Zara It for Fast Fashion Case Notes

Yes, I would upgrade both the POS terminal and modernize the operating system. With Dos being outdated and no longer being supported by the IT industry Zara has an unnecessary business risk. Zara supports the IT requirements with an in-house team, they are supporting an archaic system which limits their ability to be proactive. Should the system go down and the in-house team determines that either

Yes, the POS terminals were out-dated and were being backed by DOS operating system which Microsoft no longer supported. They are running a risk of the product becoming obsolete and being unable to maintain support from vendors. Up-to-date operating system would provide more user friendly mechanisms, more functionality, thus allowing effective communication between stores and headquarters. New modern operating systems would allow simple standardisation and sharing of data across the board. Modern operating systems also provide more security platforms (such as credit card details), inventory management, and report generation for decision making. Also it allows real time transactions to be recorded.

In order for the host systems to receive the real time updates, the severs at the Delmar and Lajolla stores will also need updated. Both stores are using Windows NT Server which is another system that is over ten years old. The built in modem that is installed and cd rom is unless to the company at this point because there are newer and faster products that will be installed on the new server. The

In This case we see the typical problem which affect big Companies : the conflict between old style and new school of thought. We analyze Zara’s information Technology strategies and the diatribe between Salgado, The Head of the Department and Sanchez , his assistant,s concern upgrading the operating system and the implementation of a new IT system to fulfill the needs of a fast growing retail chain. Despite the fact that Zara is over performing in their core business and that they are not showing big problems inside their structure, this shouldn’t be seen as a pretense to dodge updating the Software. Here we

For retailers, P&G has developed a sophisticated ordering application whereby retailers can now order via wired phone or wirelessly via a mobile

Second, in fulfillment, we can also see speed in responding to demand. For example, the replenishment, as well as production will be optimized according to supply and demand as quickly as possible. Besides, the fulfillment will commonly completed in one or two days, clothes flowed quickly, and without stopping, from factories to DCs to stores, where they were immediately put on the sales floor. Third, in design and manufacturing, we can find how Zara respond quickly to demand. Zara brought out new items continuously throughout the year, including both changes to existing garments and entirely new creations. The network of production had made design from conception through production and into the DC in as little as three weeks. Besides, Zara did not have to predict what would be selling six months, or even one month, in the future; it could continuously sense what customers wanted to buy and respond “on the fly.” All these operations reflect the speed-chasing and target-oriented nature of Zara business.

point of sale system. The POS system is a perpetual inventory counting method that electronically records items immediately upon their point of sale (Stevenson, 2015, pg. 552). In other words, as a cashier scans a customer 's groceries, each scanned item is automatically recorded in the system and deducted from the store’s inventory. Implementing a point of sale would benefit a business’s inventory management function in several ways. First, the POS system will provide managers with a continuous flow of updated information (Stevenson, 2015, pg. 552). As a result, the information will provide more accuracy when used for sales forecasts and analysis, which substantially affect inventory decisions. Continuously, this inventory system would also allow greater flexibility in the sense that it can be wirelessly linked to the main company’s inventory system, creating a network of the company’s inventory systems. The POS system is capable of tracking many operations at once and can be modified according to management’s needs (MacCarthy, n.d.). This flexibility would undoubtedly benefit a large company like Wegman’s with many store locations. Lastly, the system is able to help businesses maintain a high level of customer service. Because the system gives customers a receipt with the price and quantity of each item purchased, the customer is able to see exactly what he or she purchased. This practice

Zara’s IT was positioned in the support mode quadrant on the IT strategic impact grid. This demonstrates that Zara's leadership team understood that their corporate strategy focused on the expansion of the number of stores selling of high fashion, short life span clothing to young fashion conscious, city dwellers. There was a relatively low need for reliability and strategic IT, it simply existed to support employees activities (Nolan and McFarlan, 2005). By implementing a new POS system Zara could potentially have come up against the following key risks:

It might not be in the retailer’s best interest to perform such upgrade, as the new system will replace three of the existing legacy systems in terms of ordering and fulfillment. The IS department will perceive such upgrade as a radical move and is expected to show high resistance in response to it. Even though Zara has a decentralized decision making process, the retailer’s IS department exercises absolute autonomy on the IT infrastructure and design. The fact that “only one person had left the department” in the past 10 years further confirms that the retailer is suffering from cognitive and action inertia, and thus creating a huge barrier for such

The Spanish retail chain Zara has unique supply chain management practices that enable it to gain a competitive advantage over other fashion retailers in the industry. Zara’s rapid response time enables the firm to quickly respond to changing fashions while deliberately under producing products. This strategy, which is supported by competencies in logistic management, design and information systems, allows the company to maintain less inventory and higher profit margins and is a key factor to Zara’s success. The firm should continue to add value by seeking new opportunities to expand in the retail market and maintain their sustainable growth.

The supply chain from raw material to consumer it's from design and production to distribution and retailing. Zara has unique and rabid supply chain today. Design and production are internal process and are done in company. At Zara's headquarters, there are creative teams of three hundred professionals doing a design process. They responsible for design the designs which will satisfy customer needs and keep pace with fashion. Zara can take a product from concept through design, manufacturing, and store-shelf placement in as

“Zara – IT or Fast Fashion” is a case prepared at Harvard Business School, by Andrew McAfee, Vincent Dessian, and Anders Sjoman. Zara is a fashion clothing line under the multinational clothing retailer and manufacturer Intidex. The case opens with a discussion between Xan Salgado Badas (Head of IT for Intidex) and Bruno Sanchez Ocampo a subordinate, on whether or not to update the current existing Windows DOS based POS (Point of Sale) terminals with advanced Windows operating system. The paper further details the business model and IT dependency. We try to analyze the current business model, its IT dependency, and why and how it needs to upgrade its IT infrastructure.

A point of sales system is another great addition to nay growing business. The POS has many functions. The POS will contain a register for purchases, have the ability to track reports and menu maintenance, improve service speed, and enhance customer service. To increase service speed, the POS efficiently makes order entries that are then transferred to the kitchen. This results in fewer mistakes and the ability to track ticket and wait times. The system also has the function of splitting checks and makes card processing simple. This ensures more seat turnover and shorter wait times for the customers. In return this has the potential to increase revenue at every service. POS can create loyalty programs that ensure repeat customers and generate more sales of gift cards. POS provides operational control that analyzes “detailed reports to drill down on sales, server and restaurant performance” (NCR 2013). A software like ALOHA also provides a training interface that allows new employees to learn the system quickly. This reduces the cost a restaurant would ultimately have to pay on training new employees. The ALOHA system is very up to date with new technology trends, providing mobile and digital signage and cloud based solutions and social technologies. The variety of functions in a point of sales system makes it very attractive to new restaurant owners. The cost of a POS can range hundreds to thousands of dollars based on the size of the

The new online ordering system will give customers a full preview of our services, along with pricing options and discount offers. When customers do decide to make a purchase, the website will open a page that is secured by VeriSign, will have an online transaction processing schema and will prompt for their name, basic information, shipping address, payment option and billing information. Verification will be necessary for some of their more personal information, and if customers have any questions about the system, there will be hyperlinks at the bottom of every page that read, “Contact Us” and will

Amancio Ortega, had a simple idea of linking customer demand to manufacturing and manufacturing with distribution, when creating ZARA in 1975 in la Coruña, Spain Zara came under the holding company Inditex in the year 1985 and is today the biggest fashion brand of the group. Zara believes that the prime factors for running a successful business are quick response to customers, use of computers, and disintegrated decision-making (McAfee, Dessain, & Sjoman, 2007)