Chapter 11 And 12

Chapter 11 and 12

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Chapter 11 and 12

Chapter 11

Discussion

Customer Relationship Management is the combination of technologies, strategies, and practice that are used to increase customer loyalty with the ultimate aim to increase profits. CRM system has the ability to gain customers insights and utilize those to provide excellent services to customers to enhance loyalty. Supplier relationship management (SRM) aims at keeping the suppliers of an organization happy and satisfied. It also optimizes the suppliers’ selection. Partner relationship management (PRM) aims at managing alliance partner and keeping the partners satisfied. Employee relationship management enables employees to have access to all the applications that enable them to deal with customers in an optimal way.

Assignment

A supply chain is the network of all the parties involved in the process of procurement and the conversion of raw materials to the final product and to the final delivery to the end user of the product. Supply chain management system ensures that all the required information is transferred to the parties involved in each step of the process of the supply chain in order to maximize efficiency. Carrying the whole process of the supply chain is a complicated job and supply chain management software enables to achieve efficiencies by improving the flow of information between the parties involved in the supply chain process. Amazon is a larger organization and it has a well-established supply chain network that serves to deliver the products to Amazon customers within no time with maximum efficiency and minimum defects.

Zappos can take benefit of Amazon’s supply chain management and larger customer base. The merger between Amazon and Zappos can benefit Zappos in many ways since both the business are online retailers of consumer goods. Amazon’s supply chain consists of warehousing facilities, delivery systems, technology, and manufacturing. Amazon’s success lies in the success of its elements of supply chain elements.

Zappos can take benefit of Amazon's variety of ways to make deliveries to customers. From the traditional system of deliveries, Amazon adopts high-tech methods to get its products in the hands of customers is the fastest possible ways. Amazon ties partnership with FedEx and UPS to achieve efficiency in the delivery system. In addition, it is also looking forward to introducing Prime Air drone deliveries to assure same-day delivery to maximum customers. Amazon adopts and embraces technology for its supply chain operations. The company utilizes automated systems and various robotic solutions to pick and drop shipments. These tools and techniques help them efficiency and increase the speed of deliveries. Amazon offers a plethora of delivery options to its customers such as free deliveries, prime deliveries, two-day deliveries and as quick deliveries as within two hours. It is delivery options have been a game changer and differentiates it from the other retailers.

Though Amazon has one of the most successful supply chain technology and strategy yet it strives for better. The world’s largest online retailer is looking to start construction on the second location. These facilities and the technologies of Amazon's supply chain can also be utilized by Zappos to achieve customer satisfaction by providing them quick and efficient deliveries of their orders and products they order at Zappos. In addition, Zappos has already built a strong customer base. Zappos can take the integrated benefits of competitive advantages of both the brands.

Chapter 12

Discussion

The primary goal of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is to maintain, keep and update the company-wide information that is utilized in decision making at the company's level. ERP is a business management software that takes consists of a set of integrated systems and application to managing business operations. It generally takes all the forms of operations in a single database. The system tales use of information from all the functional departments of business and integrates them together within a single interface. Precise results from the decisions are based on the accuracy of information from the system.

Assignment

Response to Question 1

Today we live in the era of radical technological advancements. The practice of utilizing a variety of remote servers hosted on the internet is becoming very common and it is referred to as cloud computing. It is also referred to as on-demand accessibility of computer systems resources. The past decade has witnessed a radical shift to the cloud systems and this shift has some obvious business reasons ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"ZQfLOR0y","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Lenart, 2011)","plainCitation":"(Lenart, 2011)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":157,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZeEdB6mD/items/2KK2HUTA"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZeEdB6mD/items/2KK2HUTA"],"itemData":{"id":157,"type":"paper-conference","title":"ERP in the Cloud–Benefits and Challenges","container-title":"EuroSymposium on systems analysis and design","publisher":"Springer","page":"39-50","author":[{"family":"Lenart","given":"Anna"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2011"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Lenart, 2011). Cloud computing allows saving the cost of installation, maintenance and upgrade. In addition, it allows to access the information from anywhere, there is no need to upgrade the systems as it is the responsibility of the vendor and it enhances productivity and efficiency. Cloud-based ERP systems are solutions to many ERP related issues. The benefits of cloud-based ERP systems are that they are implemented quickly without any hassle and allows faster updates and new features are generally added with every update. Due to its web-oriented features, it enhances data accuracy and maintenance of non-physical servers is also a major benefit. Though there could be disadvantages of data security issues choosing the right system can be of a lot of benefit for the company.

Response to Question 2

Enterprise Resource Planning software is one of the most significant IT applications of an organization. It has helped increase efficiency and excellence in business operations. The integrated ERP system will be able to extract information from all the functional areas and regarding all the key players such as suppliers and customers. If combined, ERP, CRM and SCM, will enable an organization to perform up to its full capacity. A good ERP system will combine the features of a CRM system and SCM. Using information from the CRM it will be able to utilize the information about the customers ensuring precise and efficient sales. It will also oversee the smooth functioning of the entire supply chain based on the information about suppliers from the SCM. It will also assure ease of information sharing between all the departments and will ensure that the entire organization operates efficiently by integrating CRM, ERP, and SCM.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Lenart, A. (2011). ERP in the Cloud–Benefits and Challenges. EuroSymposium on Systems Analysis and Design, 39–50. Springer.