Insert your name and e-mail address

Your name Your e-mail address

Başar Onur Mesci bmesci@city.adacemic.gr

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EMBA103

Information Management.

Delegate Workbook

Table of contentsGETTING STARTED..............................................................................................................................3

SESSION 1 : INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................5

SESSION 2 : DIAGNOSIS......................................................................................................................7

SESSION 3 : PROCESS MODELLING FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT I...........................19

SESSION 4 : PROCESS MODELLING FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT II..........................22

SESSION 5: PROCESS MODELLING FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT III..........................24

SESSION 6: INFORMATION, CONTROL AND ORGANISATIONAL PROCESSES......................................27

SESSION 7:OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN E-BUSINESS........................................................27

SESSION 8: LARGE SCALE INTEGRATED APPLICATIONS....................................................................29

SESSION 9 : CHALLENGES IN COMPLEX PROJECTS IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS................................32

SESSION 10 : EMERGING TRENDS.....................................................................................................32

SESSION 11: IMPLEMENTATION AND INTERVENTION INFORMATION SYSTEMS CHANGE..................33

SESSION 12: THE NEW ECONOMY AND THE ROLE OF KNOWLEDGE TECHNOLOGIES............ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.

SESSION 13: REFLECTIONS...............................................................................................................36

SESSION 14: CONCLUSIONS..............................................................................................................37

APPENDIX 1: ASSESSMENT GRADING GUIDANCE ON THE WORKBOOK............................................39

APPENDIX 2 : AREAS OF REQUIRED CHANGE....................................................................................41

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Getting Started1

This Delegate Pack is to designed to help to crystallise and reflect on the implications of methods for you and your organisation (or one of your client organisations). The objective is that by following the lecture learning tasks, and applying them into your chosen organisation, you will identify areas of improvement and change, and identify some of the information changes and intervention options that may help to realise performance improvement arising from the better use and management of information.

In all tasks and activities, we will consider: (i) the usefulness of taking a systems based approach, (ii) the way you use the concepts, ideas and principles, and (iii) assessment of what you need to improve the way you use these concepts, ideas and principles.

By doing this, it encourages reflections on (i) the usefulness of taking a systems based approach, (ii) the methodological assumptions used in a given more orthodox approaches to Information Technology.

You are encouraged to work in small teams to compare your work with that of others. Obviously, you will be working on different client organisations, so your work is necessarily different, but the use of methods, ideas and concepts can be compared, analysed and contrasted in those small teams. These teams are termed ‘Innovation ThinkTanks’. As a member of an Innovation ThinkTank, you will be expected to:

(i) Apply the principles, ideas, concepts and methods, in order to develop robust and justifiable intervention actions;

(ii) Critique your own and other members’ use of the principles;(iii) Identify practical changes that you can take back to your organisation

or a given client.

Organisation

You should contact 3 (or so) colleagues to form an Innovation ThinkTank. This will be the locus of energy and activity to help drive the problem-solving and performance improvement activities.

1 Please note, this workbook is designed on the premise that it is an aid to inquiry. It does not provide answers! It is assumed that various texts, internet searches and discussions will help to complete the workbook. Furthermore, it should also be noted that none of the tasks and activities have a ‘correct’ answer in an absolute sense. Your answer will be as good as the process of inquiry that is applied.

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The ThinkTank, requires you to think carefully about how you are coming to conclusions about possible change actions. It is an opportunity to share ideas, methods, techniques etc. You will sharpen your own thinking by considering the perspectives of other members of your ThinkTank. It will help you continuously refine your ideas. Remember, no one perspective is ‘right’ in an absolute sense, but we have the responsibility to continue to refine our ideas, and defend them with logic and precision. Use your ThinkTank to do this. Remember, at all times, you should take responsibility for sharpening your own thinking!

You and your ThinkTank have huge responsibility - you are undertaking something fundamentally important – to define workable performance improvements in an organisation, to demonstrate the value of them and to document their impact. This is a fundamental aspect of leading change.

Please Note

Topic areas are identified as a title.Introductory words are in normal type.Instructions are in italics.In Appendix 2, there are three sheets which can be used to identify your areas of action and change. Many consultants will carry such sheets around with them to help remind them of on-going change actions and ideas. It is probably a good idea to use the same technique.Please try and fill in as much as you can of this workbook, using your research and ThinkTank to help you. You should apply the ideas methods to your own case organisation e.g. the one that you work for, or a client organisation.

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Session 1 : Introduction

Instructions

Familiarise yourself with the documentation of the module.

On the website, you will have:

An outline document which details the whole module;

A ‘template document’ which you should fill in as we progress through different topic areas;

Readers and reading lists. For each topic area, you will find a ‘reader’, as well as a reading list;

A “Call for Help” area. This is an area to post questions for your fellow delegates to help you with. Please use it constructively.

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You should work on your own applying the methods to your own organisation. It is normally helpful to get yourself involved in a ThinkTank to discuss issues that arise from each of the themed areas under consideration. In this form, the principles, concepts, ideas, methods are scrutinised by the ThinkTank, and each member must challenge each other’s’ perceptions as they apply the principles to their own organisation.

Please specify the names of the people that you are going to work with in your ThinkTank, and the e-mail address of them.

Name of Colleagues with whom you will work as a ThinkTank (please print)

Their e-mail addresses

Cumhur Acer acerc@city.academic.gr

Maria Kosta kostam@city.academic.gr

Nadica Stavrova stavrovan@city.academic.gr

Insert your ThinkTank Name

Your ThinkTank Namee.g. “Ace Consulting Corporation”

Solar Dükkan

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Session 2 : Diagnosis

Undertaking a Diagnosis

Undertaking a diagnosis can be considered to be an inquiring activity which focuses on perceived ‘problems’, and the situations that cause the so-called problems. The inquiry is undertaken simultaneously by both clients and consultants.

