A Research Project On

Marketing Decision Support System

 Acknowledgment

First of all, I would like to thank God who has given me strength to complete this
Assignment. I would like to thank our parents for their unending love and support. I also
would like to thank department of Business Management, AIOU Islamabad for providing me
chance to learn from the given topic.

2
 Abstract

This study was conducted to find out the role of Decision Support System in business
decision making of Engro Group. This research work gives an idea about what Decision
Support System is all about, how it is used, or implemented in different situation in order to
accomplish objectives and goals in terms of business decision making. How it’s affecting the
overall business. During this research work it was found that Engro Group Decision Support
System provides them timely information for business decision making. It also provides
accurate results for effective business decisions making. Later in this report discussing
Merits, Demerits, Strengths and Deficiencies of Engro Group in the light of assigned topic,
deriving conclusion after wards and giving recommendations.

It was very difficult in the beginning to start working on this topic but guidelines which were
given in assignment helped me a lot so I was able to complete this assignment at its best.
 Contents

Acknowledgment........................................................................................................................ 2
Abstract..................................................................................................................................... 3
Contents.................................................................................................................................... 4
Marketing Management............................................................................................................... 5
Decision Support System.............................................................................................................6
Decision Making........................................................................................................................ 6
Engro Corporation...................................................................................................................... 11
Engro Subsidiary Companies.....................................................................................................15
Practical Study of Organization with Respect to Topic.....................................................................19
Merits, Demerits, Strengths, Deficiencies...............................................................................20
Conclusion............................................................................................................................. 21
 Marketing Management
Marketing management facilitates the activities and functions which are involved in the
distribution of goods and services.

According to Philip Kotler, “Marketing management is the analysis, planning,

implementation and control of programmes designed to bring about desired exchanges with
target markets for the purpose of achieving organizational objectives.

It relies heavily on designing the organizations offering in terms of the target markets needs
and desires and using effective pricing, communication and distribution to inform, motivate
and service the market.” Marketing management is concerned with the chalking out of a
definite programmer, after careful analysis and forecasting of the market situations and the
ultimate execution of these plans to achieve the objectives of the organization.

Further, their sales plans to a greater extent rest upon the requirements and motives of the
consumers in the market. To achieve this objective, the organization has to pay heed to the
right pricing, effective advertising and sales promotion, distribution and stimulating the
consumers through the best services.

To sum up, marketing management may be defined as the process of management of

marketing programmers for accomplishing organizational goals and objectives. It involves
planning, implementation and control of marketing programmes or campaigns.

Importance of Marketing Management

Marketing management has gained importance to meet increasing competition and the need
for improved methods of distribution to reduce cost and to increase profits. Marketing
management today is the most important function in a commercial and business enterprise.
The following are the other factors showing importance of the marketing management:

(i) Introduction of new products in the market.

(ii) Increasing the production of existing products.
(iii) Reducing cost of sales and distribution.
(iv) Export market.
(v) Development in the means of communication and modes of transportation within and outside
 the country.
(vi) Rise in per capita income and demand for more goods by the consumers.

Decision Support System

A Decision Support System (DSS) is a collection of integrated software applications and
hardware that form the backbone of an organization’s decision making process. Companies
across all industries rely on decision support tools, techniques, and models to help them
assess and resolve everyday business questions. The decision support system is data-driven,
as the entire process feeds off of the collection and availability of data to analyze. Business
Intelligence (BI) reporting tools, processes, and methodologies are key components to any
decision support system and provide end users with rich reporting, monitoring, and data
analysis.

High-level Decision Support System Requirements:

 Data collection from multiple sources (sales data, inventory data, supplier data,
market research data. etc.)
 Data formatting and collation
 A suitable database location and format built for decision support -based reporting
and analysis
 Robust tools and applications to report, monitor, and analyze the data

Decision support systems have become critical and ubiquitous across all types of business. In
today’s global marketplace, it is imperative that companies respond quickly to market changes.
Companies with comprehensive decision support systems have a significant competitive
advantage.

