MBA Semester II Assignment 2 Marks 60 (6X10=60)

MB0047 - Management Information Systems - 4 credits Subject Code - MB0047

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AJEETH KUMAR K

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Q1. How hardware & software support in various MIS activities of the organization? Explain the transaction stages from manual system to automated systems? Generally hardware in the form of personal computers and peripherals like printers, fax machines, copier, scanners etc are used in organization to support various MIS activities of the organization. Advantages of a PC: you can find the following advantages a personal computer offers a)Speed A PC can process data at a very high speed. It can process millions of instructionswithin fraction of seconds. b)Storage A PC can store large quantity of data in a small space. It eliminates the need of storing the conventional office flat files and box files which requires lots of space. The storagesystem in a PC is such that the information can be transferred from one place to another place inelectronic form. c)Communication A PC on the network can offer great support as a communicator incommunicating information in the form of text and images. Today a PC with internet is used as a powerful tool of communication for every business activity. d)Accuracy A PC is highly reliable in the sense that it could be used to perform calculations continuously for hours with a great degree of accuracy. It is possible to obtain mathematical results correct up to a great degree of accuracy. e)Conferencing A PC with internet offers facility of video conferencing worldwide. Business people across the globe travel a lot to meet their business partner, colleagues, and customers etc to discuss about business activities. By video conferencing inconvenience of traveling can be avoided. A block diagram of a computer may be represented as Transformation stage -Manual systems to automated systems The value of Information is not present day discovery. We have always observed that the Information is the asset of any organization. The existence of information is since the Big bang happened and then on it went on. But the value of information is being used only after the industrial revolution. Before, it was only in the record which we are using now in an efficient way. The first information was binary. Information is generated by interactions; information is by interaction, as without comparison, without a context, without interaction, there is nothing. Traditional information systems are said to contain data, which is then processed. The processed data is called information. The processing of data takes place by selecting the required fact and organizing it in a way to form meaningful information which is used for some organizational needs. In Manual systems, a series of action takes which may be similar as well as different to processing in traditional systems. For instance, in hospital information systems the patient details can be viewed by the administrator as well as patient. But the views perceived by these are different. One may view it as a record to take print and other may be the source of his ailment description. What is common to the two systems is the idea of

transformation. Transformation occurs when systems participants are faced with cues from their environment, which may be data or situations, and the participants then define and redefine what to do next, either processing data or developing a situation, altering the system each time to transform it to a state closer to the participants goal or objective. When a fact from either type of system is presented for manipulation, a transformation can occur. Thus, transformation is common to both types of systems. A transformation had to necessarily go through the following stages :
1. Appraisal of the procedures 2. Types of documents 3. Storage systems 4. Formulations and coding 5. Verification and validation 6. Review 7. Documentation

Q 2. Explain the various behavioral factors of management organization? As per Porter, how can performance of individual corporations be determined? Management organizations: An organization is a structure that uses the resources from the environment like manpower, raw materials, capital and returns the output like products and services to the environment. It constitutes the rules, policies, responsibilities and procedures that are adopted by the organization. Behavioral factors The implementation of computer based information systems in general and MSS i n particular is affected by the way people perceive these systems and by how they behave in accepting them. User resistance is a major behavioral factor associated with the adoption of new systems. The following are c o m p i l e d by Jiang et al. (2000) ; Reasons that employees resist new systems: Change in job content Loss of status Change in interpersonal relationships Loss of power Change in decision making approach Uncertainty or unfamiliarity or misinformation Job security.

The major behavioral factors are a) Decision styles- symbolic processing of AI is heuristic; DSS and ANN are analytic b) Need for explanation - ES provides explanation, ANN does not, DSS may provide partial explanation. Explanation can reduce resistance to change c) Organizational climate - some organizations lead and support innovations and new technologies whereas others wait and lag behind in making changes d) Organizational expectations - over expectation can result in disappointments and termination of innovation. Over expectation was observed in most early intelligent systems. e) Resistance to change can be strong in MSS because the impacts may be significant. Porters

Forces Driving Industry Competition (Porter 1980) There are two basic factors which may be considered to be adopted by organization in their strategies: a)low cost b) product differentiation Enterprise can succeed relative to their competitors if they possess sustainable competitive advantage in either of these two. Another important consideration in positioning is competitive scope, or the breadth of the enterprises target markets within its industry, i.e. the range of product varieties it offers, the distribution channels it employs, the types of buyers it serves, the geographic areas in which it sells, and the array of related industries in which it competes. Under Porters framework, enterprises have four generic strategies available to them whereby they can attain above-average performance. They are: a) cost leadership; b) differentiation; c) cost focus; and d) focused differentiation.

