Submitted to the faculty of Kensington College of Business, University of Wales (2010-2011).

Submitted by: Vamshi Krishna. Siripuram Kensington college of business ID: Subject :

13687 Management Information Sytems

INDEX
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1) Introduction 2) Aim 3) General Information 4) Scope of MIS 5) Mangement level systems 6) Strategic level systems 7) MIS in Amazon 8) ERP systems 9) Critical Analyses 10) Decision Making 11) MBP 12) Recommendations 13) Conclusion 14) Reference 3 3 4 4 6 7 8 9 10 10 12 13 15 16

1) Introduction: Increasing efficiency has always been a desirable attribute for every organization. There are various managing strategies which can change the face of a company and managing information system has its own prominence in the developing world. MIS has been used as underpin for cost effectiveness, to pull off excellent product quality, timeliness and reliability which eventually results in organization and consumers satisfaction. To be even more specific the Information systems is considered to be the most established analytical approach for decision making, irrespective of whether the organization is a small local shop or established popular global organization. However, it also gives a visionary strength to any organization by enhancing the competitive advantage and keeping the organization to advance to the higher levels.

2) Aim: To determine the business strategies that are appropriate in the context of Amazon a large scale online retailer company in the current scenario of global competitive market. The main objective of is to allow flexibility and adaptability by meeting all the requirements with respect to the marketplace.

According to Moh and Doh et all , (2006); that information has been passed through receiver and sender without any loss of value with its entity that is distinct.

To facilitate the reader with conspicuous ideas the report considers a deductive methodology where flow of the study will go through the general information in the initial phase (Introduction, discussions, critical review) and then to specific information (Analysis and recommendations) in the final phase. (Saunders and Thornhill, 2004)

Phase 1: 3) General Information: The Information System of any organization is divided into two functional areas (i) Management Systems and (ii) Operational systems

[Figure: 1 Information types] (Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/9643550/Management-Information-System) 4) Scope of MIS: According to Laudon & Laudon (2010) the main focus of the research is on the MIS importance and how to improve the activity efficiency which can fulfill the objectives of the organization ultimately. The definition of the MIS itself in the perspective of management provides the complete picture of what it is all about, it is interconnected mechanism which collects, retrieves, processes, stores and distributes the information for coordination, support to the decision making system, and thereby controls through which the managers will analyze complex issues critically and will find a desired solution.

[Figure 2: Information Systems as per different functions and levels] (Source: ludon 2007, Management Information System, chapter 2, figure 2.11 pg 2.32) The picture above gives a clear idea on various information systems where the three operational levels are represented and four basic functional areas are assessed. To be even more specific, the MIS is the an appropriate integration of information, management, and Systems of an organization which leads to, productivity (Input output ratio with respect to the use of firms resources (Amazons optimum use), Effectiveness (Amazons persuasion towards their objectives), Profitability (Utilization of external and internal data processing,

Human Resources, different technologies which leads to the ultimate goal of the organization). Operational level systems: These are the basic core inputs of an organization, which help for the strategic decisions as they provide both the internal and external information which are used for further analyses. Generally the information under the external category comprises of the details of the stake holders, suppliers, costumers and competitors, where the information is already not captured by the TPS; the extranets and Internet; and the information under the internal category consists of ERP and TPSs which are pertaining to the respective databases, functional areas in specific throughout the firm and even data marts and data warehouses. (Ludon & Ludon, 2007).
a) Transaction Processing Systems: These systems are very important for the

