RECOMMENDATIONS

Problems:

• Despite upgrading from an enterprise to an inter-enterprise system, an information silo still exists in that shoppers are not notified when there are pending stock outs at individual locations.

• Another problem with Shoprite can be seen through their sales system. The problem is that when employees dispose of spoiled food, or experience pilferage, they neglect telling the system this. Because of this, the system often over-reports the location's level of inventory. On top of confusion, this also throws off the company's ordering process, increasing the likelihood of stockouts.

• The last problem that we observed is that despite Shoprites huge following on social media, only a mere fraction of these followers are engaging with the posted content.

  
  

  A picture of a silo:

  

Recommendations:

For the first problem, we recommend that Shoprite’s business analysts call for a meeting with some systems analysts from the Shoprite app developer, in order to extend stock out information to customers.     

For the second problem, we feel that ShopRite should offer more training programs for their employees, in order to educate them on the importance of obeying the regulations of the sales system. The main reason we say this is because currently, many employees are unaware of the importance of complying with the sales system. By not complying with the sales system, locations run the risk of overstating and possibly understating demand. 

A picture of wasted food:

For the final problem, we would suggest for ShopRite to post more promotional content on their social media in order to improve the company's brand awareness. In addition to this, ShopRite should also do more creative activities like cooking competitions to increase customer’s interest. Considering that Shoprite already has a large following, we feel that these actions would increase engagement with the socials, and create better value for users.

A picture of a cooking competition:

The old pos system was outdated and not up to date and only an enterprise system

• All the ShopRite stores will install IBM’s SurePOS Application Client/Server Environment(ACE), which is an application that can optimize customer service and point-of-sale system. Also, this store will install IBM’s Store Integrator, which can provide robust retail-optimized infrastructure to strengthen the connection with the enterprise.

Information silo in inventory info:

      -Software solution:

ShopRite needs to evaluate its inventory information system and decide whether it should discard or update it. A good unified central system (CB4) to manage inventory information can be the optimal solution for both the Inventory system and customers to know precise inventory quantities.

     -Hardware solution:

ShopRite warehouse employees should transfer paper-based systems to computer-based systems. In this case, the inventory information system can receive sophisticated data from the staff in time and export them to customers’ smart devices immediately.