Management Information System and Operation Unit - Essay Example

MANAGAMEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM AND OPERATION UNIT of Institute] WORD COUNT: 1716 INTRODUCTION Emirates Airline also known as Fly Emirates was established in 1985 as a major airline in the Middle East by the government of Dubai under the Emirates Group. This airline flies over to 91 destinations, in 55 countries across 6 continents. Moreover, it is providing its customers with competitive services like non-stop flights from US to Dubai, Sydney to Dubai, Dubai to Los Angeles, Sao Paulo, Houston and San Francisco. This airline operates approximately 2200 passenger flights per week. In 2008, Emirates moved all its operations to “Terminal 3” in Dubai International Airport, where this terminal is completely dedicated to the Emirates Airline. Fly Emirates has won international awards such as, Global Airline of the Year and the Fastest Growing Airline in the world. In 2007, this airline was ranked tenth amongst the top carriers worldwide in terms of revenue and passenger kilometer. In 2009, it was ranked as seventh largest airline in international passengers carried and fourth largest in scheduled international passenger kilometers flown. Recently in 2009, research consultancy firm Skytrax selected it as the fifth best airline in the world. Emirates provide quality service to its customers, flights are punctual, adequate and quality food is provided on boards and a lot of personalized services such as personal television and film library are complemented to the customers. Emirates Airline has also sponsored various events held in Dubai such as Dubai Shopping Festival, Dubai Summer Surprises, Dubai World Cup, Dubai Desert Classic and Dubai Tennis Championships. TRANSACTION PROCESSING SYSTEMS There are four major types of information systems, i.e. executive support system, management support system, decision support system and transaction support system. These are designed to support all organizations in carrying out their daily operations effectively and efficiently. All these four information systems correspond to each organizational level; Transaction Support System (TSS) operates at the operational level. Operational level system is the lowest level where the operational managers keep a sound track of all the primary activities and transactions that occur within the organization. The operational manager has to track sales, receipts, cash deposits, payroll, and make credit decisions and manage the basic flow of activities (Laudon, 2007). All these activities are carried out in a computerized system that performs and records the daily activities of the business. United Arab Emirates Airline might use this information system in booking the reservation for flights, for making payments as well as receipts. By employing the system, their time would be saved because data would be processed quickly, transactions would be made immediately, and data would be updated in short span of time. Furthermore, this system would also add value to the service as the overall quality will improve; due to this the organization’s efficiency and effectiveness will increase. Thus, it can be stated that Transaction processing system might become a life blood to the organization (Riley, n.d. ). Transaction processing is divided into further three types, i.e. batch transaction processing, single transaction processing and online transactions processing. Batch transaction processing handles large variety of transactions simultaneously, generally in the form of batches. This processing enables better control and increases the efficiency within the processing system. On the other hand, Single Transaction Processing processes every transaction individually. This processing system is known to provide fast speed processing; no delays occur. On the other hand, the online transaction processing processes all the data in an online real-time mode (OLRT), i.e. all customer’s queries, issues and processes are dealt online (Riley, n.d. ). Emirates Airline might use the online real time processing system in their flight reservations’ system. They could use this because this processing median is able to quickly respond to the booking request. When the request for flight reservation is entered in the computer system, the transaction processing system would immediately respond to the message. Either the flight would be booked for the customer or a message would be sent stating that the flight is already booked. The diagram below shows how transaction processing system involves the daily transactions of Emirates Airline for reservations of flight. (Collins, Fig: 15.6, 1969) Emirates Airline could use the Transaction Processing System in carrying out the reservation system. The customer would make the input in the transaction processing system by sending a request to the system for booking. The computerized system, on one hand, would create the database of the consumer, while on the other hand it would confirm the booking of the flight. When creating the database, firstly all the data elements are tracked, i.e. all the necessary information about the client would be recorded in the computerized system. The necessary information such as the customer’s name, address, flight destination, payment procedure (cash or credit card), fairs, date of schedule and all other information regarding his flight schedule will be entertained in the system. This database can also be used for further reference, for example in case of contacting the employee or tracking the customer’s record and past experiences. While on the other hand, the system would help Emirates in making reservations for a larger number of customers. Once when the reservations are made in the computerized system, they are forwarded to the other departments for further processing. On the basis of the input data, processing will be made and output would be produced in the form of cash receipt or credit receipt. This information system would benefit the Emirates Airline in other respects as well. They could determine the customer’s historical