Business Information System - EquipHire - Case Study Example

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Introduction Business information systems by definition are systems that integrate information technology, business and people (Bajgoric 632). It strives to bring together information modules so as to establish the most efficient channels of communication. This in turn, ensures accurate and timely decision making thus contributing to productivity, as well as competitiveness of the organisation. This report finds its basis from a case Study on EquipHire Company that is facing difficulties due to reduced Business information System that it adopted. The company had initially employed the HireIT system that majors on sales, but it has failed because it cannot respond to the continuously changing business environments. The management is considering a review of its current information system. This provides the basis for recommending the best information system that will meet the requirements of the company. The company meets its needs due to excellent features of this BIS that makes it suitable for the business. Current businesses heavily depend on information that gets processed by the new technological advances (Bajgoric 632). This paper recommends the e-business continuance as a business information system to help the EquipHire compete in the online-dependant business environment. EquipHire is a commercial business entity that is operating at the domestic level with eleven branches all over Sydney. On the other hand, the company strives to take its operations to the internet, but HireIT does not have this provision. The commercial sector accounts for most of the sales that originate from engineering, construction and building trades. However, the DIY sales sector is experiencing the fastest growth in the company. The other assets of the company include concrete cutters, generators, mobile platforms, small excavators, generators and trenches. Other important assets include party hire glassware, chairs and tables, marquee tents and heaters. The company makes its costing by the use of spreadsheets. The significant challenge is management of the hire inventory. In addition, the company needs high utilisation rates for the equipments since most of the finances come from the third parties. Consequently, equipment maintenance and checking is inconsistent which does not meet the needs of customer repeat business. The company directors also use QuickBooks in running accounts and maintaining which they connect to Access the database. The delivery system does not meet competitiveness levels as they are manual in nature. In embracing technology, the company uses a laptop and desktop that use office 2007 and Microsoft XP. These provisions of the company lacks behind in the technology dominated business sector (Bajgoric 632) E-business continuance business information system Today’s business environment depends on information technology (IT) and it is also data driven (Bajgoric 633). This means that entrepreneurs are moving away from traditional information systems that used computers that were behind the scenes oriented. These business systems like the one that EquipHire has been using operates in the organisation manner. Their operations are manual, and even financial data entries where the staff uses carbon papers and later transferred to the computer data systems manually. However, the business environment is now moving towards e-business. One such example for is the information system for e-business continuance (Bajgoric 632). These systems must confer with (Bajgoric 634) definition. Bajgoric (635) recommends that the business information systems must be technological in nature, and management can easily measure it for performance. The environment of the system is also significant because it entail both internal and external entities within the boundary of the system. Resources that operate this system may include raw materials, people, capital and technologies. On the other hand, any system that the management employ must provide activities that ensure efficient management in the organisation. The e-business continuance ensures availability, reliability as well as scalability. This is because systems can face breakdown (Bajgoric 635). The EquipHire Company is willing to take its operations to the internet. The management must understand that online business also have downfalls. Any slight system breakdown can result to revenue millions of revenue loss. When faced with such situations, companies tend to make bad decisions, realise reduction in productivity and loose customers. For this company to maintain its competitiveness, it must ensure continuity in data available and alertness when it comes to accessibility of data. This system is also efficient because it quickly adapts to changes. On the other hand, the system is steady fast to responding to software or hardware hitches and disruptions of the data. The company must realise that e-business systems ensures tolerance to faults, disaster recovery, fast and data access that is fast and reliable. Sydney is a metropolitan area with 24 hour economy. The company can capitalise on this environment by using an e-business approach to build 100% BIS with efficient data availability (Bajgoric 637). The resource component of the strategy This system majorly depends on both the client and server architecture (Bajgoric 638). The server becomes the infrastructure of the operating environment. The server is standard-based that makes it possible to have the key characteristics of the server platform. The e-business Continuance (eBC) is the best way to do equipment hire business because it ensures multi-platform access to data and continuous processing of data. The other outstanding characteristics of this strategy are that it enables the company access data from the end-users. Moreover, the company can make bets decisions due to easy access to critical information at any time and in any place briefly, the eBC provides three fundamental technologies for ensuring high availability. These technologies include fault-tolerant systems, SereWare dependant enhanced server platforms and the usual data storage systems (Bajgoric 638). Data storage in this information system includes the SAN (storage area network) and NAS (network attached storage) (Bajgoric 639). These two technologies mainly uses fibre channel as a backup system and the SCSI (internet SCSI) as well as serial ATA (Bajgoric 640). Through proper financing, the company can be able to implement this Business Information System. The eBC features also incorporates the modern computer environments known as ServerWare (Bajgoric). These environments provide a suitable operating environment that a typical desktop, which EquipHire uses, cannot provide. Such environments are very useful for business that heavily rely on the internet like the online shops which Equip hire aspires to achieve. This server is primarily