Learner Assessment

Guide

BSBINM501
Manage an Information or
Knowledge Management
System
BSBINM501 Manage an Information or Knowledge Management System

Introduction
This Assessment Booklet provides you with information and your assessment tasks for this unit. A
requirement of your qualification, from which the unit of competence is taken, is the application of
the concepts you have been learning.

The assessment activities are an important part of your course as they provide an opportunity to
apply what you have been learning and they give both you and your trainer feedback on your
progress.

Please read this section carefully before commencing the assessment tasks.

RECOGNITION OF PRIOR LEARNING

If you can demonstrate that you have the skills and knowledge within this unit, you should speak to a
trainer/assessor about this and apply for recognition of prior learning.

COMPLETING YOUR ASSESSMENTS

Prior to Assessment
You must be advised of your rights before and after the assessments including the right to appeal.

Assessors must provide you with all relevant information relating to the assessments prior to
commencement and of the appeals procedure that can be utilised if you wish to appeal against the
assessment outcome or make a complaint.

Submitting Assessments
Each part of this assessment booklet needs to be carefully completed and you are required to attain
a ‘satisfactory’ mark for each of the assessment activities. Full details of what is required have been
detailed in instructions before each assessment task.

You must submit assessment tasks with the cover sheet provided at the end of this Booklet. You
must attach one cover sheet per assessment upon submission, ticking the relevant assessment
box. Ensure you sign the form after completion.

Assessments should be submitted on or before their due date. Extensions for individual assessment
tasks may be negotiated in specific circumstances. Consultation on this must occur prior to the due
date and extensions due to illness will require a medical certificate. Extensions will be confirmed to
you in writing.

Plagiarism and Referencing

You are reminded that plagiarism will not be tolerated. Information, ideas etc. quoted or
paraphrased from another source, must be acknowledged with “quotation marks” around the
relevant words/sentences or ideas and cited at the end of the document. Sources of information,
ideas etc. must be provided in alphabetical order by author’s surname (including author’s full name,
name of document/ book/internet etc. and year and place of publishing) or may be included in
brackets in the text.
BSBINM501 Manage an Information or Knowledge Management System

ASSESSMENTOUTCOMES
The evidence you submit will be assessed and you will be given written feedback. Each assessment
task will be marked as either Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory and once all assessments have been
marked you will be given an outcome of Competent or Not Competent for the unit of competence.
Upon demonstrating competence, you will be awarded this unit. If you are assessed as Not
Competent, you will be given some suggestions for improvement and asked to redo your
assessment.

Re-assessment
In the event you are deemed Unsatisfactory, you will be allowed two (2) further attempts at an
assessment within the timeframe of this course.
As part of the assessment process, you must abide by any relevant assessment policies as
provided to you. If you feel you are not yet ready to be assessed or this assessment is unfair, you
should be offered the opportunity to discuss all options that are available to you to complete the
assessment.

Reasonable Adjustment
RTOs and Trainers/Assessors are obliged by law to make reasonable adjustment to ensure
maximum participation of students with disability in teaching, learning and assessment activities.
This includes:
• ensuring that course activities are sufficiently flexible;
• providing additional support where necessary; and
• offering a reasonable substitute within the context of the course where a student cannot
participate.

Reasonable adjustment is defined in section 4(1) of the Employment and the Disability
Discrimination Act as ‘an adjustment to be made by a person is a reasonable adjustment unless
making the adjustment would impose an unjustifiable hardship on the person’. Reasonable
adjustment as it applies to participation in learning and assessment activities may include:
• customising resources or activities within a training package or accredited course;
• modifying a presentation medium;
• providing additional support;
• providing assistive or adaptive technologies;
• making additional information accessible both before enrolment and during the course; and
• monitoring these adjustments to ensure that the student’s needs continue to be met.

An individual’s access to the assessment process should not be adversely affected by restrictions
placed on the location or context of assessment beyond the requirements specified in the training
package. Reasonable adjustments can be made to ensure equity in assessment for people with
disabilities. Adjustments include any changes to the assessment process or context that meet the
individual needs of the person with a disability, but do not change competency outcomes.

The assessment process must:

● Provide for valid, reliable, flexible and fair assessment
● Provide for judgement to be made on the basis of sufficient evidence
● Offer valid, authentic and current evidence.
BSBINM501 Manage an Information or Knowledge Management System

COMPETENCY ASSESSMENT
Within this qualification are units of competency that form the basis of your assessments. These
can be located in your Unit Outline Booklet.
ASSESSMENTS FOR THIS UNIT

There are two (2) forms of assessment or evidence gathering methods for this unit of competency.
You are required to complete and submit all the assessments.

Assessment 1. Written Questions

This assessment consists of fifteen (15) short answer questions to assess your knowledge of this
unit. You must answer all questions. Most questions require short answers although some
questions require a more detailed response. You should provide typed responses. You may use
various sources of information including: text books, learning workbooks, other documents and
the internet and must list your sources.

Assessment 2. Systems Analysis

Students are required to demonstrate their skills and knowledge on BSBINM501 Manage an
information or knowledge management system by completing a range of tasks relating to analysis
of an information or knowledge management system with which they are familiar.

