Applications Of Management Information System Information Technology Essay

Here is analysis of the MIS in food services and marketing company Sainsbury. In this report there is information about the managing system of Sainsbury that how they manage their information system to run the organisation. This report is discussion of the importance of managing information system in the Sainsbury focusing gat the three main aspects of study information system. These aspects covers that how to provide information across the various departments of an organisation, how information system facilitates the decision making process and how its applications serves as the efficient means to run the various business processes. It also concludes that how an organisation related to management information system and to improve this system in order to make the organisation more efficient with the mentioned recommendations.

Managing information is a process which provides required information used to mange an organisation. This system use to analyse the information regarded to various parts of the organisation in operational activities. This term is used to explain the group of information management methods which are tied to support the human decision making the examples of these are Decision Support System, Expert System and executive information System.

MIS is described as the planed system used to collect process, sort and disseminate the data in the form of information used to run the functions of management.

“A marketing information system is consisting of people, equipment and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate distributive needed and accurate information to marketing decision maker” (Philip Kotler, 2000)

For understanding the Managing Information System ( Prof. Allen Lee. ,1999) states that the various researches in the information system is more than the technological system or social system or even both simultaneously. Instead of this it also investigates the procedure that happens when these two features interact with each other.

Process of MIS

User

Processes

Managing

Information

Process

Data I Information

Flows Flows

Decisions

Managing information process

Mainly managing information is a computer based system which provides the various tools for organising, evaluating, decision making and running the various departments of a company. This system work effectively to provide present past and predictive information. MIS work with the software system which help to facilitate the decision making, used database to store data resources, Decision support system, management for people and project application and the computerised process which help the departments to run effectively.

Importance of MIS

Managing information system is used to collect the information regarding the following areas:

Recording the data related to the support function.

Data regarding sales and orders

Information of purchased

Payroll information.

Account information

Information related to the various business plans and risk management.

Information related to customer relationship management.

In monitoring the performance of production.

In decision making process.

Applications of Management Information System

What is an Information system?

Information system

Information system is that area which is concerned with the strategic, managerial includes and operational activities. Which the processing, gathering, storing, distribution and use of information and the technology related to the situation in an organisation. In information system there is people, data, procedures, hardware and software system which are used to collect and analyse the digital.

According to Silver Et.al (2004) “an information system is implemented within an organisation for the means of improving the effectiveness and efficiently of the company. There are capabilities of information system and characteristics of the organisation, its work system, its people, and its development and implementation methodology gets together to determine the extent by which the desired purpose is achieved.”

Importance of information system

Following are the main features which indicate the importance of the managing information system.

Operational excellence

New product, services and business models

Survival day to day

Competitive advantage

Improved decision making

Information systems regarded as the base of running the business. Every industry incorporate with the information system as it plays a vital role in increasing the productivity. Is usually providing the bas e for new production, ways to run the business, providing services that provide lots of strategic advantages to the company.

An information system is that professional system which related to the strategically, managerial and operational level activities and used to collect the information, store it and use that information and the technologies used in it.

Source: Project Management for Information 3rd Ed. Prentice hall ( Cadle, J., and Donald, Y., 2001)

In business each and every area is depend on the successful collection, storage and application of the information. Clearly information is a collection of data which includes fact and statics. This data collected is always relevant to the particular problem and decisions. T systems are mainly computer based here we can make the example of data about the different products in account department. The data remain data until this data is use to solve the problem, make decision and answer a question.

An information system is used to 1. Increase the organisational efficiency.

2. Helping in staying ahead to the competitors.

3. Finding new customers

4. Planning organising leading and controlling the organisation.

As there is a continuous development in the technology large scale. Information management are mainly computer based system which are use to access the consumer product and data. now days ecommerce technology carry on the various business processes using electronic formats, internets, software developed by the companies of their own as the internet become widely used.( McKenna, 2002, 142).an effective information system depend upon the interconnection of the various systems . the system even influence the customer loyalty as it gives the pathway to provide good and improved services to them .According to (Mckeena,2002)that if these various systems are interconnected e.g. there is interconnection of Kiosks, cell phones , computers, laptops, car systems this results that the customer become more loyal dependent on them. Sainsbury having an attempt to use this system manually.

