MANAGING SUPPLY CHAIN

PROGRAM: MBA (P)

SECTION: H

PROJECT ASSIGNMENT 3

Submitted to:

Mr. Haris Aslam

Submitted by:

Raied butt 14022034050

Muhammad Burhan Ali 14022034071

Khurram Shafique 14022034032

DATE: 31-12-14

Table of Contents1. Company Introduction.........................................................................................................................3

2. National & International Clients List....................................................................................................6

3. InfoTech Details...................................................................................................................................7

3.1 InfoTech Staffing – Domestic.......................................................................................................8

3.2 InfoTech Staffing – International.................................................................................................8

3.3 Financial Capacity of the Company..............................................................................................8

4. SIPOC Diagram.....................................................................................................................................9

5. Flow Chart Diagram...........................................................................................................................10

6. Environmental Uncertainty...............................................................................................................11

6.1 Supply uncertainty.....................................................................................................................11

6.2 Demand uncertainty..................................................................................................................11

6.3 Technology uncertainty.............................................................................................................12

7. Top Management Commitment & Strategic Planning.......................................................................12

7.1 Competitive priorities................................................................................................................12

7.2 Top management support.........................................................................................................12

8. Customer Focus.................................................................................................................................13

9. Use of Information Technology.........................................................................................................13

10. Supplier Relationship Management...............................................................................................14

10.1 Supply network structure..........................................................................................................14

10.2 Supply base reduction...............................................................................................................14

10.3 Long term relationship...............................................................................................................14

10.4 Communication.........................................................................................................................15

10.5 Supplier involvement.................................................................................................................15

10.6 Logistics integration...................................................................................................................15

11. Supply chain performance.............................................................................................................16

12. Recommendations.........................................................................................................................17

1. Company Introduction

InfoTech is a premier IT Systems Integrator with capacity and experience for providing

strategic technology solutions that achieve real business results for businesses. Founded in

1995, Info Tech is at the forefront of revolutionizing the information technology arena by

providing the best products and services to a wide range of industries and enterprises. The

company’s strategy which is elucidated by a determined and compelling focus on

convergence and innovation, strives to establish InfoTech as a synthesized speculator and

benchmark for new IT services globally. InfoTech is a truly global company, executing

business in several countries through thre of its own subsidiaries InfoTech Africa Limited,

InfoTech Middle East FZ-LLC, UAE and InfoTech Global PTE LTD, Singapore and developing

technology that affirmatively impacts businesses all over the globe.

The world of information technology is changing rapidly. Rapid information dissemination

and other forces create an ever-changing environment. This environment makes it difficult

for the traditional organizations and companies, even armed with the best in commercial

technology, to deliver consistent, accurate and up to the mark solutions. Our leading-edge

solutions allow us to develop incomparable products and services and provide high-end

consulting, design, optimization and provisioning of IT infrastructure to various enterprises

around the globe. Our philosophy allows us to build meticulous and contemporary

predictive business models and an analysis of the behavior of financial markets.

True to its motto, InfoTech aims at consistently ensuring that the solutions are brilliantly

built to enable customer’s sustainability. Industry specific work procedures and

methodologies, technologies, domain expertise, tools and training are the company’s

forefront. We aspire to draw on this substantial substructure to create visible business

impact for clients around the globe, resulting in long-term relationships. We understand our

client's business realities and have the know-how and solutions needed to advance their

business goals. Consistent year-on-year growth of over 35%, during last decade, shows

confidence of our customers that our engagement with them is based on long term

“Technology Partnership”, and not just on transactional business.

A key InfoTech strength is its ability to successfully manage Enterprise level Information

Technology projects. We have years of experience of working with multiple subcontractors

and specialize in large complex Systems Integration activities. In addition to the above,

below is a brief summary of InfoTech strengths and track record as a Systems Integrator:

One of the main Systems Integrator for IT Enterprises across all industries (Gov,

Telco, Banks, Healthcare, Energy, etc.).

InfoTech Proven Competency in managing large-scale, geographically dispersed

Projects of mission-critical Systems (24 X 7 onsite support)

200+ Professional Employees.

End-To-End Solution Provider for all IT Requirements

Capital and Securities Market Solutions

Enterprise Resource Planning

Business & Industry Solutions

SW Solutions across all Platforms

H/W Infrastructure (Servers, Storage, Printers, Desktop, Retail, etc.)

Network Infrastructure specially for utilities

Operations & Maintenance

Education, etc.