The assessment covers sufficiently the assessment requirements set out for this unit. That's why
this can be considered as a holistic assessment

Students must record their answers in a separate A4 document and submit by attaching to their
cover page.

ASSESSMENTS SUBMISSION DEADLINE

Assessment 1, will begin in Week 1 of the unit, due in Week 4 (on the first day of the new
unit). Assessment 2, due in Week 4 (on the first day of the new unit)

BSBINM501_Learner Assessment Guide V2.0 (12sept18)

Richmond School of Business. CRICOS Code: 03717E |RTO Code: 45432 .

4|Page
 BSBINM501 Manage an Information or Knowledge
Management System

Assessment 1: Written Questions

This assessment consists of fifteen (15) short answer questions to assess the student’s knowledge
of BSBINM501 Manage an information or knowledge management system.

Instructions for Students

Students must answer all questions. Most questions require short answers although some questions
require a more detailed response. Students may use various sources of information including: text
books, learning workbooks, other documents and the internet and they must list their sources.
Question/Answer
1 Why is it important to research stakeholder requirements for an information or knowledge
management system? Give examples of how you might collect information from internal
BSBINM501 Manage
and external an Information or Knowledge
stakeholders
Management System
● To run any business research stakeholders requirements for an information or
knowledge management system is very important because whole business is
dependent on them if we want to reach future goals of our business so we must
value the needs, opinions and requirements of internal and external both
stakeholders. what strategies, equipment’s, methods, plans they want to follow is
valuable for managing.
● Examples of how to collect information from internal and external
stakeholders:
● INTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS:
1: I might call meeting for internal stakeholders to collect information from them.
2: I might send my assistant on survey to collect information from stakeholders.
3: I might go by myself for collecting individuals review
● EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS:
1: I might set monthly meeting to coordinate and communicate with external
stakeholders
2: I might make a group on social app through which i can easily take information
from them
3: I might make a in charge who will work only on this aspect to collect information
from external stakeholders.
2 Suggest strategies for resolving the following information management system problems:
a) You want to summarize sales information by customer type but the report
does not exist in the customer management system.

In order to summarize sales information by customer type an manual

method can be adopted:
1. Export sales information data from customer management system in
excel file.
2. Filter the sales information by customer type. In case if customer
type is not defined then each sale needs to be assigned with
relevant customer type.
b) Your computer is crashing regularly, causing you to lose data.
Data should be on the cloud based system and it has to be accessed by
everyone. Virus definitions should be updated at every time.
Operating system updates.

c) Customer data has been provided to a supplier in error

● I will try to reach customer again for errors correction.
d) Customers are complaining about shipping delays and backorders.
We will contact our suppliers and will try to find out possible cause of the
problem if the issue is on our supplier side we will request them to take
action immediately and resolve any shipping delays or other order related
problems which our customer has complaint has about.

3 Select a component of an information or knowledge management system with which you

are familiar. Describe the strengths and weaknesses of that system.
● A component of an information or knowledge management system with which I am
familiar is PEOPLE
● STRENGTHS: People is the main component of information and management
system without them nothing can process or run no strategies can be followed no
8 The ongoing review and evaluation of the information or knowledge management system
ensures it stays relevant. Find two other advantages of review and evaluation. Explain
how these advantages affect a workplace over the long term.

The first question that arises when evaluating the business benefits of an
information system is how one could identify those benefits in the first
place. Is there any method that could be used? And how one could be
sure that all the benefits have been exhausted and there are not any
286
other benefits that s/he has not thought of. Unfortunately, the answer to
those questions is that there is not any method per se and that one can
never be sure whether all potential benefits have been identified.
The reasons for this have been already mentioned above. As we saw,
an information system could bring many complex and unpredictable
changes in organisational, management and social terms, and its use
could evolve over time; today’s information systems have become too
complex and sophisticated and their functionality and scope has increased
dramatically; in today’s dynamic economic environment and rapidly
changing world of information technology, it is rather difficult to make any long-term
predictions.
As it was mentioned above, in the case of a process
improvement/reengineering effort, some of the potential benefits of an
information system would have been considered during the process
improvement/reengineering effort, as it is the knowledge of those benefits
that would have driven the design of the to-be processes. However, in
addition to the obvious direct benefits, other indirect benefits may also
arise. For instance, while the primary reason for using integrated
information technology could be the increased productivity and reduction
in design errors that are expected with the automatic transfer of
information from one application to the other, the additional benefit of the
“greater human focus on the critical issues due to the automation of
routine tasks” (Ingirige et al., 2001) may also arise. Therefore, when
evaluating the business benefits, the potential benefits must be carefully
re-examined.
The identification of the business benefits of an information system is
primarily a brainstorming activity which requires: (i) knowledge of the
application domain; (ii) an understanding of the capabilities and
limitations of the system; and (iii) an understanding of the business
objectives of the organisation in the context of which the evaluation takes
place (Farbey et al., 1993).
Of course, when trying to identify the business benefits, one does not
have to start from scratch, with a clean sheet. First, a number of generic
lists of the potential benefits could be found in the literature. These lists
may refer to information systems in general or to the system under
consideration in particular. For example, table 1 shows several
publications providing lists of the potential benefits of information
systems in general and integrated information systems in particular.
 Although these lists are quite generic and at varying levels of detail, they
can nevertheless act as a prompt and provide an indication of whether all
the potential benefits of a system have been identified.