Instructions

Diagnose your client organisational context, identifying the explicit and implicit (or hidden) problems.

Treat the diagnosis as an inquiry, not a statement of fact.

Don’t let yourself get into a mode of thinking that is simply ‘whinging’. Try to look at the situation analytically and thoughtfully.

Remember ‘blaming others’ is not an intellectual diagnosis. If you find yourself blaming others, it is likely that you do not understand their situation fully. Try to understand their situation, and the source of your frustration with them.

Be open with the suggestions of other members of your ThinkTank.

Activity: Write your initial ideas below.

Diagnosing client’s organizational context:

Solar Dukkan Company is a start-up company registered in Istanbul, Turkey offering solar power products & systems lead by Christian Wagner and Yusuf Aytekin. The market for solar power is improving in Turkey where they get over in average 2640 hours of sunshine in a year. Solar Dukkan has identified two distinct market segments that they will market their products to. The first segment is the online shopping and the second segment is people that will utilize skilled installers to have the system implemented at their home and industries. The online segment has an increasing growth rate and 5 million potential customers. The professional install market would increase after November 2012 and expected as 750MW total solar power erection.

Solar Dukkan Company is being led by two professionals; Christian Wagner & Yusuf Aytekin who have the education and experience to execute on these renewable energy projects.

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Christian has an impressive academic background to complete a Civil Engineering graduation at Fachhochschule Giessen Friedberg, Germany.

Yusuf is a self-motivated high skilled Electrical and Communications Engineer. He got European and Turkish engineering and management experience and has been involved in many testing & development projects European-wide. He has been working in helicopter production facilities. An impressive academic background having bachelor degree from Turkey’s one of the best practical university, Kocaeli University

and has a master degree from Fachhochschule Giessen Friedberg, Germany. 

Solar Dukkan Co. has been established as a corporation in Turkey. The main shareholders are Christian Wagner & Tandogan Aytekin as company directors. Company has identified three keys to success that help the company grow into a mature market leader:

Providing cutting edge, reliable, and simple-to-install and maintain solar power systems.Broadening the market of solar power into a mainstream energy source in Turkey.Designing and implementing strict financial controls.

The Team

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Christian WagnerBusiness Develeopment Executive

Sena TosunSales Manager

Yusuf AytekinOperation Manager Volkan

AydınCommissioning Chief

Murat CağferoğluInstallation Executive Engin

AytekinSupplyChain Manager

Yelgin MesciLegal

Zeynep PekişenMarketing Manager

View 1. The Team_ Solar Dukkan

Our client listed us some issues which we; as the consultant can focus on and improve. But the prior issue was the time taken to complete sale process in an on-grid connection. Process was taking long time and company’s profit margin is getting lower and lower because of long employee working hours, project codes. The items listed below are part of time taken processes.

Non-Binding Offer SubmissionSite VisitTechnical CalculationsBinding OfferSigning of the AgreementsApplying to State Organisations for ApprovalsInternational LogisticsDomestic LogisticsErection of PlantProviding Approval from TEDAS (Turkey Electricity Distrubiton Company)CommissioningOnline Tracking

Identifying problems

A diagnosis can start by simply listing out perceived ‘problems’.

Activity : Using your ThinkTank to help you, make a list of perceived ‘problems’ in your client situation. Use the space below to make notes of your thoughts.

PROBLEMS:

In renewable energy companies; such as solar energy equipment supplier and installer Solar Dukkan, there are some main constraints. Meredith and Mantel (2008) state that: “Like organic entities, projects have life cycles”. From a slow beginning they progress to a build-up of size, then peak, begin a decline, and finally must be terminated by some due date’. Main points of projects are time, cost, scope and quality. Successful project management means meeting all three goals (scope, time and cost) – and satisfying the project’s sponsor (quality)! (Schwalbe, 2007). If you manage these main three well; you will have some advantages, if not the result may be unsatisfactory and can cause long-term loss of profit. Project management and one of its main sub-categories; planning, is crucial for the achievement. Klein (1999) states that: ‘A Project is complex enough that performing the sub-activities requires careful considerations’. These would provide us a feeling of overall and can highlight when and how to use project sources. Correlations within work items and its difficulties can be recognized earlier with planning.

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Solar Dukkan teams have got the main responsibility of a project from the early kick-off to the end of completion. Using tools to manage project is effective and useful for Solar Dukkan.

Frame (2003) states that: “There is a strong consensus among project managers that projects would be better undertaken outside the usual organizational environments” such as outsourcing. Also within their organization chart parallel lining in terms of management and responsibility is crucial as far as we informed the client. In companies which there are categorized skilled teams such as Solar Dukkan has got, employees who are involving into the projects, may have some hidden risks and danger zones which may cause as failing of the project. Preparing an initial project report can help company; its employees and client to understand how the project will be managed, what is going to be in the scope and what is not going to be in. There are some finding mainly related with our problem; delivery times, such as:

Who is the client?Needs of the clientFrom where to startTechnical performance requirementsOrganizational chart of the projectBudget of work itemsWho will review the project and whenAnd WHEN?

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Problems and symptoms

A diagnosis is more than ‘identifying problems’. Rather it is an inquiry into the fundamental causes (and effect) of the problems. For instance, in organisations, one ‘problem’ is often related to or caused by another problem. So a diagnosis includes the analysis of ‘other factors’ which give rise to a given problem. In effect, our ‘problem’ might be the symptom of something else. Both problem and symptom should be explored.

Activity :Taking each problem that you identified in the previous step, write down if it is caused by something else. If so, try to articulate that causes this ‘problem’ to arise. Use the space below to express your ideas.

Problems & Their Symptoms:

As can be seen from the algorithm above; there are many steps which have to be completed in Solar Dukkan projects by Solar Dukkan. Because of that reason; different key skill teams are involving to project in different points. Professional project management approach is helping Solar Dukkan to minimize its failures, but it has to be improved more. In this paper we are discussing how and when to do this to overcome by late delivery periods and official approvals.

