The Management Information Systems - Assignment Example

Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Introduction 4 Strengths 4 Weaknesses 4 IT Infrastructure 5 Strategic Information System Planning 5 Comprehensiveness 6 Formalization 6 Focus 6 Top Down Flow 6 Broad Participation 6 High Consistency 7 Value Chain Analysis 7 Inbound Logistics 7 Operations 7 Outbound Logistics 7 Service 8 Supporting Activities 8 Customer Relationship Management System 8 Pre-Sales 10 Sales 10 Client Service Management 11 After Sales 11 Business Process Reengineering 12 Strategic Outsourcing 12 Enterprise System Architecture 13 Enterprise System Maturity 13 Enterprise Resource Planning 14 Executive Summary Global Bike Inc is one of the world’s most renowned bicycles manufacturing company that is marked by the spirit and the quest for the perfection of the designing of the products that are developed. Headed by the Co-CEOs, John Davis and Peter Weiss, the company has its reputation as providing one of the most prestige sporting bicycles that can fulfill the sporting needs of the people involved. The report focuses on the facts that have been taken into account by Global Bike Inc in their expansion to the overseas. This will be helpful in their expansion to the developing and the developed countries of Asia. The Management Information Systems have been worked out excellently by Global Bike Inc and the operations that are conducted are satisfactory in other countries. This marks the fact that it will have no problem in its expansion to the Asian countries taking into account the network infrastructure that will be developed by the necessary investments that might be needed in different countries. The Strategic Information System Planning will ensure that the system is not only comprehensive but also much formalized to the extent that is needed. The customer relationship will be maintained in the same standard way as it is in other countries in which Global Bike Inc is operating. The Value Chain Analysis makes sure that there will be no problem with the transfer of raw materials to the manufacturing firms. This will be followed by the processing that will use quality machines before the finished goods are delivered to the final customers ensuring the best service is provided. This is followed by the Business Process Reengineering and the Strategic Outsourcing. Introduction Global Bike Inc is a world class bicycle company that serves both the professional and the ‘prosumer’ in not only the off road racing but also in touring. The company’s primary focus is on the quality, the toughness and the performance that it promises to deliver. In all its time in history to date, Global Bike Inc has been able to deliver innovative high performance bicycles continuously to the most demanding riders in the world. (Magal, 2011). Strengths Awareness of the brand name amongst the customers. Known for high-performance. The operations of Global Bike Inc are global. Excellent relationship with the suppliers of the company. Research and Development facilities. Company focuses on innovation in its products. A larger product line with the company offering different products in order to make the customers feel more comfortable when riding their bicycles. Maintaining a complete and updated information system helps the company to promptly act on any change in the environment. Maintaining IT Systems gives the company an edge over the competitors that it may have in the market. Weaknesses The company is not able to measure the future analysis with great accuracy. Lack of the established manufacturing capabilities in the Asian market. The company relies a lot on the existing suppliers for its production. Increased number of competitors in the Asian markets. Lower establishment of IT in rural areas. The billing plans are usually complex. The external threats to the Information Technology due to the threats of hacking, viruses and malfunctions. (Garcia, 2002) IT Infrastructure The infrastructure that is designed for IT consists of the physical hardware that is used to connect the computers with the customers. This infrastructure includes the transmission media that exists in the countries. The transmission media can be of the telephone lines, the cable television lines, the satellites and the antennas and the wireless routers, along with the aggregators the repeaters and other devices that can control the path of this transmission in order to make the infrastructure work effectively. (http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/definition/infrastructure). To make sure that the infrastructure is efficient enough, it is important to focus on the dependability of the transmission path. The managing of the infrastructure is also important. To implement this infrastructure it is important to make sure that it can be easily adapted and is affordable by the company. (http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/54200322) Strategic Information System Planning For an effective Strategic Information System Planning, Global Bike Inc will make sure that the system is able to work with: Comprehensiveness The comprehensiveness will enable the Global Bike Inc to be able to extent their attempts in order to be exhaustive or inclusive in the making and the integration of the strategic decisions of the company. Formalization The formalization of the IT system by Global Bike Inc in the way that the existing structures, the techniques, the written procedures and the policies are taken into account by company for the guidance of the processes of planning. Focus Global Bike Inc will also be able to maintain a balance between the orientations between the creativity and the control when they are inherent with the system of strategic planning. The innovative orientation and the integrative orientation should be focused upon by the company to ensure better results. Top Down Flow Global Bike Inc will make sure that the Strategic Information System Planning is initiated by the top managers of the company with the aid of the supporting staff to maintain a balance lower down the hierarchy. Broad Participation Even if the planning flow is top down in Global Bike Inc, the participation that involves multiple functional areas and the key stakeholders of the company at the lower levels of the organization is essential. High Consistency Global Bike Inc makes sure that the Strategic Information System Planning is characterized by the frequent meetings along with the reassessments of the overall strategy that is implemented by the company. (Cecil, 2006). Value Chain Analysis Global Bike Inc makes sure that the value chain is worked upon effectively by the company in each new market where it starts business. Following are a few ways by which the company is able to do so: Inbound Logistics The company makes sure that its receiving of the raw materials followed by the warehousing is done properly. Also the distribution to manufacturing of the raw materials is looked after in more detail. Operations The transformation of the raw materials into finished goods is done by good machinery which is environmental friendly. Outbound Logistics The warehousing and the distribution of the bikes is ensured by Global Bike Inc to maintain its standards. Service It is important that Global Bike Inc is able to provide quality service to the customers when the bikes are sold to them. Supporting Activities The activities that support the basic Value Chain System are the strong infrastructure of the firm which is backed by a strong organizational structure, good control systems and the culture of the company in all its international markets. The Human Resource Management Department takes care of the recruitment of the employees, the hiring, the training, the development and the compensation of the employees of different countries that are available. The technology is developed to support the value creating activities. Also the procurement is essential to Global Bike Inc in order to purchase the inputs which involves the materials, the supplies and the equipment that is needed. (http://www.netmba.com/strategy/value-chain/) Customer Relationship Management System Global Bike Inc like other big business is highly dependent on its customers. The company focuses on maintaining its customer relationship management systems by producing statistics which tells the company about the average revenue that is generated per customer. It also helps to take into account the average order size. (Trapp, 2007). The system at Global Bike Inc electronically tracks and also organizes the contacts that the organization receives. It also enables the multiple people to deal with single clients. This enables the recording of all the actions and the communications to be taken into account for future negotiations. (http://www.kangainternet.com.au/web-services/customer-relationship-management-system-crm.html). According to the business strategy, all the business strategies of Global Bike Inc are focused on the customers. These strategies are to meet the short term and the long term goals of the company to deal with the customers effectively. ( http://www.customerrelationshipmanagementsystem.org/). Using Customer Relationship Management, Global Bike Inc has been able to replace the traditional techniques of marketing that focused solely on the key elements of marketing mix which included the product, price, promotion and place. As the traditional marketing techniques were a lot functionally based, it usually neglected the customer in the process that was followed up after the sale of the product. This resulted in the company not being able to fulfill the desires that the customers are willing to have for themselves. Using Customer Relationship Management, Global Bike Inc emphasizes more on the customer retention rather than the acquisition of the customer. This process is considered by the company as one of the most viable tools that is further used for the success of the company in today’s world which is a lot more competitive than before. The customer satisfaction and retention is focused by Global Bikes Inc in three ways: By selling the product, by the effective marketing of the product and the service that is provided after delivery. The way in which these three fields function is essential in connecting Global Bike Inc’s front in a more successful way. It also enables the company’s back offices to function properly and be able to facilitate effective coordination way that is practiced wide through the whole enterprise. The sales force predicts and then proposes an analysis of information in the real time in a very professional way and then it distributes the information after analysis to the company itself and the business partners of the company. The function of the marketing processes of the company is to concentrate on the personal preferences of the customers that need to be personalized and also offering them the experiences that are more satisfying and according to their desires. (http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/knowledge/topics/crm/) Customer Relationship Management at Global Bike Inc is an important priority and these following steps will give further detail: Pre-Sales This process in Global Bike Inc refers more to the marketing of the product. The needs of the clients and identifying the prospects are looked upon in more detail to have a detailed overview of the whole process. After collecting all the information, the information of the client is analyzed which allows the company to have a revision of the product and the selection of the product to match the expectations of the customers in more detail effectively and efficiently so that the product introduced is closer to the expectations of the customers. For the affectivity of this process, the automation of the marketing campaigns is essential. Sales At Global Bike Inc, the forces of sales that are used are able to provide the piloting tools to the company in order to assist them in the prospective measures that are set by them. The prospective measures include the management of the contacts, the management of the sales meeting, the relaunch management along with the assistance with the use of the business proposals that are used for the preparation pusposes. Client Service Management Usually the customers of Global Bike Inc love to feel known and also being acknowledged to the company. They do not like to stand and recount using the details of every contact so that they can refer to the history or the past events that they have had with Global Bike Inc in order to put their claims forward. They expect the company to know more about them