LISPER KEVIN KEFAH SANKEI EUNICE
This is a presentation of the Management Information Systems Assignment
BMS 841: MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS
The following are the group members:
1.KEFA KEGENI – REG. NO: D53/CTY/PT/38531/2016
2.KEVIN MURIITHI – REG. NO: D53/CTY/PT/38620/2016
3.EUNICE MOMANYI – REG. NO: D53/CTY/PT/37862/2016
4.LISPAH IRUNGU – REG. NO: D53/CTY/PT/38543/2016
5.PATROBERS SANKEI – REG. NO: D53/CTY/PT/38621/2016
Definition of Information system
An information system is a set of people; procedures and resources that collect transform and disseminates information into an organization.
Using feedback completes the information-processing loop. To be a good Information Systems manager, however, you must bring into that loop far more than just the computer data. For instance, your information system reports that you produced 100,000 widgets last week with a “throwback” rate of 10%. The feedback loop tells you that the throwback rate has fallen 2% in the last month. By putting that information into a broader context you will establish that it will cost the organization a huge sum of money because each percentage point on the throwback rate averages $10,000. And when you bring in available external environmental information, your company is 5% above the industry norm. Now that’s information you can use to your advantage.
If you, as a manager, can then take other information from the internal and external environments to come up with a solution to this problem, you can consider yourself “information literate.”
Porter’s value chain is a framework for thinking strategically about the activities involved in any business and assessing their relative cost and role in differentiation. Value can be created by differentiation along every step of the value chain, through activities resulting in products and services that lower buyers’ costs or raise buyers’ performance. The sources of value creation come from policy choices, linkages, timing, location, sharing of activities among business units, integration, learning and institutional factors.
Value chain is the viewing of a business firm as a series of basic activities that add value to the firm’s products or services. The concept of the value chain can be used to identify opportunities to use strategic impact systems. The value chain views the firm as a chain of basic activities that add value to a firm’s products or services. These activities can be categorized as either primary activities or support activities.
Primary activities include inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, sales and marketing, and service.
The service activity involves maintenance and repair of the firm’s goods and services. Support activities make the delivery of the primary activities possible and consist of administration and management, human resources, technology, and procurement.
An information system could provide strategic impact if it helped the firm perform its value activities at a lower cost than competitors or if it provided the firm’s customer with added value or service.
Nowadays multiple firms are competing for the same market. In order succeed you must identify a specific focal points for a product or service. The firm can serve this narrow target area better than competitors and attract a specific buyer group more easily.
A company can use information systems to “mine” existing information as a resource to increase profitability and market penetration. Firms can use this information to identify and target products for a particular market or product niche, or they may use it to determine ways to serve specific market segments more effectively.
Look at the relationship between America OnLine and Microsoft. On one hand, they are fierce competitors, going head to head in attracting Web users to their respective Web sites. On the other hand, they work together to supply Web users with desktop icons for accessing the Web.
Many times it is more productive and cheaper to share information with other companies than to create it yourself. Information partnerships between companies, even competitors, can enhance a company’s products by aligning them with an industry-wide standard. Vehicle tire manufacturers form information partnerships to share information about standard widths and sizes of tires
Other companies form information partnerships to add extra elements to their products which they could not offer on their own. Lots of companies offer credit cards with their logo and company information. They then share customer information with the credit card companies. Both companies win because they can offer extra services and products not available if they had to act alone.
1. Threat of new entrants into its market
The upstarts can give you fits when you least expect it
2. Pressure from substitute products or services.
Even if they aren’t better than your product, substitutes may be cheaper and customers will be enticed by the lower price.
3. Bargaining power of customers.
The Internet offers customers a unique opportunity to quickly and easily compare prices.