9 Identify stakeholder training requirements and needs from a knowledge system requires
research. Give examples of methods you have used, or would consider using in the
future, to assess client learning needs.

● Identify Stakeholders. Start by identifying all possible stakeholders. These could

be individual persons or stakeholder groups.
● Determine the importance of each stakeholder. Look at each stakeholder and
determine how important he or she is to the success of your project. You might
categorize each stakeholder in terms of high/medium/low importance. This
evaluation is important because sometimes you spend too much time and effort
working with stakeholders that are of low importance to your project, while short-
changing the time you spend on stakeholders that are very important.
● Identify the interest of the project for each stakeholder. This is where the analysis
starts. Stakeholders have a stake or interest in your project. Now you have to
identify what this stake or interest is. In some cases the stakeholder might need
something from your project team. In other cases, you may need something from
them.
● Determine how you will engage each stakeholder. For each stakeholder, you
should identify a set of activities or even an overall approach for getting them
engaged. You should identify activities that help you to achieve your interest while
also recognizing the relative importance of each stakeholder group. Obviously you
will spend more time working with stakeholder groups that are important to your
project and less time on groups that are of low priority.
● Gain agreement when necessary. In some cases, stakeholders want things from
your project. However, in other instances you need something from them. If you
need something from the stakeholder or stakeholder group, make sure that they
understand what your expectations are and make sure that they agree to provide
what you need.
● Move the activities to the workplan. You don’t want to keep a separate
stakeholder activity spreadsheet. After you identify the activities to engage the
stakeholder groups, place all of the activities in the project workplan, along with
who is responsible, the timeframe, estimated effort, etc.

10 Your suppliers and contractors may also require the ability to use your knowledge or
information management system to enable them to fulfil their requirements. Give two
examples of how you might achieve this while maintaining the integrity of your system.

● Stakeholder analysis will help you determine the various stakeholder groups, their
needs, and how you will satisfy their needs. You can use the following process for
stakeholder analysis.

● Stakeholders are specific people or groups who have a stake or interest in the
outcome of the project. Normally stakeholders are within the company and could
include internal clients, management, employees, administrators, etc. A project
 may also have external stakeholders, including suppliers, investors, community
groups and government organizations.

● Small projects typically don't have to worry about understanding and managing
the stakeholder community. You usually have to deal with a sponsor (the person
that requested the work) and that's about it.

● As your project gets larger however, you generally have more stakeholders to
worry about. If you have a large and diverse stakeholder community it makes
sense to perform a stakeholder analysis. This stakeholder analysis will help you
determine the various stakeholder groups, their needs, and how you will satisfy
their needs.

11 As a manager responsible for implementing the required training, you need to

understand the type of knowledge that is deficient. Briefly explain the two different types
of knowledge and provide examples of how you may identify a deficiency in each type
within your staff.

The first step is to take a closer look at the performance of employees in order to
identify skill gaps. This involves gathering data in order to determine competency
gaps and find root causes that need addressing. As a side note, this process is
also critical in the identification of training needs of employees.

Looking at the wrong data or administering the wrong approach can have severe
consequences when it comes to your company’s training, development, and even
operational processes and interventions. And for that reason, we’d like to focus
on data gathering methodologies when it comes to identifying gaps for essential
skills for the workplace.

There are numerous methodologies that you can employ in data-gathering. The
best approach, however, is to utilize at least three. Not only will it give you
different perspectives on the issue, but will also provide you more insight on what
the real issues and root causes are.

More importantly, multiple data sources can be used to cross-validate data,

confirm analysis results, and ultimately, properly ratify and identify skill gaps.

For training professionals, determining competency gaps is one of the most

effective methods of determining training needs. Not only that, it doesn’t only
determine what skills need to be trained or developed in the short-term, but it also
affects T & D strategy in the long run.

Here are five approaches that you can use to gather data and assess your
employees:

1. Key Performance Indicators

In any business, key performance indicators (KPIs) determine how a person
contributes to the business as an employee. Not only that, it also determines
career progression, compensation, rewards, benefits, and even retention. KPIs
are also very accurate indicators of competency gaps in the workplace.
KPIs are the best sources to use in order to identify skill gaps. Individual
employees may have some issues with their KPIs and performance.

These isolated instances can be immediately remediated with appropriate

interventions. The most important indicators to watch out for though are overall
performance trends. Trends are usually signs that there is something wrong with
a process and would require more work as compared to one-off interventions.

2. Employee Assessments
Assessments are excellent ways to identify skill gaps. And how can you assess
your employees? That’s easy: tests and quizzes are one thing but other methods
also include practical assessments or roleplay.

One key point here is to base the assessments on real work scenarios, to identify
the actual skill gaps. As for how this can be implemented fast and effectively?
Even your LMS can help: a strong skills-gap engine, like the one featured in
eFrontPro, can help you identify gaps in skill and knowledge in the workplace.

