The Evian Water Company Management Information Systems Project - Case Study Example

The Evian Water Company Management Information Systems Project School Introduction The Evian Water Company refers to a brand of mineral water produced at Elvian-les-Bains on the shores of Lake Geneva. The DANONE Group owns this business. DANONE is an international investor. However, this company does not limit the range of its products to mineral water only; it has employed its recognized brand name to the line of organic skin medication products alongside a luxurious restaurant in France (Dixit, 2010). The company has branded the mineral water as an expensive item and therefore, captured a wide range of Hollywood celebrities such as Dave Chappell. Historically, this company was the first mineral water company to exist considering its growing popularity in the late 1790’s to the early 1800’s. The spring around the location of the company provided water rumored to cure incurable diseases considering that Marquis of Lessert drank water from the Sainte Catherine Spring and as a result healed from kidney and liver problems. The spring grew in popularity that the government during the authorized the bottling of the water and hence the sale of bottled water. In matters regarding business, the company employs the most efficient means in resource management to realize optimal profits. Management information system is a sector the business has heavily invested in to run operations smoothly. This project analyzes the management information systems criteria employed in this company to provide relevant details and to shed light on appropriate changes to counter challenges limiting the effectiveness of the scope of information systems technology in the company (Oz, 2009). Background Management information system is a process that provides relevant information required by the Evian Company fundamental to running the organization effectively. Information system and the details generated are fundamental ingredients for successful business decision-making in the company. The company management realizes the benefits of maintaining a consistent approach in the design and development of MIS systems. The company, therefore, has a well-organized framework that provides guidelines, policies, standards and the procedures for the business institution. This framework gives the skeleton of what the company partakes in. MIS implementation takes place at different levels of management of the business and hence, the need for correspondence with the business enterprise long-term goals. From a different standpoint, MIS refers to the financial accounting systems employed by Evian Company to ensure rudimentary control over financial record keeping. Financial accountings within the business are essential components of MIS structure employed by Evian Company. However, the financial systems within the business limit the scope of MIS implementation to internal balancing of the institution books by looking at the ledger and smaller accounting sub-systems. Some of the challenges encountered by the company’s efforts to realize management systems information include the failure to input information such as accrual adjustments, reconciling, and correction of entries in the database on time. Benefits of MIS for the Evian Company The company has tried to design the MIS structure in order to enhance communication between employees and to improve the distribution of complex material throughout the business organization. Other reasons for implementing an MIS structure include providing an elaborate system of recording and collecting information relevant for the business, to cut down the costs incurred during the procurement of labor-intense activities, and to provide a framework for enhancing the business strategic goals (Dixit, 2010). MIS provides relevant information to decision makers and thus suiting the decision-making process. Its implementation has led to better job performance within the company. On a basic level, it provides the top management with relevant information to help making strategic decisions. The framework provides ways in which the management can monitor the activities of the business and information provided for relevant parties like the employees and customers. Implications of Management systems Information for the company The Evian water Company uses two types of information in order achieve its management goals. Descriptive information provides the company management with information to help identify existing problems. Descriptive information comprises a variety of information such as financial results, production records, and results from tests, product marketing, and records of maintenance. Descriptive information provides the basis for securing other needed types of information. Descriptive information, however, requires diagnostic information to become sufficient in identifying and addressing the management issues. Diagnostic information gives the means to compare the disparity between a problem and the possible solution. Diagnostic information defines the problems that are bound to take place within the business entity such as the rate of production of clean water for public consumption. However, the company must give the staff the standards with which they can compare the facts of a given problem to reveal details of the same. Corrective measures enable the firm to achieve a set of objectives. The main concern for the business is to create a database comprising of reliable descriptive information to go along with set standards to meet the particular business requirements. Historical perspective The role of management information systems is to aid in decision making in the water company management. Financial and production records provide the basis for economists to assess the success of the business entity. The rise of computer use in businesses in the late 1950s paved way for management systems information for Evian water Company. The advances that took place since the incorporation of computer systems has enhanced the use of calculated equipment and methods to precisely determine the relationship between the rate of water production, the ultimate production and the rate of water consumption in different seasons (Heijden, 2009). With these types of information, the company management can make decisions based on their predictions with a high degree of certainty. Activities prior to implementation of computer systems for use in business concentrated mainly on accounting, production, and their optimization. They comprised of large mainframe computers with information sent to a central processing facility and the reports generated sent back to Evian Water Company. The main disadvantages of these early systems for the Evian Water Company are that they were data-oriented systems that had limited capabilities to operate on complex data analysis. The data analysis systems could not operate beyond ratios such as return on assets. With time, it was evident that the systems adopted by the company were oriented towards accounting, and were generally accurate in providing descriptive and diagnostic information in comparison to providing predictive and prescriptive information (Oz, 2009). Evian water Company, therefore, had to adopt simulation models for enhancing the management skills and testing system interactivity. The model simulation system operated from a mainframe computer. The model incorporated could now scrutinize different production strategies. This system demanded that the developer of the system work in close relation with the company. This limitation meant that the system generally lacked integration and therefore, they did not have the appropriate characteristics of an evolving concept such as the decision support systems thus the incorporation of model base components. This new system with enhanced new capabilities uses operational, tactical, and strategic decision making to allow for effective decision making by the company management. The model-based system