Decision Making
Decision making can be regarded as the mental processes (cognitive process) resulting in the
selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making
process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion of choice.
Human performance in decision terms has been the subject of active research from several
perspectives.
 From a psychological perspective, it is necessary to examine individual decisions in the
context of a set of needs, preferences an individual has and values they seek.
  From a cognitive perspective, the decision making process must be regarded as a
continuous process integrated in the interaction with the environment.
 From a normative perspective, the analysis of individual decisions is concerned with the
logic of decision making and rationality and the invariant choice it leads to.

Yet, at another level, it might be regarded as a problem solving activity which is terminated
when a satisfactory solution is reached. Therefore, decision making is a reasoning or emotional
process which can be rational or irrational, can be based on explicit assumptions or tacit
assumptions. Decisions are likely to be involuntary and following the decision, we spend time
analyzing the cost and benefits of that decision. This is known as "Rational Choice Theory,"
which encompasses the notion that we maximize benefits and minimize the costs.

One must keep in mind that most decisions are made unconsciously. Jim Nightingale, Author of
Think Smart-Act Smart, states that "we simply decide without thinking much about the decision
process." In a controlled environment, such as a classroom, instructors encourage students to
weigh pros and cons before making a decision. However in the real world, most of our
decisions are made unconsciously in our mind because frankly, it would take too much time to
sit down and list the pros and cons of each decision we must make on a daily basis.

Logical decision making is an important part of all science-based professions, where specialists
apply their knowledge in a given area to making informed decisions. For example, medical
decision making often involves making a diagnosis and selecting an appropriate treatment.
Some research using naturalistic methods shows, however, that in situations with higher time
pressure, higher stakes, or increased ambiguities, experts use intuitive decision making rather
than structured approaches, following a recognition primed decision approach to fit a set of
indicators into the expert's experience and immediately arrive at a satisfactory course of action
without weighing alternatives. Recent robust decision efforts have formally integrated
uncertainty into the decision making process. However, Decision Analysis, recognized and
included uncertainties with a structured and rationally justifiable method of decision making
since its conception in 1964.

A major part of decision making involves the analysis of a finite set of alternatives described in
terms of evaluative criteria. “Information Overload” is when there is a substantial gap between
the capacity of information and the ways we adapt. The overload of information can be related
to
problems processing and tasking, which impacts decision making. These criteria may be benefit
or cost in nature. Then the problem might be to rank these alternatives in terms of how
attractive they are to the decision maker(s) when all the criteria are considered simultaneously.
Another goal might be to just find the best alternative or to determine the relative total priority
of each alternative (for instance, if alternatives represent projects competing for funds) when all
the criteria are considered simultaneously. Solving such problems is the focus of multi-criteria
decision analysis (MCDA) also known as multi-criteria decision making (MCDM). This area of
decision making, although it is very old and has attracted the interest of many researchers and
practitioners, is still highly debated as there are many MCDA / MCDM methods which may
yield very different results when they are applied on exactly the same data. This leads to the
formulation of a decision making paradox.

Decision Support Systems Delivered By Microstrategy Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence (BI) reporting tools, processes, and methodologies are key components to
any decision support system and provide end users with rich reporting, monitoring, and data
analysis. MicroStrategy provides companies with a unified reporting, analytical, and monitoring
platform that forms the core of any Decision Support System. The software exemplifies all of
the important characteristics of an ideal Decision Support System:

 Supports individual and group decision making: MicroStrategy provides a single

platform that allows all users to access the same information and access the same
version of truth, while providing autonomy to individual users and development groups
to design reporting content locally.
 Easy to Develop and Deploy: MicroStrategy delivers an interactive, scalable platform
for rapidly developing and deploying projects. Multiple projects can be created within a
single shared metadata. Within each project, development teams create a wide variety of
re-usable metadata objects. As decision support system deployment expands within an
organization, the MicroStrategy platform effortlessly supports an increasing concurrent
user base.
 Comprehensive Data Access: MicroStrategy software allows users to access data from
different sources concurrently, leaving organizations the freedom to choose the data
warehouse that best suits their unique requirements and preferences.
 Integrated software: MicroStrategy’s integrated platform enables administrators and
IT
 professionals to develop data models, perform sophisticated analysis, generate analytical
reports, and deliver these reports to end users via different channels (Web, email, file,
print and mobile devices).  This eliminates the need for companies to spend countless
effort purchasing and integrating disparate software products in an attempt to deliver a
consistent user experience.
 Flexibility: MicroStrategy SDK (Software Development Kit) exposes its vast
functionality through an extensive library of APIs. MicroStrategy customers can choose
to leverage the power of the software’s flexible APIs to design and deploy solutions
tailored to their unique business needs.

