mb0031 - management information system - completed

8/9/2019 MB0031 - Management Information System - Completed

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MANAGEMENT INFORMATION

SYSTEM

MB0031

SET2MBA 2ndSEM

Name Mohammed Roohul Ameen

Roll Number

Learning Center SMU Riyadh (02543)

Subject Management Information Systems

Date of Submission 28 Feb 2010

Assignment Number MB0031


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Mohammed Roohul Ameen Roll Number:Assignment MBA 2nd Semester Subject: MB0031

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1. What are limitations of MIS? What are the factors which lead to the success andfailure of MIS in an organization?

A Management Information System (MIS) is a valuable tool company management uses to gauge

the effectiveness of their business operations. The MIS can provide detailed insight to certain

portions of a company and also assist management with making critical business decisions. While

the style and format of the MIS has changed over the years, its use in management decisions has

increased greatly.

The Facts

An MIS is one method a company uses to obtain reliable information regarding its business

operations. The MIS should not be concerned with whether the information can be retrieved,

but rather how and what information should be retrieved so management can make effective

decisions. Once information is provided through the MIS, decisions can be made regarding the

effectiveness of business operations. Limitations do exist with an MIS, such as the expense to

create and implement an MIS, training time for employees, lack of flexibility and capturing

wrong or incomplete information.

Functional Aspect of MIS


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MIS Expense

MIS implementation can be very expensive for companies looking to manage their operations

more effectively. All divisions and processes must be reviewed when determining what

information management wants extracted for decision purposes. The cost of this review

followed by the installation costs can be extremely expensive for large companies. Additionally,

new employee hiring or employee training related to the MIS can also add to the

implementation costs.

Employee Training

Properly trained employees are a critical part of an MIS. Employees are at the front lines of

business operations and create or manage the daily activities of the company. If an MIS finds a

system flaw or management decides to change a process based on the MIS information, re-

training employees will usually be required. The length and depth of the training may vary,

making it difficult to estimate the cost of this training. Management will also have to account

for the lost productivity during this training period.

MIS Flexibility

Once an MIS is created and installed in a company, it may prove to be an inflexible system.

Making changes quickly to reflect fluctuating business operations may not be possible

depending on the MIS style and functionality. While correcting policies such as internal controls

or operating procedures may be easy, company-wide changes such as service changes,

production enhancements or marketing strategy may not be simple. Major business changes

will require major changes to the MIS, leading to increased costs and downtime of information

reporting.

Information Flaws

The MIS is designed to provide information to management so sound decisions can be made

regarding company operations. The biggest flaw an MIS can have is pulling incorrect or

inadequate information for management. This problem results in wasted time and money for

the company, leading to another review of the MIS to correct the information flaws.

Objectives of a Management Information System

Enhance communication among employees. Deliver complex material throughout the institution. Provide an objective system for recording and aggregating information. Reduce expenses related to labor-intensive manual activities. Support the organization's strategic goals and direction.


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Factors Contributing to Success

If a MIS is to be success then it should have all the features listed as follows:

The MIS is integrated into the managerial functions. It sets clear objectives to ensurethat the MIS focuses on the major issues of the business.

An appropriate information processing technology required to meet the data processingand analysis needs of the users of the MIS is selected.

The MIS is oriented, defined and designed in terms of the users requirements and itsoperational viability is ensured.

The MIS is kept under continuous surveillance, so that its open system design is modifiedaccording to the changing information needs.

MIS focuses on the results and goals, and highlights the factors and reasons for nonachievement.

MIS is not allowed to end up into an information generation mill avoiding the noise inthe information and the communication system.

The MIS recognizes that a manager is a human being and therefore, the systems mustconsider all the human behavioral factors in the process of the management.

The MIS recognizes that the different information needs for different objectives must bemet with. The globalization of information in isolation from the different objectives

leads to too much information and information and its non-use.

The MIS is easy to operate and, therefore, the design of the MIS has such features whichmake up a user-friendly design.

MIS recognizes that the information needs become obsolete and new needs emerge.The MIS design, therefore, has a basic potential capability to quickly meet new needs of

information.

The MIS concentrates on developing the information support to manager critical successfactors. It concentrates on the mission critical applications serving the needs of the top

management.