Solar Dukkan has got 8 employees in 2013 and each of these employees are focusing on separate issues; such as Yelgin in legal, Chris in BD (Business Development). This; having limited number

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Customer Welcoming

Offer

Marketing Transportaion

Installation

Service

View 2. Work Algorithm_ Solar Dukkan

of employees can result in profession shifting in loaded times. For example; Zeynep’s profession is in marketing but because of heavy load RFPs (Request For Proposal), she is taking responsibilities in sales as well. Zeynep is supporting Sena. And because of that work load, there may be some missed points in general such as forgetting to provide binding proposal letter to customer after non-binding stage.Solar energy business is a kind of tailor-made processes bot in on-grid and off-grid connection. That means; EPC Companies such as Solar Dukkan has to visit project location to propose engineering or list of equipment offer. Turkey is a kind of big county with 814.578 km² (Turkoglu, 2001) and it is quite difficult and costly work to visit all of project locations at RFP stages. It is a kind of time consuming process if the sale process is not realized.In of-grid solar installations which there is no need for connection to grid, every consumer equipment of the system has to controlled and system has to designed regarding to this. As far as our client has informed; it may be quite difficult to get consumption & frequency details of equipment’s for investor and sometime for the EPC Companies as well. In on-grid projects state approval is a must and for this different types of official documents are needed. State approval may take 4 to 8 months in average. This means difficulty of employee working hours.There are 3 main approval authorities; EDAŞ, Local Municipality and TEDAŞ. Each of these authorities can ask for additional paper which has to be provided by Solar Dukkan client. As far as we have been informed by Solar Dukkan, it may take some time for investors to provide these official docs. This has an effect on delivery terms as well.

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Others’ expressions of Problems

You might also note that other people will express a ‘problem’. Sometimes they are ‘right’, but most commonly, anybody who expresses that a problem exists are often expressing a frustration, anxiety or need, which may or may not be justifiable. As part of your inquiry, you should not ‘believe’ the expression, but should explore it, understand it, and consider the degree to which it is justifiable. In particular, exploring others’ expressions of problems may help you to analyse other issues and problems which may otherwise have been hidden from view.

Activity: Identify a ‘problem’ which is seen to be a ‘problem’ by somebody else. Is it ‘real’ to you? Why do they see it as a problem? Is their ‘perception of a problem’, a problem in itself? Capture your thoughts in the space below.

In-house Problems:

Some employees of Solar Dukkan is informing us that it’s difficult to follow up revisions of projects in each step. Company is using some software tools to follow up the project processes but it has got in average 100 number of active projects monthly. Employees are forgetting to upload revised data of projects to the software and it is quite difficult to make these updates on site.

We as the consultancy client of Solar Dukkan offered some new methodologies of storing data. A new tool; Sugarsync has been recommended by us to Solar Dukkan. Manuals and how to use the software was shown by us to Solar Dukkan employees. By this software employees can upload revisions of their

projects anywhere online. A smartphone is enough to make these revisions.

Another problem which was raised by Solar Dukkan employees was time spending on project’s 3D Sketches. Technical employees of company was working on 3D Max and this software was quite detailed one for some basic projects. Working hours on 3D Max was making the project unprofitable. Google Sketchup software was recommended by us to company. This was a free licensed product with an easy use.

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Prioritising ‘problem areas’

If you are doing this in a real organisation, sometimes there is a feeling of anxiety that arising when you explore a given problematic area, depending on how close you are to it. In methodologies such as ‘Soft Systems Methodology’ and INSPIRE, it is essential that you do not exclude your inner thoughts (e.g. anxieties, feelings of frustration).Sometimes you inner feelings arise from an anxiety that you could be exposed or blamed if a problem is not dealt with. It might be that you have a gut feel that a particular area is ‘more important’ than another.

Activity: Working through your problem areas that you have identified, try to explore which you see as more important than others. Is there one that stands out above the rest? Note down the most important problem areas, and explain why you see them as more important than the others.

After studying on the problems which have been discussed above; we as the consultancy team observed that salaries and bonus methodologies are satisfactory and well developed within Solar Dukkan. Profit is being shared with all employees by different percentages. We can say employee management part is satisfactory as well, but the main problem is work load. Solar Dukkan is a kind of aggressive and dynamic EPC Company. They are bidding for many projects with low profit margins and because of that this situation makes the case difficult for employees. But when we discuss this issue with the management team, they are informing us that their expectation is to be the solar energy market leader of Turkey with getting many project references. For getting the project; to win the tender company is offering cost effective bids to clients. To be cost effective, company is targeting for low operational costs, in other terms min. number of employees is an operational target. Because of that, workload per workman force is quite high. Company’s long-term plan is to raise profit margins soon and decrease workload per workman force after getting one thousand numbers of project completion and getting references. We; as the consultancy group informed Solar Dukkan that for providing a sustainable work environment it is crucial not to overload it’s employees. Solution is easy; 3 ways of doing this:

increasing workman force,decreasing tendered number of bids,providing smart software such as automatic tender creator or process follower ones.

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View 3. Online Pricing Tool_ Solar DukkanSource: http://solardukkan.com/technik/teklif/

Social, political and economic context

All organisation operate in a context... they have economic constraints, are operating in a particular social and political context. For instance, there will be role-relationships that may be problematic, there may be power dimensions, personality clashes. There may be a history to a given organisational situation, which results in ‘problems’. Some of these are revealed through a variety of expressions of anxiety frustrations, concerns etc.

Activity : Taking a problem area, write down the social and political context that you see. You might be able to identify specific issues which give rise to the problem area. Indicate your thoughts below.

Political Context:

We as the consultant have found out that some employees of Solar Dukkan were not happy with the some approaches of State Organizations during on-grid solar power plant applications. We have listened well the case and studied countrywide. Employees were right, state organisations were not moving quick and transparent. Bu we recommend our client, Solar Dukkan not to share any of their political views with any source.

