CASE STUDY

INTERACTIVE SESSION: ORGANIZATIONS 

Wal-Mart Grapples With RFID

1.How is RFID technology related to Wal-Mart’s business model? How does it benefit suppliers?

Wal-Mart’s basic business model is “low cost.” RFID promises to reduce supply chain costs and improve the availability of items on store shelves. Wal-Mart is the largest retailer on Earth. Their business model is centered on using a low-cost leadership strategy in order to achieve the lowest operational costs and services at a lower price than competitors while enhancing quality and level of service. Wal-Mart have been able to follow their strategy of keeping prices low and shelves well stocked by using a legendary inventory replenishment system (Real Link). 

Through Real Link, Wal-Mart’s has a continuous replenishment system that sends orders for new merchandise directly to suppliers as soon as customers pay for their purchases at the cash register. At Wal-Mart’s headquarters, the central computer collects the orders from all Wal-Mart stores and transmits them to suppliers. 

The objective was to reduce out-of-stock items by tracking item location more precisely as they moved from the receiving dock to store shelves. 

Suppliers can also access Wal-Mart’s sales and inventory data using Web technology. Wal-Mart wanted suppliers to use of RFID technology in order to assist the suppliers in shipping products more accurately and faster. RFID technology offers other benefits to suppliers. RFID technology is tied directly to Wal-Mart’s Real Link system. 

As soon as a customer purchases an item at a Wal-Mart store, the supplier monitoring the item knows to ship a replacement to the shelf. Suppliers are able to obtain real-time access to customer demand, track shipments, and improve inventory control. Using these technologies, suppliers are better informed of product demand, and given this information they can use it to predict their own manufacturing, production, and shipping logistics.

2. What management, organization, and technology factors explain why Wal-Mart suppliers had trouble implementing RFID systems?

  

Wal-Mart exemplifies the power of information systems coupled with brilliant business practices and supportive management to achieve world-class operational efficiency. The Retail Link system digitally links its suppliers to every one of Wal-Mart’s stores worldwide. However, the implementation of RFID systems appeared to be a top-down mandate by Wal-Mart without the support of the suppliers. 

Management: 

    · Design an RFID implementation strategy 

    · Educate and work closely with supplier

Organization: 

    · Redesign RFID requirements for different product 

    ·  Overcome supplier resistance to RFID 

Technology: 

    · Deploy RFID technology required in implementation. 

   · Implementation of RFID into suppliers IT infrastructures and information systems (many are   legacy systems and costs would be high).

3. What conditions would make adopting RFID more favorable for suppliers? 

Not all suppliers could comply with Wal-Mart’s demand for attaching RFID tags to all of their products. Only a limited number of suppliers could afford to make the major technology and business process changes required to integrate RFID into their IT infrastructure and information systems. RFID technology is still viewed as being in its infancy and the benefits are not fully understood or even measurable. On top of that, this technology is still very expensive and pricing of the tags themselves make it impossible for the majority of suppliers to do it. 

Wal-Mart must assist suppliers in making the required changes to their systems so that the can actually use the data generated by RFID to track their product movement and inventory. Through education, the suppliers would be better equipped to understand how they can benefit from RFID.

4. Should Wal-Mart require all its suppliers to use RFID? Why or why not? Explain your answer.

In February, 2005 Wal-Mart ordered its top suppliers to place RFID tags on all products shipped to specific distribution centers. The objective was to reduce out-of-stock items by tracking item location more precisely as they moved from the receiving dock to store shelves. The information captured through the use of RFID tags would held Wal-Mart reduce out-of-stock items, increase sales, and further reduce its costs. However, suppliers are not totally convinced of the benefits that they would reap from such an expensive undertaking. 

Wal-Mart has the power to exercise muscle in the supply chain. However, Wal-Mart must streamline their demands in requiring suppliers to attach RFID tags to all items. From the supplier side, this top-down mandate from Wal-Mart was simply not economically feasible. The technology itself is still very expensive and suppliers simply could not state a good business case to support such expenditures.

Major retailing and manufacturing companies will no doubt switch to RFID technology as its costs fall, and its applications increase. Whether or not all major retailing and manufacturing companies should switch to RFID is a matter of choice. 

They will no doubt go this way in the near future. By doing so, they will increase operational efficiencies, increase profits margins, and gain a competitive advantage by lowering overall costs to consumers

CASE STUDY:

INTERACTIVE SESSION : MANAGEMENT

MANAGING TRAVEL EXPENSES : NEW TOOLS, NEW SAVINGS

1.    What kinds of systems are described here? What valuable information do they provide for employees and managers? What decisions do they support?