InfoTech Professional Services business unit offers high-quality advisory,

consultancy, and system implementation services across the complete spectrum of

MIS activities. It consists of an integrated set of services covering Professional

Consultancy, e-Business Solutions, Systems Integration, Project Management,

Strategic Outsourcing, Business Intelligence Services, Enterprise Resource Planning,

Customer Relationship Management, and Education & Training. These services are

individually tailored to meet specific customer needs and the unit thrives on providing

value added customer service and business benefits through its well-developed

intellectual capital.

InfoTech is committed to keeping the customer’s interest first by being vendor agnostic

and cultivating partnerships with leading global technology manufacturers. We are

partner of choice for global IT giants including but not limited to the following:

CISCO

Oracle

Microsoft

IBM

McAfee

Barracuda

Computer Associates (CA)

Fortinet

Emerson

APC

2. National & International Clients List

3. InfoTech Details

N a m e o f F i r m : InfoTech Pr ivate L imitedY e a r o f I n c o r p o r a t i o n : 1995N a t u r e o f F i r m : Private L imited Company

H e a d O f f i c e :

12-N Gulberg- I I ,Lahore-54660Tel : +92-42 111-427-427,Fax : +92-42-587 2265URL : www.infotechgroup.com

S u b s i d i a r i e s :

Afr icaInfoTech Afr ica Ltd.Opeibea House, 37 L iberat ion RoadAccra, Ghana.Tel : +233 21 774994Fax: +233 21 775575

DubaiInfoTech Middle East FZ-LLC, UAEOff ice 317, DIC Bui ld ing 9, Dubai Internet C ity , Dubai , UAETel : +9714-364 4624

SingaporeINFOTECH GLOBAL PTE LTD3 Shenton Way, #24-05 Shenton House, S ingapore 068805Tel : +65 6276 2301

B r a n c h e s :

Is lamabad4th F loor, Waheed Plaza, P lot No. 52 West ,B lue Area, I s lamabadTel : +92-51 2604637-9

KarachiOff ice No. 101, Ibrahim Al i Bhai Tower, B lock 7/8, Shahrah-e-Faisa l , Karachi .Tel : +92-21 111-427-427

M a i n A r e a s o f E x p e r t i s e :

Technology Consult ing Technology Infrastructure Outsourc ing Solut ions Training Solut ions

C e r t i f i c a t i o n s ISO 9001:2000 ISO/IEC 27001:2005ISO 9000:2008

P a r t n e r s h i p : CISCO Systems MICROSOFT ORACLE IBM VMWARE

Computer Associates

3.1 InfoTech Staffing – Domestic

Lahore Karachi Islamabad TOTAL1- Management Staff 24 4 2 302-Technical Staff 70 30 12 1083-Sales Staff 12 24 4 404-Administration 13 9 4 26TOTAL 119 67 22 208

3.2 InfoTech Staffing – International

Middle east Singapore Africa TOTAL1- Management Staff 1 1 1 32-Technical Staff 2 1 33-Sales Staff 1 1 1 34-Administration 1 1 1 3TOTAL 5 3 3 12

3.3 Financial Capacity of the Company

Financial Information Historical information for the previous three yearsYear 1 (PKR) Year 2 (PKR) Year 3 (PKR)

Information from Balance Sheet:1. Total Revenue (TR)

1,764,472,846 1,445,849,732 1,177,249,902

2. Profit Before Taxes (PBT)

1,458,806 55,530,395 83,024,713

Net Worth (1)-(3) 248,324,071 254,543,509 216,161,095

4. SIPOC Diagram

Supplier(s) Inputs/Requiremen

ts

Process Steps Output(s)/Requirements

Customer(s)

CISCOORACLE

IBMMICROSOFTBARRACUDACOMPUTER ASSOCIATES

FORTINETEMERSON

APC

Once the project is qualified means to

identify the requirement

of the customer

then it will go for the input

of the relevant

business unit. And if the

business unit agrees to go

for the project then it will go for

further processes otherwise the project

will quit.

After the submission of the

project to the customer, they compared the

technical proposal with the

competitors and evaluate it. And if

the companies scored the passing

marks then financial proposal is compared. Then

the project is awarded to the

lowest price vendor. So the

winner will take all the

responsibilities of the project which is mentioned in

their proposals. If the company will not deliver as per

customer requirement then

the customer is able to penalize

the company through financials.

