Eglo Pakistan Pvt Ltd

EGLO Pakistan Pvt Ltd is a subsidiary of the European company EGLO LEUCHTEN GmbH. EGLO LEUCHTEN GmbH (in Austria) formed a joint venture with an individual, Iqbal Rajabali (in Karachi, Pakistan) and incorporated Eglo Pakistan Pvt Ltd in June 2008. This organization is introducing European decorative lighting in Pakistan. In November 2010, Iqbal Rajabali and Taha Iqbal established a branch in Islamabad and have started their dealership in Lahore. Eglo Pakistan’s main target is to grow and spread EGLO products in Pakistan. Their basic activities are retail and wholesale of lights. The main dealings taking place at Eglo are Sales, Purchase, keeping track of the Inventory and managing the Finance.

Each business has its own separate dealings and requirements. Living in the world today, everything has become computerized and businesses now have all their operations automated due to several reasons. This is when businesses require software for their company specific to their operations.

Eglo’s application software is known as ‘GL Sales and Purchase.’ It is kept in the name because the software is doing basic accounting of the business and Sales and Purchase because Eglos’s main activities are to do with sales and purchase. It is designed by Eglo’s in-house programmer Mr. Tasleesm Ahmad, who is also the administrator of the software. GL Sales and Purchase has options required by the business, which is why it is very specific. The front end in what the employees use simply to add data of transactions or edit and delete. The back-end tool is where the database is generated and the reporting takes place which employees usually do not access unless required.

As Eglo has a lot of records, it needs a database to keep all its records in one place safe. SQL Server is used as a database tool for GL Sales and Purchase. The database is emailed daily to Eglo’s email id for backup purpose of its records. The security of the software is such that employees have their own username and password and can only access those areas which they are assigned. For example the finance department will login through his username and password and will only be able to access data related to his are of work. This way each employee is responsible for actions undergone in his department.

The advantages of the software are that this software helps in keeping records. It operates like book keeping, you just put in the purchases and sales and it keeps track of the inventory. This software is easy to use and user friendly. It’s not complicated like other software’s. This software helps in reporting each and every transaction. For example what is being purchased, by whom is it being purchased, if it’s on cash or credit, after the sales how much stock is left, how much needs to be ordered, etc. it gives a collective report on everything. This software will help in decision making as it will automatically generate reports and the summaries would be in front of the executives of this company. That would help them determine what needs to be ordered more, which lights have the most sales and which should not be imported. The setbacks are that this application software is limited to desktop only and it cannot be used on smart phones or PDAs. Additional software is required to run this software. It takes up a lot of space on the hard disk.

All in all this Management Information System has helped the company not only record the purchase and sales in the company but it is a mean of decision making. It specifies the number of stock in the inventory. It does all the general accounting functions for example which customer bought the lights on credit and which customer has paid off the bill. Eglo’s software takes care of the payment methods though cash or cheques. This software has a few limitations but its strengths overtrump the weaknesses. Over all the software is relevant to this company’s current requirement and serves the purpose for TPS, OAS and DSS.

Almurtaza Machinery Company (Pvt) Limited

Almurtaza Machinery (Pvt.) Limited is a small business organization, it has four branches across Pakistan and it needed software which would help its employees manage different aspects of the business. Almurtaza is involved in apparel, embroidery and textiles. Hence, Almurtaza decided to employ Alrashid Microcomputers (Pvt.) Limited to do the basic development of the application software. After the basic development, Mr. Arfan Ali Rashid continued to add onto the system and now, finally, the management information system is complete.

Almurtaza needed and inventory control system which would have different modules, inventory and accounting. These modules are interlinked with each other. When a business wants to sell a product, they put in the amount of that particular product they want to sell into the software input screen. The software will check if this product is available or not; if available, an invoice will be made and the Billing System linked to the Inventory Control System through the Accounting module will decrease the business’s inventory. It will then check if the customer is a regular customer or not and if the customer is regular then the order for the product will go into his ID and payment will be made. If the customer is not regular then an ID will be created for him automatically for future reference of the business. In this way the Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable is controlled and monitored.

