excutive summary

This report will discuss the systems that are used in Carrefour. Carrefour is considered one of the leading organization in the world after Wal-Mart and Tesco. This organization has reached this level of performance by using high quality systems that were able to enhance the operation in the firm.

The purposes of this project are giving the initial information about Carrefour, developing the teamwork skills, help us to become familiar with the application of management information system and gaining practical knowledge of information technology issue that facing real companies.

The methods that we are using  is gathering information from Carrefour website and contact Carrefour Company by telephone and sending emails.

We have faced some dilemma  in doing the project which are the  limited sources to look at, relating the information to the topic, finding graphical pictures and some difficulties in finding information about which systems the company use .

This report will first give background information about the organization. For example, company profile, established, location, Carrefour achievement and activities, mission and vision.

Then it will present the different type of systems that are used in the organization, such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), SeeBeyond Integrated Composite Application Network (ICAN) 5.0,  Carrefour Mobile, IBM (International Business Machines)  in Carrefour and some important issues that Carrefour facing today.

introduction

Carrefour is a French international hypermarket chain, with a global network of outlets worldwide. It is means “crossroads‟ in French. It is the largest hypermarket chain in the world in terms of size, the second largest retail group in the world in terms of revenue and the third largest in profit after Wal-Mart and Tesco. Hence, it operates mainly in Europe, China, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and in the Dominican Republic, but also has shops in North Africa and other parts of Asia. Carrefour’s own retail brands are an important medium for brand differentiation and customer loyalty, contributing substantially to the organization’s growth in sales.

It is reputation has been built, on the quality and freshness of it is products, customer service and competitive prices. Selling goods with quality choices in food, personal care, communication, leisure, entertainment and household goods . In addition, Carrefour worked to continually meet the needs of local consumers, ranging from the need to refrigerate food to clothes under one roof, is trendy as shoppers pick specialized stores.

After looking at the facts on Carrefour company .In this report, we will try to know how they used Information systems to let them become one of the largest companies that existed in the world.

Background about Carrefour

  Company profile:

Carrefour initiated from France, it is an international retailer that is the world’s  second-largest and the largest in Europe, and it is a leader in the industry. There are three different kinds of stores within Carrefour, including hypermarkets, discount and convenience.

  Established:

The first Carrefour store opened on June 3, 1959. Its created by Marcel Fournier, Denis Defforey and Jacques Defforey and grew into a chain from this first sales outlet. In 1999 it merged with Promodès, known as Continent, one of its major competitors in the French market.

In April 1976, Carrefour launched a private label Produits libres (free products – libre meaning free in the sense of liberty as opposed to gratis) line of fifty foodstuffs, including oil, biscuits (crackers and cookies), milk, and pasta, sold in unbranded white packages at substantially lower prices. In September 2009, Carrefour updated its logo.

  Location:

This company is located in France and has many branches all over the world like in Bahrain, China, Egypt and many more.

  Carrefour achievement and activities:

For many years, Carrefour addressed social and environmental issues. In 1992, Carrefour launched its "Quality Lines", food products which integrate environmental and social criteria in their specifications. Then, in 1996 its applied the protective principle when choosing to develop own-brand products free of Genetically Modified

Background about Carrefour

Organism (GMO). In 1997, its launched its own-brand organic range. Also, in 2000 Carrefour developed its supplier social charter in partnership with the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH). Moreover, in 2001 Carrefour linked the UN Global Compact and also signed an international protocol with the trade union body UNI Network International. Following the merger with Promotes the Group created in 2001 a dedicated service at Group level to promote best practices across the Group and to anticipate future issues.

Mission:

Carrefour focused totally on meeting the expectation of its customers. Therefore, it mission is to be the benchmark in modem retailing in each of its markets. As a global retailer, Carrefour is dedicated to enabling as many people as possible to purchase consumer goods in accordance with the principles of fair trade and sustainable development.

  Vision:

The vision of Carrefour has just announced its plans to boost sales, and they involve a astonishing change in strategy.

Information systems used in carrefour

1.    Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

·       Definition:

Is technology uses communication by radio waves in order to exchange data between a reader and an electronic tag attached to an object, for the purpose of identification and tracking.

·       Purpose:

It tracks and documents the products as they move through the manufacturing process. Also, RFID allows data to be transmitted wirelessly through the products that are holding an RFID tag microchip, which is read by an RFID reader. The data transmitted can provide identification, location information, or specifics such as date of purchase or price about the products. For example, a production organization has the ability to track all the products that are sold to different external organization. If we assume organization X is supplying Carrefour with dairy products. Carrefour will make a deal with organization X, when the amount of dairy products reach XX number of items, than the organization X will ship more products before the products are sold. This way, Carrefour will have consistency of products avaiable to be sold.

·       Uses of RFID technology:

RFID makes it possible to give each product in a grocery store its own unique identifying number, to provide assets, people, work in process, medical devices and many more.  All with individual unique identifiers like the license plate on a car but this technology cover all the item in around the world.

Information systems used in carrefour

o   Common uses of RFID:

Asset  Tracking

Asset tracking is one of the most common uses of RFID. Companies can put RFID tags on assets that are lost or stolen often, that are underutilized or that are just hard to locate at the time they are needed. Just about every type of RFID system is used for asset management. NYK Logistics, a third-party logistics provider based in Secaucus, N.J., needed to track containers at its Long Beach, Calif., distribution center. It chose a real-time locating system that uses active RFID beacons to locate container within 10 feet.

Manufacturing

RFID has also been used in manufacturing plants for more than a decade. It's used to track parts and work in process and to reduce defects, increase throughput and manage the production of different versions of the same product.

Supply Chain Management

It is used also in closed loop supply chains or to automate parts of the supply chain within a company's control for years. So, companies are dramatically increased using RFID to track their shipments among supply chain partners.

Retailing

Retailers such as Best Buy, Metro, Target, Tesco and Wal-Mart are in the lead of adopting RFID. These retailers are currently focusing on improving supply chain efficiency and making sure product is on the shelf when customers need it.

Information systems used in carrefour

Payment Systems

One of the most popular uses of RFID today is to pay for road tolls without stopping. These active systems have caught on in many countries, and quick service restaurants are experimenting with using the same active RFID tags to pay for meals By driving through windows.

Security and Access Control

It is also used for long as an electronic key to control who has access to office buildings or areas within office buildings. The first access control systems used low-frequency RFID tags. Recently, vendors have introduced 13.56 MHz systems that offer longer read range. The advantage of RFID is that it is convenient (an employee can hold up a badge to unlock a door, rather than looking for a key or swiping a magnetic stripe card) and because there is no contact between the card and reader, there is less wear and tear, therefore less maintenance.

As RFID technology advances and becomes less expensive and more robust, it's likely that companies and RFID vendors will develop many new applications to solve common and unique business problems.