A decision support system (DSS) is a computer-based information system that supports

business or organizational decision-making activities. DSSs serve the management, operations,
and planning levels of an organization and help to make decisions, which may be rapidly
changing and not easily specified in advance. Decision support systems can be either fully
computerized, human or a combination of both.
DSSs include knowledge-based systems. A properly designed DSS is an interactive software-
based system intended to help decision makers compile useful information from a combination
of raw data, documents, and personal knowledge, or business models to identify and solve
problems and make decisions.
Typical information that a decision support application might gather and present includes:
 Inventories of information assets (including legacy and relational data sources, cubes,
data warehouses, and data marts),
 Comparative sales figures between one period and the next,
 Projected revenue figures based on product sales assumptions.

Development Frameworks
DSS systems are not entirely different from other systems and require a structured approach.
Such a framework includes people, technology, and the development approach.
DSS technology levels (of hardware and software) may include:

1. The actual application that will be used by the user. This is the part of the application
that allows the decision maker to make decisions in a particular problem area. The user
can act upon that particular problem
.
2. Generator contains Hardware/software environment that allows people to easily develop
specific DSS applications. This level makes use of case tools or systems such as Crystal,
AIMMS, Analytica and iThink.
3. Tools include lower level hardware/software. DSS generators including special
languages, function libraries and linking modules

An iterative developmental approach allows for the DSS to be changed and redesigned at
various intervals. Once the system is designed, it will need to be tested and revised where
necessary for the desired outcome.

Abbreviated DSS, the term refers to an interactive computerized system that gathers and
presents data from a wide range of sources, typically for business purposes. DSS applications
are systems and subsystems that help people make decisions based on data that is culled from a
wide range of sources.

For example: a national on-line book seller wants to begin selling its products internationally
but first needs to determine if that will be a wise business decision. The vendor can use a DSS
to gather information from its own resources (using a tool such as OLAP) to determine if the
company has the ability or potential ability to expand its business and also from external
resources, such as industry data, to determine if there is indeed a demand to meet. The DSS will
collect and analyze the data and then present it in a way that can be interpreted by humans.
Some decision support systems come very close to acting as artificial intelligence agents.

DSS applications are not single information resources, such as a database or a program that
graphically represents sales figures, but the combination of integrated resources working
together.
 Engro Corporation
COMPANY OVERVIEW

Engro Corporation Limited is one of Pakistan’s largest conglomerates with businesses

ranging from fertilizers to power generation.
In the interest of better managing and overseeing businesses of subsidiaries and affiliates that
are currently part of Engro’s capital investments, Engro Chemical Pakistan Limited converted
into a holding company structure. As part of this process, two major changes occurred with
effect from January 1, 2010; Engro Chemical was renamed as Engro Corporation Limited and
it demerged and transferred its fertilizer business into a separate wholly owned subsidiary,
Engro Fertilizers Limited.

Currently Engro Corporation’s portfolio consists of seven businesses which include chemical
fertilizers, PVC resin, a bulk liquid chemical terminal, industrial automation, foods, power
generation and commodity trade.

Besides providing the long term vision for the company and overseeing performance of the
subsidiaries and affiliates, Engro Corporation Limited is also responsible for allocation of
capital, management of talent, leadership development, HR guiding policies, leadership role
in public relations and CSR activities, control structures, legal and IT support.

From its inception as Esso Pakistan Fertilizer Limited in 1965 to Engro Corporation Limited
in 2010, Engro has come a long way and will continue working towards its vision of
becoming a premier Pakistani company with a global reach.

Our diversified businesses represent our immense growth potential to generate opportunities
for creating and sustaining value for our stakeholders.

 Engro Fertilizers Limited

  Engro Foods Limited
 Engro Polymer & Chemicals Limited
 EngroPowergen Limited
 Engro EXIMP Private Limited
 EngroVopak Terminal Limited
 Elengy Terminal Pakistan Limited

Leadership

Engro’s leadership comprises of some of the most enterprising leaders of the corporate world
in Pakistan. These individuals are responsible for conceptualizing and articulating goals that
bring our people together in pursuit of set objectives. They lead the company with a firm
commitment to the values and spirit of Engro. In our journey to become a profitable, growth-
oriented and sustainable company, our management structure has evolved to create a more
transparent and accessible organization.

