Management Information Systesm

One of the major reasons for Retail sector being successful is the support from information software. Not just using Software for billing but including all the other functions of running the retail store is made possible thru Information systems. Enterprise Resource Planning systems or the ERP systems refer to the software packages that integrate all the data and the related processes of an organization into a unified Information System. An ERP system uses a central database that holds all the data relating to the various system modules. ERP software packages have an enterprise wide reach that offers cross-functional capabilities to the organization. The different functional departments involved in the operations or inventory processes are integrated into a single system. An ERP package takes care of the various business processes such as order entry, logistics and warehousing. It also caters to the different business functions such as accounting, marketing, strategic management and the human resource management

In the Indian Context, with the huge investments in retail sector coming in recent times there has been a gradual shift of market moving from unorganised to organised sector. Setting up of huge retail store in various formats including supermarket, hypermarket, cash & carry etc, has been possible due to the Information systems which could be deployed to run the whole show. Let’s take an example of Future Group and see how an ERP and Information system help them to run their businesses.

Future group under its umbrella run retail stores in various formats and has named them Bigbaazar, Pantaloons, Central, and many more. All these store stock thousands of item and an Inventory of the same has to be maintained. IS( information systems) comes into place right from the start of the operations that it Sourcing of materials. The vendor list has to be Maintained, order of each item has to be placed as per planned sales. After the order is placed the...