• Transaction processing system is a unique software system created to ease the process of recording, monitoring ,sorting , listing , updating and evaluating task or data related to any business in unit\units in manufacturing, shipping , airlines, Online business, sales, telemarketing, finance and accounting, human resource etc.

•      It’s highly beneficial for managers in senior and middle management level to plan, structure their goals and attain a logical decision based on the data from TPS.
•        Based on the useful data from TPS managers are able to organiz and assign task and responsibility to resources for accomplishment of their target.

•      Help maintaining records of the potential employee with their skills and talents, which is usedby the manager to train, develop and motivate their employees.
• ·    Based on sorted and listed data from TPS about the financial assets and firm’s financial record,managers in middle and senior management level plan budget and profit making of the firm.
• ·    In manufacturing and production industries, based on production goal, schedule and availability of production material data production planning is done at the management level. Similarly in marketing and sales, based on the information from market research, promotion and ads, pricing and customer identification, price analysis and sales forecast of a particular product is done by managers.

2. What problems do automated expense reporting systems solve for companies? How do they provide value for companies that use them?

·         Improved Policy Compliance : Automating expense reporting maintains spend limit and the set audit rules. Enforces spend policies on employees by making them to input the important data, making employee to maintain expense at certain limit and prohibiting them from entering expenses beyond limit by rejecting those entries.

·         Employee Ease : Top management and travelling employee who need to get their travel expense reimbursed are always at ease because of automated and integrated T&E system as there is direct deposit of their reimbursement to their account, reducing their round trips to banks and making them to stay focussed on their jobs.

·    Reduced cost and expenses : With automated integrated system companies have brought down the processing time of expense report, which brought down the company cost drastically.

·         Increased productivity : Since it reduces the turn-round time to get and compile data for managers; managers can use their valuable time in other activities like planning and organizing project activities, mentoring teams and individuals for the project.

·         Better deals due to enhanced visibility : Managers having access to automated system can analyze the reliable and quickly available data, giving them better access to areas where cost to the company can be cut or any malicious fraud can be stopped.

3. Compare MarketStar’s manual process for travel and entertainment expense reporting with its new process based on Concur Expense Service. Diagram the two processes.

• MarketStar’s manual process for travel and entertainment expense reporting system: Expense data that is entered manually on MS-Excel is commonly known as manual process of expense reporting system. Since these data can be audited and analyzed manually hence it is difficult to understand their correctness and their compliance with important regulatory bodies dealing with bribery and corruption.

• "MarketStar's selection of Concur Expense and Concur Time validates our solution strategy to provide a suite of proven Corporate Expense Management solutions for a broad range of core expense management needs," said Steve Singh, chairman and chief executive officer for Concur.

• Concur Expense automated the travel and entertainment manual expense reporting system making it highly efficient and automated. expense report preparation and approval were automated making them cost effective and time efficient. Reimbursement, and data analysis were also automated increasing the productivity, reducing time and increasing the efficiency.

4. What management, organization, and technology issues did MarketStar have to address when adopting Concur Expense Service?

·      Management : The Company had lots of expense reports which had to be processed and approved. 650 of the 1200 employees regularly filed expense reports to accounting department

·      Organization : Three full-time employees were required to manually approve, process, and audit 300 expense reports per week, most from remote locations resulting in delayed Expense disbursements delayed for several weeks

·     Technology : In addition to processing reports, MarketStar's staff was also equired to audit every single expense report to ensure that reports were accurately tabulated and all expenses were properly coded.

5. Are there any disadvantages to using computerized expense processing systems? Explain your answer.

There are very few disadvantages of using computerized expense processing systems:

·       Expense : Expense of buying the software, later expense incurred while upgrading the software and then buying new software license while installing it on new upgraded operating system is more than using manual expense reporting.

·     Training: The cost involved in training people each time the software is upgraded or changed is also one of major disadvantages. Apart from cost, it may be time consuming as sometime resource may find it difficult to adapt to new software.

·         Dependency: Dependency on computer and server to maintain huge data may be also disadvantageous, when there is case of server down or in the worst case server crash. The time and cost involved to recover the data may be very huge.

CASE STUDY

INTERACTIVE SESSION : TECHNOLOGY

RENAULT SPEEDS UP DELIVERY WITH A NEW DSS

1. How did this DSS improve decision making at Renault? Describe some of the decisions that were improved by using this system.

