Question

Broadly explain the importance of information in organisations like UMP and provide an example of how information technology can be a useful tool for attracting new customers and gathering information. Provide some recommendations on how UMP could be modernised. Consider network improvements and cloud services as a part of your recommendations.

Note: UMP is a milk producer

Answer 1

Information is the most important supporting factor for business growth. It plays a vital role in providing a database of the whole business i.e.from raw material receipt to the conversion of them to finished goods. INformation about the system is an important criterion for decision making. If we take an example of a milk-producing unit like UMP information about the whole business is required to run the business in a smooth manner. As we know milk is an important consumable fast moving in the market, it requires a large effort to gain your customer faith which solely depends upon the quality of product and the delivery of the product. As we know milk run is a special strategy in milk business which refers to a very complex supply chain planning to deliver the milk and milk related goods in right time to right place it requires great decision support system to be developed for the planning and implementation of a robust supply chain. UMP as a big name in milk industry requires every sort of information to plan its milk run strategy for this. The supplier and the distributor information and the location of both are utmost important to decode the route of the supply chain. Operations management is an important tool to run any sort of business and UMP relies on this principle to grow its business by applying the principles to decide upon all the factors. In the 21st century, the information flow has become easier and faster through the advent of information technology services. To attract the customer lot of companies are using the IT to market their goods and improve their network. UMP's most important function which IT can help is in the decision-making domain of supply chain. With the use of IT services network advanced inventory decision-making software it can handle its supplier base and get advanced demand and supply information. As we know advanced demand information (ADI) through historical data analysis helps in any business to plan its ordering strategy, UMP should improvise its information collection system by connecting to its every supplier and distributor through advanced network software which connects both of them easily to the business unit. Cloud computing based decision support system(DSS) can be a better help in this area as it provides a shared network-based resource information. When UMP can apply cloud computing throughout its supply chain and manufacturing network this will centralize the data to make a better decision. Both suppliers, manufacturing unit, and distributor can update the data in a single platform which makes the data visible and it becomes easier to analyze it. Well designed cloud computing services is a robust and reliable platform for business applications.
UMP should take a decision regarding the use of advanced IT features to smoothen its business operations.