already. This is well met by Global Bike Inc as all the history with the customers is maintained through the records using the Management Information System that is developed by the company to increase its business process in order to run them smoothly and more effectively. After Sales Global Bike Inc focuses on providing the customers with good service after the sale of the product. This is done by the implementation of the call centers by the company through which the employees of the company call the customers and ask them for feedback to ensure that the customers are satisfied with the product and there is no problem with the product. The company also provides an online provision of the support information that is related to technology in which the customers are confused at times. The sole purpose of Customer Relationship Management at Global Bike Inc is to provide improved proximity to the customers of the company in order to respond to the needs of the customers. This ensures that the customers are more loyal to not only the product but the brand that is associated with the product which helps the company in their quest to the retention of the customers. The project of Customer Relationship Management facilitates each of the sectors of Global Bike Inc with the access to the information system of the company. This helps all the sectors of the company to know all the customers in a better way and also provides them with the products and also the services, before purchase and after purchase, that are able to meet the expectations that are set up by the customers in the best possible manner. (http://en.kioskea.net/contents/entreprise/crm.php3) Business Process Reengineering Global Bike Inc makes sure that the analysis and the workflow of the processes within the organization and also with the other organizations are run smoothly for effective interchange of information through all the channels. (http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/business-process-reengineering). In order to develop positive outcomes from the Business Process Reengineering, the company has made sure that the business vision and process objectives are well developed. Also the identification of the business processes that have to be redesigned is important to the company. The company has been able to understand and measure the processes that already exists and has developed the strategies accordingly. The IT levelers are also considered also with the designing and the building of the prototype of the new processes that will be involved to the establishment in the new market. (Davenport, 1992). Strategic Outsourcing The strategic outsourcing process of Global Bike Inc is based on the engagement provided through services that manage essential tasks and allows the company to manage its assets in the best possible way. (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-strategic-outsourcing.htm). The technology enables outsourcing helps Global Bike Inc to provide highly skilled global workforce that is able to provide a wide array of service. This is done by staff augmentation which includes specialized resources backed by the cost flexibility. The out tasking enables the company to satisfy the short term business needs. The project based outsourcing by Global Bike Inc helps the vendors and the clients to share the risks and the rewards. (http://www.outsource2india.com/why_outsource/articles/strategic-outsourcing.asp) Enterprise Systems Architecture Global Bike Inc makes sure the effective processing by the Enterprise Systems Architecture by making taking into account the analysis of the business needs and then sets the architecture. The diagrams and the documents in the company are then published accordingly. The infrastructure that supports the architecture is also important along with the engagement in the development process by the company. (Natt, 2004). The requirements management is done appropriately by Global Bike Inc with the Business Process Modeling. The system also imports the database schema for effective working of the whole process. (http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/). Enterprise System Maturity Global Bike Inc also makes sure that the systems are not only large and complex but are highly integrated information systems that are implemented in order to improve the effectiveness of the organization. In the complex organization, the matured enterprise systems applications are able to connect and manage the information flows across the whole organization. This allows the managers of the organization to make their decisions which are based on the information that reflects the accuracy of the current state of the business that is being conducted by Global Bike Inc. (Mathrani, 2009). The different levels at which it is practiced is the initial step, when the product is under development. This is followed by the well defined product and the way it is managed. Also, the optimization of the product by Global Bike Inc is also very important to ensure the efficiency of the product in both the short and the long term. (http://pubs.opengroup.org/architecture/togaf8-doc/arch/chap27.html). This system usually dominates the information technology landscape of Global Bike Inc. The standard implementations and the sophisticated exploitation of the system is ensured at Global Bike Inc so that the output of the system can be well defined to the stakeholders and the external forces that affect the organization. (Holland, 2001). Enterprise Resource Planning This process consolidates all of the departments and their functions at Global Bike Inc to a single computer system that is able to provide service according to the needs of each of the department that it serves. It ensures effective production by the people, the software and the hardware along with the efficient service and the delivery system which is able to create the desired profit that is initiated by Global Bike Inc. Also the records of the employees are recorded to make sure the effectiveness of each employee at a different scale and point out the ones who put in more effort into their work compared to the ones who put lesser efforts due to negligence or any other reason that is associated. (http://www.tech-faq.com/enterprise-resource-planning.html). 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