3. 360-Degree Reviews
Another good approach to identify skill gaps is through feedback. There is an
appraisal method called the 360-Degree Review. Feedback on an employee’s
performance is solicited from peers, managers, and direct reports of an
employee. Sometimes it also includes customers, clients, and vendors as well.

This appraisal approach can be adapted as a data gathering method too. Instead
of getting feedback on a particular employee, you can get responses regarding
certain performance issues of employees as a whole. And don’t forget to get
feedback from the employees themselves too. They would be the best persons to
ask about what skills they think they need more work on.

You can employ different activities to do this. The most efficient one is through the
use of employee surveys because these easy to create and quick to deploy.
Surveys can be quite limiting though.

Other approaches include focus-group discussions and interviews. While these

may take up more time, the face-to-face interaction allows the interviewer to ask
follow-up questions or have the respondents expound on their feedback.

More importantly, the 360-Degree Review approach is also a good way of getting
qualitative data. We all know that numbers do not tell the entire story. One of the
best ways of finding out what’s really happening is directly asking those who are
involved with business operations.

4. Observations
There is a management concept that posits that in order to understand the most
common issues in the workplace, you would need to spend time on the front
lines. This practice is definitely is quite useful because it gives someone – the
data gatherer, for example – a firsthand experience of what’s going in an
employee’s work environment.
 Observing employees at work is the perfect opportunity to find out how different
factors come into play when there are apparent skill gaps. It was mentioned that
numbers don’t really tell the story in all its entirety.

First-hand observation helps you find the ‘missing pieces’ – information not
usually found in KPIs and employee feedback – to help you piece the skill-gap
puzzle together.

Observations also give you (or the management) more insight on the real
situation. There are even some instances where you might even discover some
information or root causes that aren’t easily visible to the staff.

5. Benchmarking Performance
Another approach to identify skill gaps in the workplace is by bench-marking the
performance of the organization’s top performers. This sets a point of reference
on what the needed skills for success in the workplace are.

Observation is usually the main activity used when benchmarking top performers.
This process draws out the best practices from your ‘A-employees.’ To add, it also
gives a demonstration of the ideal competencies at work. These, in turn, can be
used as skill templates – an employee profile for soft skills for the workplace – for
example.

As part of a short-term strategy, you can compare the skills of employees

identified as having skill gaps with that of the template. You can then base the
appropriate interventions from there.

As part of a long-term strategy, you can base the entire employee cycle on that
proven template. You can focus hiring based on that benchmarked profile. You
can also train and develop the skills as dictated by the rubric. Then you may
assess performance using the template and reward employees that exemplify the
benchmarked skills.

12 When planning the facilitation or delivery of training the requirements of federal and state
legislation must be complied with. List at least three (3) statutes you must be aware of
within your workplace context.

1. Fair Work Act 2009

2. Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012
3. Privacy Act 1988

13 List and explain some of the ways in which your workplace ensures staff training on
information systems is effective. What improvements could you recommend improving
compliance with company procedures?

● Before creating your training program, it is important for you as the trainer to do
your homework and research your company’s situation thoroughly. Most
employers understand that good employee training is essential for an
organization’s success.

● Training topics may include general skills such as literacy, technical skills,
orientation about the organization, as well as programs designed to prevent
 lawsuits, audits, and fines, such as sexual harassment training, safety training,
and ethics training.

● Employee training was once considered an optional benefit, an“extra”that only the
most forward-looking employers provided to the most promising employees. Even
now, when the economy turns downward, employee training is often the first to
go, viewed not as an investment but as an expense to be disposed of in tough
times.

● Today, more and more employers understand that, far from being a frill, good
employee training is necessary to a company’s success. Federal law requires
training in on specific health and safety-related topics, and sexual harassment
training is a must.

● In addition to meeting legal requirements, employers know that an intelligent,

well-trained workforce is central to worker productivity and well-being. Employers
with high employee turnover tend to train less and spend less on training than
other businesses. While it is unclear which comes first, the probable inference is
that training is linked to long-term employment and is an important factor in
successful performance, productivity, and morale.
● Before creating your training program, it is important for you as the trainer to do
your homework and research your company’s situation thoroughly. Most
employers understand that good employee training is essential for an
organization’s success.

● Training topics may include general skills such as literacy, technical skills,
orientation about the organization, as well as programs designed to prevent
lawsuits, audits, and fines, such as sexual harassment training, safety training,
and ethics training.

● Employee training was once considered an optional benefit, an“extra”that only the
most forward-looking employers provided to the most promising employees. Even
now, when the economy turns downward, employee training is often the first to
go, viewed not as an investment but as an expense to be disposed of in tough
times.

● Today, more and more employers understand that, far from being a frill, good
employee training is necessary to a company’s success. Federal law requires
training in on specific health and safety-related topics, and sexual harassment
training is a must.

● In addition to meeting legal requirements, employers know that an intelligent,

well-trained workforce is central to worker productivity and well-being. Employers
with high employee turnover tend to train less and spend less on training than
other businesses. While it is unclear which comes first, the probable inference is
that training is linked to long-term employment and is an important factor in
successful performance, productivity, and morale.

