The Performances of the Deloitte Consulting Company - Case Study Example

Running Head: Deloitte Consulting Company Deloitte Consulting Company Name Task Date Deloitte Company Executive Summary The purpose of this report is to show how Tracking systems and EDI will improve the performances of the Deloitte Company. It shows how the company will improve its services as a result of using this technological system of passing and sending information through electronic means. This report has been carried out through interviewing of the employees in this organization and researching the latest academic journals. The main discussion of this report shows the advantages of using Tracking systems and EDI which comprise of Order Processing, Electronic Data Interchange and Tracking System in Deloitte Company, the skills which employees should posses so as to offer effective services through the application of the systems and also the problems which might hinder the adoption of the systems. It also analyzes the effectiveness of selecting the right employees who will work on the new systems in the company and the need of human resource managers to offer further training to the employees. Two organizational structures are analyzed to show clearly the effectiveness of the new systems in the two structures and lastly a conclusion made as to the effective means of applying the systems on the company. Introduction Objective/Aim This report aims at analyzing how the managers should adopt these new systems, employ tracking systems, the necessary changes which needs to be adopted before installing these new systems and how to manage these new systems to achieve the desired results. Tracking systems and EDI is effective for the Deloitte Consulting Company due to the nature of the business the company is involved in. Background Deloitte is one of the Big Four auditors in the world and also the largest professional services organization across the world. The company has more than 165,000 employees working in 140 countries. The main business of the company is the delivery of audit, financial advisory services and consulting through the help of its member firms. Their main offices are located in New York and London (Kurtz and Boon, 2009). Due to the increased business in the company, the managers have decided to implement the use of Tracking systems and EDI as a way of not only improving its services they offer but also as a way of ensuring accuracy when serving many at a time. This is very important because it acts as a strategy of maintaining its market share. Discussion The management of Deloitte Company has decided to introduce this system because of the increased business in the company. Since the company is a market leader and has a large market share, management has strategies the means of meeting the needs of the customers effectively and at the same time meeting its objectives. This strategy involved the use of Tracking systems and EDI when offering services to its clients (Ireland, 2008). These new systems will comprise of Order Processing, Electronic Data Interchange and Tracking System. Order Processing Order processing involves diverse measures of carrying out work in an organization such as packaging, picking up, and delivery of both products and services to the required destination. Deloitte Company has developed software which is effective in taking orders from customers. The company benefits from this system because it helps in unifying all the departments handling the orders, furthermore it enables efficiency in handling of orders. Lastly, Order Processing enables the company to reduce the manual entry of information associated to sales order and does not call for making changes to the existing business practices. Electronic data interchange Electronic Data Interchange can be defined as a means of exchanging information between organizations through the use of electronic means. For example the company can transfer electronic documents from one company to another through the use of internet software such as E-mail. Tracking System To ensure more efficiency in Deloitte Company, the company has launched an electronic tracking system that would supervise the movement of documents and files across different departments. Due to this the company’s managers and workers have been able to maintain a constant watch over the exchanged of important documents and receipts at different departments in the progression of making decision. Goals and strategic electronic data interchange The goals of the Deloitte Company can be achieved through the use of effective systems, the application of technology so that the transaction process can be carried out in the shortest time possible. This Tracking systems and EDI will benefit the company in various ways such as saving the company’s money. This is achieved by using this system instead of using the normal process of passing information which entails an enormous deal of human interactions and facilities such as paper documents, holding meetings, using faxes, and others. Secondly, the company will benefit a lot in this new system because it will reduce the handling costs such as sorting, organizing and disbursing paper document. Besides, it will reduce the problems of retrieving the lost paper documents. Tracking systems and EDI such as Electronic data interchange will helps the company in reducing the storing space which the paper documents could have occupied. Furthermore, the use of this system will assist the company to reduce the unnecessary expenses such as the cost of manual entry because of the possibility in the system of storing and manipulating data electronically. Thirdly, the use of Electronic Data Interchange will reduce errors, for example recording and billing errors. This is possible because the use of the system will reduce the need to rekey documents in the place of destination. Besides, the system is so faster whereby the information send is received immediately. This is very essential for business companies because they can use this information in serving their customers and making