Introduction:
According to the given case and scenario I work as a sales research analyst with a commercial software developers firm. The firm I work with specialises in the development and installation of modular commercial software applications based on IP-Internet Protocol Infrastructure. The assigned task is to provide an enhanced, descriptive and fully explained the likely required software modules and the Return On Investment to the CIO (Chief Information Officer) of the chosen targeted company. I have chosen Agile parcel delivery services as my targeted company to provide them a software that enables them to speed up there services and to manage their database effectively.
Agile Parcel & Delivery Services is a London based nationwide spread company that provides delivery of courier and parcels across the different parts of the world. It is specialised in delivery of courier and parcels that are ordered online or which are to be delivered by shops to their customers on time. It also provides other services such as carrier services which carries goods from one place to the other.
The following is a detailed and structured analysis of the company and its environment, suggested Software systems and the Return on Investment.
Company and Environment
Software Systems &
Return on Investment
1.2 Company and Environment:
Agile parcel & Delivery Services is a delivery company of goods and courier operating in various parts of the world focused in the European region. The company originated in the year 1998 and has gradually emerged and set its place in the delivery market. As years passed by the company grew gradually spreading its operations and services. The company uses its own vehicles for the transportation and delivery of goods and courier within the nation suck as trucks and mini vans. It acts as a regional deliver hub of an international parcels logistics group. Some of the main operations of Agile services are
Carrier and delivery of goods and products
Courier and Mail Services
Freight Services
Carrier and deliver of goods and products:
The company has got tie ups with various manufacturing companies from various businesses areas such as furniture, home based products, apparel, consumer electronics, mobiles, games music and many other products. These manufacturing companies or the franchises and outlets have their online shopping websites and whenever an order has been placed for a product the information straight comes to Agile through phone. With the reception of the call the company goes to the source of the product collects it and transports it to the required destination or address within the due course of time. For these purposes the company uses legacy software which automatically intimates the company whenever an order is placed including the delivery address and the location it should be delivered. Once the product is delivered it will be recorded on the system which passes on a message to the product provider and the cost of transportation.
Courier & Mail Services:
Agile services is specialised in courier services and offers collection, sorting and franking for small parcels & delivering packages, gifts and other parcels for its customers. It started it services with courier in the beginning and increased its operations to other services later on. With the help of legacy software all the data related to the collection of paper which are related to mail such as packages documents and letters are easily recorder and will be useful for quick reference and in case of lost of mail or courier it is easy to track it down and solve the issues related to it. The mail will be sorted and stamped in the special mail rooms which makes things easier and then are sent to the respective postal areas for delivery. With the choice of legacy and software service data is managed easily on how many mails are being sent and received with details of the senders and receivers.
Freight services:
It consolidates shipments from various locations for the final delivery to the target destination or customers. This is specially used for shippers sourcing part of their goods from third-party suppliers where it does not require reworking prior to the delivery till it reaches the consignee. The shipper does not take the product into inventory. Legacy software helps in clarity and transparency of incidents in the supply chain. As one of the fast growing companies agile consolidates the various logistics related information and gives a detailed and integrated picture to the customers.
Tracing and tracking will be made easy with the use of legacy when it comes to the numbers of references on business documents such as transport , purchase, warehouse and sales orders amongst the different parties indulged. Legacy software packages speeds up the process with total automation of all the shipping processes and barrier less integration with the existing operations. Accuracy is enhanced my minimising manual data entry and by providing pre determined options to click on and choose from the drop down menu with which errors and confusion can be avoided. Minimising accessorial charges and supplier charges with the validation of address and supplier complaint labels can be done. Quicker and cost effective shipping processes can be done with one click shipping. Brilliant and a user friendly interface that ease the process of managing, maintaining and shipping with different carriers which saves the companies expenses time and the cost of training their users. Unnecessary costs are eliminated from the supply chain with the help of these software enabled and automated operations.