Governance

Our commitment to highest standards of integrity and transparency has shaped Engro’s
governance framework and processes, which are aligned to the industry’s best practices.
Every employee at Engro is a part of the governance system and is required to adhere to
clearly laid out policies and procedures.

Engro Corporation Culture

Engro is about the people who are a part of us. Our culture is dynamic and energetic, with
emphasis on our core values and loyalty of our employees. Our work environment promotes
leadership, integrity, teamwork, diversity and excellence.
The tone for our corporate culture and the importance of employees was set after the
Company was bought out by employees in 1991. As the Company grows, we are determined
to keep our culture open and transparent, and inclusive for all our employees.

Values

At Engro, we support our leadership culture through unique systems and policies which
ensure open communication, foster an environment of employee and partner privacy, and
guarantee the wellbeing and safety of our employees.
Our core values form the basis of everything we do at Engro; from formal decision making to
how we conduct our business to spot awards and recognition. At Engro we never forget what
we stand for.
History

Engro is one of Pakistan’s most progressive, growth oriented organizations, yet we never
forget where we came from. Our history is a part of who we are today. Our diverse range of
companies represents our rich legacy of innovation and growth.

From Esso To Engro

In 1957, the search for oil by Pak Stanvac, an Esso/Mobil joint venture led to the discovery of
the Mari Gas field near Daharki – a small, remote area in Upper Sindh province at the time.
Esso proposed the establishment of a urea plant in that area which led to a fertilizer plant
agreement signed in 1964. In the subsequent year, Esso Pakistan Fertilizer Company Limited
was incorporated, with 75% of the shares owned by Esso and 25% by the general public.
The construction of a urea plant commenced at Daharki in 1966 and production began in
1968. At US $43 million with an annual production capacity of 173,000 tons, it was the
single largest foreign investment by a multinational corporation in Pakistan at the time.

A full-fledged marketing organization was established which undertook agronomic programs

to educate the farmers of Pakistan. As the nation’s first fertilizer brand, Engro (then Esso)
helped modernize traditional farming practices to boost farm yields, directly impacting the
quality of life not only for farmers and their families, but for the nation at large. As a result of
these efforts, consumption of fertilizers increased in Pakistan, paving the way for the
Company’s branded urea called “Engro”, an acronym for “Energy for Growth”.
As part of an international name change program, Esso became Exxon in 1978 and the
Company was renamed Exxon Chemical Pakistan Limited. The Company continued to
prosper as it relentlessly pursued productivity gains and strived to attain professional
excellence.

In 1991, Exxon decided to divest its fertilizer business on a global basis. The employees of
Exxon Chemical Pakistan Limited, in partnership with leading international and local
financial institutions, bought out Exxon’s 75% equity. This was at the time and perhaps still
is the most successful employee buy-out in the corporate history of Pakistan. Renamed as
Engro Chemical Pakistan Limited, the Company has gone from strength to strength, reflected
in its consistent financial performance, growth of the core fertilizer business, and
diversification into other businesses.
Along the way, a major milestone in plant capacity upgrade coincided with the employee led
buy-out; innovatively optimizing our resources, Engro relocated fertilizer manufacturing
plants from the UK and US to its Daharki plant site – an international first.

Engro Chemical Pakistan Limited then started a journey of venturing into other sectors
including foods, energy, industrial control and automation, PVC resin manufacturing and
marketing, and chemical terminal and storage.

In 2009 plans were announced of demerging the fertilizer business into an independent
operating company. The expansion and growth in the company necessitated a change in the
way the company operated and conducted business. Keeping in view the operations of multi
category businesses, expansion strategy and growth vision, the management decided that the
various businesses would be better served if the Company was converted to a holding
company. As a result it was decided to demerge the fertilizer business and establish a holding
company structure to manage the affairs of various businesses.