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Factors Contributing to Failures

Many a times MIS is a failures. The common factors which are responsible for this are listed as

follows:

The MIS is conceived as a data processing and not as an information processing system. The MIS does not provide that information which is needed by the managers but it tends

to provide the information generally the function calls for. The MIS then becomes an

impersonal system.

Underestimating the complexity in the business systems and not recognizing it in theMIS design leads to problems in the successful implementation.

Adequate attention is not given to the quality control aspects of the inputs, the processand the outputs leading to insufficient checks and controls in the MIS.

The MIS is developed without streamlining the transaction processing systems in theorganization.

Lack of training and appreciation that the users of the information and the generators ofthe data are different, and they have to play an important responsible role in the MIS.

The MIS does not meet certain critical and key factors of its users such as a response tothe query on the database, an inability to get the processing done in a particular

manner, lack of user-friendly system and the dependence on the system personnel.

A belief that the computerized MIS can solve all the management problems of planningand control of the business.

Lack of administrative discipline in following the standardized systems and procedures,wrong coding and deviating from the system specifications result in incomplete and

incorrect information.

The MIS does not give perfect information to all the users in the organization.


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2. What is Business Process Re-engineering Explain in detail the focus of BPR on

the current issues in Business.

Introduction:In todays ever-changing world, the only thing that doesnt change is change itself. In a world

increasingly driven by the three Cs: Customer, Competition and Change, companies are on the

lookout for new solutions for their business problems. Recently, some of the more successful

business corporations in the world seem to have hit upon an incredible solution:

Business Process Reengineering (BPR).

Some of the headlines in the popular press read, Wal-Mart

reduces restocking time from six weeks to thirty-six hours.

Hewlett Packards assembly time for server computers

touches new low-four minutes.Taco Bells sales soar from$500 million to $3 billion. The reason behind these success

stories: Business Process Reengineering!

What is reengineering?

Reengineering is the fundamental rethinking and radical

redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic

improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance such as cost, quality, service

and speed. The key words in the preceding definition are the italicized ones. BPR advocates

that enterprises go back to the basics and reexamine their very roots. It doesnt believe in small

improvements. Rather it aims at total reinvention. As for results: BPR is clearly not for

companies who want a 10% improvement. It is for the ones that need a ten-fold increase.

According to Hammer and Champy, the last but the most important of the four key words is the

word-process. BPR focuses on processes and not on tasks, jobs or people. It endeavors to

redesign the strategic and value added processes that transcend organizational boundaries.


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Focus of BPR on the current issues in Business.

Reengineering focuses on the organization's business processesthe steps and procedures that

govern how resources are used to create products and services that meet the needs ofparticular customers or markets. As a structured ordering of work steps across time and place, a

business process can be decomposed into specific activities, measured, modeled, and improved.

It can also be completely redesigned or eliminated altogether. Reengineering identifies,

analyzes, and redesigns an organization's core business processes with the aim of achieving

dramatic improvements in critical performance measures, such as cost, quality, service, and

speed.

Reengineering recognizes that an organization's business processes are usually fragmented into

sub processes and tasks that are carried out by several specialized functional areas within the

organization. Often, no one is responsible for the overall performance of the entire process.

Reengineering maintains that optimizing the performance of sub processes can result in some

benefits, but cannot yield dramatic improvements if the process itself is fundamentally

inefficient and outmoded. For that reason, reengineering focuses on redesigning the process as

a whole in order to achieve the greatest possible benefits to the organization and their

customers. This drive for realizing dramatic improvements by fundamentally rethinking how the

organization's work should be done distinguishes reengineering from process improvement

efforts that focus on functional or incremental improvement.

A primary focus on essential processes that deliver value Coordination of activities from end-to-end Large improvements in cycle time, cost and quality Ideas are revolutionary rather than evolutionary Information technology is the enabler Eliminating waste and increasing value content Job task, responsibility assignments and information flow all changes

What to reengineer? :

According to many in the BPR field reengineering should focus on processes and not be limited

to thinking about the organizations. After all the organization is only as effective as its

processes.