The relationship between an organisational structure and IT system I snot a simple as one think (Eral,1998) there is always a need of new tools and innovation techniques which are used to manage , interpret and comprehend the existing environment( Beard, 1999).

BACKGROUND of company

J. Sainsbury plc

J Sainsbury plc is a traditional food retailing company. This company is the 3rd largest company in the chain of supermarket of UK. Sainsbury serves in these areas of supermarket, convince stores and Sainsbury bank etc… The Sainsbury was founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury and his wife Marry Ann. They have the stagey of great products at fair prices and customer services at heart. As this company was traditional its Information System is also traditional. In 2002 when Sir Peter Davis took the charge of CEO of the company, the information system of the company was at mess. There was still use of window 3.1 at the pc of the company and the provider of emails was that old green screen mainframe based system. Then the IT system of Sainsbury was under invested and its ability to respond quickly is impacted by this e.g. the main rival for Sainsbury i.e. Tesco who launched successful club card loyalty scheme , but for this Sainsbury took 16 months to respond . Instead for this they are on the way to improving and developing in order to give the customers good and quick services. According to the (Annual Report, 2005) it is the major food retailing chain in the Britain. At present there is approximately153, 000employes work there which of them 32% rate full time and for their recovery plan they are going to recruit 3000 extra staff for their recovery plan mainly focus at the customer services (Philip Hampton, Annual Report, 2005).

For the further improvement the It system of the company needed to be updated. In order to achieve this task the company decide to update the entire. IT system has giant deal with Accenture for seven tears for 1.8 Billion. The business transformation director and CIO Margreta Miller took charge for managing relationship with the Accenture can have an eagle eye over the whole process. In his interview with Information Age she tells that how they are going to manage their information system in coming future. (www.sainsburys.co.uk)

Management Information system in Sainsbury

Almost at present all companies have their own Information systems or management. For the various purposes like accounting, stock control and marketing monitor are very common in all. Due to the transfer of power of technology the information system become necessary for the business firms. Information is regarded as the heart beat of an organisation. Without information system a company cannot survive (Papow, 1998).

The management information system in Sainsbury was traditional but now there are lots of new innovations regarding this. As the management information system perform main function of the organisation like data collection, data storage, and retrieval of data. The key aspect of a company in only depend upon the technology used by them (Hugo 2006, P.103, 104).due to this Sainsbury come forward to update its information system in advance way. Following are the main aspects of managing information in the Sainsbury.

Beside all the things an information system is such that it can be enable to create the website of the company as in these days for online stores it is necessary to have a website of their own (Boyson & Harrington 2004) management information system is useful in three main areas as:

· As a provider for information across the various departments of the company.

· Facilitates the decision making process at the three tiers of management.

· Serve as the efficient means for managing business processes.

As the name implies the information system provide the information regarding the various departments of the Sainsbury.

Following systems are used to provide this information

Supply chain strategy of Sainsbury

In the supply chain strategy the Sainsbury plc replaces the existing system with new sot wares in order to make the supply chain process more defined there is innovation of Ware House management in the company. The company has the project of 4.5 Euro Billion projects for this. It is bigger step towards the latest technology implementation.

 Sainsbury Information Direct (SID) according to the present situation all the Sainsbury’s SCSs are updated with new hardware and software system all these works are handled by the SID.

SID an outcome of integrating the principles of the company into easy and smart web portal which is very useful for the customers as well as for the company.

PDS

It is performance data site which runs to provide the every useful information about the stocks in control, supplier services, customer availability, sales and forecast etc. PDS is used in order to gather all the information regarding these areas.

Emptorious

It is an integrated system which has the password control system that ensure that only suppliers and haulers and see their own data is this. Emptorium has all the information about the transport management of the company. This system is even used to calculate all the expenses which have to be paid to the suppliers and to the haulers.

Ware house management

Sainsbury has the integrated and top ranked WHM (ware house management). In to work faster they have to consider at the supply chain management system and fro the supply chain management system is implemented.

