Dirt_Bikes

Recent advances in technology are making it more and more easy for businesses and organizations to improve productivity, cut costs and implement new ideas. One of the fastest evolving elements in business is the communication. Communication speeds have risen exponentially over the last ten years, and continue to do so. Rising use of e-mail, wireless cell phones, and company-operated intranets are making communication within and outside of the organization faster, less expensive and more effective. Dirt Bikes is concerned over the cost of their communication both within and outside of their company. Implementing new technology will save money on communication, as well as make it easier and faster to communicate with individuals and other companies that Dirt Bikes deals with. Currently, employees at Dirt Bikes are able to connect to the internet using desktop computers. This poses a problem, however, if not all employees have access to a desktop computer, and whether or not the desktop will be available when an employee is ready to use it. Implementing a wireless area network and mobile computers like laptops would speed communication and records of sales because it would be accessible to anyone in the business, from anywhere they could pick up the wireless signal. Faster person-to-person communication within the organization would lead to faster problem solving and more effective management. The organization would immediately be saving on costs because the information would be available on a more up-to-the-minute basis, avoiding the mistake of acting with incomplete or obsolete information. Cellular phones and handheld devices would also benefit the company if they employed travelling sales representatives or account representatives who traveled outside the office to conduct business. Using handheld devices can also improve organization-client relationships by shortening response time when a client calls looking for information. Creating a company wiki could also assist in linking employees from all departments to information collected from different areas of the business. This wiki could lead to faster answering of customer questions, because the information is readily available in one convenient place. As the times and other factors change, the wiki could be updated, meaning the customer was always given current and pertinent information. Dirt Bikes should consider implementing Intranets, which are private networks. The intranets could be used to monitor, store and send information throughout the company in a much more simple way than e-mailing it or making a voice call. Sales could be recorded and saved, and then made available for the CEO or CFO to examine later, in order to determine trends. The data could also be processed into reports, showing times of the year that sales are higher, as well as when sales tend to be lower. This reporting would assist in more accurate financial forecasting for the company. Marketing products over the internet through an extranet would also benefit Dirt Bikes and generate sales. Oftentimes, if a customer is looking to purchase a product, they will first research the product and the seller. Having an online presence would help Dirt Bikes seem more available to potential customers, who could determine their needs simply by looking around a web page. Firewalls would protect sensitive information such as sales figures from users outside of the company. This intranet could also benefit other departments, such as Human Resources. Human Resource departments have a huge task of, basically, taking care of the company’s employees. Absence tracking, vacation accruals, pay rates and other important human resources information could be saved on the intranet, making it easy to re-access it when needed. This could lead to better management of employee absences, pay rate adjustments and performance tracking. The system could also link with the information about sales and client activity, providing a guideline to determine the scheduling and hiring needs of the company at different parts of the year. Human resources and sales are not the only parts of the business that would benefit from intranet implementation. Manufacturing and production could also become more efficient by utilizing the intranet. Storing information in an intranet could be beneficial for this department because the information would be more easily accessible from anywhere. Inventory could be tracked and managed, cutting costs of warehousing and overhead. The intranet would link the manufacturing and production departments with each other, but also with the rest of the company. Creating a customer database would assist Dirt Bikes in maintaining a relationship with it’s customers, meaning they could offer specialized services (such as repairs or recommendations for new purchases) based on the individual customer’s needs. Technology has grown so exponentially over the last decade that it can be hard to keep up. Installing new technology within their company will have benefits for Dirt Bikes including decreased costs, increased productivity and improved communication times and turn-around. Intranets and extranets both have huge benefits to organizations, offering a central link within the company, and a private link to specific persons or organizations outside of the company. References Laudon, C., & Laudon, J. (2008). Essentials of Management of Information Systems. Prentice Hall.