Communication Strategies

WIGGLY WIGGLERS LTD (WWL) is a Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) in the business of sales and service of Eco-friendly gardening products. The company develops some of its own products as well as does the trading in the similar line of products. The company also takes turnkey contracts for implementing landscaping and garden development projects. WWL is headed by a Managing Director. There are 2 Directors reporting to the Managing Director. Each Director is heading the 2 verticals of the companys business. Director-Sales  Marketing is heading the Sales and Marketing division and Director-Merchandising is handling the supply chain and product development division. There are about 135 employees working in these 2 divisions. The product-sales-market segment presently handled by WWL is mainly in UK that accounts for 85 of the total annual revenues. The company also takes up some turnkey projects for landscaping in and around London that contributes another 10 to the total annual income. Through its online e-commerce website the company does sale of some of its products to the customers across the globe that accounts for the remaining 5 of the total annual revenues. Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools is very minimal in WWLs overall operations. The management of WWL has recognized that the use of ICT tools can be very strong and effective means of managing and expanding their business successfully. The management of WWL has commissioned a consultant to study and do needs- assessment of ICT tools. The consultant has been asked to investigate the information, communication needs of the WWL. The consultant has been asked to prepare a report with details of the findings and the recommendations for the management to enable them to formulate long term ICT implementation strategies for the company to sustain the business in a modern way. This paper constitutes the report prepared by the consultant under the said assignment.

Investigation approach
As part of the investigation the consultant has interviewed the management team and the employees, have visited all the operational locations of the company, has done the inspection of all the presently available hardware and software, has looked into the customers profile, have looked into the last 5-years sales profile and have researched at each stages of the companys business operations to understand the various aspects of the business and thus concluded on the report related to the ICT needs. The objective of the investigation was to examine how the information is delivered to the customers and the other stake holders.

Investigations of present Operations and the details gathered
Locations The Managing Director and the entire management team sit at the head office located in mid town London. The company owns and runs 7 outlets one assembly cum production unit and one central warehouse that are adjacent to the head office.
Marketing, Sales and deliveries The retail product marketing is done through direct sales representatives, through company owned outlets and through company owned e-commerce website. Direct Sales representatives and outlets do the sales booking through pre-printed Sales-booking forms, the booking forms are then sent to the head office for execution. The head office checks with the warehouse for the inventory and prepares the invoice and the delivery-note and then sends it to the warehouse for dispatch. Payments for most of the sales-bookings are paid in advance. The outlets do the direct retail sales in cash. The products are more in the consumable and semi-durable category of items. The warehouse maintains the inventory through manually written registers. The invoice and Delivery notes are prepared through Point-of-Sales (POS) software operating in a standalone PC at the head office. The list of sales booking done at the website is downloaded by the head office and then executed in the same manner as described earlier. There are lots of enquiries generated through the website and those are responded through the online response system in the e-commerce website. Sale and inventory data are not integrated. The marketing, sales and execution of turnkey projects are directly handled by the Director Merchandising.
Other admin and general operations The finance accounting and book keeping is done through an accounting software installed at the head office in a stand alone PC. There is no message delivery system between the field staffs and the office. Almost all messages to the clients are done through telephone or letters dispatched through post or courier. The payroll, client relationship management, and marketing campaign management are doe through manual system.           

Assessment of the Technology Presently available and the details gathered
The technology assessment is done to understand what is available presently and what are their configurations and what are their capabilities. What kinds of hardware that are related to the information technology are in place A detailed level of investigation is done to take an inventory of the operating system and other application software etc. that are running. The consultant has done the technology investigation to understand the problems and further it helps to determine how the problems can be resolved. It also gives the understanding that what kind of upgrade or replacement or additions will be required to implement the new ICT tools. These details are must for the WWL management to formulate the strategy and in making the detailed design plan for implementing the new ICT tools that are sustainable for at least during the next 5 years. The details gathered after the technology investigations are given as below
  
The hardware In head office there is one PC connected to the internet that is located in the cabin of DirectorMerchandising. The internet connection is 64 kbps dialup line. One PC is installed at the finance and Accounts. There are two PCs installed at the sales and marketing department. The configuration and specification of all these PCs are as follows
Intel P-IV 533 Mhz, 256 MB RAM, 120 GB Hard Disk, Scroll mouse, keyboard and 15 CT monitor. These PCs are about 5 year old and needs replacement or upgrade.
The PCs are not installed with any stable virus protection system. The internet PC does not have any spyware, malware, or any other internet security system installed.

