M III

Daksh Malhotra

MBA07032 A 09/03/2022

Management Information Systems

Professor Ram Dhurkari

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1. I have submitted faculty feedback 30 minutes prior to appearing in the End-Term Exam.
2. I have not copied the answer/matter in this answer booklet from my classmate, internet and
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 Answer 1
The major impact of mergers and acquisition on the distribution channels of pharmaceutical
companies was increase in competitors for distributions. The key players and impact of
mergers is given as follows:
• Stockists and wholesalers: Stockists and wholesalers used to stock products of six to
eight pharmaceutical companies. But in coming years the due to mergers and
acquisitions the number of stockists per pharma company doubled, giving retailers a
number of options to buy from. The competition between different stockists supplying
same companies medicine increased drastically. This also led to an increased number
of stockists in India which stood to approximate 70,000.
• Retailers: The increased number of stockists and increased competition between them
supplying same company’s medicines provided retailers with many options of buying
their stock. This effect helped retailers gain a higher bargaining power in the industry
Thus, we can conclude that the acquisitions and merger lessen the bargaining power of
stockists and strengthen the bargaining powers of retailers.
Answer 2
Prior to IT interventions in NDPL, there were many problems associated with the manual
system:
• The manual way of taking orders made executives visit large chemists to write down
the orders and deliver them next day. It was troublesome for them to take orders from
small retailers. With the introduction of IT in this particular segment, the company
was able to connect with small chemists and covered 1300 chemists in Delhi.
• The other issue related to this was interference of humans at every stage. Without any
IT support at all levels the chances of billing errors were high and it used to cause
losses for the company.
• There were also problems of having excessive amounts of expired drugs. As all the
process of operations, sales and inventory management was manual, humans have to
take care of every procedure. Returning medicines at the right time was very difficult
which ensured losses for the company.
• Prior to introduction of IT practices, the company had chances of having competitors
beside it. As clearly stated in the case that because of implementing proper IT
practices at every stage on right time, the company was able to maintain its strongest
position in the market.
• There was lack of communication in the departments of the company. It was difficult
to connect one department form the other which was very crucial in their case.
Answer 3
Prior to 2010-2011, company made huge expenses on capital and operational IT
expenditures, still they took possibility of adopting cloud computing, thinking it would
reduce capital expenditure. There were many advantages that company thought cloud
computing would bring like:
• The onus of maintaining computer infrastructure was on cloud provider,
 • Various cloud models were available
• They would not have to go in updating and maintaining software over time.
But every advantage comes at a cost that cloud computing brought with it. Though company
introduced cloud computing in 2 phases:
• Sourcing software applications
• Shifting from hardware to cloud
It was very difficult for the company to tackle the after effects of the system. The
problems that company faced from the very first day are as follows:
• The system was unable to scan barcodes for many medicines making it difficult to
generate bills and invoices causing customer dissatisfaction. The problem continued
for the second day and a ‘Network Failure’ occurred due to which executives had to
go for manual invoice generation.
• The network provider of NDPL had limited experience from garment industry only.
He was unable to efficiently deliver services to pharma industry because of this.
NDPL had approximately 25,044 unique products with 250,000 of stock keepings.
The Masterfile could not cope up with this huge number.
• There were 3 parties involved in this system: NDPL, cloud provider, and network
provider. As the cloud and network providers were different it was very difficult for
the company to make sure full day availability.
Answer 4
• The major advantage: The major advantage that cloud computing could provide in the
case given is ensuring interconnectivity between departments. As the company’s
operations were information-centric, and information sharing took place across
various parties, both internally and externally. Installing cloud computing would make
sure that no error would occur at any point as in such conditions when departments
have co-relation to a huge extent if an error occurs at even an isolated point, it had a
potential to affect the entire value chain. Cloud based systems help an organisation to
integrate data throughout the value chain of the organisation and also integrate
external data with internal organisational data. Thus, this could help any organisation
to function in a timelier manner with an optimised operation.
• The major concern: The major concern in case of choosing cloud computing as a
solution is its difficult adaptability and risk factors contributing. The major advantage
is integrating external and internal entities. But it is very difficult to onboard external
entities to adapt cloud computing as it requires investment and human capital both.
The company would require to train its employees accordingly and also make sure
that their data is secure as data would be always present on the database of server
provider.
Answer 5
Cloud elasticity can be used as an advantage of cloud computing as it can be helpful in case
when demands may suddenly spike up or go down. This can be useful in cases for companies
which provide seasonal products as during a season when sales of a particular products rise
up suddenly, resources need to be used faster.
On the other hand, cloud expansion/scalability refers to an advantage when a company needs
to manage huge workload and perform well to handle the growing work. When you need
persistent deployment of resources to handle workload statically, cloud scalability can be
used.
In the case given, it is clear that company needs cloud scalability. The reasoning for this is:
• Company has an advantage of being the first mover in the industry. It is growing at a
faster rate of 26% in 2000/01, 31.8% in 2001/02. With the expansion of markets also
NDPL was able to have a revenue growth of over 50% in 2004/05. The average
growth stood at 31% but 2010/11 was a landmark for the company with a 88% of
revenue growth.
In such a case when company has a first mover advantage and revenues are growing
at such rates, a company needs to manage the increasing workload and perform well.
Thus, cloud scalability is a solution for NDPL.

Answer 6

As evident from the table above, the company has spent almost Rs. 41,65000 on hardware
upgradation and Rs. 21,50,000 on the software upgradation as IT expenses from year 2006 to
2010. The costs of improving hardware and software for the good performance is increasing
year after year for the company. This would mean more investments would be required if the
company wishes to move in the same manner. Though this process may be easier for the
company as no additional training would be required and company would not face any
difficulties that it faced earlier. But, in my opinion NDPL should go ahead with cloud-based
ERP as a solution because of numerous advantages that it will provide:
• The very first advantage that this system will provide is reduced costs of software
upgradation and no costs of hardware upgradation every year. As the company is
growing fast, it requires them to constantly bring changes in their systems to deal with
changes. With the method they are currently moving, they have to spend a lot every
 year in order to cope-up with difficulties but with a cloud-based ERP they would just
need to expand their package and not spend a lot on upgradation.
• The second and the most required advantage of this would be integration of all the
departments and availability of real time data. A cloud-based ERP would help the
company to integrate all of its departments. As the company’s operations were
information-centric, and information sharing took place across various parties, both
internally and externally. Installing cloud computing would make sure that no error
would occur at any point as in such conditions when departments have co-relation to a
huge extent if an error occurs at even an isolated point, it had a potential to affect the
entire value chain. Cloud based systems help an organisation to integrate data
throughout the value chain of the organisation and also integrate external data with
internal organisational data. Thus, this could help any organisation to function in a
timelier manner with an optimised operation.