The Concepts of Information Management, Analysis of LeeJay Motel Database - Case Study Example

Information Management in an Organization Student Name Course Institution Executive summary Information management system enables an organization to fully utilize the information within the company for the purpose of achieving goals and objectives. It involves the development of a database for the purpose of managing the data and information. This also ensures the proper coordination of different departments within the organization. This is because no department can function independently in a company. LeeJay motel is one of the business organizations that have developed a database for the purpose of information management. However, the database of the company has some shortcomings. The coordination of departments is poor and hence affecting the flow of information among the departments. This is because some of the departments are not linked in terms of information access. The quality problems associated with information leads to problems within the different departments of a company. The objectives of the company may also be hindered due to the problems associated with the information management. The access of information by different departments enables the users to fully utilize the concepts of information management. The sales and marketing department of the motel was not impacted positively by the database designed. Poor design of a database may lead to poor decision making process. However the policy development will improve the prospects of the company. Introduction Information management within an organization plays an important role in terms of managing the operations of the company. This is because of the importance that information has in creating a link between various stakeholders in a company. Proper management of information ensures that the staff of the company is able to utilize information and hence enhancing their operations. The members of staff from different departments require certain information in order to perform tasks allocated to them. The information management process requires the application of various tools for the process to be successful (Hirschheim, 2012). People are required during the information management. This involves the personnel that will be coordinating various activities within the company. A process also has to be established for the purpose of ensuring that a certain chain is followed when managing the information. This plays an active role in terms of keeping the employees focused on the information management process. All the departments within the organization have to be linked for the purpose of effectively managing the information. This is to avoid situations where one department does not have information regarding the operations of the company. The departments also need to be linked so as to ensure that the flow of information is enhanced. It is for this reason that the modern methods of information management have changed. The changes are due to the incorporation of technology during the information management process (Peng, et al, 2011). The use of technology acts as a substitute for the manual process that was initially used for the management of information. The paper discusses the concepts of information management with the analysis of LeeJay Motel Database Information systems have been utilized during the information management process. This increases the quality of the process and had been beneficial to most of the organizations and hence impacting positively on the clients. The use of technological means also plays an important role in terms of ensuring that the information management is streamlined within an organization. The process of information management has been simplified through the use of information systems. The initial cost of implementation is however high as an information system infrastructure has to be established. The employees of the company also require training on the concepts of information system. The content of the information is also important in terms of establishing the information system to mange the information within an organization. However, it is also important to note that the information management process has some challenges which need to be addressed. This is because the challenges are responsible for the failure of most organizations when it come to the management of information. The management of information therefore requires a technical approach for it to be successful. Experts are also required during the management of the information with an organization. The time taken to fully manage the information within an organization is also dependant on the strategies used. The level of involvement of the staff is also a factor that determines the management of information. Problem with LeeJay Motel Database The database of the company has the ability to mange the information and coordinates the same information. However, the database has some problems that reduce its efficiency in terms of managing the information. The database shows little integration among the information systems linking the different departments. This reduces the efficiency of the management as some of the departments are not able to aces information from other departments. This contributes to the poor delivery of services within an organization as the decision making process is complicated. The human resource department is not linked to the sales and marketing department. This makes it difficult for the company to make a clear plan on how activities should be conducted and who should conduct them. On the other hand, the database shows some amount of competition among the information systems in the different departments. This is one of the factors that lower the efficiency of a database. All the departments should be in a position to access the required information easily within an organization. The database also lacks a clear strategic direction with regard to the management of the information. This is because all the departments seem independent and only collects information to pass it to another department. The lack of clarity on the need for the information in some of the departments is also a problem with the design of the database. The lack of a central database is also one of the problems for the design. A central database ensures that any information can be accessed by the staff and department whenever it is required. Usability of the system by the staff The usability of the information system by the staff determines the levels of sauces by the company (Bassellier, 2009). Within a department different employees have different roles. This means that each of the employees requires information for a certain purpose. The access of the information also determines the success of the department. It is thus necessary to put in place measures that ensure that each of the employees is able to access information at the required time. In order to achieve this, the employees must learn the concepts of information technology. This ensures that they are able to use the system without problems. The training of the employees is therefore required in order to achieve this objective. The machines also require some safeguards in order to prevent unauthorized access of information of the department. A plan is also required for the purpose of ensuring that the employees are able to use the facilities at a convenient time. It is thus import t o ensure that the employees abide by the plan. In other instances where the employees are unable to use the system in terms of processing the information, outsourcing is important as will ensure that the operations of the department are not delayed. An expert in the information systems should also be present at the company. This is for the purpose of guiding the employees as well as responding to the technological needs whenever an expert is required. The usability of the system by the staff can therefore be enhanced through following the steps and procedures. This eliminates the incidences of poor management of information in a department (Laudon, et al, 2011). Can sales and marketing's department user’s access information? At the motel, the sales and marketing department plays a