This example of the Introduction Section of the Business Report is provided as a gulled to the writing standard and style required. This introduction would receive a high pass level mark. Please note that students may not copy this work but must write their own. Except for Stair and Reynolds these references are not the most common so it is expected that students will do their own research for the literature review.
Business Report 1: Introduction: This business report discusses the use of Information systems within the decision making processes of BBC Pizza Store, located in Blacktops, Sydney. This research investigates the gathering of data, the processing of this data into useful information and the use of this information in the short and long-term decisions of the business.
These decisions dictate the business processes, the quality of the product and the performance of staff which, in turn, affect competitive advantage In an Industry which is well populated and aggressive In marketplace rivalry. An analysis of the information system findings will lead to recommendations for changes to the system which may improve the performance of the system with resultant impact on information quality and availability, further assisting in improved decision making.
This, in turn, may lead to enhanced competitive advantage for the organization. 1. 1 Information Systems: Literature Review Information systems (IS) are defined by UKASES as “the means by which people and organizations, utilizing technologies, gather, process, store, use and disseminate information” (1 999, Pl Within the business environment this is often aligned closely with computer technology with the term ‘computer based information systems’ (CABS) used in both research and business fields (Chancier and Bicorn, 2000).
IS can be both manual; with people undertaking all or most of the actions, or automated; where technology works primarily independent of human involvement (Stair and Reynolds, 2010). They highlight that in most organizations the IS Is a mixture of these with some activities highly automated, such as those in stock control using a Transaction Processing System and barded scanning, while others remain primarily people focused, such as staff individually counting shelf items in a manual stock-take.
Bruno identified these two ends of the spectrum stating that “business purposes are achieved through coordinated work to be carried out by means of two kinds of activities: user tasks and automatic procedures” (2009, Pl 7). Stair and Reynolds (2010) and Hunter (2010) Identify that although IS usually Include considerable amounts of automated computer technology the development processes of the IS and decision making using the resultant information must include management level input.
The effectiveness of IS within an organization is dependent not only of the currency and efficiency of the technology but, more importantly, on how the technology purport and enhances the goals and objectives of the business ( Stair and Reynolds, understandings and involvement and the business strategic direction are the main factors in successful enterprise IS and that a successful IS is a major component in organizational success. . 3 Methodology This research was undertaken over a period of nine weeks and involved site visits to BBC Pizza Store, interviews with the owner, manager and two senior staff, as well as observation of the processes of the business operation. The interviews with the manager occurred over a three week period and questions were developed based on observation and on the responses to previous discussions.
As part of the visit some of the generated reports from the organization’s IS were viewed and will be discussed in the report but due to confidentiality the reports will not be replicated in their entirety. Examples have been created with generic data to demonstrate the processes used. 1. 4 Research Site The site of this research is BBC Pizza Store in Blacktops, Sydney. This is a small, independent business which makes and sells pizzas and related side dishes as well as selling brand name soft drinks.
The pizzas are made on-site and customers can arches takeaways or home deliveries, within a ten kilometer radius of the store. The local completion is identified as a Domino’s (five km from the store), a Pizza Hut (three km), a fish and chip store (1 in the same block as BBC Pizza Store, 3 within 8 km), Asian restaurants (3 within ten km) and take away food from the four local supermarkets. The Domino’s, Pizza Hut and supermarkets all advertise on TV and the newspapers while the other outlets regularly undertake flyer letter box drops.
BBC Pizza Store competitive advantage currently is based on the perception of a family, independent business and the on the amount and quality of toppings. BBC Pizza Store has one owner, two full time shift managers and 12 casual workers. The primary business process the business undertakes are orders receiving, making and delivering the product (pizzas, sides and drinks), receiving payment, stock replenishment and staffing the shifts. These are demonstrated in the diagram below (figure 1).