Engro Fertilizers Limited was incorporated in June 2009 to manage the fertilizer business
post demerger. The demerger required the approval of the High Court of Sindh, which was
granted on December 9, 2009 after obtaining the requisite approvals from the creditors and
shareholders of the Company. The demerger became effective from January 1, 2010.
Consequently, all fertilizer business assets and liabilities have been transferred to Engro
Fertilizers Limited against the issue of shares to the Company.

To reflect the change in the scope of mandate and scale of operations, Engro Chemical
Pakistan Limited has been renamed as ‘Engro Corporation Limited’ with effect from January
1, 2010. Engro Corp, as the holding company is responsible for the long term vision of the
company, overseeing the performance of the subsidiaries and affiliates, allocation of capital,
management of talent, leadership development, HR guiding policies, leadership role in public
relations and CSR activities, control structures, legal and IT support.
Engro Corp will maintain a lean structure with a focused scope, allowing maximum
empowerment to the subsidiaries and affiliates to drive the operations of their respective
organizations.

Engro Subsidiary Companies

Engro Fertilizers Limited

Engro Fertilizers Limited, a wholly owned Engro subsidiary, is a premier fertilizer

manufacturing and marketing company with products that focus on balanced crop nutrition
and increased yield. The company markets primary and secondary fertilizers like Engro Urea,
Engro DAP, EngroZorawar, EngroZarkhez and Zingro.

Engro Fertilizers has successfully developed a loyal customer base all across Pakistan, not
only by providing farmers with quality fertilizers, but also through extensive market
development activities. A premier brand and nationwide presence of the company ensures
sellout production. Additionally, the company sells phosphate fertilizers for balanced fertility
and improved farm yields. Engro’s share of Pakistan’s phosphates market mirrors or exceeds
its urea market share.

In 2010, the company achieved mechanical completion and started trial production of its urea
expansion project at Daharki which is the world’s largest single train urea-ammonia plant. It
is the largest private sector industrial investment in Pakistan.

Engro Foods Limited

Engro Foods Limited was officially launched as a fully owned subsidiary of Engro in 2004.
Using dairy as a stepping stone to enter into the food business, the Company has established
state-of-the-art processing units in Sukkur and Sahiwal, along with an ice cream production
facility in Sahiwal.

Top quality brands like Olper’s, Olwell, Tarang, Omore and Owsum have been successfully
launched under the helm of Company’s dairy products. To support these brands and their
highest standards of quality, Engro Foods has invested heavily in milk processing and milk
collection infrastructure.

With an acquisition of Al Safa – a fast growing and established Halal meat brand – Engro
Foods is now venturing into North American market starting from Halal Foods category. The
new organization, Engro Foods Canada Ltd. with a subsidiary Engro Foods USA, LLC,
intends to aggressively grow the business in this market.

With the vision of Elevating Consumer Delight Worldwide, Company’s signifcant focus will
be towards the global operations in the years to come.

Engro Polymer & Chemicals Limited

Engro Polymer & Chemicals Limited, an Engro subsidiary, is Pakistan’s leading
manufacturer and marketer of PVC (polyvinyl chloride) resin, with an annual PVC
production of 150,000 tons. The Company markets its products under the brand name of
SABZ. Following recent expansion, the Company now has an integrated facility with the
capability to manufacture EDC, VCM, Chlorine and Caustic soda.
The Company is the sole producer of PVC resin, hence plays a pivotal role in ensuring the
sustainability of the domestic PVC industry and provides support through the provision of
quality products and technical services. It also invests in developing new products and
markets; as part of market development it is looking to set up a complete business line for the
construction industry by promoting PVC based doors and windows.

Engro Powergen Limited

EngroPowergen was incorporated in 2008, as a fully owned subsidiary, to develop power
projects in Pakistan so as to help reduce the power shortage in the country and earn a
competitive return for shareholders.

The Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company Limited is a joint venture between the Government
of Sindh and EngroPowergen, to mine coal from Thar Block II. Although the project is in its
early stages of technical and economic feasibility assessments, the Company aims to utilize
the ample reserves of coal in Thar Desert for power generation.
EngroPowergen seeks to reduce Pakistan’s power shortage through exploring and
implementing cleaner, efficient and economic methods of power generation. In this pursuit
wind, hydro and solar power projects are being actively assessed as alternative energy options
for Pakistan.