and past trends with the company because this way the company would also be able to determine their loyalty to the organization. If the transaction processing system fails to operate for even a few hours, not only the airline reservation system of airline, but the whole organization could demise. This is the biggest drawback that airline industries could face; even Emirates Airline can face it. Due to this the company creates a backup server in case of such accidental cases. DECISION-SUPPORT SYSTEM Decision support system serves the management level of the organization. The management level system is the second level in the information systems, where the middle managers monitor, control, does prompt decision making, and play an important role in the administrative activities. Generally at the management level two different types of information systems are used, i.e. management information system and decision-support systems. The managers have to make unique, quick, and efficient decisions; they should be able to deal with tense situations because the problems are not fully predefined in advance. They have to consult all information from the internal sources, i.e. from Transaction Processing System and Management Information System and also from other external sources, i.e. from stock prices, market surveys and competitor’s product prices (Loudon, 2007). Emirates Airline managers can also use Decision Support System (DSS) to make efficient decisions in regards to the new prospects of their organization. Thus, if Emirates had to expand its business operations they could use DSS in determining the success of their decision. Moreover, Emirates Airline would also be benefited from using DSS because this information system is a kind of tool that helps, supports, and facilitates managers to make right decisions in unstructured and even semi-structured situations. Due to this the managers and professionals become more productive and efficient and they can easily achieve competitive edge among its competitors. DSS is user-friendly software and it is designed in such a way that it can be used directly by the users. Decision support system not only improves the effectiveness of decision making but it is also capable to support interdependent, shared, sequential and even independent decisions. Furthermore, it also supports different phases of the decision making process, i.e. from the very intelligent phase to the final choice. Thus DSS helps to make decisions incase a new demand emerges in the market, there is a requirement for updates, or there is a need to create a completely new improved system (Curry, Flett & Hollingsworth, 2006). Emirates Airline can use the DSS in financial modeling, capacity planning and also production scheduling. The following diagram below shows how the Decision Support System helps managers in the United Arab of Emirates make prompt and accurate decisions. (Collins, Fig: 15.6, 1969) Emirates Airlines could also use decision support system when it plans to either build new routes or expand its operations by setting or buying new equipments such as airplanes. So to take effective decision, first of all the airline manager would have to collect some data. This data could be from the internal sources as well as external sources. The manager would have to first consult the finance department to determine if the company is in such a financial position to carry such expenses or not. Emirates may also review the company’s financial report and consult other departments for further guidance. From the external sources, the managers could carry out the market survey; determine the demand of the customers and research on the competitor’s weaknesses and strengths. When both the internal and external data are collected, the manager would analyze and interpret the data by applying both the types of data as variables in the quantitative model. Thus here, the manager uses the DSS to make the decision making easy and accurate, which would help to produce effective, reliable and relevant results. After the decision is made, the report is forwarded to the top management. In generating reports, feed back is highly important because this helps in resolving issues and thus a completely flawless report is generated. CONCLUSION Just as Customer Relationship Management system helps the marketing manager design marketing programs, similarly the Information Systems help the operational, middle and top managers carry out their planning responsibilities properly. Since the world has become a global village the need for such information systems are really important for organizations to remain competitive in the market. These management information systems help managers in carrying out their activities effectively and efficiently. If today, Emirates does not use these information systems in its business operations, it would not be successful in creating such a big name. In fact it would become really difficult for fly emirates to have future survival. REFERENCES Collins, Karen 1969, Exploring Business, Flat World Knowledge, Retrieved December 16, 2009 from http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/pub/1.0/exploring-business/39545 Curry, Adrienne, Flett, Peter & Hollingsworth, Ivan 2006, Managing Information and Systems: The Business Perspective, Taylor & Francis. Retrieved December 16, 2009 from http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=OMS0R9KbZXsC&pg=PA133&dq=Curry,+Flett+%26+Hollingsworth+management+information+systems&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Curry%2C%20Flett%20%26%20Hollingsworth%20management%20information%20systems&f=false Riley, Merrill J, Management Information Systems, Technical Publications. Retrieved December 16, 2009 from http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=7fCgRL1-gGAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Riley+management+information+systems&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false Laudon, Kenneth C, & Laudon, Jane P 2002, Management Information System: Managing the Digital Firm, 7th edition, Prentice Hall. Read More