Assessment of Kudler Fine Foods

Assessment of Kudler Fine Foods

Kudler has found a niche market to sustain three locations, with a fourth location soon to be opened, specializing in fine meats, fresh herbs and spices, specialty and gourmet products, fresh ingredients and fine wines (Virtual Business Portal, Apollo Group, 2010). As Kudler grows, it is necessary to find new and innovative ways to cut costs and supply the best products to their customers. It is now time to improve the company's information technology. In the past, the technology has been adequate, but not coordinated in a manner to give Kathy everything she needs to move her business to the next level. The tools necessary to grow Kudler are discussed within an evaluation of key business and accounting information needs, current hardware and software, the strengths and weaknesses of the current computer system and technology, and discuss the opportunities Kudler has with available technology and suggestions for maximizing these opportunities.

Meeting business and accounting information can be accomplished through the linking of the point-of-sale terminals to one network server serving the intranet and having the capability of expanding so new stores may be added to the current system. The POS module has been used to "capture and report all retail sales in detail" (POS Procedures, Kudler Internet Site), and all data is transferred directly to GL accounts, the Electronic Payment Clearing House and the company purchasing control. Written procedures need to be written and all personnel need to understand their role in the accounting and security needs to protect the company. REMS policies need to be in writing and monitored by a manager specified by Kathy. All personnel involved in these areas need to be trained and completely understand their roles in maintaining these policies. All HR records should be kept by the HR department, not by separate managers in separate locations. An HR module could be added where managers would have the capability to log into the information for their store employees only if and when they need information about a specific employee. The HR module could also track vacation and sick days for each location. Any and all business having to do with personnel must go through and be recorded by HR.

E-business applications should be incorporated to communicate with customers. This can be accomplished through an extranet site partnership with a secure payment program where customers can purchase products online. This will entail Kathy setting up menus for each department with pricing of items that can be readily shipped. A separate server should be setup for the e-commerce applications so the Internet business can be separate from the intranet side of the operations. An application would need to be set up for the catering that Kathy is planning to start, along with menus, pricing, and instructions on setting up an appointment or ordering and paying for an order along with information regarding when and where the customer will pick up the order.

With Kudler's current hardware and software, there are limits to how far Kathy can go without performing upgrades. Kudler must find a way to integrate all of their business operations at all locations. With the help of Smith Systems Consulting Company, Kathy should be able to make changes quickly and seamlessly within the current system. The plan to launch a new website in June is the first step toward e-commerce. The lack of security and backup for the existing programs will affect the need to increased security as Kudler's moves forward. The strength of Kudler's system is that it is not connected to the Internet for customer interaction, which reduces the chance of hacking from an outside party. The need of spyware and virus protection is necessary, as is a firewall to, protect proprietary information. Kudler's computer system is lacking proper backup procedures that are necessary in case of a computer crash or an intrusion on the current system. Tying the computers together in a proper network will enable Kudler to backup information for all systems at the same time. To accomplish this, Kudler will need a secondary storage device to use for backup. To protect financial data against a natural disaster or fire that could destroy backup data on site, Kudler's data needs to be stored at a third-party data recovery facility or through the internet to a remote location. A well-planned backup and recovery solution is important to ensure data is not lost in the event of a server or data failure. This plan