Introduction

Hertfordshire Catering Ltd (HCL) is one of the leading companies in selling fresh, local, and seasonal food and buffets to schools and colleges, as well as offering a wide range of quality catering services to academics. Day by day volume of the selling is decreased and complaints against their product and services are increased. This study will discuss initiatives taken by the company to improve their product and services to retain customer satisfaction. Here will be discussed the integration of data information and analysis of data for the performance of the company.

Main body

Hertfordshire Catering Ltd has faced major issues like losing its prestige in the field of fresh food and catering services due to its poor performance and poor operational skills. It is found that customers lose confidence in their products day by day because of their poor quality. Nowadays it is found that customer retention of Hertfordshire catering ltd has decreased day by day due to their lack of services on time. Continuous delay in providing services to the customer is one of the major reasons for customer dissatisfaction in the company. Hertfordshire catering ltd online sales system is not sufficient for the recent highly competitive market in food supply and catering services, whereas other online food supplies and catering services adopt more and more upgraded systems to provide online food supply and catering services. They cannot maintain their food quality as they provided before. For these reasons, day by day customer satisfaction with their product and services is decreasing. Telesales operation of Hertfordshire catering ltd was fail to connect customers based on fresh food and catering services with the company.

Continuous failure of engaging more volume of product and services of any company with more volume of people is the major causes of failure of any company. The same principle is applicable for the Hertfordshire catering limited where they fail to engage people with their product and services for a long period. As cited by Wu and Lin (2018), Poor customer experience is one of the major issues of failure of Hertfordshire catering ltd. In catering services businesses poor experience gained by the customer from services provided by the caterers is very harmful where customers do not return to the caterer for next time. Practicing these poor services again and again by the caterer is the main reason for the decline of any catering services business. One customer gave poor reviews on social media and other online platforms if he gained a poor experience by the company and the same thing happened in the case of Hertfordshire catering ltd. Customers become unhappy by poor experience which consists of many causes like rude and hostile behavior of the service provider, serving product and services in delay, mix up in orders, product quality and taste and many other issues. Poor staff management in Hertfordshire catering limited is one of the important issues of customer dissatisfaction in the company. Disgruntled and unhappy employees are the causes of the reputation of any catering services business. Setting goals and targets for every individual employee is the only solution to eliminate these problems. The complex menu is another important issue of Hertfordshire catering ltd company’s declining prestige. A large and diverse menu is not only confusing to the customer but also a difficult task to maintain properly for catering services and fresh food-based companies. The conflict between top management officials is one of the major issues that have arisen in recent times in the Hertfordshire catering ltd company.

Importance of ERP and big data analysis in the coordination and integration of data information

ERP and big data analysis are considered to be two useful tools that are beneficial in developing organizational operational and logistic performance. As cited by Chehbi-Gamoura et al. (2020), for the progress of a company, employees need proper direction and guidance by the top management official according to their ability and skill. In any company coordination and integration starts at the top level of executives and carry down to the lower-level employees who work at the frontline of the company. As cited by Aryal et al. (2018), new ideas, strategy, and proper direction are the results of better coordination and integration among the top-level officials in any company. Implementation of a new strategy by Hertfordshire catering ltd according to their plans is easy if better coordination and integration exist in top-level officials of the company. Hertfordshire catering limited not interested in running physical stores for selling their products and decided to shift entirely from physical store to online store. Without coordination, decisions and actions taken by the manager can damage the reputation of the company and also damage profitability and market share.

Table 1: Benefits of ERP

(Source: Aryal et al. 2018)

Employees led by a decision-maker in the proper direction are possible by the existence of better coordination and integration among employees. Employees in a company lose faith in the manager if he fails in the implementation of company strategy and if the employees feel uncomfortable with the manager asking any questions or queries. This occurred due to a lack of coordination and integration between employees and managers. As cited by Mishra (2018), lack of coordination and integration among employees is the cause of lower productivity, communication, long-term financial stability, reputation, and market share of a company. Lack of coordination and integration causes the lack of proper direction to complete a task at a particular time which leads to the delay in services to the customer. In any service-based industry especially in fresh food and catering, services coordination and integration are the most important elements. As cited by Nguyen et al. (2018), coordination and integration play a significant role to maintain the sustainable development of a company like Hertfordshire catering limited. Coordination and integration create an open and inclusive work culture which increases the productivity and efficiency of the employees who are the important element of any company. Service integration management ensures better coordination among service-related activities in Hertfordshire catering limited companies. Integration is defined as the process of developing a governance structure by the employees.