The back end of the software was developed in the Oracle RDBMS (Relational Data Base Management System) Database. This gives it the added feature of a single database being spread across several tables. The reporting screen was developed using Oracle Reports, a tool used for developing reports against data stored in an Oracle database. The front end of the software, the screen software was Visual Basic 6 and was used to develop some of the screens. The system requirements for this software are; a large hard disk, because the business will have a lot of records to keep of transactions over the years and a powerful operating system.

The system is very detailed and each entry in controlled tightly. It is fast and efficient because the data is timely and the management team can pull a report instantly see how many units are on the floor, how many have been sold and which products are selling the fastest. There is automatic generation of accounting documents like invoices, cheques and statement of account, also all data is automatically posted to various ledgers/accounts. A computerized inventory system helps management control the inventories, in turn lowering overall operating costs in different areas such as labor and it also improves customer service. This system is relatively cheaper than maintaining a manual inventory control system, allows greater efficiency and storage capacity efficiency. A computerized system’s hard drive will take up a relatively small amount of space and can store a large collection of business or personal documents. In contrast, a paper based system would talk up at least one, and usually more, considering also how long Almurtaza has been in business, file cabinets for storage of the same document collection.

PANORAMA: A SPECIALIZED ERP FIRM

Before talking about Panorama Consulting Solutions I would like to give a brief definition about ERP. ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning, which is business management application that permits firms to use an inter connected network/system to manage the business activities. It connects all the facets of a work, which includes development, manufacturing, sales and marketing.

Panorama is a consulting firm specializing in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) and IT market for mid to large sized companies across the globe.  IT helps business to evaluate and choose ERP application, manages operation of the application and facilitates all related firm changes to make sure every customer knows the all the benefits of their ERP implementation. It also offers IT strategy ERP staffing and expert advice services. This firm also provides input and leadership proven techniques to minimize IT projects risks and accelerate the success and value of the ERP goals. It means a lot to those organizations that tries to find out how to gain maximum returns from the present one. 

This ERP monitors how the collection of information that is being share and used. One key benefits of using this is increment in amount, type and accuracy of data. Out of loop data means that key metrics are missing that engage clients and create sales. Also the ERP not only focuses on existing consumers but also on potential ones as well. 

ERP system usage should be transformed into a key distinguisher as market like to know how businesses stand out from the rest. ERP system can be used in such a way that it increases efficiency and smooth operations.

Panorama’s customers include Microsoft, who purchased the OLAP technology which they used in making SQL server. Now SQL is used mostly in saving database management system.

One of the clients of Panorama Consulting Solutions “Starz Entertainment” believes that they were well underway with this process to the point of reviewing vendor proposals. Panorama was asked to review documentation describing their business processes, checking the RFP responses for accuracy and truthfulness, and use that knowledge and contacts to provide a detailed analysis and recommendation, so Panorama did well as it can quickly adapt to their requests and provide a quality product on time. Panorama sends a number of people in Starz Entertainment project, analyzed their documentation, learned business processes, and provided them a comprehensive analysis and recommendation for the ERP system that we ultimately selected. In short their analysis of the implementers was also on time and on target.
Another client Memory Supplier says that Panorama consultants traveled to their site several times and conducted sessions with their team to ensure they captured all of their key requirements. In addition, Panorama facilitated workshops that enabled them to define and optimize their business processes to align with their company goals and position us for future growth. Through business process management, they were able to provide desired processes to the software vendor. This enabled them to mitigate the risks and reduced overall expense by practicing their software solution 20 percent faster than anticipated. Here is another client Cold Water creek who has been working with Panorama since many years. This company made help them by training consultants. Later onward Cold Water hired them to train and the lead the organizational change. Another Client United Electric Controls is satisfied with the methodology of Panorama consultants. The experience of Panorama helped them to select system process plan for the company. Panorama’s impressed them with the flexibility in adapting to UE’s specific needs and occasional variations in project pacing.