After the decision of the Business Unit, then

the requirements go to the technical team, which will work on the

requirements of the customer and making

a best possible and cost effective solution. After this get done it

will go for the approval from Finance

Department for financials and then go

for the operation department in which they will discuss the

delivery time period of the hardware and

software.

After all the processes get done which is

mentioned above, the final proposal

is ready to be submitted to the customer both technically and

financially.

5. Flow Chart Diagram

6. Environmental Uncertainty

6.1 Supply uncertainty

Suppliers are not consistent in meeting their requirements.There are two types of supplier that InfoTech have i.e.

Local Suppliers International Suppliers

However, if InfoTech has their requirement and there is no availability of the product in local market then they go for international supplier. As they are the partners of international brands i.e. IBM, Huawei, Oracle, Microsoft etc. from them they have no issues regarding meeting the requirements from InfoTech. But on the other side as per customer requirement the local vendors, they would not have what they want.They do inspect incoming critical materials from their both local and international suppliers. As InfoTech is ISO certified so they have very strict inspecting system. Every product that is ordered to the vendor have part or serial number for claiming future warranties. For International suppliers the rejection rate of critical materials from suppliers is one percent, this one percent is only happened when there is something a technical mistake e.g. if they ordered product Qty. =1 instead of 2. However, there is the same rejection rate from local suppliers. The Rejection is low because InfoTech only order the product once they have confirmed from the customer.

6.2 Demand uncertainty

The variation of demand as compared to their forecast is depend on the customer requirement. Firstly demand comes from the customer then order will be placed. InfoTech has not consumer market they only deal with enterprise market, so when the order comes, then the order is placed further to the vendor. E.g. if the company wants to upgrade their system they will contact with different vendors to solve their issues or their needs and the best solution will be awarded.InfoTech only placed orders after deciding with the customer. They are strictly relying on purchase orders, once the purchase order is received by the company it means order is confirmed by the customer. And if the customer wants to change their demand after releasing PO, it is difficult to change but if the order is not placed to the suppliers then it will be amended as per their requirement otherwise not.InfoTech do keep inventories of critical materials to meet uncertain demand. They only keep the inventories for their customers when they have service level agreement with the customer for only a specific product which is mentioned in the contract for maintenance. They have a system in which they maintain a number of stocks for 24/7 support for their

SLA`s customers. If they don`t have any stock regarding any part of the product they will arrange that part which is goes down within twelve hours.

6.3 Technology uncertainty

As technologies are advancing day by day, information technology industry is very much influenced by changing in technologies. As the model of technology is changing very fast, InfoTech is changing with the technology to gain a competitive advantage. Their technical resources are also the part of it because they are responsible for developing a solution for customers to increase their efficiency with cost effective solution. As now customer is trying to understand the concept of technology due to which they have awareness about it, which creates a new businesses in the market and now they think that technology brings efficiency in their company and it is also helpful for reducing their costs to gain more profit. So that InfoTech launched their own products to meet the customer requirements and to create a competitive advantage in the market. Below are their products:-

Capizar – Capital Market Technology G-Reg – eGovernment Solutions T360 – Tax & Revenue Suite

7. Top Management Commitment & Strategic Planning

7.1 Competitive priorities

InfoTech product strategy is more towards quality performance but not price so much because customer is more satisfy by the performance of the system, if the system is getting down due to any reason it will affect all over the company processes so that they will go for quality performance not for price as much. InfoTech is the solution provider so that they are more focused on meeting variety of customer needs but if there is a big deal and a lot of competitors then they will provide products at low price it will only depends on the nature of the project and by the mutual decision of the management to lower the prices or not.

7.2 Top management support

Top management of the company is very much aware of the placed orders. It depends on the size of the orders To Whom It May Concern. If the value of the order is big then the top management (CEO, Directors, VPs) plays an important role in delivering the order to the customer as committed, after evaluating the big project with team discussion then it will be decided by the management whether to execute or not. Top management sees supply chain as the backbone of the company because they execute the orders as well as the business deals which helps the company to grow more. InfoTech environment is slightly different as compared to the other organizations. They called the top management meetings as “Project Meetings”. If the project is finalized by the management then they will go to discuss it with the operation department about delivering of the order to the customer means delivery time for further commitments. Further commitments includes deadline of the project, delivery of the product on certain time period, quantity & quality of the product and after sale services. After that, it is finalized by the team whether to execute the project or not. Once it get done then it will go for the review to CEO. Top management is very supportive in fulfilling the supply chain department`s demand because this department is the back bone of the company. As they are responsible for delivering the orders to the customer on given time period if they do not do so then the company have to pay the penalty.