enterprise in nature. It is the most suitable for this company. Bajgoric (633) defines enterprise server as a computing system that operates within the client-server environment and support the technological operations of a whole or subsystem of a business entity. To ensure e-business continuity, business entities can use Mainframe servers, Intel processors and Apple Macintosh (Bajgoric 643). Management of the system Management of new systems is necessary because it ensures that the system does not fail in any way (Bajgoric 636). It involves the business and manufacturer of the technologies. eBC system is still new to many entrepreneurs and hence they need to know the basics that apply to its management. In managing the e-business strategy, the company must first consider essential resources that play integral part in this activity. These resources include operating infrastructure, system application uptime, databases, backup, storage, data access, security and IT operations and the human resources (Bajgoric 637). The information design is customer-based and also stable. The company must consider return on their investment. If managing the system is unproductive, then it is not suitable for the company. Human resource is most vital in managing this system because they are the ones who operate it. Figure 1 Server operating environment for e-business continuance (Bajgoric 648) External and internal business requirements that the selected information systems need to address The external business requirements entail the surrounding environment that affects the business. Externally, the eBC information system must address how company will deal with competencies of the competitors (Bajgoric 635). The new business information system is flexible and allows for change initiation. For instance, the management can easily modify it to handle a lot of online purchases in case of shifting demands in the market. Demand may be high prompting equipment supply businesses to device systems that operate with speed. The company can trust eBC as a strategy of dealing with numerous transactions that will ensure productivity of the business. Internally, the skills and manpower affects the business. The system must first consider the proficiency with which the staff will use handle innovations. The company can opt to hire personnel or still train its existing staff for a speedy transition from the old technology to new technology (Bajgoric 636). How the recommended systems provide the core information required in operating the business The eBC information system is client-server oriented (Bajgoric 635). This feature makes it possible to relay information from the customer needs and to the management easily. In managing the inventory, this system proposes the use of online stores or shops. This makes it possible for customers to access information regarding new products and the ones that are available. A customer can readily order for generators, glassware, chairs, and tables among other equipments at the comfort of their house due to free delivery. On the other hand, the system readily provides management with first hand information on the customer needs and preferences. The company can evaluate customer satisfaction from the comments due to the client-server initiative that this system provides. Moreover, the success of this company depends on the sales as well as customer relationship management (CRM) (Bajgoric 636). The e-business continuance information system allows for easy access and processing of data. When a customer bids for equipment online, the information reaches the server within a short time thus making the process more convenient. In maintain customer relationship, the management can assure for direct delivery after the customer has purchased the product. This ensures customer satisfaction and healthy relationships with customers. Managing the accounts or financial information has also proved difficult for the company. However, the eBC has an array of remedies to this problem. Firstly, the management can deal with financial problems by using the payroll systems that give remuneration department an easy task of dealing with salaries (Bajgoric 639. The business continuance uses new technologies like disk mirroring in the internet. This makes it possible for the organisation to keep up to date with financial information from its eleven branches. With this technology, the company will not have to send its sales representatives with manual financial documents to the central office. Instead, disk mirroring technology transfers data to different locations even if the geographical location has experienced hiccups or interruptions. This is the most significant aspect of e-business that can help the company manage its accounts. The mirroring technology also helps in arriving at decisions since different departments or branches can discuss the best options through the internet enable system. The e-business continuance will allow the company to use Accounting Information System (AIS) (Bajgoric 638). This will enable the business to collect, manage, store, process and retrieve the financial data that accountants can use. This information system leads high accuracy in transactions as well as record keeping for the relevant authorities. Accounting information system will contain data on sales orders, billing systems, purchase requisition, inventory data, payroll information, vendor invoices and the general ledger. The implication is that accountants will have easy tasks in managing and processing financial information of the company. Instead using managing inventory using the access database, the company can use AIS (Bajgoric 640). On the other, company can also abandon the manual system of managing sales and purchase invoices and adopt this information system. The e-business continuance is thus a remedy for reviving EquipHire Company. Conclusion In summary, the new information systems that are information oriented are proving to be successful for many business entities. The modern business atmosphere is shifting to the online platform as a new target market. Successes in these businesses depend on the new technological inventions on business information systems. The e-business continuance as one of the new technologies enables companies to manage their information. Most relevant are the components of eBC that ensure easy access to data and processing. This report recommends that EquipHire Company should abandon its old business information system and adapt the now commonly used eBC. Handling of the accounting information is the basis of success of any business. The e-business continuance recommends the use of Accounting Information Systems for handling finances. Finally, the disk mirror, a new technology will help the company in making decisions Works cited Bajgoric, Nijaz. "Information systems for e-business continuance: a systems approach", Kybernetes 35. 5 (2006): 632 – 652. Emerald. Web. 26 September. 2013 Read More