Economic Context:

We have asked Solar Dukkan to provide us, consultancy team the list of customer portfolio. After studying on the list; we have seen that Solar Dukkan has got a big list of customer portfolio. In total more than 10.000 people and company have contacted Solar Dukkan for solar equipment. Most of contacted customer candidates didn’t purchase product. We have studied more on the reason not to purchase and we have found out that financing is the reason behind this. We have recommended Solar Dukkan to provide credit card instalment options to it’s customers.

Social Context:

Our consultancy team have realized that Solar Dukkan is using social webpages daily. We found this approach very efficient.

Social pages of Solar Dukkan are open to public. Company is sharing daily solar cast and promotions to it’s customers by webpages listed above. Besides these we have offered company to be part of some exhibitions. Forthcoming Istanbul Boat Show is recommended by us. Solar Dukkan is going to take it’s part in the fair and will demonstrate its range of photovoltaic products

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and charge controllers to exhibitors. Yacht owners can install solar equipment to their yachts and would not need for diesel generators anymore after instalment of photovoltaic cells. After our recommendation to Solar Dukkan; they had applied for it and approval has received last week. Organizer of the exhibition has shared Solar Dukkan’s contribution on web.

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View 4. Boat Show Istanbul NewsSource: Link

Develop your diagnosis, and see if you can express it on a ‘Rich Picture’;

Activity: Try to express your diagnosis as a ‘Rich Picture’. Use IT tools if you can, and insert it

www.SolarDukkan.com has got a list of possible customer candidate portfolio as more than 10.000. Every single day company is receiving new RFP requests as 65 in average. This means following up the whole sale process is a crucial and difficult job. But without providing this within company, activities would not be sustainable. For this we are recommending a tool; PFT (Process Following Tool), a kind of software whom to be followed up and when. For details follow the diagnosis below;

DataRoom entry would be followed in each step of the sale process.

We are offering Solar Dukkan to use this tool within their sale process. With the help of it process can be followed easily by employees with all details needed. And when questions are raised by customer side, company employees can easily get answers from the tool and can share these with customer. This sale process tool also will share information with the next person in charge by

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Customer Welcoming Offer Marketing Transportaion Installation Service

New data entry

Details of the offer

Re Marketing

Details of Shippmen

t

Date of Installement and Name of Installer

Dates of Servicing

DATAROOM ENTRY IN EACH STEP

emailing details of process automatic. By this; if there has been a break within process; person in charge can easily be reminded.

How do you rate your ThinkTank members’ attempts so far?

Activity: Use your ThinkTank to compare the ‘problem situation’ in your case with those of others.

How have you done a diagnosis compared with other members of your ThinkTank?

Have they included things that you have not included?

Have they been able to use Rich Pictures, and if so, how have they used them? Are they trying to find structure in a human situation which is not really there? Or, are they missing certain human dimensions, (e.g. Power, anxieties, frustrations, knowledge (or lack of it?). Or, are they finding ‘problems’ which are ??

The team of consultants is consisted of members with different professional background that nevertheless each of them has specific and valuable experience in the business environment. The contribution of all was very important to design and identify all the diagnosis for our client. Most of the team members has identified and worked on same or similar issues in the organizations where they operate.

As most important is the fact that during the discussions, each of them has expressed its own opinion and perspectives having in mind the primary objectives to provide good consulting services for our client. At the end the different opinions and perspectives supports the team to identify the problems and to create a proper picture for our client.

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Session 3 :Process modelling for Information Systems Management I

Select 1: organisational process from your case organisation, and outline its inputs, outputs and transformation. Write it down below.

The organizational process for our client “Solar Dükkan” is the process of delivering solar equipment or installation of solar plant by developing design. Solar Dukkan was challenging on delivery time, some of its customers are being waited up to 8 months of delivery. A research which has done by Solar Dukkan is showing us that price and delivery time are 2 main parameters which has priority for its customers. PFT is offering dynamic process following support, and by the help of this any of data relevant with sale process would be lost somewhere on the line. Demo PFT has been tried by Solar Dukkan employees and it was really sufficient for employees and for the company. One of the sale processes; the one which consists sale of 2 photovoltaic modules, 4 batteries and 1 charge controller unit was completed in 3 days with the delivery of invoicing as well. This in-house trial version proofed Solar Dukkan and its employees that there is a chance of improving sale process.

Within next stages of the PFT software; it has been planned to develop new modules, the one which customers can login with their ID & password to follow their purchase details and delivery times.

Existing version of PFT needs some parameters and these are:

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What are the characteristics of the process that have you identified?2

Is it an ‘Issue based’ process, or a ‘primary task’ process?

Is it a ‘project for change’ process?

Is it a ‘control process’?

Justify your answer below.

By creating a concept model of establishing the Rich Picture and by developing the tool which was named as PFT, we strengthened Solar Dukkan’s sale process, in long-term also strengthened of the sustainability of firm. Lencioni (2005) states that; ‘building an effective, cohesive team is extremely hard in most of the organizations. But it’s also simple’. Solar Dukkan managers tried to build the best compatible team in their organization and we supported them. When customer first contacts with Solar Dukkan or when sales team reach a new customer; company is following now Solar Dukkan process following tool. During that process there are stages of project management subheadings and duties in subcategories which are listed above. Also PFT covers some of these stages are listed below;

AdvertingNon-Binding Offer SubmissionSite VisitTechnical CalculationsBinding OfferSigning of the Agreements

2

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Name & Surname

Telephone

Email

Location for delivery

Monthly bill of electricty

Status of proposal

PM or SM of the project

Date of proposal

Revisions of proposal

Proposed price

Comments (In-house)

Updates

Currency rates

Applying to State Organisations for ApprovalsInternational LogisticsDomestic LogisticsErection of PlantProviding Approval from TEDAS (Turkey Electricity Distrubiton Company)CommissioningOnline Tracking

As that can be seen from the above list there are many to-does when providing a solar power system to the customer. That can be quite difficult without having the right project management methodology and it may take up to 8 months to finalize the process. There may be some missing point. Our tool and approach is a control process and by the help of our tool we can overcome from long delivery time as much as we can.

