Business Information Systems and Education - Coursework Example

Business information systems SUMMARY OF THE CASE STUDY The resources of the CPS school teaching are not adequate due to the reliance on old technology rather that the new, like white board system of teaching. Whiteboard teaching refers to an interactive resource, that enables the teachers to deliver the teaching materials need more effectively and efficiently to the students. The only method of advertisement of the school is through open days, local newspapers, magazines and word of mouth as it has no website in which it can advertise through. The school lacks Virtual Learning Environment, this makes systems like distance learning and e-learning impossible which is an important method that is provided in most competing schools. Further, lack of information system collaboration, connectivity in the systems and learning that is based on experience and practical learning makes the thinking capacity to be low as it confines the students to the theory (POLSET AL (2007). There is no computer based records or information systems to aid the CPS administration in their work therefore, still doing their work manually. The available computers are at least eight years old, having Microsoft Windows XP operating systems. This is really old considering the new operating systems in the market like Microsoft windows 7 and 8. They might not be as effective as there are some necessary software’s needed that cannot work in these old processors and also in the matters of speed. On top of all this, one computer technician staff serves five sites. This means that in case of a problem in one campus, it may take a very long time to fix it. Mostly, considering that the communication between the campuses is mostly by way of mail and phone which is highly unreliable in case of a busy day in the lines or some network problems. The computers in the school have many folders and sub-folders which are in PDF, Word, Access and Excel documents clogged in them inter alia loosely filed under their respective administrative function. This system is rather informal and thus does not promote and maintain effective communication between the various campuses. This is brought about the rising numbers in staff, and students, and the increase in diversity of courses offered, with the number of computers remaining constant. The following are the problems associated with these school computers; 1. The computers have multiple copies of the same documents saved in them. 2. The information is presented inconsistently 3. New members of staff find it hard to access. 4. Ignorance by some members of the staff on existence and usage of the facility. 5. Lack of easy integration of email in collaborative projects. 6. Some software needs to interpret the documents are not available. 7. Lack of technology for finding documents due to poor data entry. 8. Lack of effective use of computers ending up being underutilized. There is poor resource management resulting from the disorganized computer systems. This has led to instances of double purchases of equipments, ineffective deployment of school personnel and the loss of resources belonging to the campus. Access to computers by teachers is very limited as they have no PCs dedicated to their use. They all depend on one secretary of one campus to do their word processing work for them. The students also lack labs and computer systems for their use. There is also no wireless network in the school for students thus a big drawback to their group projects research. This has attracted a lot of critics from them. The teachers find it hard and cumbersome to retrieve the word process documents stored from a manual paper based filing system. It is also very insecure as it is easily accessible to third parties and has no implication at all on the Data Protection Act (PORTER, 1985). The poor system used by CPS School is not able to deal with huge amounts of information since the data is stored manually. Further, the system is rather slowing hence, insufficient as a means of communication between the campuses and also as a method of storing the data. This is attributed to the old operating systems and the old software. It is also highly selective as it deals specifically on particular problems and situations. Hence, not appropriate for competitive business. This issue makes CPS School not to be competitive with the upcoming modernized schools. THEORETICAL CONCEPTS OF BUSSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEM Business information system is a group of interrelated components that work collectively to carry out input, processing, output, storage and controlled captions in order to convert data into information products that can be used to support forecasting, planning, control, coordination, decision making and operational activities in an organization. (BOCIJ, & HICKIE, 2008). BIS is supported by human resources which encompasses the users of an information system and those developing, maintaining and operating the system, hardware resources which include not only computer hardware but all type of machinery, software resources which not only refer to programs but also describe the procedures, data resources, that an organization has access to regardless of its format. A system can also be defined as a collection of interrelated components that work together towards a collective goal. The system has a number of functions which include the modular design, expandability, flexibility. The modular programs and hardware accords the ability to adapt and expand the system to take care of the virtually any configuration or application as required. These configurations within the system allow for security of the data. These system dimensions can be expanded beyond the capacity of a single control panel using powerful system management programs. The system is made up of the following fundamental components; input, process, output, feedback mechanism and control mechanism. The features of the system include the following; that the systems have interconnectivity whereby the various parts of a whole system have a functional and a structural relations, the fundamental components of the system are aimed to work towards a collective