With the increase in the market competition companies are choosing more advanced and innovative ways of enhancing and improving their operations and speeding up the process to achieve customer satisfaction and better quality services. With the help of software solutions and advancement and being able to choose the required specifications in their software the company will be able to achieve its tasks and goals easily. Agile services maintains a web based system which enables the customers to check their services and go ahead with the required process which saves the time and speeds up the process of handling and operating their operations and services. Details and activities are stored in their database but as there are various departments in the company the integration of data and being visible has become hard between different areas and departments of business. This creates a confusion and improper clarity in the communication of required data like financial statements and the details of the sales and services provided. The IT department which has most of the data related to the deliveries and services
Software Systems
Agile services as mentioned above uses legacy software for most of its operations and services but due to the increase in the size of the business and operations the software does not really suit the requirements of the company and its wide spread operations. Change and advancement is needed for any organisations and the services should meet the standards of the customer expectations to beat the competitors and stay ahead in the market. The modules the company has been using are not enough efficient to serve its purposes anymore and hence it is suggested for the company to use a more advanced and effective ERP software with appropriate modules that will enable the company to meet its service users and operations effectively and efficiently. Communication plays a vital role in any organisation or a company to work effectively and efficiently. But with the legacy software the individual departments in the company could not access the same information as they have individual software packages and with this there is a delay in communication and transfer of data which is not allowing the company to speed up its operations. It is essential for the company to have a specific common accessible database which will enabkle communication easily and quick reference for other departments for review in the process.
At the current state of the company an ERP software is required to handle its robust operations and to meet the standards and requirements and to eliminate the hurdles that the company is facing in between. Our ERP software is a complete business solution for Agile services. This software includes a lot of modules which can be easily accessed by various departments based on their requirements as they use it. This software enables in customizing the requirements based on the individuals need in the company. This helps in avoiding confusion and misleading. The accessibility can be set according to the individual's requirement and the privacy.
Our company provide a lot of integrated modules that helps Agile services immensely in operating effectively. The following are the modules that we have found are of great need to the company at the current state which enables visibility of information to every individual in the company with utmost detail and easy of access. The following are the modules which are explained in detail with their functionalities later in the report. Accounting, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Delivery, Employee Database, Inventory control, Purchases, Sales, Web & Supply Chain Management are the modules we are specialised in providing.
Accounting:
With the help of the accounts module the employee can setup accounts, run Tax reports, Journal entries, see Profit & Loss accounts, Balance sheets & trial balances. This module also facilitates in giving a snapshot of the whole companies accounts and financial data such as cash in the bank, account receivable and payable, bills receivable and payable, income earned by sales and services according to the date. This option provides a search column with which we can check the accounts based on their dates. Hence this module eases the process of accounting and gives a clear & detailed picture of the accounts of the company.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM):
Our CRM functionality exists in the software allowing the employee to track of every time you contact a potential customer. Emails can be sent, appointments can be scheduled, View the phone logs of the services that are provided and the order or services. A total tele marketing campaign can be run including scripts and a link to a predetermined dialer. The CRM function gives a complete detailed list and record of all the transactions with its customers and their details including their address and date of service provided.
Customer satisfaction plays a prominent role in the success of any company. If a customer is satisfied with the services an automated feedback service is enabled that helps the customer to give feedback and if they are not happy with the service or if they have any query or problem CRM handles that easily without any confusion or panic. This helps in increasing the goodwill of the company to a great extent. Frequent customers can be put on priority as the use of data related to them might be quite frequent. It is one of the advanced multi-purpose module which takes care of customer related issues and operations.
Delivery & Transportation:
Our Delivery module is a functionality that helps in setting up scheduled runs for the deliveries of products or design trucking and transportation manifests. The products or goods delivered are recorded on this database including their time of delivery and the way of delivery. This helps also in obtaining the accuracy of delivery and if improvements needs to be done in the delivery time of products and goods. Delivery of courier and mail is recorded as they are of great importance to be delivered on time. This software helps in consolidating sales orders by loading the goods and shipping to the final destination by using the available carriers with optimal shipping rate. Once completed shipment data is aggregated and data will be available at both detailed and summary levels for reviewing if carriers for overall performance.
Employee Database:
Our employee database allows you to roster, keep a track of all your employees and even the employees performance and standards can be stored and reviewed timely and their appraisals can be done easily. Alerts can be received if the performance is bad and if at all training is needed or further actions should be taken. This also helps in giving the complete staff details and their qualifications start dates and their performance for review.