Identify 4 different types of processes

Activity: Write down 4 models, (i) a ‘primary task, (ii) an ‘issue based’ process. (iii) a project process and (iv) a control process. Insert your ideas below. Use your ThinkTank to compare ideas. Why not write down your ideas and then copy and paste this page into an e-mail and ask your tutor?

1. Primary tasks process: The primary task process is project management since the company is trying to finalize sales process as quickest to overcome by late delivery. PFT is in our case is strengthening whole delivery process in terms of time and budget. Employees of the company are over work loaded and every minute of employees are valuable as gold. Objectives of the company develop sales and finalize the delivery as soon as possible.

2. Issue based process is the logistics. It has an important effect on delivery of goods and this sub-category has got also priority within the process. Quality of the data has an crucial effect on logistics. This may fail whole process.

3. Implementation of PFT (Process Following Tool) is an objective. Creating the tool was important but it is also important to use PFT daily and hourly. This is project process model. This process will improve the whole system in the company and will ensure the flow of data and information within the departments.

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4. Control processes: The process of control is to provide details correct with other employees and share the whole data stored within the system. By sharing the data; the ones which we can be considered as the quality ones, anyone in the company can follow processes. By this everyone within company can easily complete their duties within limited time ranges.

Session 4:Process modelling for Information Systems Management II

Activity: Try to apply the constructs to help to define at least one primary task process from your case organisation, using the systems constructs.

Construct Your ideas about the application of the construct to a primary task process in your given organisation

Transformation,

What is being transformed?Quality of the process and by this, customer satisfaction is being transformed.

Measures of Performance

How is the process judged?

What data needs to be gathered to judge when it is not functioning correctly?

Delivery of the goods are changed, in the past it was taking up to 8 months for goods to be delivered. Now by the help of tools and with new methodologies process is taking less time and it results with a cost saving in the company. Cost saving also results as profit and it is affecting employees working environment well.

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Degree of Systematicness (systematics)

How systematic is it currently?

By the support of new tool PFT (Process Following Tool) process is being followed by all employees and by this systematic approach employees are aware of their duties.

Client Beneficiaries

Who are the beneficiaries and/or victims of the system?

Use this construct in a rhetorical manner, i.e. explore the effectiveness of the process in serving different client beneficiaries.

All of the parties of the system can be beneficiaries such as, employees, company owners, suppliers and final customers, buyers differentiated only by the level of benefits. By these approaches, company is delivering the product earlier and employees can spend less time on each project. Company is decreasing its cost for the processes and it is providing benefits to all stakeholders such as high NPV on projects for Solar Dukkan, getting better bonuses and sustainable working environment for employees and competitive pricing with quick delivery periods for buyers.Besides these; by providing customer satisfaction, Solar Dukkan can get a better position within the competition.

Emergence

Can you identify emergent properties that arise out of its operationalisation?

Outsource services may be studied detailed as well. Because the new offered methodologies are improving the process in house. By using PFT we can control which Solar Dukkan employee is responsible for delivering goods to logistics company but in such cases with outsourced logistics, that may be challenging to get quality data.

Hierarchy

Can you start identifying sub-processes using the systems constructs?

There may be some components of new system. New system is kind of technological IT approach and because of that new smart phones may be needed to use system properly. This can cause with a new approach and these costs can result with a new cost management and accounting approach.

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Session 5: Process modelling for Information Systems Management III

You might notice that in Information Management, the study of an organizational process is done first, and then it is possible to identify resources (including information) that it needs to function.

Using the primary task process that you have developed previously, attempt to identify:

Information and technology options for that process;

Other resources that are required to operationalise the process effectively;

Other considerationsfor the effective operation of the process.

As a result of the increase in information sharing and IT usage, the demand can increase. More people can demand Solar Dukkan products. This increase in demand also causes a demand increase in transportation. That is quite difficult to manage and forecast retailers’ order with the sales. That can be a reason for bullwhip effect. Lee, Padmanabhan and Whang (1997) refers bullwhip effect as the phenomenon where orders to the supplier tend to have larger variance than sales to the buyer (i.e., demand distortion), and the distortion propagates upstream in an amplified form (i.e., variance amplification). Developing software and technological products would develop logistics and supply chain management within Solar Dukkan and ensured that they can be controlled in a more detailed way by PFT. The main difficulty of supply chain management is accession to information. As the amount of information shared and accesses is more, supply chain control from the first producer to the last user can be carried out in a more healthy way. As technology has a very important place in our lives, managing the supply chain outside of the technological applications will not be effective. In these

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increasing competition conditions, economizing by using the technology can put the firm in a stronger position that its competitors. A cycle of order follow-up that is managed by using technological resources can support a firm that uses this method to create a right planning method, PFT is a tool which was developed by us for this. Besides these an inter-organizational system (IOS) may be developed and it is an information and management system that transcends organizational boundaries via electronic linkages with its trading partners to share data, information and business applications, provide the capabilities of electronic transactions including buying and selling goods and services, and facilitate communications and decision making for the purpose of increasing efficiency, effectiveness, competitiveness, and profitability for participating organizations (Eom, 2005). Into these systems; bar codes can be integrated as well. With bar coding system we can have information for the price and source of product. McFarlane and Sheffi (2002) state that “The numbering systems used on today’s bar codes are generally limited to manufacturer and product type identities and cannot include a unique identifier or serial number for specific items”. And with use of barcodes, reverse logistics which is a way of re-providing raw material can be managed in mid-term planning. Dekker, Fleischmann, Inderfurth and Van Wassenhove (2004) found that majority of firms are taking reverse logistics into the planning more often in nowadays.

