A Strategic It Report To Help the Nice-Fit Company Senior-Staff Understand Its Role of in the Company

Executive summary

The business remains to be the best choice if one has to venture into innovation and investment since it can guarantee one some good income if it is properly managed. Some ways and decisions need to be considered to ensure a thriving business that remains alive for centuries. One of the most important is technology. Information technology carries the heavier load when it comes to ensuring that business maximizes profit and minimizes cost. It is IT that will ensure data is analyzed well and proper decisions are made. It also assists in the planning of the business and budgeting for the daily expenditures. For a case like Nice-fit company, it has been thriving well since it started well but still, there are problems faced because the senior staff has not considered the role of IT in this company. The company has been trying to ensure that it remains alive by meeting the daily set objectives but still, there are adjustments to be made to ensure a fully working business enterprise. This is the main reason this strategic report is set to address issues like;

Keeping track of sales, purchases, and customer data- there is the need to ensure that software is established that will keep the data from the customer sales and purchases including the ones from the rented shops for costumes. The company also faces the challenge of managing the business efficiently- A system or a policy should be set to address the issue of managing the business efficiently for profit-making this is still captured in this report.

The company has expanded the business currently to WA outfit and planning to spread it to the eastern states- the company should be helped to market its products to gain a lot of customers globally and not only nationally, this is addressed because thanks to the cloud-based platforms digital market can be made easier which will reach out to a lot of customers online and in the long run a lot of its products will be bought which will give profits. The report is therefore designed to address all these problems faced by Nice-fits company so that eventually it will reduce the expenses and start to realize an increment in the profits it has usually been having. The report is therefore set to establish the main purpose, objectives that should be met, project plan, and risks that can be accompanied with it because everything comes with a risk.

In conclusion, the report will give a summary of all the activities and recommendations for further research or what can be done for improvement. The report will propose some of the references and journals since that is where it would have acquired the data and can still be referred to in the future for scholarly purposes.

A Strategic IT Report to Help the Nice-fit Company Senior Staff Understand the Role of IT in the Company.

“Even if you are on the right track you will get run over if you just sit there”, It is true from this famous quote that whatever we are doing for a living we need to keep on pressing and adding value to it so that it improves and we get to gain a lot and not rather keep on loosing. Just like any other sphere of life be it environment, culture, or political business a company is no different it just follows suit to maximize profits and not maximize the costs and expenses. It is always the priority of every company to make profits and minimize costs. That is why it takes a company a lot of time, sacrifice, and effort to achieve its daily targets and to achieve its vision and mission generally.

There are vital organs that play an important role to make sure that a company like Nice- fit achieves what it sets for itself. For a company like Nice- fit it is a potential business center that just needs some proper management and running of the business to ensure it gains a lot of profits in the long run. Business is the best sector to venture into and do a lot of investments in. It is always easy to start a business but maintaining it will be the most challenging part if the management is not good enough. In the recent past, we have seen the innovations and ways of working, the inevitable technology that has kept on changing to new digitalized ways has seen many sectors having to adjust to conform to the new ways of working. For a business industry like the Nice-fit industry that specializes in clothing following its all process from the acquisition of raw materials to the manufacturing of them to finalized goods requires a lot of in-depth planning. Gunasekaran, A., & Nath, B. (1997).

It has to have sound management, proper progress keeping, data analysis, and decision making that will help the company plan very well on how it will be running the business to avoid losses. As the Chief Information officer, that means my work in the company goes to the information and technology department I will always work to ensure that there is proper analysis and utilization of information in the company. This will guarantee proper decision-making and sound planning of the business so that the company realizes a maximum profit and not a loss that may result in the collapse of the promising business. This strategic report will work to look into the sensitive areas such as the proper keeping of the files within the industry, the senior staff also may still be having difficulties in the management of every department within the organization, there is no proper tracking or follow up of the business and then the business owners only gets paid by those customers who rent the houses for the outfits and those that purchase the outfits directly from them. Gunasekaran, A., & Nath, B. (1997).

Now that the business is expanding and wants to establish its branches in the eastern state and the WA means that the company or the business owners will have to reconsider its way of working and develop profound business solutions such as those from IS to ensure that the business has a robust growth and continues to scale to higher heights. The report will also give an overview of the expansion of the business at the national and global levels. It is now evident that there are factors and considerations that a company has to look at so that it achieves its goals. Factors such as leaders within the company which is the most crucial one, employee and staff support how does the company respond to the welfare of its staff and employees also matters, decision making which spreads and affects most of the parts within the company that is why this report will work out and look keenly on these listed factors to help the senior staff within the company to have a good picture on the role and direction that Information technology can play within a company such as the Nice-fit. Drnevich, P. L., & Croson, D. C. (2013).

Purpose of the report

Reports act as the basic form of communication within an organization such as a business organization. They are very important in that whatever the business organization plans to do it has to refer to or obtain the required information from it. Firstly, it relays or passes information from one person to another within the organization. The manager or the director will communicate to the employees through the reports if there are any changes or adjustments to be made. Mangers also seek to obtain the information from the compiled reports from various departments, which is why is the primary key to making decisions within a company. They will consult various reports to develop the basic and primary way of making decisions and giving directions. Hoch, J. E., & Dulebohn, J. H. (2013).

