Case Study – SoftWear Limited
Employment Advertisement
VACANCY FOR BUSINESS/SYSTEM ANALYST
Job Brief
We currently have a job opening for a System/Business Analyst at SoftWear Limited. The analyst will be a critical link between our information technology resources and business objectives by handling programming and analysis related duties. The analyst will analyze, evaluate, and review the business systems and user needs to formulate systems that will align with the overall business objectives and strategies.
Reporting to: Manager – Systems support and Security
Duties and Responsibilities
- Design, analyze, and maintain the company’s information systems.
- Develop, test and implement code required for system development, maintenance and enhancements.
- Provide technical advice and guidance to colleagues within the IT department.
- Provide user support and training on the use of Microsoft applications and other business software.
- Implement and coordinate system updates and change control processes
- Provide help desk support services to all the company’s users.
- Improve current business systems by analyzing and reviewing current practices and designing modifications.
- Prepare routine technical reports by collecting, analyzing, and compiling information from users and software systems.
- Determine operational objectives by gathering information and reviewing business functions, to evaluate output formats and requirements
- Perform routine (daily, weekly, and monthly) analyses and reviews of current business processes using operational reports and metrics.
- Conduct requirements analysis and prepare budget proposals for modification or replacement of systems.
- Maintain and enforce information security by maintaining user confidence and information integrity.
- Identify and report on common sources of technical problems and recommend mitigation strategies to improve overall business productivity.
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Requirements and Qualifications
- Degree in IT, computer science, management information systems, or business course with emphasis on information systems.
- Experience with working with SQL and other relational databases.
- Experience in analyzing, designing, and delivering simple and complex systems.
- Broad knowledge of programming languages and software development
- Proficiency in working with Microsoft office applications.
- Good interpersonal, organizational, oral and written communication skills
- Analytical, detail-oriented and inquisitive
- Ability to work independently and with others.
Systems Consideration
SWL should strongly consider incorporating ERP and knowledge management systems in their operations to improve their overall business performance. By using an ERP system, the company will be able to integrate and manage the important processes of the business. An ERP system will help the company to integrate its inventory, manufacturing, and sales systems to effectively manage the manufacturing and distribution of its products (Newell, Huang, Galliers, & Pan, 2003). The adoption of a knowledge management system in the operations of SWL will improve documentation procedures, process alignment, and collaboration. Knowledge management software will help the company keep its documentation up to date to assist their customers and internal users in finding required information on different products (Newell, Huang, Galliers, & Pan, 2003). However, the use of a business support system may not align with the business objectives of SWL and hence not recommended. This is because business support systems are usually suited for telecommunication operators and service providers. Therefore, SWL being a clothing company, will not fully reap the benefits of using such software.
Organizational Functions
A typical business organization has four critical pillars representing its core functions of sales, marketing, operations, and human resources. Each of the four departments has a specific function that plays into the overall operation of the business. For these four organizational units to work more effectively, different software systems are included in their daily operations. However, the information requirements for each department differ as they each have different operational processes and procedures.
The human resource department is responsible for the management of people who form the core function group of a company. They have several duties, which include recruitment, training, and remuneration, code of conduct, employee relations, and favor. A human resource information system is available for supporting the HR department in their functions of personnel management (Johnson, Lukaszewski, & Stone, 2016). The HR information system assists the team in functions, including staff management, training and development, performance management, compensation and befits, manpower planning, and recruitment, among others.
The operations department is responsible for the production and general running of the business. Its responsibilities include product planning and development, research and development, quality control, stock control, and distribution. The information requirements for this department relate to product design, quality control, manufacturing process, and distribution channels (Sun, Strang, & Firmin, 2017). Operations or production systems are the most complex to develop and implement as they are embedded in all business and production processes. The information generated from these systems helps the management in their decision-making process for the daily running of the business.
Sales and marketing departments work in tandem and form the core of the financial department of the business. The sales and marketing functions form the heart of the business as they directly affect the profitability of the company. The two departments have the most direct contact with the customers and are responsible for the generation of revenue from the company’s products (Sun, Strang, & Firmin, 2017). The marketing department has the responsibility of conducting market research and advertising the company’s products to the target customers. On the other hand, the sales department has the responsibility of selling the companies products to generate company revenue. In terms of information requirements, the marketing information system greatly relies on data from external sources such as customers, competitors, and regulators. The output from the marketing information system helps the sales department to forecast future sales. The sales information system, on the other hand, relies on data from sales agents to generate reports on the overall performance of the business.
References
Johnson, R. D., Lukaszewski, K. M., & Stone, D. L. (2016). The evolution of the field of human resource information systems: Co-evolution of technology and HR processes. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 28.
Newell, S., Huang, J. C., Galliers, R. D., & Pan, S. L. (2003). Implementing enterprise resource planning and knowledge management systems in tandem: fostering efficiency and innovation complementarity. Information and Organization, 25-52.
Sun, Z., Strang, K., & Firmin, S. (2017). Business analytics-based enterprise information systems. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 169-178.