Case 1: How FedEx Works: Enterprise System

1. Question 1: List the business processes displayed in the video.

FedEx is a logistical service company specialized in transportation, e-commerce and business services. The success of FedEx lies on an efficient information system. The business process is as follows: A FedEx employee picks up the customer’s box and scans it so FedEx recognizes it. Now the product is registered and traceable. The product is then taken to a sorting center where it is classified according to its destination. The package is put on a belt where it is measured and a price tag is determined. In the next step, the packages are put into containers. These containers are loaded in aircrafts directed by a control
For example, FedEx could keep a track of every sales order for each client in order to customize its service and know better its client. Thus for Mr. A the data kept would be, the price he paid, the number of packages sent, the destination… Then a report could tell FedEx its most common destinations and help him order faster.
⎝ Last but not least, FedEx could use a Geographic information system (GIS), whose software can analyze and show data on digitized maps to help planning and decision-making. Thus the employee could see at what step is the packaging (storing, travelling, delivering…) and it would show how many steps before delivery by hand remain for a product.
Other systems are present like the ERP and its secondary systems (CRM…), but we will take a look at those systems next question.
To conclude, FedEx is highly based on IS as far as its sorting activity is concerned, and succeeds in “Mathematizing to the max”. Nevertheless, IS remain possible to exploit and FedEx might betterness its incredible performance.
Question 3: The system displayed in this video is an enterprise system. Why is this true? Explain your answer.
An Enterprise System, (or ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning) is, according to our class, a suite of integrated software modules and a common central database. It allows collecting data from many divisions of firm (Finance/accounting, Human resources, Manufacturing/production, and Sales/marketing) for use in nearly all of