Postal Letter

Case Study for Business Communications 5?

CASE NO. 5 MINDING YOUR BUSINESS WITH ONLINE REPORTING Mrs. Fields uses them. Mrs. Paul’s uses them. However, you don’t have to be in the cookie or fish business to work with electronic reports. More and more companies are adopting electronic reports over hard-copy reports to keep employees, managers, investors, and other stakeholders informed. Computerized cash registers in Mrs. Fields cookie outlets are the heart of a sophisticated reporting system for monitoring and controlling operations. Rather than taking the time to write reports by hand, store managers enter data into the computer system by following report formats on their screen. Then they electronically transmit these reports to corporate headquarters in Park City, Utah. The computer system also serves as a two-way communication device, allowing store and corporate personnel to send messages back and forth in seconds. So Mrs. Fields corporate managers can quickly receive the information they need in order to track sales and productivity trends – and to spot potential problems – in more than 700 outlets around the world. At Mrs. Paul’s a computerized reporting system allows production managers to continuously monitor and control the yield from the company’s fish – processing operation. The system calculates the production yield using the weight of the fish before it’s processed, the weight if abt scraosm and the weight of the finished fish meals. If the reports show that the actual yield drops below the expected yield, the managers can immediately adjust the equipment to improve the yield. The production managers have instant access to electronic reports at each stage of the operation, so they can find and fix problems more quickly than if they had to wait for printed reports. FedEx, the well-known package-shipping firm, uses extensive satellite and computer technologies to track the location of every package in the company’s system. Customers can then access electronic reports to monitor the status of their shipments at any time. This tracking system not only helps the company serve its customers better, but it puts valuable information in the hands of customers with a click of the mouse. Like many companies, FedEx posts an electronic copy of its annual report and other corporate informational reports at its website. As Mrs. Fields, Mrs. Pauls, FedEx, and other companies know, keeping customers, employees, investors, and other stakeholders informed with electronic reports is the only way to do business in the global workplace. Career Applications 1.What advantages and disadvantages do you see in asking store managers at Mrs. Fields to file electronic troubleshooting reports immediately on the company’s intranet ? 2.What kinds of electronic reports might a company want to post on its website ?

Public Comments

1. I hate problems like this because they neglect to mention what is applicable by law. A publicly traded company is required by law to publish an annual report and a 10k among other financial documents. Most publicly traded companies choose to use a website to furnish these reports because it reduces cost and increases sustainability. Everything you need to know about a company, theoretically is in the annual report, granted the company doesn't use a loophole to confuse details. In regards to number 1, there typically is not a troubleshooting report. Troubleshooting is the process of determining the cause of a problem. You typically document a problem and within that information is problem resolution. The actually report, if any, would summarize all of the problems related to specific topics and, then categorized. You typically do not want to publish reports regarding problems for everyone to see, it represents instability in a company, creates confusion, and most of the time only operations managers and executive officers need that information. However, some problems you have to report as applicable by law. In reference to item 2: Any documents required by law such as an annual report or 10k, etc. Client list is a definite no, any problems not applicable by law is a no. If you are a repair company selling parts you can publish a report of your catalog. Pretty much any display of data from a database is a report after it is queried and then arranged in a certain way. That's pretty much it. But research a few big companies and see what kinds of reports they post. Try Investor Relations for say Hewlett Packard.