Services are the potential sources of a company to take competitive advantage from the market and increase its market share. Coordination and integration in different activities in a food and catering service-based company like Hertfordshire catering limited are very important to capture market potential and transform a small enterprise into an outperform company. Integration and coordination of data and information in different sectors of Hertfordshire catering limited also help in achieving organizational goals in the online market. As cited by Shamout (2019), in an organization ESP and supply chain management has an important role to build and maintain a strong supply chain for the company. Coordination and integration between ESP and supply chain management are important in the integration of different activities both outside and inside of a supply chain.

ERP is a system that generates the effective information and data required for the operational and functional process of a company. ERP also helps catering service-based companies like Hertfordshire catering limited to maintain its operational excellence which is necessary to customer retention and job satisfaction of the employees. A company becomes more productive when it can maintain operational excellence in its different sectors. Integrated information like ESP helps an enterprise in maintaining a better working process. Many organizations Hertfordshire catering limited is one of them which face different challenges due to lack of understanding of the critical role of ERP system capabilities.

In a survey, it is found that both scholars and practitioners are interested in practicing big data analysis and analyzing the importance of it to maintain excellent performance. As cited by Srivastava et al. (2019), nowadays application of big data analysis (ABDA) has become the most important element for the success of an organization. Day by day investment in application in big data analysis is increasing, because many multinational companies are interested in investing billions of dollars in this department across the world. They realize the potential in the application in big data analysis which brings billion dollar profit for their organization. Due to this high operational and strategic potential billionaires realize that investing in the application in big data analysis becomes the game changer for their organization. Owners of multinational companies realize that ABDA is the most important factor for a company to achieve long-term goals. As cited by Anitha and Patil (2018), organizations gain a competitive advantage from the market by investing in applications in big data analysis, so they are interested in organizing research studies about applications in big data analysis and pay high salaries to the experts of application of big data analysis. There is significant evidence that big data is related to academic activities and a little significance in knowledge management practices. As cited by Darvazeh et al. (2020), there are a significant relation between application in big data analysis (ABDA) and knowledge management practices (KMP). To fill up the voice or gap in education and literature experts of research study develop a research-based theory. Application of big data analysis explains the link between different elements in an organization like analytical tools, data, value comes from knowledge management practices, increases efficiency as well as increases the organizational performance. An organization can get a competitive advantage from the market if they give importance to all of their resources, but all resources do have not the same value. As cited by Mišić and Perakis (2020), a successful organization needs to understand the relationship between sources of advantages and successful strategies. Identifying the core competencies is more important for an organization to take competitive advantages from the market.

Based on the above discussion it is recommended that the techniques mentioned above are the most suitable technique for eliminating the problem and challenges that arise in the Hertfordshire catering limited. There are many benefits of ERP in the coordination and integration of different activities in an organization. The most important benefit of ERP in small businesses is the flow of information. It also helps in maintaining the company’s general ledger related to different financial systems. ERP also helps in the increase in productivity of an organization and maintains consistency in the work process and saves time. In a service-based industry, any organization needs to reduce manufacturing and operational cost.

ESP helps an organization to reduce operational and manufacturing costs. One of the most important benefits of ESP software in the service-based industry is to maintain flexibility according to market needs. Important and useless data are collected and rejected easily by ESP software. ESP also helps an organization in increasing their sales and long-term planning related to organizational performance. ESP system also helps an organization in maintaining consistency and work process throughout the organization. ESP also helps in increasing profitability and customer satisfaction which is important for companies’ long-term progress (Srivastava et al. 2019). One of the most important benefits of the ESPsystem is in decision-making. ESP software helps in decision-making by the higher authorities in an organization. The application of big data analysis also helps in increases in productivity of the company. The application of big data analysis also helps an organization in taking competitive advantage of the market.

Conclusion

Based on the above discussion it is concluded that ESP and big data analysis are the most effective methods in coordination and integration in data information. Based on the above discussion it can be concluded that Hertfordshire catering limited company should follow the following method to collect necessary data for growth and customer retention. In the discussion mentioned above, it will be concluded that what initiatives are taken by the company for their sustainable growth and retain excellence of performance. From the above discussion, it will be company should use the ESP software and gathering knowledge about its different function.

