Management Information Systems - Essay Example

of essay’s assignment is due Management Information Systems Introduction In this day and age, computerisation is a must if a business wants to be successful (Oz 2008). The objective of this documentation is to propose a management information system for a manually operated dairy society. The mission of the management information system is to provide an effective solution to the management, planning, organisation, direction and control of a dairy society. The scope of this proposal is that it will describe the current situation at Diblo Dairy Society and the strategies that will be used in implementing an information system. Details of the problems encountered in the manually operated business, the current IT infrastructure, the business structure, the recommended IT infrastructure, a cost analysis of the recommended technology and the benefits and challenges in the implementation of the information system have been discussed in detail. Diblo Dairy Society is a business that buys and sells milk. Once the society implements a management information system, managers can easily make decisions that ensure the success of the business. Current situation Early in the morning, farmers bring their labelled milk cans that are full with milk to Diblo Dairy Society. The dairy society sets a price at which they will buy the milk from the farmers. The details of the farmer who brought the milk are recorded for instance his name and the number of litres he brought. The farmer is paid after tests have been done to make sure the milk is fresh and undiluted. If the milk is up to standard, Diblo Dairy Society records the amount of milk it has received from all the farmers in its inventory book. Diblo Dairy Society then distributes the milk to its dairies which sell milk to individuals at a profit. Milk is also sold to large companies that process and market milk and milk products. To ensure that the farmers, who are the suppliers, keep bringing milk to Diblo Dairy Society, benefits such as loans are provided. Diblo Dairy Society is headed by a Chief Executive Officer. A finance manager is in charge of all money related matters. The quality assurance manager is responsible for ensuring that the milk entering or leaving Diblo Dairy Society is fresh and up to the required standard. Diblo Dairy Society has 112 employees and therefore has a human resource manager who is responsible for recruiting staff, making sure that the employees are treated fairly, solving problems that may arise with the staff and compensating the employees for their labours. The sales and operations manager oversees the 15 attendants at Diblo Dairy Society. 8 drivers are responsible for collecting milk cans. At the 7 dairies, store managers oversee the smooth operation of the business. The offices of the Chief Executive Officer, the Finance Manager and the Quality Assurance manger are all equipped with standalone computers. Each of these computers is a Pentium 3 with a processing speed of 1.7 gigahertz and 256 megabytes of random access memory. Only one LaserJet printer is available in the CEO’s office. These computers are not networked and therefore sharing of resources like the printer is not possible. The computers were bought in 1990, a time when technological advancements in manufacturing powerful computers were yet to be achieved. The 3 computers are equipped with word processing and database management software. Unfortunately, the staff are not computer literate and they therefore prefer to write their documents on paper and make calculations using calculators or mentally. Because Diblo Dairy Society is manually operated, it faces problems in milk collection and transportation of the milk from collection points to the society or from the society to dairies. This is because confusion arises when the milk collecting vans are not properly scheduled. Diblo Dairy Society has many employees. It would be expected that a large volume of milk would be brought into the society. This is not the case because Diblo Dairy Society has a daily intake of only 10000 kilograms on milk. Lack of proper planning and decision making has contributed to inadequate quantities of milk. Farmers are not motivated to take milk to Diblo Dairy Society whose management has trouble making important decisions. Strategic confusion is caused by lack of proper information that reflects the current state of affairs at the dairy society. Record taking is manually done on books. These books take up a lot of office space and referencing a specific book for information is a cumbersome process. Strategies of information system The CEO, finance manager, quality assurance manager, human resource manager and the sales and operations manager should have administrative access to the management information system. The 15 sales attendants at the society and the employees at the dairies will have limited access to the information system. There are two accounts that will be used to manipulate data in the information system. An administrator account has unlimited access into the information system, while a limited account will be disabled from performing certain tasks. This is important in that it prevents unauthorised access into the information system (Heijden & Heijden 2009). Data needs to be entered into the information system before