company selected in this report. Reason being that the TPS is system is computerised system which will records and performs the transactions of the daily routine which are necessary to the business conduct; these provide the key source of data to the organisational information systems. It is basically in the form of market upgrades, customer or employee data, sales promotions, outflow and inflow etc. b) Enterprise Resource Planning: it plays the key role to run the system on front. Any bigger organization like Amazon will make decisions using the ERPs as they are very effective and are supported by other sources. This is place where important decisions are executed after a conspicuous examination. 5) Management Level Systems: These systems comprise of several contributions from the analytical and the reports perspective to conclude a decision which is based on the static analysis (Ludon & Ludon, 2007). c) Decision Support System: They normally work on the Management level where the middle level managers go through various aspects by studying, analyzing and there after they conclude from the information they are provided by the ERP or TPS systems similarly done with the current market trends and the competitors information as well. d) Management Information Systems: These systems have various functions preferably in the report format and the analyzed data from various deapartements are forecasted for the future planning and also used for analyzing the current situation with in the organization such as cost analyses, Annual budgeting, inventory control, analyses of sales and marketing etc. The prominence of these system came from the interrelated facility it provides which can be used by every department and the data analysis provides specific reports (Ludon & Ludon, 2010).

Below is the diagram of various Management Information Systems as per their functions.

Figure 3: Input data and output results as reports through various functional MIS (Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/9643550/Management-Information-System ) 6) Strategic Level Systems: Once the situation is analyzed it will be high time for the organization to step up for appropriate strategies so these core systems provide a platform for vital decisions based on the generated reports and the higher authorities and top administration are involved at this stage usually (Ludon & Ludon, 2007). Executive Support Systems: To be clear with what have been mentioned above these systems involve planning for long term and as mentioned earlier the top administration will be involved in the personal and profit planning.

Figure 4: Model of typical executive support system (Source: Ludon, 2007 Management Information Systems pg 2.28, figure 2.9)
7) MIS in Amazon and role of Information Systems

Amazon.com, is a multinational electronic commerce company based in US and it is the largest online retailer which has approximately thrice the revenue of the runner up as per the February 2010. It has started with an bookstore online and in quick time it diversified by selling toys, food, computer software, MP3 downloads, selling CDs , DVDs, apparels, furniture and video games. Most importantly the style they globalize in the recent past have been tremendous as they expanded to Canada, France, United Kingdom, Japan, Italy and China that too with separate websites and interestingly they also ship products internationally to some of the countries around the world. Even though they come from a big platform a environment which is very fast growing, very few mistakes occur in the management of the business and the one of the many key reasons is that they follow their regular work by putting an eye on the dynamic nature of the business and they satisfy the needs of information irrespective of time and place. The below mentioned is the platform for the Amazon technology which is used for the operation of various departments. (Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com) a) Enterprise management System.

b) Network: LAN, Intranet, internet, extranet c) Technology: Web-enabled, client or server applications. d) Operating system platform: Unix NT6.0, UNIX e) Solutions: Oracle 8. I, Oracle Financials, Oracle Application-11i. f) Back End: Standard Architecture with Web server, application server, Database server and a Microsoft transaction server. g) Security: Proxy server and firewalls

8) ERP systems: It is a family of various modules related to the softwares which support the business activities related to the back-office processes. If we consider Amazon in this context the ERP software will usually track the status of shipping, inventory, sales and invoicing, and even it updates the stock available for the future customers including the human resource needs and the raw materials. The enterprise suite will connect the data which flows though the company and it can also be done by the enterprise packages and applications as well and the best part is that the data is directed to a single integrated set of systems. It can also work with a variety of operating systems, hardware and data bases and their sole aim is to avoid any complications in the flow of information through out the network. For companies like Amazon it can also take care of the organizational hierarchy of authorities which can lessen the lead times, as the inventory systems integrate the production department, purchase and planning. The business can almost be doubled with respect to profits and that too with the same effort which is put manually. As per the sources there will be an increase in the inventory turn over 30% with the cycle time cut to 80% , and cycle time means the time taken to delver the product from the time of the receipt generated, it does not need more discussion as we always observe when ordering a book on Amazon it clearly indicates a delivery time although it varies with the prices offered. Interesting note: The Amazon website sells ERPs as well on their online carts so it is obvious that they select the best management sytems possible. (Ref:http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9174547/Lawson_takes_its_ERP_apps_to_A mazon_s_cloud