Reference

Anitha, P. and Patil, M.M., 2018. A review on data analytics for supply chain management: a case study. International Journal of Information Engineering and Electronic Business, 10(5), p.30. Available at: http://j.mecs-press.net/ijieeb/ijieeb-v10-n5/IJIEEB-V10-N5-5.pdf

Arunachalam, D., Kumar, N. and Kawalek, J.P., 2018. Understanding big data analytics capabilities in supply chain management: Unravelling the issues, challenges and implications for practice. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 114, pp.416-436.Available at https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/143071/1/Final%20accepted%20Manuscript%20-%20TRE.pdf

Aryal, A., Liao, Y., Nattuthurai, P. and Li, B., 2018. The emerging big data analytics and IoT in supply chain management: a systematic review. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal.Available at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ying-Liao-6/publication/329717786_The_emerging_big_data_analytics_and_IoT_in_supply_chain_management_a_systematic_review_Supply_Chain_Management_An_International_Journal/links/5c28e2a3299bf12be3a323b4/The-emerging-big-data-analytics-and-IoT-in-supply-chain-management-a-systematic-review-Supply-Chain-Management-An-International-Journal.pdf

Chaudhuri, A., Dukovska-Popovska, I., Subramanian, N., Chan, H.K. and Bai, R., 2018. Decision-making in cold chain logistics using data analytics: a literature review. The International Journal of Logistics Management.Available at https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/files/319297413/IJLM.pdf

Chehbi-Gamoura, S., Derrouiche, R., Damand, D. and Barth, M., 2020. Insights from big Data Analytics in supply chain management: an all-inclusive literature review using the SCOR model. Production Planning & Control, 31(5), pp.355-382.Available at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Samia-Gamoura/publication/334520281_Insights_from_big_Data_Analytics_in_supply_chain_management_an_all-inclusive_literature_review_using_the_SCOR_model/links/5ff72c7a299bf140887d5af6/Insights-from-big-Data-Analytics-in-supply-chain-management-an-all-inclusive-literature-review-using-the-SCOR-model.pdf

Darvazeh, S.S., Vanani, I.R. and Musolu, F.M., 2020. Big data analytics and its applications in supply chain management. New Trends in the Use of Artificial Intelligence for the Industry 4.0, p.175. Available at https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202111.0117/download/final_file

Frame, J.D. and Chen, Y., 2018. Why Data Analytics in Project Management? (pp. 7-22). Auerbach Publications.Available at http://213.160.139.43/uploads/l_1811_74081967.pdf#page=20

Mishra, N., 2018. Internet of Everything Advancement Study in Data Science and Knowledge Analytic Streams. International Journal of Scientific Research in computer science and Engineering, 6(1), pp.30-36.Available at https://www.academia.edu/download/56407692/4-IJSRCSE-0687.pdf

Mišić, V.V. and Perakis, G., 2020. Data analytics in operations management: A review. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 22(1), pp.158-169. Available at https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/pdf/10.1287/msom.2019.0805

Nguyen, T., Li, Z.H.O.U., Spiegler, V., Ieromonachou, P. and Lin, Y., 2018. Big data analytics in supply chain management: A state-of-the-art literature review. Computers & Operations Research, 98, pp.254-264.Available at https://www.academia.edu/download/60735905/Predicting_customer_demand_forremanufactured_products_-_A_data_mining_approach20190929-100829-33zph4.pdf

Shamout, M.D., 2019. Does supply chain analytics enhance supply chain innovation and robustness capability?. Organizacija, 52(2).Available at http://organizacija.fov.uni-mb.si/index.php/organizacija/article/download/983/1257

Sodero, A., Jin, Y.H. and Barratt, M., 2019. The social process of Big Data and predictive analytics use for logistics and supply chain management. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management.Available at https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1336&context=mgmt_fac

Srivastava, C., Yang, Z. and Jain, R.K., 2019. Understanding the adoption and usage of data analytics and simulation among building energy management professionals: A nationwide survey. Building and Environment, 157, pp.139-164. Available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/am/pii/S0360132319302604

Wu, P.J. and Lin, K.C., 2018. Unstructured big data analytics for retrieving e-commerce logistics knowledge. Telematics and Informatics, 35(1), pp.237-244. Available at https://e-tarjome.com/storage/panel/fileuploads/2019-04-08/1554712310_E10850-e-tarjome.pdf

Yan, Z., Ismail, H., Chen, L., Zhao, X. and Wang, L., 2019. The application of big data analytics in optimizing logistics: a developmental perspective review. Journal of Data, Information and Management, 1(1), pp.33-43.Available at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Zengwen-Yan/publication/334079229_The_application_of_big_data_analytics_in_optimizing_logistics_a_developmental_perspective_review/links/5d1ee4ba458515c11c1299ef/The-application-of-big-data-analytics-in-optimizing-logistics-a-developmental-perspective-review.pdf

Yan, Z., Ismail, H., Chen, L., Zhao, X. and Wang, L., 2019. The application of big data analytics in optimizing logistics: a developmental perspective review. Journal of Data, Information and Management, 1(1), pp.33-43.Available at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Zengwen-Yan/publication/334079229_The_application_of_big_data_analytics_in_optimizing_logistics_a_developmental_perspective_review/links/5d1ee4ba458515c11c1299ef/The-application-of-big-data-analytics-in-optimizing-logistics-a-developmental-perspective-review.pdf