MERU UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOGY.

NAME: INYA ODIMA EMMANUEL.

REGISTRATION NUMBER: BIT595-0021/2010.




UNIT: MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS.




UNIT CODE:BIT2119





TASK ASSIGMENT 1,







1. Information systems maybe be broadly categorised as operation support systems
(OSS) and MSS.
a) Explain 2 types of MSS
Operation information systems.
After the transaction processing systems that involve mainly the capture of data and
taking records we have the operation information systems that help in the operational
level to gather comprehensive data and organizing it and making the overall summary
in a way that I useful to the executive mangers. Managers use it to obtain sales,
inventory and performance related information.
Decision Support systems.
This are computer systems that help the mangers mainly in the decision making
process. They are feed by the knowledge support systems from the senior
management level and used to make technical decisions to provide summary and
periodic reports.


b) ABD Company is implementing an OSS that will provide managers with reports
and online access to the firms current performance and historical records.
i. Identify these systems
Transaction processing systems,
Process control systems
Design and production systems.

ii. Discuss 3 types of reports that will be produced by these systems
Exception reports
These are reports produced when exception conditions occur. Although the
information is produced periodically but it contains exceptional information
that mainly acts to avoid detailed information being passed to the decision
makers
Periodic reports.
Mostly produced by transaction processing systems on daily or weekly basis
with the purpose of providing the higher level management with regular
information.
Demand responses
This is the kind of information that would always be produced whenever it is
required by the mangers mostly produced by querying the databases or and
generating reports that are mostly graphs and charts for the purpose of making
prompt decisions.

iii. Explain the level of managerial decision making and how a management
information system helps a manager in these decision making process.
Give specific examples.




Operational management.
This is the lower level of management decision making and involves decisions
related to day today running of the organizations. It is based on the information
collected from the transaction processing systems for example the customers
are served at the cafe so the decision which is mainly weekly or daily has to be
made on whether to add more coffee or increasing the stock as these would be
indicated by the sales and stock data shown by the TPS.

Tactical management.
After the operational level we have the tactical decision making usual done by
the middle mangers they make their decisions based on the reports from the
operational level for example in a caf the tactical decisions maybe how to
increase the number of customers either opening the caf early in the morning
or increasing or during weekends, this is based on the daily and weekly reports
from the operational level that would include data about the number of
customers.



Strategic management level.
This is the general decision makers and makes decisions that would strongly
affect the organization. Their decisions are based on the past reports produced
normally through graphs and tables and the weekly and monthly reports from
the technical level. The decisions are mainly based on the organization goals,
policies and strategies through monitoring. In a caf the senior managers can
decide on whether to quit the business or increase customer services in order to
increase returns.


2. After years of working of systems that were redundant and in-efficient, Meru
University has employed ERP. This system has put together the initially
fragmented data (that was in hundreds of separate systems) in one system. The
new system integrates student-related data, faculty and finance department.
Students are able to access their accounts, course-notes and get their results via
the system. The system also enables the students to check their fees balance and
any other related information from the finance department.
Describe challenges faced by an enterprise portal.
Some of the challenges faced by the enterprise portal include:-

Standardization and integration.
This are the key features of an ERP system and will always limit the flexibility in the
university system making the staff to create workarounds in trying to carry on their
previous processes, meaning the response to the new ERP increases staff workload
and data gaps between the portal and reality.
Reinforcement of administrative authority.
A university would always have an administrative and academic authority where
(Edelson 1989) and ERP in the universities tends to reinforce Administrative
authority thus for academic this led to fear that use of the new system that has
increased transparency for transactions would led to loss of control and on the other
hand administrative staff would fear for their job security due to removal of redundant
processes.
Lack of proper testing.
Its not necessary that the ERP would have all the desired features to meet the
requirements of Meru university thus without proper testing the implementation
process may not be a success unless tested with the student and staff specific
requirements

Cost overheads.
If the requirements are not effectively discussed during the early planning process
cost overheads will always result to the university making the overall implementation
to be a failure, thus before execution the breakdown of requirements should be
thoughouly looked at.

Training of both staff and students.
During the implementation process proper training should be carried out to make
them comfortable using the application or else it would led to the ERP backfiring.




Apart from the ERP other cross-functional business systems include the supply
chain management systems and customer relationship management. (CRM-
systems).Discuss these two systems clearly show how information technology
support their operation.
Supply chain management systems.
This are real time analytical business applications and systems developed by software
vendors that manage the flow of product and information in the overall supply chain
network. They widely help in enhancing operations such as production planning,
inventory planning and demand planning.Informatinon technology has in a great extent
been employed in SCMS including use of IT in information exchange among supply
chain partners example ordering and billing. Furthermore there is the use of IT in order to
achieve tracking and delivery coordination.
Customer relationship management systems.
This is a business enterprise system that supports and manages the business relationships and
processes by automating and coordinating the company supplier relationship or customer
distributor.
This include factions like materials management that involve sharing of inventory and
procurement information and sharing demand and supply forecasts. To enhance this we have
Information technology systems for example in operation CRM that involves use of sales
force automation and enterprise marketing automation that are implemented using IT.
There is also analytical CRM that involves building the picture of the customer through
capturing, storage extraction and processing of customer information.

Explain how you would IS to achieve the following organisational change-----
automation, business-reengineering.
Automation.
This has been the theme in information system due to large amounts of complex
information content and need for accuracy. Automation has thus been achieved
through the use of CASE tools that support modelling and simulation tools. This is
seen in the use of either DSS or OSS to automatically produce reports and processing
of manual records to aid in analysis.
Business-reengineering.
Business engineering is the use of information systems by mainly the top managers
consisting of executives with the aim of achieving organizational change which must
be flexible to increase chances of offering more support operations.Infomation
systems have thus helped development of systems that help to facilitate business
reengineering like reorganizing people and infrastructure., new design processes and
targeting new business areas

REFERENCES.
GUPTA, H. (2011). Management information system: (an insight). New Delhi, International Book
House.
JOHANSSON, H. J. (1994). Business process reengineering: breakpoint strategies for market
dominance. Chichester [England], Wiley.
BURKE, H. E. (1990). Automating management information systems. New York, Van Nostrand
Reinhold.