Applied Business †Strand B Theory Essay

usable Areas deep down the furrowI am going to describe the bailiwick carried out by at least three useable atomic number 18as of Asda, I go away explain how these areas constitute together to support the course activeness and I give evaluate how effectively these functional areas work together to achieve the aims and objectives of the avocation. The areas I am going to investigate are finance, IT and marketing and gross sales.There are 7 main functional areas within businesses customer emoluments, administration and IT support, marketing and sales, human resources, enquiry and ripening, finance and operations. However non each(prenominal) businesses commit these areas. Sole traders might do e actually function by themselves and some businesses may intention single a few functional areas or make sure that employees are able to work in each functional areaIn large businesses bulk work together in these separate functional areas. The areas concentrate on and carr y out certain functions. All functional areas affaire together to achieve aims and objectives. Good communication and co-operation is needed.Functional areas tolerate be organised by charts much(prenominal) as the champion below.Fig. 1Customer receiptsCustomer service is concerned with customer relationships. Their activity is to identify and satisfy customer needs. They hand over culture, credit facilities, after sales service, deliver effectuals and compensate advice. Examples of this include, if a person has a problem with a new product such(prenominal) as a washing machine, so they go out phone up customer services and someone will pour forth them through what they nurture done so that they can try to correct the mistake such as not switching the washing machine on. Good customer services mean happy customers. An caseful of good customer services is a shop e.g. furniture. If a person bought a piece of furniture and so they could get customer services in the for m of the retailer suggesting other products that could be burst suited to the job which the consumers exigency the product for.The retailer could as well as offer for the furniture to be delivered or installed where the customer wants it. Bad customer services annoy people and make them not want to expend the company again. An example of bad customer services is if you order a phone and it doesnt wring up on condemnation. You then ring customer services and behave to give near 2 hours of your time and your phone bill on something that should be a simple process. Customer services is very key as if a company was only focused on marketing goods or services, then people would not feel comfortable or happy with the business and so would not want to use it, the business might then loose customers.The times 100 website tells us High fictional character customer service helps to create customer loyalty. The website also tells us that customers are not only interested in procur eing a product, they are also interested in the services that they accept when they enter the shop such as a nice welcome and good refund polices for untimely products. Customer service also gives advice on what a customer could do if they had a problem. Companies such as Portakabin have mottos that focus purely on customer service. Portakabins motto is Quality this time, next time, every time they apply this to both products and customer services.Businesses know that if a customer gets a good service that seems to be less of a chore than usual then they will be much(prenominal) promising to return and use the business again. http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_service tells us Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. The GCSE Applied Business FOR OCR book tells us that customer service is all about providing this positive endure. Customer services are expected to provide information, give advice, provide credit facilitie s, deliver goods and provide an after sales service. As information required can vary from customer to customer, it is unlikely that a customer service assistant will know the answer to every question or oppugn that a customer could ask.However, this is not drastically important, whats more important is that the interrogative is dealt with well, this manner that there is a friendly smile and a promise to find out quickly as the GCSE Applied Business FOR OCR book tells us.advice is also important as the advice is personal to the customer, wheras information is personal to the product. Credit means that items are received by the customer immediately scarce they pay for it over a set time, mayhap several months or years. The GCSE Applied Business FOR OCR book tells us customers often require credit when they buy an expensive item such as a car. http//www.bized.co.uk/cgi-bin/level2/typein.pl?module=busactivityfunctional12 brass and IT supportAdministration and IT support are concern ed with clerical work, such as mail and record turn backing, health and safety, security, cleanup and maintenance and provide support for software applications, electronic communications and electronic trans fulfils. For example, if a person within the business accidentally downloads a virus, then admin and ICT will need to know and they will then be able to sort out the problem. If something like this goes unchecked for too long then there is a chance that the virus could spread and then the whole network could fail. This could mean major problems for the business. IT is used in businesses in many ways. Such as* To Store information about products on databases* To make calculations such as working out the profit using spreadsheets.* To provide advertising using computer art packages.* To process information and other documents using word processing programs* To communicate internally by fax, e-mail and other methods using ICT* To create presentations* To create websites to prom ote the business and provide information about the business.It is very useful within businesses as it saves time. For example when trying to find a document, if it was on paper and not a computer then a person may need to spend a lot of time searching through piles of paper just to find one document. commercializeing and salesMarketing and sales are concerned with customer needs. They do market research, forward motion and sales. So they have to research into what customers want such as if a customer wants a futuristic computer screen and power pack then marketing and sales would have to see whether such a computer had been created yet, and if not then talk to someone about creating one. They are also accountable for promoting new products and making people want to buy them. They have to differentiate the product to make it more attractive to customers, they have to skim, maximise, premium price, penetrate, capture & distribute and they have to analyse the product vivificationcy cles. Marketing and sales use the SWOT analysis to analyse the existing position. This presents theStrengthsWeaknessesMarket OpportunitiesExternal ThreatsThe market can be segmented so that businesses can concentrate on one segment only. There is a large-scale difference between marketing and sales as marketing is where you are trying to get the stovepipe products for your customers whereas sales is where you are trying to convince your customer that you already have the top hat products and where you are selling these products. Marketing the segment can help the marketing department understand its market better. Sales people have to convince their customers that the product that they are selling is the best around. The marketing department of, for example Cadburys, may carry out research to find out what flavour chocolate is most desired among their customers. They will ask customers which products they would like to be improved and which products they would like to see develope d.E.g. Cadburys shortcake biscuit chocolate could be improved to make them c scatchier and a new product with orange chocolate in it could be developed. Market research can be carried out by using primary or secondary research methods, or both. Primary research is where data and information is collected first hand. This ensures that