information about the products to the customers. It makes the customer feel important and thus they pay attention to the mails sent by the companies.

Promotional presentations can be linked with the mails exaggerate the advertisement or the mail and helps in attracting the customer more effectively. This helps in making the mail appealing and also left a more memorable impression on the minds of the customers.

Tele-marketing is the most common method that have been used by the company. P&G can also make benefits of this method by chasing the customers on telephone and making them aware about the innovations or the development of the new products.

Conclusion:

P&G is the company that serves the consumers with different fast moving consumer goods. The company has covered almost all the area of the world by its customer base. It is the company that sell the products of very well-known brands such as tide, Ariel, Pringles etc. As far as the objective of P&G is concerned, the main objective of the company was to increase the growth of sales of the company. For achieving this objective that company has realized to involve ICT and use of technology to develop its functions. The strategies that has been used by the company is connect to develop and open innovation. The company has used ICT technologies like simulation modelling, virtual technology, online medium to communicate etc. for implementing the developed strategies. Some of the recommendation shave been made in order to use the ICT techniques in marketing and sales. The various methods that can be used based at technological innovation fir marketing purpose are direct mailing, promotions, tele calling etc.

Implementation plan:

As far as this implementation plan is considered, the sequential approach should be used by the company in order to implement the strategies that has been recommended to the company. These strategies are recommended to the company so that it can be used in sales and marketing practices to enhance the sales of the products. The first step that is required by the company is to hire the relevant staff to carry out the processes. The staff that is required should be skilled with SEO knowledge as well as should have the knowledge of communication marketing. The next step is to gather the data of the customers who should be targeted by the marketing team. After that all the pop ads and presentations should be prepared that would help in attracting the customers. Feedback and analysis of the effectiveness of the tolls should be the next step and the ultimate step should be to make corrective actions if required.(Us.pgcareers.com, 2017)

References:

Bouwman, H. (2005). Information and communication technology in organizations. London: SAGE.

Cartelli, A. and Palma, M. (2009). Encyclopedia of information communication technology. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.

Wahlgren, P. (2010). Information & communication technology. Stockholm: Stockholm Institute for Scandinavian Law.

Hendarti, H. and Kurniawan, I. (2011). Information Technology Investment Strategy Planning: Balance Scorecard Approach. CommIT (Communication and Information Technology) Journal, 5(1), p.8.

Us.pgcareers.com. (2017). Procter & Gamble - Information Technology Jobs at P&G. [online] Available at: http://us.pgcareers.com/career-areas-find-your-fit/information-technology/ [Accessed 6 Feb. 2017].
Forbes.com. (2017). Forbes Welcome. [online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2013/04/01/21-most-admired-companies-making-it-a-competitive-advantage/#484c23e5164a [Accessed 6 Feb. 2017].