MIS Provide information across various departments

Figure 5: ERP software and system diagram for its functional areas Phase 2: Specific study 9) Critical analyses The core basic system which is used at Amazon is very informative and varies when moving on to different departments when it comes to information management. The key idea behind the system is to provide initial stage information which can act as a core supplement across different departments and thereby making the same information to tbe used by various tiers in the management. a) EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) at Amazon comprise of computer-to-computer transactions directly with the multiple firms which are in a structured format and machine readable, with the operation on the stock out and in, tilt and many more.

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b) AMS (Attendance Monitoring System) will facilitate the personal planning of the employees within Amazon as it helps in scheduling and availability of the employees to various tasks and it also records employees time out and in so that even the pays can generated accordingly. The availability also facilitates the company to get a clear picture of the support staff and business like the online shopping needs lot of support from the start as all the sales happen without even seeing the customer and it is obvious how complicated this operation will be. c) DMS (Document Management System) if a book (any product) is ordered on the Amazon website, the complete process say starting from the costumer opening the website till the record of acknowledgements of the delivery, all this information is very important and the DMS helps a lot for future use of this particular information. d) CMS (Communication Management Systems) there is always vacuum left for improvement in the sectors like Amazon, the ERP will use CMS communicate the requirements or needs that are recorded in an event so that proper actions can be undertaken in the future. e) SMS (Security Management System) this is a very important aspect when considering the case study of Amazon as lot of people involve in giving their personal details, confidential data like the bank details, so there is every need for a perfect security system which can handle the entry access requirements of business operations.

Figure 6: Incorporated role of various information systems which provides information across various departments (Source: Ludon, 2007 Management Information Systems pg 2.30, figure 2.10) 11

According to Ludon & Ludon (2007) The flow of the information in most of the organizations is shown above and the arrows flow gives a clear understanding of the interrelation between the TPS or EPR or ESS or DSS. (Ludon & Ludon, 2007). 10) Decision making at the three tiers of management The core data of the Amazon will be generated through ERP system and the information mainly depends on the source and future requirements as well, they are accordingly generated and delivered to the top administration. Let us take an example where the information system informs the need for crew members or support staff for deliveries, HR MIS will generate a report through the database of ERP where the constraints are provided for that particular task. The applications are made for the same work with respect to the information it has, then the details are analyzed and evaluated by the top administration level who will take a decision employee full time or temporary position (Lucey, 2005). The ultimate aim of the MIS is to provide decision making tools within three tiers of management as the flow of making a decision will be setback free and smooth. The activities which are worth pointing out in the context of decision making at Amazon are Product Information (quantities, locations(as they are globalized), attributes, descriptions), Sources and Inventory Availability (ATP), Vendors receiving and Purchasing, Prospects and costumers, Marketing (pricing, promotions, cataloes), Order Entry and Customer Service (including refunds and returns), Financial Processing (payment, billing, credit or debit card payment (very important)), Order Processing (selection, printing, picking, packing, shipping), Data Analysis and Reporting, Financials (General ledger, Accounts General, Accounts Receivable). 11) Serve as a resourceful means for Managing Business Process One of the most important phase of the MIS system is to validate the data which is used generate several reports that are highly used to draw conclusions and design recommendations before taking a decision. According to Cobham & Curtis (2008), data collection will mainly comprise of the information technologies in terms of softwares which facilitate an ease in the flow of the business process. For instance the marketing and sales data at Amazon which is collected through ERP system will be analyzed with the competitors activities (example eBay, Xobid), promotional schemes, updates from the competitors, evaluation approaches, and moreover it generates key informative documents for the sales and marketing personnel to take decisions for long term and planning (Regan & OConnor, 2004). Irrespective of the company selected the main advantages of the MIS can be abbreviated as TRACC

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T=Timeliness: R=Relevancy: A=Accuracy: C=Consistency: C=Completeness:

Figure 7: Business Process and Information systems in Enterprise

12)

Recommendations:

To get a clear understanding on the recommendation and with respect to the valuable guidance given by the professor, question like What is wrong with Amazon, how to fix them, who and why is he/she doing it, Gantt chart, cost , ROI, expected outcome are discussed below in a conspicuous fashion. a) According to Harwood, 2003; Regan & OConnor, (2004) the end of the channel in the sub-branches or the online end points of every Amazon online source is implementing an ERP system, which comprises of many sensible interfaces like the Electronic Data Interchange where the data is transferred to the central hub and head office of database so that every department can make use of the data base for the generation of the future plans. So at any point of the hub there will be continuous flow of data as all the computers in the network are interrelated to each other. It is also obvious that there will be lots of information collected at every level, so it is recommended to use appropriate information flow which would be very handful while utilizing the information. Cloud computing is the

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best recommendation possible to counter the problems which occur in this perspective.

According to Krishnan (2009) The impact of cloud technologies will be transformational and cloud will be a major way by which IT is consumed in future b) Being a large scale company the first and foremost step to be taken care is the system backups where huge amount of data is preserved and a single copy for the confidential and sensible information is not at all preferable but this has become a very basic step even in the smaller and the best technologies available are the EDI, ERP, Amazon is growing with a very quick pace and it is also worth noting that the UK government statistics have revealed that 93.3 % of the people are having workstations and PCs and interestingly 92% are having Internet access with almost 72 % of the companies have an official website and the other factor which belongs to our context is that 64% of the customers are using financial services and internet for banking, knowing all the statistics many of the businesses still fail to undertake adequate measures to protect themselves from the theft of IT equipment, PC hardware failure, damage of business premises fire, flood etc. So the companies like Amazon should also concentrate on the disaster planning. According to Oz (2008) the details of the back ups are given below.
1) A single file is to be backed up with an entire hard disk. There should be on-site

backup for the copies stored within that branch and the sales should be saved in spreadsheet to keep it in the same office as the PC that contains the original
2) With the second step it is also preferable to backup off site where the copies are

kept safe at a different location from the original 14

3) If taken proper network security cares saving the information online is the best option where the data can be accessed wherever or when ever needed.
4) There should be partitions within the backups (referred as backup Image), this also

means that the bigger drives are to be segmented according to the category required.
5) Although Amazon is a big company and can afford to make a back up image every

time but there are some of the techniques which can save lot of money and this technique is known as differential or incremental backup where the back ups are made only if a change occurs rather than backing up every time, but a critic you can also think that a business like Amazon has changes all the time. So the best recommendation would be implement cyclic Backup where the up-to-date information is automatically set with the backup images Amazon being a global company, it has different working groups and distinct managements where all of them try to access similar information where the load of the website or the source will lead to delays, moreover there will not be staff to categorise the irrelevant and relevant data because of this reason there will be lot of misinterpretations and misconceptions leading to confusion with customers, so the futuristic approach is to implement MIS properly otherwise it might even create non-consult review and mistrust, which will eventually turn staff blaming on each other. The fact is that many of the employees at a company have the thought to do all these but are not willingness to create it. c) The next recommendation is to conduct an organizational inventory time to time, most preferably with respect to the competitive advantage as the organizational assessment will find out which Information System best supports the business objective of Amazon, the MIS implemented at Amazon should have intimate understanding of evolving needs of the customers that too with continuous innovation strategically design relevant new process, on the other hand the knowledge information is to be upgraded and different leadership and management traits are to be implemented, there should also be co-ordination of the activities involving technologies, procedures and people. d) There should be adequate analysis where the exact needs and potential problems, with complete constraints should be understood before selecting or designing new system; e) The Amazon company has faced criticism for multiple sources over its actions, such as anti-competitive actions, patent rights, price discrimination, it is very obvious that it is because of lack of information available on the products and prices of the competitors, so the ERP should be added with extra attributes which can scan the updates time to time, I have browsed the site and have seen an example of comparisons of prices they are updating, 3 of the categories have shown the same prices on Amazon website under the comparisons category while one of the product