crucial role in terms of attracting the clients to use the services of the motel. However, the level of aces of information is quite low. They are only able to access the information of the customers but not from other departments. The access of information in a department determines the efficiency in terms of decision making. The users can also access information from other marketing organizations. This is however for the purpose of marketing and the organizations are external. The company therefore has a problem in terms of information flow and management. The poor aces may hinder the better performance of the company in terms of dealing with competition. This is because the sales and marketing department requires a lot of information regarding the company. Proper decisions cannot be made by the company incase of poor access of information. This is because the department may fail to develop strategies in the absence of full information. It is thus important to ensure that the sales and marketing user are able to aces information for the betterment of the department and the company as a whole. In most of the successful organizations, the sales and marketing users have full aces to information for the purpose of enhancing their operations. The database of the company is also complex as it is and it thus hinders the access of information by the sales and marketing users. This has a negative impact on the department in terms of promoting the services of the company. However, the staff in the department is able to access the information of the department. This is also important for the operations of the department as well as the company. The information pf the department enables the employees to have a direction of what needs to be followed. The information from the other departments is however important for the purpose of complimenting their work. This is because some of the operations require the information regarding the other departments. The sales and marketing department has to carry out a lot of activities that requires the financial support. It is for this reason that the department requires information regarding the budgetary allocations. This aids the employees in their operations as they have to work within the budget. It is evident that the accounts department has the ability of accessing the sales and marketing information. However, the sales and marketing department cannot access the information of the accounts department. This is mainly for security reasons that the accounts information has to be confidential. The information management system should focus on the access of information by different users in different departments. This is one of the factors that aids the decision making process. It is also evident that the sales and marketing department of the company is starved of information due to the design of the database. The limitations of the information can easy impact negatively on the operations of the department. However, it is import ant to note that the users in the department are able to access the information of the customers and hence the development of the sales strategies. Usability of the system based on the organizational goals The goals and objectives of an organization determine the efficiency of the usability of the system. An organization has to develop an efficient information system for the purpose of enabling the use of the information system. This is achieved by an organization by developing an information system infrastructure that enables the proper management of information. The goals and objectives of an organization in terms of information management also ensure that the employees are trained on the concepts of information system so as to enable the use of the system. The levels of usability of the information system with regard to the information also vary. This is due to the different levels of users with diverse needs. The different levels of users are for the purpose of enhancing the management of the information. Some information in the company is confidential and is only useful to the managers and administrators. The access of such information by the employees may affect the operations of the company. It is for this reason that the usability of the system varies despite the common goal that the organization has. In order to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization, specification on how each of the departments benefits from the system has to be outlined. The specification is also important t for the employees when accessing the system of the company. User support services are also beneficial to an organization in terms of usability based on the organizational goals. The user support systems ensure that the users can easily access the system (Chaffey, 2010). 3. Can other departments (i.e. human resources, customer service) access the information they need from sales and marketing's department? The access of information by other departments in the Motel is complicated. This is due to the design of the database. The accounts department and the house keeping departments are the only departments in the organization that are linked to the sales and marketing department. These are the only departments that can access the information directly from the sales and marketing department. However, the information is only the operational information. The account department receives information from the sales and marketing department for the purpose of billing depending on the customer stay. This is the only information that the accounts department obtains from the sales and marketing department. On the other hand, the house keeping department only receives the information from the department regarding the customer details. It is thus evident that the two departments closely work with the sales and marketing department. However, the department does not receive nay information from the two departments. This is an indication that the design of the database is not good as it does not allow the flow of information from different departments. The information obtained is also shallow and are only for the purpose of operations. This may affect the decision making of the other departments. The decision making process in the sales and marketing department can also be affected as it does not receive any information from any other department. However, it is also important to note that the information that can be accessed by the other departments is the most needed information by the departments. However, despite the link between the department and the other two departments, there is no direct link between the human resource department and the sales and marketing department. This means that the human resource department cannot access the required information directly from the sales and marketing department. It can only access the information from the house keeping and accounts department which are linked to the human resource department. This is an indication of a poor design as the sales and marketing department has to be closely linked to the human resource department. This is because the sales and marketing department may at times require manpower which is under the human resource department. The department therefore has to use other channels in order to obtain the required information from the human resource department. It is thus important for the human resource department to be at the center so s to interact with all the departments in the company. This ensures that the requirements of the departments can easily be met through the availing of the required information. The customer service department can also aces the required information from the sales and marketing department. It is only this department that information can be shared both ways. The information is also for the operations of the company and is also the necessary information required by the two departments. The operations of the Motel have also been enhanced through the access of information between the customer care department and the sales and marketing department. Major areas of impact Information management has several impacts on the departments, users and the organization as a whole (Hinton, 2012). This is due to the quality of the information. The