Version no Manufacturer Product TypeView 5. QR code and its details.

The costs play a significant role in the development and renewal of logistics methodologies day by day. The main logistics cost can be listed as storing costs, breakage, default and loss costs, late delivery costs, penalty and error costs, information system costs, personnel costs, overstock costs and main asset costs. Any firm that works in a detailed way on these costs and that strengthens the management of logistics & supply chain by cutting back on expenses will gain an advantage in the competition. The method that will put the firm in an advantageous position in the competition is defined below in this purpose and scope. In this example, the purposes needed in logistics & supply chain management application are shown.

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INC

REA

SE

Transport Costs Rate of Delivery on TimeStoring Costs Alternative MethodsDelivery Time Data Security and Rapid Access Core CompetencyBreakage, default and lossSupply Chain Stocking

View 6. Purpose of Logistics and Supply Chain Management.

How far can you get with your current process model?

Referring to your previous task, explore how difficult you found it. Was it easy, or difficult? Did you have sufficient detail about the process? If you found it difficult, why do you think that was so? Do you need to develop better or different process modeling? If so, why not explore how to make better inquiry…

Insert your reflections, thoughts and ideas below.

Flow of information options

Over the numerous meetings with our client and discussion with our ThinkTank group through implementation of our experience we have provided new methodologies to client. Client was happy about the new process and feedbacks are proofing us that PFT is working well and providing cost effective solutions to the company. Application of the new method was easily installed and tool covers the below data in it.

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RED

UC

E

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Name & Surname

Telephone

Email

Location for delivery

Monthly bill of electricty

Status of proposal

PM or SM of the project

Date of proposal

Revisions of proposal

Proposed price

Comments (In-house)

Updates Currency rates

Session 6: Information, Control and Organisational Processes

Taking one of the processes in your client organisation…

Is the control structure appropriate?

Is the information about it appropriate/clear/existent??

Is there room for control action?

What changes would you recommend (if any)?

Is there a role for improving information and/or technology for improving control?

Discuss and justify your perceptions below.Every single day company is receiving new RFP requests as 65 in average.

This means following up, controlling the whole sale process is a crucial and difficult job. But without providing this within company, activities would not be sustainable. For this we have recommending a tool; PFT (details within above paragraphs), a kind of software whom to be followed up and when. Objective is to get customer satisfaction and provide less costly processes.

This tool was found appropriate to Solar Dukkan’s sale process. With the help of it process can be followed easily by employees with all details needed.

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Customer Satisfaction

Delivery

Offer

Customer Welcoming

And when questions are raised by customer side, company employees can easily get answers from the tool and can share these with customer.

Session 7:Opportunities and Challenges in E-Business3

What do you see as the opportunities for e-business in theyour client organisation?

Are there opportunities for enhancing B2B integration, B2C or enhancing supply chain performance?

Enhance your diagnosis, to reflect your conclusions.

Is there a role for modelling processes using systems constructs in the application and development of E-Business?

Insert your ideas below... Our client is using e-commerce very active. In Google’s ranking,

company’s e-commerce online sale page is the top ranking at desktop and mobile versions for the keywords of solar, solar energy and solar energy equipment prices in Turkey. By increasing demand delivery periods may increase as well. We as the client offer online chat box to e-commerce web page and by this company can easily answer customer queries very quick. This would provide efficiency of time usage. And by online chat box customers can have employees who are caring about their projects. Online chat employees can enter entry data to our PFT and this quality data would be transferred to sale person. Solar Dukkn pages are being appeared to customers around as 2.000 pages daily. Details of the last week can be found below.

View 7. Solar Dukkan’s Google Search Appearance.

3

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View 8. Solar Dukkan e-commerce pages appearance daily.

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Session 8: Large Scale Integrated Applications

Consider the value to your client organisation, of an

ERP

Web-shop

Supply Chain integration (e.g. via ERP2)

What is the potential role of systems based modeling of processes in (i) answering this question, and (ii) in applying large scale integrated applications?

Justify your answer below.Potential system applications

Number of supplier is around 10 for Solar Dukkan. Company is using online sales very dynamic. Company is promoting that business daily. We as the consultancy team are proposing ERP strengthening to the company. By the new revision company can control supplier and buyer process better.

Some of the short term methods that Solar Dukkan firm can follow in the supply chain management are given below. Taylor (1997) states that ‘In order to study the benefits of logistics improvements which may later be suggested and to help in determining where to target effort, it is necessary to assess the current performance of the supply chain.’ These methods that are listed by us for Solar Dukkan will contribute a lot to the competition of the firm with the other firms.

Strengthening the distributor network of Solar Dukkan in Turkey and in this way, increasing the capacity of the market. The distributor network that expands will render the accession to the clients easier, it will increase the service quality and fasten the delivery speed. Providing at home the products that are imported from abroad. It may not be possible to supply the photovoltaic cells at home in the short term. Inverter and steel frame may be provided at home. If equal quality is achieved, this may decrease the costs of logistics and supply chain. The delivery periods may be shortened.Storing at home in a way that would allow the 50kWp installation at certain points. It is believed that the sales will increase in the cities of Mersin, Samsun and Izmir. So these cities can be among these storage points in the short term.

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i. Storage, distribution and service point in Istanbul is Marmara Region,

ii. Storage, distribution and service point in Samsun are Black Sea Region and Central Anatolia Region

iii. Storage, distribution and service points in Mersin are East Anatolia Region, Southeastern Anatolia Region and Mediterranean Region

iv. Storage, distribution and service points in Izmir are Aegean Region & Mediterranean Region

View 9. Map of Turkey, Solar Dukkan Warehouses

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SD Istanbul Warehouse

SD Samsun Warehouse

SD Mersin Warehouse

SD Izmir Warehouse

Session 9 :Challenges in complex projects in Information Systems

Do previous projects in your client organisation appear to be unholistic?

