FACULTY OF COMMERCE

DEPARTMENT OF ACCOUNTING AND INFORMATION

SYSTEMS

NAME: EPAPHRAS SIMANGO

REG#: M101947

MODULE: FOUNDATIONS OF INFORMATION

SYSTEMS

LEVEL: 1.1

LECTURER MRS MARIMA

1) N Richards & Co Masvingo is one of the biggest hardware and wholesale retail outlets in Zimbabwe
with up to 40 branches nationwide. The company uses a computerised data processing cycle to carry out
its day to day activities that include selling goods to customers, receiving stock from suppliers, printing
transaction receipts. A data processing cycle is a sequence of steps that are followed to convert raw data
into useful information. A data processing cycle consists of components like input, processing and
output.

The company in its various stores has till operators that are responsible for tendering cash received from
customers. A customer after identifying the goods they would like to purchase , they approach the till
operators who will be waiting at designated till points with the goods or the list in case the goods are
heavy , the till operator captures the description and quantity of the goods into the system .This is the
first stage of the data processing , which is the input and this company uses bar code scanners ,
keyboard , mouse to input the data into the system even though it comes after data collection , where
the data we want to use is first gathered . in this we gather the items needed to be purchased , the
customer name , the quantities wanted etc .

Once the data has been collected, it needs to be processed. This is the process of converting the raw
data into a format that can be analysed. In a retail organization, this can be done using various software
and systems such as electronic point of sale (EPOS) systems, customer relationship management (CRM)
software, and inventory management systems .So in this case, N Richards company uses a software
called Microsoft Dynamics Nav 2009. Dynamics NAV is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) app that
assists with point of sale, finance, manufacturing, customer relationship management (CRM), supply
chains, analytics, and electronic commerce for small and medium-sized companies and local subsidiaries
of large international groups. This software is linked with the N Richards database so upon receiving
input which is a list of goods and their quantities from the till point , the Microsoft dynamics Nav
retrieves the prices of each item , checks for availability that is if the quantity needed by the customer is
in stock , calculates the total price of the goods .

The next stage of the data processing cycle is output. This involves presenting the processed data in a
format that can be easily understood and used. In a retail organization, this can be done using various
tools such as dashboards, reports, and visualisations . At N Richards , at this stage the monitor shows the
calculated price of the goods in the preferred currency and it might be in RTGS , US , Rands or pula . The
system prints an invoice or a receipt showing the transaction details.

The details of this transaction together with those of the customer even though have been printed in
the previous stage on the receipt given to the customer, they are stored and saved in the database . This
information will be kept within the N Richards database for as long as the company likes and can make
use and reference of this information . So storage forms the final part of the data processing cycle .
2) In the retail sector , when sales are down or a product fails, how do you discover the cause of the
failure? Information enables organizations to track and review the health of various business processes
and essential systems. The aid this provides businesses is two-fold: 1) hindsight and 2) foresight.

In hindsight, businesses can review information to uncover stages where performance breakdowns
occur. With a better understanding of where the processes or systems are failing, organizations can
implement solutions to improve such stages. In foresight, since information allows organizations to
monitor the health of various systems and processes, organizations can effectively enforce quality
monitoring, enabling them to respond to challenges before they become a major issue , the importance
of information is seen in the flexibility of approaches you can take.

Businesses can constantly improve their efficiency of their operations in order to achieve higher
profitability. They can do this by constantly having the correct amount of stock in store so consumers
can always get want they want. For example EPOS information helps the retailer in knowing the effect
of promotion, prices, new products and packaging changes. Retailers can assess the impact of changes in
layout or merchandising of stores in terms of category sales, competitor brands, gross profit and sales in
the store.

Innovative product ideas may be tested against the realities prevailing in the market. In short, the EPOS
information analysis helps the company in evaluating its promotions calculating customer price
responsiveness for core and seasonal products. Predicting the outcome of its newly adopted policies and
planning its promotional measures. Therefore new product services and business models can be created
and information can describe how a company produce, create and sell their products.

Customer and Supplier intimacy – the better services a company provides its consumers with more likely
they are to come back to them and as result the more they will buy off the supplier therefore creating a
good relationship with both parties. When a customer makes a purchase from a retailer, their
information is collected. For instance, many customers will provide their email addresses to receive
special deals or insight into new products and give feedback of products or will sign up for loyalty
programs. This can help improve supplier and customer relationships, as it allows suppliers to better
plan for product orders, while customers can have their product needs met much more effectively.

Business invest in these systems that get information to make their jobs as easy as possible. an example
is Citibank introduced the first ATM machine to make it easier for customers to access their money and
to cut down queues in their banks

Demand forecasting is an important aspect of the retail industry, as it is used to help retailers
understand and forecast the future demand of their products by utilizing historical patterns, along with
internal and external decisions and factors. Similarly, inventory prediction allows retailers to have a
better grasp of their inventory levels are so that they can reorder accordingly. For instance, if an item is
extremely popular, they can use the information from previous purchases to determine how many items
they need to order.

Both demand forecasting and inventory prediction require information to be able to work effectively.
Using information, such as within supply chain management, can help retailers regularly determine
purchasing trends and make accurate forecasts accordingly and this is why it is important for retailers to
keep up-to-date information within their retail stores as it can help them achieve accurate demand
forecasting and inventory predictions.

Collecting consumer information can be extremely beneficial to a retailer as it can be used as a way to
make the shopping experience more personalized for customers. And since consumers are 40% likely to
spend more than they planned when they have a personalized shopping experience, this can be
extremely important for retailers to consider. Customer information, which the retailer can then use to
reach out to customers via email with personalized offers or with mail offers, and when going through
the check-out process, retailers can search up the customer’s information to make their experience
quick and efficient.

Information plays an important role in the retail industry, as it can be used to make processes across all
digital platforms more efficient. Remaining ahead of the curve and implementing new technological
advancements within retail operations, such as cutting edge software and operating systems, can help
make connecting and meeting the needs of customers that much more effective. If companies achieve
any of these reasons to use information they will generally create a competitive advantage over their
rivals.

However the collection of the information can also be very costly. Regular updates are also required.
Updating and upgrading the devices, software, and other components associated with gathering
information additional costs. Apart from the technological side, people should also be employed to
collect the information and thus should be paid wages. Training of these people again requires some
expenses.

Therefore information plays a very important role in the retail sectors .

References

1. Information systems Today 2nd edition by Leonard Jessup

2.Management Information Systems: Organization and Technology, 6th edition, by Kenneth
C.Laudon
3. Kurtis Pykes - Data Science & AI Blogger