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has shown 12.99 $ but when browsed for the same product on E-bay it is showing 10.36 $, so there should be real time updates on the website. f) Day to day processing should be appropriately documented and all the invoices, orders, purchase and credit notes should be delivered on time. This will not require much investment as they already have a system which does all these operations but they should make sure, had there an interruption occurs finding an alternative should be easy. (William & Wheeler, 2009). g) Whenever people search for books on Google Amazon website is highlighted but for the other products it is not, so the buffering capacity with the online servers should increase and they should invest money to buy databases which are sold at many places in the world, The investment would me nearly 1.2 million pounds but the sales would increase as even an unknown person who come online for a vague search can see these products and obviously if the hits increase, the publicity as well increases, thereby the sales. ROI is not at all tough to achieve in this context. h) Marketing texts: This is the best recommendation to make the existing customers loyal to Amazon, my strategy is to send texts to the information we have on our database, like messages about the offers, searches, updates normally this done by many restaurants, may be with the information given by the customers, plan some more offers like if they make their friends introduce to Amazon, they will discount with the next purchase, this gives excellent scope in organizations like the universities, libraries, shops etc as they are then inclined to introduce students and customers to Amazon. The investment will not be that big but getting permissions from various countries to do so might be tough, they can use message based RTP protocol to perform this, sales assistants can do this operation and coming to the ROI, it is very easy to get as the investment is not very big. A click of a mouse which they already have, with message cost and RTP user license. i) To facilitate the customers Amazon should establish a hosted virtual computing environment, dubbed Compiere Cloud Edition, for ERP tasks including accounting, purchasing, order fulfillment, manufacturing, warehousing, and CRM, this would serve on the customer side and on the companys perspective as well. ( Source: http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/)

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REFERENCES:
1. Laudon. K, & Laudon.J, (2007) Management Information Systems, 10th Edition, Prentice Hall. 2. www.scribd.com/.../A-Project-Report-on-Management-Information-System 3. http://www.scribd.com/doc/9643550/Management-Information-System 4. Types of information sytem: www.slideshare.net/.../types-of-informationsystems - United States 5. www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk/.../ICT/.../a2lict_sample.pdf 6. http://www.scribd.com/doc/17778354/A-Project-Report-on-ManagementInformation-System 7. Htpp://www.management articles. Info 7. Htpp://www.opensource.sys-con.com http://www.uk.businessobjects.com/jump/industry/retail/docs/case-studies/Tesco.pdf http://www.tescohsc.com/whatwedo/it_services.html www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk/.../ICT/.../a2lict_sample.pdf

Figures:
Figure 1: Types of Information System (Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/9643550/Management-Information-System) Figure 2: Information Systems as per Different Functions and Levels (Source: ludon 2007, Management Information System, chapter 2, figure 2.11 pg 2.32) Figure 3: Input data and Output results as reports through various functional MIS (Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/9643550/Management-Information-System) Figure 4: Model of typical executive support system (Source: Ludon, 2007 Management Information Systems pg 2.28, figure 2.9) Figure 5: ERP software and system diagram for its functional areas (Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/17778354/A-Project-Report-on-ManagementInformation-System) Figure 6: Incorporated role of various information systems which provides information across various departments 17

(Source: Ludon, 2007 Management Information Systems pg 2.30, figure 2.10) Figure 7: Business Process and Information systems in Enterprise (Source: http://www.slideshare.net/mannyardales/types-of-information-systems)

Websites:

Http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/
Htpp://www.payne.gallway.co.uk Htpp://www.automatedtrades.net Htpp://www.management articles. Info Htpp://www.opensource.sys-con.com Htpp://www.aiu.edu Htpp://www.coursework.info

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