This is why reports remain the basic tool for making decisions since the work of the manager is to make decisions. Reports also help us to analyze given information, they carry information that will assist in the analysis of data and interpret them. It is through this that we can then decide what to do with the acquired results. So, reports are also vital in data analysis and interpretation of required information. They communicate externally to other players for example stakeholders for the given business enterprise. Besides communicating internally and within the walls of a business organization reports give information to other players outside the organization. For example, the creditors or the debtors can acquire information from the reports first before coming to the organization to ask for credit lending opportunities or their money. Hoch, J. E., & Dulebohn, J. H. (2013).

For the stakeholders and shareholders, it tells them how the business is doing if it is making a progress or retrogressing and from this, they can make suitable decisions for the company or business enterprise. From the above list of various functions of a report to a company or business enterprise, the Nice-fits company is not exceptional because they all apply to its way of running its business. This strategic IT report will not only act as a referee but also give the necessary information that will be required by the company to make decisions that will develop it and make it prosper. Like the business owners have been having difficulties to keep the track of the customers that comes to the company. This will give all the information to them so that they can know their performance with their esteemed customers. The company is seeking to expand its branches to the eastern state and the WA as a fabric industry. This report will give Tom and Anna a platform to make proper decisions before expanding their business. It will give them a clear picture of how their business is doing and from it, they will have a primary basis to make the suitable decisions.

It will act as a channel that relays information from one person to another within the company such as employee to employee or staff to employee thus this report is very important for information within and outside the company. It is through this that the employees and staff will do as per the requirements of the company to achieve what is required in the long run. It also keeps everyone updated and the company can evaluate itself from the report if it is going forward or standing still.

Vision

To be a leading company in the clothing industry and fashion designs both nationally and globally.

Mission

Providing our esteemed customers/clients with new and beautiful designs and fashions and being able to meet their demands any time they need because we are there to serve them.

The Scope

The scope of the area of interest is where the study is based during the time of research. For our case study, we will mainly concern ourselves with the business industries that deal with clothing and designs both nationally and globally. The main reason why we develop a keen interest in the clothing industry is that that is our area of specialization and niche. Identifying the national and global clothing industries is very important for the fact because we can be able to learn a lot from them. It will therefore be a stepping stone for the Nice-fit industry to evaluate itself and realize what it has been doing and the ones they have not been doing. From this, the company will be able to make concrete decisions that will help the company grow. So our area or the scope of the study is the clothing industries within the country and internationally because they will give us the information we need to lay a strong basis for the report. The company needs to look at the important role the technology plays in the company such as cloud-based platform which aids in the network infrastructure and communication channels. The scope of this study tries to bring out the effectiveness of the IT in the sections such as proper record keeping, and effective communication within the company and outside world. The Nice-fit company will have its work easily managed if it can adopt the proper information technology that can help deliver success and help it to prosper and develop to a better place.

Objectives of the report

The following objectives are the ones that will help us through the writing of the strategic report for the company which is in form of solutions;

• The importance of IT in the clothing industry
• Integration of all the branches for the Nice-fit company to make management easy and efficient
• Developing a system software that will help keep all the customer/client data
• Coming up with policies to will give behavior guidelines and general welfare of the employees
• Considering the number of branches to be established and the geographical considerations for business in the eastern states
• Coming up with a strategy that will increase the percentage of the rented costumes and weekend sales
• Restructuring the way of working to acquire the raw materials and manufacturing industries to cut down the shipping cost
• Setting up the cloud-based platform and digital marketing platforms for the company

Overview of the expected benefit from the above solutions

• In line with the first objective, we will realize that IT plays an important role in making sure that a business enterprise runs smoothly. It organizes, presents, represents, analyses, and interprets data which will then be used in the company for decision making. Information Technology makes the work in a company easier because it is the basis of decision making and planning. Thompson, A. (2003).
• The establishment of a centralized system of running the business in a Nice-fits company will be the best option. This is achieved by restricting some of the functions to be done from the main office or headquarters.
• It is also possible to develop a system using the IT knowledge that will assist in keeping the sales, purchases, and customer data rather than the normal excel. This will be easier, unlike excel which is tedious and limited to some extent.
• To ensure that the company does not experience boycotting it has to take care of its employees through on-time payment of salaries, giving some priorities and benefits to them. This can be achieved through the setting of policies or a consensus agreement. The policies should not be limited to welfare alone but also the discipline and behavior of the employees to uphold the way of conducting business.
• When setting up the branches in the various parts there is the need to look at geographical locations that can fetch a good market and are not far to cut some costs. If the place has a lot of population it means it can guarantee the company some good number of customers and in the long run marketing.
• There should be well-set guidelines and policies on renting the costume shops, the company can also subsidize the prices to fetch customers that will rent the shops because if they are many it will mean the company will be making good money in the process.
• The company should also consider fetching its raw materials from a nearby market or place if possible to set up its fabric production industry the same should be to manufacturing if this is done the usual shipping costs will be cut by half or even three-quarters. This will mean the company cutting its costs by a greater percentage and making a lot of profits in the process.
• Setting up cloud-based and digital marketing platforms for the company will be of a great advantage this is because digital marketing will ensure a lot of customers are reached within a short time online. This will cost less unlike the traditional ways of marketing which were tedious and high costing to the company. Cloud-based platforms will ensure proper customer care, and equipped file sharing within the company and this will improve the efficiency of work.