processing can take place. The first thing that should be done is entering the names and details of those people who will be using the information system. Data on the details of the farmers is then entered. Farmer details include name, identification number, residence and date of registration. Vehicle details for the vans that collect milk also need to be input. This vehicle details include the registration number, the designated driver and the route followed by the vehicle. The interest rate of loans disbursed to members is also entered into the system. When a farmer brings milk into Diblo Dairy Society, details that include the name of the farmer, the quantity of milk and the time when the milk was delivered are input. When a van arrives at Diblo Dairy Society with milk, the registration number of the car is input. Details of the milk cans such as the owner of the milk can, the quantity of milk and the time of delivery of the milk are input into the system. After the Quality Assurance manager checks the milk, the quality of the milk is entered into the system as either bad or good. When selling the milk at the dairies, the sales attendant inputs the number of litres and the amount of money given to him by the customer. The change is automatically calculated by the system. This information of sales made at all the branches is reflected in real time at all the networked computers. Daily, weekly, monthly and yearly reports can be generated by the information system. Printers generate a hard copy of information residing in the information system. Successful implementation of the management information system requires that more computers be bought. These computers will be situated at all the dairies, at the society’s office where milk is collected from farmers and drivers. The computers in the CEO’s, Finance and Quality Assurance managers need to be upgraded. Wide area networking for all computers at Diblo Dairy Society and the computers at the dairies will be done. More printers need to be bought and placed at Diblo Dairy Society and the dairies. Computers that are within the same building can share the same printer. Windows XP and Kaspersky antivirus software should also be bought and installed. The following table shows the cost analysis of required hardware and software. Item Price per unit No. of units Total cost Dell Studio XPS 8100 Value PC £ 450 25 £ 11250 Samsung CLP-315W Laser Printer £ 82 8 £ 656 Networking £ 500 - £500 Upgrading computers £ 500 - £ 500 Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3 £ 58 28 £ 1624 Kaspersky Lab Internet Security 2010 £ 20 28 £560 Total £ 15090 After the implementation of a management information system, Diblo Dairy Society will gain competitive advantage. One of the reasons why this will be is that the information system will allow for central access and distribution of information (Clarke 2001). Since the computers will be networked, the management will have real-time access to the data entered, the processed information and reports. Information can easily be backed up in the hard drives, flash drives, memory cards or optical disks. This backed up information will be stored in fire proof safes for future reference. Record keeping and tax preparation will be easier because after the user enters data, the information system will do the rest of the processing. Management will be better informed at all time, which means that they will be able to make informed decisions that will be used to keep customers, thereby gaining repeat business. Implementation of an information system is an organisational change that will lead to changes in the work processes and structures of the personnel. The organisational culture at Diblo Dairy Society will influence how well the society will accept the information system. Users of the information system are a big challenge in the implementation stage of the information system. An information system that delivers information faster to users and improves business is not enough – the users need to be motivated so that the needed traction for a successful implementation is achieved. Trust is a major challenge to the implementation of an information system. Before Diblo Dairy Society can implement the information system, it will have to trust that it is accurate and reliable. For Diblo Dairy Society to gain a competitive edge over other dairy societies, a management information system that gathers, assimilates, evaluates and reports accurate information is needed (Currie & Galliers 1999). This will help the management team in decision making, controlling and analysing. The information system will offer a quicker solution to catering to the needs of the farmers and customers. An information system will ensure there are no barriers between the management, employees, customers, and farmers. Sharing of important resources will also be made possible through networking. References Clarke, S 2001, Information systems strategic management: an integrated approach, 2nd edn, Routledge, Cornwall. Currie, W & Galliers, R 1999, Rethinking management information systems: an interdisciplinary perspective, Oxford University Press, New York. Oz, E 2008, Management Information Systems, 6th edn, Cengage Learning, Massachusetts. Heijden, H & Heijden, J 2009, Designing management information systems, Oxford University Press, New York. Read More