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Process A business process is a series of steps designed to produce a product or a service. It

includes all the activities that deliver particular results for a given customer (external or

internal). Processes are currently invisible and unnamed because people think about the

individual departments more often than the process with which all of them are involved. So

companies that are currently used to talking in terms of departments such as marketing and

manufacturing must switch to giving names to the processes that they do such that they

express the beginning and end states. These names should imply all the work that gets done

between the start and finish.

For example,order fulfillmentcan be called order to payment process.

Talking about the importance of processes just as companies have organization charts, they

should also have what are calledprocess maps to give a picture of how work flows through the

company. Process mapping provides tools and a proven methodology for identifying your

current As-Is business processes and can be used to provide a To-Be roadmap for reengineering

your product and service business enterprise functions. It is the critical link that your

reengineering team can apply to better understand and significantly improve your business

processes and bottom-line performance Having identified and mapped the processes, deciding

which ones need to be reengineered and in what order is the million-dollar question. Nocompany can take up the unenviable task of reengineering all the processes simultaneously.

Generally they make their choices based on three criteria:- dysfunction: which processes are

functioning the worst?; importance: which are the most critical and influential in terms of

customer satisfaction; Feasibility: which are the processes that are most likely to be successfully

reengineered.

How to reengineer? Five methodologies are summarized in Table below

Activity# Methodology #1 Methodology #2

1 Develop vision & strategy Determine Customer Requirements &Goals for the

Process

2 Create desired culture Map and Measure the Existing Process

3 Integrate & Improve

enterprise

Analyze and Modify Existing Process

4 Develop technology

solutions

Design a Reengineered Process:

5 Implement the Reengineered Process

Activity# Methodology#3 Methodology #4 Methodology #5

1 Set Direction Motivating Reengineering Preparation2 Baseline and Benchmark Justifying Reengineering Identification

3 Create the Vision Planning Reengineering Vision

4 Launch Problem Solving

Projects

Setting up for

Reengineering

Technical & Social

design

5 Design Improvements As Is Description &

Analysis:

Transformation

6 Implement Change To-Be Design and

Validation

7 Embed Continuous

Improvement

Implementation


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Consolidated Methodology:

A consolidated methodology has been developed from the five methodologies previously

presented to provide a structured approach and to facilitate understanding.

Office of Government Commerce,

Trevelyan House, 26 - 30 Great Peter Street, London SW1P 2BYService Desk: 0845 000 4999 E: [email protected]


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3. Explain the various role of a Systems Analyst. What is meant by Feasibility of

systems? What are the various types of Feasibility study?

A systems analyst researches problems, plans solutions, recommends software and systems,and coordinates development to meet business or other requirements. They will be familiar

with multiple approaches to problem-solving. Analysts are often familiar with a variety of

programming languages, operating systems, and computer hardware platforms. Because they

often write user requests into technical specifications, the systems analysts are the liaisons

between vendors and IT professionals.They may be responsible for developing cost analysis,

design considerations, and implementation time-lines.

A systems analyst may:

Interact with the customers to learn and document requirements. Interact with designers to understand software limitations. Help programmers during system development. Perform system testing. Deploy the completed system. Document requirements or contribute to user manuals.

The system analyst role leads and coordinates requirements elicitation and use-case modeling

by outlining the system's functionality and delimiting the system; for example, establishing

what actors and use cases exist, and how they interact.

Staffing

A person acting as system analyst is a good facilitator and has above-average communication

skills. Knowledge of the business and technology domains is essential to have amongst those

acting in this role.


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Feasibility of Systems

Feasibility is a measure of how beneficial the development of an information system would be

to an organization. Feasibility analysis is the activity by which the feasibility is measured.

Feasibility study is a preliminary study which investigates the information needs of prospectiveusers and determines the resource requirements, costs, benefits and feasibility of a proposed

project. The data is first collected for the feasibility study. Later on, the findings of the study are

formalized in a written report that includes preliminary specifications and a development plan

for the proposed system. If the management approves these recommendations of the report

the development process can continue.

Types of feasibility study

The goal of feasibility study is to evaluate alternative systems and to propose the most feasible

and desirable system for development. The feasibility of a proposed system can be evaluated in

four major categories:

Technical feasibility: It is a measure of a technologys suitability to the application beingdesigned or the technologys ability to work with other technologies. It measures the

practicality of a specified technical solution.