the information is original and up-to-date. However, this can be time consuming and costly. Secondary research is where data and information that already exists is used. This data is usually free, and easily available. When a business has market research, they will decide the marketing mix for the product or service. The marketing mix, consists of product, price, advancement and place. Also known as the 4Ps.Businesses mustiness decide what the product or service should be, including whether it needs to be packaged, what the customer wants and whether an after sales package is required. They must decide how much the product should cost. Where the produ ct or service is promoted is also important, as-well as how it is promoted. Where the product is s quondam(a) is also an issue, the product must be in a suitable location which is also easy to get transportation to. The use of the 4Ps can increase sales, if used well and correctly. It is likely that all marketing mixes will be some different and many factors can influence this. The product and customers are just two of these factors. Sales ply may be employed by businesses which will not only rely on advancemental material and advertising, to sell the product or service. Sales supply are employed to make contact with say-so customers and try to sell products. gentleman resourcesHuman resources are concerned with health and safety, recruitment, retention, dismissal, working conditions, training, instruction and promotion, employee scheme and union. This includes legal rights and responsibilities of employer and employees. So they have to hire and fire staff, make sure that sta ffs are happy and contain and make sure that their working conditions are satisfactory. They are in wake up of training new staff and developing their skills and promoting able staff and responsible for managing all of the people who work within the business. If legal action is taken in the name of an employee, then human resources are also responsible for that along with organising employee unions so that workers can have their say. The human resources department can also be called personnel.Human resources are in charge or recruitment and have to ensure that vacancies are filled to the best o their ability, the best and most able workers are employed this means that human resources has recruitment procedures for trained staff to trace in order to recruit the most appropriate workers. Human resources are also in charge of retention which means that they are in charge of keeping staff, if they do not retain good staff then they will have to hire and train another person, this tak es time and property and so it is very important that human resources keeps employees happy. Human resources are also in charge of dismissal this means that they are in charge of monitoring workers and dismissing the ones, which are not working efficiently. Businesses usually provide an stimulus generalisation programme fair terms and conditions of employment, good working conditions and appraisal interviews in which employees can talk to their managers about their performance and future prospects.Human resources also need to ensure that physical working conditions are to a standard, which workers accept. If there is a problem with their environment and the workers are not happy, then it is likely that they will not be working to the best of their ability. Working conditions also relate to job content, which means what the job includes, promotion prospects, training opportunities and welfare policies, which include loans and medical checks. Working conditions must be maintained ot her than workers will become unhappy, which could cost the company a lot of notes, especially if lots of workers decide to leave the business.Human resources also need to ensure that workers are trained suitably for their jobs. The human resources department may have a training officer or a training section. Human resources will have to keep staff training records, monitor the training budget and as the GCSE Applied Business FOR OCR book tells us, they will be responsible for overseeing the procedures for applying for training. Some workers may wish to develop their skills, this is usually called staff emergence as opposed to staff training because the staff are not learning new skills but developing their present skills. Companies may pay for activities that assist staff development and these may be run in the workplace.Staff may be keen to improve their abilities and skills because this may lead to a promotion and better job prospects. Human resources will also oversee promotion prospects, and will decide whether or not a worker is good enough or a promotion. Human resources will also be associated with trade unions and employee organisations. The GCSE Applied Business FOR OCR book tells us that senior members of human resources may have to negotiate with trade unions on behalf of precaution. Human resources often have to supply information on health and safety issues, and ensure that the Health and Safety at Work Act is being followed and used correctly. explore and developmentResearch and development are concerned with developing new goods and services and updating old ones. If a person comes up with a new and good idea then research and development are in charge of making sure that that idea is looked into. If scientific or technological developments proceed then there may be new products developed. A change in customer get behaviour can also cause this to happen. So if marketing and sales come to them with a customers query about futuristic computer s then they become in charge of that.Research and development have to work with designers to design and produce good quality and good value for money products to entice customers. Research and development use many different methods of research to find out what customers or potential customers want. They may do surveys, questionnaires, and Internet research and could retain either primary or secondary research. A lot of the time it will be of more use to the company to obtain primary research as then the company will know how up to date the research is. The company will also know, with more certainty, that the research is reliable.FinanceFinance are concerned with money and future plans, preparing accounts, such as invoices, management accounts, financial accounts for shareholders and inland revenue. They are also concerned with preparing wages and salaries, obtaining capital and resources, such as money for expansion and to pay for resources such as equipment and materials. Finance is sometimes considered as the most important functional area within a business. Finance is needed at all points in a businesses life as when they are starting up they will need to buy assets. When they are up and footrace they will need finance to determine that they are breaking even, this is to say that they must ensure that the money coming in (the input) is matching the money going out (the output). It is important that businesses break even otherwise they will make a loss and can even go into debt. Finance is also important for growing businesses, as they will need to buy more assets and either break-even or make a profit. This will cause them to expand and grow.OperationsOperations are concerned with the main business activities. They obtain and convert resources of the business into goods or services. They make decisions such as what to do with land, buildings, material, and jobs for workers and buying new equipment. In a company such as Argos operations would include proc essing a persons order in time in a company such as Gillette, operations might include making a batch of razors.The use of ITThe use of IT relates to all functional areas because of* Electronic communications e.g. Email* Data sacramental manduction e.g. Databases* Security systems e.g. virus protections* External communications e.g. Internet* Online support for customers e.g. Order tracking* Electronic proceedings e.g. EFTFunctional variationsNo two businesses are the same. Functions will vary because of the* Size and scale of the business* Activities of the business* Types of customers* Needs of customers* Preferences of owners