Analysis

COLLABORATION

The way business collaborate is a key of success for every business. The GNC store is fairly small in terms of size and there are a very low number of employees. Therefore, no extreme measures of collaborations are needed. Basic communications consist of phone calls and text messages to coordinate job procedures properly.  Once a month GNC holds meetings with their employees to talk about sales numbers for that month compared to the previous month; it is called BLY. The reason these meetings are held is to determine if the sales quota was achieved for the month and also talk about new strategies to increase sales.

SILOS

Information silos are a huge concern in terms of the effectiveness of how businesses are run. A silo is when there is a lack of communication between information systems which can cause confusion. Since GNC is a corporate retail store every chain runs Oliver Solutions, a library management system. This information system provides sales, inventory control, and also allocates to train employees. This limits the amount of indirect communication of information leaving almost no silos to be present.

INFORMATION SYSTEM COMPONENTS

HARDWARE:

Hardware are the physical components that a software is generally run on, which can be comprised of anything ranging from computers, to printers, to mobile devices. Through these components, one can enter and process data to be displayed for the users choice.The hardware that GNC uses for their day-to-day operations is a standard Dell register computer. 

SOFTWARE:

The current operation system that GNC uses is Oliver Solutions, POS. The Oliver solutions system combines sales and in store inventory to be as one. The system lets the sales associate know if we have a certain product in stock, know the sale price of the item and even to see if another GNC store has that specific product. The system also allows to train employees by using set modules of products for the associate to know more about the products.

DATA: 

Oliver Solutions uses the information of customers to be able to accurately price products. This is because at GNC, one can become a member and as a member they get promotions and discounted prices on products as opposed to any non-members.sales. Once the sale is recorded, the sale goes to the inventory of the store where Oliver Solutions will automatically reorder and products in which the GNC is running low on. Through this data, monthly sales revenue and inventory is able to be tracked to see what products are selling and what products need to be pushed more to customers.

PROCEDURES:  

For daily procedures, managers give a “shrink list”, which is a list of the top ten most expensive products that are carried in the store. Employee need to  count the amount of product in the store for the list to make sure the number they get matches the same number kept in the Oliver information system. This is done to ensure the systems are accurate and up-to-date. When a new employee is hired, they have 60 days to complete all the modules about each product. In those 60 days, they only work with the manager to ensure they are getting the best possible training before being able to open and close the store.

PEOPLE:

GNC does background checks on all applicants before they are even considered for an interview. Once they are considered, two interviews are scheduled and a mandatory drug test. These interviews are first with the store manager and the second one with the Senior Store Manager. This ensures that GNC is hiring the right people for their openings. These people that apply usually have an extensive background in the supplement industry; whether it be they worked at other supplement stores or that they take supplements and vitamins themselves. This way product knowledge is already more advanced than someone who doesn’t know anything about the industry.