Inventory Control:
Our inventory control is the state of the art, it allows you to keep track of the complete product movement even allowing you to keep documents on file and build complex bill of material structures. With the help of this the goods and products can be stored and be delivered on time appropriately on the required time.
Purchases:
With the help of purchases functionality we can create requisitions, return unwanted, and lodge purchase orders straight without suppliers. We can also load in non inventory based transactions which are also called as bills and in fact we could link them to any customer job allowing you to have complete job costing of all your expenses and purchases run within the system.
Sales:
The sales functionality i one of the important modules required to your company which helps in keep rack of every customer, quoting, sales, invoices, cash sales and even a point of sales screens should you be in an environment where a point of sale is required. The services offered such as delivery of goods and products, transportation of goods, courier, freight and shipping are all under sales and are managed effectively. It helps in taking orders automatically and sending te information to the concerned department alerting tem to go ahed with the process of handling.
WEB:
As Agile services has a web enabled order service it is essential for it to have a module within its ERP software to access internet which is one of the main source of operations an sending and receiving data quickly. The web enabled functionality helps in receiving orders for your services in the form of mails which are directly sent to the sales module for processing. This functionality also helps in gathering information quickly regarding delivery address, currency exchange rates, postal address and many other relevant search fields. This also helps the customers to compare various services and their prices effectively and spped up their process rather than going to a nearest branch or office and by utilising the services with the ease of a click. The advanced shipments services and forms are loaded in the website with pre determined drop down options to avoid mistakes and get ultimate output from the customers to serve them better and satisfy their need.
With the use of our ultimate ERP software and the above modules Agile services can gain control over its operations and live upto its name and function effectively and efficiently and stay standard and speedup its operations immensely. We hence have great confidence that our software is high end in operation and user friendly to your employees and customisable based on requirements. We hope our software meets your requirements and standards and it brings success to your company in its sales and services and profit
A detailed Return on investment is mentioned below and the reliability and profit that could be gained using our ERP software.
1.4 ROI (Return On Investment)
Return On Investment is a measurement of performance used to calculate the effectiveness and efficiency of the investment. It is also used to measure the efficiency of different investments at the same time. To calculate ROI, the benefit (return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment and the result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio.
To calculate the Return On Investment let us assume two scenarios where the present return on investment is calculated against the future Return on Investment upon using the suggested software modules.
The present software the company is using with its individual modules costs the company an overall investment of £100000
The gain on the investment being obtained is 120000
From the above figures the ROI is calculated as follows
The Return On Investment can be calculated from the formula,
ROI = (Gain from Investment-Initial Investment)/Initial Investment x 100
ROI = (120000-100000)/100000 x 100
= 20000/100000 x 100
= 0.2 x 100
= 20 %
The duration to pay back the amount is 2 years. The company's income in the first year was 55000 and the rest of the income is earned in the next year.
Considering the second scenario where the company develops, widens and enhances its ERP software. The cost of investment for the updated and improved and integrated version of this software with its individual costs are as follows
Accounting £15000
CRM £30000
Delivery & Transportation £10000
Employee Database £8000
Inventory control £15000
Purchases £15000
Sales £20000
Web £7000
Investment on the software modules overall = 120000
The expected gain on investment is = 180000
Based on the above values the ROI (Return on Investment) is calculated as follows
ROI = (180000-120000)/ 120000 x 100
= 40000/120000 x 100
= 0.5 x 100
= 50%
Comparing both the scenarios the present and the future it is quite evident from the ROI's that the new proposed ERP software brings more profit than the existing one. The money invested in the first scenario is significantly less and the gain on the investment is equally less when compared to the second scenario where the gain on investment is high. It is even clear from the pay back periods so the second scenario is very better compared to the first. We can also say that the company has suffered with reduction in demand due to these results.
The figures clearly shows that the Return on Investment for the suggested software is far better than the one which the company is using at the moment. We come to conclusion from the values obtained in the Return on Investment that the software suggested is more durable and reliable with advanced options and facilities. Hence by initiating this software the company can speed up its operations and increase its sales and services.
