Paper Sample on Information System and Organizational Performance of Carrefour UAE

Introduction

Carrefour is a retailer located in many countries and headquartered in France. The company started operations in 1968 and later converted into a chain of stores after its first outlet. It was funded by Defforey, Badin and Fournier. It is the fourth largest hypermarket chain in the world. The major countries of operation include Europe, Brazil, Europe, China, Qatar, and the UAE.

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The first branch in the Middle East was opened in 1995 by Majid Al Futtaim who has the exclusive franchise to operate the hypermarket in more than 37 countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. In UAE it operates as a private organization. In 2010, Carrefour UAE launched an online store with over 3,000 non-food items. In the UAE Carrefour Supermarkets are operated by the MAF Group, Majid Al Futtaim Holdings through a partnership with Carrefour Group. The chain stores are located in several MAF shopping malls in the UAE. MAF and Carrefour Dubai also operate Express stores which are like Carrefour hypermarkets, but the smaller versions with a smaller product range and priced differently. C4 is sometimes used as an informal abbreviation for the Supermarkets. Majid Al Futtaim operates over 270 stores with over 700,000 customers daily. The hypermarket chain store has over 37,000 employees. It operates under different store formats as well as online stores to meet the growing needs of its customers (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2012).

Carrefour also provides quality products and goods in line with their brand commitment to customers which has enabled them to survive the dynamic market. It offers an unrivaled choice of food and non-food products amounting to over 100,000. They also offer exemplary customer experience creating great moments for their customers every day. The roles and responsibilities are similar to those of a supermarket, which includes retailing food and non-food products to consumers. They also offer consumers with local services, while also developing an innovative competitive offer on the internet.

What is an Information System?

An information system consists of physical and nonphysical components of a computer working together. A computer in its own is not an information system. A computer combined with a software program may constitute an information system, but only if the program is designed to produce information that helps an organization or person to achieve a specific goal. Therefore an Information system can be further defined as a set of interrelated components that collect or retrieve, process, store and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization. Information systems can also help managers and workers to analyze problems, visualize complex subjects and create new subjects. It may contain information about significant people, places and things within the organization or in the environment surrounding it.

All information systems (IS) operate in the same basic fashion whether they include a computer or not. However, the computer provides a convenient means to execute the four main operations of an information system. The four main activities are entering data into the IS (input), changing and manipulating the data in the IS (data processing), getting information out of the IS (output) and storing data and information (storage). Besides the four main operations, feedback is also needed to return the output to the appropriate people or activities in the organization to evaluate and refine the input.

Carrefour's IS

Apart from being a simple supermarket, Carrefour has ventured into provision of other services such as showcasing its products, conducting promotions that are up to date among other services through their website. Other services that Carrefour provides include delivery of services to those customers who cannot physically avail themselves to their physical shops to shop groceries and food products (Burt, 2002).

In addition to the organizational activities like staffing, human resource management, and purchasing, these services could be hard without the use of an Information system. Carrefour uses different types of IS like; Transaction Processing Systems (TPS), Management Information Systems (MIS), Decision Support Systems (DSS) and Enterprise Information Systems (EIS). This essay is going to look at the TPS, which serve at the operational level of management. Transaction Processing System is concerned with the collection, storage, and processes transactions accurately as well as modification.

Characteristics and Features of TPS

TPS consists of a set of information that processes data transactions and monitors them gradually. This system is much useful when a specific purchase is made through the internet. Carrefour Group uses this system in collecting, analyzing and storage of useful information (Kallman, Kimura, Natkins, Pavlo, Rasin, Zdonik, & Hugg, 2008). This system is available in some applications such as converting technique, Carrefour Mobile and Application Programming Interface.

The Main Features of TPS Include:

• Controlled Access- Since such type of a system is a strong tool for any business, there is a need to restrict access to it. Only the users that need it are the ones to access this system to avoid those with less knowledge influencing the transaction process.
• Real-Time Processing- In every company, how it carries its business is important. Therefore, speed is important in any transaction to enable clients to be satisfied.
• Speed Processing- With the changing technology, different companies update their systems to improve client demand and delivery. TPS is designed to ensure almost instant action

Functions

According to Martyn,DeNat, Hall, Slomowitz, Franke, Pang, Coords, 2001, TPS performs several functions including input, output, storage, and processing.

