Unit 22 Office Development Assignment - World Wide Publishing Co

Unit 22 Office Development Assignment - World Wide Publishing Co

Introduction

The term “office development” is used to define the strategies towards the management of business data so that decision making and analysis can be made easy and effective. Organizations are making use of software like outlook, database application and excel to manage the data and data sharing. The unit 22 office development assignment World Wide Publishing Co will discuss the use of application programs and their significance in operational activities of World Wide Publishing Co. Ltd.  The report will address the issues in the current system of organization and provides a new solution with testing to make the business process effective. The report will compare the results from the new system and old system and provide efficient evidence to prove the utility of new system in the organization. World Wide Publishing Co. Ltd is a road map and atlas publication organization which works with other organization named Oxford Warehouse to distribute the products to customers.

Task 1

1.1 Applications that can support business process

The World Wide Publishing Co is a large book publishing organization. The company sold their books to retailers, wholesalers and even directly to customers. It has around 5-15 orders daily and it accepts the orders through fax, phone and e-mails. The invoices according to the order are prepared in various forms. The Oxford warehouse is an organization which stores thousands of books of different authors. A picking list is sent daily to this warehouse with the invoices. The picking list is the list which includes the total number of each title dispatched by the World Wide Publishing Co every day to Oxford warehouse. World Wide Publishing Co receives an invoice at the end of each month by Oxford warehouse. This invoice contains the services based on the sales value of the dispatched book at that month. To handle and tackle these all operations many different computer software applications are available in the market which a World Wide Publishing Co can use in its  business enterprise  process. The following are the various types of software which can support World Wide Publishing Co in their business process:

Spreadsheet: The spreadsheets are used in varied ways within business contexts. The spreadsheet allows storing of the huge amount of data sets but it also facilitates a range of utilities to manage and process these data sets in future. The spreadsheet also performs various mathematical, statistical, financial and organizational transformations on sets of data. It also allows presenting the data in an organized and helps in future planning decisions. The World Wide Publishing Co should try this software application in arranging the data and maintaining everyday records. The spreadsheet also offers What-If analysis which a World Wide Publishing Co can use in making the decisions related to the growth and development of the business. It also allows presenting the data in the form of text, numbers or even in graphical form also. The spreadsheet can be used by the World Wide Publishing Co for drafting the invoices and packing lists.

                                          Figure 1: Functions of Spreadsheet

Word Processor: The word processing programs had helped a lot the business world in doing a completely paperless office. The word processor helps in setting the passwords on documents for the purpose of security of important documents.This was not possible in tradition file system. This software is very useful in editing, modifying, storing and retrieving the documents easily. This also facilitates templates for the easy drafting of documents like invoices, etc. Using mail merge function of word processing software application, World Wide Publishing Co can sell their books by giving the details and discounts schemes to their customers directly just in one click. It facilitates in drafting a simple text or graphic documents with multimedia options.

                                            Figure 2: Features of Word Processor

1.2 Utilization of different software for business process

Application software has been mainly designing to perform user specific task and also which is necessary for World Wide Publishing can be used for various different purposes. According to the given case, the organization is facing difficulty in selecting the list which is prepared by calculating the total amount of each book from invoices and entering the total amount on photocopied form. The major difficulty faced by World Wide publishing organization is a representation of data in proposed manner (Pohl, 2010).  Now onwards, the management has suggested making certain changes in application software to fulfil the objectives and to collect the  data collection  without any many mistakes to develop the pricing list. For example, sometimes spreadsheet is used as a calculator by the sales clerk to make sure that the calculation is right. Still, the report is not prepared with set method. The organization will be benefitted in following ways after the utilization of word processing or spreadsheet software:

