Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Introduction


This report is part of a class project done by students in MIS Theory and Practice course. We have a lot of topics related to MIS such as customer Wal-Mart , Nokia , McDonald's..Etch but we choose Carrefour because is popular and it is easy to us to find many information related to it.

We can find information in internet or visit it or  contact Carrefour Company by telephone and sending emails. The purpose of this project is to know the type of different information system that Carrefour used in their system and How information systems are helping Carrefour.

Over the past 50 years, the Carrefour group has grown to become one of the world’s leading distribution groups.The origins of Carrefour date back to 1959 when the company was established in France by the Fournier and Defforey families.


Carrefour opened its first supermarket in Annecy, Haute-Savoie, and at the same time, the LLC Promodis, 
the forerunner of Promodes, was created.

In 1963, Carrefour invented a new concept; the hypermarket. The first Carrefour hypermarket opened in 
Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, with a sales area of 2,500 m square, twelve check out and 400 parking spaces.
Carrefour opened its first hypermarket outside France in Belgium and the first outside Europe, in Brazil.

In 1980s, Carrefour store brand products were introduced. In the 1990s, the internationalization of the company started to increase and new store were opened all over the world.

In that project we dealt with sex topic in Carrefour . first Overview of the Carrefour ( history, Products/Services offered, size , Suppliers/Partner demographics, Consumer/Customer base, SOW analysis).

Moreover we take about  information system used and  how it help the carrefour. Also we take about  the 4 Type of information system (Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), SeeBeyond Integrated Composite Application Network, IBM (International Business Machines)  Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).finally we give some recommendation to carrefour company.




History


1959   Carrefour Company was created by the Fournier and Defforey families.
1960   Carrefour opened its first supermarket in Annecy, Haute-Savoie.
1963   Carrefour invested a new store concept – hypermarket. The first hypermarkets were found in 
France.
1969   Carrefour opened its first hypermarket outside France in Belgium.
1970   Carrefour shares listed on the Paris stock exchange.
1975 Carrefour opened its first hypermarket in Brazil.
1979   Development of hard discount: Carrefour created Ed chain in France and Dia banner in Spain.
1985   Carrefour brand-name products were introduced.
1989   The first Carrefour hypermarket opens in Asia, in Taiwan.
1995   Carrefour opened its first store in China by a JV with Zhongchuang Company.
1996   Carrefour continues to grow in Asia, adding Thailand, Korea and Hong Kong to its list.
1999   Carrefour and Promodes merged to create the largest European food retailing group and second largest worldwide. 
2000   After the two groups merge, all Continent hypermarkets become Carrefour stores and supermarkets adopted the Champion name in France. Carrefour launched on- line supermarket shop and opened its first hypermarket in Japan.
2001   Carrefour inaugurated 17 Carrefour service stations on France’s motorway 
 networks and became the largest food retailer in Argentina. 
2002   Carrefour sold its 35% shares of 27 stores in China to Chinese companies due to disobeying the government regulations.  
2003   Carrefour was under fire for imposing unfair charges on food suppliers in June.
2003 Carrefour operates 39 hypermarkets in China and set up ‘GoWest’ plan.
2004 Carrefour announces the sales of its share in Modelo and its purchase of 13   
hypermarkets in Poland from Ahold.
2005 Carrefour acquired 6 hypermarkets in Taiwan and 2 other projects currently from Tesco.



vision
The Carrefour group has one simple ambition; making Carrefour the preferred retailer wherever it operates.
Mission

Carrefour is totally focused on meeting the expectations of its customers. Our mission is to be the benchmark in modern retailing in each of our markets. As a global retailer, Carrefour is committed to enabling as many people as possible to purchase consumer goods, in accordance with the principles of fair trade and sustainable development.





Products/Services



Products/Services offered:

Consumers give the Carrefour hypermarkets ideas and support it to make and sell products and services that suitable to them by their traditions and custom because they want to match their lifestyles and local consumption habits, which provide a better quality of life; as a result Carrefour will gain a lot of profit. So doing what the customer prefers better to make the sell more flexibility and easy.
The requirement that Carrefour should make improvement to the quality of the products to increase the consumption:

Ø  Clothing and linens: reinforcing safety
Ø  Toys under strict quality control
Ø  Focus on Carrefour Discount
Ø  Fast and efficient product withdrawal procedures
Ø  Improving animal welfare

Size of company:

 Over the past 40 years, Carrefour group grown to become one of the world's leading distribution groups. The groups currently operate four main grocery store formats: hypermarkets, supermarkets, hard discount and convenience stores. The Carrefour group currently has over 12,500 stores, either company-operated or franchises. The group also seeks to support local suppliers with some 90-95% of the products on its shelves sourced locally depending on the country.

Operates


Where Carrefour Company does operates in the world:
 Carrefour operates in 29 countries around the world. It is operates mainly in Europe, Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, but also has shops in North Africa and other parts of Asia, with most stores being of smaller size than hypermarket or even supermarket. Also Carrefour means "crossroads" in French.

