Information technology and company development
Journal Autobusiness - Modern Dealer 3/2008
Many businessmen from the car sale, repair or trade in spare parts certainly thought about how to support the development of company, improve its position against competitors or become the leader in the segment. Similar examples and challenges like these wait for every capable person. There is a need to meet a lot of assumptions, often in combination with a good deal of luck to be successful. What should be the common denominator is the right vision and choice of route, how to get to the desired point. In this article I will not deal with technical analysis and psychological skills, which are certainly necessary to achieve the objective. I would like to focus on one of the parts, without which it is very difficult to achieve the goals nowadays. As the title of the article suggests, it is information technology. In today's world, there is hardly any place where you did not come across them. You experience information technology around us.
In business, information technologies play a greater role than at first glance may seem. Support of growth of the company is simply impossible without information technologies. Do not be fooled by combining the words "growth of companies". It is not only the growth and expansion of the company in terms of expanding product range, sale of new brands, or offer new services. It is also about growth and expansion especially in the quality of provided services at all levels.
Invest with care
One of the false stereotypes is also buying the latest information technology sub-components unrelated to the others already taken or planned information technologies. This trend can be motivated by finances (bargain) or a good effort to be so-called technologically better. Mostly, this does not meet success, because usually significant and fundamental aspect is ignored, namely the integration of various components of information technology. As the vision must be accommodated conceptually there is a need to put equal emphasis on the concept of integration of information technologies.
What can you imagine under the concept of integration and how can they help the quantitative or qualitative expansion? As mentioned above, information technologies surround us at every turn. In the case of companies from automotive sphere you will certainly think of DMS (dealer management system) as a significant element, mobile phone, a database of customers and potential customers, text editor, email client, etc. All these are examples of particular sub-components of information technologies. At first glance it may appear that they are different types of often unrelated technologies. However, all are daily used in a production process. Integration can link up these technologies and eliminate problems that unfortunately also commonly occur.
One of the false stereotypes is also buying the latest information technology sub-components unrelated to the others already taken or planned information technologies. This trend can be motivated by finances (bargain) or a good effort to be so-called technologically better. Mostly, this does not meet success, because usually significant and fundamental aspect is ignored, namely the integration of various components of information technology. As the vision must be accommodated conceptually there is a need to put equal emphasis on the concept of integration of information technologies.
What can you imagine under the concept of integration and how can they help the quantitative or qualitative expansion? As mentioned above, information technologies surround us at every turn. In the case of companies from automotive sphere you will certainly think of DMS (dealer management system) as a significant element, mobile phone, a database of customers and potential customers, text editor, email client, etc. All these are examples of particular sub-components of information technologies. At first glance it may appear that they are different types of often unrelated technologies. However, all are daily used in a production process. Integration can link up these technologies and eliminate problems that unfortunately also commonly occur.
Details linked into a whole
Let us consider the following example affecting the entire sales process of communication with customer (phone), record the sales offer (DMS - Dealer management system), sending to the customer (electronic document), verification of offers (phone), order and its execution (DMS - Dealer Management System) processing of financial transaction (accounts), after-sales communication with customers (phone). As the very simple example shows, relatively large number of information technologies has been used during realization. In case that particular parts are not integrated with each other it can lead to different types of problems, from minor (time delay in transmitting data from DMS in the accounts) to very severe (forgetting to contact potential customers after sending offer).
In the case of integration of information technologies, which I will try to explain in the example of Microsoft technologies, we should avoid above mentioned problems. At least from a technical point of view, because of course the human factor can never be neglected. In the case of integration of Microsoft Information Technologies it is necessary to recognize especially the coverage that Microsoft technologies provide. From information systems for personal computers and servers (Microsoft Windows), through information systems (Microsoft Dynamics NAV) and integrated DMS solutions (ABS - Automotive Business Solutions for Microsoft Dynamics NAV) to the e-mail (Microsoft Exchange) and mobile phones (Microsoft Windows Mobile).
Now the company has been working for a long time on the connections of different products from its offer and the idea of integration is a priority. In our example, there should therefore happen from the technological point of view that some of the information we release or not processed on time.
Long-term contribution
From the perspective of an information system, which is usually considered to be the "heart" of information technologies in the company it is the support of expansion that Microsoft products can offer particularly from the view of data sharing, avoid duplication of input into the system, communication with daily used by office applications (Word, Excel, Outlook), linking particular automotive agendas with accounts (ABS with Microsoft Dynamics NAV), etc.
Therefore, when considering the expansion in terms of either qualitative or quantitative do not forget to include a part of the information technologies and their mutual integration in your vision and overall concept. Although this integration may at first glance seem very expensive, its contributions from a long-term concept for expansion are very fundamental. Remember that the return of appropriate investment in information technologies and in particular their integration is very fast as well as the positive effect of expansion support, which the investment will bring with itself.
Therefore, when considering the expansion in terms of either qualitative or quantitative do not forget to include a part of the information technologies and their mutual integration in your vision and overall concept. Although this integration may at first glance seem very expensive, its contributions from a long-term concept for expansion are very fundamental. Remember that the return of appropriate investment in information technologies and in particular their integration is very fast as well as the positive effect of expansion support, which the investment will bring with itself.
