Hanson Brothers Executive Information SystemBackground: Hanson Brothers is a corporation that sells hair products. Hanson Brothers has its headquarters(HQ) in the States, and has major subsidiares(subs) in 10 different countres throughout the world. Hanson Brothers wants to implement an executive information system(EIS). The EIS should let management at HQ and at all of the subs monitor the sales progress of all divisions of the company, across all subs. Current System: Management Information Systems(MIS) Manager: Once a month,an administrative assistant at HQ spends a couple of days producing a sales report by copying the data from each of the subsidiares systems and pasting the data into spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is then mailed to managers throughout the company. Business Analist: The lowest level of the product hierarchy is the SKU. SKUs often represent the type of packaging used on a product SKUs roll up in to products, products roll up into product families, and product families roll up into product lines. HQ sales projections can be done at any of three levels line,families,or product. Sales projections are not done at the SKU level, but SKU sales are tracked to measure the success of a particular packaging concept. Systems Analist: There are three problems that we would like to rectify. All systems are localized to the native language of the country, so the spreadsheet contains product names in various languages. To avoid language problems, quering across all systems must be done by ID numbers rather then by product names. Currency is stored in the denomination that is local to each sub, making it impossible to do comparisons, across subs, of sales price or cost of goods sold(SOGS). Receiving feedback only once a month is a big strategic disadvantage for our corporate planners. We need a system that provides daily information. The hair products market is very volatile, often experiencing unexpected sales surges and shortfalls, so receiving rapid feedback crucial. New System: Business Analist: We would like the system to show the data in as much detail as possible. Differences in detail levels of the subs do not matter as long as the totals are comparable. Accuracy is much more important. Besides needing correct data, we need to understand what information we don't have.We do not want the system to make guesses in order to hide data issues. Systems Analist: We want to develop an EIS that will consolidate all data into a single repository, which can be queried flexible by sales managers throughout the company. This system will consolidate the data from servers at the various subsidiares to a server here at HQ. WE've identified three critical features to be implemented. Localization of Text Text strings, such as product names and division names, should be localized into three different languages (English, Spanish, and French). SKUs, product families, and product lines will start out with the English descriptions filled in. A separate utility will allow representatives from from a couple of the larger subs to fill in localized descriptions where they do not already exist. Most employees in our subsidiaries can speak and read English, so finding somebody to perform the localization should not cause a protblem. Currency Conversion In order to provide meaningful comparisions, the figures must be shown in both native currency an U.S. dollars. Because of fluctuations in currency values, the currency conversions must be done on a per-day basis. Sales made for a given day are converted to U.S. dollars based on the exchange rate for that particular day. For example, the formula to determine the U.S. dollar value for a peseta can be represented as "USD=pesetas ExchangeRate". The exchange rates must be applied consistently across all locations within a given day. Sales Projection We are creating a sales projection system that will work in conjunction with the sales reporting system. We are developing afront end in wich managers at each level will enter their month-by month projections for the region and products that they are responsible for. These projections will be integrated into the sales reports, allowing for comparisons between projected and actualsales. The accuracy of the projections will be a contributing factor when management allocates pay bonuses. The sales projection system will allow regional managers to set sales projections for their regions. The managers for the territories within a given region will then enter their projected sales forecasts. The sales totals for the territories do not have to be consistent with the totals of the region. |