objective, the system does not operate in any total isolation, it can be complex and composed of other smaller systems, the systems operate in a hierarchical order whereby the linkage or the coupling between the subsystems differs by exchanging information. The operational level usage is greater because of the demand of the higher levels of automations and structural tasks. The main operational activities that are carried out are the data processing is deals with the huge volumes of information that arise from an organization’s day to day activities. The common usage of the BIS is the transaction processing which majorly deals with the sales and purchasing transactions and the process control systems which deals in handling large and huge volumes of information created by the production process (MORABITO, 2013). If the CPC School is to apply the BIS then the management of the data would be simplified and also the school would be able to compete with the emerging competitors since it would be able to make advertisements through its websites other than the word of mouth process which is not much appealing to potential clients. The system has various advantages which include, Accessibility of information Where the information can be easily retrieved through the use of find machines; If CPS School is to adopt this BIS system then the students will be able to retrieve information of the teachers and relevant administrators easily and the data stored by the students in group projects will be easily retrieved upon need. Speed Computers have a capability of processing millions of bytes of information in seconds hence completing the task given faster. The manual system is very slow thus time consuming and as aforementioned the use of the current system by the CPS school to type all word data by one secretary for a campus and the inability by teachers to access the computers make the working process slow, but if they are to adopt the information technology in the operation of the university then it will fasten the operations (CHAFFEY, & WOOD, 2010). Accuracy Computers provide an accurate result as compared to the errors that man can make while typing or making calculations. The use of the manual system in computing data for the university subjects the information to it being not accurate due arithmetical errors that may occur as a result of human errors. Reliability The use of the information technology makes the system reliable where the data has been stored for the later use. The manual system as adopted by the CPS school is very unreliable since it depends on the human energy thus it can break down due to fatigue or sickness, but the BIS system depends on the machines thus the system is not subject to the day to day human challenges. RECCOMENDATIONS To be able to have an efficient and effective method of operating the school communication system, the CPC University should adopt the information system technology whereby by so doing they will be able to upgrade the flow of information in the school and also ensure that the School is much competitive as it used to be. Where the management have adopted the enterprise system in BIS it aims at addressing the decentralization problem by supporting business processes across boundaries. (TURBAN, ET AL, 2007). The school will need to start using the internet to integrate information within the business and with customers, suppliers and partners. This enterprise system is featured by the following features; Enterprise resource planning which is mainly concerned with the internal production, distribution and financial processes, Customer relationship management which majors on the aspect of sales, marketing and service; Supply Chain management is aimed at the flow of the materials, information and customer via the supply chain. (JOHNSON, & SCHOLES, 1993). Evident that the application of the business information system by the school can be of great importance in ensuring that the school is competitive and offers high standards. Hence, it can be summarized that business information systems play a key role in business growth and survival by supporting the constant race for competitive advantage. Organisations must obtain competitive advantage (strategic advantage) if they are to survive and grow. (LUCEY, 2004).These competitive advantages are specific merits that are difficult for other organizations to copy due to costs and technology involved. So if the CPC School want to be very competitive it must adopt the strategic advantage where by the competitors won’t be able to defeat it. (PORTER, 1985). For this strategic advantage to be realized the organization must adopt three strategies for it to be competitive and these include; Cost advantage: realized by better understanding costs and reducing their impact on value-adding activities. Differentiation: focusing on those activities associated with core competencies in order to perform them better than do competitors. Innovation: developing new ways of doing business. If the CPC School is to adapt the aforementioned recommendations taking into account all the relevant measures that they need to put in place so as to be competitive and survive in the education business. They should provide enough number of computers to both teachers and students, provide internet and intranet within the university which would facilitate the communication and advertisement of the university, upgrade the windows for the computers so as to be able to match with the modern world. BIBLIOGRAPHY BOCIJ, P. GREASLEY, A. & HICKIE, S., (2008), Business Information Systems, 4th Edition. FT Prentice Hall (ISBN: 9780273716624) BOCIJ, P., & GREASLEY, A. (2006). Business information systems: technology, development and management for the e-business. Harlow [u.a.], Financial Times Prentice Hall. BOCIJ, P., GREASLEY, A., & HICKIE, S. (2008). Business information systems: technology, development and management. Harlow, England, FT Prentice Hall. CHAFFEY, D., & WOOD, S. (2010). Business information management: improving performance using information systems. Harlow, Pearson Education. DOOM, C. (2009). An introduction to business information management. Brussels, ASP. JOHNSON. AND K. 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