1. Decision making: With the utilization of spreadsheet software, the decisions of World Wide Publishing can be improved, as the software will provide specific information about the sales of the book on each and every day, week and month and also it will tally with Oxford warehouse by sharing the invoice. For example, it will become easy for the organisation to increase the production of those books and services which are having the high demand in the market. Thus, perfect decision making will help in maximising the profits.
2. Problem-solving: By the utilisation of proposed software, World Wide publishing organisation can understand the problems related to management of information in the current system and problems related to taking orders (Trkman, 2010). If there is any kind of error or miscommunication than it will be corrected automatically which will help in overcoming various problems. For example, word processing system consists of a feature that is auto-correct then all the spelling errors will be corrected automatically. This how the utilisation of software will benefit the organisation.
3. Improvement in efficiency: The efficiency of staff and organisation can be improved by the utilisation of software. The data can be formatted, edited and shared easily, which will help the World Wide Publishing to produce the invoice with more precision and simplicity and it will also help the organisation to meet the desired standards.
4. Sales analysis: As the spreadsheet consists of the records of all types of expenses, therefore just by evaluating the excel sheet, top management can easily classify the possible areas of growth (Hall.et.al.2009). For example, the entire auto generated a record of sales of the day; week and month can be maintained by World Wide Publishing which will help them to examine the demand of particular book in the market.

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1.3 Importance of addressing requirements of both users and business

It is very important to understand the user and business requirement for developing and executing application software. With this kind of approach, it becomes easy to increase the usefulness of the software and also which directly affects the result of an organisation (Ko.et.al.2009). Along with the development of fully integrated software, it is essential for the organization to completely understand the requirement of the users to develop user-friendly software so as to maintain smooth functioning of the organisation. Further, it is also important to understand that how software can fulfil business needs as it is very important to design the functions of application software according to the need of the business. As per the given case, the organization requires planning of sales and purchase and checking of the invoice to trail the business process. To develop the user-friendly activities, it is important that all the requirements should be in written format and also it should be explained in detail (Wiegers and Beatty 2013.). Following life cycle has been followed in order to develop and implement the proposed application software.

Following are the requirements of user and World Wide publishing:

1. Accessibility: It is the essential for the organisation that the software can easily access the data and information that has been recorded. Accessibility of data is important for top management as sometimes it will be required to take  decision making  changes in the sales invoice. Also, the ease of accessibility is the requirement for both users as well as business.
2. Clarity: It is very important for the data to be precise and clear which is collected through the application software. For the business, it will help to understand the process of flow of goods and cash flow. For users the data presented should be accurate as it is very important to maintain the sheet of the client with proper plan and strategy. This is how, clarity is very important to fulfil user requirement for World Wide Publishing (Garg.et.al.2013).

Task 2

2.1 Solutions for meeting the users and business needs

World Wide Publishing uses this software to do the transactions easily and effectively will change the process of the business and assist the organization to keep the transaction safe. The management of the business should use this kind of software to overcome the various problems like to maintain the picking list, generate the invoice and develop the sales report for the month or week. By analysing the problems of two different application software are allotted to the business first is the word processor and another is a spreadsheet that assists the management to the meet the requirement of both the customers and the business users. The software assists the business to maintain the books of all the transaction and keep them updated for the finance department. The software keeps all the transactions transparent by which all the board members analyse them whenever they need. The software keeps the data in the digital form by which there is no chance of data lost or corrupt.

The software increases the efficiency of the organization and provides the quality work by keeping the data safe and secure. The data sheet helps the HR team to compare the performance of the employees with the present work. Organization applies the word processor software to draw the invoice and print the necessary information to keep the original records. The software decreases the manual work and increases the digital work in the organization that save the time of the employees and provide quality work. By using this kind of software in the organization different departments use in different like the use of the multimedia function in the presentations, decrease the use of paper, adjust the layout of the paper, presentation by charts, use of formulas in the comparison etc. The software provides the auto-correction facility by which there is no chance of spelling mistakes in the file. A macro organization applies this kind of the software to eradicate the problems like file corruption, grammatical mistakes, un-adjustable file page etc. The software assists the organization to keep all the transactions transparent and correct by which records of all the employees must be handled safely. Apart from this spreadsheet helps the manager to take the decision correctly. World Wide Publishing will use the software to solve the problem like data missing, to prepare the salary sheets, invoice of the transactions and customer decision to take the decision etc.

2.2 Use of Advance tools and techniques for implementing solutions

These days there are different tools and techniques that have been planned in order to implement the solution for current business planningand development. In World Wide Publishing organization, the management can take actions to use advanced tools like e-commerce functions, website and ERP system which will help the organisation in product planning, development, manufacturing, sales and marketing (Lohse.et.al.2012). These tools will improve the accuracy of financial data, will help in better project planning  and will also lower the purchasing costs as these tools are user-friendly and consistent. Furthermore, these advanced tools and techniques consist of many features such as Share Point, Access object, building intuitive and user interface which will lead to the increase in the quality of documentation and also in the process of decision making. Also for office solution, there is pivot table and visual basic is available which will help in linking to Excel spreadsheet. Also due to team work and management of document user interface can be created, objectives and share points can be accessed as per the requirement of the user. This can be referred as the automated system that helps in offering more advanced tools for implementing solutions.