Can we learn from a systems approach?

In answering this question, you might like to think about (i) the assumptions by project management methods, that the process of a project is systematic, and (ii) the resultant skills that project managers are expected to have.

Insert your ideas below, with justification.

Our clients challenge would be entering existing and completed project’s data to PFT. Client has got more than 10.000 contacted customers so far now. To enter all data whcih was sourced by previous MS Excel files may take some time for Solar Dukkan employees. This can result in ineffective time consumption. Besides this, that may be difficult to find out revision on projects.

We as the management client are offering to company to open new headcounts such as trainee positions within the company. These colleagues may stay in the company and provide contribution to sales after completion of their trainee periods. These may also be functional to company.

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Session 10 :Emerging Trends

Which new technologies might be of relevance to your client organization, and how might it affect

The process already identified, and

The potential project plan in your recommendations?

Justify your answer below.

Based on the long discussion and the interest from the management team of our client our team of consultants motivates itself to make deeper analysis and to provide the best solutions. The proposed solutions relating to the Information technology are listed below:

Mobile Applications: Regarding the issue of the smart phones with which our client is excited, there is a need for creating new mobile solutions for our client. These apps can be provided to users via Google Play Store or Apple Application Store. Inside the groups which our client is using dynamic, it can present and promote all the activities that the company is performing according to the corporate social responsibility program. This media are really powerful, useful and require minimum investment and will ensure the company easily to communicate with the stakeholders.

Supply Process: represents a good opportunity to the company, without taking into consideration the location to receive orders and offers online. This will decrease the time period as well as the cost to the client.

Online Platform for Customers: The online platform will support the sales department to receive feedback from the clients. The online platform will decrease the human force and the cost for travelling around the world and visiting the clients separately.

Exhibitions: Our client is now attending new exhibitions after our recommendation. Boat Show Istanbul is one of them. We will study result of exhibition’s and check our clients satisfactory after the exhibition.

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Session 11: Implementation and Intervention Information Systems Change

Types of change

The practice of organisational change often involves includes attempting to change some or all of these simultaneously.

Attitudes of people; Knowledge and skills of people; Activities and tasks that people undertake; Communication between people; Information; Power which makes human societal structures operate in particular ways; Control to try to align activities to purpose; The enabling technologies Roles relationships

The above are categories, and the actual changes that you make will normally fall into one or more of these categories. Further, changes will usually mean actions by a number of key groups and individuals.

Activity: Using your findings about what needs to change that have been identified so far, fill in the following table (over).

Area of change (taken from your “what needs changing”

sheets

What type of change is it, using the

bulleted categories above

Who needs to be involved (roles,

groups or individuals)

Implementation of Process Following Tool

Communication between people

InformationRoles relationships

All three types of change require the involvement of: Executive-team and Project-management team

Implementation of standardised workflows

Activities and tasks that people undertake

The enabling technologies

Both types of change need the involvement of: Project-management team and Working-team members

Increased control and monitoring

Strictly established policies and procedures

Regular controlsCorrective and preventive actions

Assessment of the

Clear company strategy, mission, vision and valuesIncreased traceability from the employees within the management

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performances systemsDisciplinary actions, rewards and recognition

Session 12: The New Economy and the Role of Knowledge Technologies (Optional)

Is there a role for e-learning technology, to help to improve your organization or your processes? Insert your ideas below.

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Session 13: Reflections

Identify the most important learning point that you have taken so far. Insert your ideas below, e.g. this can, (i) the use of methods in general, (ii) your use of methods, (iii) the nature or contribution of a systems approach to information management (i.e. ‘information systems’), (iv) a discovery about your own knowledge or limitation of it, (v) an identified area that you need to discover more about.

In this workbook the team of consultants’; we analyse the current situation and the conditions of our client company Solar Dukkan by identification and presentation of the problems. The assessment of the problems and the pin pointing one by one is presented through Rich picture, used as a basis for development and improvement. Consequently to that we have identified the processes included in modelling of the Information system. All the proposed changes, recommendations and possible failures are listed in this workbook and would support our client to act properly.

It is really interesting and challenging overloaded 2 weeks for the team to discuss and develop the possible solutions for the client. In addition to that we have to stress that it was a really challenging to review all the aspect of the various functions.

Certainly, one of the most interesting concepts in Information Management is Software Developing. It can be applied in every sector, in all kinds of business models and regards all the processes of such a complex concept as a company.

Our software PFT (Process Following Tool), gives the opportunity to the people involved in the process modelling, of visualizing the organization along with all its components and characteristics. In addition, contains a powerful tool, reminder, which assists the analyst to identify opportunities of acting, disadvantages of certain situations or even the need for additional control constructs, by running various scenarios with different sale process elements.

When you have completed the above task, post it onto the area on the website. This can be In this session, everybody should make a minimum of one post on the most important learning point that they have made.

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Session 14: Conclusions

Go to the Consultancy Academy website and if you want to become an Asociate, please register yourself!

www.consultancyacademy.com

Reasons for registering

The Consultancy Academy are dedicated to developing the best people for bringing about changes to our problematic world. We need great consultants, entrepreneurs and leaders, to drive change, create wealth and develop organisations. The Consultancy Academy is a network of consultants with this goal. The Consultancy Academy is keen to expand its reach, its network and its businesses around the globe.

Competition in energy sector is very high, especially in Turkey. We have completed a study for our client www.solardukkan.com to become market leader or protect it’s top position in Turkish solar energy market. Installed capacity is increasing day to day in Turkey. There is a possibility for Turkish energy companies become international players. The emerging trends and technologies require from the company adjustment and flexibility intending to increase the competiveness on one hand and continually to improve the processes on other hand. The case of our client is very interesting and challenging company that is not so immune of the financial crisis impact. The developed skills and competences of the management and the employees are playing crucial role in establishing strong bases of the processes and are ensuring the long term company objectives for continual improvement.