8. Customer FocusInfoTech do make efforts to identify the needs and wants of the customer because they are the solution provider and have consultants to provide best solution. Once there is the opportunity like revamp of the enterprise system, this opportunity will be evolved by the sales department after that their solution architect or consultant will suggest the best solution for their need to satisfy the customers. The Quality of the product meets the customer’s expectations, but that is not always the case because sometimes the expectation of the customer will not meet because either the feedback from the customer`s end is little blurry or either the scope is not clearly defined by the customer but sometimes customer lack of knowledge jeopardize the project but we try to fix this issue by making sure we collect the right data from customers end. The feedback from customers end is not taken as much because we always deliver the product as per customer requirement but from some important customer who we think can help us grow and expand our business and help us get more customers, we do get feedback from them for future businesses if the customer is satisfy with them they will give more business to them. Again the quality of the product is linked with the above mentioned answer as we are more of a quality oriented and service based company so yes we try our level best to make sure that the quality of the product is not compromised as if the quality lacks customer expectation then there is a high probability that customer will shift to any other company as there are numerous competitors present in market waiting for opportunities.

9. Use of Information Technology

InfoTech have different types of communication system to communicate with the key suppliers below are the modes of sharing information:-

Emails Telephonic conversation Video Conferencing (Skype etc.)

They are using electronic medium i.e. Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) for generating invoices and purchase orders through which they have records of their documents.ERP software is used by them for tracking their orders and shipments e.g. as order is place to IBM online after getting confirmation of the order. After all the processes gets done from the InfoTech internally the order is placed to the vendor online after that they can track their order easily and know whether it is shipped or not or where the product is?.

10.Supplier Relationship Management

10.1 Supply network structure

As InfoTech has a centralized decision system so that the decision is made through proper hierarchy. InfoTech are the partner of the suppliers with different partnership levels. The relationships with key suppliers are partnership based. The company communicates important information to the key suppliers only when they needed.

10.2 Supply base reduction

InfoTech do believe in having large number of suppliers for parts for having a healthy competition among the suppliers. They have SOPs for selection of the suppliers. Below are the points that have been mentioned by the Supply chain manager:-

Quality assurance ISO certified suppliers Lead time Ease of Payment Prices

For International suppliers like IBM, Oracle, Cisco, Microsoft etc., InfoTech have distributor agreement with them. These international suppliers have signed a multinational agreement in which they give the level of partnership to the company (Tier-1, Tier -2 etc.). On the other side they have no contract with local suppliers but have only decided terms and conditions with them verbally. It all depends on the relationship with the local suppliers.

10.3 Long term relationship

InfoTech do except the long term partnership with suppliers. As manager said that IBM is one of the oldest and first partner of the company. They build a very good relationship with the suppliers so that it helps them in executing the projects. However, because of the bad political environment in the Pakistan many International suppliers are not relying on us. They asked for the payment first for further proceedings of the product. The companies do not train their suppliers however they want their suppliers to have following characteristics:-

ISO certified Not being blacklisted GST & NTN etc.

InfoTech do not share the rewards with their supplier but on the other hand suppliers do that, if the company achieved the targets or any other commitments, the supplier then will give rewards to the company in the form of partnership level or more discounts in the closure of the project.

10.4 CommunicationInfoTech do not share information of the company with the suppliers. They do only share the information which is not against the company policies. About profit margins or any information regarding finance is not share with them. The suppliers and the company do not talk on a regular basis so if any information comes up which the company thinks is sufficient enough to share with the supplier, the company then tells to the supplier. In most of the cases the information is kept quite confidential.InfoTech do timely inform their suppliers about different changes in the account to become more efficient and work effectively which helps them to capture the market and satisfy the customer. They have a large number of suppliers and they interact with them once in a six months. They only shares the performance feedbacks with their suppliers if they deliver the product which is not compatible as per customer requirement or which is ordered them.

Cross functional teamsInfoTech have different business units, they have a constant co relation with different teams and collaborate each other as per nature of the project. They do not organize joint planning committees with their suppliers because they only order the product that is finalized by the

customer with them but on other hand they have planning with their suppliers about the sales & products which they offer.

