Information Systems for Managers: Concepts and examples

Understand what is an Information System, the various types, its characteristics, and examples of such systems.

An Information System is a set of interrelated components that collect, manipulate, store and disseminate information and provide a feedback mechanism that helps organisations achieve their goals.

What is a System?

A System is a set of elements or components that interact to achieve goals. The elements/components and their relationships determine how the
system works

The 4 elements/components of an system include inputs, processing mechanisms, outputs and feedback.

System performance can be measured by efficiency or effectiveness

What is Information?

Data that is processed is known as Information (types of data – Alphanumeric data, Audio data, Image data, Video data).

The traditional information systems view is that data is input into an Information System and the output is information

In the 1940’s Claude Shannon defined it as ‘that which reduces uncertainty’.

It is one of organisation’s most valuable resources

The Characteristics of Valuable Information – Accessible, Accurate, Complete, Economical, Flexible, Relevant, Reliable, Secure, Simple, Timely, Verifiable.

Value of Information

Valuable information helps people perform tasks more efficiently and effectively. Inaccurate data can result in loss of potential new customers and reduced customer satisfaction

What is Knowledge?

Knowledge is awareness and understanding of a set of information and the ways it can be made useful to support a task.

The process of defining relationships among data to create useful information requires knowledge

What is an Information System?

An Information System is a set of interrelated components that collect, manipulate, store and disseminate information and provide a feedback mechanism that helps organisations achieve their goals.

An information system (IS) is a set of interrelated elements that: Collect (input), Process, Store, Disseminate data and information, and Provides a feedback mechanism.

Input is the act of gathering and capturing data. Processing means converting or transforming this input into useful outputs.

Output involves producing useful information usually in the form of documents or reports.

Feedback is the information from the system that is used to make changes to input or processing activities, to make sure it continues to meet its goals and objectives.

Volume, Variety and Velocity

Businesses are collecting and storing more and more Data than ever before. However it is not only the Volume of Data that is problematic, it is also the Velocity and Variety.

“Businesses are not yet as good at organising and understanding data as they have been at gathering it. Data has no value unless you can understand what you have, analyse it, and then act on the insights from the analysis.” (Sherman, R., Business Intelligence Guidebook: From Data Integration to Analytics, (p4), 2015, Elsevier Inc.)

Computerised Information Systems

Most Information Systems today are computerised, however manual Information Systems existed long before the computer was invented.

A Computer based Information System (CBIS) is a single set of Hardware, Software, Databases, Telecommunications, People, and Procedures that are
configured to collect, manipulate, store, process and disseminate information for a specific purpose.

These help to generate information that supports the day-to-day, short-range, and long-range activities of users in an organization.

It’s the study of complementary networks of hardware and software that people and organizations use to collect, filter, process, create, and distribute data.

Types of Information Systems

• Personal IS
  Helps improve the productivity of individual users
  Examples: Personal productivity software, Decision support system
• Group IS
  Helps to improve communications and support collaboration among members of a workgroup.
  Examples: Email, instant messaging, project management software
• Enterprise IS
  Helps to define structured interactions among their own employees and/or external customers, suppliers, government agencies, etc.
  Examples: Transaction processing systems, enterprise systems, inter-organizational systems

Business information systems

• Strategic level: Executive support systems, Long-term decision-making
• Tactical level: Management information systems, Decision support systems
• Operational level: Transaction processing systems, Customer relationship management systems, Supply chain management systems

Information systems generally are classified into the following categories:

Transaction processing systems: System that captures, classifies, stores, maintains, updates and retrieves transaction data for record keeping and input to the other types of Computer Based Information System (CBIS).

Management information systems: A management information system (MIS) is an organized collection of people, procedures, software, databases, and devices that provides routine information to managers and decision makers. MIS are more concerned with levels of management with information essential to the running of smooth business. This Information must be as relevant, timely, accurate, complete and concise as is economically feasible.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) system
ERP includes a set of integrated programs capable of managing a company’s vital business operations for an entire multisite, global organization.

Decision support systems: Decision support systems assist managers, who make decisions that are not highly structured, often called unstructured or semi structured decision. The decision support systems support, but do not replace, judgments of managers.

Office Automation Systems: They are being developed with the hope and expectation that they will increase the efficiency and productivity of office workers, typists, secretaries, administrative assistants, staff professionals, managers and others.

Related: IT Infrastructure Management

Academic Questions on Information Systems for Managers

Question: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is an Indian government-owned oil and gas explorer and producer. BPCL’s CEO is K. Padmakar. In this role, what is the Focus of the CEO’s role (i.e. Objectives, Kinds of Decisions, information needed, Timeframes etc.)? What are the Primary IS & Supporting IS Used (Description Data Types, Kind of Data, Type of Processing, which provides data to these IS)?

