Business Information Systems (tesco's data processing and networks) Essay

Business Information Systems (tesco's data processing and networks) - Essay Example Tesco’s information systems can be studied from different angles. We shall focus on studying them from the functionality aspect. Let us analyze one of the critical components of Tesco’s Information Systems, the Supply Chain Management System. Tesco is well known for its best practices in Supply Chain Management, which includes â€Å"lean management† and using RFID technology. The key strategy behind maintaining advantage over its competitors has been innovation in the supply chain. Tesco has aimed to innovate at each point of its supply chain. This includes point of sales management, continuous replenishment system, cross dock distribution centers and use of a single vehicle to distribute to several stores (ICMR n.d.). The Continuous replenishment system is a key component in Tesco’s Supply Chain system. The application monitors and controls the inventory in real time at all stores. This provides with real time data to analyze and take important decisions. This modernized application is of unique type and has been deployed in all of Tesco’s data centers across the world. Having a common operating model across all centers around the world, Tesco saves a lot of cost in deployment and maintenance of systems. A company called Micro Focus modernized and extended Tesco’s Continuous Replenishment (CR) application to operate on the latest IBM System p servers and AIX Unix (Computing 2007). MIS system at Tesco is another component of the overall information system of Tesco. After achieving massive growth and expansion, Tesco came up with the idea of developing a single Management Information System (MIS) to fulfill both local and global data reporting requirements. The aim of the MIS is to spread out the key practices and performance indicators at all locations and provide business insight at each store irrespective of the size or maturity of