10.5 Supplier involvement

As InfoTech have competitive technical resources in the market, so they do not involve their suppliers in decisions because the prime job of the technical is to build a solution in an efficient and cost effective manner. This decision is made by the technical architecture department as they tells about the structure of the project and how much products is used to complete the project. So that we only order those products to the supplier.It depends on the nature of the project whether it will be executed abroad or local. If the project will be executed internationally then the International representative of the supplier will guide because they knows the inside out of the culture and the particular environment so that they can easily be understandable by the international customer. The key suppliers are not involved in the business strategy planning phase as the top management thinks that they don’t want to share their strategic planning with the suppliers as they think that no matter how important or crucial the supplier it is against the company policy to share such information which is regarding growth of the business as the competition is quite fierce and the company don’t want to jeopardize the ongoing business.

10.6 Logistics integration

InfoTech Private Limited is integrated in both ways as manager quoted an example the order comes up from customer and we receive the order, then the company contacts its vendors/suppliers to make sure they get the right product at right time. The supplier simply ships the desired product to InfoTech and then the company delivers the product to the end customer. This is basically an example of In-transit Merge Network. The logistics activities are very much integrated with key suppliers as key supplier’s ships the order we gave to them to us and we then ship it further to end consumers. Below is the diagram which helps understand the concept of how the working is done in brief manner, we have above shown the material flow diagram,

Basically what happens is that InfoTech will win the project of either cisco or oracle or any other product and then the respective company will deliver the product within the given time frame like 4/6 weeks and so, once the raw material is received by the InfoTech they first will send the

product to the support and quality assurance team to make sure the product quality is fine and any issues aren’t there, once they are done then the product will be delivered to the customers and not only that complete configuration will be provided by the computer experts to its customers and a pre contract will be signed by the customers and the company that the company will provide services for 3 years and if any problem occurs during that time period the company is responsible for that.

11.Supply chain performance The performance of InfoTech in terms of following performance measures compared with the closest competitors.

Volume flexibilityThe volume flexibility according to the manager is better. The thing is company do not stock the product but they work when the order arrives so the company don’t do make to stock but they follow make to order process. The company that is why doesn’t bother about volume as they have to work when they receive orders.

Delivery speed & reliabilityIt is good but it is subject to availability. It also depends on the manufacturing of the supplier. Sometimes bigger project is easily delivered to the end customer and sometimes one part takes more time to deliver. The thing is that delivery time of products varies i.e. Delivery time of Cisco is 4-6 weeks which needs to be improved in our opinion.

Product conformanceProduct conformance is based on the customer requirement. As per their requirement firstly the product is comply with their requirement before placing an order to the supplier. The product conformance according to the manager is better as the company make sure that whatever the product they receive from suppliers end is good and for that purpose a support team is there in the company which makes sure that the product is good and satisfies the expectation.

Product costsProduct costs vary region wise because if the product is delivered to far places it will cost more and vice versa. It also varies customer to customer and projects. Product cost according to supply chain manager is good and the cost is incurred on the product is reasonable and the company is enjoying good profit margin.

Customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is very much important for them because InfoTech is renowned as a solution provider in the IT industry. This is a very critical performance measure point and according to the supply chain manager customer satisfaction is better. Thing is that the supplier doesn’t sell directly to the customer, they provide the product to InfoTech and we then ship to the end user so it is very important for us to make sure that the customer is satisfied because if he won’t then he might switch to other competitor and the company certainly don’t want to lose their customers at any cost.

12.Recommendations

After completing this project here we would like to mention some recommendations so that the company scrutinizes them and implement them in order to make sure they become more competitive in the market and be cost effective and more quality oriented towards its customers.

The one major recommendation we would like to write is that they need to work on their “Lead time”. The lead the time required for a product to arrive at InfoTech is around 4-6 weeks and in some products the lead time is around 6-8 weeks which is not as efficient as these days’ competitors are becoming more responsive and they are facilitating their customers in a more efficient way. After talking interview of supply chain manager we have also come to know that some customers have shifted to other companies because Lead time is a major issue here in InfoTech. So the company needs to reduce the lead time so that they become more efficient and effective.

Also we have found out that the joint planning committees with the key suppliers are done 1 in 6 months. The company needs to work on those meetings more often and have to involve key suppliers when making any strategic business decisions as the input from suppliers end can help them grow and expand their business in a more rapid way. As suppliers information can help them boost their expansion and growth.

Lastly they need to give training to their employees more often. As some employees don’t have the complete product knowledge and they are not so familiar with IT changes that are done these days, in order to survive in the market the employees need to be trained and this can be done by conducting training sessions, seminars and others activities that will help boost employees knowledge and will indirectly help company in gaining more sales and competitive advantage.