4. Bargaining power of suppliers.
New technology offers suppliers the chance to integrate information systems that tie them closer to their customers
Role of IS in business information value chain
This refers to Basic business systems that serve the organization’s operational level and they include:
A transaction is an occurrence in which goods, services, or money are passed from one person, account, etc., to another. Such operations/transactions may include customer orders, purchase orders as well as handling of invoices. A TPS is therefore responsible for collecting, storing, modifying and retrieving data pertaining to the transactions that have taken place in an organization and finally generate reports which are used by other levels of management. The characteristics of a TPS include performance, reliability and consistency. Transaction Processing Systems are usually used at the operational level (by employees who are at the bottom level) of an organization’s hierarchy. An example of a TSS is a point of sale in a supermarket such as Nakumatt which is used to record each sale transaction which takes place in the supermarket. At the end of the day, a record of all transactions can be generated from the TPS in order to view which products have been sold.
2. MIS – Management Information Systems
This refers to a system that Serves management level by providing reports and access to company data and they include:
This is a system which brings together people (the management), information as well as the systems (both hardware and software). This type of system is important in an organization as it provides information that is essential to operations, management and decision making functions. Some of these functions include planning, controlling, decision making, organizing, and staffing. Management Information Systems are usually used at the tactical level (by employees who are at the middle level) of the organization’s management hierarchy as shown on Figure 2 below. An example of an MIS is the University of Nairobi’s Student Management Information System (SMIS) which can be used to generate reports about the registration status of the students in order to determine who is eligible to sit for the end of semester examinations.
3.ESS- Executive Support Systems
This refers to systems that provide communications and computing environment that serves the organization’s strategic level and they include:
They (executives) address non-routine and unstructured decisions which usually require judgment, evaluation and insight. Typical questions for ESSs are:
The ESSs usually draw summarized information from other MISs at the lower level of management such as the Transaction Processing System. An example of an Executive Support System is an expert system or a knowledge based system which can be used for sales forecasting and perhaps lead to review of business strategy. Executive Support Systems are usually useful to the employees who are at the top-most (strategic) level of the organization’s management hierarchy such as senior managers as shown in the below:
The TPS is the major source of data for other systems in an organization. Since they record daily routine transactions in an organization, they aid managers in monitoring the status of the operations and thus help in structured decision-making. MIS usually receive and utilize the data they get from the TPS. The ESS is the major recipient of data from the lower-level systems which is mainly used in unstructured decision-making.
Slideshare.net: Difference between DSS & ESS:
Ethics refers to the principles of right and wrong that individuals, acting as free moral agents, use to make choices to guide their behaviors. When using information systems, it is essential to ask, what is the ethical and socially responsible course of acting?”
Key Technology Trends that Raise Ethical Issues include:
1.Privacy
Privacy as an ethical dilemma, is all about making a decision on the information about oneself or associations should be revealed or divulge to others, under what conditions and with what safeguards. What people can be forced to reveal to others and what should be concealed.
Technology can be a double-edged sword. It can be the source of many benefits but it can also create new opportunities for invading individuals’ privacy, and enabling the reckless use of that information in a variety of decisions about an individual.There are two factors that threaten privacy.
For example, integrated files concerning the health status of employees in an organization may invade people’s privacy when information is required for decision making.
Solution
2.Accuracy
Misinformation has a way of fouling up lives especially the party with accurate information has an advantage in power and authority. Erroneous information may find way into database and this hinder accurate decision making.
For example during National and Housing of 2009, Census personnel from some regions gave misleading statistics due to political reasons. This hindered decision making in planning for such regions.The question is, who should be responsible for authenticity, fidelity and accuracy of information and who should be made accountable for the errors?
Safeguards:Being vigilant and scrutinize before being integrated and stored in database.
Property Rights
This is all about the owners of information, transmission channels the just and fair prices for exchange, and how to access such a scarce resource. There are substantial economic and ethical concerns revolving around the special attributes of information and means at which it is transmitted. Property rights include Intellectual property rights include: copy rights, patents, encryption, oaths of confidentiality and loyalties.
Replication of information is expected to be done without destroying the original version.