Nowadays, ERP is used as one of the most advanced tools for office development and in solving of various issues. This tool will act as an asset for World Wide Publishing organization to improve the ease of access of data that has been collected through trailing each transaction. ERP mainly helps in checking besides the requirements. For example, ERP software will itself correct the error as per the requirement which occurs during entering or taking the order. The problems of organisation can be solved while meeting the requirements of the users and business through the validation of data and proper checking. Also, the advance software will be useful in managing the accounting operation and also in improving the decisions like the effectiveness of data presentation can be improved through visual basics (Momoh, 2009). The data can be formatted, edited and shared easily with the help of this software. Also, it supports World Wide Publishing to promote operational working and also to generate invoice more precisely and clearly.   

2.3 Solutions against the expected results

It is obvious to have actual results different from the results expected by the organization. It has been found that organization is moving towards the implementation of new spreadsheet application so that higher accuracy can be achieved to meet the expectations of the software outcome. Organization is encouraging existing schemas for the accountability of results I term of accuracy and efficiency. Evaluation based results indicate that organization is making use of application software to organize the data into separate spreadsheet files so that data related to invoice details, sales counts and forecasting strategies can be managed and reused easily in the operation of the organization. The application is helping the organization to deal with data as spreadsheet results can be used efficiently in many other formats like in CSV and XML format (Fukuda-Parr and Lopes, 2013). Organization got the benefits to managing the picking list on the time in an effective manner. The actual and expected results with the new application software are given below:

                                                            Table1: Difference table

The comparative study of results from the application and the organization expectations has clarified that new spreadsheet application is in favour of organizational time and cost saving along with the offer of good quality and accuracy. It has been found that worldwide publish organization will get the positive influence of the application to manage the data. The new implementation practice has been reduced the common issues and their load in account management. Thus management of accounting can use the business time and cost to concentrate the primary activities. Also management o the organization is getting the benefits of the quality office development tools to manage the relationship with the clients. The analysis said that application is good enough to meet the requirement of organization and its clients by proving accurate data in less time and automatic manner (Hung.et.al.2011). Addition to it, data analysing and invoice generation is becoming more effective with this new tool. However, few more improvements are expected in future updates for the tool. Thus, the overall effectively and performance of worldwide publication is increasing with automatic operation handling and data generation.

Task 3

3.1 End-user engagement in World Wide Publishing

However, decisions are made at the upper level of the organization but the effectiveness of work plans is brought into reality by the end-user of the organization. For World Wide Publishing Co. Ltd, it is necessary to train the end-users to make the best use of implemented spreadsheet software and other tools. This is required in order to achieve the efficiency and accuracy at the user level so that productivity at end-users can be improved. Organization has different department likes sales, accounting and  human resource management.  Also, the employees in these departments are different in skills and perception levels towards the use of spreadsheet application. Thus, in order to save the business time and cost with traditional approaches, those are papers and pen-based, organization needs to spend a little time to expertise the end users for better operational activities within minimum time and cost (Geelen.et.al.2013). World Wide Publishing Co. Ltd uses the meeting, personal interaction, training and development and feedback as a continuous process to make optimum utilization of software tools. Organization clears the new features and the compatibility issues in meeting and listens from the end-users about the implementation of the new system into organizational operations. Meeting is useful for the organization to introduce the changes and procedure in operational activities to a large group of employees. Personal interaction with each employee is a lengthy process but effective to know skills and perception of the employee as a free thought towards the new implementations. Organization provides the training and development programs separated for different departments to ensure that they achieve the required skills and experience to deal with new spreadsheet application for the work they belong (Fischer, 2012). Training and development programs are conducted one time to figure out the issues with employee’s skills and work strategies.

After training, end-users get the efficient knowledge to start hand on practices with the new application. Management observes and answers the issues in the performance, requirements and issues so that they can be treated well in real time guidance in the workplace. This is also useful to analysis the common issues with of end-users so that they can be guided in groups. The effective use of software tool can be made only with the effective understanding of departmental needs and talents in end-users to interact with technical changes (Bimber.et.al.2012). Management needs to consider the spreadsheet application with the requirement of different departments so that proper training module can be designed for enhancement in end-user quality.

3.2 Evidence of improvement in business process

New spreadsheet application has changed the working outcomes of the organization. Organization is using the spreadsheet application to generate the invoice, sales records, insert and update the product list and to develop the pick list. It has been found that organization got a high accuracy and saving of time to deal with these functionalities in operations. Now, most of the invoices are generated electronically in a few seconds with high accuracy, auto feeding of information and electro-sign into them. The updating work on product list is also getting faster because of organization’s end-user need not update the associated files and product name manually. As a result, the organization had saved a lot of time and cost to regulate the operations in the workplace. It is also found that picking lists are now more clear and specific to products to address the packages for customers (Trkman, 2010). End-users are being more productive and interested in organizational operations. However, accounting department still needs the training to enhance the work procedure. End-users of accounting are showing lack interest in new spreadsheet application as they thought that it may be vulnerable to data integrity and security. But it has been tested well to implement in accounting department so that more security and data handling features can be achieved. The above diagram illustrates the Picklist generated by spreadsheet program which is auto dated and clear.  

                                    Figure 3: Sample invoice slip

The foremost advantages are achieved in term of trust and sharing. The digital data generated by the application is more accurate and adequate to use. Thus, a new system is being adapted as trustworthy by the employees and clients. It also has eliminated the mistakes at the user end. Digital copies of the data are easy to share and reuse in operations. Spreadsheet application collects the data from different departments and users to make the process centralized and data availability at each level of organization. As a result, process is being effective and valuable to generate more efficiency and productivity in work (Harmon, 2014). Organization is managing the data more easily in the availability in electronic form. These data can be shared among various department and employees easily and quickly. Also, the graphical representation of weekly and monthly data reports from all departments is helping management to make strategies more concentrated on the analysis results.

3.3 Possible future development to enhance the system of World Wide Publishing

The current system is capable of handling the business effectively but some changes can be introduced in future updates to make it more convenient and reliable. There are some features those are expected to include in future developments:

• Notification: In sales and accounting department, it is required to be updated with the time limits to deliver the services and supports to customers. Thus, a notification feature is expected to meet the time lines set by authorities of the organization. It will be helpful to serve the customer by adding values of high response to orders (Makeig and Onton, 2011). It will also be useful to manage the operations and strategies of the organization in the faster manner according to the list of upcoming events in notifications.
• User interface: end-users’ feedback is being collected to make the interface more convenient to them so that quick parts of the spreadsheet application can be put into fronts. Also, a simple user interface will help to reduce the time on training and guidance in the workplace. Customization features can be added to set the layout of the application according to need.
• Scheduling: This feature is required to schedule the common task like sending of pick list at sharp 5 pm, backup of data on Friday, salary calculation at last of the month, revenue graph generation at the end of week and month etc. This will be helpful to regulate the common task more easily and will help to save time and cost (Magal and Word, 2011).
• Security: This feature is expected to group the employees and to assign the user rights on the common database file so that sales and accounting end-users can be restricted to infect each other’s work. It will help to reduce unauthorised access to resources and files. It may include login for users, auto logout from devices, logging of activities, user right specification etc.
• Output modes: Current system is capable of generating the information in tabular forms but more features like graphs and pie charts can be added to the system to make the more understandable and presentable (Johansson and Newman, 2010). This is required to have output mode in configurations so that textual, as well as graphical data, can be generated on the reports.

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Conclusion

The report has been concluded various software tools and their effectiveness in the organization to handle and share the information in regular operations. The report has been made around the case of World Wide Publishing Co. Ltd to evaluate current system and issues and to propose the new system to bring the effectiveness in decisions and processing. The report has been discussed the various approaches used to make use of application software in the workplace. Also, the results from the older system and the newer one have been compared to provide the evidence-based suggestion to use the new system implementations. The role of end-user engagement and future developments has been considered in the report. The utility of new systems has been identified in the generation of data sheets and analytical results with appropriate diagrams and examples.   

References

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