The new DSS software solution designed for overall operations of Renault Company has made a huge progress for entire value chain of the company. This software has managed to link the company directly with the customers through the dealers. Similarly, it has made the whole process of car manufacturing, customization and the sales of car highly efficient. To every successful project, it involves a lot of decision making process. Some of the improved decision making by this new DSS software can be discussed below:

A. Customer order handling : Since the DSS software was able to receive the order directly from the customers, through car dealers, they were able to optimize the mix of models, critical options like engine, gearbox, and secondary options like colour, in-car electronics etc. Similarly, they were able to analyse a large number of customer orders with a powerful computer processor capable of processing 140 millions  evaluations in 10 minutes. In contrast, previously the numbers of car orders were taken as per the order the dealers. If a car was left in a showroom for a long time, the dealer would ultimately need to reduce the price of a car making it unprofitable to sell a Renault car.

B. Efficient Assembly plant : With the new DSS software, there was significant improvement in order sequencing. Based on the customer orders, the numbers of cars to  be  manufactured  were sequenced  as  per their  critical  and  secondary requirement. Also, the company managed to reduce a lot of production cost by systematization of the whole process. The car sequence ensured the workload to be sequentially distributed and managed to reduce variable costs like painting which required painting tubes to be washed. With proper sequencing, it ensures lesser wastage in paintings.

C. Smooth cooperation among the various departments : The software also managed to give a clear picture of whole assembly line, which in return helped to define   clear   job   roles   of   each department. For example, they were able to allocate sales targets and work into manufacturing issues like planning problems, constraints, decision variable. The sales department was able to focus on ability to produce profitable mix of the car.

D. Future planning and software modification : The introduction of new DSS software   solution was simply a start to much more sophisticated planning process. The initial software had some drawbacks and needed to be modified accordingly for its international production houses in various countries. It led to healthy competition among research teams from Europe, Canada and Brazil for innovation solutions like car sequencing and increment in evaluations. Similarly, the company is now looking into speeding the delivery process through optimized routing of delivery vehicles from plants to dealers via intermediate dispatching centres, which requires extensive calculations of worldwide  transportation network of Renault.

Hence the company was able to make efficient decisions for over all supply chain and thus gaining a competitive advantage in the value chain management process.

2. How much of an impact did this DSS have on business performance? Explain your answer.

The newly introduced DSS software solution has had an outstanding impact on the overall business performance of the Renault company. It has helped the company to communicate with the customers effectively by taking orders quickly and processing the order in the assembly line and the delivering back to the customer. It has several business implications to the company.  

Initially the whole supply chain was time consuming and highly inefficient due to the legacy mainframe systems, which could not handle the ever expanding product line of the company and options available for the customers. Ever since the replacement of such system with DSS system, the company has reaped the benefit of technology advancement in terms of product development, production and sales. The impact of DSS can be further discussed in following points:

A. Sales :  with the advance order handling software, the company was able to provide customized cars to its customer with reduced lead time. Similarly, they were   able   to   order   more   varieties of cars to the customers through quicker product development and market penetration. Similarly, with quicker order handling, the company was able to increase the customer satisfaction and reliability.

B. Production cost control : One of the essential parts of manufacturing based industry is to reduce if not control its production costs. With the new DSS, the company was able to improve its product sequencing at manufacturing plant and reduce production cost of car painting process and other variable costs like electricity, chemicals etc. When the cost price of a car is reduced, it increases the profit in sales of the car. Hence it leads to increase business performance.

C. Planning   and   implementation : With centralized information system and database, each department  was  able  to  extract  required  information  from the central   server.   For example, the sales department focused on the ability to produce the right mix of models, engines, equipment levels, colours, and options every month while industrial planners focused on weekly production volumes for each plant. Similarly, this kind of planning provided a feasible sales targets and implementation of plans in each departments across the production houses of Renault Company across the globe.

D. Competitive Advantage : The smooth operation of the entire supply chain is able   to   give Renault   Company   a   competitive   advantage   compared   to   its competitors. Even if the decision to implement DSS was on the wake of intense competition,  it  will   ensure that   the company  has a competitive   advantage  on product delivery and thus increase in customer satisfaction.

Hence the new DSS system has huge implications on business performance of the company. It will ensure that the company will able to sustain in long run by creating a competitive advantage in supply chain management.