Practitioners of artificial intelligence proceed by extracting knowledge (disseminating) from experts, workers and the knowledgeable and they implant (emminating) it into their hardware and software. For example the owner of mycin.This becomes capital in economic sense but is this exchange warranted? And how should the owner of the information be compensated?
a)Property Rights: Intellectual Property
Intellectual property is considered to be intangible property created by individuals or corporations. Information technology has made it difficult to protect intellectual property because computerized information can be so easily copied or distributed on networks. Intellectual property is subject to a variety of protections under three different legal traditions: trade secrets, copyright, and patent law.
b)Trade Secrets
Any intellectual work product – a formula, device, pattern, or compilation of data-used for a business purpose can be classified as a trade secret, provided it is not based on information in the public domain.
c)Copyright
Copyright is a statutory grant that protects creators of intellectual property from having their work copied by others for any purpose during the life of the author plus an additional 70 years after the author’s death.
d)Patents
A patent grants the owner an exclusive monopoly on the ideas behind an invention for 20 years. The congressional intent behind patent law was to ensure that inventors of new machines, devices, or methods receive the full financial and other rewards of their labor and yet make widespread use of the invention possible by providing detailed diagrams for those wishing to use the idea under license from the patent’s owner.
It is the responsibility of the organization determine how compensation should be done in exchange for intellectual property rights before intelligence information system is created.
What does a person or organization have a right or privilege to obtain? Under what conditions with what safeguards?For one to access information, one must have intellectual skills, be able to write, reason and calculate. Many people without these skills may become information drop outs in the long run become a source of social problems.
Solution:It is the responsibility of an organization to ensure that required information is easily accessible through an effective information system
http://www.colarado.edu./geography/gcraft/notes/ethics.F.html
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/10-ethical- issues-confronting.IT
https://www.slideshare.net/AmirulShafiqAhmadZuperi/chapter-4-mis
Definition
OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) is a function of business intelligence software that enables a user to easily and selectively extract and view data from different points of view. It is designed for managers looking to make sense of their corporate data and related information.It is software that is typically based on a multi-dimensional database that is extracted from an underlying database or data warehouse, and which enables the ad-hoc and flexible querying of the multi-dimensional data structure (data cube) by a user in response to business intelligence requirements.
An OLAP tool structures data hierarchically, that is, the way managers think of their enterprises. The best OLAP tools also allow business analysts to rotate their views on the information, changing the relationships in order to get more detailed insight into corporate trends and identify potential issues and opportunities.
OLAP tools allow the slicing and dicing of the data cube in accordance with business intelligence (BI) requirements, and also allow multiple levels of view across the dimensions of a cube using drill down and roll up operations. For instance, slicing and dicing the customer data in several ways allows knowledge to be gained about individual customers and their sales, or about customer types and their sales.
The major types of OLAP systems are as follows:
The other types of OLAP systems include the following:
Advantages of Direct Operation of OLAP Tools by Managers
Disadvantages of Direct Operation of OLAP Tools by Managers
References
Reading Material
http://www.informationbuilders.com/olap-online-analytical-processing-tools
http://216.157.38.41/w/index.php/Types_of_OLAP_Systems
Video Link
The strategic management process means defining the organization’s strategy. It is also defined as the process by which managers make a choice of a set of strategies for the organization that will enable it to achieve better performance.
Strategic management is a continuous process that appraise the business and industries in which the organization is involved; appraises it’s competitors; and fixes goals to meet all the present and future competitor’s and then reassess each strategy.
Strategic management process has following four steps:
valuation and Control
Strategy evaluation and control actions include performance measurements, consistent review of internal and external issues and making corrective actions when necessary. Any successful evaluation of the strategy begins with defining the parameters to be measured. These parameters should mirror the goals set in Stage 1. Determine your progress by measuring the actual results versus the plan. Monitoring internal and external issues will also enable you to react to any substantial change in your business environment. If you determine that the strategy is not moving the company toward its goal, take corrective actions. If those actions are not successful, then repeat the strategic management process. Because internal and external issues are constantly evolving, any data gained in this stage should be retained to help with any future strategies.