According to Porter, competitive advantage grows out of the way an enterprise organizes and performs discrete activities. The operations of any enterprise can be divided into a series of activities such as salespeople making sales calls, service technicians performing repairs, scientists in the laboratory designing products or processes, and treasurers raising capital. By performing these activities, enterprises create value for their customers. The ultimate value an enterprise creates is measured by the amount customers are willing to pay for its product or services. A firm is profitable if this value exceeds the collective cost of performing all of the required activities. To gain competitive advantage over its rivals, a firm must either provide comparable value to the customer, but perform activities more efficiently than its competitors (lower cost), or perform activities in a unique way that creates greater buyer value and commands a premium price (differentiation). As per Borden 1964, quoted in Wiseman 1988many differentiation bases can be classified as 4 Ps as given below: 1. Product (quality, features, options, style, brand name, packaging,

sizes, services, warranties, returns) ; 2. Price (list, discounts, allowances, payment period, credit terms) ; 3. Place (channels, coverage, locations, inventory, transport) ; And 4. Promotion (advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, publicity).

Q 3. Compare various types of development aspect of Information System? Explain the various stages of SDLC? A management information system (MIS) provides information that is needed to manage organizations efficiently and effectively. Management information systems are not only computer systems - these systems encompass three primary components: technology, people (individuals, groups, or organizations), and data/information for decision making. Management information systems are distinct from other information systems in that they are designed to be used to analyze and facilitate strategic and operational activities in the organization. Academically, the term is commonly used to refer to the study of how individuals, groups, and organizations evaluate, design, implement, manage, and utilize systems to generate information to improve efficiency and effectiveness of decision making, including systems termed decision support systems, expert systems, and executive information systems. Early business computers were used for simple operations such as tracking inventory, billing, sales, or payroll data, with little detail or structure. Over time, these computer applications became more complex, hardware storage capacities grew, and technologies improved for connecting previously isolated applications. As more and more data was stored and linked, managers sought greater detail as well as greater abstraction with the aim of creating entire management reports from the raw, stored data. The term "MIS" arose to describe such applications providing managers with information about sales, inventories, and other data that would help in managing the enterprise. Today, the term is used broadly in a number of contexts and includes (but is not limited to): decision support systems, resource and people management applications, enterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise performance management (EPM), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), project management and database retrieval applications. Advantages The following are some of the benefits that can be attained for different types of management information systems. Companies are able to highlight their strengths and weaknesses due to the presence of revenue reports, employees' performance record etc. The identification of these aspects can help the company improve their business processes and operations. Giving an overall picture of the company and acting as a communication and planning tool. The availability of the customer data and feedback can help the company to align their business processes according to the needs of the customers. The effective management of customer data can help the company to perform direct marketing and promotion activities.

Information is considered to be an important asset for any company in the modern competitive world. The consumer buying trends and behaviours can be predicted by the analysis of sales and revenue reports from each operating region of the company.

STAGES OF SDLC The System Development is the interactive process which consists of the following stages Preliminary Investigation: One of the most tedious task is to recognize the real problem of the pre-installed system. The analysis has to spend hours and days for understanding the fault in the system. This fault could have however overcome if the Preliminary Investigation before installing the system was properly done. This is the first stage of the development of the system. In this stage the analyst makes a survey by gathering all the available information needed for the system elements and allocation of the requirements to the software.

Analysis of the requirement: The analyst understands the nature of the information and the functions of the software which is required for the system. The analyst makes a brief survey of the requirements and tries to analyze the performance of the system which is to be developed. He also makes sure that he gets enough information and resources for building the appropriate system. System Design: The analyst actually makes number of designs of the system on paper or on the computer and sees to it that the rough image made of the system comprises of all the requirements or not. Once this is done, the analyst selects and finalizes a best suited design for the development of the system. System Coding: The analyst translates the code or the programs in such a way that they become in machine readable form. The coding step is very time consuming and involves number of rooms for errors.

System Testing: Once the analyst is through with the coding stage he tests the systems and sees to it that it is working as per the expectations or not. He corrects the flaws in the system if any.

System Implementation: This is one of the most vital phase as in this phase the analyst actually gives the system to the customer and expects for a positive feedback. System Maintenance: The last stage of the SDLC is that the analyst needs to maintain the system and see to it that it working within the standards set. He needs to maintain the system by removing the defects of flaws occured.