• Input functions include capturing data, entering data into the system; this function is summed by the process of data validation.
• Output includes displaying the information on the screen.
• Storage functions include storing data in the data bases and ensuring that there is easy access when needed.

Vendor

The main vendors of TPS technology and IT Firms. The main vendor is IBM; an American based company headquartered at New York, USA. It is one of the leading vendors of TPS in the whole world. IBM offers infrastructure services, manufactures and sells computer hardware and software ("Company profile for IBM," 2010).

Importance

The environment of business has changed from the traditional environment where management processes are treated like a face-to-face, personal art and not a far-flung, global coordination process. Information itself is not treated as an important asset for a firm.

But today, most of the organization recognizes the importance of information. For individuals, information systems are needed for entertainment and as enlightenment to their life. Meanwhile, for businesses, information systems are mostly needed to help in decision making and problem-solving. Besides that, it is used to gather, store and manipulate information. There are three main factors that contribute to the recognition of the importance of information to any organization.

The first factor is the emergence and strengthening of the global economy. Globalization of the world's industrial economies greatly enhances the value of information to the firm and offers new opportunities to businesses. The information system provides the communication and analytical power that firms need for conducting trade and managing businesses on a global scale.

The second factor is due to the transformation of industrial economies and societies into knowledge and information based service economies. In knowledge-based economies, knowledge and information are key ingredients in creating wealth to an organization. Knowledge and information are becoming the foundation for many new services and products. Intensification of knowledge utilization in the production of traditional products has increased as well. New kinds of knowledge- and information-intense organizations have emerged that are devoted entirely to the production, processing, and distribution of information

The third factor is due to the transforming of the business enterprise. Traditional firms were and still is a hierarchical, centralized, structured arrangement of specialist that typically relies on a fixed set of standard operating procedures to deliver a mass-produced product or services. But the business enterprises has change into a flattened, decentralized, flexible arrangement of generalists who rely on nearly instant information to deliver mass-customized products and services uniquely suited to specific markets or customers

Besides the above mentioned three main factors, there are also several trends that have made the use of information systems very important in business:

• Computers' power has grown tremendously, while their prices have dropped.
• Computer programs' variety and ingenuity have increased.
• Quick and reliable communication lines and access to the Internet and World Wide Web have become widely available and affordable.
• The fast growth of the Internet has opened opportunities, as well as competition in global markets.
• An increasing ratio of the workforce is computer literate.

In this environment, organizations will quickly lag if they do not take advantage of this progress and use the technologies and skills to meet their goals.

Targeted Users

The targeted users of the IS of the Carrefour chain stores of the UAE are the customers. The transaction Processing systems collect data storing both outgoing and incoming transactions. Transaction processing systems prove themselves through data integrity, availability, growth, and business performance. This is true for Carrefour in UAE which has both store transaction availability and online transactions. The transactions systems are relevant and crucial in the evolving business world. The transaction systems benefit the users and participants, who create a balanced system. Those performing business transactions through the TPS platform validate its use. It is also important for the organization to store and track information of all the users for it to flourish and compete in the business world. The information can be used to manage and improve Carrefour and its services (Cegielski & Rainer, 2009).

Organizational Performance

Transaction processing systems have real-time benefits for any organization. The TPS platform of Carrefour has helped in balancing and controlling the purchase of services and goods. The TPS system has led to the coordination, distribution, and warehousing of the credit transaction from the consumer's account to inventory of business management. The TPS platform has the benefit of handling several transactions at once thus increasing the margin of profits made at once. The transaction processing system has to coordinate thousands of purchases from a person's private account to shipping the order to the consumer. Faster transactions have improved the sales and overall customer satisfaction due to faster point of exchange and transactions. This system also makes the Carrefour process of selling goods easier. The online transaction processing systems for Carrefour has also made it easier for customers who are purchasing things online (Ralph, 2015).

The TPS systems have also given Carrefour a competitive advantage, where they have been able to reach an untapped market. The chain store has become globalized thus reaching a large customer base. When an online system is enhanced, the organization enhances its potential for growth and potential to reach new audiences.