Chapter 9 Achieving Operational Excellence and
Customer Intimacy: Enterprise Applications
Learning objectives
9.1 How do enterprise systems help business achieve operational excellence?
9.2 How do supply chain management systems coordinate planning, production, and logistics with
suppliers?
9.3 How do customer relationship management systems help firms achieve customer intimacy?
9.4 What are the challenges that enterprise applications pose, and how are enterprise applications
taking advantage of new technologies?
9.5 How will MIS help my career?
Cases
Warehouse Management at Norauto: Conversational Commerce
Physical Flow in Alibaba
Kenya Airways Flies High with Customer Relationship Management
Fast Fashion, Big Data, and Zara
9.1 How do enterprise systems help business achieve operational excellence?
What are enterprise systems?
Enterprise systems feature a set of integrated software modules and a central database that enable
data to be shared by many different businesses
Also known as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, which are based on a suite of integrated
software modules and a common central database. The database collect data from many divisions
and departments in a firm and from a large number of key business processes in manufacturing and
production, finance and accounting, sales and marketing and human resources, making the data
available for applications that support nearly all an organization’s internal business activities.
Enterprise software
= built around thousands of predefined business processes that best reflect best practices
Leading enterprise software vendors include SAP, Oracle, IBM, Infor Global Solution,
Microsoft
Business value of enterprise systems
- Increase operational efficiency
- Provide firm-wide information to support decision making
- Enable rapid responses to customer requests for information or products
- Include analytical tools to evaluate overall organizational performance
9.2 How do supply chain management systems coordinate planning, production, and logistics with
suppliers?
The supply chain
Supply chain = network of organizations and business processes for procuring raw materials,
transforming these materials into intermediate and finished products, and distributing the finished
products to customers. It links suppliers, manufacturing plants, distribution centers, retail outlets,
and customers to supply goods and services from source through consumption. Material, info, and
payments flow through the supply chain in both directions.
Customer Intimacy: Enterprise Applications
Learning objectives
9.1 How do enterprise systems help business achieve operational excellence?
9.2 How do supply chain management systems coordinate planning, production, and logistics with
suppliers?
9.3 How do customer relationship management systems help firms achieve customer intimacy?
9.4 What are the challenges that enterprise applications pose, and how are enterprise applications
taking advantage of new technologies?
9.5 How will MIS help my career?
Cases
Warehouse Management at Norauto: Conversational Commerce
Physical Flow in Alibaba
Kenya Airways Flies High with Customer Relationship Management
Fast Fashion, Big Data, and Zara
9.1 How do enterprise systems help business achieve operational excellence?
What are enterprise systems?
Enterprise systems feature a set of integrated software modules and a central database that enable
data to be shared by many different businesses
Also known as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, which are based on a suite of integrated
software modules and a common central database. The database collect data from many divisions
and departments in a firm and from a large number of key business processes in manufacturing and
production, finance and accounting, sales and marketing and human resources, making the data
available for applications that support nearly all an organization’s internal business activities.
Enterprise software
= built around thousands of predefined business processes that best reflect best practices
Leading enterprise software vendors include SAP, Oracle, IBM, Infor Global Solution,
Microsoft
Business value of enterprise systems
- Increase operational efficiency
- Provide firm-wide information to support decision making
- Enable rapid responses to customer requests for information or products
- Include analytical tools to evaluate overall organizational performance
9.2 How do supply chain management systems coordinate planning, production, and logistics with
suppliers?
The supply chain
Supply chain = network of organizations and business processes for procuring raw materials,
transforming these materials into intermediate and finished products, and distributing the finished
products to customers. It links suppliers, manufacturing plants, distribution centers, retail outlets,
and customers to supply goods and services from source through consumption. Material, info, and
payments flow through the supply chain in both directions.
