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Consequent organization of management It is no doubt that you have often asked yourselves why you need automation and how you should properly choose and introduce information control system. An effective use of the Internet is one of the most important factors in our business. So, several question have appeared. How can we use it safely running no risk of losing the important information? Is it necessary to automate all company's activities including the work of a yard keeper? How we can possibly estimate the effect of the implemented automation system? And is it possible to save money on computers, computer networks, software and programmers. In order to answer these and many other questions, which can appear during our work, let us turn to a detailed diagram of activities' circulation described in section "Problems, aims and tasks in business".
So, first of all we should be aware of the problem and decide what we would like to automate and what are our reasons for it. This stage may allow to refuse some aspects of creating information control system and, consequently, to save money. I mean that it is very important to have a clear idea of the results we would like to get. I doubt we need to create the control system if the only thing we do not accept is the work of our cleaner. A simple solution is to hire another cleaner. Then we have to define our aims. For example, we do not simply want to increase efficiency of our production by the introduction of better accounting; we would also like to increase it by 20 percent. Here we deal with economy again. So, let us compare the amount of money we should pay to achieve this aim and the proposed increase of income due to the introduction of the new system. It can appear not worth of trouble. At the same time, our aim to achieve higher indexes can appear unreal if judging by average indices for the whole sector.  Well, imagine that our aim is worth bothering and we should set certain tasks. We should determine whether the system can be developed by our own programming department or we should employ someone else or just buy a completely ready system. Answering this question is a task itself (sometimes it can even be the most important one, as the results we will obtain in the future depend also on the correct answer to this question). I will not go into details describing the further steps, as they depend mostly on business specifics, company's size and many other factors. It is important that at this stage we have determined the tasks and distributed their performance in the hierarchy of our company.
Finally we have managed our tasks and got first results - a kind of an automatic system of management. Now it is possible to estimate the cost of the system and whether the latter meets all our requirements. It is most likely that the accepted solution will not completely satisfy us, and we will have to analyze our actions in order to find all possible mistakes and inaccuracies. Maybe we have failed to consider some factors. In a classic scheme we will face new problems at the analysis stage. So, the circle seems to be isolated. However, I would not advise you to hasten things.
In order to avoid further mistakes we should derive certain regularities from all the right and wrong things we have done. It is an important step in our business organization, as here we understand what mistakes we make and in what situations they occur. Now we can consider the circle isolated. We face new problems, new solutions and new results. The obtained results may seem to quite satisfy us and to require no further changes. However, it is just an illusion. Time changes everything, and you may face problems from the outside of your company. For example, a perfectly developed automatic accounting system can appear unable to adapt to certain changes in the accounting laws. You can naturally use flexible module systems (ERP). However, their purchase and operation costs greatly surpass the cost of conservative solutions. I mean that it is no use trying to create modern and complicated management systems for a small company with few trade transactions. I would like to mention that technical progress should be taken into consideration along with our own preferences. Let me draw organization of work at a large warehouse as a simple example. You can set a lot of computers and make the warehouse staff to perform corresponding transactions for each purchase. Just imagine them all coming up to the clients, running up to their computers, selling goods, running to their machines again, performing transactions... Another solution is possible - you can provide the warehouse staff with notebooks, however the latter are too expensive and, besides, hanging on one's neck they may cause discomfort due to their size and weight. Or even worse, a warehouse staff member can put his notebook aside while selling goods and his computer may get stolen. However, we have one more possible solution - to use PDA, which may be either black and white or colored and should have Wi-Fi or some similar technology (GPRS+WAP). This solution is better than all those listed above. Besides, I have one more reason for mentioning this solution. I mean that while developing automatic management system it is important to apply the sufficiency principle instead of following the following: "let us install all software available - just for the case when we may need it". Is it necessary to pay more for licenses and provoke the avalanche of the users' questions? Just try to explain it to yourself, why MS Access is installed on your secretary's computer and whether she uses it. All the reasonings given above can be applied for any affairs as well as for creating informational management systems. I would like to explain that I have chosen informatics just because it is closer to me like my shirt being closer to my body. I mean the use of ideas described in my publications for my professional interests. Actually I have an experience of applying all the described methods. However, it has not always been successful due to: haste of the russian business, unstable economic environment, short-minded owners of companies (who left a butcher's outlet just a minute ago), as well as higher expectations, etc. But the most important thing I would like to tell you is that my 10-years experience in the field of information technologies shows that the approach to business automation has proved to be completely justified (even though sometimes it brought negative results). And I hope it will prove justified ever after. | |||||||
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