Assessment 2: Case Study
Due date: Session 12
Group/individual: Individual
Word count / Time provided: 2500 Words
Weighting: 30%
Unit Learning Outcomes: ULO3, ULO4, ULO5
Assessment Details:
The case study will assess your knowledge of key content areas in information systems using real world case. For successful completion of the case study, you are required to study the material provided (lecture slides, tutorials, and reading materials), engage in the unit’s activities, and the discussion forums). The prescribed textbook is the main reference along with the recommended reading material. By completing this assessment successfully, you will be able to identify key aspects of information systems. This will help in achieving ULO3, ULO4, and ULO5.
Case Study- Tate & Lyle Devise a Global IT Strategy
Founded in 1859 in Liverpool as a sugar refiner, today Tate & Lyle is a global provider of specialty food and other ingredients to four markets: food and beverage manufacturers (sweeteners, texturants, and fiber), paper manufacturers (starches), animal feed producers (corn meal), and cosmetic manufacturers (cosmetics and creams). It operates over 30 manufacturing facilities in four regions: the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Throughout its history Tate & Lyle grew through acquisitions of many companies in its operating regions, and in the 1970s began to diversify from the sugar business to more specialized agricultural food products. In 2016 the company had €2.6 billion in sales and €189 million in profits. Tate & Lyle’s 2020 strategic plan is to expand the specialty food segment, broaden the geographic mix of sales to include Asia Pacific and Latin America, and generate over €200 million in sales from new products. As a multinational agribusiness, the firm faces stiff competition from giant global competitors like ConAgra, Archer Daniels Midland, and BASF.
In the process of growing over many decades, Tate & Lyle had gathered a large collection of financial accounting systems across four regions and thirty operating facilities. The accounts produced by all these financial systems were reconciled through manual means, using spreadsheets produced by individual units, telephone calls, paper records, fax, and emails to clarify disparities. Each region had its own manual processes for reconciling accounts. Reconciliation refers to the business processes used by firms to ensure that recorded expenditures and revenues are accurately reflected in cash outflow and income statements. The existing manual system stored records in different locations around the globe, which led to errors and made it difficult to produce monthly and annual financial statements. Senior managers understood that the firm could not achieve its business strategic objectives without a major rethinking of its basic financial accounting systems.
The solution management decided on was to centralize financial accounting at a single location in Lodz, Poland, and to develop an Account Reconciliation and Task Management system. This new system is based on SAP’s ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, which brings together thousands of general ledger accounts and transactions located across the four regions into a single system. SAP’s ERP utilizes their HANA relational database software, which stores and retrieves data, and provides many other enterprise capabilities, including predictive analytics, management dashboards, and text search.
The consulting firm Black Line was hired to implement the new system and coordinate with Tate & Lyle financial groups. Implementing the system required two years of intensive planning and the integration of legacy systems into the new single system. The major requirements for the new system included standardized templates, electronic approval of workflows, an easy-to-use interface so managers could quickly obtain the information they needed, as well as the ability to handle multiple currencies, produce basic reports in a timely fashion, and integrate data in the SAP system with non-SAP accounting systems already in use at the regional level.
Implementing the new system also gave managers the opportunity to revise and simplify business processes based on industry best practices, and to enforce their use across all the four regions. The result is a reconciliation system that is accurate, timely, transparent, and able to produce end-of-day results, report on progress towards month-end closing targets, identify outstanding tasks, and communicate with the teams responsible for completing the tasks.
Source: Laudon, KC, & Laudon, JP 2019, Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm, Global Edition, Pearson Education Limited, Harlow, United Kingdom. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central.
Exercise:
Imagine you work as a consultant for Tate & Lyle. You need to introduce a workflow management system to help improve organisation workflows. In deciding whether this system suit your business needs, you are required to investigate the following through considerable amount of research including literature review and relevant examples.
1. Summarize the case study objectives.
2. What problems did Tate & Lyle new information systems address, and what was the root of those problems? What people, organisation and technology factors contributed to this problem?
3. How did Tate & Lyle’s new systems assist employees in being more productive?
4. What lessons can be learned from this case in terms of managing information through Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)?
5. What is a workflow management system? What benefits and challenges does this system provide to organisations?
6. How does an organization determine when it is worthwhile to invest in a system such as Tate & Lyle’s workflow management system?
7. Identify and discuss the information security systems for protecting business information such as Tate & Lyle?
Marking Information: The case study will be marked out of 100 and will be weighted 40% of the total unit mark.
Marking
Criteria Not satisfactory (049%) of the criterion mark) Satisfactory (5064%) of the criterion mark Good (65-74%) of the criterion mark Very Good (7584%) of the criterion mark Excellent (85-100%) of the criterion mark
Paper Focus:
Purpose/
Position
Statement
(20%) Fails to identify a relevant research topic or is not clearly defined and/or the paper lacks focus throughout. Identifies a research topic but may be too broad in scope and/or the paper is unclear and needs to be developed a lot further. Focal point is not consistently maintained throughout the paper. Identifies a research topic but may be too broad in scope and/or the thesis is somewhat unclear and needs to be developed further. Focal point is somewhat consistently maintained throughout the paper. Identifies a relevant research topic and a thesis that provides adequate direction for the paper with some degree of interest for the reader. The paper states the position, premise, and is the focal point of the paper for the most part. Identifies a relevant research topic that provides direction for the paper that is engaging and thought provoking. The paper clearly and concisely states the position, premise and is consistently the focal point throughout the paper.
Analysis
(50%) Demonstrates a lack of understanding of the case study, inadequate analysis of the research topic. Demonstrates general understanding with very limited critical analysis of the research topic. Demonstrates general understanding of the case study with limited critical analysis of the research topic. Demonstrates an understanding and some critical analysis of the research topic. Adequately Demonstrates a sophisticated
understanding and
careful, critical analysis of the research topic.
Evidence
(Sources)
(20%) Lacks sufficient sources to support the central position and/or, if included, are generally not relevant, accurate, or reliable. Provides very limited discussion and evidence to support the central position. Provides some evidence to support the central position. Discussion
may be somewhat relevant, accurate, and reliable Provides essential, accurate evidence to support the central position. Provides compelling discussion and accurate evidence to support indepth the central position.
Writing
Quality &
Adherence to
Format
Guidelines
(10%) Paper shows a below average/poor writing style lacking in elements of appropriate standard English and following proper Harvard guidelines. Frequent errors in spelling, grammar,
punctuation, spelling, usage, and/or formatting. Paper shows below average and/or casual writing style using standard English and following Harvard guidelines. Some
errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, usage, and/or formatting. Paper shows an average and/or casual writing style using standard English and following Harvard guidelines. Some errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, usage, and/or formatting. Paper shows above average writing style and clarity in writing using standard English and following Harvard guidelines. Minor errors in grammar,
punctuation, spelling, usage, and/or formatting. Paper is well written and clear using Harvard guidelines and standard English characterized by elements of a strong
writing style. Basically, free from grammar, punctuation, spelling, usage, or formatting errors.