serves as a link between different models in order to help solve complex management problems such as in semi-structured management problems. The database and model base management information systems are the link between model base system and the database. This new system has the ability to extort information from the database, pass it to model base, and reverse the process as need arises. This system provides the company management with a user interface that enables them to make efficient decisions and use of the system. However, the user of the system must have the skills and knowledge in order to make proper use of the system. The status of Internal Information Systems for Evian Water Company The present status of management information systems for Evian Water Company is dynamic. The number of employees and consumers owning computers within and outside the company and its branches continue to grow. Most individuals own computers with large data storage and memory capacities and have access to the internet. It is safe to infer that computing hardware is not the hindrance to achieving management information systems. The decision support system dictates that the database and the model base are two separate entities and therefore, requires bridging by the database/model base management system (Heijden, 2009). From the analysis of the company operations, the company disregards the design concept. Most of the software developed in the company comprises of stand-alone products with the database serving as an integral part of the model base. However, the newer software implemented for use by the company have enhanced capabilities to export and import information and thus allowing users across the intranet to share information in different software packages. These data sharing features have limited scope with regard to flexibility. The most common software used by the water company comprises of data oriented packages with the most common being one designed for financial accounting. The design for accounting software is for conducting business whereas the general business accounting packages perform the task of maintaining and keeping financial records. The general-purpose packages are growing in popularity in the company due to their general ease of use. Production management of the Evian Company contributes a significant portion of computer usage and therefore, there are varieties of packages designed to help address the issues that arise from production of safe water for human consumption. Some of the production management software are operational and aid in tactical decision making such as the balancing of ratios, for example, during the purification of water and inclusion of important ingredients and mineral salts necessary for enhanced human development (Oz, 2009). The user interface The quality of the user interface has grown in comparison to initial stages. The company and its users utilize windowing environment. This interface enhances the ease with which users navigate the system for information and enable them to move data from one package to another application. The major limitation to this system is that most information from a certain package remains useful to the specific package. There remain loops for crossing from the point of view of the user-interface. The decision-making Some of the crucial decision makers in line with the Evian Water Company consist of company management, consumers, production managers, accounting departments, sales and marketing departments, human resources management and public relations department. Information is crucial to their well-being and affects the overall performance of the business. The decision-maker is an overlooked concept of management information systems. The primary users of the systems adopted by Evian Water Company consist of the users and the production team. Young operators maneuver through the system considering their computing skills. The company incurs costs concerning teaching the existing staff management information systems. These costs incurred provide a hindrance to full adoption of management information systems. The company has witnessed an increase in usage of external information systems like the internet and the satellite data transmission. These new resources provide a vast amount of information that can enhance different levels of management including information, intelligence, knowledge, and wisdom within and outside the business entity (Dixit, 2010). Another common source of company information includes the external advisor. The company implements the use of external consultants and advisors to tackle complex company problems. The internet The company has witnessed an increased internet growth. Email provides a common communication tool for the water company. The company uses the World Wide Web to find information related to its unique requirements. The main challenge with employment of the internet is the ability to locate suitable information optimized to meet the specific requirements of the firm. One of the main challenges faced with employing the internet is the duration of time it takes to utilize the internet and the limited depth of information. Satellite Data Transmission The Evian Water Company often employs satellite data transmission. These systems provide a passive way of data acquisition. Information emerges from a satellite and broadcast to a leased data terminal for the company. The information is stored in the data terminal. This system provides up-to-date information on a variety of topics that the company could be interested. The amount of information retrieved from the system and hence the usability depends on the package purchased by the company. Satellite data transmission provides the latest market prices for the company products, weather patterns, governmental reports on market shifts, and product information. The future of Management Systems information in the company The previous times put an emphasis on production management in contrast to the present times that emphasize on financial management, human resources utilization, and the marketing management. These emerging issues are crucial in developing strategic management. This means that the management team focuses on management areas in contrast to production. This consideration will have a great impact on information systems management for developing systems optimized for handling future problems. The future software for management information systems will consist of software for system analysis, theory testing, software packages for advisors and consultants, software packages for the producer, and the software packages for maintaining the chain of supply (Pride, 2010). The software for system analysis’ sole objective is defining the structure and understanding the dynamics of interactions between different software system components. This will pave way for research in the field. These future models have huge data requirements and their appropriateness depends on the availability of software developers to aid in maintaining the software and diagnostics (Heijden, 2009). Conclusion Management information systems provide the necessary tools for Evian Water Company to optimize their operations concerning marketing, production, and efficient management. Its incorporation into the management provides the top-level management with tools that it require in making daily decisions that affect the productivity of the business entity. Evian Water Company requires management information systems to gain a competitive advantage over other existing business firms. Reference Dixit, R. (2010). Branded faith: Contextualizing the gospel in a post-Christian era. Eugene, Or: Wipf & Stock Publishers. Heijden, J. G. M. (2009). Designing management information systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Oz, E. (2009). Management information systems. Boston, Mass: Thomson/Course Technology. Pride, W. M., & Ferrell, O. C. (2010). Marketing. Australia: South Western Cengage Learning. Read More