3. What   management,   organization,   and   technology   factors   had   to   be addressed in order to make this system successful?

To be able to implement the new DSS software system, the company had to go through various hurdles in the initial stages. Similarly, due to various manufacturing sites of the company worldwide, it required extensive planning and controlled execution of the plans. Some of the various factors that were addressed during the DSS system are as follows:

a. Management:  

The Renault Company has an extensive network of dealers, manufacturers   and customers across the  globe. To   be   able   to   manage   such extensive   network,   it   requires   a huge management   prowess   and   regional cooperation.   To   manage   a   centralized command, this company   needed   this software to report various information such as sales report, manufacturing plant report etc. The system was designed such that customer orders flow directly from dealers to assembly plants, bypassing corporate headquarters. This ensured that the   regional management   team   as   well   as   the   management   team   at   the headquarter was aware of the company’s day to day operations.

b. Organization:  

Since the Renault Company has a diverse organizational environment through out its regional corporate offices/manufacturing houses, it was important to incorporate such practice to make this system successful. Similarly depending upon the customer order and manufacturing limitations in each area, the plant operators requested for the modification of software as it was unable to handling the car sequencing at assembly line. To solve this issue, Renault research teams from Europe, Canada, and Brazil competed to provide a solution. The software now performs more than 140 million evaluations in ten minutes.

c. Technology: 

It is certainly the most important issue to be addressed in this renovation   process. In fact, the DSS software solution  itself  is a technology. However, the implication of this software is not limited to few computers only. It has touched every aspects of the supply chain which are computerized.  For example, the sequencing of assembly line. Depending upon the order of the customers, the software analyses the efficiency of production line. For example, if there are 14 red cars, 23 blue cars and 2 black cars, depending upon the delivery date and painting efficiency, the software will recommend the exact sequencing on which the cars can be painted. Similarly, this system has revamped information system of every department. Now each department can collect the required information from central server making their information need much more easier.

Hence proper planning and addressing of the above factors contributed to effective implementation of DSS system.

Chapter 9: Achieving Operational Excellence and Customer Intimacy: Enterprise Applications

Qustion? 

WHAT IS Enterprise systems, or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems?    

ES OR ERP integrate the key internal business processes of a firm into a single software system so that information flows seamlessly throughout the organization, improving coordination, efficiency, and decision making.

Enterprise systems aim to correct the problem of firms not having integrated information. Also known as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, their main goal is to bridge the communication gap among all departments and all information users within a company. If production enters information about its processes, the data are available to accounting, sales, and human resources. If sales and marketing is planning a new advertising campaign, anyone anywhere within the organization will have access to that information. Enterprise systems truly allow a company to use information as a vital resource and enhance the bottom line.

Enterprise software allows every functional area to share every process and every piece of data. A business can select specific processes in specific areas but eventually everything the company does will be shared across all lines. The software uses predefined processes and requires the company to adapt itself to the software. While many companies may balk at having to change, the software is designed around the best practices for that particular function. The company can benefit from using the most successful solutions in a particular industry to help achieve its objectives.

BACK TO ENTERPRISE SYSTEM OR ERP..

Q? HOW DO YOU RELATE ERP TO CRM & SCM?

Pengurusan rantaian bekalan (SCM) adalah pengawasan bahan, maklumat, dan kewangan kerana mereka bergerak dalam proses dari pembekal kepada pengilang kepada pemborong kepada peruncit kepada pengguna. Pengurusan rantaian bekalan melibatkan menyelaras dan mengintegrasikan aliran ini di dalam dan di antara syarikat-syarikat. Dikatakan bahawa matlamat utama mana-mana berkesan sistem pengurusan rantaian bekalan adalah untuk mengurangkan inventori (dengan andaian bahawa produk boleh didapati apabila diperlukan)

 

CRM adalah singkatan untuk pengurusan perhubungan pelanggan dan merupakan frasa yang digunakan untuk menggambarkan semua aspek interaksi yang syarikat mempunyai dengan pelanggan, sama ada jualan atau perkhidmatan yang berkaitan. Ia adalah satu strategi perniagaan yang membantu perniagaan anda untuk lebih memahami pelanggan anda, mengekalkan pelanggan, menyediakan perkhidmatan pelanggan yang cemerlang, memenangi pelanggan baru dan meningkatkan menguntungkan. Banyak aspek CRM banyak bergantung kepada teknologi. Perisian CRM akan mengumpul, mengurus dan pautan maklumat mengenai pelanggan. Anda boleh menggunakan perisian CRM untuk membuat kempen pemasaran, melihat keseluruhan pelanggan sejarah interaksi dengan perniagaan anda dan menggunakannya untuk menyelaraskan perniagaan dan jualan tugas harian.