decision making process is also affected by the quality of the Information in the organization. The business relationship is impacted by the quality of the information. The business relationship is the relations between the employees and the departments when transacting the business operations. Good quality information has positive impacts on the goals and objectives of the organization. However, poor quality of information impacts negatively on the quality of the information. The quality of information also has impacts on the management processes of an organization. The management can only be enhanced when good quality information is available in the organization. It is thus important to note that the management of information contributes positively to the operations of an organization. Controlling the risks within an organization is one of the most important concepts of doing business. The lack of managing the information of a company may result to risks and hence the failure of a company. This is because of the presence of risks and uncertainties in business. The marketing department of an organization can utilize the information management concepts to ensure that the company avoids risks. The performance management is also impacted positively by the information management system. This is because it promotes the strategy implementation within an organization. On the other hand, the use of the management information system improves on service delivery as the customer care process is enhanced through the use of available information (Jones, 2010). How the problems with information quality and the way the database works impact the users in sales and marketing's department, in other departments (i.e. human resources, customer service) and top level managers? The users in the sales and marketing department require data for the purpose of carrying out their duties in order to meet the goals and objectives of the company. The ability to coordinate activities is usually impacted negatively by the users. This is because it affects the access of information by the users and hence leading to poor decision making. The changes in work practices are important in terms of achieving the aims and objectives of an organization. However this is usually impacted negatively by the problems with information quality. It thus makes it difficult for the users to utilize information for the purpose of enhancing the operations of the company. Poor quality of information also shifts the focus of the users from achieving the goals and objectives of the organization. This leads to the poor performance of the department. This is also considering the sensitive nature of the sales and marketing department. The problems of information quality also lead to poor development of the skills of the users. This is because it prevents them from making wise decisions and fully utilizes the information system. The top level mangers can also be impacted negatively by the problems of information quality. This is because t may lead to wrong managerial decisions and hence affecting the growth and development of the company. The sales and marketing department may also be impacted negatively by the problems in information quality as the wrong products may end up in the market and hence affecting the sales of the company. The human resource department can also be greatly affected by the information quality problems. This is because the management of resources is dependant on the department. Poor quality information may therefore lead to the wrongful allocation of resources by the managers. The employees of the company may also end up using the wrong information to make improper decisions that affects the company. On the other hand, the problems with quality information may leads to wastage of resource by the department. This can easily affect the operations of the company and hence leading poor performance of the company. Poor quality information leads to inconsistency in the data used for running the human resource department. This leads to the use of outdated information and hence resulting to poor decision making and hence resulting to more problems for the whole organization. The house keeping department is also impacted negatively by the poor quality in formation. This leads to misunderstanding with the customers. The department may fail to meet the demands of the customers and hence misunderstandings. On the other hand, the poor quality information may result to lack of customer satisfaction. This has the potential of bringing down the business. The accounts department requires a lot of accuracy for it to be effective. Problems with poor quality information may this lead loss of finances due to poor allocations. A company may also end up making losses incase of using poor quality information. Poor quality information is thus responsible for the failure of goals and objectives of a company. Policies that needs developing Recognizing and managing the complexity is one of the important concepts that needs to be developed when developing policies (Kebede, 2010). This allows for proper design of the database and hence ensuring that the company is able to link its procedures. This will also ensure that centralization of information is done and hence ensuring that the users can easily aces the required information. This will also promote the growth and development of the company. The focus on adoption is also important in terms of ensuring the active participation of the staff. This is because the information system can only realize the goals and objectives of the organization once the staff members are involved in it. This can be achieved by developing a policy that ensures all the members of staff save all the information regarding the company in the database. However, it is also advisable to communicate to the employees about the benefits of the information system. Tangible benefits are important in terms of ensuring that the employees understand the benefits of information management system. It is thus important to ensure that the benefits are visible so as to win the confidence of the staff members. Prioritization of the information system according to the requirement of the department is also important in terms of achieving the goals and objectives of the company. This should also be put in the policy of the company. Planning ahead is also important for the organization so as to put in place measures to deal with uncertainties and the problems associated with poor quality information. Conclusion In conclusion, it is evident that the concepts information management system plays an important role I the operations of a company. It enables an organization to develop the methods that ensures users to benefit from the concepts of the technology. It is evident that the database of the motel has some problems that need to be addressed. The development of policies to ensure that the improvements are made can be beneficial to the organization. It is also important to note that the problems related to quality information may lead to wrong decisions being made. The success of information management is beneficial to the company as well as the employees and hence leading to customer satisfaction. List of References Hirschheim, R, 2012, The information systems outsourcing bandwagon, Sloan management review, 34. Laudon, K, et al, 2011, Essentials of management information systems, Boston: Prentice Hall. Chaffey, D, 2010, Business information management: improving performance using information systems, Pearson Education. Jones, W, 2010, Keeping Found Things Found: The Study and Practice of Personal Information Management: The Study and Practice of Personal Information Management, Morgan Kaufmann. Kebede, G, 2010, Knowledge management: An information science perspective, International Journal of Information Management, 30(5), 416-424. Hinton, M, 2012, Introducing information management, Routledge, London. Bassellier, G, 2009, Interpretation of formative measurement in information systems research, Mis Quarterly, 33(4), 689-707. Peng, Y, et al, 2011, An incident information management framework based on data integration, data mining, and multi-criteria decision making, Decision Support Systems, 51(2), 316-327. Read More