RFID system

The earlier use of this technology was in US Military to locate the position of the enemy. (Mayfield, 2002)

From the year 1980 the use of RFID becomes commercial. (Jones, 2004)

This is technology which is used the radio frequency to identify the items. (Jones et.2004). RFID is consisting of a small chip which is inserted into the small tags which are attached to the products. And these have the ability to respond the various frequencies that stored in the tag system… then through the computer all data processed is then collected, (Attaran, 2007).

Use of RFID in retailing process

As the bar code system is quite common in the retail industry for last 25 years. By this the product can be scanned easily. But if the bar code is damaged or tampered in can’t be possible to read that bar code. On the other hand in RFID there e is no such situation. It can identify multiple items at one time. So the RFID is very effective in the retailing process for the company.

Information System in the decision making process at three tiers of management level

Decision making process is very important part of the company but this part is purely depend upon the information system of the company information regarding the various departments and financial areas used to make the decisions.

Decision making at three levels of management

Alerts and Resolution Management System (ARS)

This is web based system used by the Sainsbury. This system enables the company to know the is he the position of the company. It helps to locate the top position for any business issue that can be arise, affect the relationship at work and to increase the supply chain management. There is indirect relation regarding the performance management. As an organisation Sainsbury is aware of that the importance of communication is the key to supply chain management.

ARM feature to provide the performance data which includes reports and alerts and this information then manages the problems by sending the alerts to Sainsbury. These Informational alerts are very useful to get the results regarding the various departments. by the collection these results a management resolution cycle and the recipients work together to solve problems(Supply Chain Management Review, 2004) certain level, the Sainsbury’s buyer and supplier are informed why there is a problems and where it stems from. So if there is a problem Sainsbury’s can work through that problem with the supplier with all parties having the same base information (Mike Quinn, CEO Epos; 2005).

EDI Cost File Exchange (CFE)

CFE is the process in which there is regular check of cost price of the product in their RMS. If these prices are not same then that organisation will not paid to their suppliers. This supplier CFE information is transmitted every weekly through EDI. Benefits

In addition to all the financial information is also very important in the decision making process as the data or information collected give the clear idea about the growth, expenditure , sales , profit/ loss etc.

Profitability Ratios

According to Maclaney and Atrill (2002) the profitability ratio clearly gives the idea that success of the company the profitability ratios of Sainsbury:

Profitability Ratios

2004

2003

Return on Capital Employed

8.53%

9.29%

Return on Equity

7.64%

8.95%

Gross Profit Margin

8.65%

8.14%

Net Profit Margin

3.91%

4.25%

Information system in business process

For the business process the importance of the information system can’t be defined. It is base for all the processes as each and every process can be handled with the information provided. For a successful business information technology should be efficient and must be up-to-date as it provides the data to the managerial process through the tactical and operational level. Management information system is an effective tool for process the business.

Conclusion

From the above matter it is concluded that the managing information system is the heart of the business. A business can’t live without it and even its condition also affects the condition of the company. In Sainsbury plc there is new updated m information system which includes the new technological innovations. The acquisition if IT system is remarkable steps towards the making of organisation strong and give path to position in the competition. This is the IT system that covers all the areas like information of various departments, decision making process and to run the business process in an effective way. There is some fluctuation due to supply chain management. The thing is that supply chain become more difficult for the retailing food.

Recommendations

The company has to apply the information technology for the improvement to its relationship and connection with different area in the supply chain management.

Mega portal can be used as it is online and internet based information and services which can easily accessed by using the different devices like personal computers and cell phones. It can help the manger handle all the information in better way.

The company has to make the unified data picture regarding the various transaction of the company.

As the manager has the responsibility to see the customer value they must provide the enough products on the shelves and the arrangement of the short queues.

The Sainsbury should have the stock in back warehouse so that when the product is out of stock the customer should not wait until this information pass though the whole system and May takes days for it.

They must emphasise over to boost their sales to meet their objectives. They have to be focused on more marketing of the products. They have the option to add the bio products or fair trading products to seek the first choice of the customers.