Mary Kay EC Systems Essay

Founded in 1962, bloody shame Kay (marykay.com) has somewhat 1.8 million consultants selling its cosmetics and fragrance in 34 countries. In 2008, the lodge had astir(predicate) $2.4 billion in wholesale sales. As a lodge that has based its written report on personal contacts in ho substance abuse-to-house visits and home gatherings, one might count that bloody shame Kay would not benefit from EC. Actually, the resister is true. Currently, much than 95 percent of bloody shame Kays independent salespeople place orders via the internet.The puzzleThe cosmetics market is very competitive, still it is exploitation rapidly, especially in developing countries. Mary Kay is trying to capitalize on this trend. The My Kay calling computer simulation enables rapid growth into upstart engraft markets. By the early 2000s, consultants found that more and more customers wanted to shop online. With a long and global bring home the bacon range of a function and the need to manage alm ost 2 million consultants, it was clear that automation was needed, but Mary Kays existing estimator system was old and lacked web or e-commerce applications. Therefore, a major overhaul of the knowledge systems was needed. Finally, it became clear that the emergence of social cipher might provide a luxurious opportunity for Internet marketing by the confederacy.The SolutionMary Kays IT division is now split into three divisions e-commerce, supply chain, and back-office detain. Because of pressure from the consultants, the restructuring localizeed on e-commerce.The companys goals and objectives were set based on industry best practices and this will settle what, how, and when the company is operated, and these also apply to EC initiatives. Mary Kays EC dissolving agent included the creation of an electronic process desk that supports consultants in 30 countries in a standardized way. Mary Kay also introduced a global electronic ordering system, called Atlas, that allows the consultants to top with company w atomic number 18houses. An intelligent data memorial that dynamically maintains a logical model of the EC environment that can be accessed by Mary Kay IT staff.Mary Kay and its consultants ar also making abundant use of social reckon. The following be some representative examples of how Mary Kay uses social computingThe company posts job opening announcements on several sites, including MySpace Jobs (jobs.myspace.com).Movies and videotapes are available on YouTube (youtube.com) and on movies.go.com.Several blogs are available, both(prenominal) for and against the company (e.g., marykayandrews.com/blog)Auctions and fixed price items are available for sale on eBay.Mary Kay provides a consultant locator on the Internet (marykay.com/locator).All of these developments are support by an extensive hardware and software package infrastructure, including a wireless remote prudence system at the 760,000 square-foot corporate headquarters, an exten sive wide area network, and a giant data center. Some of the EC systems are used enterprise wide (e.g., value desk, ticketing system for consultants for events, andservice requests made by consultants). Others are functional (e.g., accounting, finance, marketing, and inventory control). The company uses an intranet for internal communications as advantageously as dozens of other EC applications.In addition to providing better support to consultants, the EC initiatives produced other benefits, such as greater efficiency, reduced costs and downtime, and improve service. In terms of human resources, it enabled the company to handle its rapid growth without a substantial increase in staffing. The changes also shake off allowed EC personnel to focus on strategic tasks. Mary Kay found that its engineers and technical people now have time to spend on new innovations.