Examples of control:
Every strategy is based on certain planning premises or predictions. Premise control is designed to check methodically and constantly whether the premises on which a strategy is grounded on are still valid. If you discover that an important premise is no longer valid, the strategy may have to be changed. The sooner you recognize and reject an invalid premise, the better. This is because the strategy can be adjusted to reflect the reality.
A special alert control is the rigorous and rapid reassessment of an organization’s strategy because of the occurrence of an immediate, unforeseen event. An example of such event is the acquisition of your competitor by an outsider. Such an event will trigger an immediate and intense reassessment of the firm’s strategy. Form crisis teams to handle your company’s initial response to the unforeseen events.
Implementing a strategy takes place as a series of steps, activities, investments and acts that occur over a lengthy period. As a manager, you’ll mobilize resources, carry out special projects and employ or realign staff. Implementation control is the type of strategic control that must be carried out as events unfold. There are two types of implementation controls: strategic thrusts or projects, and milestone reviews. Strategic thrusts provide you with information that helps you determine whether the overall strategy is shaping up as planned. With milestone reviews, you monitor the progress of the strategy at various intervals or milestones.
Strategic surveillance is designed to observe a wide range of events within and outside your organization that are likely to affect the track of your organization’s strategy. It’s based on the idea that you can uncover important yet unanticipated information by monitoring multiple information sources. Such sources include trade magazines, journals such as The Wall Street Journal, trade conferences, conversations and observations.
VMOST: This stands for Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategy, and Tactical.
Success in an organization happens with top-down or bottom-up alignment. I was recently reminded of is when working with a client who stated that their tactical is not connected to the strategy. VMOST analysis is meant to help make that connection.
SWOT: The standard analysis tool, defined as Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the organization, opportunities and threats are external. SWOT requires you to be candid and provide an honest assessment of the state of things. It forces you to create a dialogue with stakeholders to get different viewpoints. Eventually, you focus in on the key issues.SOAR: This stands for Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results. This is a great tool if you have a strategic plan completed, and you need to focus on a specific impact zone.
Boston Matrix (product and service portfolio): This tool requires you to analyze your business product or service and determine if it is a cash cow, sick dog, questionable, or a flying star.
I have applied this tool to product and service reviews with to help make product decisions with consideration for market share and market growth. But it has no predictive value, does not consider the environment, and you need to be careful with your assumptions. It does force discussions on your present offering and whether it makes sense to maintain or enhance those offerings. For example, maybe you are holding onto a business product that you love but is really a sick dog and maybe there is a cash cow in your business that you are not optimizing. A decision has to be made.
Porter’s Five Forces: This tool helps you understand where your business power lies in terms of present competitiveness and future positioning strength. It forces you to analyze the bargaining power of suppliers and customers, the threats to new entrants and substitutes, and competitive rivalry in your marketplace. Using this tool helps you understand the balance of power and to identify areas of potential profitability. According to Porter, this model should be used at the line of business level.
Maturity Models: There are many maturity models that can be applied to a business. From the evolution model, the technology model, to the team model. The idea is that every business or department goes through a maturity cycle. The standard cycle is chaotic, reactive, proactive, service, and value. If you were looking at processes in a department, you would look to see where that process is on the continuum. Then you would determine where you need to be and what it would take to get to that point of maturity. This is a simple explanation. When using a maturity model, it is important that you have a clear problem definition and solution context.
Root Cause Analysis: This is important, as there are times in the strategy analysis process you need to dig deeper into a problem. This is where RCA is used. The key is that you need to identify and specify the problem correctly, analyze the root cause using a systematic approach, verify the causes, and determine the corrective actions. Implementation of the corrective action is extremely important.
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/five-stages-strategic-management-process-18785.html
http://www.managementstudyguide.com/strategic-management-process.htm
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/8-tools-techniques-apply-strategic-analysis-planning-richard-lannon
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/four-types-strategic-control-14720.html
GROUP 1 MBA MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS 