Virtual Organization of Kudler Fine Foods

For this selected Virtual Organization of Kudler Fine Foods, I will describe an information system that is critical to this business. I will describe how this information system is vital to the processes of Kudler Fine Foods. I will include in my description, an explanation of how this information system has an impact on the organizational structure.

The information system I will describe is the store network systems. These systems are critical to the business as it fits in with the vision statement of the company. The vision is, "Kudler Fine Foods will be the premiere gourmet grocery store for those savvy shoppers who are searching for the finest meats, produce, cheeses, and wine."("2003 Strategic Plan", 2003, p. 3) According to Denise Dubie's article she states, "An uptake in cost-cutting initiatives and greater dependence on advanced network capabilities to drive business improvements and increase revenue streams."(Dubie, 2009, para. 1) The network systems at Kudler Fine Foods are vital for store success and will drive the corporation to be the premiere gourmet grocery that they desire.

The store network systems are vital to the processes of Kudler Fine Foods and should they fail it would be very costly to the gross profit and most important customer service. The critical processes are purchasing, advertising, accounting, inventory management, forecasting, merchandise selection and pricing. In these processes the strength of the company is maintained. In these processes is the underlying framework that supports the ultimate success of the corporation. At the heart of these processes lie the store network systems.

Purchasing decisions are made because of the front end of the network providing critical ordering data, by way of the Point of Sale (POS). As a customer purchases an item it is logged in the database and then retrieved at a later time when the order for supplies is produced. This would also show the time of day an item is purchased and the quantity. When Kathy Kudler (President) does her weekly order she is able to access this database through the network, allowing her to place a quality order. Kathy can with the assistance of the network make sound purchasing decisions.

In the area of advertising the store network systems provide critical information to ensure the advertising is directed at the right market at the right time of the year. When Kathy pulls up the historical sale data on an item, she can readily see trends. With these trends and a market analysis she can build a superior advertisement plan that will maximize the market penetration of a specific area or demography. The store's network system gathers this type of data from the POS and holds it until it is retrieved by Kathy. The store network systems allow Kathy to implement a systematic approach to advertising (Fenwick, 1978, p. 35). This allows her to direct her advertising toward the right market at the right time of year.

Accounting, inventory management, forecasting, merchandise selection and pricing are all driven by in many ways by the store's network system. For example when a customer moves an item through the POS the item automatically is removed from the inventory database. This in turn leaves data for forecasting next year's sales. Kathy could project an order out many months ahead and procure supplies at a now lower cost to her. This of course would allow her to increase the corporations overall gross profit. Now keep in mind that the POS