BINCANG INTERACTIVE SESSION: TECHNOLOGY PAGES  370-371

Q1? HOW DOES KNOWLEDGE  ON CUSTOMERS IMPACT IHOP PERFORMANCE

Q2?  WHY DID IHOP HAVE TROUBLE GETTING TO KNOW THEIR CUSTOMERS?

IHOP focus on coordinating the business process surrounding a firm’s interactions with its customers in sales and marketing .This is by using the IHOP’s Oracle Customer Data Hub whereby data flows from one department to the other without any paper being generated.Oracle Teleservice also assisting IHOP to increase customer satisfaction while reducing service costs

Q? WHAT IS Supply chain management?

Refers to the coordination of activities and involved in making and moving a product. The supply chain is the network of businesses and business processes involved the creation and selling of a product, from suppliers that procure raw materials through retail outlets and customers.

The upstream portion of the supply chain includes the organization's suppliers and the processes for managing relationships with them.

The downstream portion consists of the organizations and processes for distributing and delivering products to the final customers. The manufacturer also has internal supply chain processes for transforming the materials and services furnished by suppliers into finished goods and for managing materials and inventory.

INTERATVE SESSION : ORGANIZATION =>PAGE 300-301

WAL-MART GRAPPLES WITH RFID
REFER => PAGE 300-301

1. HOW IS RFID TECHNOLOGY RELATED TO WAL MART BUSINESS MODEL?HOW DOES IT BENEFIT SUPPLIERS?

Wal-Mart has required its top suppliers to use passive RFID tags on cases and pallets shipped to its stores to help it track and record information flow.  Suppliers have been proceeding slowly because of difficulties in RFID implementation.

 
2. WHAT MANAGEMENT + ORGANIZATION + TECHNOLOGY FACTOR FOR WAL-WAR SUPPLIER TO USE RFID.

Wal-Mart is the largest retailer on Earth. Their business model is centered on using a low-cost leadership strategy in order to achieve the lowest operational costs and services at a lower price than competitors while enhancing quality and level of service. Wal-Mart have been able to follow their strategy of keeping prices low and shelves well stocked by using a legendary inventory replenishment system (Real Link). Through Real Link, Wal-Mart’s has a continuous replenishment system that sends orders for new merchandise directly to suppliers as soon as customers pay for their purchases at the cash register. At Wal-Mart’s headquarters, the central computer collects the orders from all Wal-Mart stores and transmits them to suppliers. The objective was to reduce out-of-stock items by tracking item location more precisely as they moved from the receiving dock to store shelves.Suppliers can also access Wal-Mart’s sales and inventory data using Web technology.  

Wal-Mart wanted suppliers to use of RFID technology in order to assist the suppliers in shipping products more accurately and faster. RFID technology offers other benefits to suppliers. RFID technology is tied directly to Wal-Mart’s Real Link system. As soon as a customer purchases an item at a Wal-Mart store, the supplier monitoring the item knows to ship a replacement to the shelf. Suppliers are able to obtain real-time access to customer demand, track shipments, and improve inventory control. Using these technologies, suppliers are better informed of product demand, and given this information they can use it to predict their own manufacturing, production, and shipping logistics.

3.WHAT WOULD MAKE ADOPTING RFID MORE FAVORABLE FOR SUPPLIERS? CONDITION TO USE RFID.

 Not all suppliers could comply with Wal-Mart’s demand for attaching RFID tags to all of their products. Only a limited number of suppliers could afford to make the major technology and business process changes required to integrate RFID into their IT infrastructure and information systems. RFID technology is still viewed as being in its infancy and the benefits are not fully understood or even measurable. On top of that, this technology is still very expensive and pricing of the tags themselves make it impossible for the majority of suppliers to do it. 

Wal-Mart must assist suppliers in making the required changes to their systems so that the can actually use the data generated by RFID to track their product movement and inventory. Through education, the suppliers would be better equipped to understand how they can benefit from RFID.

4.SHOULD WAL-MART REQUIRE ALL ITS SUPPLIERS TO USE RFID?WHY OR WHY NOT? EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWER.