Economic feasibility: It is the measure of the cost effectiveness of a project. It is alsoknown as cost-benefit analysis.

Operational feasibility: It is a measure of how comfortable the management and usersare with the technology.

Schedule feasibility: It is a measure of how reasonable the project schedule is


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4. Explain the significance of DSS. What are the components of DSS and explain DSS

model?

Decision support systems constitute a class of computer-based information systems including

knowledge-based systems that support decision-making activities.

A Decision Support System (DSS) is a class of information systems (including but not limited to

computerized systems) that support business and organizational decision-making activities. A

properly designed DSS is an interactive software-based system intended to help decision

makers compile useful information from a combination of raw data, documents, personal

knowledge, or business models to identify and solve problems and make decisions.

Typical information that a decision support application might gather and present are:

An inventory of all of your current information assets (including legacy and relationaldata sources, cubes, data warehouses, and data marts),

Comparative sales figures between one week and the next, Projected revenue figures based on new product sales assumptions.

Components of DSS

Three fundamental components of DSS architecture are

1. The database (or knowledge base),2. The model (i.e., the decision context and user criteria), and3. The user interface.

The users themselves are also important components of the architecture.

DSS Model

DSS systems are not entirely different from other systems and require a structured approach.

Such a framework includes people, technology, and the development approach.

DSS technology levels (of hardware and software) may include:

1. The actual application that will be used by the user. This is the part of the application thatallows the decision maker to make decisions in a particular problem area. The user can act

upon that particular problem.

2. Generator contains Hardware/software environment that allows people to easily developspecific DSS applications. This level makes use of case tools or systems such as Crystal,

AIMMS, and iThink.


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3. Tools include lower level hardware/software. DSS generators including special languages,

function libraries and linking modules

An iterative developmental approach allows for the DSS to be changed and redesigned at

various intervals. Once the system is designed, it will need to be tested and revised for the

desired outcome.

Benefits of DSS

1. Improves personal efficiency2. Expedites problem solving (speed up the progress of problems solving in an organization)3. Facilitates interpersonal communication4. Promotes learning or training5. Increases organizational control6. Generates new evidence in support of a decision7. Creates a competitive advantage over competition8. Encourages exploration and discovery on the part of the decision maker9. Reveals new approaches to thinking about the problem space10.Helps automate the managerial processes.


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Case Study

Read the following case and answer the question

You have 10 messages on voice mail, six faxes in your in-basket, three people standing outside

of your office waiting either for you to get off of the phone or finish speaking with the guy

sitting in your office (whichever comes first). Your computer just beeped to inform you, again,

that an e-mail message has just been added to your stockpile of unread messages gatheringelectronic dust. You make a mental note to change the notification sound to an evil laugh. Your

reading pile is teetering, threatening to put out of misery the plant you haven't watered in three

weeks. You wonder who the strange people are in the picture on your desk. ... Oh yeah, it's your

spouse and kids.

Your boss strides into your office, throws a letter under your nose, and says, "Read this. We just

got a project that requires us to `collaborate over the Internet'-whatever that means-and since

you're the computer guru around here, you have to get a handle on it and teach us all what to

do by next Thursday." As he leaves, you make a few e-comments about what he can e-do with

his e-letter. Welcome to e-hell. Most professionals know by now that eventually they will have

to deal with e-business. It's too early to tell if e-collaboration will resolve the communicationsoverload engineers are facing today or just clutter the available bandwidth even more. Look

around you. Did PCs lead to a paperless office? Waiting for the e-collaboration to stabilize or

shake out, however, might be counterproductive. You might find yourself in a situation like the

one described above where you'll have to "e-collaborate" in a pinch. If this happens, here are a

few survival tips: read about e-collaboration to get a general impression of what it is and how it

works and then visit some Websites where some of the more popular products exist and try

them out. Visit the HPAC Engineering Interactive Website at www.hpac.com and, under Heavy

Duty Content, choose the Information Technology (IT) Tips area. Read the columns on extranets

that were published by Dr. Joel Orr in April and May 2000 and the August column by Digital

Media Editor Lynne Brakeman on collaboration software exhibited during the A/E/C Systems

show earlier this year. These three columns introduce you to collaboration software and point

you to some products that are tailored to our industry.