Question. You have been appointed at IT Head of a soon to be opened retail Chain store by the name of “India Retail Store” which will have branches all over India. India retail store is a private limited company. Highlight at least 5 security threats that the company may face in today’s times and suggest 5 innovative security mechanisms to ensure that such threats do not harm your Retail Store Chain and that your system’s remain as secure as ever.

Question. Choose any e-governance initiative of any country in the world which is aimed at helping the poor and needy sections of the society. English at least 10 benefits of having implemented this system for the benefit of this downtrodden section.

Q. The recent Covid-19 pandemic has turned the world upside down with several businesses shutting shop owing to mounting losses. Yet, in these pandemic times, e-commerce is one twinkling star that has been gathering strength after strength. How has Direct Selling Experience via Amazon India helped small scale manufacturers of handicrafts or any other item of your choice during these pandemic times. As an external consultant, try to analyse the reasons behind the success of these small-scale manufacturers. Provide some statistics on how technology has made the lives of small-scale manufacturers simpler? In your opinion, do you see this as a future once the Covid-19 crisis gets over or do you see manufacturers trying to sell their handicraft/other products face to face again?

Q. There has been a greater emphasis being placed on E-Governance in India which refers to the usage of e-commerce and e-business technologies by governments & their departments to conduct their own business. Choose your own city/town municipality & write down the salient features of any Government to Citizen (G2C) initiative conducted in your area recently. Also highlight the key benefits of this G2C initiative in your area to the common man. How has it changed the life of a common citizen? Support the benefits section with some statistics or Quantitative data (For example: Number of citizen complaints fell down by 65%). (In case you are living in a rural area, please choose the nearest city of your region, in case you are living abroad, you are free to choose your local foreign city to explain).

Q. The city of Leh is the joint capital & the largest town of the union territory of Ladakh in India. Leh is at an altitude of 3,524 metres (11,562 ft), and is connected via National Highway 1 to Srinagar in the southwest and to Manali in the south via the Leh-Manali Highway. You have been invited as an external IT consultant by Government of India with a mandate to convert Leh into a “Smart City”

a. Which “Smart” city in the world will you choose as a benchmark to emulate some of the best practices of that city into Leh? Provide atleast 3 reasons with brief descriptions behind your choice of choosing that particular city as a benchmark?
b. Suggest & describe atleast 2 innovative technology enabled services that you will introduce into Leh so that it can be called as a “Smart city”?

Question. You may not have heard of Flextronics, but you probably use something they have made everyday. Singapore-based
Flextronics is a contract manufacturer that makes the innards of technology products, such as cell phones, PCs and
Internet hardware for household names, such as Cisco, Dell computers and Ericsson mobile phones. In the fast paced
hyper-competitive technology industry, profit margins for electronic manufacturing services, such as Flextronics are razor thin, amounting to no more than 3-5 per cent. Yet, during the past seven years, Flextronics has been able to skyrocket from a tiny company into a multi-billion dollar global organization. How did Flextronics do it?

The answer lies in a skilful, supply chain management information system (MIS). Flextronics continually collects and analyses its supply chain information to standardize and coordinate the work of its factories around the globe. The company has built a low-cost manufacturing network in China, Singapore and Mexico and other locations around the world. It has built facilities, such as campuses with water, sewer, computer lines and buildings for suppliers, close to its factories. The campuses are standardized so that they look and perform the same way, regardless of their location. Flextronics thus offers inexpensive manufacturing facilities that are not too far away from its European and US clients.

Flextronics uses the same ERP software in the same configuration in all its factories so that it can standardize and coordinate their work more precisely. The same business processes for doing manufacturing work are thus replicated worldwide. Employees who access the Flextronics global Information system can see data pulled together from practically every Flextronics factory on four continents. A part buyer in Mexico can see what prices a Singapore part buyer is obtaining for a specific component and use that information to get a price break from suppliers. When someone uses the system to place an order, the system displays a pop-up window that might show where he or she could get a better price on the same item and whether the component could be obtained from a Flextronics factory that is overstocked on that item. Flextronics 2000 design engineers can work jointly on design specifications from different locations using OneSpace Web-based collaboration software.

Armed with such powerful software and well-designed business processes, Flextronics is now assuming the responsibility for an even larger portion of its client’s supply chain. About 85 to 90 per cent of its revenues come from its traditional outsourced manufacturing work where in the company makes a part of a product for a client and then ships it to the client for assembly into the finished product. What Flextronics’ new strategy will do is to enable customers, such as Cisco systems, to entrust the manufacturing process for the entire products to Flextronics. Cisco will focus on product design and marketing and Flextronics will do the rest. Flextronics can also use its end-to-end manufacturing capabilities for other clients as well. The Swedish cell phone company recently contracted to handover its entire manufacturing process to Flextronics.