In February, 2005 Wal-Mart ordered its top suppliers to place RFID tags on all products shipped to specific distribution centers. The objective was to reduce out-of-stock items by tracking item location more precisely as they moved from the receiving dock to store shelves. The information captured through the use of RFID tags would held Wal-Mart reduce out-of-stock items, increase sales, and further reduce its costs. However, suppliers are not totally convinced of the benefits that they would reap from such an expensive undertaking. 

Wal-Mart has the power to exercise muscle in the supply chain. However, Wal-Mart must streamline their demands in requiring suppliers to attach RFID tags to all items. From the supplier side, this top-down mandate from Wal-Mart was simply not economically feasible. The technology itself is still very expensive and suppliers simply could not state a good business case to support such expenditures.

Major retailing and manufacturing companies will no doubt switch to RFID technology as its costs fall, and its applications increase. Whether or not all major retailing and manufacturing companies should switch to RFID is a matter of choice. They will no doubt go this way in the near future. By doing so, they will increase operational efficiencies, increase profits margins, and gain a competitive advantage by lowering overall costs to consumers.

INTERESTIVE SESSION PAGE 246-250 MIS@UCB

MANAGEMENT : DATA QUALITY
Refer Pages ( 249-250 )

What are the problem?
company? BT Group
Problem? data quality => poor product invebtory data + customer billing errors
impact hindering interaction with customer & supplier

Problems with management?.
Emerson all names are written the same way for all regions & the gives poor data.
BT Group: spend time & effort to correct data.

Organization?
Marketing department

Technology?
BT: Product inventory.
Ermerson: Data warehouse
Cintas:multiple database
BoA: Centralized data warehouse

2. What are prosed solutions?
3. What improvements are achieved
4. MIS issues?
=myms=

Assalamualaikum...

CASE STUDY

UPS COMPETES GLOBALLY WITH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY.

What are the inputs processing and outputs of ups’s package tracking system?

Using a handheld computer (DIAD ), UPS drivers automatically

capture customers’signatures along with pickup, delivery, and time-card information. The drivers then place the DIAD into their truck’s vehicle adapter, an information-transmitting device that is connected to the cellular telephone network. Package tracking information is then transmitted to UPS’s computer network for storage and processing in UPS’s main computers in Mahwah, New Jersey, and Alpharetta, Georgia. 

From there, the information can be accessed worldwide to provide proof of delivery to the customer or to respond to customer queries.(as inputs) Through its automated package tracking system, UPS can monitor packages throughout the delivery process. At various points along the route from sender to receiver, a bar code device scans shipping

information on the package label; the information is then fed into the central computer. The people who are shipping packages can access the UPS website to track packages, check delivery roots, calculate shipping rates, determine time in transit and schedule a pick up. Businesses can use the website to arrange UPS shipments and for billing the accounts.

Inputs: The inputs include package information, customer signature, pickup, delivery, time-card data, current location (while en route), and billing and customer clearance documentation. 

Processing: The data are transmitted to a central computer and stored for retrieval. Data are also reorganized so that they can be tracked by customer account, date, driver, and other criteria such as the consolidation of orders for efficient final delivery of packages.

Outputs: The outputs include pickup and delivery times, location while en route, and package recipient. The outputs also include various reports, such as all packages for a specific account or a specific driver or route, as well as summary reports for management.

What technologies are used by UPS? How are these technologies

related to UPS`s business strategy?

Since 1985 UPS began to improve their data networking applications. They built up their IT network and database in order to collect and track over 200 data elements for every single package. Through UPS.com new UPS could also serve new B2B companies to use their tracking system with only a link. UPS also offers a set of transportation APIs called the UPS Online Tools that allow businesses to integrate tracking, rating, address validation and other important jobs.

What problems do UPS`s information systems solve? What would happen if         these systems were not available

Individuals Customers

1.    Easy Access to Shipping and Tracking

2.    Everything You Need to Ship and Track, Online

3.    Receive Packages Your Way

4.    Access UPS When and Where You Need To

5.    Get Your UPS Bill Faster

6.    Returns Made Simple

Business Clients

1.   Save Time and Money

2.   Manage Shipping Online

3.   Receive Packages At Your Convenience

4.   Access UPS Where and When You Need To

5.   Get Paid Faster

6.   View and Pay Your Invoice

7.   Excess resources like call center and others.

Shipping and Receiving Managers

1.    Leverage UPS Technology to Manage Shipping and Returns

2.    Take Control of Your Receiving Process

3.    Access UPS When and Where You Need To

4.    Receive Your Invoice Electronically From UPS