Colony Nursery and Landscaping Company

 

 Introduction

In light of technology, information systems serve a critical role in enhancing business operations. Colony Nursery and Landscaping Company suffers from information silos due to a lack of information flow and the existence of different priorities across departments within the organization. While an ERP system would be useful in enhancing its competitiveness alongside a customer award system, the cost of implementing is higher, which highlights the need for an alternative solution, particularly cloud solutions.

An information silo refers to the information management system that is not able to liberally connect in terms of communication with other information systems. Vertical communication is dominant within the information silo, which makes it challenging or impossible for the information system to relate with other systems (Mahmood, 2014). Information silos develop in the case that the management does not believe that information sharing and access might be useful to other communication systems. The structure of the organization causes information silos, especially where different managers are accountable for a specific department, and each of them holds different priorities and visions, leading to minimal collaboration, collaboration, and teamwork between the departments.

Information silos normally lead to major organizational problems like redundant job positions, high operating costs, and effort duplication. Due to the contrasting information systems, silos leads to the increased cost of operation in an organization and lack of cooperation. Once the flow of information is interrupted, this results in the loss of efficiency, given that the different departments are likely to work under the guidance of different understandings, which affects project completion and productivity (Mahmood, 2014). Effective communication normally ensures that the departments work together in attaining the set objectives of the organization. However, in the absence, this usually creates misunderstandings, which can result in missing crucial business opportunities and ultimate failure (Rainer, 2011). Moreover, this can create frustrations among employees leading to a higher turnover rate and low production.

The organization is moving to the cloud system because it is more flexible as it allows the sharing of information between system, cost efficiency, and needs to enhance its competitive advantage (Furht & Escalante, 2010). The cloud system is highly mobile and flexible as it does not require employees to have data or software access to acquire information. In addition, it allows for efficient monitoring of the business. Unlike the ERP system, cloud solutions are cost-efficient since they do not require any physical centers, which mean low investment expenses. The cloud system also offers extreme scalability because it allows the company to buy additional storage on a constant basis, unlike conventional storage (Rainer, 2011). Thus, this leads to the competitiveness of the business as the system provides an opportunity to offer quality services to customers.

The use of cloud services like a cloud-based host would be helpful in solving the ERP information silo issue at the organization since the systems support information sharing and connection with other systems. Cloud systems allow interaction between different applications (Rainer, 2011). In so doing, this creates a system that can be customized based on the needs of the organization and disassembles silos.

The implementation of an ERP system improves the operations of different departments based on the free flow of information. The implementation of the software assists in maintaining competitiveness since there is no threat of operating under risks, which would affect competitiveness. First, the system ensures that customers receive the best services as there is efficiency (Furht & Escalante, 2010). On the other hand, an award system would be helpful in attracting and retaining existing clients to benefit from loyalty points. Thus, the integration of the systems would help in increasing the market share for the organization, which equals competitiveness.

In its very nature, the implementation of the ERP system necessitates evaluation and change of business processes for the successful configuration and installation of software. Reengineering helps in ensuring that business processes are fully improved prior to the configuration of the software for functionality that aligns with all the business operations. The adjustment will generally affect different business processes such as the information system and award system since they need to be aligned with the scope of the ERP system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

Furht, B., & Escalante, A. (2010). Handbook of cloud computing. New York: Springer.

Mahmood, Z. (2014). Continued rise of the cloud: Advances and trends in cloud computing. London: Springer.

Rainer, R. K. (2011). Introduction to information systems: Enabling and transforming business. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.

 

 

Bottom of Form

 

Bottom of Form