Q4. Compare & Contrast E-enterprise business model with traditional business organization model? Explain how in E-enterprise manager role & responsibilities are changed? Explain how manager is a knowledge worker in E-enterprise? E-business may be defined as the conduct of industry, trade and commerce using the computer networks. The network you are most familiar with as a student or consumer is the internet. Whereas internet is a public thorough way, firms use more private, and, hence more secure networks for more effective and efficient management of their internal functions. on the other hand traditional business is the simplest and the know way of doing business which includes no electronic media and where the handing do include the manual work. Ease of formation and lower investment requirements: Unlike a host of procedural requirements for setting up an industry, e-business is relatively easy to start. The benefits of internet technology accrue to big or small business alike. In fact, internet is responsible for the popularity of the phrase: 'networked individuals and firms are more efficient than networthed individuals.' This means that even if you do not have much of the investment (networth) but have contacts (network), you can do fabulous business. Imagine a restaurant that does not have any requirement of a physical space. Yes, you may have an online 'menu' representing the best of cuisines from the best of restaurants the world over that you have networked with. The customer visits your website, decides the menu, places the order that in turn is routed to the restaurant located closest to his location. The food is delivered and the payment collected by the restaurant staff and the amount due to you as a client solicitor is credited to your account through an electronic clearing system. Convenience: Internet offers the convenience of '24 hours 7 days a week 365 days' a year business that allowed A and B to go for shopping well after midnight. Such flexibility is available even to the organizational personnel whereby they can do work from wherever they are, and whenever they may want to do it. Advertising Space - After your hub is published advertisements may be placed in this space. Please note, it can take some time after you publish for the ads to match the content of your hub. Speed: As already noted, much of the buying or selling involves exchange of information that internet allows at the click of a mouse. This benefit becomes all the more attractive in the case of information-intensive products such as softwares, movies, music, e-books and journals that can even be delivered online. Cycle time, i.e., the time taken to complete a cycle from the origin of demand to its fulfillment, is substantially reduced due to transformation of the business processes from being sequential to becoming parallel or simultaneous. You know that in the digital era, money is defined as electronic pulses at the speed of light, thanks to the electronic funds transfer technology of e-commerce. Global reach/access: Internet is truly without boundaries. On the one hand, it allows the seller an access to the global market; on the other hand, it affords to the buyer a freedom to choose products from almost any part of the world. It would not be an exaggeration to say that in the absence of internet, globalisation would have been considerably restricted in scope and speed.

Movement towards a paperless society: Use of internet has considerably reduced dependence on paperwork and the attendant 'red tape.' You know that firms these days does bulk of its sourcing of supplies of materials and components in a paper less fashion. Even the government departments and regulatory authorities are increasingly moving in this direction whereby they allow electronic filing of returns and reports. In fact, e-commerce tools are effecting the administrative reforms aimed at speeding up the process of granting permissions, approvals and licences. In this respect, the provisions of Information Technology Act 2000 are quite noteworthy. Knowledge management system is formally recognized as a part of MIS. It is effectively used for strategic planning for survival and growth, increase in profit and productivity and so on. To achieve the said benefits of E business organization, it is necessary to redesign the organization to realize the benefits of digital firm. The organization structure should be lean and flat. Get rid of rigid established infrastructure such as branch office or zonal office. Allow people to work from anywhere. Automate processes after reengineering the process to cut down process cycle time. Make use of groupware technology on Internet platform for faster response processing. Another 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. Internet and networking technology has thrown another challenge to enlarge the scope of Organization where customers and vendors become part of the organization. This technology offers a solution to communicate, coordinate, and collaborate with customers, vendors and business partners. 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.

Q 5. What do you understand by service level Agreements (SLAs)? Why are they needed? What is the role of CIO in drafting these? Explain the various security hazards faced by an IS?

A service-level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a network service provider and a customer that specifies, usually in measurable terms, what services the network service provider will furnish. Many Internet service providers (ISP)s provide their customers with an SLA. More recently, IS departments in major enterprises have adopted the idea of writing a service level agreement so that services for their customers (users in other departments within the enterprise) can be measured, justified, and perhaps compared with those of outsourcing network providers. Some metrics that SLAs may specify include:

What percentage of the time services will be available The number of users that can be served simultaneously Specific performance benchmarks to which actual performance will be compared The schedule for notification in advance of network changes that may affect users Help desk response time for various classes of problems Dial-in access availability Usage statistics that will be provided.