decisions which might be used by the subsidiary companies (Rittenberg, 2009). The human resource managers will have to organize their employees so as to select the team to be trained so that they can handle the new system in the company. These employees should be selected basing on their competitive nature, their educational background, and the leadership skills which they posses. It is economical to train few employees because the company will later adopt the in house training whereby the employees who are already trained will train their colleagues. This is necessary for the succession purposes in the organization. The human resource manager can also use this as a motivation factor in the organization. Many scientific theorists such as Henri Fayol researched on aspects of the employees and concluded that employees are very productive when they are motivated. Henri strongly believed that training employees is very important because they will be effective when carrying out their duties in the organization. Corporate Social Networking The Deloitte Company leadership should incorporate the use of Tracking systems and EDI since it will help the company to carry out duties and serve customers effectively. Furthermore it will make this large company to feel smaller because the data from various branches can be accessed easily. The company will benefit a lot because the system will create the environment that would appeal to its mostly younger employees (WetFeet, 2009). Barriers to the implementations There are some barriers which may hinder the company from using the Tracking systems and EDI effectively. The common barrier to most companies which try to adopt this system is the need for changing the business process. However, this barrier depends on the structure of the company. Organizational designs Mechanistic organizations are those organizations with the decisions for all the branches are made in the headquarters. They can be complicated because there is no permission for the employees to make any decision nor are they allowed to deal with important decisions when handling the customers. Such kinds of organizations are characterized by the bureaucratic nature of an organization. Though the Tracking systems and EDI may be important for this kind of structure, the company would not utilize fully the advantages of this system since the employees from other departments other than the head office are not allowed to make quick decisions. On the other hand, organic organizational designs represent those organizations which are very flexible in terms of adopting changes. Such companies may benefit a lot from Tracking systems and EDI because the departments can adopt any important decision in the interest of the organization and pass to other relevant parties such as customers. In addition, there is a lot of delegation in this kind of structure and the top managers can use Electronic Data Interchange to send instructions. This is important because the information is received immediately and can be reviewed in future in case of necessity. Managers believe that the employees are capable of handling issues without the need of supervising them (Norton and Porter, 2009) From these two kinds of structures, both are very appropriate in applying this system of Tracking Systems and EDI though organic organizational designs will be more appropriate than the mechanical structure. This is because the top managers or any other department can make decision and pass them to other department to be implemented. This is very important because it saves time and resources which could be used in holding meetings. For this to work well the human resource manager should ensure team work within the company and every employee should know what he or she is expected of. Conclusion In conclusion, the human resource manager should ensure that the IT department has the right software which will be used in the installation of the programs. He should ensure that the installation process is closely monitored for it to be effective and to avoid any extra expenses which may arise if the installation program is not correctly done. In addition, this may cause the customers to doubt the system and fail to use it. Besides, the process is very expensive and thus it needs to be done in a correct manner to avoid losses. Recommendations The company should recommend that all the employees should be trained on how to use the system to avoid the issue of depending one specific employee. In addition, they should ensure that everyone is conversant with it to enable a smooth succession process to occur in the future. The management should also ask the IT department to publish the manual which will be used as a guide on how to use the system (Stair, 2009). Technology at this age has become part and parcel for the success of the organization; Deloitte Company should therefore adopt it so that they can be competitive in offering their services to the customers in the market segment they serve. They should use this system as a competitive edge for their competitors. The system is highly recommended because it will ensure the accuracy of records; enable the retrieval of information within the shortest time possible and storage of large data in a small space. The management of Deloitte Company should also make a program of servicing their computers to avoid the problems which might be caused by computer breakdowns; they should ensure that they have a back up of their information on other devices such as external hard disk. This is very essential task which every organization should consider. References Norton, C. and Porter, G. (2009) Financial Accounting: The Impact on Decision Makers Cengage Learning. Rittenberg, L. E. (2009) Auditing: A Business Risk Approach. Cengage Learning Kurtz, D. and Boon, E. L. (2009) Contemporary Business 2009 Update. Cengage Learning Stair, R. G. (2009). Principles of Information Systems. Cengage Learning WetFeet (2009). Morgan Stanley 2009. WETFEET, INC. Ireland, D. R. (2008) Understanding Business Strategy: Concepts and Cases. Cengage Learning Read More