Resources

Resources are assets or raw materials that a person or organization holds and can be used to achieve something. There are those resources that the company should utilize so that its main mission or goal is to maximize profit. Nice-fit company has a lot of resources starting from the stock it has, employees, staff, and infrastructure all of these which are not limited and can enable this company to go past beyond its expectations. The fact that it wants to expand its business to other parts means the resources within the company are plenty, they have to find the right way to be utilized and the company will realize a lot of profits. Hoch, J. E., & Dulebohn, J. H. (2013).

The company also has to look at pooling its resources together to make work easier and more efficient. When the workforce is efficient this means that a lot of products will be produced within a short interval of time. If this is achieved most of the products will be going to market and this will mean making a lot of money. If the company can pool the raw materials resources, manufacturing resources, finishing resources, transport resources, and marketing resources together this will be a huge favor to the company. Nice-fit is in a position to achieve a lot because of the resources or assets at its disposal. Hoch, J. E., & Dulebohn, J. H. (2013).

The fact that it still experiences some problems may mean that some of them are idle and lying. With the help of a good information system from the Information Technology department, we can advise the company to try and put into use most of them so that they do not end up getting wasted. If it can get some tons of fabric material then it means a lot of outfits can be manufactured. When they are manufactured in large amounts it will have to create larger markets also where they can be taken to for selling. In the long run, also a lot of people will be employed to work in all these units beginning from fabric production to manufacturing, finishing, and also marketing. The issue to do with unemployment will be solved if the resources can be utilized well. For all these to be achieved the company should have a good information system that it can develop and give a good business layout that will make sure it thrives and not fall. Hitt, L. M., Wu, D. J., & Zhou, X. (2002).

IT Project Plan

This is a plan that will outline how the strategic plan for this business will be achieved they will allow the company to visualize how the project will be carried to the very end. The following descriptive name for the project will help the company plan and strategize very well for the achievement of goals; Nunn, L., & McGuire, B. (2010).

Risks

Though the information technology setup improves and makes the work of the business run smoothly it still is accompanied by risks that come with the setting of the information technology system. It is upon any company to identify the potential risks and find a way of evading or preventing them. Firstly there is technology risk whenever there is an advancement in technology there is the risk of affecting the business in such a way that it may render its operations ineffective. Jaafari, A. (2001).

Operational risk on the other hand is when the operations within the company are affected may be due to the labor force and technological advancement. There is also the Government risk where they can set up new policies such as increasing taxes on imports and exports, but in the long run, it will have to jeopardize the operations of a company like the Nice-fits. Lastly, market risk may pop in also and in the process will affect the business greatly, there may be changes in demand which will mean the company will be running at a loss leading to its downfall. As a CIO it is upon me to try and identify risks such as those above and find a solution to them for the company. One of the solutions may be to manufacture highly during the festive season because that is when the demand is high. Jaafari, A. (2001).

Recommendations for successful implementations

Nice-fit company is a great company with the potential to achieve most of its targets but it will have to consider some of the important factors for success. It will have to look at the management team and make sure it is a strong and reliable one. Having a strong managerial team will mean implementation of decisions for the company and setting a good working atmosphere will be guaranteed. The company needs to be conservative in terms of funds and resources. Money allocated for certain operations should be budgeted well to avoid mismanagement of the resources. This will save a lot of money for plans and expansions.

As a CIO I also recommend that the company gets to know its competitors, this will enable the company to produce quality products for its customers. It should also set a strong team of the workforce because they are the ones that do the donkey work and ensure the company runs successfully. The company should also be logical in the way it does or runs its operations. When the running of the business is in order everything will be in order and will minimize wastage of resources. To realize the potential the company has therefore there is the need to follow the recommendations for successful implementation and realization of the profits because that is what the company needs.

Conclusion

To conclude with we have seen that Information technology IT is as important as the backbone of every vertebra. Setting a good technology will not only make the company realize its potential but also achieve its goals in realization. The company has to look at the way it runs its operations and digitalized it for the case of an outfit company technology plays a key role in ensuring that business runs daily and in the right direction. The role of IT therefore should not be taken lightly but with the seriousness, it deserves because it ensures the business is managed well, and operations are run by the technology in the company.

It improves communication within and outside the company it reduces the stress by allowing the easy setup of operations and meetings. We have seen its importance in ensuring that employees have flexibility in doing the tasks and running the operations in the company. The company, therefore, has to put into consideration the implementation of a fully-fledged information system and technology to make sure the operations are done easily and in the long run gain a lot of profits. It is indeed the technology that can help the Nice-fit company to prosper and raise to another echelon that is why it has got no option but to consider adopting new ways of technology for better results now and into the future.

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