The demographic in Carrefour: 
 The demographic environment shows both opportunities and threats for Carrefour that increases in population size and household incomes help to expand the market. Also changes in the geographic distribution of populations, led to technological improvement in communications. As local stakeholder, Carrefour recruits 90% of its employees in its store catchment areas. The Carrefour recruitment policy is based on equal opportunity, and the Group gives those from all a chance to succeed, with or without qualifications. Also recruitment methods are based in part on practical exercises, which allow future employees to directly demonstrate their skills.

Consumer/Customer base



Consumer/Customer base:  
 Carrefour has got six major customer segments which include hotels, restaurants, catering companies, offices and institutions apart from small traders, kirana stores. Also Carrefour should consider tapping into the Indian market as it has large customer base which it can attract. For example, Lulu has a separate freshly prepared food sections dedicated to Indians while Carrefour has no such facility.
 On the internet Carrefour has a very clear, accurate style and formation site which contain products and promotions, that is changed regularly. The site categorizes the various products of Carrefour into different sections:

Ø  Communication and Telephones
Ø  Computers and IT
Ø  Consoles Gaming
Ø  Photo Video
Ø  TV & Audio
Ø  Garden and Sports
Ø  Home Households
Ø  Beauty & Personal Care

Also the site contain of eight sections which has different subsections so that the customer finds quickly and the exact products he/she is searching for. You can also read about the products, order them online and see the shipping time and the available stock. So, with all features that the Carrefour website contains, the customers will be more attracted to join the website and buying a lot of products form it which that led to make lots of profit to Carrefour company.

Information systems


Size of different information system(s):

*      Departmental
*      Inter- organizational

   Carrefour Company uses two categories of the information system the (Departmental information system ) which link  between the different department of the Carrefour Company like the supply department ,human resources department and finance and accounting department, also all other department combine all under the enterprise resources planning system (ERP) that  include all internal and external management information and it work to planning inside the organization to  become easier and more efficient by the network that make the flow of information inside the company more effective ,and make working more faster. For example communicating with customer order, also bill of the material used of producing the exporting materials, supply chain planning and the company receivable.

The other type of information system category is (Inter- organizational system) , its system allows the flow of information to be controlled by more than one organization in order to achieve the supply-chain management system they want and to have more advantages of having exchange of technologies between organizations.

Type of Information systems used:

Carrefour Company used Transaction Processing System (TPS) which it designed to process routine transactions efficiently, accurately, collect, store, and modify.  A transaction is an event that generates or modifies data that is eventually stored in an information system. Also (TPS) serve the operational level.

·         Type: Operational-level
·         Inputs: transactions, events
·         Processing: updating
·         Outputs: detailed reports
·         Users: operations personnel, supervisors
·         Decision-Making: highly structured

Example of (TPS) in the business like:

ü  Make billing system to send the bill to the customers.
ü  Make systems which calculate the weekly and monthly payroll and tax payments.

Type of Data & knowledge




Type of data:
The Client can register at any time, e.g. by SMS, as a one-off or regular user of chargeable data transmission services offered by third parties. CARREFOUR shall not be held responsible for the quality of the services offered by such third parties, nor for the proper performance by the said third parties of their obligations. The Client undertakes only to use these data services for lawful and private purposes and not for any commercial purpose. The Client undertakes to respect any intellectual property rights which might apply in respect of the data to which these services relate. In this respect, all names, logos and signs used by CARREFOUR for the Carrefour Mobile Network Services shall be protected trade names which it is not permitted to use. The Client undertakes not to send data in an automated manner to groups of 
CARREFOUR Clients or another mobile operator.

Type of information:
There is a book that called Carrefour Brand Book, that contain all information about Carrefour which help the customers know more about Carrefour and it's product.

Type of knowledge:
As another type of Information systems used in Carrefour, type of knowledge which matching performing information processing tools and specific knowledge of consumers, markets and economies, Experian assists companies throughout the world in making and developing their customer relations.

      Benefits
  1. To respond on time to market by offering mobile telephony that works with a CRM information system quick to deploy.
  2. Management of a high volume of requests.
  3. To use a powerful CRM solution capable of receiving a high volume of requests.
  4. To access a single repository regardless of the channel used by the customer and to benefit from an open solution for integrating the expectations of consumers (loyalty card) and to interface with heterogeneous environments.

How information systems are helping the company


 


3- How information systems are helping the company:

What Is an Information System?

  Information system has to mainly perspectives which it is function and structure.

Firstly, the functional perspective means: recording, storing, and disseminating linguistic expressions as well as for the supporting of inference making, but secondly on the other hand the structural perspective means: collection of people, processes, data, models, technology and partly formalized language which serve the organizational purpose..

