Question

At what point in the planning process would you expect accounting/ finance marketing, information systems, and operations to play a role? What inputs should these areas provide, and why?

Answer 1

Planning is important part of process of operation, business or any venture. Various department in organisation plays an vital role in the process of planning. some of them can brief as below

• Accounting/Finance - Accounting or finance department look after the budget part of an organisation. They look after the record keeping of day to day transactions, assigning budget for projects, allocation of budget, controlling the budget, setting the limits for finance allocation etc. They are key people in finance decision making of an organisation.

Role - To start up any new project, budget is required. Finance team has to review the projects, it's requirement, deadlines, risk factors. they have to conduct market survey related to project to gain the project related facts and requirement. This will help them to set the limit for finance or budget to be set for that project. While setting up the project, they should consider the risk factor or back up plan of budget for that project

Input - The finance team can provide their input like the what will be finance requirement for purchasing, supply chain, logistics, technlogy related to project work. They can come up with ideas that how those finance requirement can be reduced or what will be the risk factors. They can provide information about the estimated returns.

• Information System - Information system plays important role to execute the project as per the process requirement. Information system helps to keep the process streamlined.

Role - Information system can provide the suitable ERP or application system where data the project can be stored. and transactions can be processed. It will help in record keeping. ERP system helps for smooth operations and process the data. IT team can conduct market survey to develop the latest technology as per the product and project requirement.

Input - Information Technology team can provide the trainign to user how to operate the system in day to day transactions. They can assist with the developement of the system, can track the drawbacks and technical errors. They help to preserve the data through ERP which will be helpful at the time of audit.

• Operations - Operations is another part of the planning process. It is next step after finalising the SOP. Operations execute the project.

Role - Operations involves the execution of ideas, SOP and day to day transactions. It flows through the daily activities and contribution to execute the project. There can be various department work under operations to process the data, gather the details, Put them in the system, make corrections, flow the information to the client and market etc. for example, if we are issuing a purchase order, the role of the operation team is to enter the PO data in the system, generates the purchase order, submit the PO to the supplier, track the deliveries and payments.

Input - The operation department can provide the input to finalise the SOP. they can provide the step by step process to execute the requirement by different individual level in the team.