Operations and Information SystemsEssay Preview: Operations and Information SystemsReport this essayOperations and Information SystemsInformation systems is something that has helped globalize business as a whole. It all started out with emails. But this is not very effective because you need to work on the document, then save it, and then send it back. This makes it hard for people to look at it at the same time. But, the creation of ERP’s (Enterprise Resource Systems) has allowed employees in different locations in the same company to collaborate, manage, create, and design data that previously had to be handled manually.
Information systems have really helped globalize the supply chain and make it efficient. For example, at Wal-Mart, as soon as a customer picks an item of the shelf and the cashier scans it, a signal is sent to their ERP that they have sold this product and it is easy for the managers to see exactly what has been sold in each store. It can also track the inventory and they may even reorder inventory automatically knowing they are running out of stock. This is without Wal-Mart even having to do anything.
The supply chains have influenced globalization because has supply chains grow, the more global standards are needed which in turn eliminates border friction. This creates a global collaboration as companies starts to feed off other companies. Globalization also helps companies to build their supply chains because of the fact that companies can find the best producers as well as the lowest prices around the world. In that sense, the supply chains help progress globalization as well because now companies from countries all over the world can find and sell products from countries all over the world (Lawlor B. R., 2007).
The information systems has also helped enable the consolidation of operations and supply chain management work into Shared Service Centers. A Shared Service Center is a unit that is structured as a centralized point of service and is focused on defined business functions. These functions are supported by IT and IT services for multiple business units within the enterprise. Shared services may come from several different physical locations, and may involve a lot of business functions and IT processes (Gartner).
Shared Service Centers reduce the costs for an organization by consolidating one or more back-office operations used by multiple divisions of the same company such as finance, information technology, customer service and human resources into a shared operation. By creating an independent Service Center, companies can eliminate unnecessary activities and improve efficiency, services and customer satisfaction. Because of the need of every corporate department for finance and human services, these functions offer a common opportunity for a Shared Service Center model. Many of the savings come from standardizing technology and processes on a national and regional basis, making it easier to provide support for multiple business units,
Consequently, Shared Service Centers allow a company to efficiently develop a business plan with the assistance of specialized financial assistance groups, such as large, non-government organizations. In addition, the Shared Service Centers also have reduced the complexity of the business plans for both local and state government departments because they are shared and have fewer administrative and technical barriers. The benefits of such a Shared Service Center include: More flexibility between financial aid dollars of a local government department and money created from a national share of funding, ensuring there is never a conflict of interest between Department of Finance policy and that same state department, making it easier for a government office to share benefits between departments.
Increased competition among financial aid groups to provide funding for shared services within and across the same project.
The benefits of Shared Service Centers have been well defined. Shared programs include “banking” for a local government program used for a local finance program, which can be a part of the process of selecting funds, making the initial investment, and distributing funds, so that the overall investment is carried out in a more efficient manner. An example of an instance in which a Shared Services Center is employed will be described in the “Benefits of Banking” section of this publication; this type of program is common nationally because it can benefit both local funding and budgeted funding from the Public Public Service budget.
As detailed in: “Benefits of Banking,” “Benefits of Banking on Work and Earnings,” and “Earnings versus Bank-Based Funding” in: Public Citizen, Government Accountability, and the Federal Reserve, Shared BANKING: The Case for a More Limited Federal Reserve System, edited by Andrew McCurdy and David A. Green, 2000, 943 pp.
Shared Agencies Can Help New Companies Acquire Business
The benefits of providing a Shared Service Center include:
Better business outcomes of business to avoid duplication and make the system more equitable and efficient.
Reduces the cost and time that a local government office spends on planning and development for its local partner in the planning, implementation and operations stage of its operation.
Reduces the number of administrative and technical barriers to any local administration from a government role or to the point where it is impossible to change the system and does not cost the budget.
Shared Service Centers also provide a sense “to be fully integrated by all government agencies into the public system to ensure the public gets what they need, at a reduced cost to the taxpayer.” (McFadden, 1998). The benefits of Shared Service Centers include:
Providing a clear understanding of each and both of the requirements of business development and for new uses of Shared Services Centers.
Reducing duplication of administration duties.
Decreasing the need for staff managers to coordinate development and compliance activities in the project.
Reduces the need for an employee manager for one office to operate all of his or her business in other parts of the project.
Shared Agencies Can