I'd also recommend visiting Orr's Website (www.extranets.cc) for a comprehensive list of sites.

Some of these sites allow you to download "demo" versions. Trying out the software demo will

help you decide which method is right for you and possibly your whole company. Call some of

the vendors and ask if they provide training either online or at a nearby facility. Depending on

the stock market, some might be desperate enough to come to your office.

If your firm is being required to e-collaborate, as the story goes above, try and find the people

who are leading the e-collaboration effort and ask them what method they're using. If they

have not made a decision on which product to use, you may be able to sway them toward a

decision that benefits you and your company. If you need to teach others in your company how

to use e-collaboration tools or make a corporate-wide procurement/standardization decision, I

recommend that you do further research and get others in your company involved. To learn

more about introducing new information technologies gradually into a company, read the IT

Tips column "Strategic Planning for Information Technology" in the December 1996 issue. This

e-business is a tough nut to crack. It represents a pivotal time in our industry. The best way to

deal with it is proactively.

[Source: Proquest by Ivanovich, Michael G.. Heating/Piping/Air Conditioning Engineering: HPAC.

Cleveland: Sep 2000. Vol. 72, Iss. 9; pg. 9, 1 pgs, Copyright Penton Media, Inc. Sep 2000]


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5. Case Study: Which particular concept of MIS is being dealt here in this particular case? List out allthe issues related to MIS mentioned in the above case. List out all the advantages and disadvantages

what you feel is appropriate in this case.

E-collaboration is discussed in this particular case; stockpile of un-read emails, peoplewaiting outside office to talk reflects the current status of communication, collaboration and

management in the company a typical work scenario faced by a Manager in most of the service

sector organization. The amount of pressure he is in during his daily routines work. Here he

seems to be senior most and most computer literate among others in the office. Hence his boss

comes to him and hands over a letter to him, which mentions about Collaboration over

Internet.

He is supposed to go through the contents and brief everyone by Thursday. The subject is

related to E-Collaboration and E-Business. Further there is information on how to get more

information on E-Collaboration. There are references of various Internet sites given to gathermore inputs on E-Enterprise, E-Business and E-Collaboration.

Collaboration requires individuals working together in a coordinated fashion, towards a

common goal. Accomplishing the goal is the primary purpose for bringing the team together.

E business systems lay foundation of other Enterprise applications, namely E-commerce,

E-communication and E-collaboration.

Issues related to MIS:

Company has new project which requires them to collaborate over internet. Apparently he is the only person in company who knows about IT and MIS in general Doubts whether E-collaboration will resolve business problems or just clutter the available

bandwidth even more

Advantages

A collaborative working environment supports people in both their individual andcooperative work thus giving birth to a new class of professionals (eProfessionals), who can

work together irrespective of their geographical location. Collaborative software support project management functions, such as task assignments,

time-management with deadlines, shared calendars, required documentation, archiving and

promotion for potential reuse.

Supports the development of an idea, the creation of a design, achievement of a sharedgoal. Therefore, real collaboration technologies deliver the functionality for many

participants to augment a common deliverable.


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Record or document management, threaded discussions, audit history, and othermechanisms designed to capture the efforts of many into a managed content environment.

Brainstorming is considered to be a tenant of collaboration, with the rapid exchange ofideas facilitating the group decision making process.

E-business enterprise is open twenty-four hours, and being independent, managers,vendors; customers transact business anytime from anywhere.

Disadvantages

He has to get a handle on it and teach all the staff what to do by next Thursday. Short notice to understand different aspects of E-collaboration. Primary challenge is to convert domestic process design to work for international

process, where integration of multinational information systems using different

communication standards, country specific accounting practices, and laws of security are

to be adhered strictly.

Need to "e-collaborate" in a pinch. This is just not a technical change in business operations but a cultural change in the

mindset of managers and workers to look beyond the conventional organization. It

means changing the organization behavior to take competitive advantage of the E-

business technology.

The last but not the least important is the challenge to organize and implementinformation architecture and information technology platforms, considering multiple

locations and multiple information needs arising due to global operations of the

business into a comprehensive MIS.

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