Role of CIO in drafting SLAS One of the major responsibilities of the CIO is to establish the credibility of the systems organization. The systems department should not only focus on providing better the various lines of business but also help businesses operate better. If the CIO wants to be taken seriously, he needs to do what other executives do and have his own business metrics and performance measurements, so that he can effectively measure his internal business performance. Other business departments have them, but CIOs generally do not because IT has always been viewed as a cost center. Measurements in IT tend to be vague and lacking in context. The first step, they say, is to implement service level agreements (SLAs) with business units. It sets the expectation on the technical areas of the CIO's operations. At a minimum, they should set up what is expected and what levels of service the equipment will provide. The underlying SLAs should be some sort of a chargeback system with business units, particularly when it comes to apportioning staff time

Security Hazards faced by an Information system: Security of the information system can be broken because of the following reasons: i) Malfunctions: In this type of security hazard, all the components of a system are involved. People, software and hardware errors course the biggest problem. More dangerous are the problems which are created by human beings due to the omission, neglect and incompetence. ii) Fraud and unauthorized access: This hazard is due to dishonesty, cheating or deceit. This can be done through a) Infiltration and industrial espionage b) Tapping data from communication lines c) Unauthorized browsing through lines by online terminals, etc. iii) Power and communication failure: In some locations they are the most frequent hazards than any other else because availability of both of them depends upon the location. Sometimes communication channel are busy or noisy. There are power cuts and sometimes high voltage serge destroys a sensitive component of the computer. iv) Fire hazard: it can happen because of electrical short circuits, flammable liquids etc. v) Sabotage and riots: sometimes the employees destroy the computer centre in case of strike, lockout or there may be chances of riots in the area. vi) Natural Disasters: Natural disasters are not controllable. They are not frequent hazards but if they happen they destroy the things or ruin them. Examples are earthquake, floods, tornadoes and lightening. vii) General hazards: this category covers many more hazards which are not covered anywhere and difficult to define and come spontaneously.

Q6. Case Study: Information system in a restaurant. A waiter takes an order at a table, and then enters it online via one of the six terminals located in the restaurant dining room. The order is routed to a printer in the appropriate preparation area: the cold item printer if it is a salad, the hot-item printer if it is a hot sandwich or the bar printer if it is a drink. A customers meal check-listing (bill) the items ordered and the respective prices are automatically generated. This ordering system eliminates the old three-carbon-copy guest check system as well as any problems caused by a waiters handwriting. When the kitchen runs out of a food item, the cooks send out an out of stock message, which will be displayed on the dining room terminals when waiters try to order that item. This gives the waiters faster feedback, enabling them to give better service to the customers. Other system features aid management in the planning and control of their restaurant business. The system provides up-to-the-minute information on the food items ordered and breaks out percentages showing sales of each item versus total sales. This helps management plan menus according to customers tastes. The system also compares the weekly sales totals versus food costs, allowing planning for tighter cost controls. In addition, whenever an order is voided, the reasons for the void are keyed in. This may help later in management decisions, especially if the voids consistently related to food or service. Acceptance of the system by the users is exceptionally high since the waiters and waitresses were involved in the selection and design process. All potential users were asked to give their impressions and ideas about the various systems available before one was chosen.

Advantages of an online computer system: Eliminates carbon copies Waiters handwriting issues Out-of-stock message Faster feedback, helps waiters to service the customers

Advantages to management: Sales figures and percentages item-wise Helps in planning the menu Cost accounting details The management system should be an open system and MIS should be so designed that it highlights the critical business, operational, technological and environmental changes to the concerned level in the management, so that the action can be taken to correct the situation. To make the system a success, knowledge will have to be formalized so that machines worldwide have a shared and common understanding of the information provided. The systems developed will have to be able to handle enormous amounts of information very fast. An organization operates in an ever-increasing competitive, global environment. Operating in a global environment requires an organization to focus on the efficient execution of its processes, customer service, and speed to market. To accomplish these goals, the organization must exchange valuable information across different functions,

levels, and business units. By making the system more formal, the organization can more efficiently exchange information among its functional areas, business units, suppliers, and customers. In our case study, as the transactions are taking place every day, the system stores all the data which can be used later on when the hotel is in need of some financial help from financial institutes or banks. As the inventory is always entered into the system, any frauds can be easily taken care of and if anything goes missing then it can be detected through the system.