Flextronics would like to takeover design work for customers as well. If the work is a Web-based product design system that extracts individual components of information from a repository of product data and delivers it to designers so that they can see each potential component’s quality, availability and suppliers’ history, Flextronics then will be able to use the information for the bulk purchases of materials so that they can charge less for manufacturing, and hopefully, win more clients.

Questions:
1. Identify the various information systems implemented by Flextronics.
2. How has Flextronics been able to skyrocket from a tiny company into a multi-billion dollar global operation in the
last seven years?
3. How does Flextronics benefit from its supply chain information system to standardize and coordinate the work of
its factories around the globe?

Question: Produce a report entitled: – “A Critical Analysis and Evaluation of the Impact of Information Systems and Digital Capability within the Case Study Organisation”.

The report should research the use and impact of Information Systems and Digital Capability within the Case Study Organisation. The findings should be analysed and evaluated and then recommendations made for organisational development, service/organisational improvement and opportunities for innovation and growth within the Case Study Organisation in relation to Information Systems and Digital Capability.

Report Structure: 1: Introduction 2: Analysis and evaluation of contemporary issues and challenges in the management of Information Systems. 3: Analysis and evaluation of Digital Capability within the Case Study Organisation. 4: Recommendations for organisational development, service/organisational improvements and opportunities for innovation and growth in the Case Study Organisation in relation to Information Systems and Digital Capability. 5: Conclusion

Question: Case Study: Honam Petrochemical’s Quest for Better Management Reports

1. List and describe the information requirements of HPC’s new management system. What problems were the new system designed to solve?

HPC is requiring reports that are more accurate and optimized. The optimized information should measure performance with increasing sales and reduced costs.

The management wish more control over data. The information of their interest be cost of manufacturing plant, cost of transportation, storing materials and price trend globally.

The problem is removing outdated system with precise reporting system. The individual manger wished to have control over data and real picture of market progress should be visible to them. The report should be real-time rather than periodically seeking it.

2. To what extent were “people” problems affecting management decision-making at HPC? What were some of the management, organization, and technology issues that had to be addressed by the new system? How did the system’s designers make the system more “people-friendly”?

Prior any new system is implemented there are quite more factor be considered. We can segregate the factors into management, organization and technologies. Management are used to manually see data prior analysis. The senior management should be technologically sound to understand possible pro and cons along with pre-required skills. The organization persons wanted access to timely data i.e. real-time. Organization wished enterprise-wide data accessible geographically. Technology is major factor that is pronounced when switching from one system to another. The technology compatibility should be concerned and involvement of more technically sound guys will obvious sharpen the efficiency of organization.

3. What role did end users play in developing HPC’s new system? How did the project team make sure users were involved? What would have happened to the project if they had not done this?

Once popular quote is “customers have capacity to drag top to bottom employees from their position to street, simply rejecting their product.” The end user play discuss the pro and cons with development team. Starting to use new system to test it, make feedback so that better product is obtained. Compare the product with other companies.

The project team collect requirements from more technical guys and the broad area of users so that the proposed system matches everyone’s interest. The more time and concern team gives for any project, the more efficient and widely accepted result be. Development team should visit other companies to learn their system and import crucial ones.

Failing of end users to choose better alternative and feedback HPC developer and management will obvious lead for failure in proposed system. Organization if not concern well on efficiency and effectiveness project team won’t perform well and match better customer interest. So the proposed system becomes failure.

4. What other steps did HPC take to make sure the system was successful?

The HPC should look for goal achievement. The approach includes Phase approach suggests implementation phase wise so that the feedback is included in final version more well. Emphasizing benchmark against other companies makes more sense. Training the management and staffs along with loyal customers for new system is really useful. The evaluation and review after system implementation should be done for periodic improvement on it.

5. What types of system-building methods and tools did HPC use for building its system?

HPC should use SAP business object dashboard, internet intelligence and software packages for system building. It should make well concept before building about contemporary market trends and what other organizations are tackling the same situation in the case. HPC should collect information from customers for periodic system improvement. Updating with technology and time is mandatory task.

6. What were the benefits of the new system? How did it change the way Honam ran its business? How successful was this system solution?

The new system will be beneficial to HPC for many sense. The new system provide unbiased information and have better control over data. Use of outdated traditional system is not suggested. The new system will find lead and lags on the company currently existing. The company can compete against possible errors and situation getting out of control. The new system is helpful to view real-time picture of business progress.

The system have features to personalize information to extract concrete decision making points rather than decimal and floating point numbers. The management decision are based timely. The information be accurate and enable compare against other competitive organization.