One of the key activities in the company business processes is appliance of the total quality management with our Process Following Tool. The same can ensure stability and good traceability between the processes with implementation of IT technology systems. Our client has started using our tool PFT and first 1 month was found very functional from the company. They are happy with PFT and has recently informed us that new methodologies such as PFT are providing to company cost efficiency and it has a great impact on sales, customer satisfaction, and profit margin. We would be happy to press all our thanks to Solar Dukkan employees whom have been supporting our work from early stages.

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REFERENCESDekker, R., Fleischmann, M., Inderfurth, K., Van Wassenhove, L. N., 2004. Reverse Logistics, Quantitative Models for Closed-Loop Supply Chains. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

Eom, S. B., 2005. Inter-Organizational Information Systems in the Internet Age. London: Idea Group Publishing. Available at: <http://books.google.com.tr/books?id=mSis0rOzvzUC&pg=PA320&lpg=PA320&dq=Mohr,+J.J.+and+J.R.+Nevin.+%22Communication+Strategies+in+Marketing+Channels:+A+Theoretical+Perspective,%22+Journal+of+Marketing,+(54:4),+1990,+pp.+36-51.&source=bl&ots=aNBE7 CyGZK&sig=lgqXBS5pTYJoU6lNP1lnKOrUrJI&hl=tr&sa=X&ei=0VC5T82dEYj3sgb35_SPCA&ved=0CFYQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Mohr%2C%20J.J.%20and%20J.R.%20Nevin.%20%22Communication%20Strategies%20in%20Marketing%20Channels%3A%20A%20Theoretical%20Perspective%2C%22%20Journal%20of%20Marketing%2C%20(54%3A4)%2C%201990%2C%20pp.%2036-51.&f=true> [Accessed 4 April 2012].

Frame, J. Davidson, Managing Projects in Organizations: How to Make the Best Use of Time, Techniques, and People , 3rd edition, Jossey-Bass, 2003, ISBN 0-787-96831-5

Klein, Robert, Scheduling of Resurce-Constrained Projects, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999, ISBN 0-7923-8637-X.

Lee, H. L., Padmanabhan, V., Whang, S., 1997. Management Science. Vol. 43, No. 4, Frontier Research in Manufacturing and Logistics. California: Informs. pp. 546-558.

Lencioni, Patrick M., Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers, and Facilitators (J-B Lencioni Series) , Jossey-Bass, 2005, ISBN 0-787-97637-7

McFarlane, D., Sheffi, Y., 2002. The Impact of Automatic Identification on Supply Chain Operations. Available at: <http://web.mit.edu/sheffi/www/TheImpactofAutomaticIdentificationonSCOperations.pdf> [Accessed 5 May 2013].

Meredith, R. Jack and Mantel, Jr., Samuel J., Project Management: A Managerial Approach, 7th edition, Wiley, 2008, ISBN 0-470-22621-8

Schwalbe, Kathy, Information Technology Project Management, 6th edition, Course Technology, 2009, ISBN 0-324-78692-1

Taylor, D. H., 1997. Global Cases in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. London: Thomson Learning.

Türkoğlu, N. "Türkiye’nin Yüzölçümü ve Nüfusunun Deprem Bölgelerine Dağılışı." Ankara Üniversitesi Türkiye Coğrafyası Araştırma ve Uygulama Merkezi Dergisi 8 (2001): 133-148.

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Appendix 1: Assessment grading guidance on the workbook

Guidelines on Assessment Grading of this workbook.

Distinction

Excellent introductory awareness of a Systems Based approach to Information Systems change.Excellent depth and attention to detail, sufficient for practical application.Excellent flow in which conclusions of one part of the application of the methods, flowed well into the next.Excellent awareness of related concepts, theory or literature.Excellent awareness of the implications of the methods at a personal level.Excellent conclusions drawn which considered the generalisable issues.

Merit

Shows good awareness of a Systems ApproachShowed good depth and attention to detail, sufficient for some areas of practice.Good flow and structure, with corresponding application of methods and arguments.Evidence and awareness of some related concepts, theory or literature.Good awareness of the implications of the methods at a personal level. Some generalisable conclusions were drawn.

Pass

Awareness of a Systems Approach but with errors or ambiguitiesSome useful detail, demonstrating some useful application to practice,Appropriate structure, although the integration of argument/methods would improve the plausibility of conclusions drawn. Some awareness of related concepts, theory or literature.Implications at a personal level were evident, although needs expansion.

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Generalisable conclusions were evidenced although needs more attention in the piece.

Marginal Fail

A Systems approach was not used well / there were errors in the use of the systems approachPockets of detail, which may be useful in practice with a little more attention to detail.Flow and structure, and the logic of the argument was rather weak.Limited awareness of the concepts, theory or related literature, which inhibited the effectiveness of the piece. Implications at a personal level was evidenced in pockets.Generalisable conclusions were rather too implicit or lacked sufficient detail.

Poor Fail

Inadequate use of Systems ideas/poor understanding of them.Rather weak on detail/depth and thus most of the work is impractical.Rather little evidence of a logical structure and as a result a rather weak flow of argument.Weak understanding of related concepts, theory or literature.Rather weak implications at a personal level.Weak conclusions were drawn.

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Appendix 2 : Areas of Required Change

Use the following sheets to document the areas that you see as required change in your client organisation and/or yourself in achieving the changes. Duplicate them if needed.

Area that you think needs to be changed

Justification

Outsourced Logistics

Our client is managing its logistic services as outsourced. This may result in lack of information within delivery processes.

Online sales via Paypal

Our client is managing its online sale transaction via PayPal. We are recommending our client to provide availability of national banks’ post machines as well within their webpage.

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