14 Most organisations have multiple sets of data on different systems such as procurement,
sales, logistics and finance. Describe how a workplace could ensure these systems are
integrated and aligned so information sharing could occur.

Organization of a database
Data are usually generated at the field level through transaction-processing systems, but
once the data are captured, any echelon along the organizational hierarchy may use
them, provided that information requirements have been well defined, appropriate
programmes have been implemented, and a means has been arranged for the sharing of
 data. This would imply that the same data can be used by different sets of programmes;
hence we distinguish between the database (a set of data) and the applications (a set of
programmes). In a decision support system (DSS), this set of programmes is the model
base (Keen & Morton, 1978).

The term database may refer to any collection of data that might serve an organizational
unit. A database on a given subject is a collection of data on that subject that observes
three criteria: comprehensiveness (completeness), nonredundancy, and appropriate
structure. Comprehensiveness means that all the data about the subject are actually
present in the database. Non Redundancy means that each individual piece of data
exists only once in the database. Appropriate structure means that the data are stored in
such a way as to minimize the cost of expected processing and storage (Awad &
Gotterer, 1992).

The idea of a large corporate database that can be flexibly shared by several
applications or model bases has been realized by means of software packages specially
devised to perform such tasks. These packages, called database management systems
(DBMSs), are available in the market under different trade names such as ORACLE,
SYBASE, INGRES, FOXBASE, and dBASE.

15 Information is one of the most important resources to an organisation. What advantages

can good quality information provide to your role?

● Strategic planning is a key tool for running an effective local government. When
done correctly, it turns today’s vision into tomorrow’s reality. But in order to meet
the goals in the plan efficiently, local governments need a management reporting
system to help them implement the plan. A good reporting system is the foundation
for successful strategy execution.

● What is a management reporting system? It’s a structured and scheduled set of

reports designed for specific stakeholders that allows the organization to track
performance, identify trends, analyze data and align performance to overall goals.

● It’s important to understand what makes a “good” management reporting system,

because let’s be frank – not all reporting systems are created equal. A good
reporting system has several key properties: it is timely, clear, relevant, easily-
accessed and has the capability of running automated reports. When those criteria
are met, the reporting system provides the data to identify non-performing areas
and leads to the following benefits:

● 1. Increase communication
When senior management and employees are sharing the same information, there
is better communication between them to identify problem areas and find mutually
agreeable solutions. In addition, local governments are able to share statistics and
progress reports with council members and the community. This is one of the most
important benefits, because having the data readily available and clearly
communicating it builds trust in the organization.

● 2. Improves productivity, accuracy and timeliness

A good management reporting system not only promotes cross-functional
cooperation across departments, but also helps decrease any duplicate efforts
 among team members. Automated reports also save employees countless hours of
sifting through mounds of paperwork in search for data and results. Employees are
more productive because they don't have to spend time gathering the data that
management wants, allowing them to tackle other items on their to-do list.

● 3. Improves decision-making and efficiency within organization

Without an effective, functional management reporting system, managers are often
relying on their experience alone and employees don’t have a clear sense of
direction. Better availability of information reduces uncertainty and lets managers
make decisions based on reliable data.

● 4. Identifying potential problems early, when you still have time to act on them
A good reporting system serves as a preventative measure, designed to help
management achieve maximum effectiveness before a program or project reaches
crisis level. Management is also able to explore various alternatives and analyze
the possible results before making decisions and commitments.

● 5. Cost efficiency
This is the most tangible benefit of all as it can mean decreased costs and
increased revenue. Having the data at your fingertips allows managers to be better
equipped to switch gears if necessary and respond to changing business
environments faster. Simply put, slashing budgets is no longer effective unless
there is data behind that decision.

● 6. Customer focus
Customers and stakeholders want to know what is being done and if their issues
and concerns are being heard. With more data about the needs of customers,
management is better able to improve customer service and design better service
delivery systems. Automated reports also make it quick and easy to generate
quarterly and annual reports for your customers.

● A management reporting system is essential for any local government that is

serious about improving the performance of their organization. Without a good
management reporting system, managers are often using a trial-and-error
approach, rather than making sound decisions based on thoughtful analysis of
data.
Assessment 2: Systems Analysis
Instructions for Students

Students are required to demonstrate their skills and knowledge on BSBINM501 Manage an
information or knowledge management system by completing a range of tasks, outlined below,
relating to analysis of an information or knowledge management system with which they are familiar.

Students must answer all questions. Most questions require short answers although some questions
require a more detailed response. Students may use various sources of information including: text
books, learning workbooks, other documents and the internet and they must list their sources.

TASK 1:
Systems Analysis Questions/Answer
1 Select a component of an information or knowledge management system with which you
are familiar.
a) Assess the effectiveness of this system, explaining how you collected the
information to complete the assessment.
● An organized collection of data, databases need to be managed accordingly.
A database management system (DBMS) can help do that. So, what is a DBMS
and what is its role in information systems? Let’s find out.