  Date is the raw facts which doesn’t mean anything that convert into information by organize it, then it will mean something like value to the receiver, then the Information that has been organized and processed to transmit understanding, experience and expertise are apply to a current problem or activity, each company have different type of data, information and knowledge, also Carrefour Company have their data, information and knowledge.

 How are the information systems reducing time/cost/errors

1-Reduction of administrative costs


Carrefour has many access and ways that they can with it reduce the cost such as, access to the capital needed to invest in technology that will bring cost down, also they have very efficient logistics that the low cost base on labor, material.
They have online shopping with ready cart or home delivery which is help to reduce the cost for example, E-tailing that you can purchase goods/products over net.

2- Reduction of keyboarding time

By using modern technology and systems such as:
·         ERP systems implement by Carrefour backed.
·         Warehouse management system provided by Generix.
·         Technological tools that allow all product to be available and in the best condition like, Info log and scheduler.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)


Definition:

Is technology has been around for many years uses communication by radio waves in order to exchange data between a reader and an electronic tag attached to an object, for the purpose of identification and tracking.
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is an automatic identification technology, like the barcode. The difference is that RFID is capable of identifying objects from a distance


Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

·         Reduce warehouse and distribution labor costs
·         Reduce point-of-sale labor costs
·         Reduce inventory
·         Improve forecasting and planning
·         Reduce theft
·         Reduce out-of stock conditions
·        Improve customer experience

RFID Business Benefits

·         Improved Productivity and Cost Avoidance
·         Decreased Cycle Time and Taking Costs Out
·         Reduced Rework
·         Reduced Business Risk and Control of Assets
·         Improved Security and Service
·         Improved Utilization of Resources
·         Increased Revenues
·         Exception Management

Advantage & disadvantage RFID


Advantage of Radio Frequency Identification:

 1: Efficiency

·         RFID tags do not require line-of-sight to be deciphered They can be read through cardboard, plastic, wood and even the human body. RFID tags can easily track moving objects and send the required information back to the reader. This eliminates human errors, reduces labor and provides quick access to a wealth of information.

2: Return on Investment (ROI)

·         RFID costs more to implement than a barcode system, but provides a good return on investment in the long run, since RFID is significantly more efficient.

3: Less Vulnerable to Damage

·         RFID tags are less susceptible to damage. An RFID tag is securely placed within an object or embedded in plastic, enabling the system to be used in a variety of harsh environments, such as areas of high temperature or moisture, or with exposure to chemicals or the outdoors.

Disadvantage of Radio Frequency Identification:


1: Expense

·         RFID systems are typically more expensive than alternatives such as barcode systems. While passive tag reading is similar to (and generally less expensive than) barcode reading, active tags are costly due to their complexity. Active tags consist of an antenna, radio transceiver and microchip, increasing the overall cost of an RFID system.

2: Collision

·         Tag collision and reader collision are common problems with RFID. Tag collision occurs when numerous tags are present in a confined area. The RFID tag reader energizes multiple tags simultaneously, all of which reflect their signals back to the reader. This results in tag collision, and the RFID reader fails to differentiate between incoming data. RFID reader collision results when the coverage area managed by one RFID reader overlaps with the coverage area of another reader. This causes signal interference and multiple reads of the same tag.

3: Security

·         RFID technology gives rise to numerous security concerns. Since the system is not limited to line-of-sight, external (and malicious) high-intensity directional antennas could be used to scan sensitive tags. Fraud is always a possibility when the technology is used for high-security operations, such as pay

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

SeeBeyond Integrated Composite Application Network (ICAN)


Definition:

SeeBeyond Integrated Composite Application Network Suite: is a trademark of SeeBeyond Technology Corporation.

About  SeeBeyond:

 Based on 14 years of software innovation and real-world experience in integrating systems across Global 2000 organizations, SeeBeyond (Nasdaq:SBYN) delivers the industry's first fully J2EE-certified integrated composite application network built on a comprehensive integration platform .
Carrefour's strategy focuses on strengthening its market share by expanding the type of retailing best suited to the local market and taking advantage of the complementary nature of store formats.

With SeeBeyond's unified and comprehensive standards-based integration solution, Carrefour will be able to achieve its strategic imperatives. These focus on integrating thousands of stores, applications and partners in different countries, creating an integrated composite application network and leveraging past and current technology investments with the flexibility to change them
Benefits:

SeeBeyond Integrated Composite Application Network (ICAN) Suite helps organizations:

  • Rapidly assemble.
  • Deploy enterprise-scale end-user applications built on existing systems.
  • Infrastructure to dramatically improve business operations.
  • Offers companies both large and small, unbelievable flexibility in developing an Integrated Composite Application Network.
  • The ability to rapidly build, coordinate and deploy the business processes that can take complete advantage of existing enterprise data.
  • Using SeeBeyond, retailing customers are gaining the benefits of streamlined information flow, increased product availability in real-time, decreased stock levels, improved revenue and reduced costs.
  • Matches end-user needs with those of IT users.
  • Integrate new applications with existing enterprise and legacy applications. over time.