MB0031: MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

ASSIGNMENT SET 2

1. What are limitations of MIS? What are the factors which lead to the success
and failure of MIS in an organization?
Ans: -Limitations of MIS are:

a.MIS incorporates a wide variety of knowledge areas,

b. Both technology and technology-related products are evolving at an extremely fast and
unpredictable pace,
c. Many of the terms used in MIS environments ate imprecise and controversial,
d. MIS problems often are not east to define or structure,
e.The body of knowledge in MIS is relatively recent and scarce
f. A lack of rapport often exists between MIS personnel and management and also
between MIS personnel and users,
g. Spending money on information system is still somewhat of a mystery.

Factors Contributing to Success of MIS in an Organisation:

a. The MIS is integrated into the managerial functions. It sets clear objectives to ensure
that the MIS focuses on the major issues of the business.
b. An appropriate information processing technology required to meet the data
processing and analysis needs of the users of the MIS is selected.
c. The MIS is oriented, defined and designed in terms of the user.
d. The MIS is kept under continuous surveillance, so that its open system design is
modified according to the changing information needs.
e. MIS focuses on the results and goals, and highlights the factors and reasons for non
achievement.
f. MIS is not allowed to end up into an information generation mill avoiding the noise in
the information and the communication system.
g. The MIS recognizes that a manager is a human being and therefore, the systems must
consider all the human behavioural factors in the process of the management.
h. The MIS recognizes that the different information needs for different objectives must
be met with. The globalization of information in isolation from the different objectives
leads to too much information and information and its non-use.
i. The MIS is easy to operate and, therefore, the design of the MIS has such features
which make up a user-friendly design.
j. MIS recognizes that the information needs become obsolete and new needs emerge.
The MIS design, therefore, has a basic potential capability to quickly meet new needs of
information.
k. The MIS concentrates on developing the information support to manager critical
success factors. It concentrates on the mission critical applications serving the needs of
the top management.

Factors Contributing to Failures of MIS in an organisation:

a. The MIS is conceived as a data processing and not as an information processing

system.
b. The MIS does not provide that information which is needed by the managers but it
tends to provide the information generally the function calls for. The MIS then becomes an
impersonal system.
 c. Under estimating the complexity in the business systems and not recognizing it in the
MIS design leads to problems in the successful implementation.
d. Adequate attention is not given to the quality control aspects of the inputs, the process
and the outputs leading to insufficient checks and controls in the MIS.
e. The MIS is developed without streamlining the transaction processing systems in the
organization.
f. Lack of training and appreciation that the users of the information and the generators
of the data are different, and they have to play an important responsible role in the MIS.
g. The MIS does not meet certain critical and key factors of its users such as a response to
the query on the database, an inability to get the processing done in a particular manner,
lack of user-friendly system and the dependence on the system personnel.
h. A belief that the computerized MIS can solve all the management problems of planning
and control of the business.
i. Lack of administrative discipline in following the standardized systems and
procedures, wrong coding and deviating from the system specifications result in
incomplete and incorrect information.
j. The MIS does not give perfect information to all the users in the organization.

2. What is Business Process Re-engineering? Explain in detail the focus of BPR

on the current issues in Business.
Ans: - The existing system in the organization is totally re-examined and radically modified for
incorporating the latest technology. This process of change for the betterment of the
organization is called as Business process re-engineering.

Focus of BPR on the current issues in Business:

Apart from the usual ways of managing a process in any business information system, it is
necessary to enhance the value of the process and also the methods used in improving the
process. Some of the concepts of information management for effective information systems are
the traditional concept of database, the emerging concepts of data mining and data
warehousing.

Concept of Database – Database is a data structure used to store organized information. A

database is typically made up of many linked tables of rows and columns. For example, a
company might use a database to store information about their products, their employees, and
financial information. Databases are now also used in nearly all e-commerce sites to store
product inventory and customer information. Database software, such as Microsoft Access,
FileMaker Pro, and MySQL is designed to help companies and individuals organize large
amounts of information in a way where the data can be easily searched, sorted, and updated.

