Evaluating And Selecting Software Packages For B Bakery

The process in the organization

Discuss About The Evaluating And Selecting Software Packages.

B Bakery refers to a bakery company that produces bakery products and supplies its products to retail shops, wholesale shops and the market at large. The company enjoys enough market with several customers and relationship with other businesses. That is, consumers are available in the surrounding environment to purchase the product and for other business, the company forms partnership to extend its activities in couple of fields.  The main activity in B Bakery is the production of bakery products and then distributes the product in the market for access by consumers. Once the raw material is available, the immediate stage is to process bakery. Thereafter, package the product and sells it out to satisfy the need of the consumer. Bakery products, is a food which apparently is part of the basic human needs with shelter and clothing (Hess, 2017, p. 1-4). More often, the process of distribution into the market is facilitated by wholesalers and retailers. The consumers sometimes may not be able to access the processing company.

 Ideally, any bakery company inhibit different units and departments to facilitate the activities. These are, production unit, sales and marketing unit, human resource management department and accounting departments. The supply chain department is charged with the responsibility of purchasing raw materials for the company from outside, then then the production team conducts the processing of bakery. The inventory together with the logistics and procurement team store processed products of bakery and supply them into the market. In managing the accounting activities, the accounting department takes charge. These activities range from paying suppliers, paying workers and payment from customers. The Human Resource Management is a different another area that contributes into the process by hiring employees and prepare payroll of the workers. Lastly, the sales and marketing department conducts the sales activities and markets the company. Nonetheless, the marketing department involves in additional activities where it goes extra miles and promotes the business activities.

Notably, all these departments, right from supply chain, to inventory, to accounts and Human Resource, depend on each other in way or another. As long as one in is not functional enough the other are equally affected and every process in the organization is likely to operate ineffectively or stop. For instance, assuming the supply production encountering a problem, both sales and accounts are bound to suffer too. Similarly, if the company losses a portion of its accounts, it will have less sales, and actually worsen even the human resource management. Hence, for a bakery to successfully carry out its activities, it must balance all the processes involved and solicit adequate resources (Grunert, Traill and Bruce, 2012). Every business process must be carried out with the aim of complementing the other, and that means all employees must pull together. Also, the management which oversees all the activities must be corporative.  As such, B Bakery in its business activities, follows directly the activities of a normal baker.

Processes indispensable to be performed

Every stage in a business concerning bakery is significant and cannot be taken for granted. However, the key business process involve four activities; supply chain management, production, Human Resources Management and Accounting. Accounts is necessitates the business more since it deals with funds and facilitates any other activity through funding. Considering B Bakery, the company has witnessed gradual improvement in the recent years despite the few problems it faces now, specifically in accounts. Despite efforts to dedicate the accounting department with skilled personnel, the organization seem to do poorly in making decisions. Therefore B Bakers has failed in some of its accounting practices considering it issue product with competitive prices. It is now that the organization acknowledges that it more information is essential in making adjustment and recover its status in the market. Such information can only be acquired from the business processes and research about the market. It is through the information to be collected that the company will settle on strategic decisions that can improve the performance of the company (Salehi, Rostami, and Mogadam, 2010, p. 186). Precisely, the B Bakery require to instill and accounting information system, which means it will invest in the available accounting software. It will thus enhance its accounts, integrate all business process and accounting software for the best decision making, investigate the available accounting procedures and ensure customization and finally, implement ERP and AIS. ERP software will facilitate the integration of business activities and ensure the provision of an appropriate basement for accounting Information System (Helo, Anussornnitisarn and Phusavat, 2008, p. 1050).

Bakery organization demands particular outputs from its main activities for the success of the business in the market.  First, from business process the company needs information. All information in the company, both concerning transactions and operations are important in decision making process (Rainer et al., 2013). Accounting in business touches on every other activity in the organization (Simkin, Norman and Rose, 2014). Thus, seeking information from the accounts desk means the organization must also involve other processes currently in the business. For instance, the business will collect information from suppliers, stock and inventory department, quantity of sales, the cost of raw materials, man power and possible margins. All these activities are necessary in putting up with a competitive pricing of products. Payrolls of the employees also adds to the important information that is required.

To successfully acquire these information from business process, there is need to integrate the business process and the available systems used in the company. As a result, a well-integrated process enhances the compatibility and increases speed, at the end generating more return of investment The AIS collaborated with ERP ensures a structure for organization that assist it to collect information, carry out processing activity, ensure storage and recover financial data pertaining to the company (Jadhav and Sonar, 2009, p. 555-563).  Additionally, installing an ERP into the organization program will integrate the functional processes. This step boosted by AIS will generate key information from business information. This means is filters the information sought information and identifies the most relevant for use AIS will also predict the state of the business in future by keenly scrutinizing data from the past (Grabski, Leech and Schmidt, 2011, p. 37-78))

Outcomes require from the processes

B Bakery requires certain software feature and functionalities to achieve its ultimate goal in Information Technology (IT). The two feature in these case are ERP and AIS that should be implemented in the organization. Of course, both can aid toward the objectives of the business. For the ERP, these feature connect all the business process creating one central point. In turn, the central database that is created also becomes important and of use to AIS process. Which means the AIS program at the end is able to access all information about the business process therefore the process of production more efficient and keen (Gelinas and Dull, 2018).

One basic fundamentals of AIS, is a data processing that unique from the others. Basically, effective and efficient. That way, the data covers every important information and documents them for future references. The documentation is in journals that records every transaction and operation carried by the company. After that, this information can be transferred to ledger, where data is sorted depending on the account. Moreover, the AIS software will assist the management in making decisions by viewing at the information from the databases (Guragai et al., 2014). The two information exposed to the management is strictly managerial reports financial information. In addition, the program will be set to maximize on internal control to make information from the software more reliable. There are other extended programs of AIS software which may as well be include in the program. Most common examples are financial, expenditure, HR, revenue,   and production cycles and general ledger

References

Gelinas, U., Dull, R., Wheeler, P. and Hill, M. (2018). Accounting information systems. Boston: Cengage Learning.

Grabski, S., Leech, S. and Schmidt, P. (2011). A Review of ERP Research: A Future Agenda for Accounting Information Systems. Journal of Information Systems, 25(1), pp.37-78.

Grunert, K.G. and Traill, W.B., 2012. Products and process innovation in the food industry. Springer Science & Business Media.

Guragai, B., Hunt, N., Neri, M. and Taylor, E. (2014). Accounting Information Systems and Ethics Research: Review, Synthesis, and the Future. SSRN Electronic Journal.

Helo, P., Anussornnitisarn, P. and Phusavat, K., 2008. Expectation and reality in ERP implementation: consultant and solution provider perspective. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 108(8), pp.1045-1059.

Hess, E.D. and Hess, E.D., 2017. 3 Fellers Bakery. Darden Business Publishing Cases, pp.1-4.

Jadhav, A.S. and Sonar, R.M., 2009. Evaluating and selecting software packages: A review. Information and software technology, 51(3), pp.555-563.

Rainer, R.K., Cegielski, C.G., Splettstoesser-Hogeterp, I. and Sanchez-Rodriguez, C., 2013. Introduction to information systems. John Wiley & Sons.

Salehi, M., Rostami, V. and Mogadam, A., 2010. Usefulness of accounting information system in emerging economy: Empirical evidence of Iran. International Journal of Economics and Finance, 2(2), p.186.

Simkin, M.G., Norman, C.S. and Rose, J.M., 2014. Core concepts of accounting information systems. John Wiley & Sons.