Engro Energy Limited, another Engro Corporation subsidiary, has established a 220 MW
power plant in Qadirpur. This will be Engro’s first Independent Power Project (IPP) which
will utilize permeate gas, currently being flared from the Qadirpur gas field thus helping
reduce carbon emissions. This power plant will be one of the first ‘green’ power plants in the
country.
 Practical Study of Organization with Respect to Topic

 During this research work it was found that Engro Group Decision Support System
provides them timely information for business decision making. It also provides
accurate results for effective business decisions making.
 During this research work it was found that Decision Support System of Engro Group
improves overall business decision making.
 During this research work it was found that Decision Support System of Engro Group
expedites problem solving.
 During this research work it was found that Decision Support System of Engro Group
promotes learning or training.
 During this research work it was found that Decision Support System of Engro Group
generates new evidence in support of a decision.
 During this research work it was found that the decision support system of Engro
Group requires investing in information system to collect data from many sources and
analyze them to support the decision making which is their weakness.
 During this research work it was found that clearly the focus of those of us interested
in computerized decision support is on decisions and decision making. Implementing
Decision Support System may reinforce the rational perspective and overemphasize
decision processes and decision making.
 During this research work it was found that Building Decision Support System,
especially knowledge-driven Decision Support System, may be perceived as
transferring decision authority to a software program.
 During this research work it was found that Marketing Decision Support System of
Engro Group is one of their biggest strengths.
 During this research work it was found that Decision Support System ultimately
speeds 0up the overall decision making process and impacting the overall business
decision making which is also one of their biggest strengths.
 During this research work it was found that Decision Support System helps them in
solving business problems.
 Merits, Demerits, Strengths, Deficiencies

 Decision Support System of Engro Group improves overall business decision making.
 Decision Support System of Engro Group expedites problem solving
 Decision Support System of Engro Group promotes learning or training
 Decision Support System of Engro Group generates new evidence in support of a
decision

Demerits

 The decision support system requires investing in information system to collect data
from many sources and analyze them to support the decision making.
 Clearly the focus of those of us interested in computerized decision support is on
decisions and decision making. Implementing Decision Support System may reinforce
the rational perspective and overemphasize decision processes and decision making.
 Building Decision Support System, especially knowledge-driven Decision Support
System, may be perceived as transferring decision authority to a software program.

Strengths

 Marketing Decision Support System of Engro Group is one of their biggest strengths.
 Decision Support System ultimately speeds up the overall decision making process
and impacting the overall business decision making which is also one of their biggest
strengths.
 Decision Support System helps them in solving business problems.

Deficiencies

 Advancement in Technology
 Information Overload. Backup need more investment.
 Conclusion

 During this research work it was found that Engro Group Decision Support System
provides them timely information for business decision making. It also provides
accurate results for effective business decisions making.
 During this research work it was found that Decision Support System of Engro Group
improves overall business decision making.
 During this research work it was found that Decision Support System of Engro Group
expedites problem solving.
 During this research work it was found that Decision Support System of Engro Group
promotes learning or training.
 During this research work it was found that Decision Support System of Engro Group
generates new evidence in support of a decision.
 During this research work it was found that the decision support system of Engro
Group requires investing in information system to collect data from many sources and
analyze them to support the decision making which is their weakness.
 During this research work it was found that clearly the focus of those of us interested
in computerized decision support is on decisions and decision making. Implementing
Decision Support System may reinforce the rational perspective and overemphasize
decision processes and decision making.
 During this research work it was found that Building Decision Support System,
especially knowledge-driven Decision Support System, may be perceived as
transferring decision authority to a software program.
 During this research work it was found that Marketing Decision Support System of
Engro Group is one of their biggest strengths.
 During this research work it was found that Decision Support System ultimately
speeds up the overall decision making process and impacting the overall business
decision making which is also one of their biggest strengths.
 During this research work it was found that Decision Support System helps them in
solving business problems.
 They always insist on conducting their business fairly, with honesty, and transparency
 and without fear of public scrutiny.

 They work cohesively with our colleagues and across the Group and with our
customers and partners around the world, building firm relationships based on
tolerance, understanding and mutual cooperation.

Recommendations

 They should allocate more budgets for Marketing Decision Support System.
 They should improve the backup system.
 Access to Marketing Decision Support System should be limited to Managers and
Board of Directors.