Data Mining – Data mining is primarily used as a part of information system today, by
companies with a strong consumer focus – retail, financial, communication, and marketing
organizations. It enables these companies to determine relationships among “internal” factors
such as price, product positioning, or staff skills, and “external” factors such as economic
indicators, competition, and customer demographics. And, it enables them to determine the
impact on sales, customer satisfaction, and corporate profits. Finally, it enables them to “drill
down” into summary information to view detail transactional data. With data mining, a retailer
could use point-of-sale records of customer purchases to send targeted promotions based on an
individual’s purchase history. By mining demographic data from comment or warranty cards,
the retailer could develop products and promotions to appeal to specific customer segments.
Data Warehousing - A data warehouse is a copy of transaction data specifically structured for
querying and reporting. The main output from data warehouse systems are either tabular
listings (queries) or with minimal formatting or highly formatted “formal” reports on business
activities. This becomes a convenient way to handle the information being generated by various
processes. Data warehouse is an archive of information collected from wide multiple sources,
stored under a unified scheme, at a single site. This data is stored for a long time permitting the
user an access to archived data for years. The data stored and the subsequent report generated
out of a querying process enables decision making quickly. This concept is useful for big
companies having plenty of data on their business processes. Big companies have bigger
problems and complex problems. Decision makers require access to information from all
sources. Setting up queries on individual processes may be tedious and inefficient. Data
warehouse may be considered under such situations.

3. Explain the various role of a Systems Analyst. What is meant by Feasibility of

systems? What are the various types of Feasibility study?
Ans: - The Various Roles of Systems Analyst are:
System analysts are the facilitators of the study of the problem and needs of a business
to determine how the business systems and information technology can best solve the problem
and accomplish improvements for the business.
The system analyst is responsible for examining the total flow of data throughout the
organization. Various aspects of an organization like personnel interactions and procedures for
handling problems of the computer are studied by him. The person involved in the system
development is known as system analyst. His main role is as consultant, supporting and
maintenance expert, he should work with a cross section of people and should have the
experience of working with computers. He is a problem solver and takes problem as a challenge
and enjoys meeting challenges. He knows how to use the right tools, techniques and experience
at the right time.

Feasibility of Systems
Feasibility is a measure of how beneficial the development of an information system
would be to an organization. Feasibility analysis is the activity by which the feasibility is
measured.
Feasibility study is a preliminary study which investigates the information needs of prospective
users and determines the resource requirements, costs, benefits and feasibility of a proposed
project. The data is first collected for the feasibility study. Later on, the findings of the study are
formalized in a written report that includes preliminary specifications and a development plan
for the proposed system. If the management approves these recommendations of the report the
development process can continue.

Types of feasibility
The goal of feasibility study is to evaluate alternative systems and to propose the most feasible
and desirable system for development. The feasibility of a proposed system can be evaluated in
four major categories:
a) Technical feasibility: It is a measure of a technology’s suitability to the application being
designed or the technology’s ability to work with other technologies. It measures the
practicality of a specified technical solution.
b) Economic feasibility: It is the measure of the cost effectiveness of a project. It is also known
as cost-benefit analysis.
c) Operational feasibility: It is a measure of how comfortable the management and users are
with the technology.
d) Schedule feasibility: It is a measure of how reasonable the project schedule is.
4. Explain the significance of DSS. What are the components of DSS and explain
DSS model?
Ans: - DSS is an interactive, flexible computer based information system. It uses rules and
models for processing data, to support various managerial levels, ranging from top executives to
mangers, in their decision-making. It supports all phases of decision-making: intelligence,
design, choice and implementation.
A DSS is usually built to support the solution of certain problem and does not replace
the decision-maker. As such, it is called a DSS application. It is user-friendly with strong
graphical capabilities.

DSS components
The components of a DSS include a database of data used for query and analysis, software with
models, data mining and other analytical tools and a user interface.

The DSS database is a collection of current or historical data from a number of applications or
groups. It can be small database or a massive data warehouse
from a large company, which is continuously being updated.

The DSS software system includes software tools for data analysis. They contain various OLAP
tools, data mining tools or a collection of mathematical and analytical models. A model can be a
physical model, a mathematical model or a verbal model. Most commonly used are the
statistical functions such as means, medians, deviations and scatter plots. Optimization models
such as linear programming are used to determine optimal resource allocation.