INTEGRATED FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM (IFMIS)

Integrated financial management information system (IFMIS), is an information system that tracks financial events and summarizes financial information. In its basic form, an IFMIS is little more than an accounting system configured to operate according to the needs and specifications of the environment in which it is installed.

An IFMIS stores, organizes and makes access to financial information easy. It not only stores all the

financial information relating to current and past years’ spending, but also stores the approved budgets for these years, details on inflows and outflows of funds, as well as complete inventories of financial assets (e.g., equipment, land and buildings) and liabilities (debt). The scale and scope of an IFMIS can vary, from simple General Ledger System to a comprehensive system addressing Budget, Revenue, Expenditure Control, Debt, Resource Management, Human Resources, Payroll, Accounting, Financial Reporting, and Auditing processes across central government or even including local government and other public sector and quasi-governmental agencies and operations.

There is broad agreement that a fully functioning IFMIS can improve governance by providing real-time financial information that financial and other managers can use to administer programs effectively, formulate budgets, and manage resources. Sound IFMIS systems, coupled with the adoption of centralized treasury operations, can not only help developing country governments gain effective control over their finances, but also enhance transparency and accountability, reducing political discretion and acting as a deterrent to corruption and fraud.

IFMIS implementation requires patience. The full project life cycle—from definition of objectives, to system specifications, to system procurement, configuration, testing, and rollout—can easily take seven to ten years, or longer, to complete. This type of time horizon is usually well beyond the attention span of donors, which is why it is advisable to divide IFMIS implementation into clearly defined stages with clear objectives and milestones. As each stage is completed, stakeholders should carefully assess project progress and ensure that the system underdevelopment still meets the needs of the government, and that government commitment to the IFMIS is still there. The ultimate goal should be to put in place sound systems that are well understood and embraced by counterparts and in the end will be self-sustaining. 

 MIS in Wal-Mart

The remarkable growth of Wal-Mart is mainly due to two reasons; continuous focus on customer needs and low cost leader ship that is maintained through efficient supply chain management. In 1991 Wal-Mart invested 4 billion $ in order to build a retail link system in which they connected 10000 Wal-Mart retail suppliers that helped all the suppliers to watch their respective inventory level so that they have enough idea that at what time or day they have to supply the product. This whole process was a two way process suppliers and Wal-Mart both were connected. Suppliers now have a good idea about their respective product that that how well their product is competing against competitors. 

After few years this system was made stronger in a way that it was linked with internet-enabled SCM system that include many things apart from inventory management, like it covered forecasting, replenishment, planning etc. More over forecasting proved to be effective like for some products they can forecast the demand which helped them to reduce inventory storage costs as a result they were able to meet the low cost leadership. This forecasting system used CPFR which is defined as business practice for business partners to share forecasts and results data through the Internet, in order to reduce inventory costs while at the same time, enhancing product availability across the supply chain.

Cognos 10

Boeing is dealing in a complex business ranging from space products to airplanes. To support their analysts Boeing is using cognos 10. Previously the financial analysts of Boeing used to take weeks and even a month to gather critical management information in order to make timely decisions but after using IBM cogno 10 it takes few minutes to come up with a decision. Basically in this cognos develop dashboards and other analytical data for them which resulted in effective decision making. Their military customer used to pressurize them to do things better, cheaper, smarter and faster. This system helped them to increase productivity.

Moreover this helped them in savings also in a way that their payback increased to 10 times which means that for every one dollar they spent they will get 10 dollars in return. Apart from that it also provides different types of charts according to the data. We simply need to enter or we have to insert data and then cognos will create charts of that data. It also makes different kinds of graph as well as 3D images that are helpful in analyzing the company’s performance. This whole program is centralized so every employee related to decision making can use this.