The software Each of the PCs has Windows XP as operating system. The accounting software is a legacy system and does not have comprehensive features of the inventory, invoicing, cost accounting, finance accounting and project accounting system. The Point-of-Sales software is also quite old and it can not handle complex business requirements that WWL is planning for the future expansions. The e-commerce system running at the website consisting of enquiries, sales and delivery is not having many standard facilities that a customer expects while doing online purchases (e.g. order cancellation or modification, refund online, expected date of delivery, cash-on-delivery etc. are missing). The enquiry system does not have a follow-up system. Hence the all the follow-up events after the enquiry is generated can not e recorded at the e-commerce web application. Hence the follow-up data and information is maintained manually. The mix of e-version and manually maintained data is bringing lot of ambiguity and redundancies in the data. It results in loss of business. Many enquiries are not fructified because of lack of systematic follow-ups.

Assessment of need for Information and Communication system
The need assessment has been done to understand the requirements of sharing and disseminating of data and  or information among operational divisions, WWL management and general employees, the clients or the prospective clients. A system is required to be put in place so that the sales-booking data is passed on automatically to the back-end office for processing and executing the orders. The inventory data is required to be passed on in an integrated manner to the back-end invoicing and dispatch department and the invoiced data is required to be passed on to the inventory data so that the stock positions are updated automatically. The marketing campaign, customer relationship management, new product announcements, and direct mailer to the customers that are done through conventional methods such as direct mailers sent through post are required to be done using ICT tools and technologies such as mass emailing, e-newsletters, webcast, and news flash is needed to be used. For sales level automations SMS based systems can be used. The employees need to have a communication system that works seamlessly. Use of emailing facilities is a must. The email system must have the corporate identity hence domain based email ids are required to be used.
 Assessment of Social Issues
The employees who are illiterate or semi-literate in using new technologies will feel insecure.  There are chances of misuse of these collaborative tools by the employees. For example internet browsing may increase unauthorized emailing, chat and messaging will increase. The writing skills may need to be checked because the messaging system promotes use of informal language to convey messages. It is expected that the employees will have problems and issues related to understanding the new ICT technologies. The resistance to change needs a structured and well planned management strategy to address such issues. This can be effectively overcome with the help of adequate training sessions among the workforce to familiarize them with the new system.

Why should an organization implement an information strategy
    Organizations today are more dependent on information technology to support their day-to-day operations and work processes. The information system is being used for various business objectives that include operational efficiency, speedy transactions, managerial decision support, long term and short term strategic planning and to minimize human error rates. Hence improving communication within the organization can result in increased efficiency and productivity at work. There are numerous tools and strategies used by organizations to improve communication and social networks have provided a new, innovative and interesting platform for transferring and sharing of knowledge resources. It provides the employees with an instant message sharing service and a useful tool in promoting innovative practices within the organization. The overall process of communication is highly effective in increasing the success rate of projects and building a collaborative environment that is driven through improved deliberation and discussions on potential issues and challenges.

Who should be involved in developing the strategy Why
    The management is responsible for drawing a strategic action plan for implementing the ICT infrastructure within the organization. This requires meticulous planning and in-depth analysis of the implications of the proposed changes on various levels of operations. Implementing changes within the organizations can be a challenging task and requires active participation of top management and leadership initiatives from the employees. The whole task of communicating the intended changes in the existing work procedure, training them on the new technology, overcoming resistance from the employees, and motivating them to accept these changes can be challenging and time consuming task.

What isshould be the role of technology
    Technology has been a great enabler of changes in modes of business practice and models adopted by the entrepreneurs to maximize gains. The role of ICT within organizations is well recognized by managers owing to the benefits it provides in terms of increased productivity and enhanced efficiency at work. Improved communication can help in motivating employees, reduce employee resistance, and pursue change mechanism effectively. The past few decades have witnessed a radical shift in the way individuals and business establishments communicate and interact with their customers or associates. The growth of open communication channels has promoted the emergence and development of healthy communities or group practices that have made a visible impact on business growth strategies.