The model of a DSS may be represented as a block diagram as indicated below –

5. Read the following case and answer the question
You have 10 messages on voice mail, six faxes in your in-basket, three people
standing outside of your office waiting either for you to get off of the phone or finish
speaking with the guy sitting in your office (whichever comes first). Your computer
just beeped to inform you, again, that an e-mail message has just been added to
your stockpile of unread messages gathering electronic dust. You make a mental
note to change the notification sound to an evil laugh. Your reading pile is teetering,
threatening to put out of misery the plant you haven't watered in three weeks. You
wonder who the strange people are in the picture on your desk. ... Oh yeah, it's your
spouse and kids.

Your boss strides into your office, throws a letter under your nose, and says, "Read
this. We just got a project that requires us to `collaborate over the Internet'-
whatever that means-and since you're the computer guru around here, you have to
get a handle on it and teach us all what to do by next Thursday." As he leaves, you
make a few e-comments about what he can e-do with his e-letter. Welcome to e-hell.
Most professionals know by now that eventually they will have to deal with e-
business. It's too early to tell if e-collaboration will resolve the communications
overload engineers are facing today or just clutter the available bandwidth even
more. Look around you. Did PCs lead to a paperless office? Waiting for the e-
collaboration to stabilize or shake out, however, might be counterproductive. You
might find yourself in a situation like the one described above where you'll have to
"e-collaborate" in a pinch. If this happens, here are a few survival tips: read about e-
collaboration to get a general impression of what it is and how it works and then
visit some Websites where some of the more popular products exist and try them
out. Visit the HPAC Engineering Interactive Website at www.hpac.com and, under
Heavy Duty Content, choose the Information Technology (IT) Tips area. Read the
columns on extranets that were published by Dr. Joel Orr in April and May 2000 and
the August column by Digital Media Editor Lynne Brakeman on collaboration
software exhibited during the A/E/C Systems show earlier this year. These three
columns introduce you to collaboration software and point you to some products
that are tailored to our industry.
I'd also recommend visiting Orr's Website (www.extranets.cc) for a comprehensive
list of sites. Some of these sites allow you to download "demo" versions. Trying out
the software demo will help you decide which method is right for you and possibly
your whole company. Call some of the vendors and ask if they provide training
either online or at a nearby facility. Depending on the stock market, some might be
desperate enough to come to your office.
If your firm is being required to e-collaborate, as the story goes above, try and find
the people who are leading the e-collaboration effort and ask them what method
they're using. If they have not made a decision on which product to use, you may be
able to sway them toward a decision that benefits you and your company. If you
need to teach others in your company how to use e-collaboration tools or make a
corporate-wide procurement/standardization decision, I recommend that you do
further research and get others in your company involved. To learn more about
introducing new information technologies gradually into a company, read the IT
Tips column "Strategic Planning for Information Technology" in the December 1996
issue. This e-business is a tough nut to crack. It represents a pivotal time in our
industry. The best way to deal with it is proactively.
[Source: Proquest by Ivanovich, Michael G.. Heating/Piping/Air Conditioning
Engineering: HPAC. Cleveland: Sep 2000. Vol.72, Iss. 9; pg. 9, 1 pgs, Copyright Penton
Media, Inc. Sep 2000]
Question: Which particular concept of MIS is being dealt here in this particular
case? List out all the issues related to MIS mentioned in the above case. List out all
the advantages and disadvantages what you feel is appropriate in this case.

Ans:-The concept of E-Business has been dealt in the above case. The development of a business
process is because of the need to solve a business problem. A business process system is
basically spread over various levels of the management. Starting from the top to the bottom the
processes at the top level are basically meant to handle strategic problems. At the middle level
the process is oriented towards generating information for planning, scheduling etc. And at the
bottom level processes are highly structured and are mainly meant for routine transactions.
Each business process may be further divided into sub processes. Each process generates
information which is communicated to other processes depending upon the requirement of that
process. Ex – Billing, inventory, quality control, distribution, maintenance, etc.

