CIS5200 : Kahuna Cleaning Supply - Organizational Model - Julia and Robert - Assessment Answer

Kahuna Cleaning Supply Assignment

Case Scenario

Kahuna Cleaning Supply is a family-run business based in New Haven, Connecticut that specializes in commercial cleaning supplies and business support products for commercial, industrial, and institutional clients. Only a few computerized operations are in the business. In an effort to become more efficient and profitable, the vice president, Julia Thompson, has hired a systems analyst, Robert Hanover.

Background

Julia and Robert have made progress in the development of a strategic plan for Kahuna Cleaning Supply. Robert is anxious to define the requirements for the new system. He has gathered more information and has created the following organization chart for Kahuna Cleaning Supply.

Robert: Julia, it’s time to start moving on the system investigation. The mission statement is finalized and strategic planning is well underway. I can see that the directors are beginning to think about how their departments can benefit from better information management.

• Charles Edwards President
• Julia Edwards Vice President
• Andrew McClean Director of Sales
• Anna McNally Director of Finance
• Martha Seymour Director of Operations
• Dennis Martin Shipping/Receiving Manager
• George Thompson Warehouse Manager
• Accounting/Billing Clerk (2) Sales Rep (6)
• Customer Service Rep (3)

Julia: You’re right! Andrew McClean found out that we lost a big order the other day because the customer was able to get the estimate much more quickly from a company in the Midwest because of their online presence. He’s wondering just how many sales we are losing because of timeliness issues. I had Anna’s group gather numbers for the directors about how many times our profit margin has been reduced because of human error somewhere along the order process. We are profitable, but could be more so by reducing error and becoming more competitive with timely information to our potential customers.

Robert: Andrew’s area of sales is a logical place to start the investigation. I need to interview sales and customer service representatives to get an idea of the requirements for the new information system. What kind of information will we include? What do we want to get out? What processes need to be managed? What are our business needs?

Julia: This will take some time, and a lot of information needs to be gathered. You should make sure you spend some time with the accounting clerks too, because they fill in for customer service representatives.

Assignment Task

Tasks 1 :Develop a fact-finding plan including interviews, documentation review, observation, questionnaires, sampling, and research (

Tasks 2: Review the organizational model above and list the individuals you would like to interview. Prepare a list of objectives for each of the interviews you will conduct

Tasks 3: Prepare a list of specific questions for each individual you will interview

Tasks 4: Design a questionnaire that will go to a sample of Kahuna Cleaning Supply customers to find out if they were satisfied with the sales and ordering process. Your questionnaire should follow the suggestions in this chapter. Also, decide what sampling method you will use and explain the reason for your choice

Introduction

The fact finding plan enables the investigator to gather as much meaningful information as possible during data collection (Claessens et al., 2012). Therefore a well stratified protocol is necessary so that important information is not left out or duplicated. In this case, questionnaires, group discussions, surveys and sampling are the most common tools of information gathering. To begin with, the interviewer should create a friendly environment (Juneja et al., 2012). On the other hand, the importance of sampling through surveys is to determine the position of a certain attribute in the population. Thus the quality of the data depends on the correctness of the observed data (Dinh et al., 2013).

Kukunazi a famous restaurant in Naiga city hotel and outside catering for functions. Recently, the company recorded lower profits as a result of poor hygiene. This was after many people complained of stomach discomforts after eating meals from this hotel. This prompted the company to hire a specialist to investigate on the sources and solutions to this problem.

I would interview the sales representatives, director, finance and the manager. Sales representatives advertise the facility to the outside world and maintain a good reputation for the company. Director finance should oversee the cash flow daily so as to determine whether the company is making profits or losses. The overall manager accesses the general progress of the company. It this case, the tree should be responsible for the poor performance of the company.

Objectives of the manager:

To determine the overall performance of the facility for the last one year.

To find out the plans that are underway to make the facility outstanding in terms of satisfying service delivery.

Objectives of the director, finance:

To determine the financial trends of the company for the last one year.

To know the causes of low profits realized in the business.

Objectives of the sales representatives:

To determine the customer reactions to the facility’s products and services.

To determine the causes of low customer order bookings for the last one year.

Questions to the manager

How did you react to your employees when the company reported lower customer bookings and visit?

For how long has this facility has been reported of losses?

What plans do you have to revive the company to its normal operations?

Do you think that the current plans will be effective?

Questions to the director finance

What factors might have led to lower profits by the institution?

Have you reported this to your boss?

What actions do you think will be taken to recover the lost money?

Questions to the sales representatives

Has any customer given you any complain regarding our services?

Since when did you notice reduced customer flows?

Did you discuss this issue with the manager?

What were his reactions?

What measures do you think should be adopted to curb these problems?

This will be a targeted sampling method to get information on clients that the company has been doing business with. This way, we will get the first hand information on the quality of our services (Kral et al., 2010)

Questionnaire:

Evaluation of the level of satisfaction

We are a group of the Kahuna cleaning Supply Company and we are in the process of determining the level of your satisfaction towards our service delivery. We also seek to get your views on how best we can improve our services in order to have a smooth running of our relationship. Your views will be part of other 2,000 responses and will not be used for any other purposes, except improvement of our services and establishment of a conducive working environment. Kindly feel free to disclose to us any other information that is necessary for this exercise.

Name of the interviewer:

Date of interview:

Name of the interviewee age: sex:

Date: date of birth:

Country:

Do you do business with us? (Tick as appropriate)

Yes no

2. What methods do you use to make orders with us?
3. Are our prices friendlier than for other service providers?
4. For how long have you been doing business with us?
5. What products do you frequently buy from us?
6. When was the last time you purchased from our company?
7. What is your reaction towards our service delivery?
8. How do our sales representatives display our products?

Well very well poor very poor

How prompt are orders delivered upon demand?

Fast moderate slow very slow slow I don’t know

Would you recommend other clients do business with us?

What are your modes of communication with your cleaning products suppliers? (Tick as appropriate).

Telephone fax email

Which is your most preferred mode of communications with us?

On a scale of 1-3, kindly rate our company:

1. The company is outstanding in terms of quality products.
2. Our customer care services attend to customer’s complaints.

• The ranges of products offered to you are in line with your expectations.

What measures can the company adopt to improve our performance better?

Is there any other information apart from these questions that you think is important?

Rate our company in terms of customer care concerns

10% 30% 50% 70% 100%

If the above concerns are attended to, would continue doing business with us?

Yes-no

Thank you for your time spent with us. We look forward to continued cooperation with you.

In conclusion, businesses need to adapt to the prevailing technological advances that in turn customer confidence. Many clients nowadays can make orders a phone call away, thus saving time and resource wastage. Embracing technology advancement is also a fast method of marketing practices that in turn lead to increased sales volume, more customers and enhanced profits.