● Typically organized to represent relevant aspects of reality, data stored in a

database supports processes requiring this information. However, this will happen
only if there is a database management system in place. An information system is
nothing more than an organized collection of data if a DBMS is not organizing,
controlling and classifying the data stored there. The ultimate objective of a DBMS
is to ensure the data integrity by implementing controls and providing maintenance
to data files.

● The Importance of a Database Management System

The use of a computer database is typically involved in efficient data management.
A shared, integrated computer structure, a database stores the following:

● End-user data i.e. raw data relevant to the end user

Metadata—the data about data, through which end-user data is integrated and
managedIn case you weren’t aware, metadata describes the characteristics of the
data and the set of relationships linking the data present within the database.

● The Role of DBMS in Information Systems

A DBMS plays a crucial role in both the creation and management of data. Without
a database management system, running and managing data effectively is not
possible. Serving as the intermediary between the user and the database, a DBMS
provides users access to files stored in a database. It provides the end user with a
single, integrated view of the data, and translates all applications it receives into
complex operations that fulfil those requests. However, much of the internal
complexity of the database is hidden from the users and application programs.
 From enabling the sharing of data in the database among multiple applications or
users to providing users with a single all-encompassing data repository, DBMS
plays an important role in information systems. Following are some of the things a
DBMS enables in information systems:

● Better Data Access Within the Company

With a DBMS, users within a company can access, update and delete data in a
database or information system. This information is easily available to users when
the company’s information systems are integrated with the relational DBMS.

● Stronger Relationships Between Data

A key function of database management systems is allowing different data sets to
relate to one another. This makes a DBMS ideal for managing relationships
between data sets in a systematic and simple way. This, in turn, allows managers
to understand key statistics related to business operations and sales.

● Improved Data Security

The more people access the data, the greater the risk of data security breaches.
Generally, companies invest considerable time, effort and money to ensure proper
use of their data. But, this does not always produce the desired outcomes. With a
DBMS, organizations can ensure better enforcement of data privacy and security
policies, which allows them to improve overall data security.

b) Identify possible improvements that could be made to the system.

● Develop a Technology Usage Agreement for your staff. Include compliance

issues such as inappropriate web surfing, data or music downloading policy and
data confidentiality. Prohibit visiting website categories known to house viruses
such as torrent sites, gambling and file sharing sites.
● Create a comprehensive technology plan. This plan should address systematic
replacement of aging workstations and ways to evaluate emerging technologies.
It should provide a basic map of how your information system will run today and
in the future taking in account the rapidly changing nature of the industry.
● Contact your Internet Service Provider to investigate increasing your bandwidth.
Often increasing bandwidth makes multitasking much easier and reduces
application hangups caused by slow updating. Consider ISP redundancy if you
have repeated downtime from your primary carrier.
● Consult with one of the many firms who provide off-site storage for your key
documents and databases. This service is typically easy to install and provides
you with easy disaster recovery should you have a major system issue or virus.
● Consider "software as a service" options for functions such as word processing,
email and customer relationship management. This service provides web-based
versions of solutions you typically install on each workstation. The service
makes data more available throughout your shop and at your home.
● Utilize free software to free up your technology budget to upgrade machines
faster. Many companies such as Google, Sun and Adobe add free services
entice customers to remain brand-loyal.
● Schedule periodic maintenance downtime. Your Information Technologies
employee or company should manage updates, scan for viruses and examine
error logs during this scheduled downtime to prevent data loss or system
outages.
 c) Suggest other employees who may be involved in assessing the system and
designing improvements.

● Systems Analyst
The role of the systems analyst is to straddle the divide between identifying
business needs and imagining a new or redesigned computer-based system to
fulfill those needs. This individual will work with a person, team, or department with
business requirements and identify the specific details of a system that needs to be
built. Generally, this will require the analyst to have a good understanding of the
business itself , the business processes involved, and the ability to document them
well. The analyst will identify the different stakeholders in the system and work to
involve the appropriate individuals in the process.

● Once the requirements are determined, the analyst will begin the process of
translating these requirements into an information-systems design. A good analyst
will understand what different technological solutions will work and provide several
different alternatives to the requester, based on the company’s budgetary
constraints, technology constraints, and culture. Once the solution is selected, the
analyst will create a detailed document describing the new system. This new
document will require that the analyst understand how to speak in the technical
language of systems developers.

● A systems analyst generally is not the one who does the actual development of the
information system. The design document created by the systems analyst provides
the detail needed to create the system and is handed off to a programmer (or team
of programmers) to do the actual creation of the system. In some cases, however,
a systems analyst may go ahead and create the system that he or she designed.
This person is sometimes referred to as a programmer-analyst.

● In other cases, the system may be assembled from off-the-shelf components by a

person called a systems integrator. This is a specific type of systems analyst that
understands how to get different software packages to work with each other.

● To become a systems analyst, you should have a background both in the business
and in systems design. Many analysts first worked as programmers and/or had
experience in the business before becoming systems analysts.

● Programmer
Programmers spend their time writing computer code in a programming language.
In the case of systems development, programmers generally attempt to fulfill the
design specifications given to them by a systems analyst. Many different styles of
programming exist: a programmer may work alone for long stretches of time or may
work in a team with other programmers. A programmer needs to be able to
understand complex processes and also the intricacies of one or more
programming languages. Generally, a programmer is very proficient in
mathematics, as mathematical concepts underlie most programming code.

● Computer Engineer
Computer engineers design the computing devices that we use every day. There
 are many types of computer engineers, who work on a variety of different types of
devices and systems. Some of the more prominent engineering jobs are as follows:

● Hardware engineer. A hardware engineer designs hardware components, such as

microprocessors. Many times, a hardware engineer is at the cutting edge of
computing technology, creating something brand new. Other times, the hardware
engineer’s job is to engineer an existing component to work faster or use less
power. Many times, a hardware engineer’s job is to write code to create a program
that will be implemented directly on a computer chip.
● Software engineer. Software engineers do not actually design devices; instead,
they create new programming languages and operating systems, working at the
lowest levels of the hardware to develop new kinds of software to run on the
hardware.
● Systems engineer. A systems engineer takes the components designed by other
engineers and makes them all work together. For example, to build a computer, the
mother board, processor, memory, and hard disk all have to work together. A
systems engineer has experience with many different types of hardware and
software and knows how to integrate them to create new functionality.
● Network engineer. A network engineer’s job is to understand the networking
requirements of an organization and then design a communications system to meet
those needs, using the networking hardware and software available.

d) Write a report summarising your assessment and possible improvements. (1 page)

A management information system is made up of five major components namely

people, business processes, data, hardware, and software. All of these
components must work together to achieve business objects.

People – these are the users who use the information system to record the day to
day business transactions. The users are usually qualified professionals such as
accountants, human resource managers, etc. The ICT department usually has the
support staff who ensure that the system is running properly.

Business Procedures – these are agreed upon best practices that guide the users
and all other components on how to work efficiently. Business procedures are
developed by the people i.e. users, consultants, etc.

Data – the recorded day to day business transactions. For a bank, data is
collected from activities such as deposits, withdrawals, etc.

Hardware – hardware is made up of the computers, printers, networking devices,

etc. The hardware provides the computing power for processing data. It also
provides networking and printing capabilities. The hardware speeds up the
processing of data into information.

Software – these are programs that run on the hardware. The software is broken
down into two major categories namely system software and applications software.
System software refers to the operating system i.e. Windows, Mac OS, and
Ubuntu, etc. Applications software refers to specialized software for accomplishing
business tasks such as a Payroll program, banking system, point of sale system,
etc.
2 Identify and list three or more members within your organisation who need to use its
information system. Next to each name, record their position and make a note of their
learning needs.
Mr Mak (HR manager) needed to improve his technological understandings and learn it
more to work on this system appropriately
Mr Robert ( marketing manager) needs to learn how to maintain the relationship with
customers and how to please them.
Mr Edison ( 2nd Raw incharge) should learn how to gain approval from superiors for the
activities

3 Select a component of an information management system used at your workplace. This

may be a component of the customer relationship system, marketing management
system or other knowledge database. Identify the resources required to train one of the
members you identified in question 2 and write your answer in table format as below.
Prepare and write a one-page proposal, approximately 400 words, justifying allocation of
the following resources to your training:
Systems Analysis Questions/Answer
Physical
Time 1 one
Mr Robert needs to learn customer relationship system because he’s not good in dealing
with it which is most important for any organization to make him learn this management
system he needs proper training in which he’s needed to tell about the main components of
customer relationship management which sale force automation which means order
processing, contact management, information sharing, inventory monitoring, customer
tracking, order taking and employee workforce evaluation it’s the most important part of this
management then customer services which is first priority of any firm to have in best ways
because as much you can please your customers it will help you out to reach your goals
then workflow automation it involves effectively forecast labor and to create managing staff
schedules to have particular task on daily basis then to train marketing sense which is also
component of it and most significant thing for any marketing manager because whole
marketing process is based on him then human resource management which means the
system of managing employees in a company it involves hiring, firing, trainings and
motivation of employees for example HRM is the way in which any company appoint new
employees and train them according to their needs to give training about customer
relationship management one particular trainer is required who is highly qualified and
experienced in this field so he could explain it to others easily in this training session
different points are included which are essential and needed for MR ROBERT as he is the
manager of marketing in training session we have to develop understanding about terms
and benefits about the customer relation management on a company’s bottom line because
without identifying terms and regulations of company to customers no one can deal properly
with them then to recognize the importance of relevance, credibility, respect and values in
relationship process then work and analyze on different components of customer
relationship management understand and practice it in well manners articulate the
company’s CRM goals then do some practices after taking trainings and trainer will tell that
what is the level of learner’s understanding and what is his approach what are his results
after trainings through some practices and activities of learner for this training session of
MR ROBERT only trainer with some technologies and class room is required where he can
train easily with interruption after this training session MR ROBERT and other workers like
him will be expert in how to treat with the customers which will give better results to the
company in future and company will get it’s goals easily.
4 Create an email, memo, poster or webpage to promote the use of the knowledge
management system. Ensure you explain how the information will be read by all relevant
personnel. (approx. 250 words)
To:
From:
subject: To promote the use of the knowledge management system
Knowledge or information management system is very useful for any organisation to
promote that organisation and to attain the goals and measures of that organisation this
is the easiest pattern to convey the exact and accurate information to all staff members
without any rumors they all will get the same information because of which there will be
less problems mistakes and disturbance in the staff members of organisation they all will
follow the same strategies if they feel any problem in working which will be given by
higher authorities or heads of organisation and all the staff members will work same100
patterns and they will know the goals of organisation which they have to gain knowledge
management gives efficiency in productivity it’s difficult that organisations manage their
knowledge effectively it’s something that helps the people in an organisation to share,
 access and update business knowledge and information knowledge management
enables everyone to stimulates the cultural changes and innovations needed to evolve
organisation and meet changing business needs with the faster way to access
information and resources among the organisation.

.
5 Identify the performance measures used to calculate the effectiveness of your
organisation’s information systems. You may select a single system, such as a CRM, or a
whole system. List some of these measures and describe how they are collected; for
example, automatically, via an integrated computer KMS. (approx. 150 words)

A CRM Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a standard measurement used to evaluate the
process of delivering satisfaction to all of the customer needs from your organization.
KPIs can be set up across key activities that are critical to the satisfaction of the
customer. When performance falls below the required level, management can begin the
process of analyzing the cause and taking corrective action. Since the customer decides
who to do business with, these KPIs become imperative to retaining the customer.

Customer Satisfaction – The Most Important KPI

Customer satisfaction is the ultimate measurement of the success of your business.
Without the customer there are no revenues and no reason for your business. Your
purpose is to provide a product or service that the customer values beyond that of your
competitors.

Flying Blind is Not the Answer

A business that does not measure its success in each aspect of its customer deliverables
is just asking to fail. You may have a vision of excellent customer service, but one rude
customer support agent, or a botched product installation can mean the end of a lifetime
relationship. And if you don’t even know where the customer disappointment occurs, the
problems will never be solved.

How to Define a KPI

• Define what information will be needed
• Define who will gather it
• Define the process to obtain it
• Define where it will come from
• Establish the frequency that it is needed
• Define who will receive it

Voice of the Customer

Another important aspect of customer satisfaction lies in capturing the qualitative success
of the activity. In other words, your team may be performing to a high quantitative level,
but still may be failing in the eyes of the customer. As an example, your customer service
may be responding to each call in 3 minutes or less, but failing miserably in the
customers eyes because they are not solving the exact customer perceived problem.

A good KPI program needs to include the voice of the customer in order to discern
whether the program is actually working and if the KPI metrics you have in place really
correspond to customer satisfaction. Sometimes, management’s perception of good
 customer service can vary widely from that of the actual customer. Building feedback
loops into the process can be critical to real success of the programs. These feedback
loops can take the form of on call questions, immediate post call surveys, and other
follow-up techniques.

Some Examples of CRM KPIs:

Common KPIs
• Monthly number of unconverted leads
• Number of lost opportunities
• Email response rate
• Email click-through rate
• Funnel drop off rates
• Sales conversions to leads
• Average collection period
• On-time delivery
• Installation problems per unit sales
• Number of complaints per month
• Cost per call
• Time to first call response
• Average time to problem resolution
• Time to complete problem resolution
• Call length
• Volume of calls handled
• Number of escalations
• Customer ratings of service
• Number of customer complaints

Expanded KPIs
• Average time to last follow-up (sales)
• Average customer life time value
• Customer attrition rate
• Average customer retention period
• Post sales per unit sold
• Survey ratings
• Upsell revenues
• Average profit per customer

6 Access and write a brief summary, approximately 300 words, of scope and purpose of the
Australian Standard for Knowledge Management AS 5037:2005.
infostore.saiglobal.com/store/Preview Doc.aspx?saleItemID=391611
● The Australian Standard for knowledge management AS 5037:2005 was prepared
by committee MB-007 Then it was approved on behalf of the Council of Standards
Australia on 7th September 2005 and it was published on 10th October 2005.This
Standard has been made for the professionals who have recently indulged with
Knowledge management or for those people who are looking for further guidance
this Standard tell how to understand whether an organisation is ready to adopt or
expand knowledge or information activities in it.then to recognize that organisation is
knowledge ecosystem and set of relationship existing between people, technology,
content and process it gives the detailed guidance that how to implement the
 Standard within context of any organization’s atmosphere and to emerging issues
and trends in knowledge and information management in this Standard they used
this system’s own language and metaphor in this Standard different Breakout boxes
are given from practice and key learning to enhance understanding of concepts
which are discussed in it. Basically the scope and purpose of this standard is to
make understand the usage of information and knowledge management in different
organizations where it was already introduced they can improve themselves by
learning this standard and where it was not introduced they can introduce it for
better results in the future and this Standard is complete description to understand
knowledge management system here they attached different organizations
examples through which learning and understanding of this system and the
understanding of effectiveness of this system become easier for everyone.

TASK 2:

Deliver a 10-15-minute presentation on your favorite TOPIC from this unit.