The scope of E-business is limited to executing core business process of the organisation. These
processes would have external interface like suppliers, customers, contractors, consultants and
so on. The core business processes of the organisation are procurement, manufacturing, selling,
distribution, delivery and accounting. These core processes are best run by application packages
like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). If enterprise definition is made wider including
customer, suppliers and distributors, application package like Supply Chain Management (SCM)
is best suited for planning and execution of entire business process.

In addition to these core processes, organisations use Internet enabled systems and other
technologies to handle these processes more effectively.

Transaction processing, workflow, work group and process control applications are the
backend support systems to main ERP / SCM enterprise management systems.

For example, when a supplier sends goods, it is received in the warehouse. This event is
processed E-way using E-business systems suite. The receipt, documents and packages are read
by bar coding system or RFID. Then receipt processing is done to confirm the validity of
dispatch by the
supplier, confirmation of quality, acknowledging the receipt, updating the inventory,
communication of receipt to manufacturing, updating the purchase order, effecting material
accounts and supplier accounts, creating a liability in payables and posting it into cash flow
projections. You will observe that receipt processing is first done at locations like warehouse,
and ‘Procurement’ module of ERP takes over to effect seamlessly all updates and changes.

In this event processing, workflow system is used where quality of goods is checked, confirmed
and certified in stages by three agencies in the organisation. This event is processed by a work
group, which includes receiver at the warehouse, QA inspector, and warehouse manager playing
their respective role in the receipt processing as specified in the workgroup application. Having
accepted the goods, automated and process controlled goods movement, warehouse system
takes over, and reads the receipt record to move the goods physically to assigned bin in a rack.

E-business systems use internet / intranet / extranet capabilities to process an event in

seamless manner covering all technical, commercial, business aspects and implications of an
event. They perform internal business operations and interface with external agencies.
E-business system scope manages cross-functional application systems as a single business
process. It integrates cross functions seamlessly, automates the tasks, and updates the
information in real time. The ERP/ SCM and now Customer Relations Management system
(CRM) is a family of software solution packages dedicated to core management of functions of
business. They are supported by front-end and back-end systems and applications designed for
transaction processing, workflow management, work group processing and automated process
control. E-business systems use client/ server architecture and run on Internet platform. E-
business systems lay foundation for other Enterprise applications, namely E-commerce, E-
communications, and E-collaboration.

The current E-business system scope is built through ERP dedicated to manufacturing resource
management for effective use of capacity and enhancing productivity. SCM is dedicated to
logistics and distribution management and CRM is dedicated to customer relations management
for customer satisfaction.

IT, the backbone of E-enterprise, enables more precise target marketing towards intended
audience. Organisations use websites and portals to store and share information, use networks
to communicate, co-ordinate, and collaborate amongst structured teams and virtual teams.
Employees use notebook computers, Personal Digital Assistant
(PDAs). Most of the processes are automated and they use Internet, Intranet, and Extranet for
communication and E-business application packages to run the functional systems in integrated
manner.

In Marketing System, IT helps to reach customer directly and is in the position to understand
customer behaviour, customer’s demographic/ psychographic profile; it then helps to segment
market by customer for advertising, promotion and contact.

In Manufacturing System, IT helps to automate number of management processes relating to

resource, capacity, engineering & design, maintenance, and support. The application of IT is so
strong that it is termed as Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) or Computer Aided
Manufacturing (CAM).

CIM adds value in the manufacturing by way of simplification of processes in production and
design. Automation of simplified processes using process control devices, numerically
controlled machines and robots and lastly integration of all core and support processes
contributes to manufacturing excellence.

In Accounting and Finance system, IT application is very strong. E-business applications in this
area are capable of accounting every business entity such as material, men, machines, cash,
customer, and vendor and so on. All processes, which deal with transaction, computing,
accounting and analysis, are automated using system intelligence and knowledge driver
intelligent systems.

The architecture of these processes enables to receive inputs from other functional systems like
marketing, manufacturing, and HR, and process the same to account and analyze the impact on
the business performance, be it cost, profit or productivity. An integrated E-business system is
capable of forecasting resources requirement, managing resources, budgeting capital, sales, and
manpower, and measuring financial performance.